Panasonic TH42PZ70B

Saw one of these in John Lewis the other day at £1299 with 5 year guarantee. Claimed it was 1920 x 1080 and 1080p.

The picture looked good, depending on the source, but it was obvious that not all the various (circa 50?) screens had been set up perfectly.

Is this a good plasma screen/tv.

Would it need the services of a qualified technician and his gadgets to set the screen up to perform at its best - or will it do this straight out of the box.

Is there something better out there for less?

Cheers

Don

Hi,

don´t know the Pany and don´t know John Lewis, but it would make me wounder if the Flat-TVs are set perfect for the surroundings the play in the shops. Well, at least if it is in a cash and carry market.
A good dealer may have adjusted it half way well.
The standard setup is most time over the top. To much contrast, colour temperature often to high, sharpness to high. May work with blu-ray/HD-TV but for SD (even in good quality) definitly not.
Under living-room condition most time too bright.
A good shielded cable between plasma and source would can do little miricals too, btw.
Well, none of this is normally found in big media markets. But as I said above: I don´t know John Lewis.

regards
Hardy

John Lewis is one our "nicer" department stores.

They seem to select good products and sell them as cheaply as other high street retailers - slogan "Never Knowingly Undersold" They include good warranties and don't quibble if you return things that are faulty in any way.

But they don't offer "home demos" on plasma tvs - well I assume they don't, I didn't ask. And like most department stores, the set-up of their tv/plasma displays in-store is mediocre to good (at best).

Cheers

Don

I am a big fan of the Panasonic plasma screens. I have a two year old 42" 480p model that I am thrilled with, and a friend just installed a 720p model (also Panny 42"), which to my eyes looked no better than mine. Of the 50" models I have seen, the Panasonic 1080p is the only one that looks good to me. In my opinion any 42" Panasonic is going to look great, with resolution not making a signficant difference until you get to 50". As for setup, I plugged mine in and played around for a few minutes with the different screen settings...very easy and no need for a technician.

John Lewis is a very good retailer indeed and their 5-year guarantee is similarly excellent. However, they do not always offer all, or the best, product variants. For example, Pioneer had two main 42" screens last year but JLP only offered one, the lower one.

Hardy makes good points about the setup of the screens however. It is difficult to know which screens are setup correctly for the ambient light. given that most of the John Lewis stores are brightly lit, this tends to favour the LCDs. LCD displays use a backlight so their blacks tend not to be very good. Plasmas do not have this problem, so their blacks can be very good (the Pioneer appears to be king at the moment). In well lit areas, the blacks look fine on LCD in comparison to plasma for obvious reasons. In a typical scenario, people generally have lower ambient light in their lounges than the typical strip lighting in a department store, so they get more benefit from the plasmas.

My understanding is that the best way to get a screen really well setup is by engaging an ISO (?) certified engineer to do the job. Typically it takes a day and about £300. They are supplied with materials and setup devices to do the job properly and apparently the difference is quite remarkable. In the case of plasmas, but probably not LCDs it's best to let the screen go through two months' use before calibration.

Frank

I agree that JL don't always stock the best, I presume they are targetting a "volume" market rather than an "elite" market. As I rather suspected, I need to budget a few hundred pounds to get a plasma screen properly set up.

Very helpful comments, many thanks.

Cheers

Don

PS Is it an ISF certified engineer that sets up screens?

Don,

In the immortal words of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow:

"That's the one!"

have read a few threads on the av forums about the pz70, most are saying very good for hd not so good on sd, which is a pity as my n-vi is still used for most of my dvd playback,

John R

I am also (possibly) in the market for a vhs/dvd/recorder or a dvd/recorder (my sVHS recorder is being looked at by a repairer at present). I noticed that the Panasonic dvd/recorders "up-scale" their standard definition dvd output to 1080p. (and some of them apparantly up-scale before they record!!!???) I assume this means they have a built-in scaler. I further assume that a Panasonic dvd/recorder together with one of their plasma screens should have some kind of "synergy" Do the AV forums report poor SD results with Panasonic/Panasonic or is it mainly when other dvd players (eg Sony or Naim) are fed into a 1080p Panasonic plasma?

Cheers

Don

Don, i take a lot of what i read on the av forums with a pinch of salt, i would imagine you should get quite a good picture from the panny dvd player/recorder, i am going to demo a pio 428xd in the next few days as i don't beleive i will notice any differance from a 768 res panel to a 1080p on a 42" plasma, i do feel that the pz70 for the money could be a steal if its as good as people are saying ?

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Panasonic TH42PZ70B

Saw one of these in John Lewis the other day at £1299 with 5 year guarantee. Claimed it was 1920 x 1080 and 1080p.

The Panasonic web-site does not make it clear whether this screen is 1080i or 1080p whereas the more expensive TH42PZ700b is definitely 1080p.

Look on the "www.soundandvisiononline.com" website as they stock both and are usually cheaper than anywhere else in the country - their prices also include delivery. They have a shop in Farnworth, Bolton with knowledgeable & helpful staff but probably too far to travel from Newbury. I always buy my TV's there as they are a specialist shop.

Panasonic screens are excellent - I have two TH42PX60B & the picture quality (720p) is excellent. Previously had a Pioneer 434 which was fabulous when new but the later Panas are better. The latest Pioneers are IMO as good as anything but they are significantly more expensive than the Pana & I am not sure whether they have a full 1080p 42" model on the market yet but if not it will not be long before they have. They also have a new generation screen coming soon (?) which is supposed to make plasma look inferior - just how good can it get?

With regard to set-up try using a Star Wars or any other DVD with a THX Optimiser set-up - you certainly do not need to pay anyone £300 to do it & in any event I do not think there is need to change much from the factory settings.

Finally remember that the true HD sources are limited at the moment to Sky HD (1080i) and Blu-ray or HD DVD - resolution dependent on the individual player. Many standard DVD players & recorders upscale to 1080i or 1080p but the screen will do it anyway from any DVD player. The thing to bear in mind is that only the more expensive DVD players, eg. Arcam or top-end Pioneers & Denons do it better than the screen.

CJ, don't know what panasonic site you looked on, i just looked and in big letters it says 1080P FULL HD next to the pz70, also pioneer have no plans as far as i know to make a 42" full hd screen

Don, remember john lewis will price match with places as long as its in stock, and not just an on-line shop, bought my panny from them almost 4 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by john R1:
CJ, don't know what panasonic site you looked on, i just looked and in big letters it says 1080P FULL HD next to the pz70, also pioneer have no plans as far as i know to make a 42" full hd screen

You are absolutely right - I don't know how I missed that - but for some odd reason the more detailed description doesn't mention 1080p for the 70B whereas that for the 700B does & the soundandvision site shows the 70B as 1080i, so they appear to have got it wrong.

With regard to Pioneer's plans it is worth reading the separate thread on the Pioneer as I have also read about this new technology which they may not call plasma but I had understood it was a later model to the 428xd. They do of course already have a 50" full HD screen & it seems unlikely they will leave the 42" market to Panasonic - unless the agressive pricing from Panasonic is just a bit too keen for their lower volumes.

PZ range is full 1080P, PX range is 720P. 70 is the standard one, 700 has better sound but same screen.
Hi Fi Sound & Vision magazine reviewed both PX & PZ 700 42s, raved about PX but said PZ overall no better and a lot more expensive. Worse brightness and contrast and fast movement but better detail resolution on 1080p sources.
I've had a PX60 (previous model to PX70) for 1 year with an n-vi and Sky source. Easy to adjust for both sources you don't need a technician and the picture is fabulous - even on Sky SD.

Pioneer have a new generation plasma out now which the 2 reviews I've seen say in 720P blow away everything else incl 1080p. It's 2x the price of the Panasonic though.

Conclusion:- in the real world of TV watching plus DVDs and even HD 1080p if money is no object look at the Pioneer 720p and about to come out 1080p. Best value in my view is the Pana PX70 at about £800.