Bestselling Panasonic Smart VIERA TX-P42GT30B 42-inch Full HD 1080p 3D 600Hz Internet-Ready Plasma TV with Freeview HD and Freesat HD (Installation Recommended) – Price
- Freeview HD & Freesat HD. USB HDD Recording. 4 x HDMI.
FEATURES
VIERA Neo Plasma Full HD 3DTV with Freeview HD & Freesat HD
600Hz Sub-field Drive Intelligent Frame Creation Pro
Infinite Black Pro
VIERA Connect
USB HDD Recording
DLNA/WiFi Ready
SPECIFICATION
TV Tuner
Integrated Tuners* PAL-I; DVB-T. DVB-T/T2 (MPEG4-AVC [H.264]). DVB-S/S2 (MPEG4-AVC [H.264])
Teletext Reception 1000P
Display
Contrast – Infinite Black Pro (5000000:1 Native)
Motion Technology – 600 Hz Sub Field Drive Inte
List Price: £798.50
Excellent TV,
I spent a long time researching TVs this year (as I do most years) – last year I had a P42G20, itself a good TV. Having read through various forums and their numerous threads as well as viewing nearly all the current £1000+ TVs in various shops (I am sure most of you know that the picture quality in retail outlets is not what you will see at home – the first question on the menu is if for home viewing or shop – make sure you press the home option!) If you can, find a shop that has a proper viewing room if you are unsure.
First impressions are the TV is visually stunning (probably a first for panasonic). The bezel having a silver inner surround I thought might be a problem with the TV on, but is not, so please don’t be concerned as I initally was. I also like the way the surround fades from black to gun metal around the panasonic logo. The bezel inself is the thinnest panasonic have done (please be aware this is not like lcd/led sets which on some of the expensive Samsung TVs is only mm thick – however personally I like this look better). The thichness of the TV is very thin as well, about half last years models.
A very important note for plasma TVs is the “run in time”, for this set it between 200 and 500 hours long to get to the optium picture and calibration (google avforums for information on calibration, which most people will never do, but will make your picture stunning). The picture will noticeably improve over this time (mine is not fully run in but is a huge improvement over “out of the box”).
In the menu section the picture options I would leave initially on THX or True Cinema, prehaps a touch of adjustment on the brightness (up) – please note do not use dynamic or make the contrast or brightness to high for the first 200 hours to allow accurate pixel development.
For day time viewing the picture will not be as bright as lcd/led TVs and I would put the CATS option on as will will help compensate for bright rooms. If you need any further info on set up send me a email.
Now firstly the HD picture. My Tv is using the integrated Freesat (this is generally better than Freeview HD) which is stunning, I sit about 11 feet from my TV and now I have adjusted from 42 to 50 inch (so glad I did). The colours are amazing and watching the Belgium GP last weekend on BBC1HD there was no picture lag (sometimes a problem on 50Hz TVs – this is not a “true” 600 Hz TV, no such TVs exist) or pixel problems. Watching Football again there was only the smallest lag on the ball. If you compare this to any lcd/led tv they will not be able to match this performance – try for yourself in large retail outlet and get them to show you HD sport with an lcd/led next to a plasma and you will see. The best sport to watch is golf as the ball moves very fast and there are lots of greens to really test the TV. The black levels (again plasma is best) are as good in my opinion as the Pioneer Kuro G9 (arguablely the best TVs made – and they stopped making them 3 years ago as they did not make a profit even though they cost £2000 to £4000! – I have 2 friends with them so I know what they look like).
SD picture quality is OK – but on any 50 inch TV it is not going to be fantastic – fortunately BBC, ITV and CH4 now broadcast most new TV in HD (but not kids tv). The best way to watch SD TV is to record to PVR or Hard Disk Recorder which has an upscaler built it (most do) and the picture is better, a bit more video looking rather than film looking but smoother – you can also use the various picture enhancements in the menu set up which smooth out poor quality pics. If you intend to watch mainly SD pictures I would not recommend a 50″ TV.
DVD picture is upscaled very well, again most players have an upscale built in (when the picture comes on in the left hand corner 576p shows). Although not as good as blu ray it is still pretty decent. I would only replace my very favorite films with blu ray.
Blu Ray – pics are amazing and the sound through an external AV Receiver (buy Onkyo HST5405 all in one about £350) is superb. I watched Transformers as a test last week – picture perfect and the sound through the external receiver was absolutely amazing. All my connections are using 1.4 HDMI cables which means as soon as the tv is switched on av kit, blu ray dvd/hdd recorder all switches on. With the 1.4 version if you have a good av receiver you do not need an optical cable to get full 3d sound.
As well as a dvd/hdd recorder I use a 1 TB external hard drive to record TV using the USB connection. The picture quality is excellent, although you cannot use the THX picture mode – you would need to buy a Humax system. I use True Cinema picture setting which with a bit of fiddling is excellent. As external hard drives only cost about £50 this is the best way to record tv.
I am still waiting for my 3D glass so cannot comment on 3D…
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|A Pleasure To Use,
Didn’t originally intend to spend this amount on a TV but glad that I did. HD picture is great, as is SD. Viera Connect is a bit of a let-down, it really needs more apps. Got the TV connected to Freesat, Freeview and Sky HD and also found that I could connect up my old Tivo using the one scart provided. The remote is intuitive and there’s plenty to play with in the menus.
Bought the Netgear N600 wireless usb adaptor from Amazon and this worked straight away without the need to set it up with the accompanying CD. Also bought compatible 3D glasses on ebay but have tried them only on the 2D to 3D application (for which you need 3D glasses) and they work ok. However there is a noticeable dimming of the picture when using the 3D glasses although you do get used to it.
There are two small cooling fans at the back of the TV and I haven’t noticed any noise from them, but as this TV consumes approx 300W they are obviously necessary to dissipate the heat from the inner workings.
Very pleased with my TV, a pleasure to use it.
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|Ruined by fluctuating brightness issue,
The GT30 SHOULD BE a top plasma, and there’s a great deal to like about it, but like its VT30 brother it suffers from a serious problem which is likely to all but ruin your viewing experience. Namely its inability to transition smoothly from dark to bright scenes and vice versa (another reviewer referred to it as ‘contrast shifts’). Instead of a clean transition the set has to think about it a moment, during which time you’ll get on-screen shifts in brightness as the TV tries to adjust, and its EXTREMELY distracting and annoying. It’s almost as though with every shift from light to dark someone is trying to compensate by adjusting the brightness levels using a remote.
It’s actually a function of the way the screen is designed to be driven, so that less power is delivered when a darker picture is being delivered, but in practice it works very badly, with a significant delay being obvious while the set decides whether to dim the brightness or not. If the shift was instantaneous it wouldn’t be an issue.
This problem has been reported on AV forums all over the Internet, and in the USA Panasonic are now sending out field engineers to solve the issue by flashing the onboard EPROM (there’s no firmware download to correct it). Unfortunately, in the UK Panasonic are doing NOTHING to correct it, leaving the poor customer saddled with a TV that displays an annoying and frustrating flaw while claiming that the TV is performing to spec. Which is absolute nonsense, because nobody would design a TV that caused such annoying brightness shifts in content! And the problems are EXACTLY the same as those being suffered by North American customers, and which are now being fixed.
I STRONGLY caution people not to buy a GT or VT Panasonic plasma until this problem is addressed by Panasonic, because you will be frustrated beyond belief by this fault, and there is currently no way to fix it on the UK models.
You can read more on this issue by Googling ‘Panasonic Fluctuating Brightness’ or read reviews on Amazon.com of the TC-P50GT30, many of which explain just how bad this problem is.
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