Panasonic Plasma 42" 1080P any opinions?

[sarge1976]

Hi guys,I am thinking of returning my Toshiba Regza 42" 1080P LCD in exchange for the Panasonic Viera 42" 1080P Plasma (TH-42PZ80U) I am very dissapointed with the Toshiba,to put it plainly the picture pretty much sucks,I've tried everything to make the PQ better so I am interested in this
Panny and the Samsung 40" 1080P 530 series lcd,Does anyone have any experience with the Panny? I am open to your opinions.I know some of you are pro-plasma and there are some of you who dislike them very much.

[mewantyblu]

because I just bought it yesterday, and could not be more pleased with it, I adjusted the picture settings from standard to vivid and bingo the picture looks awesome.

[JasonR]

I would calibrate it. Vivid is never very good, and far from optimal.

[brett_day]

Originally Posted by mewantyblu

because I just bought it yesterday, and could not be more pleased with it, I adjusted the picture settings from standard to vivid and bingo the picture looks awesome.

woah dude! take it out of vivid! you have to go through the break in routine or you will increase your risk of image retention or possibly burn in!

for the 1st 100 hours at least turn all settings down to 50 or below and have it in cinema or standard mode.

vivid also introduces so much noise into the picture it makes hd look awful!

I have the 50" version of this set and am so happy with it, but please follow the break in period or you might pay for it in the long run

[mewantyblu]

Thanks for the heads up I will heed that advice

[SkillzthatKillz]

i have that tv as well...love it! good purchase buddy

[mewantyblu]

I still cant believe I only paid $1175.00 for it when my 37' Panny cost me 2x that much 3 years ago and its only 720p with 1 hdmi port. And I got 42 months intrest free from Circuit city

[sarge1976]

Well today I said F@@k it and returned the Toshiba and got the Panasonic 42" plasma,so far I love it, but now you guys have me scared of the whole burn in and breaking in peroid thing ,the BB douche bag didn't say anything about having to "break it in", can you guys elaborate a little on how to do that? I got a pretty good deal on this tv,$990 with a 10% movers disc coupon Any advice that you guys have on getting a new plasma will be appreciated

[PanasonicPlasmaMan]

break in period is around 100 hours. watch 16x9 programming (wide screen) and don't put the picture or contrast above 50. Thats what I did and 100 hours later I am playing call of duty 4 for hours at a time with no problem.

[sarge1976]

that kind of sucks for me because the panny is my bedroom tv and I don't watch it for more than an hour or 2 a day.

[sarge1976]

so what settings are not to be set above 50? contrast,and what else? what viewing mode should I watch it in standard,cinema? also can you explain to me why we have to do this with a brand new tv? I'm not very plasma smart

[welwynnick]

I just bought a panny 42 1080 too, and I think its fantastic for the money. maybe the Pioneers are better, but I think you need the lights out to see the difference. And vivid mode should be banned! Its like loudness for video . Image burn isn't too much to worry about. I would just keep all the knobs away from 10 to begin with, and don't lose sleep about it.

Nick

[jabolino]

Originally Posted by sarge1976

so what settings are not to be set above 50? contrast,and what else? what viewing mode should I watch it in standard,cinema? also can you explain to me why we have to do this with a brand new tv? I'm not very plasma smart

As an owner of 42px80u let me try to educate you

Plasmas are indeed the top quality HDTVs on the market, IMO. But they need to be taken care of more than LCDs. The break in period refers to the first 100 hours during which it is recommended you keep the TV in either Standard or Cinema mode with ALL the settings below 50.

Now when I first bought the TV, I immediately tried the cinema mode, because a few people recommend it. However I found that as good as the cinema mode is, it's too dark if you have to keep the settings below 50. So I would recommend using Standard mode for the first 100 hours and keep all the settings around 50.

After the first 100 hours I found that the Cinema mode looked best with Picture (contrast) set to 90, Brightness set to 50 and Color to 45. But I would highly recommend you wait a while before you try these settings out.

Either way your new plasma TV will look better than most LCDs. Have fun with it.

[lettucenpico]

I just bought the Panasonic Viera TH-42PZ80U 42 today. What format settings should i have it on for the first 100 hours? Hi, Just, or zoom, or full? Let me know because I don't wanna mess up my first 1080p tv. I have it on standard mode and everything except the tint is on 50. Anything else i need to do to my tv for the first 100 hours?

[mike7478]

I'm looking to buy a Panny 42" plasma or the 37" next month so I'm gonna be paying close attention to following the break-in period. On the AVSforums you can get a program that you burn to a DVD which displays a series of reds greens blues and whites.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=583089

This plays for as many as 24 hours so looks like a good idea to run this while in bed or when you're out at work. Should get through those 100 hours of break-in time quick and easy

[lettucenpico]

I just bought the 80u yesterday, and it looks great. The picture settings seem dull at the moment maybe cuz my first 100 hours i gotta keep the settings low. I tried to play COD on it and the game view is dark. I need a recommended gaming view for my ps3. Any advice?

[Barbie-Shrimp]

I noticed that old X-File episodes seem really dark, while everything else I display looks great. I bet it's just the way the DVDs were made though.

[Bizdady]

Originally Posted by lettucenpico

I just bought the 80u yesterday, and it looks great. The picture settings seem dull at the moment maybe cuz my first 100 hours i gotta keep the settings low. I tried to play COD on it and the game view is dark. I need a recommended gaming view for my ps3. Any advice?

What mode are u playing on? The Game mode seems to be brighter than cinema but not as bright as Vivid. Try the game setting, I use that one for my ps3.

[fly4rabbi]

I would not fret too much about burn in on the panny viera's. I got mine in the middle of july and took it out of the box and left contrast and everything the way it was. Just changed it a few weeks ago. I did do most of my early watching with the screen full , but htat is it. dont fret over it

[Intamin]

I purchased this tv last week from 6ave.com, and it should be here tomorrow (assuming UPS tracking is correct, which I hope it is!). I personally plan on running the break in dvd for at least the first two days of owning the tv, although I don't think I'll take it to the 100 hours, as that just seems like over kill at this point. After that, I plan on using the settings that cnet used when viewing the PX version of the tv, since I will be viewing my tv in a dark environment (I have one tiny window in my bedroom in my apartment at school).