Panasonic TH-42PY70 - Is the warranty worth it?

MartyM

Hi All

From reading the posts here I have decided to go with Panasonic for my 42" plasma.

Harvey Norman only has the TH-42PY70 and TH-42PV7 in stock, luckily the TH-42PY70 is one of the TVs I was considering!

They currently have a sale on this weekend and here's what I was offered, just wondering if you guys feel that paying the extra for the 4 year warranty is worth it?

The 2 sale options for the TH-42PY70 are:

1. No extended warranty
TV = 1329 Euro (Sale price)
Wall bracket = 149 Euro

Total = 1478 Euro

2. 4 year extended warranty
TV = 1179 Euro (Sale price minus 150 Euro)
Wall bracket = 149 Euro
4 year warranty = 399 Euro

Total = 1727 Euro

Any advise is really appreciated!

I didnt verify, but I guess the total warranty would be 5 years if the 1 year manufacturer warranty is added in...

Thanks!

ongarite

I avoid retailers warranty's a lot costs. Huge money making machine for shops.
Panasonic TV are very reliable, if there were to be an issue with TV, it usually appears within first yr IMO.

That said I got free 5 yr warranty from Panasonic when they were selling them with the PY70 last year.

johnnyflav

Just so you know the 42PY80, with 1080p/24 will be coming out in a month or two. The PY70 is at the end of it's line, saying that, you have a got a good price for a very good TV.

MartyM

I guess I'll skip the 4 year warranty and save a few pennies!!!

Is the TH-42PY80 on sale already?????

http://mitchelltv.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=41

mathias

As already posted , if anything is going to go wrong it usually does within the first year , in which case your covered anyway ,

Paying 33% of the original price for an extended warranty is lunacy , a total rip off in my opinion , I wouldnt pay it.

Keep in mind the depreciation on electronics , the TV you pay 1200 euro for will be worth half that in a year , even the new price may be half within a year , and with a warranty you will only get a repair or replacement , not the latest model , so paying that for a warranty is the equivalent of paying twice for the TV.

Within 4 years , you will probably be able to buy an equivalent model for less that the cost of the warranty , it just doesnt add up , no matter what way you look at it.
The Standard warranty should be fine.

MartyM

mathias wrote: »

As already posted , if anything is going to go wrong it usually does within the first year , in which case your covered anyway ,

Paying 33% of the original price for an extended warranty is lunacy , a total rip off in my opinion , I wouldnt pay it.

Keep in mind the depreciation on electronics , the TV you pay 1200 euro for will be worth half that in a year , even the new price may be half within a year , and with a warranty you will only get a repair or replacement , not the latest model , so paying that for a warranty is the equivalent of paying twice for the TV.

Within 4 years , you will probably be able to buy an equivalent model for less that the cost of the warranty , it just doesnt add up , no matter what way you look at it.
The Standard warranty should be fine.

Thanks Mathias!

When you put it like that, it makes perfect sense to avoid the warranty!

Oshbosh

I kind of agree about the warranty not being worth it, however i did buy one before on a hifi and ended up getting it fixed twice in 5 years, for free, so it was worth in that case.

I actually bought this very TV in Harvey Norman about a month ago and did go for the warranty, i found that i needed a new upscaling DVD player and a HDMI cable (120 euro Jaysus!) so by the time i added that in and did a bit of haggling, he was able to discount the warranty or maybe he discounted the tv or other, not really sure how it broke down but here's what i got

TV : 1300
DVD Player : 99
Monster Cable : 120

Total : 1519

The warranty was 250 euro on its own, i got everything for 1500 so was pretty pleased. Also got a free Panasonic camera !

Harvey Norman Blanchardstown, ask for a guy called John, knew his stuff, no pressure and did me a great deal.

mathias

HDMI cable (120 euro Jaysus!)

No offense mate , but you were stung royally there , Harvey normans is sounding like a place I would not shop in , looks like a right rip off merchants. Any HDMI will do , you can get them in argos for less than a tenner , and they do exactly the same job.

If anyone wants a Panasonic and are around the Dublin area , try Alliance electric on Georges st , they are honest and wont pull stunts like this.

big_moe

what ever about expensive cable aside... 120 quid on a cable for a 99 quid dvd player.... that doesnt make sense to me..

QED is cheaper than that and would be far better than monster

MartyM

mathias wrote: »

No offense mate , but you were stung royally there , Harvey normans is sounding like a place I would not shop in , looks like a right rip off merchants. Any HDMI will do , you can get them in argos for less than a tenner , and they do exactly the same job.

If anyone wants a Panasonic and are around the Dublin area , try Alliance electric on Georges st , they are honest and wont pull stunts like this.

Hi Mathias, would you not consider the current sale price (1329 Euro) in Harvey Norman for the TH-42PY70 a very good deal? It seems to be the cheapest around for that model???

Regarding HDMI, I had the same problem with Harvey Norman. The guy led me straight over to the monster cable. I had read some posts on this and tried to tell him that the chaeper ones did the job just as good, but he insisted that he had carried out tests himself!

He also pointed to the packaging which stated 780p and a certain bandwidth. He said that particular cable would not give you 1080p even if it was connected to a Blu Ray DVD and a 1080p TV.

At that point, I was armed with too little knowledge and had to back down!....He was also getting very irritated with me!

mathias

but he insisted that he had carried out tests himself!

He also pointed to the packaging which stated 780p and a certain bandwidth. He said that particular cable would not give you 1080p even if it was connected to a Blu Ray DVD and a 1080p TV.

At that point, I was armed with too little knowledge and had to back down!....He was also getting very irritated with me!

Personally , if I got spun the line of BS above I would not give the place the sale on principal. That kind of deceit and lies is just too much , you could forgive a shop assistant who is operating on what hes been told , but to spin that rubbish about having run test himself makes him a liar , and I wouldnt give them the business.

Their price is good ,most other places have it for around the 1500 mark , but its probably based on making a sale of an outrageously priced cable and extended warranty into the bargain and you have to ask yourself what else hes lying about. I would make sure that you get the exact model you specified and not some bait and switch lesser model , they have already demonstrated their dishonesty, so be careful.

This sort of thing should not be encouraged.

If you do buy there , buy the TV and nothing else , get your cable in Argos or maplins , 25 euro tops ! And dont let anyone tell you any of that guff about different bandwidth HDMI cables , its all rubbish.

( Xtravision tried to pull it on me the other day , they said " do you want a HDMI cable , or a PS3 HDMI cable ?" )

MartyM

mathias wrote: »

Personally , if I got spun the line of BS above I would not give the place the sale on principal. That kind of deceit and lies is just too much , you could forgive a shop assistant who is operating on what hes been told , but to spin that rubbish about having run test himself makes him a liar , and I wouldnt give them the business.

The price is good , but is probably based on making a sale of an outrageously priced cable and extended warranty into the bargain and you have to ask yourself what else hes lying about.

This sort of thing should not be encouraged.

Yeah, its a tough call for those of us who dont really know the reality of these things!

The TV itself is 1329 Euro without any extended warranty. I had just asked about it because I had seen people getting 5 yr warrantys, etc. So with the extended warranty, they were willing to knock 150 of the sale price of 1329.

Another thing he did mention when I said I had ordered Sky+, was that I should consider getting the Sky HD box (without HD subscription) instead because I would get a better picture and less cabling (HDMI only).

Obviously the cabling will be less which is good for me because I will be running it behind a wall to mount it over the fireplace, but will the picture be much better?

They dont sell Sky HD boxes, so I guess he had nothing to gain by saying that...except maybe the purchase of another HDMI cable??

The other thing is that I'm pre-cabled to a communal sat dish, so if they have used poor cabling to the entry point of my apartment, whats the point in having the HDMI from the Sky HD box to my TV. The reception will only be as good as the weakest link...

big_moe

less cablng??

for sky+ its a single scart and for sky hd, its a single HDMI....

i wouldnt see how the picture would be better.. from what i've seen, the standard stuff being output from a HD box hasnt been any better or worse than a regular sky box.

adam

MartyM

big_moe wrote: »

less cablng??

for sky+ its a single scart and for sky hd, its a single HDMI....

i wouldnt see how the picture would be better.. from what i've seen, the standard stuff being output from a HD box hasnt been any better or worse than a regular sky box.

adam

Thanks Adam!.....will stick with the Sky+ box for 149 Euro!!!!

Just want to make sure I'm getting the most out of the TV...when you pay that much, no point skrimping on other areas!!!

Jaysus, I've never put as much thought into buying a TV....ignorance is bliss!!

mathias

With the extended warranty you'd be paying more than anywhere else for next to no benefit , as said , if it doesnt die in the first year it probably wont.

If your on a communal sat dish , do you have any say in what sub you get ? For instance can you order sky HD , you only get HD with a sky HD sub.
They wont activate a Sky HD box without a Sky HD sub. Yet more inaccurate nonsense from the man. You may be able to get a HD box off ebay , but you will have a hard job trying to get sky to activate your card on that box without a HD sub.

HDMI from the sky HD box for SD is slightly better than scart , but not by a helluva lot. Plasmas are good at SD anyway so the difference would be more noticable on an LCD rather than a Plasma , obviously Scart does not do HD , so its clearly better in that respect.

In terms of the feed from a dish , in nearly all cases that would be CT100 cable , and it hardly ever varies , the quality should be fine.

MartyM

mathias wrote: »

With the extended warranty you'd be paying more than anywhere else for next to no benefit , as said , if it doesnt die in the first year it probably wont.

If your on a communal sat dish , do you have any say in what sub you get ? For instance can you order sky HD , you only get HD with a sky HD sub.
They wont activate a Sky HD box without a Sky HD sub. Yet more inaccurate nonsense from the man. You may be able to get a HD box off ebay , but you will have a hard job trying to get sky to activate your card on that box without a HD sub.

HDMI from the sky HD box for SD is slightly better than scart , but not by a helluva lot. Plasmas are good at SD anyway so the difference would be more noticable on an LCD rather than a Plasma , obviously Scart does not do HD , so its clearly better in that respect.

In terms of the feed from a dish , in nearly all cases that would be CT100 cable , and it hardly ever varies , the quality should be fine.

Thanks to the responses here, I had already decided to skip the warranty and just purchase the TV for 1329.....hopefully will do that tonight or tomorrow!

Yeah, we can order what Sky package we like, standard, Sky+ or Sky HD and then choose your channels, etc. I didnt realise I needed to subscribe to HD to receive the HD box....I was just about to contact our communal dish provider to ask!

Now I'm happy to stay with the Sky+ box and wait until there is more HD content out there...

MartyM

Hi Guys

I might avoid the Harvey Norman wall-mount and put more thought into this after reading a few threads.

The TH-42PY70 appears to weigh 42KG and the wall in my new apartment is flakey (like all new builds), it has that hollow card-board feel when you knock on it!!

The Harvey Norman wall-mount can handle 59KG (no swivel arm) and costs 150 Euro.

Based on the above points does it sound ok, or can someone recommend a suitable wall-mount?

I dont think a swivel arm is necessary and also I do not want to tempt fate and put the wall under undue stress!
But if there's a good one out there I would consider it, just to give the viewing angle extra flexibility...

We have a predicament in our living room, the one corner you would put a TV in has a radiator there. We tried to have it moved during the snag, but no joy.
The only alternative is over the fireplace (gas fire), which has been pre-cabled for a TV.

The height from floor to mantle piece is 3'8" and couch to fireplace approx. 9' - 10'.

Does it sound too high for pleasent viewing?

I've also heard of Panasonic cabinets, would they allow the TV to be positioned in the corner beside the rad?

Thanks!

MartyM

mathias wrote: »

Their price is good ,most other places have it for around the 1500 mark , but its probably based on making a sale of an outrageously priced cable and extended warranty into the bargain and you have to ask yourself what else hes lying about. I would make sure that you get the exact model you specified and not some bait and switch lesser model , they have already demonstrated their dishonesty, so be careful.

Just see that you edited the post, now I'm concerned!

Is the TH-42PY70 stamped on the set so you could be sure what you receive?
All I seen was a sticker stating thats what it was...

What would differentiate it from the TH-42PV70 for example on a visible examination?

mathias

Just check the back information panel ,the one with the serial number , both before you buy and after you buy , if they match you should be OK.

MartyM

mathias wrote: »

Just check the back information panel ,the one with the serial number , both before you buy and after you buy , if they match you should be OK.

Yeah, I'm just being paranoid!!

I doubt I'll get to see the serial num before I purchase because they wont be selling me the TV on display, but they will wheel out the TV in the box which should state TH-42PY70.....

Any suggestions on wall-mounts? (see post above, same thread). Yourself and Big Moe seem to be the main men on this forum, so any advice appreciated!

I guess you guys would never mount above a fireplace, but you can see my dilemma...

Cheers!

big_moe

for the apartments, you need to have supports put in the wall. some of the new apartments i've seen is just that hollow cardboard stuff.... get somebody to reinforce the wall with batons and then you'll be fine. one the bracket is properly mounted, the weight is spread so you should be fine even with an articulated arm bracket

on visible inspection, the box will have a sticker on both ends saying TH-42PY70EY. on the set itself, the speakers are on the side of a PY70, and so are the side connections. the PV70 has speakers underneath and has no front/side inputs.

MartyM

Thanks for your help guys!.....much appreciated!