Panasonic PT 42PD3P 42" Plasma Panel
Written: May 14 '03 (Updated May 26 '03)
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Pros: Quality of picture
Cons: It's just a display pannel, not a TV. Price.
The Bottom Line: I haven't heard any regret from any one.
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| le71's Full Review: Panasonic PT-42PD3-P 42 in. EDTV-Ready TV |
I bought this from a local store after 6 months of researching. I chose Panasonic b/c it has real black drive system. Unlike tube TV, plasma panel often has difficulty in producing blackness color. Brightness is often not a problem for plasma TV.
It has a 3:2 pulldown set up for display plasma. It has 3D Y/C filter for video or cable or regular terestial antenna. As far as video input on plasma, if you have a good receiver, which has a video component input/output, you should use only a component input for highest image quality since cable box, satellite box, DVD, and video are all hooked up to the receiver. If not, you can use component calbe for DVD and S-VHS cable for video. Your video can be your TV tuner incase you don't have satellite box. If your VCR is your tuner, I highly recommend you get a good power surge conditioner, such as Monster Cable Powerbar or better. The image does improve. I could tell the difference. I used IXOS audio/video for my cables. I could tell the difference between the free ones and those IXOS cables. I highly recommend you to spend some money to get those good quality picture. FYI: Monster Cable is often over price and under perform. I purchased my Monster Powerbar over the internet for a good price.
Since this plasma is purely for display, you cannot get caption in case you need it. You'll have to get from your satellite box. Otherwise, you'll be out of luck. I use my own speakers, Acoustic Research Phantom 8.3 series for audio system. You certain can read my review. Those speakers are only 4" thick, but they sound awesome. If you can't afford these speakers, buy any thing but BOSE. Bose is over price and way underperform.
I mounted mine on the wall w/ little down tilted angle. I thought that the wall bracket was from Panasonic, but it was from Peerless. You can save money by contacting Peerless directly. I didn't know that when I bought mine. Now you know.
5/26/03
I'm back. I just this Plasma listed at The Good Guys for $4279. In addition, there is an additional $400 for purchase between $4K - $4.5K. I bought mine in Mar b/c of the Panasnic's promo, i.e. free terestial HD tuner. I still haven't received mine yet. This summer, Panasonic will release the DVI-version plasma. W/ DVI (digital video interface), your plasma panel can pure digital signal. In my opinion, pure digital signal would be best used on HD set. However, HD set still cost twice as much for a 42". In addition, there are not many channel broadcast in HD signals, except for few premium subscribed channel, such as HBO, Show Time, and Cinemax. Occasionally, CBS, NBC, and ABC network will broadcast their prime-time show in HD signal, but you will have to pay $600-$700 for a satellite box that can decode HD signal. Otherwise, you will have to pay ~$350-$500 for a terestial HD decoder in case you don't have satellite box. However, I haven't gotten a chance to test out how good is the reception w/ an indoor antenna for a terestial HD decoder.
If you consider other brand, I know that Pioneer has a separate box for its plasma so that new video card can be upgraded in the future or whenever necessary. I know that Samsung just rel. a 42" plasma w/ 2 tuners included in case you're a sport fan. That means you can have picture split like a Picture-In-Picture on some of the current TV set. In addition, it has DVI and component input. All of these was listed at $3999, which can be found at The Good Guys. Other than that, I don't know much about their resoln' and contrast ratio, which are important.
If you want to hold out longer, LCD will soon be available in bigger size, such as 42". Currently plasma has better advantage over LCD set due to brightness issue. LCD tends to be darker when the size is increased. However, this will be change shortly due to technology. The one advantage that LCD has is that light bulb is replaceable while plasma gas cannot be recharge. In addition, LCD has a longer lifetime than plasma, which often has a lifetime of 20K-30K hours. In the worst case scenario, if a plasma lasts me 20K hour and my family watch it about 8hr/day, that would last me close to 7 yr, which I don't mind for a new set. However, it is expensive to be an early adapter.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 4300.00
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Epinions.com ID:
le71
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
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