schaeffz

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1950.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
Mind you, my idea of big screen TV before was my $179 25" tube guy. So since I did not have a Home Theater to hook a "monitor" to, I decided I needed a Plasma with a built-in tuner. This Panasonic filled the bill. Even fits on my original TV stand in the same place as the old TV. My analog cable hooks up OK and my old-style DVD and VCR hook right up. WOW !!! Can't believe the difference (like comparing a cherry to a watermelon). The Regular TV stations come in a bit "grainy", but without the horizontal lines and at 8 feet away, no problem. The 4:3 format gives me an equivalent 35" TV picture. For SciFi Channel stuff that has the black lines on the top and bottom, I put it in ZOOM mode and get a full screen for Star Gate 1 !!! The JUST mode does nothing to the standard TV channels, looks JUST like the FULL mode, stretched. But DVDs...WOW !!! Tried a cheap Star Wars Indonesian release and HOLY COW, what a picture and the Pseudo-surround sound is great. For grins I plopped in a tape of Star Wars to compare, and frankly no camparison. Who would ever want to watch tapes anymore? I'm going to check out if going digital cable will help the grainyness of regular TV. Also, I'll try a new model DVD to see if I get better yet performance. Can't try HDTV yet though, so no news there.

Strengths:
Plug and Play with built-in tuner and speakers. Perfect for a non-audiophile DVD watcher like me.

Weaknesses:
What is JUST mode anyway ???

Similar Products Used:
none

DJ_flip

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $2139.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
This TV is a great one for the price. Paid $2139 (Circuit City). Although only an enhanced-definition TV (EDTV), it has a picture quality for an average TV viewer. Compared to other EDTVs out there, this is far more superior to any others. This is Panasonic's 2005 model of this TV. I purchased the wall-mounting brackets ($399) and hung it on my bedroom wall. Although lighter than any other CRT TV, you'll have to have two healthy people to get it hung up. If you are looking for an HDTV, with a lot of inputs, or even an input for a computer, this TV is not for you. I didn't want to spend that much money for a TV for my bedroom.

Strengths:
- Picture quality - Easiness of set-up and menus - Price (compared to other Plasmas) - Internal speakers are quite powerful for a TV. - HDMI input - Eighth (8th) generation plasma (with the new generation plasmas, the potential for burn-in has been fixed.)

Weaknesses:
- Picture a little green out of the box (but this was a simple fix with the set-up menus). - Not a HDTV (but, if you want HDTV plasma, you'll have to spend a lot of $$) - Lacking some a lot of inputs (but, I'm only running a DVD player and digital cable to this) - Heat production, as with any typical plasma