Customer Reviews

Panasonic TCP42G15 42-inch VIERA 1080p Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been a home theater enthusiast for some time now and I am the type to upgrade every few years in a desire to experience the newest and greatest tech out there. I have had experience with old school tube TV's, CRT rear projection, LCD and DLP rear and front projection, and LCD flat panel TV's. As a gamer, I had never taken the chance on plasma due to "image retention." That said, I have to say that I am SO glad I finally took the risk! After just a few days of use, I can already say that the G15 is the best TV I have ever had. I have yet to see LED, but honestly, I am not sure how picture quality can get much better than this. I haven't even done any calibrating of my own. I just use the preset Game and THX modes. If you are in the market to buy a new TV, and you are a gamer and Blu-Ray watcher, then do yourself a favor and buy a plasma. I think I have finally found a TV I could possibly keep for a lifetime, assuming it stays alive.

I have never owned a flatscreen before so I was trying to get the best for my money. I never considered a plasma tv, I always thought LCD was the way to go; I understood that plasma tvs burned out quicker, used way more energy, heated up to the point where they couldn't be watched for long periods and of course I heard horror stories about image burn in. What I was delighted to find is that many plasma manufacturers have addressed these issues in their new tvs. This TV is energy star certified, which means its energy consumption is very comparable to many other LCDs of the same size (ie, almost identical to LG LH50 42"). The heat created/circulated in the tv is not an issue at all, even after watching the tv for several hours, the back of the panel is barely warm. and burn in is impossible with new orbiting pixel technology. Even more impressive is a new screen wipe technology, so that in case your tv was left on for a week solid, even then any trace of a burn in image can be completely erased. One of the best selling points of this tv is the lifespan, over 100,000 hours. thats almost double even the best LCD lifespans (60,000). As for the picture itself, let me just say you can not find a better picture than a plasma, LED can not come close. and the top of the line for all plasma TVs is panasonic. pay no attention to contrast ratio, every company has different ways of measuring that stat. Plasma is back in a big way, in a few years, the prices on these tvs are certain to go up.

I did a lot of researching before buying this TV, and I have so far been very happy with the results.

The picture is amazing, of course. There is virtually no glare on the screen, which can be a problem for some plasma tvs. The blacks are incredible, and the colors have been great, even without doing any hard calibration. Setup was very easy. The sound is very good. Not sound system good of course, but you can easily get by without one. We've had some televisions in the past, including HDTV's, with absolutely horrid sound, and this comes nowhere close.

Some people say that the THX picture mode is too dark. While it is somewhat dim, it is absolutely perfect for viewing in a darkened area for movie viewing. Adjusting all of the picture modes is very easily done, however for an out of the box calibration without breaking it in, THX is a very good option.

A very minor nitpicks, hardly worth mentioning really. The remote does not have a button on it to just flip through the picture display options (standard, custom, thx, etc), but rather have to go into a menu to access them. The menu is right on top, it's not buried, but it would be more convenient if you could just flip through without having to go through that.

I have yet to experiment with the VieraCast options, so unfortunately I cannot comment on those.

Overall, an amazing tv, especially for the price.

I had previously purchased the TC-P42S1 with high expectations. Although I loved the picture, it had an annoying buzz, especially during bright scenes, that I couldn't deal with. Even after exchanging it for a second set, the buzz was still there. I could hear it 14 feet away in a quiet bedroom, which is unacceptable. I hear it's hit or miss to get a set that doesn't have such an audible buzz, but I had bad luck both times and didn't want to try for a third.

So, I decided to give the TC-P42G15 a try. And I'm so glad that I did. Not only is the buzz (which all plasmas have to an extent) not a distraction in a small, quiet room, but the picture is much more crisp. The S1 had a slightly grainy appearance when viewing up close, especially noticeable when viewing the menu characters which were somewhat blurry. But the G15 is smooth as silk. Just stunning. Everything is crisp and clear.

And I love the features the G15 has that the S1 was missing, such as a PC port and Viera cast for Internet access. These are features that I will use extensively. The G15 remote also has a lighted feature that was missing with the S1, although it only illuminates the channel and volume buttons, which is a slight disappointment. It's still helpful to find the most important buttons in a dark room.

I only have a few minor gripes, which subtracted one star. This set should have had a guide feature, being, as far as I'm aware, the top Viera model. Very limited channel info appears on the screen: not even the name of the program that you're watching. It also doesn't have a USB port. I'd much prefer that over the SD card slot since my digital camera takes CF cards. A USB port is also useful for firmware updates, yet this rather expensive 42" set does not include one. I also find the preset pictures modes useless. Standard is too dark, and THX is also rather dark and has a greenish tint. I will never use neither. Personally, I think THX is a marketing ploy to sell electronics, be they audio, video, or a combination. There's nothing exceptional about it, speaking as someone who's purchased many "THX certified" products. It's just something to stamp on the box.

I use the custom settings and have tweaked the perfect picture for my taste, be it for cable or movie watching. And game mode is perfect for playing your PS3 or Xbox 360. I didn't make any adjustments at all to that. It's just right. Everything looks amazing and it doesn't get glaringly bright at certain points like an LCD. I know from experience since I also have a Sony XBR6 which can blind you at times. It's like looking into the sun at certain points in a game, and turning down the brightness only makes other things too dark. This plasma destroys LCD for gaming. It's the perfect balance of light and dark and has exceeded my expectations.

All in all, I'm very happy with this TV. And I got it for a great price online which sweetened the deal.

Highly recommended. No regrets.

Although I had a very bad experience with Electronics Expo shipping to get this product, the resulting Panasonic G15 Plasma tv has been a truly excellent step up from my Advent HDTV tube.

It is strange that Panasonic doesn't perform phosphor break-in and color calibration in the factory (which involves running a specific color slide-show for 120 hours and then setting it to the recommended numbers from avsforum), but the resulting color depth and CRT-level viewing angle and response has been a welcome relief from LCD.

The blacks are very black and consistent versus Samsung's dynamic contrast (although not as black as the black plastic), and is very important for truly deep contrast pictures which LCD can never achieve except by individually dimming a back-lighting LED -- a very expensive proposition. It's not about how bright the picture can get because they can all get there, but the blackness describes the true floor for the contrast range, and only CRT, plasma, and OLED can get there.

Power usage does fluctuate between 10 watts and 300 watts (depending on how many pixels are lit and how bright), but it's no more than a gaming PC and I'm still spending less on electricity than my solar-panel based friend.

There is NO image retention issues with this 12th-generation plasma screen that would be any different than a standard CRT tube. I've left a paused image on-screen for hours with no burn-in nor image retention. As a comparison, my friend's Samsung A650 plasma gets image retention in just a few minutes of ESPN2 whereas this Panasonic doesn't EVER that I can even see.

The 4 fans in this TV are mostly non-audible banking on slow RPMs with large fins. The remote is well-sized with large very accessible buttons, but totally useless with my TiVoHD and cable-card setup.

I do recommend using a pre-processing device such as a TiVoHD to upscale all video to the G15 minimally as 480p because Panasonic has HORRIBLE native SDTV up-conversion that involves some pixelation and bad deinterlacing for 480i content. It's been fine for the Wii though which only has 480i output.

Unfortunately, all this Viera services from Panasonic hasn't kept up with WiFi, so you'll have to come up with either a wired internet connection by running a cable, WiFi-to-cable base station, or Powerline internet.

The speakers are average and drop a bit of bass, but are usable as any OEM tv speakers.

All-in-all, a great value and avoids the viewing angle hassle.

I am not much of a TV watcher, but the 15 year old Sony was outdated and my husband was bugging for more. I went to Consumer Reports for their ratings and ideas on what kind of set to get and plasma sounded right for us and the Panasonic was rated very highly. Took the plunge and we love it. Neither of us are real good at technology, but have, so far, been able to figure everything out, with some help from our cable company. Tv is beautiful, picture is clear as a bell, my only dissatifaction is the sound. I think we will have to get additional speakers. But I would recommend this Tv and the LG Blue Ray player we bought with it. No technical jargon here, just great picture and easy set-up.

This is a wonderful TV at a reasonable price compared to others that are current. It is only available in major cities at this point. great blacks and remote is easy to use. Speakers are on bottome so TV is not as wide as its predecessor.

I have been extrememly impressed with my new TV. I feel setup was a snap, and the picture quality out of the box is spectacular. I enjoy having the THX picture option and the remote is easy to use. A great purchase!

I only have two small complaints about this tv, but neither of them prevented me from giving it a strong 5 star rating overall.

First, the Vieracast online features are a bit weak compared to what I have seen in other sets, particularly Samsung's new LED line. Hopefully Panasonic will improve this with some firmware updates in the future.

Second, the menu interface is surprisingly boring and functional. While I give Panasonic points for making it straightforward and easy to use, I expected the menu design to be a bit more sleek on a 2009 television.

We got this model because of the audio out and the viera DSL link and are very pleased. It is worth the money and effort to get the G15 for those reasons. Viera will bring in movie streaming from Amazon for 3 bucks so competes with cable pay per view without the high cable charges which go on month after month even when you are not watching.