Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80U 42" HDTV Plasma TV

Intro - We bought this product because my wife wanted a big screen, flat panel TV. I was happy with our older 27" tube TV. (also a Panasonic, by the way) She likes to wind down at the end of the day by watching HGTV and sitcoms that are in syndication.

Surprise Fan - I'm surprised how much I like it. Especially now that I'm home all day every day with a broken leg. ;) I watch documentaries and movies on it. Right, onto the meat of the review.

The TV is physically pretty big, but not nearly as heavy as a tube TV of the same size. (if they made them.) Vertically, the screen is about the same size as our old 29" tube TV. But since the screen is measured diagonally, the extra width makes it seem much wider.

Screen Format - TV from a tube TV is that you may not get the full benefit of it unless you're watching movies or TV programs that are formatted for widescreen. (usually, these are HD channels) If you're watching regular old TV channels you have four choices on how to view them:

1) View them in the old "square format" and have gray bars on the left and right side of the screen. That extra space is then wasted, but the aspect ratio is preserved.

2) View it full screen. If the input signal is the old square form, this will stretch it to fit the screen. My wife doesn't mind, but it drives me nuts, because everyone is made to look short and fat and disproportional.

3) View it in 'Just'. This is just like full screen, but somehow not as distorted. It's still bad though.

4) View it in 'Zoom'. This is what I prefer most of the time. This preserves the aspect ratio (proportions) and zooms in to fill the whole screen, but chops off a bit of the top & bottom of the incoming signal. Most of the time, that top & bottom few inches is not needed. When you watch DVDs or BlueRay, if the DVD is in widescreen format, nothing is lost by going to zoom, and there is just a small black bar at the top & bottom of the screen.

My advice is to not be cheap like I am, and just pay the extra $10 a month for HD from your cable company. It is worth it. The increased picture quality is immediately noticable, and everything fits the full screen in perfect proportion.

Operation - The operation of this TV is very straightforward. The buttons on the remote are marked in great contrast, in as big of a letter or symbol as will fit on the keys. The keys have a nice, crisp action to them. After a very few hours, you will instinctively know where the following keys are, due to their logical layout: Power, Ch+, Ch-, Vol+, Vol-, Format, and Mute. (I always mute the commercials)

Menus - The menus are also logical, and to someone who is decent with this kind of thing, one doesn't even need to refer to the manual to set it up properly.

Peripherals - This TV supports them all. HDMI, CoAx, RCA, and component video. I use component video for DVD input, and CoAx for cable input. Under the flip up panel in the front is an extra set of RC inputs and a USB flash drive jack for peripherals like digital cameras, camcorders, and temporary video game hook-ups. Very nice.

Picture Quality - It is just outstanding. This is the 720P version, which is enough for us. Some HD incoming signals are higher than this, but we are not paying for that service right now. 720P is high enough to take full advantage of DVD quality, but not enough to take full advantage of BlueRay, PS3, and X-Box360 inputs. Going to 1080P to get to those levels costs at least another couple hundred dollars, so we passed.

Sound Quality - The sound quality is veyr good, considering the size of the built-in speakers. It is stereo. For movies, you should really hook this up to a proper receiver with external speakers. With a good audio input source, such as HD TV, DVD, or BlueRay, the sound quality increases about 1000%. Ideal would be a receiver that supports the latest Dolby Surround. But I have a 20 year old receiver and it still sounds awesome. I turn the volume of the TV down, but not off, then turn up the stereo speakers until it is loud enough. It sounds great to me, and I'm a music appreciator. (although not an audiophile)

Reliability - Well, I can only give the TV a 9/10 here. After a few weeks, we started to get these weird, vertical, purple lines on the screen. At first, we thought it was the incoming signal from the cable company. But I double checked with a DVD input and even a VCR input. The lines were still there. This turned out to be a good opportunity for Panasonice to prove it is first-class company. They did not disappoint. We called up the number in the manual for warranty service. I was ready to have to disconnect the TV and lug it down to the car to haul it to an authorized Panasonic Service Center. When my wife called, they asked if she would rather have a serviceman visit us and fix it. YES! So they did. A team of two guys came down; a senior tech. and a trainee. The senior tech suspected it was just a loose connection. In modern electronics, in order to save space, they sometimes use a sticky rubber plug to make the connection right to pads on the circuit board. There are no pins & sleeves like there used to be. He suspected one of those connections was either loose or contaminated. So he took them all loose, cleaned them all, and the TV has been perfect ever since. I'm glad I didn't buy the extended Best Buy warranty for however many hundred dollars. That would've been a waste. I'm really happy with Panasonic's service level.

Reputation - The Panasonic brand name is one thing that swayed me toward this TV vs. others that had the same features & similar prices. I have a Panasonic "portable" color TV with a 13" screen in my attic that was built in 1975. It still works. My previous tube TV, only less than 10 years old, still works. This has been a good experience. So when we decided to buy another flat panel TV for our bedroom we also chose Panasonic based on our continued good experience. The salesman told us that the Samsung was a slightly better TV for the same money. But I like the Panasonic support & reputation, so we bought another one. Quality and customer support really do mean something.