Customer Reviews

Panasonic VIERA X1 Series TC-P42X1 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I purchased this from Amazon.com, with the scheduled delivery from CEVA. Ordered last sunday, delivery was one week later. Having the option of sunday delivery was great, and the delivery was very professional and definitely white glove.

Two people brought the TV in (carrying properly as this is a plasma), opened the box, put the TV on the stand, powered the TV on and waited for me to check whether there is any problem with the TV. They also offered to remove packaging if I wanted to get rid of it. Sometimes you cannot even get such good service when you pay $100+ for shipping. Given that shipping was free, I was thrilled.

TV is awesome, right out of the box. It looks great, works great. Picture is top notch. I put in an HD-DVD version of Transformers and was amazed at the picture quality. This is my first plasma TV and I believe it is much better than LCD. I had a Samsung 4061F before, and this TV has better picture than that one, despite the Samsung being 1080P and this being 720P. There's no motion blur whatsoever on this TV.

Checking on the web a little, I made the settings to be: pic mode custom, contrast +78, brightness +57, color +53, tint -9, sharpness +29, everything else off, black levels light and temp normal. These settings turned out to be perfect for the TV.

Five stars for the TV, purchasing experience and the delivery service.

Currently, I have 4 HDTVs in my house. Sony Bravia LCD (less than 1 year old and it is a 1080P), Sony HD Cineza (1080i) in my theater room, Panasonic Plasma EDTV (about 9 years old which I pay a lot of money for it when Plasma first came out) and the newly purchased Panasonic VIERA X1 Series TC-P42X1 (720P). I can tell you that this Plasma is much better than the $1499 Sony Bravia LCD 1080P. The picture is super clear even just connect it with cable and Satellite. DVD is incredible and you do not need a Blue-Ray player becasue regular DVD is just as good as Blue-Ray on this one. I have all the technologies, cable/DirecTV, Toshiba HD-DVD player, Sony PS3 Blue-Ray, DVD recorder all connected to this set. So far this is the best $800 plasma you can buy. My old Panasonic Plasma which just was an Enhanced Definition and it is about 10 years now and the picture is still looking good. I never had any problem with Panasonic TV and it is a better brand in Japan than Sony. Go get one, you will be pleased!
P.S. The sound quality on this set is also above what other brands can offer. You have to hear and see it!

So I wont write a book about this TV, but I'll share my experience best I can.

I spent months deciding on a TV. Did I want LCD or Plasma? 50" or 40"? Panasonic, Sony, or Samsung? Etc etc. I even went to a couple stores and looked at them, that only helped to further confuse the situation.

So after lots of reading online and researching specifics like 720p vs 1080p and LCD vs Plasma, I decided to go with this one. Between the customer reviews, the specs, and the price....I couldn't find anything better.

The color is absolutely perfect! The 42" screen is exactly the right size for my room (couch is about 8-10ft away and its mounted above the fireplace). I mainly watch movies or play xbox 360, and I really had a hard time finding reviews on TV's from people with 360's. I just want to clarify that all my games look awesome! COD4, COD5, Assassin's creed, Fallout 3, all of them look incredible. The only issue is that some times it judders the picture. Not often, and not enough for me to worry, but it does happen once and awhile.

I hooked this TV up to a Onkyo 7.1 surround sound system, and mounted it on the wall with a mount from monoprice ($50 mount that swivels, tilts, and moves away from the wall). Everyone that has come over and seen it loves it. I finally have the perfect setup for myself!

And ordering from Amazon was a pleasure as always. The box did come with a big rip in it, but I wrote the info down on the delivery guys paper and took a chance. TV has zero problems and is packed well from the factory to take abuse.

Ease of install - 10
Aesthetics - 10
Picture quality - 10
Price - 10

I already have a Sharp Aquos 46" and a Panasonic 42" Plasma--both 2 years old--and I love them both. I bought the Panasonic Viera 42" X1 about two weeks ago for $[...], and you can now get it for $[...] at a couple of places (like one of the other reviewers, I was able to use the [...]). The new X1 is definitely better than either of the other TVs I own in terms of black levels, lack of blurring, and power consumption. Connectivity is excellent, with 3 HDMI inputs. The SD card slots are nice, too, although I consider the SD card stuff to be a fringe benefit and not a core reason to buy this set. I had read a couple of expert reviews stating that it's not possible to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on sets less than 46", and my own experience bears this out. Since I look at high resolution images for a living, I am probably as picky as you can get about image quality and resolution. For me, the Panasonic X1 is definitely the best 720p unit out there, and you don't need to waste money on a 1080p unit that is only 42" or less. I spent many weeks comparing picture quality side-by side on Panasonic, Samsung, Vizio, Sharp, and Toshiba, among others, at several different stores and in every case the Panasonic was clearly superior.

The picture quality right out of the box is excellent, but I used the settings described elsewhere in these reviews and in on-line columns and the picture is even better. It took less than 5 minutes to do this because the Panasonic menu is clear and intuitive to follow. Picture quality on non-HD channels is also excellent.

Sound quality is noticeably better than on any of the other brands in the same price range, though if you're going to connect it to a surround-sound system this feature won't make a difference to you. The hum mentioned in a previous review is clearly a one-off thing, and probably due to non-TV electrical interference issues in the reviewer's apartment.

I love the richness of colors on an LCD set, but when you are watching fast-action stuff like sports, the 600Hz X1 is far less blurry than any LCD TV within $[..]of this set--just look at a baseball or hockey game and try watching the ball or puck on an LCD (even the new 240Hz ones) vs. the Panasonic X1 plasma and you'll see what I mean. Glare, even in daylight in a room with lots of windows, is minimal although I would give the edge to my Sharp Aquos LCD in this regard.

If there is a drawback to the Panasonic X1 it is the lack of PC connectivity, but with a cable and adaptor available from most good electronics stores (like You-Do-It Electronics in my area) you can overcome this issue as well. Another potential drawback is that the response time is rated at 8ms, which some gamers would find slower than ideal, but since I don't use the TV for games I could care less. Again, to find a set with a 4ms response time requires spending a lot more $$.

I agree with other reviews that the remote is relatively basic and could use a backlight, but this is par for the course in TVs in this price range, and I found the response time of the remote was excellent (ie, pressing a button resulted in an immediate effect with no lag). Since like most people I use my cable remote to handle everything, the TV remote just sits near the set unused once I set the TV up and adjusted the picture settings.

For me, this is by far the best value in a 42" HDTV.

I did a pretty large amount of research into HDTV before I chose this unit. I have been in the IT business for about 30 years now, and I have seen everything from CRT to LCD for small/medium/large/incomprehensible stuff. One thing about LCD screens is that no matter how one tunes the output, many of them produce obvious ghost lines (look carefully -- the straight lines usually stand out, and ghostly seam is about 3 millimeters to the right of the picture). I decided to go with plasma because they are brilliant emitters, and because the picture itself never has the ghostly seams.

The VIERA I got does things that are amazing. Black on this unit is black -- any blacker and there would be a singularity involved. I waited until 6/24 to activate HD programming, and made a quick comparison of Spongebob Squarepants. In standard definition, the picture has artifacts in it, but you have to work to find them because of the 600hz subfield processing of the picture. Anyway, in high definition, the picture has no artifacts at all, every line in the cartoon looks like it was drawn right there on your screen! I really could go on and on.

Color is no more brilliant, but the overall quality of the picture is much, much higher than on older sets. With this unit, watching HD is like watching Kodachrome move. You really have to see it. Sound is not bad. Only 720p native; but it does an accurate job of down-converting 1080p. Even so, this thing is like a geyser of cool mountain water in the Sahara.

Despite its bulk, it can be single-handedly mounted on a VESA mount. Use as many extenders as possible -- otherwise the cord yard is unmanageable without taking the unit off the wall. Also, with the picture on full brightness, the screen is only as warm as a handshake (back in the 80's, touch sensitive plasma terminals usually got uncomfortably hot to the touch). Picture has excellent visibility from about 12 feet at nearly any angle. A trio of 100W equivalent compact about 4 feet away interferes with the picture, however, the anti-glare coating works. The bulbs reflect as bulbs on the screen, but only about an eighth of the screen is overwhelmed by their light, and the rest of the screen is not reflecting back much, if any at all.

Ordered the 42" X1 on Amazon (vendor:OneCall), no problems with order or delivery. Set up was easy. Beautiful picture, sound is fine, overall we're very happy with the tv. As everyone has noted, Plasma has so many advantages over LCDs and only 1 or 2 disadvantages. 720p is appropriate for this size tv, don't give that issue a second thought. This is a great value for a really nice, good-sized, top-brand TV.
A few small drawbacks to this set:
1) Greens and reds are a little too intense, I'm still working to adjust the color
2) Wish there were separate coax inputs for cable and antenna - not sure if a splitter will work or if the tv will scan channels from both sources at once. Surely many people will want to have OTA hi-def along with their cable or satellite?
3) No PC/VGA input
4) Only digital optical audio out - so can't connect to older analog audio or stereo equipment without an expensive converter. Even a simple headphone jack would have solved this.
These are minor concerns, though, and for the price this is a terrific choice.

I decided on a plasma over an LCD because of the glass screen-kids in the house-and because of the greater viewing angle. The TV is a 42" that sits anywhere from 4 to 10 feet from a seating area. The picture was beautiful out of the box, remote and settings were easy to use, nice input labeling, plenty of connections including HDMI, no buzzing noises or humming, and sound is great for my smaller living area. No complaints at all so far.

This plasma TV provides a tremendous picture at a much lower price than you'd pay for a comparable LCD. I had been looking at HDTVs for a very long time, trying to find the right features at the right price. I actually ended up getting mine elsewhere due to a sales price and 36-month interest free financing deal.

There is no motion blur, the color, contrast, and clarity are outstanding. My main worry with plasma was reflection off the screen, but they've certainly solved that problem - this reflects much less than my old tube set, and the only reflection you'll see is off the shiny black bezel around the screen. On the upside, a big advantage of the plasma for me is the fact that it has a substantial protective glass screen, so when my little kids get their grubby hands on it, I can wipe it clean and not worry about the damage they might do to an LCD.

As far as the 720 vs. 1080p goes, I've read too many articles by experts saying that you can't tell the difference unless the screen is 50 inches or bigger and you're sitting about 4 feet away. I sit about 8-10 feet away, and this picture is outstanding. I got it just in time for the NCAA tournament and could see every fiber on the player's uniforms. The Masters at Augusta National and Fenway Park are simply stunning on this thing.

It looks as though plasma has lost the war with LCD, so I'm glad I was able to get such a good set at such a good price while I could.

I am not a television expert by an means except for having watched it too much for too many years. That being said, this TV has a great picture, more connections than you could ask for and super sound. (Point of fact: it replaced a 32" conventional tv that was 10 years old.) Right now, I am watching the NCAA tourney and I can tell you which players are sweating and how much. I got this at Sears for $899 but the next day, I noticed that HHGreg had it for $100 cheaper. Sears matched the price and knocked of another $10. I chose this set above all the others because of the three years' interest free financing (cost under $25/month). They all seemed the same (LCD/plasma) to me and all of the pictures were great. I was able to take it home in a car. (Sears also had a free install deal on this so if it were wall mounted, that would have been a deal. However, it's on a stand so set up was no problem. Note: install does not equal delivery they were not going to deliver it for free.)

I never buy anything when it is new, I'm always the one who buys the lawnmower that you brought back to Home Depot. In this case, buying new was a great idea. You will not be disappointed with this set. Some reviews I have read say the remote is skimpy. True; you will probably use the cable/dish one anyway or buy a replacement. The picture is why you bought the set anyway.

Warranty: Sears wanted to sell me a 3 year for $300. I was able to locate a place on line that sells them for $150 for 5 years.

Long winded but in a nutshell, if you are looking for a great deal on a great tv, this will fit the bill quite nicely and deserves a look.

I waited a LONG time to buy my first flat screen TV, mainly because of price but also because I had a hard time sorting through all the brands and features. I'd wanted an LCD but the price, quality, Panasonic name, and features made this TV hard to pass up. (I bought it at Sears for $599, free delivery, and old TV removal.)

Power Use: It's Energy Star rated. Through my Killowatt meter the TC-P42X1 shows 0 watts when off (little or no standby consumption) and between 150-180 watts switched on.

Resolution & Plasma vs. LCD: Among the up-to-$1,000 TVs in the stores I couldn't tell 720 and 1080 apart. The next most inexpensive set I considered, a Toshiba 40" 1080p for $800, is equivalent in picture quality (but has lousy speakers). I will add that the days are gone when the plasmas on display outclassed the LCDs; there isn't much difference anymore.

Size: I sit 9 feet from the TV and it seems huge. Most broadcasts are still 4:3, which translates to a 33 inch diagonal picture on this set. I never really pictured this while shopping, and all the TVs on display in stores have 16:9 HD content running so it didn't really occur to me. Not a complaint, just an admission that with trying to learn all the ins and outs of TVs in 2009 some of the basic realities escaped me.

Weight: The TC-P42X1 is 57.4 lbs vs. around 40 for a similar LCD. I can heave it up on the wall bracket by myself, but at my age I'm nuts to do it. This also means that all the warnings about proper wall mounting of flat screens (the bracket solidly screwed into two wall studs) are even more important for this one.

Picture: My wife and I watched the Boston Pops July 4 broadcast over-the-air via WBZ-HD and the picture quality was breathtaking. Wow.

Sound quality: No complaints. I have a surround system but only use it for movies. The built in speakers are actually pretty good.

Use: Straightforward to set up and use, plenty of adjustments for personal taste in tint, contrast, etc. The manual could be more informative, typical these days, but I didn't need it much. THe TV has lots of connections and an SD card slot on the side for slide shows.

Remote: Cheap, utilitarian, easy to use.

After my circuitous journey through TV shopping I'd say that in terms of picture quality anything by Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, or Sony would be fine and these are brands that have a good repair history. Getting the best price turned out to be most important for me.