About to pull the trigger on a Panny P42ST50

quad_red

Any advice?

Any words of encouragement or warning?

I still have concerns over the potential maintenance of the plasma (break in, screen burn etc.) and issues with seeing it if the room isn't totally bright.

Myself and my wife work so the tv would only be on for an hour or two at night. We don't watch allot of tv, it's for movies/boxsets.

So the break in time of 200 hours... well, that's potentially a long bloody time!

But for the budget 800/1000 I was unable to find an equivalent LCD/LED to view around Dublin.

Anyone have any advice on that?

Cheers,
quad

Snake Plisken

I have only bought and used panasonic plasma's have 2 now 1 50" and an older 42", great TV's well built, I've had no issue with screen burn or image retention, usually when you get it the picture mode might be set to dynamic so set it to cinema which has a lower contrast during the 200 hours run in, avoid leaving the tv on channels with on bright on screen logo's or something like Sky news with the text bar running along the bottom. Also if you video game avoid playing them for hours on end without changing the channels every so often. Also don't leave teletext on for hours, if you do notice any temp image retention, just tune out a channel to snow and switch to dynamic for a couple of minutes it will clear the retention. Good brand and well built TV go for it!

quad_red

Snake Plisken wrote: »

I have only bought and used panasonic plasma's have 2 now 1 50" and an older 42", great TV's well built, I've had no issue with screen burn or image retention, usually when you get it the picture mode might be set to dynamic so set it to cinema which has a lower contrast during the 200 hours run in, avoid leaving the tv on channels with on bright on screen logo's or something like Sky news with the text bar running along the bottom. Also if you video game avoid playing them for hours on end without changing the channels every so often. Also don't leave teletext on for hours, if you do notice any temp image retention, just tune out a channel to snow and switch to dynamic for a couple of minutes it will clear the retention. Good brand and well built TV go for it!

Well, tried to buy a tv last night.

Went to Blanch and neither Currys, Harvey Norman nor DID had any mid range Panasonic Plasmas in stock.

All they had was the crappy low end stuff or the super high end stuff.

Only Harvey Norman even had the new mid range models on display.

I would have gladly bought last years model but they only had display ones left. They had feck all discount on them and all were suffering from varying degrees of screen burn (a 50 inch ST30 in Currys was absolutely destroyed. On a light screen the burn was appalling. I really hope they don't shovel that out the door with an unsuspecting customer who has only seen it show the dark show reel).

M00lers

I'd avoid last years models myself, the 2012 Panasonics seems to be the best range of TVs from Panasonic in years. The GT50 range is what I would aim for if I were you.

quad_red

moolers2000 wrote: »

I'd avoid last years models myself, the 2012 Panasonics seems to be the best range of TVs from Panasonic in years. The GT50 range is what I would aim for if I were you.

Definitely can't afford that

I'm pushing myself to go past 1k.

I suppose I should just get the 42ST50.... but I'm afraid I'll regret not going for the 50".

Snake Plisken

hang tight for a 50", I would also make sure it has at least 3 HDMI inputs, most budget sets seem to only have 2 which is silly seeing the amount of devices that use HDMI, also need to make sure that the panasonic 5 year warrenty is available, not sure it is with if u buy from PC-World or Currys.

quad_red

Snake Plisken wrote: »

hang tight for a 50", I would also make sure it has at least 3 HDMI inputs, most budget sets seem to only have 2 which is silly seeing the amount of devices that use HDMI, also need to make sure that the panasonic 5 year warrenty is available, not sure it is with if u buy from PC-World or Currys.

I pulled the trigger on a 50" ST50.

Hoochy momma :eek: Epic. Love the size but man, the colours, the blacks. Just epic.

Was up in my wife's on Saturday and passed Watters (in Armagh). They had the 50ST50 in stock at a savage price (€1,200). So I bought it.

Didn't really think about an extended warranty (too stupidly excited). They're official Panasonic dealers.

Do I just ask or do I fill something in online?

M00lers

quad_red wrote: »

I pulled the trigger on a 50" ST50.

Hoochy momma :eek: Epic. Love the size but man, the colours, the blacks. Just epic.

Was up in my wife's on Saturday and passed Watters (in Armagh). They had the 50ST50 in stock at a savage price (€1,200). So I bought it.

Didn't really think about an extended warranty (too stupidly excited). They're official Panasonic dealers.

Do I just ask or do I fill something in online?

Well done on getting the 50", the 42" would've been too small I reckon. Great price too.

What picture preset are you using currently? i.e Normal, Dynamic, THX Cinema etc

quad_red

moolers2000 wrote: »

Well done on getting the 50", the 42" would've been too small I reckon. Great price too.

What picture preset are you using currently? i.e Normal, Dynamic, THX Cinema etc

Set it to cinema to begin with. Read on avforum about 'breaking' it in. So have been careful to set it to cinema, keep brightness and contrast down, careful not to leave still images up and make sure channel logos etc are hidden using zoom.

Any advice?

M00lers

quad_red wrote: »

Set it to cinema to begin with. Read on avforum about 'breaking' it in. So have been careful to set it to cinema, keep brightness and contrast down, careful not to leave still images up and make sure channel logos etc are hidden using zoom.

Any advice?

I suppose it's no harm to go easy for a few hundred hours but I wouldn't worry too much about it, just use it normally and enjoy it.

I believe THX Cinema is the most accurate preset so use that and turn off any extra picture processing as these usually make the picture worse.