Panasonic TH-42PZ80B

[mx2004]

Well, my Plasma T.V. arrived yesterday and I have set it up. I haven't invested in blu-ray yet, as I was previously using a 10-year old Trinitron widescreen! I thought I should get an HDTV first.

Right now I'm using Freeview digital TV through the aerial (SD) using the Panasonic's in-built DVB tuner, Sky digital satellite (SD, no subscription) using RGB scart (my ancient satellite receiver has no digital connections on it - I'm planning on switching to freesat HD to access the BBC and ITV HD services soon).

My Philips DVD player is outputting Progressive Scan (576p/480p) over component (no HDMI) so the TV only has to scale, it doesn't have to deinterlace as well. (A nice surprise is that the Panasonic recognises NTSC widescreen signals and switches accordingly, the Sony TV over S-Video would only recognise PAL and not NTSC.)

I am getting to the point now though: I am sat at about 8ft from the 42in screen, and I must say I am shocked - the picture is not what I was led to expect -- it is fantastic! I popped a VHS of 'What's up Doc?' in just for fun - people who complain about grain on HD should look at this. Broadcast TV, whether it's terrestrial or satellite, is brilliantly watchable. Even the poorer quality channels come up well, and the best broadcasts look fantastic. There's life in SDTV yet, I think when HDTVs can make these programmes look so good.

I was feeling pretty good about my purchase now, as I was expecting from all that I'd read, that the picture would be as solid as mashed potato. The good results so far didn't prepare me for what I was about to see from DVD - I always knew my Philips was a good machine but the results with the Progressive Component output exceeded my expectations. With the TV in cinema mode and a 'quickie' calibration done, the picture was wonderful. I started off with some snippets from Finding Nemo (R1 DVD, NTSC) and Wagner's Das Rheingold from the Bayreuth Festival (R2 DVD, NTSC - actually shot in analogue 16:9 HD video in the early 90s - would be interesting on blu-ray I think) and the picture just drew me in. I had intended to play just a clip and I watched nearly half-an-hour from each DVD. Ratatouille (R2 DVD, PAL) followed (I have watched many blu-ray clips from this in stores, when I was auditioning TVs so I approached it with some trepidation) and while this is clearly not HD, the results were amazing. The bit where Remy eats the strawberry and the piece of cheese (?) and we see him experience the flavours - that looked just wonderful... the other clips I watched from Ratatouille came out really well. I am truly thrilled! [On a side note: I zoomed out Ratatouille to fill the screen using my DVD's Zoom control - just out of interest. Now I am a fan of O.A.R. but if I wasn't - even with a DVD - I am sure I could live with the zoomed result. I'll be keeping my black bars though, personally!]

Now, with the Pixar stuff I thought I'd given the TV an easy ride - anything looks good with a Pixar movie, right? I needed a sterner test.... so, I went to my DVD cupboard and emerged with -- The Sound of Music (R1 DVD, NTSC - 20th Century Fox 5 star collection). The Panasonic/Philips combo just keeps impressing me - those iconic aerial shots at the start of the movie - the scenes in the Abbey - it all just looks wonderful. But this is a THX disk, I told myself, it's a good transfer. Try something else!

Out came Robin and the Seven Hoods (R2 DVD, PAL) - the Frank/Dino/Sammy/Bing musical is a favourite of mine but I only discovered the DVD recently, having lived with my dad's old 4:3 VHS copy for years. My word though - I can't imagine Warner spent much particular effort on this cheap disk of an old movie but this set can't seem to put a foot wrong. Yes, it isn't HD - but I've read disparaging comments on the web about the scaling abilities of this screen (and others) but in this case it seems not to be true. The picture is so good I am now a blu-ray refusenik ... I can't see myself spending hundreds of pounds on a BD player, and up to £30 per disk when there's a world of DVDs out there - never mind my own collection to rediscover. I'm sure I'll quickly change my mind -- I do want to experience real full HD in my home - I won't be writing standard def off anytime soon though. Bravo Panasonic!