Panasonic Th-C42FD18 Full Review

[BACsader]

Hello Everyone.

Well I said I would give a full review of my recently purchased TV and here it is.

The TV is a Panasonic TH-C42FD18 which is Costco's version of the TH-42PZ80U and it was $899.99 without including tax. That comes with the year manufacturers warrantee and Costco's two year warrantee that starts from the purchase date. Costco also allows returns within 90 days of purchase. When I saw this I thought that it might have been too good to be true. After having the TV for a week now, this is definitely the real deal.

Differences from the TH-42PZ80U. I was disappointed that instead of the nice glossy frame that comes with the 80U, this one has a matte finish that isn't quite as nice. However, who really notices that when the lights are off and watching the TV. This finish does have its advantages though. For instance, if you use lighting in the room there will be no reflection off the frame which I know there is with the 80U, and there will be no fingerprints that can get annoying. To me, this is really a non-issue. Another difference is this has a PC input where the 80U does not. For people who want to hook up their computer, this is a nice feature.


This TV has 3 hdmi(2 in back 1 in front)
1080p
2 component inputs
Optical input
2 RCA inputs
S video inputs
VGA input

Menu and Settings. This TV has a really nice menu system. Not too many intricate details such as individual color adjustmens but enough so that I can get the picture to look pretty darn good. Has five picture options: Vivid, Standard, Cinema, Game, and Custom. Nice to have so that I can personally set what I want my different components to look like. I run everything through my receiver, so this is a nice feature. My biggest qualm with this TV is that the advanced menu which has screen size, and noise reduction is not independent for each picture mode. If you change it in Cinema, it is changed in Standard, Vivid, etc... The anti-image retention is nice and works like a charm.

Picture. Here is where it matters. The picture on this TV definitely rivals that of better LCDs and is probably the best Plasma in its class compared to LG and Samsung. I have included some pictures in my HT collection. I am not too great at taking pictures of TVs but those were the most accurate I could get the pictures to look. Coloring is quite good and black levels are pretty darn solid. No longer do I lose clarity during darkly lit scenes. After a week this TV looks good. I was watching football yesterday and I was extremely impressed with not only the coloring, but the clarity that was being displayed in a 720p picture over the sattelite. Noise reduction on this TV is basically non-existent, but with my sources, it is not too big of a problem. The warm setting is excellent, especially for watching movies. The colors look natural and unlike some other TVs when you set them to warm, it doesn't get that nasty brownish/yellow hue to it. Don't let anyone tell you that these TVs don't get Image Retention. I get it all the time. However, after turning it off or playing another source or using the anti-image retention, it is easily removed and not a problem whatsoever. On gaming mode, games look great. I have been playing Dead Space, that game is a dark game and with my old LCD, I had a lot of trouble playing the game. With this TV, everything was so easy to see I no longer had to strain my eyes to play the game.

Sound. N/A. Use my receiver for everything. I would imagine it is decent and sounds like all other TVs do with regular front speakers.

Conclusion. If this is your price range, I urge you to give this TV a try. I am extremely happy I purchased it and I am sure for the money, this TV can not be beaten.