Customer Reviews

Panasonic VIERA X1 series TC-42PX14 42 Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

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

 

 

I got this TV for myself in December 2009. It has been about six months now, so I thought a review might help someone else who is looking at this or similar TVs. I got it from my local Costco and paid $540.00, which was and still is pretty good for a 42" HDTV.

The picture quality is absolutely awesome. I have an older, 2002, 1080i Toshiba 65" projection in the house which has provided some excellent viewing over the years. I was somewhat reluctant to buy a 720p because I was concerned about detecting the difference in 1080 and 720. Let me just say that it is now almost painful to try to watch the 65" TV as compared to the Panasonic upstairs. I have a Blue-ray player hooked up to each and the difference in picture quality is noticeable, which I attribute to the differences in technology (projection v. plasma).

I was also concerned with glare on the plasma since the room it is in has two windows. The TV is in the corner with a window about 3 feet to the left of the TV and another window on the opposite wall pointing right at the TV. We don't watch a lot of TV during the day, but when I have watched something I have been really surprised that I cannot really catch a glare from either window at all.

This model doesn't have a lot of extra's to it. Only two HDMI ports, it has VIERA and not VIERA CAST so there is no internet connectivity, the SD card slot reads VERY slowly (which suggested that trying to connect to some of the various internet capabilities that other models and brands offer would probably be equally as slow). If you have a Blue-ray hooked up to it that has some internet connectivity options or a computer that can actually surf the net, which I have both, then all you really need is the TV to look at.

Only bad thing is the remote has taken some getting used to, but that is mostly because I am still used to the previous TVs remote I think.

Hope this helps.

I just got this set FREE with the purchase of some furniture at Ashley's furniture in Philadelphia. Easy to set up. Easy to use. Other then it being heavy because it's a plasma I'm happy with it all around. I have Comcast HD cable. The audio is pretty good as well. I just picked up a JVC set that I'm not crazy over the stock sound system but this set sounds good enough all by it's self.

I got this spring 2010 for about $425. The HD picture is great. I have Time Warner cable on other TV's and for this TV I just have a COAX cable running directly into the TV (no cable box). Most of the channels look good. If you view from close - say 5 feet - the standard def channels are not great... but this is mounted to wall and I watch from bed (about 12 feet) so it serves me just fine. Somehow the signal passed to the TV does allow some HD stations. For example NBC is channel 10 and is standard definition... when i hit the channel up button the set goes to channel 10.1 10.1 is the HD version of NBC. The HD picture is fantastic. I would purchase again and I do recommend to others.

Once I got Direct TV to set everything up properly , the TV is great.

This plasma TV is Great!!!! The only drawback I could find, is that only brings one audio output (only DIGITAL AUDIO OUT PCM / Dolby Digital) and does not bring the computer RGB output for your old laptop, so if you have speakers or audio equipment with RCA inputs or else, you will have to buy a new one. After that the TV is very good according to the price

As a shopper in the market for an HDTV, I noticed that the specs on this TC42PX14 are listed incorrectly with 6ave on Amazon. I trust this is an oversight on their part, but the specs listed here should be compared against the ones at [...]. The TC42PX14 has a 15,000:1 contrast ratio (not 30,000:1), and it only has 2 HDMI ports (not 3).