Customer Reviews

By M. Cobb

I spent a few months reviewing plasmas and lcd’s both in the big box stores and online. I watch a lot of sports, and the lcd’s still have the motion blurring problem (except the expensive new ones). For me, that narrowed it down to the plasmas. Like others have said, the Panasonic’s stood out from the rest of the plasma’s (except for Pioneers, but they are almost double the cost). In terms of 1080 and 720 plasmas, I could not tell a difference between the two in 42″. Maybe a little in the larger sets, but not in this size. Not worth the extra cost IMHO. So, I finally took the plunge on Panasonic’s 720 42″ when the price dropped below $1000, no tax, free shipping. A great deal for a TV that has been on the market for less than 2 months.

Delivery on the TV was fast (about 5 days early). They called a day ahead and delivered it within 1/2 hour of their estimated arrival. They made sure that the TV worked, and offered to take away all the packaging material. A+.

The TV was a snap to set up–10 minutes. The first thing that I noticed was that the color contrast is excellent, even on SD- much better then our 6-year-old Toshiba 27″ tube TV. The clarity varies by station- a function of the channels, not the TV. SD = A-

The picture quality really excels while playing DVDs through component video. Deep rich blacks, vivid colors. The “Planet Earth” series looks incredible. We have not hooked it up to HD yet, but I’m sure it will be even better. A+.

A nice feature is that the TV remembers your settings for each video input. I.e.–we programmed a different color contrast for broadcast TV and DVDs and it stores each separately. There are more than enough ways to adjust picture quality to really fine tune it.

The audio is better than other sets, but not great. We don’t use it though, since the TV is hooked up through a 5.1 receiver.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, both the TV and Amazon’s delivery service. Definitely would buy it again.

FOLLOW UP: I just got HD, and it is even better than I could have imagined. I don’t even like NBA basketball, but I found myself glued to the playoff game just to see the clarity. UFC was almost TOO clear for comfort. The only problem– I can’t go back to SD now…

By Steve R

You really can’t go wrong purchasing this TV. Don’t base your decision directly on the Cnet review and instead head over to AVSForum. You’ll find a 80+ page thread with numerous reviews done by experts in the field. All of which are very positive and explain why CNet’s review isn’t too reliable.

Unlike Panasonic’s earlier model, the 77U, this TV has an excellent picture right out of the box. There’s no need for an expensive calibration or messing with service menu’s. I’ve found my favorite settings, thanks to someone on AVSForum, is:

Picture Mode: Cinema
Picture: 84
Brightness: 40
Tint: -2
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Warm
Color mgmt: off
x.v.Color: off
Video NR: off
MPEG NR: off
Black Level: light

You’ll find a ton of other settings there too so just do a google search.

This TV also seems very reliable. Out of over 3000+ posts I only saw maybe three that were returned due to a serious failure. (All of which were promptly replaced/repaired) Panasonic also has a really cool warranty service called “Panasonic Concierge”. You can schedule service calls online and you’ll be contacted within 24 hours. You can also call or chat online with a rep if you’ve got any questions. Another great thing about them is that if your TV fails and they have to take it away for repair they give you a loaner TV! I sure wish I had that option with my old Philips.

I was first considering purchasing a Samsung LCD but decided to see both first hand in the store. After adjusting the settings on both TV’s the Samsung had a very unnatural and bright image while the Panasonic looked as if you were looking out the window. While this sort of thing boils down to what type of picture you prefer I personally was sold on the Panasonic.

Off topic, Amazon rocks too. After buying the TV their price dropped by a lot. I requested a refund for the difference and they did it no questions asked. I got the money back within 3 days! I couldn’t be happier with not only the TV, but also Amazon.