Customer Reviews

Panasonic TH-42PX75U 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I recently purchased this TV from BB and I must say that its the closest to the Pioneer in picture quality. I had a hard time deciding between the samsung 4254 and this, but when I actually saw the TVs in the store, the decision was a lot easier to make.

Pros:
*Picture quality(PQ) is amazing. Panasonic is well known for their high contrast and deep blacks and this TV is no different
*Black bezel looks so much better than the silver one. Something I learned: a black bezel actually makes the picture stick out since it provides a good contrast difference.
*Remembers adjustment settings for each input
*Reflection (lack of) is actually better than my old tube tv. I was worried about this, since plasma's are typically very reflective, but the reflection on this TV did not bother me at all. YMMV.

Cons:
*settings are very limited. There are the standard adjustments for picture brightness tint sharpness etc, but its missing the the fine tuning adjustments that most new tv's have.
*I am not a big fan of the zoom function since it makes the picture slightly pixelated.
*720p(1024x768 rectangular) only. I initially wanted a 1080p LCD but at this size I guess it really doesnt matter. Not to mention the PQ is light years ahead of an LCD in this price range.
*No VGA input. This is a bummer, but i picked up a DVI-HMDI cable from monoprice for a couple of bucks.
*Slight Image retention(IR) (burn in). If a still image is left on the TV for more a couple of minutes, the image can still be seen on a white screen. The good thing is if you watch widescreen TV(without the side bars) for an hour or so, this completely goes away. This is more of a plasma issue, and I feel this TV does a much better job at clearing up IR than what I have read about previous generation plasmas.

I am pretty satisfied with my purchase, and I hope this review helps someone in making their investment!

First off, I'm a semi-videophile, tech-saavy person who spent about a year researching, comparing and pricing flat panels. I chose this model based on almost unanimously positive reviews of its predecessor, the TH-42PX60U, head to head comparisons in big box stores, and because of its reasonable price compared to Sony, Samsung, Pioneer and other major manufacturers. This TV seemed to offer the best cost/benefit package.

What I've learned is that having a flat panel is a fundamentally different experience, both in terms of aesthetics and content, from a CRT TV. There are drawbacks and huge advantages, and it helps to know a bit about what you're getting into because there is a trade off involved in giving up your old CRT monitor; these things are very expensive and you want to be sure of your choice...

Bought this TV to replace my 27" sony wega CRT, which until flat panel craze was one of the best TV's around, so I used it as a benchmark for the performance of this TV.

-General Picture Quality: This is what you're buying this for, no? Very clear, sharp, lifelike, beautiful picture when receiving HD feed. Great for HD movies, sports and all the usual things they market HD TV's for. Resolution is great, though sometimes you can see digital compression evident in, say, cloud shots or dark corners of a frame. This is no doubt a limitation of compressed media and not the TV's fault.

-Color: I actually don't find color to be as accurate as my old CRT. Even with the adjustments Panasonic lets you make, there seems to be a sort of pastel-like quality to skin tones. It's not bad, mind you, but if you're a videophile you'll notice that it doesn't seem as true to life and rich and nuanced as it should.

-Lattitude: Though this has one of the better contrast ratios among flat panels, it lacks the subtle gradiations of color that one is used to, and also whites get blown out and darks fade to inky nothingness sooner than on a high quality CRT ie Sony Wega. Again, like color, among plasma/lcd's, this is one of the best.

-SD: let's not kid, SD broadcasts look absolutely terrible, though it could just be the incredibly inept monopoly known as Time Warner Cable at work here. The distorted "just" setting, which crops, distorts and zooms to try to split the difference of 4:2 and 16:9, makes things slightly more tollerable, but after watching Sd channels, one wants only to watch HD channels. Although you do sort of get used to it, it's not good.

-DVD's: Didn't try HD or Blu Ray. Standard def DVD's look fair to excellent through component connection and an upconvirting 720p Samsung player. One interesting thing about this TV is that you can REALLY tell a good DVD transfer vs. a bad one. To take two eye candy films: Kubrick's 2001 DVD, first made into a DVD in the late 90's when transferring wasn't as developed a science, looks tons worse than any of the Star Wars films, which were meticulously transfered and mastered only a couple years ago. You wouldn't notice the difference nearly as much on an SD tv. Still, overall, most DVD's I've viewed, from classics to foriegn to modern hollywood, look very good. Not quite HD but definitely high-enough resolution to get you immersed in the film in a way you never could with your old tube tv.

Content: There are only about 20 channels available in HD in New York City, so it's pretty limited at this point. All the SD channels work, they just look crappy.

Sound: Surprisingly rich sound from invisible speakers mounted, I guess, under the unit. I had no need to hook it up to my stereo sytem. If you don't need 5.1, this thing is great: clear rich bass, sparkling highs, well balanced, and there are bass/treble eq's in the menu too.

Asthetics: this thing is huge and black, so will fundamentally change your living room. It looks cool though glossy black is a bit... cheesy? Matte would have been better, less frat boy. But that's a matter of taste. remote is labled well, easy to use. Overall when it's on you can't take your eyes off it. When it's off it's a bit like the monolith in 2001 ;)

Fortunately, I use the thing mostly for films on DVD and occasional baseball games, so it suits my needs by and large.

Buying this makes one realize that for all its amazing qualities, Plasma/LCD HD is still in its infancy. Colors not as true to life, limited content available, still no truly good upconversion from SD broadcasts (which constitutes well over 90% of all content). Am I happy I bought it? Yes. Do I wish there were more HD channels, better SD upconversion etc? Yes.

Bottom line: if you can wait another couple of years for more channels, slight refinements in the panels themselves, the price of HD DVD's to drop, wait. If you can't wiat, this is the one to buy. At $1260 all inclusive, this is a great deal and you won't regret it.

When my old tv died, I wanted to get a 32 inch HDTV. So, I checked on Amazon first for hd's with customer reviews in the 4 to 5 star range. The early frontrunner was the Samsung LNT 4065, beautiful with 15,000:1 dynaminc contrast, a little above my range.

The best sellers are Samsung, Sharp and Sony. I confined my search to those, and then hit the stores, with my Amazon notes to check out the tv's live before buying. Strangely, my first choice was not available.
I am impressed by how competitively priced Amazon is. Of the products I saw Amazon is consistently below Best Buy, and BB won't compete with online prices. I did ask. Also Amazon has free shipping on some models, and no sales tax.

I did side by side checks, and the Sharp Aquos series, Sony Bravia, and Samsung LNS and LNT are very competitive, and similar in quality. When I was strolling through Best Buy, a large 42 inch Panasonic plasma caught my eye. A rare beauty. 10 inch larger screen than the others and only $300 extra. Should I go bigger or cheaper?

10,000 to one dynamic range, almost like looking at a movie screen with incredible detail. I went to Sears, who, to my surprise were much more competitive than BB. This particular model was reduced by $300. I could not resist.

Set up was pretty easy, and the inbuilt HDTV tuner gives an improved reception to local channels. I put in the John Wayne classic The Searchers. The awesome views of Monument Valley as a panoramic backdrop was a joy to behold.

Amazon's price on this model is still still lower than bricks and mortar price I paid, so if you have the patience to wait, and go with Amazon

This black beauty is a joy to behold and to own.

I have to say, this might just be the best purchase ive ever made.

I did research on Plasma TV's, and found that there really are two ways to go... If you have less than $2,000, go with a Panasonic. If you have more, go with a Pioneer.

Panasonic swears that their new 2007 models (This is an 07' model that replaces the th-42px700) do not have any issue with permanent IMAGE RETENTION/BURN-IN. I did alot of time reading up on the product, along with other tv sets, just to see if this is true. I can atest (I made the mistake of leaving my TV on overnight with the ESPN ticker there, which left a glare of the ticker and the ESPN2HD logo whenever i was on a black screen, but, to my suprise and utter hope, the image was washed out with just a few hours of normal TV viewing) that these TV's are truly resistant to BURN-IN. Panasonic has done their reasearch, and through that they were able to widely improve their phosphors technology, which basically, wont permanently hold any image.

Also, ive learned that 720p Plasma looks MUCH BETTER than 1080p LCD. Also, watching HD movies/HD sports looks better in 720p Plasma than 1080p Plasma, which, to me, leaves no room for anything but the 720p Plasma.


At the end of it, the price of this system is UNBEATABLE for the quality and assurance you get from Panasonic. The warranty is not half bad, they also claim 60,000 hours before the TV's brightness reaches its half life. (Waching TV for 6 hours a day, it would take 27 years for that to happen;good luck!) The TV is 1000x more sleek than their past models, which really rounds my review home to a solid 10/10.

For your money, for your peace of mind, for your total and complete satisfaction, and for the pure quality of image, go with this TV.


Eric M.

I agree with everyone here that this TV will blow you away. I work for an A/V equipment manufacturer and all of our technicians recommend Panasonic plasmas. (Pioneer if you have the money, Panasonic if you're an average Joe like me)

The picture is stunning and the number of connections is nice. I also bought a Toshiba A2 HDDVD player and WOW! Now I'm waiting for FiOS to deliver my new HD box. The SD signal from FiOS on this TV is fantastic, I can't wait to see HD!

1 thing to note is that this TV DOES support HDCP. I haven't been able to find that in print anywhere, including the manual.

Why I chose it:
1. Price
2. Quality - I saw this side by side with MANY other brands.
3. Contrast ratio 10000:1
The 1080p version of this TV was about $1000 more and only has a
5000:1 contrast ratio.

Picked up this TV about a month ago now, and love it. The pic is wonderful quality, especially if you love sports. Baseball and hockey look amazing on a HD feed.

Even standard definition channels look gorgeous.

I also have an upconversion DVD player wired into one of the HDMI ports, and that looks just as good as the HD cable feed.

Plenty of inputs in the back, 2HDMI, 2Composite, etc. give many options for hooking up equipment. The built in speakers are more than enough for my need at the moment, and should be find for the average TV user.

The black case, as opposed to the silver of the previous generation gives it a nice, sleek look.

Highly recommended.

This is my first plasma TV. After a lot of research on plasma TV market for 3 month, I decided to buy this one.

Pros:
- Excellent picture quality, even in SD television.
- Excellent sound quality. Its not closer to a good home theater, but for usual use, its more than enough.
- Minimal glare. It doesnt have antiglare coating as 42PX77U have, but I have my TV directly facing to french doors, still minimal Glare !!
- many options to configure.
- SD card slot. Pictures look awesome.

Cons:
- no VGA input, but who has VGA in computers any more? Everybody is going to DVI. You can buy a DVI to HDMI cable to connect your computer with DVI to this TV.
- no front input for audio-video. But I have front input in my receiver, so its not a problem for me.
- no USB slot. But I have it in my DVD player ( Philips DVP5982 ),so not a problem for me. I can play music files, photos, videos from it. I can even connect an external drive to DVD player. Typically, TVs which has USB port WILL NOT play video files form USB drive. So, its not really a con.
- only 2 HDMI inputs. But I dont need more. If you need, you can buy an HDMI swith with remote.

Bottom line:
- if you can compromise this minor stuff for excellent picture and sound quality, this TV is for you.

I got this TV three weeks ago and it worked great - for a week. Then it didn't turn on or respond to the remote. I called Panasonic and they said it needed a new "board" which was probably damaged in transit (they also said most repairs are needed in the first week because of shipping damage). The story since then has been a nightmare. I stayed home from work to meet the repair guy, who never showed up or called to say he wasn't coming. Panasonic was unable to control what was happening because they subcontract repairs out. After many phone calls the repair was rescheduled again. You guessed it - same story. No show, no call and no ability to reach the repair guy. So our TV now looks great in the living room but it still doesn't work. The moral of the story is that IF this product is damaged, your ability to get it repaired depends entirely on how reliable the contracted service repair store is. Panasonic's "concierge" hotline for repairs is inept and they do not have any system in place to ensure proper communication and control over service on their products.

When I first thought of buying an HDTV I thought LCD was the only way to go. I had heard of burn-in issues and that plasmas didn't last as long as LCD. After doing some research and comparing them side by side, I decided to go with the plasma.

Burn in: I've had this TV about a month, and have had absolutely NO burn in and/or image retention. The contrast on this TV is set to the max right out of the box, and I image the people complaining of burn in or image retention haven't turned down the contrast.

Lifespan: With new technology, plasmas have a half-life of 60,000 hours, which is more than that of a typical CRT television.

Picture Quality: The picture quality of plasmas is where they stand out over LCD. I recently bought an up-converting DVD player, and movies are absolutely amazing. Even though it's only 720p, I don't think it would be easy to notice a difference between it and 1080p sitting ~10 feet away.

Sound Quality: The sound on this TV is awesome compared to other plasmas I looked at. Very full, deep sounds.

I would highly recommend this TV. For the price, you'd have trouble getting much better. With its sleek look and awesome picture quality, I'd definitely buy it again.

I am very pleased with the image of the Panasonic 42" plasma. I have it two weeks now. I decided for a plasma nevertheless I am more an LCD fan. But as we can expect new technologies in the next 2-3 years on the market, I decided to kick my 24" CRT out of the house and buy a cheep plasma for the time beeing (where I live the plasmas are still much cheaper then same sized LCDs). The image is very good on this one, I compared it side to side to the cheapest Samsung 720p plasma and the Panasonic stood out - but finally its hard to say it depends also on the settings in detail and I had not enough time in the store to go into this.

I decided for 720p because I have neither a HD player nor HD blueray movies, and I dont think to change my DVD collection or my homemovie making to HD the next couple of years.

The other thing is, flatscreens because of the big size consume a lot of energy, and there is not really a difference between Plasma and LCD. This is the main reason I will change to better technology with less consumption as soon as they are ready to buy. While LCD of this size has an average constant consumption of 240 Watt, the Plasma consumes between 100 and 380 Watt, depending of darkness of the picture. I have a Watt-Checking unit and tested the Panasonic. The blue startup picture consumes the most with 360 Watt. During a normal movie it consumes 180-280 Watt. Scenes with much darkness let consumption drop to 100 Watt. I even get 50 Watt during a title sequence with black background.

The sound is really acceptable. I enjoy my movies with my surround setting, but when the kids watch their cartoons, for energy saving I let them watch with the internal speakers and they are just fine.

In contrary to what others said about the options for image adjusting, I found this Plasma having enough settings to get the picture how I want it: A deep black and natural colors.

A negative is, this plasma comes only with a table stand, no wall mount. I find such displays should all come with wall mount included, rather then the table stand. Just my opinion.