Panasonic - VIERA 42" Class / Plasma / 1080p / 600Hz / HDTV

I was in the market for a decently sized TV that could keep up with fast motion gaming and sports in full HD and I wanted excellent picture quality and good color reproduction. My market was limited to 1080p resolution, LED or Plasma panels, and 120Hz or better refresh rate. After much, and let me reiterate, MUCH, deliberation and travelling to many different stores and scouring the internet, I found this gem. This TV has everything I wanted and more. The native 600Hz refresh rate of the plasma panel is more than enough for any kind of gaming or sports. The blacks are pitch black and the whites are clear and pure, and all colors in between are vivid, bright, and accurate. The full HD 1080p picture is indeed full HD and is as clear as it could ever be and looks stunning on all 42 inches of the screen. Be sure to play around with the settings and calibrate the picture how you want it. I personally like the "Vivid" video setting for all my inputs, which reminds me, you can set individual video settings for each input. Nifty! Pros: - EXCELLENT picture quality. - Internet TV capabilities work well (Pandora, Netflix, etc.) - Intuitive and easy to use interface. - Build quality is excellent. Stand/base is very sturdy. - Three HDMI, two USB, one SD card, one coax, one composite and one component video inputs, plus optical audio! (And the ability to label each individual input in the TV software) - Incredible viewing angles. Can stand above the TV and look straight down, no picture washing or color variance. - DLNA capabilities. Cons: - Menu interfaces are somewhat slow to respond (1-2 second delay from press of button initially, smooth afterwards) - Wireless adapter required for Wi-Fi internet connection (no built in radio, not a deal breaker by any means) Other points: - Remote could be a little less bland, but the print is clear, bold, and large and it serves all of its functions very well. Highly recommended buy. Great feature set, BEAUTIFUL picture, audio is decent (but if you're getting a TV like this, you deserve to have a decent home theater setup), and performance is flawless all at a great price point.

The picture quality of this TV is excellent. It rivals much more expensive sets and the depth of the picture is unbelievable. It is so good, I would state it is as close as you can get to owning a true 3-D set, without actually paying the high cost of buying one. However, I would recommend using either the Game, Vivid or Custom viewing mode. Standard and Cinema mode are a bit dark for my taste. I do have this set connected to my computer, which uses a EVGA GeForce 8800 video card. In setting the TV screen to FULL mode - this set does an excellent job of displaying movies and TV shows from Windows Media Center, Netflix, Hulu, etc. in 1920 * 1080 resolution. I also enjoy the Panasonic Viera features. Its nice to place a DVD into my DVD player and have the TV automatically turn itself on. Or, vice versa, I can turn off the TV and it will turn off the DVD player. The only issues I have with the TV are minor ones: 1) The glass screen reflects light just as bad as analog TV's used to. Resolution: Either dim the lights in front of the set and/or partially close your blinds. 2) The sound quality isn't bad, but could be better. If you want high quality sound then connect the set to a sound system. 3) This third item pertains ONLY to customers who have the TV directly connected a Time-Warner Cable connection - no setup box. If you connect your TV this way - around the channel where NEWS14 is being broadcast - the TV will automatically active scrambled channels around it - even though you manually disable them. Panasonic support has been notified of the problem and currently is unable to provide a solution. This is more of a nuisance than a problem and setting up and using the TV's FAVORITES option provides a work around. Overall, after using this set for a full month - it appears to be a great TV and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

My wife and I settled on this rather quickly upon seeing it in the store after about a year (yes, a year) of toiling research on LCD vs Plasma vs LED, etc. The composite connections are handy for connecting our kids video games and the home movie camera. The SD card reader makes sharing family photos a breeze. The 3 HDMI inputs allow for expansion in the future. Standard def TV looks really good, while watching DVD's with the HDMI cable through our Xbox is simply stunning. Audio is pretty good for a standard TV actually, and that was important as we live in the flight path of a major airport! =P We're super pleased with our investment and recommend this to people wanted to invest, but that are scared of plasma. GO PLASMA, it's less expensive and has amazing picture quality!

I was set on buying a Sony or Samsung LCD for the longest time until I learned about plasmas. They're superior, there is no question. In the store, this Panasonic looks like nothing great, especially when it's right above a Samsung LCD. But then you look at them from an angle and the Panasonic blows it away. The settings that come on the TV suck, so it needs to be tuned. I got the blacks almost as black as the bezel, and it's very bright like a LCD, except my plasma has no motion blur, it's awesome! I watched a BluRay and it was the best picture I had ever seen. Leaps and bounds better than LCDs. It was also cheaper than the LCDs!! Plasma is the best, and Panasonic makes the best plasmas. The speakers kind of suck honestly, but I use a stereo. You can find different professionally calibrated settings for this TV online. The colors are amazing!

The image is superb. The only thing that blurs slightly with quick movements is a video game that isn't up to the task. I watch sports, sitcoms, low-def and hi-def broadcasts, nature shows, regular DVDs and Blu-ray DVDs. They all look great and my eyes never feel fatigued in all lighting situations. The TV offers plenty of configurations for different lighting conditions. The sound from the two 10 watt speakers comes out surprisingly well. They can simulate surround sound, which isn't quite the same as true surround, but does a good enough simulation of it. The two speakers are perfectly suited for a bedroom or medium size room built for several people. Don't expect to get superb loudness with sound quality when the volume is cranked up. That's just the fact of having only 10 watts per speaker. There's enough bass output to add noticeable depth to the sound when watching movies or playing games. Being a plasma TV it does have a glass screen cover which reflects light. It isn't very noticeable to me so it's not a big deal. I have the TV in a bedroom which has two windows that face the setting sun. If I had the TV in a "wide open" room with large window panes facing the sunlight, then sure it would be an annoyance. So it's not like you have to do the usual thing and hide this TV in your deep dark basement. All the features that come with it are plentiful. It does not have a direct connect for PCs, but that doesn't matter since computers nowadays can be connected using an HDMI cable. Bottom line is this TV makes me want to use the TV even more! It feels great to not get a headache or have tired eyeballs watching low-def images.

This is a remarkable television. The quality of the picture is outstanding. The colors are warm and with all of the different settings you can set, you can make it as real as you want. The VIERA settings and options are a bit more then I know what to do with. I bought this TV without my wives approval. After she got passed the, “I am not happy that you did this.” stage, she is very happy with my choice. We have this in our bedroom, replacing an old tube TV from the 90’s. We have it connected to an HD receiver and it is one of the best decisions I have made in a while. Some of the remote buttons are a bit close to each other that I have pressed the wrong one by accident. It is easy to use and if I knew more of what the VIERA was all about, I could really use it to its full potential. I did a ton of research on this TV, and consumer reports had it rated at 83, top 42 inch plasma that they tested. I didn't give it a 5 star on sound because I only use the internal speakers, and of course they are never Bose, so that is the only reason. I have had it for three weeks and I have ZERO regrets’ for buying it. Buying it with the 36 month 0% interest did help smooth things over with my wife. This is a great TV, if you can, buy it.

Top Quality Plasma Panasonic plasma's look stunning on the shelves compared to other brands. My LCD 120 Hz still looks better because the refresh rate is 120hz. The 600Hz is not a 600Hz refresh rate Panasonic does a 600 hz subfield drive calculation… Panasonic subdivides their plasma display panels into 10 sub-fields. Each sub-field is refreshed at a 60 Hz rate. 10 sub-fields refreshed at 60 Hz (10 x 60 = 600) produces a 600 Hz sub-field drive figure. I hope this helps people understand the 600 Hz is not the refresh rate. AT&T U-Verse HD Programming looks great on all my HD T.V.'s

My Samsung DLP finally gave out so I decided to purchase a new TV instead of replacing the lamp. I narrowed my choices to a 40" Insignia (LED) and the 42" Panasonic Viera (Plasma). I went with the Panasonic because I didn't want to sacrafice screen size and I thought the Panasonic had the better picture. The Panasonic resides in a fairly sun lit room and glare is not an issue. I also followed some simple guidelines and there hasn't been a hint of any burn-in. Overall I am very impressed with the product and really wonder why I didn't by a plasma sooner. This product will make you ask "If this is TV what was I watching before?"