Panasonic G20 v Philips 7605 series

tazzzZ

Basically I have been looking into both of these. Can get a 42" G20 or a 37" 7506 for roughly 1000 euro. was just curious if any1 knows anythin bout the 7506. I read excelent reviews for the G20 but would like some info on the 7506 befor i commit to buying.

Thanks in advance

Freddie59

tazzzZ wrote: »

Basically I have been looking into both of these. Can get a 42" G20 or a 37" 7506 for roughly 1000 euro. was just curious if any1 knows anythin bout the 7506. I read excelent reviews for the G20 but would like some info on the 7506 befor i commit to buying.

Thanks in advance

No contest. Get the Panasonic.

Richersounds.ie: John

tazzzZ wrote: »

Basically I have been looking into both of these. Can get a 42" G20 or a 37" 7506 for roughly 1000 euro. was just curious if any1 knows anythin bout the 7506. I read excelent reviews for the G20 but would like some info on the 7506 befor i commit to buying.

Thanks in advance

TazzzZ,

Declared interest here - I sell TV & Hi-fi.

Two completely different beasts here with different featuresets as well.

The G20 is of course Plasma and I Looovveee Plasma and of course it also has Freesat HD on board which makes it a bit special. What Hi-fi reviewed it last month and gave it a 4 out of 5 star rating here.

On the other hand the new 40PFL7605h is really new gen LED and it has moved LED technology to a new level - as yet I have not seen any reviews of it however I have seen it working in the flesh and I can confirm that it is exceptional - on the other hand it is significantly more expensive (approx 20%) than the Pana at approx €1299 against approx €1029 for the Panasonic.

The Philips probably looks a bit better and it certaintly has more toys with the NETTV giving you complete web access - in performance terms Philips are comparing this years 7 series against last years '96' series.

A significant factor is that the Pana is a UK model - if you need a VHF analogue tuner - it just won't work for you and also Pana will not confirm to us that the MPEG4 will meet Irish DTT standards (even tho' it works 110% at the moment)

In looks terms decide yourself (sorry if the pics are different sizes - I don't know how to resize them here:





To sum up - they are both great TV and I will not steer you one way or the other - have a look at both!

ATB,

John Mc

How Soon Is Now

I have the g20 about 3 weeks or so now and extremely happy with it great tv amazing hd picture and sd is great also :-)

To be honest i dont have alot of experience with Philips tvs *I have a Philips cinema system which is amazing by way *

But to be honest i taught long and hard about buying a Philips tv at the start of the year and decided not to and to go with Panasonic.

Reason being and comparing both brands of tvs is that i found the Philips picture on some of there models to be very extreme as in over the top almost type color at times.

Yes this is not always a bad thing but it didnt always look real to me and i dunno if i could get used to that.

Also i find Philips tv s to be much more pricey i mean a g20 with 4 years cover for 1029 u cant lose there like.

And by way your bound to of heard all the moaning about certain issues with the g20 and other panny plasmas.

The only issue i have had so far is the slight flicker. The first day or so did slightly worry me but you get used to it its not a problem at all unless you have extreme sensitive eyes ha.

Also i find when watchin shows on my pc that i download and so on in thx or similar mode of picture there can be slight blur in picture at times if its a fast picture. But this can be sorted by switching to Game mode which yes brightens things up a bit but u lose no picture quality at all for normal viewing.

Overall me personally id go with Panasonic but really if i was you i would try and see both tv s in action before you buy and get some honest down to earth views on the tvs the guys in the shop or on a over the top techy website might have a more extreme taste then yourself. Things they find important and not important could be the total reverse for you.

cnocbui

The Panasonic, every time. I have an earlier 50" model with the HD sat tuner and it is simply brilliant.

Previous set was a Philips and will be the last Philips product I buy.

davenewt

Hey guys, I've just started looking at TVs as we're doing up our sitting room and the better half basically gave me permission to look at replacing our Philips 32" CRT... which I've had for about 10 years now. I ask you - what more incentive does a man need to go looking at 42" plasma screens?!

So I've read a bit about plasma vs LCD, and came across the Panasonic G20 series. Sounds great, but I have a question about the Freeview HD tuner ... will this work in Ireland once Freeview HD is being broadcast, or is it a UK-only thing? I know a little (very little) about DTT in Ireland being a different system to that used in the UK, so I'm wondering whether this should sway my decision?

Currently have Sky+ and not going for SkyHD at the moment. If we got this Panasonic set, would I be able to use freesat/freeview and receive HD broadcasts e.g. BBCHD?

Would I need a separate box (hope not) or aerial pointed towards Wales...?! (I'm in Dublin).

Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable advice

cnocbui

Yes, you would be able to use Freesat and view the HD channels.

DTT is a bit more tricky. The Panny's will scan and store the Irish DTT stations at the moment - I think - but there have been times during the DTT testing when they wouldn't store the stations because of a service type flag being set to something the Panny's firmware decided wasn't valid. They can decode the transmissions perfectly, the only issue is with scanning and storing the stations as there is no manual override.

There is always a possibility that the final launch of DTT will have the nasty flag type and the Panny's won't be able to store the stations.

I don't think the Irish DTT transmissions are going to be HD anytime in the near future, but since the G20 has an Mpeg4 decoder, I would imagine it could decode them if they are introduced.

To receive stuff from Wales, you would need a decent terrestrial antennae and it might need to be on top of quite a high mast. I don't think you need to bother, though, since that would be duplicating what you could get from Freesat.

You should check out this forum as it is contains the low down on all these technical details: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=56

davenewt

cnocbui wrote: »

Yes, you would be able to use Freesat and view the HD channels.

Would I therefore need any additional equipment? The fact you say freeSAT makes me think I may need an extra dish/cable into the TV, separate from the Sky dish/box...?

I'm not a technophobe, honest, but all this stuff is new to me at the mo

Thanks for the link to the other forum... will investigate...

cnocbui

Freesat : http://freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=whatson.Main

Basically nearly all the UK channels including a BBC HD and ITV1 HD.

It's free, you don't need to pay any subscription to view. The G20 has a satellite receiver built into it, you do not need any additional equipment other than a satellite dish, an LNB and a cable from the LNB to the TV. The receiver in the G20 basically does what the Sky box does, but without the decryption capabilities needed to decode Sky channels. If you want to stick with Sky, there is not much point in getting a G20, you would be better off with a cheaper set that does not include the Sat receiver.

You could use your existing Sky dish and the cabling from it and just plug the coax that goes into the back of the Sky box, straight into the G20, scan for channels and you should be up and running. You wouldn't even need to reposition the dish.

tazzzZ

hmm is it possible to duplicate the coax to the freesat and use it and sky off the same box? multi room viewing type thing?

cnocbui

Yes, by replacing the LNB with a twin LNB and using two runs of coax.

tazzzZ

ok well i am a noob to this stuff. coax and stuff isnt a problem. but wats an LNB and where is it located?

cnocbui

Think of a dish as just a curved mirror and NOT an antennae. The LNB is the antennae, it is the device on the end of the arm in front of the dish that the coax connects to. if you take a look at the LNB on your sky dish, it is posiible you might already have a twin LNB - which you can tell by it having a second connector for attaching a coax to - like this: