Panasonic TX-P42X10B 42-inch Widescreen HD Ready Plasma TV with Freeview
Manufacturer’s Description
For stunning picture quality a plasma TV is the natural choice. Panasonic VIERA plasma TVs are renowned for their outstanding picture performance especially in regards to sporting events, action movies and gaming content.
Best motion picture reproduction
Watching TV is about moving images rather than still images. A still image in high resolution looks brilliant on almost any HD TV, but when the images are moving, you can see a clear quality difference as many TVs have difficulties to display fast moving contents without motion blur.
All Panasonic plasma TVs are equipped with 100Hz technology. This superb technology doubles the output frame rate, meaning the gaps of time between image frames are lessened. The more frames inserted, the smoother the overall imaging will be for the human eye. The 100Hz technology is a major benefit to you as it aids in creating flicker-less moving images.
Exceptional quality display
I bought one of these after having a Panasonic px80 for a short period. These unit need proper bedding in for the first few hundred hours display (or much shorter if you use a utility like jscreenfix). The display does improve further after this bedding in period.
To keep this short, the display is excellent, both SD and HD despite this only being a HD ready resolution. Blacks are deep and detail is fabulously clear,
Regarding size: You need at least a 12 *12 room for these 42″ screens not to be somewhat overpowering. I would suggest that for smaller rooms the 37″ model would give a better experience.
The only downsides i see are :
Overscaling if turned off shows that these units need better screen aligninment from the factory. 3 out of 4 units I have viewed had relatively minor but irritating screen alignment issues which cannot be adjusted without accessing the engineers service menu (which could invalidate your warrenty).
The on-board tuner appears to be poorer quality than the older px8 models.
Other than that, the quality is utterly superb as long as you have good quality input. Sky gives mainly superb pictures from SD channels. VM’s cable is far more varied.
Go for it !
If like me, you’ve had a good telly ( in my case a Sony 28″ 4:3 CRT )for over 20 years and are totally bemused by the wide array of LCD widescreens now available and you would like to upgrade but don’t want the expense of HD – Fear not – you have found the solution!!!
Ignore the hype and hesitate no more, click on one of these beauties while you still can!
This Plasma screen has a tough glass front – No worries.
Plug in and switch on – No complex setting up (picture excellent and will even get better as it beds in (we are told!))
I am using a sky+ and a standard DVD player without upscaling and the colours and motion are spectacular.(Cannot therefore comment on built in Freeview).
Not tried it yet but it seems possible to insert SD cards on the side to view all your digital photos as well.
Final point: Do not waste money on a gold-plated HDMI lead UNLESS your equipment has an HDMI output!!!! This may sound obvious but I know plenty of people who have……. I am using SCART leads from Tesco….
Pretty good plasma
Have looked at the purchase of a larger flat screen to replace my 27″ Panasonic CRT for some time. The reviews on this one were quite good and for the price it seemed good value so I gave it a go. Came by Amazon free delivery in two days so no problem there, easy to set up.
Very pleased with it, I’m not a techie but it was easy to adjust colour balance etc and picture is very natural compared with LCDs I have looked at.Works great on the built in freeview and also works also well with my Panasonic DVD recorder on the Viera link. Overall a straight forward no bells and whistles tv, just right for what I wanted and I would recommend it to anyone.
