Customer Reviews

Panasonic TC-P65S2 65-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've spent the last 2 months researching my next television purchase. I'm one of those people that over-researches the pros and cons of any major purchase. I specifically set out at the beginning of my research to purchase a television for my finished basement. Since I can easily control ambient light pretty much any display technology was on the table - Plasma, LCD, LED-LCD, DLP, etc. I love the picture quality of DLP sets but ultimately decided to rule out that technology mainly because of the size (width) and the fact that I would eventually need to replace a bulb. I decided against traditional CCFL LCD displays too despite owning a Sharp Aquos LC46D84U. That essentially left me with LED-LCD and Plasma technology. After going back and forth I finally ended up deciding to go with Plasma. I think ultimately the deciding factors for me were the overall picture quality and cost.

I've been using my TC65S2 for about the last 2 weeks and I'm absolutely floored by the picture quality. I'm actually surprised at how much better the display looks than my Sharp Aquos. Black levels are incredibly detailed, inky-black that leaves my Aquos' display looking like it can only generate gray instead of a true black level. Out of the box the TV came on 'vivid' setting which makes colors impressively "pop" on-screen, however, it somewhat distorts flesh-tones and makes people appear a bit orange. I used my DVE HD Basics calibration disc and calibrated my TC65S2 myself. It's probably not as good as a professional calibration but I feel satisfied enough with the results.

The TV comes with additional pre-settings such as 'Cinema' and 'Game'. I've used both and I'm happy to say that the settings are actually useful. I use a PS3 for both gaming and watching Blu-ray movies. The cinema setting on BD movie playback tones down the overall brightness and gives movies a 'warm' color setting similar to movie theaters. The 'Game' setting is impressive too and maintains a good black level while increasing the overall color levels. I can honestly say that after playing God of War 3 on my Aquos and again on this set, it's like playing a different game. There are many areas in GoW3 that are extremely dark and I'm now noticing details that just weren't there with my Aquos. Everything looks cleaner, more detailed and colors are more accurate.

Aesthetically, Panasonic seems to trail Samsung, Sony and Sharp. While those companies have invested significantly in the looks over everything from their bezel to the remote, Panasonic maintains a cleaner and simpler look. Personally I don't have a problem with the subdued look - I'm more interested in the picture quality than anything else. That said the TV does have a pleasant piano-black glossy finish. That continues with the rather simple wedge-shaped stand that is included. The remote unfortunately leaves something to be desired. Perhaps most importantly it is not back-lit. Simple things like adjusting the volume in a dark room are easy due to the shape of the particular key, however, changing the input for example is not. I believe that the G-2x & VT Panasonic plasmas do offer a better & back-lit remote. After the first week or so I finally had the time to program my Harmony for my new TV and I won't miss the Panasonic remote at all.

The included television speakers are adequate but nothing impressive. Honestly, at 65" I think most folks that purchase a set like this are doing so for a home theater and have surround sound. I used the included speakers for about a day before I switched over to my home theater speakers.

Feature wise the S2 might be called "bare-bones" by some. Personally I was on the fence about getting a G25 or jumping up to the VT (3D) series. Ultimately though I think 2 things swayed me to the S2. First the size; I wanted to create a home theater setting and the G25 tops out at 54". Panasonic does make a 65" VT25 that is full-HD 3D, however, that set is around the $4000 dollar mark. With such limited 3D offerings currently on the market I just couldn't justify the price. Second, the extra bells and whistles in the more expensive sets like the G25 and VT series are nice though I'm not sure how often I'd watch YouTube videos or listen to Pandora radio on my TV. The Netflix integration is probably the best feature, however, I'm already getting that with my PS3. For someone looking for a TV with a great picture and not really interested in peripheral features, the S2 is the way to go!

Lastly, for those not aware Panasonic was recently in a bit of a scandal - at least as far as AV enthusiasts go - with their plasma sets. It seems that after varying degrees of usage Panasonic plasma TVs started losing their deep-black level. There is a lot of discussion on various AV sites about the severity of the issue but as noted by CNET's reviewing editors it does happen and it is an issue with the 2009 and earlier sets. For the S2, Panasonic is using a new Neo-PDP panel and it remains to be seen what will happen. This was an issue that nearly derailed my purchase of this set. However, after reading more into the issue and the fact that the change is gradual - not something that happens overnight - I felt like I could go ahead and make the purchase. I'll follow up in the months to come to this review and make comments as necessary. I'm hoping that with the 2010 sets Panasonic was able to mitigate the problem. Time will tell.

Other information:

- In the box this TV weighs in at 165lbs! The TV alone weighs 123lbs and 137lbs with the included stand. Be sure to have adequate help when setting up this TV! Fortunately Panasonic designed hand grips into the back of the set to make is somewhat less unwieldy.

- I've noticed that when using HDMI directly to my PS3 I can utilize some of the Viera-Link features. For example when I switch my television input to my PS3 it automatically powers on my PS3. Kind of a neat feature that I thought was only compatible with Panasonic products that are Viera-Link enabled.

- This features 3x HDMI inputs and 2x Component inputs. There are additional inputs for composite and SDHC. The S2 series lacks a lot of the additional inputs that you gain with the G2x or VT series like USB, ethernet, RS232C, PC, etc.

- For such a large plasma television, the S2 does not generate as much heat as I expected. Even after recently watching a long movie and then a World Cup soccer match the TV wasn't hot.

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UPDATE 7/5/10:

One minor annoyance I just noticed today is that the volume controls are not unique to the input. Not a big deal if you're using a home theater setup as the TV volume wouldn't matter - just something that I noticed will tinkering around with my set.

I bought this TV based on Raul's review. Thank you! I bought it on 8-20 and it was up and running in my home on 8-25. The delivery service was CEVA. They are a first class service, and sent two really nice guys to lug it upstairs and unpack it. The TV was not damaged anywhere, and they handled it with care.

I connected it to all my stuff, and the picture was great right out of the box. My calibration was a minor tweaking of some of the settings. The picture was bright and clear, with perfect color. Blu Ray movies are even better than I watched on my old Samsung 61 inch LED.

We are amazed at the picture, especially at this price. This is a true bargain.

Some people were disappointed by the 3 HDMI inputs. Well maybe one more would have been nice, but that problem can be solved with a receiver with multiple HDMI inputs or a lossless switch. Raul and others have done great reviews so no need to get into a lot of the technical aspects. I just wanted people to know who are considering this TV, to buy it. You don't have to be an electronics wizard to get a great picture.

UPDATE: After enjoying this TV for the past 5 months, a very loud pop occurred when turning it on. I've had this experience before with Panasonic Plasma TV's. It's usually a power transformer which renders the TV useless. While it is still under warranty, I found Panasonic often doesn't have the parts to fix it, or it takes weeks to get the parts when they can. I immediately called Panasonic service. I must say they were helpful and gave me confidence it might be different this time. On the front of the TV, there is a red power light. It now blinks in a sequence. They had me count the number of blinks which was seven. Apparenly there is a system when something goes wrong that these blink sequesnces tells them something about the problem. To their credit, they are coming out this Friday hopefully with parts to fix it. Needless to say, I am very disappointed and hope it can be fixed in a reasonable amount of time. I love this TV. Bumped it down to 2 stars due to a major break down in such a short period of time. After researching, apparently there is a well known problem with all Panasonic Plasmas called the "seven blinking lights of death"! It is always the faulty power boards. You can see for yourself on Yahoo or Google...Just search the seven blinking lights of death...I hope I will have something positive to report after my service call tomorrow. Come to think of it, the Panasonic customer service rep seemed to know exactly what the problem was once I counted the blinking lights for him. This problem from what I can see has been going on for several years. You'd think they would have found a fix for the problem.

2nd update...Panasonic repair was supposed to arrive today between 11 and 2pm. At 1:00 they called and said, duhhhhhhhhh, we can still come but we don't have the parts. We need to reschedule. I can still come if you like. As expected, we were sure they wouldn't fix this problem in an efficient manner.
3rd update Monday 1-31...TV REPAIR ARRIVED WITH only one of possible three parts to fix the TV. Two are on backorder and will take 1-3 weeks. They come from Japan. Could we get lucky and the part they brought fixes the TV? Of course not...This keeps getting worse and worse.
4th update..2-1...Called Panasonic..These are really nice people in service that get dumped on by angry customers. I put her at ease and told her in no way should anyone blame them for their company's lack of parts to repair TV's. She was grateful for that. In fact she said she was going to elevate my situation to a higher level and would receive a call shortly...Um, no call...I can't say I' surprised.
I will finish this up by saying Amazon is an honorable good place to buy almost anything. This TV is a great buy with a beautiful picture. Chances are you won't have the problems I've had, but I surely can't recommend it any longer or anything Panasonic.
2-4 Last update...Panasonic called me to say that my parts are now on backorder and it will take about 3 more weeks to get the parts, then send them to the repair place that is handling this. Bottom line..If something goes wrong with your TV, do you want to go through this? Panasonic sells more than 2,500,000 tv's a year in the US. Does it make sense that they usually don't have essential parts readily available here let alone Japan?
This TV now cost 500.00 MORE than what I paid. I have heard the newer model will be released in 4-11. This model is on it's last legs and at this price no longer a good buy.
2-15...Now the cost is 2999.00. That's a thousand more than what I paid, and 400.00 over retail!!!!

We got the TV a week ago, did the 100 hour burn in using software available for free online. Then, a day spent calibrating it to our taste and when all that was done, we had a spectacular picture, especially sing our BR player. We have owned a Panasonic Plasma for four years now, no burned out pixels, no quality issues at all, hopefully this one will be equally as reliable.

For those that want to use this with your PC, understand that this is a next generation TV and isn't going to interface to a normal video card. If your PC is current, it may well have an HDMI port on it and then this TV will work just fine. Or, if your Blu-Ray player is Internet ready, you will be able to download movies to it and watch them on the TV.

The sound quality from the TV is marginal at best, I'm not even sure why they put speakers in the set. I can't imagine anyone buying a set this size and not using a home theater setup with it. When played through our Onkyo system, who cares about the TV speakers.

If you're like me, you've probably researched LCD, LED, HDLP and Plasma and in sets this size, the transitional capability is much better than the other technologies in my opinion. No matter the level of the set, every LCD/LED set I previewed had momentary blurring in fast action scenes like sports. I get none of that on the plasma set. Although our media room allows for the proper viewing angle from every seat, you can get well outside the ideal range and the plasma picture is still accurate and bright.

There is some glare off the screen in bright light but again, in a dedicated media room application, it's not an issue. The price of this set has been dropping pretty steadily so it's quite a bargain at under $2K. Do check it very carefully when delivered, including using a flashlight at an oblique angle on the screen to detect any hairline cracks. It wasn't a problem with mine but have heard of screen being broken in transit and hard to detect small cracks in normal light.

I think Panasonic owns the plasma field and this is a another step up in what they offer.

Update 12/27/2011
Now had the TV for well over a year and it continues to perform flawlessly. Had a huge Superbowl party last year and people were blown away by this TV in a media room environment. Some of those same folks own LCD and LED sets and couldn't believe how much better the plasma was for sports.

Haven't had any of the issues described by others, colors remain very brilliant and have not had to recalibrate the TV at all. Of course, now there are 80" direct view monsters on the market so maybe in another year, this one will get relegated to the family room and a different set for the theater. It probably runs no more than 20 hours a week maximum and so it may have performed differently if it was on for hours and hours every day.

I noticed a couple of comments from folks wondering about the 100 hour burn in. If you go to avsforums.com, you'll find discussions about why you should do a burn in as well as the software to use. There are also instructions there on how to calibrate this TV to get the colors and blacks perfect.

First Off ...

To the guy that rated it 1 star -- Dude, read the specs before you purchase something, especially a $2,000+ item ... geesh

Now, on to the P65S2 ... Hands down, an amazing buy. We got it when it was $2025 w/ free shipping from Amazon! Can't be the price! We did the 100 hour break in, calibrated it to our liking, and have loved it ever since.

We are moving up from a 42" 720p Panasonic plasma that is about 4-5 years old now. We plan to put that one in our bedroom, and the 65S2 is now in our bonus room. We sit about 10 ft away from it, and its just awesome! Picture/Clarity/Black levels are wonderful ... Sound, well ... Its not the greatest, as you can expect from a TV, thus the reason you need a decent Soundbar, 3.1, or 5.1.

At this point in owning it (2-3 weeks) I have yet to have a single issue. Pilot delivered it and did a great job in allowing me to set it up and test it!

Overall A+++ Experience from Amazon, Pilot, & Panasonic. Will likely continue to get Panasonic as long as they keep making great equipment like this.

I am a very late HD adopter. I have had a 53" projection screen for the past 11 years, that was till going strong after many, many hours of use. I kept telling myself 5 years ago that when the old TV dies, I will get a flat panel HDTV. Because I was used to a 53" 4:3 aspect ratio TV, I wanted to make sure that I put a TV in it's place that would appear as big, or maybe even a little bigger.

This 65" TV has surpassed all of my expectations. The picture is absolutley stunning. I have this TV being driven by a PS3 for Blu-ray viewing and hi-def gaming, and a HD DVR satellite receiver. I placed an Onkyo receiver in the middle of all this to perform the duties of providing surround sound, and to handle all of the input swithcing. I hooked everythign up using HDMI cables. The initial setup was a breeze, and I was able to start watching hi-def content within minutes of powering the TV on. Again, the picture is stunning.

This TV has multiple HDMI inputs, but I am only using 1 since my A/V receiver is handling those duties. The SD card reader on the side is functional and easy to use. Remember, this is a "no-frills" TV. It is 65" of pure 1080p HD goodness, but it has no bells and whistles like internet gadgets, 3D capability, etc. What drove me to buy this was - not interested in internet widgets on my TV, I did not want to get into the 3D mania at this early of a stage until the technology and content are more mature, and I just could not beat this price. The picture is easily as nice as any LED / LCD screen I have seen. Furthermore, this is a 65" Plasma TV with 600hz refresh rate and 1080p picture quality. Show me any LCD or LED that offers that amount of screen size, with a 240+hz refresh rate for anywhere near what this product is selling for.

Finally, I have viewed a fairly broad amount of content on this TV since I received it. Football games in HD look unbelievable, with absolutely no blurring. Pre-season HD Basketball has yielded the same results a football. I have watched blu-ray movies like Iron Man 2, The Bourne series, The Matrix Series, Earth: The Biography, the BBC Life series, etc. All have looked amazing. Regular broadcast TV looks a little worse than before, mostly because everything trying to render it is attempting to convert to the best picture possible, and the HD TV brings out the flaws a little more.

Overall I would recommend this TV to anyone that is in the market for a large screen flat-panel, but does not want to go with a projector and screen. Some notes - this TV is fairly heavy, so have a friend or 2 available when you get it to help unpackage and install. The screen is big and vibrant. If you try and sit too close to the TV, you will feel like you need sunglasses on.

As usual, my purchase experience with Amazon was awesome. This TV came by truck to my doorstep, and the package arrived in mint condition. Thanks Amazon!

Purchased this TV one month ago from Amazon and could not be happier with it. Having just moved into a new house with a large living room, the 42" Phillips PLASMA I had was just not going to cut it. In other words, in this case bigger is definitely better!

First off, this thing is MASSIVE and the two guys that delivered it said it was the biggest TV they had ever seen. They were great and installed the base for me and put it on my home theater stand. Even though I continue to tweak it now and then, basic setup for picture and sound took less than 20 minutes. Even though I use a home theater receiver for sound I did play with the built-in speakers and they're pretty good compared to others I've heard. The picture on this set is amazing and now I know why Panasonic is rated as highly as it is. Blacks are deep and whites are clean with no hint of color cast. I set my adjustments to get the best skin tone rendering available and this set shows them nearly perfect. The adjustments for picture and sound are not as extensive as on some higher priced sets but they cover the basics plus a few more intricate settings.

The supplied remote control is good and very well thought out as far as placement of buttons although with a home theater system I use a Harmony remote. If it had backlit buttons it would be nearly perfect.

Screen glare is still a minor annoyance with PLASMA TVs but I think Panasonic has done a good job with the screen on this one. Yes, you'll still see reflections of lamps and windows from your room but with a little care in placement of the TV you can avoid most of this.

One other thing of note I was impressed with is that this set throws off far less heat than my old 42" PLASMA did, even after hours of constant viewing. According to the specs, power consumption is a lot less also.

I spent quite a while researching TVs of this size and yes, I could have spent a couple thousand more for sets of the same size with more bells & whistles and (supposedly) better picture quality but this is by far the best value for the money I came upon. If you're looking for a large TV and the viewing experience that comes with it you can't go wrong with this model.

I've had the 2009 version of this set since October last year. A good friend asked me today what I thought of mine and I didn't hesitate to recommend it or to look up the new model on Amazon for him. I did a lot of research before buying my set and frankly I had started out thinking I was going to buy an LCD Samsung but was led to this TV after some research into the different technologies and the rave reviews.

The 2010 is $500 cheaper and is supposed to have better blacks, although I find that hard to comprehend as the blacks on mine are so seriously amazing. Overall the only negative things I've found about this TV are the higher energy cost (fixed in this 2010 I see) and the speakers, which are just barely adequate. This said, I suspect there has got to be a very limited number of people who would buy a panel TV like this baby and not have at least a basic sound system. I suspect few owners will use the unimpressive speakers.

There is also some annoying screen glare but only when the sun or other bright light is positioned to shine right on the TV or on the wall across the room. LCD's are supposed to handle glare better than plasmas, but there are other major drawbacks to LCD's; the crummy blacks being only one of many. In the end I decided that since I do most of my serious TV viewing at night it made no sense to sacrifice a movie theater quality picture on a plasma for slightly better daytime viewing with an LCD.

And a movie theater quality picture it is! At night in pitch black on a good HD channel, my Apple TV, or a well-mastered DVD the picture is an awesome theater quality. With a well-mastered Blu-Ray, such as the last Star Trek movie, the picture can rival an iMax Theater. And make no mistake; at 65" unless you have a seriously huge room a theater feel is what you're buying here.

A downside with any TV this big is that watching standard def TV can be kind of blurry at times given how much the picture source has to be magnified to fit the TV! This is a problem with any 60"+ TV. In the end I also "had" to buy a TiVo Premiere HD DVR because the HD picture is just so much better on this set than the standard def that my old standard def DVR just had to go. I resisted the purchase for 9 months. If you're not planning to upgrade to HD and you watch TV and not just disc's, I would seriously suggest you consider a 50" or less.

One other thing that may affect your decision either positively or negatively: On or off, and even in a large room, this 65" TV takes command of the room and unless you can hide it somehow will become a focal point. It's large, flat, and svelte, presence will be immediately noticed by anyone that walks in the room. Luckily the set has a glossy piano black finish that most will find technically elegant looking. If the thought of a big black spot on the wall when the set is turned off during a party makes you cringe, you can always display high-def photos on it and get a window-like effect. In short: If you are someone who likes to hide your technology, a panel TV this size may prove challenging.

TV STAND
In my TV quest I also located a stand, which goes perfectly with this TV like it was made for it. The "Bell'O FP-2125 Versatile Wood Trim and High Gloss Black Flat Panel Furniture (Cherry/Black)" which is also available at Amazon. The size match is perfect; the black glass shelves of the stand match the Panasonic's piano black case and the cherry contrasts elegantly with most furniture. It also matches perfectly with my Polk cherry speakers although black speakers would also work well I'm sure.

If up flat against a wall, the stand gives the visual illusion of a wall mounted TV with the ease and versatility (rewiring/cleaning/repositioning) of a TV stand. Providing a place for your AV equipment and/or speakers, the stand is also designed so you can easily hide the wires! It isn't cheap but the combination of the stand and the TV has an extremely high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) as it looks great, hides wires well, and there is no need for holes in the walls. My TV ended up at an angle in a corner and the resulting corner space also just happened to leave a perfect spot behind the TV for the subwoofer.

Hint: If you get this stand you only need to bolt the horizontal bars to the TV. The stand comes with mounting hardware not needed on this TV.

After a while I started noticing the "plasma buzz" got unusually loud, the set would randomly turn itself off, and the picture was a little degraded. Took a month of calling Panasonic before they believed I really had a problem. The parts to fix it completely were on backorder and now the tv won't even turn on and the parts are still on backorder after almost a month. So two months after I first called my tv is still not fixed. This is proof of the problem if they can't keep these repair items in stock. I googled the issue and it goes back for years. Display won't turn on, red light on the front flashes, and multiple boards need replaced.

The black levels, colors, and picture quality were all very nice when I first got it but obviously now that it's been broke for 2 months those things don't even matter. If it gets fixed and doesn't have this same problem again I may consider future purchases. For now I'm thinking I may go another direction in the future.

I have a 6 year old 52 inch Panasonic that is the clearest TV I had ever seen.

When I saw the new 65 in and the fantastic price from Amazon ($1881 delivered into my house) I just had to have it. It is a month old and I L O V E I T.

You are missing out on a really great TV and at a bargain price as well.

The only drawback is the audio, the speakers are much more than OK but this box deserves to be hooked up to a real home theater.

In any case this is the best possible TV at an amazing price.

So far, excellent basic TV. No need to spend $$$$ for bells & whistles. Adding a cheapo Panasonic Viera Blu Ray player gives you Internet access and does not lock out future upgrades. For me, 3D is not necessary at this time and at this price, I'm willing to wait until it gets a lot better. Altogether, this is a good buy and 6th Ave is an outstanding Amazon seller. Optical audio output to my 7.1 Denon system works beautifully. The built-in speakers are . . . well, built in and they cannot do justice to the spectacular picture. This a component of a home theater and as such, it does not disappoint. Oh, and by the way, it emits very little heat and the adjustments are clearly described and easy to use.