Panasonic VIERA X1 Series TC-P42X1 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

42" Plasma, 720p, 3 HDMI, Native contrast ratio 30,000:1, Dynamic contrast infinite black 2,000,000:1, Game Mode, Anti Reflective Filter, 600 Hz Subfield Drive

Awesome TV and Delivery Service

Review Date: April 26, 2009

Reviewer: Mehmet, Seattle, WA USA

I purchased this from Amazon.com, with the scheduled delivery from CEVA. Ordered last sunday, delivery was one week later. Having the option of sunday delivery was great, and the delivery was very professional and definitely white glove. Two people brought the TV in (carrying properly as this is a plasma), opened the box, put the TV on the stand, powered the TV on and waited for me to check whether there is any problem with the TV. They also offered to remove packaging if I wanted to get rid of it. Sometimes you cannot even get such good service when you pay $100+ for shipping. Given that shipping was free, I was thrilled. TV is awesome, right out of the box. It looks great, works great. Picture is top notch. I put in an HD-DVD version of Transformers and was amazed at the picture quality. This is my first plasma TV and I believe it is much better than LCD. I had a Samsung 4061F before, and this TV has better picture than that one, despite the Samsung being 1080P and this being 720P. There's no motion blur whatsoever on this TV. Checking on the web a little, I made the settings to be: pic mode custom, contrast +78, brightness +57, color +53, tint -9, sharpness +29, everything else off, black levels light and temp normal. These settings turned out to be perfect for the TV. Five stars for the TV, purchasing experience and the delivery service.

Much better than LCD!

Review Date: April 3, 2009

Reviewer: B. WEI, Texas

Currently, I have 4 HDTVs in my house. Sony Bravia LCD (less than 1 year old and it is a 1080P), Sony HD Cineza (1080i) in my theater room, Panasonic Plasma EDTV (about 9 years old which I pay a lot of money for it when Plasma first came out) and the newly purchased Panasonic VIERA X1 Series TC-P42X1 (720P). I can tell you that this Plasma is much better than the $1499 Sony Bravia LCD 1080P. The picture is super clear even just connect it with cable and Satellite. DVD is incredible and you do not need a Blue-Ray player becasue regular DVD is just as good as Blue-Ray on this one. I have all the technologies, cable/DirecTV, Toshiba HD-DVD player, Sony PS3 Blue-Ray, DVD recorder all connected to this set. So far this is the best $800 plasma you can buy. My old Panasonic Plasma which just was an Enhanced Definition and it is about 10 years now and the picture is still looking good. I never had any problem with Panasonic TV and it is a better brand in Japan than Sony. Go get one, you will be pleased! P.S. The sound quality on this set is also above what other brands can offer. You have to hear and see it!

I made the right choice! Love this TV!

Review Date: May 13, 2009

Reviewer: Joe Miller, CT, USA

So I wont write a book about this TV, but I'll share my experience best I can. I spent months deciding on a TV. Did I want LCD or Plasma? 50" or 40"? Panasonic, Sony, or Samsung? Etc etc. I even went to a couple stores and looked at them, that only helped to further confuse the situation. So after lots of reading online and researching specifics like 720p vs 1080p and LCD vs Plasma, I decided to go with this one. Between the customer reviews, the specs, and the price....I couldn't find anything better. The color is absolutely perfect! The 42" screen is exactly the right size for my room (couch is about 8-10ft away and its mounted above the fireplace). I mainly watch movies or play xbox 360, and I really had a hard time finding reviews on TV's from people with 360's. I just want to clarify that all my games look awesome! COD4, COD5, Assassin's creed, Fallout 3, all of them look incredible. The only issue is that some times it judders the picture. Not often, and not enough for me to worry, but it does happen once and awhile. I hooked this TV up to a Onkyo 7.1 surround sound system, and mounted it on the wall with a mount from monoprice ($50 mount that swivels, tilts, and moves away from the wall). Everyone that has come over and seen it loves it. I finally have the perfect setup for myself! And ordering from Amazon was a pleasure as always. The box did come with a big rip in it, but I wrote the info down on the delivery guys paper and took a chance. TV has zero problems and is packed well from the factory to take abuse. Ease of install - 10 Aesthetics - 10 Picture quality - 10 Price - 10

Can't beat this value/price point for a 42

Review Date: June 9, 2009

Reviewer: John, Newton, MA USA

I already have a Sharp Aquos 46" and a Panasonic 42" Plasma--both 2 years old--and I love them both. I bought the Panasonic Viera 42" X1 about two weeks ago for $[...], and you can now get it for $[...] at a couple of places (like one of the other reviewers, I was able to use the [...]). The new X1 is definitely better than either of the other TVs I own in terms of black levels, lack of blurring, and power consumption. Connectivity is excellent, with 3 HDMI inputs. The SD card slots are nice, too, although I consider the SD card stuff to be a fringe benefit and not a core reason to buy this set. I had read a couple of expert reviews stating that it's not possible to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on sets less than 46", and my own experience bears this out. Since I look at high resolution images for a living, I am probably as picky as you can get about image quality and resolution. For me, the Panasonic X1 is definitely the best 720p unit out there, and you don't need to waste money on a 1080p unit that is only 42" or less. I spent many weeks comparing picture quality side-by side on Panasonic, Samsung, Vizio, Sharp, and Toshiba, among others, at several different stores and in every case the Panasonic was clearly superior. The picture quality right out of the box is excellent, but I used the settings described elsewhere in these reviews and in on-line columns and the picture is even better. It took less than 5 minutes to do this because the Panasonic menu is clear and intuitive to follow. Picture quality on non-HD channels is also excellent. Sound quality is noticeably better than on any of the other brands in the same price range, though if you're going to connect it to a surround-sound system this feature won't make a difference to you. The hum mentioned in a previous review is clearly a one-off thing, and probably due to non-TV electrical interference issues in the reviewer's apartment. I love the richness of colors on an LCD set, but when you are watching fast-action stuff like sports, the 600Hz X1 is far less blurry than any LCD TV within $[..]of this set--just look at a baseball or hockey game and try watching the ball or puck on an LCD (even the new 240Hz ones) vs. the Panasonic X1 plasma and you'll see what I mean. Glare, even in daylight in a room with lots of windows, is minimal although I would give the edge to my Sharp Aquos LCD in this regard. If there is a drawback to the Panasonic X1 it is the lack of PC connectivity, but with a cable and adaptor available from most good electronics stores (like You-Do-It Electronics in my area) you can overcome this issue as well. Another potential drawback is that the response time is rated at 8ms, which some gamers would find slower than ideal, but since I don't use the TV for games I could care less. Again, to find a set with a 4ms response time requires spending a lot more $$. I agree with other reviews that the remote is relatively basic and could use a backlight, but this is par for the course in TVs in this price range, and I found the response time of the remote was excellent (ie, pressing a button resulted in an immediate effect with no lag). Since like most people I use my cable remote to handle everything, the TV remote just sits near the set unused once I set the TV up and adjusted the picture settings. For me, this is by far the best value in a 42" HDTV.

I's a poppin

Review Date: June 25, 2009

Reviewer: Guy J. Sherr, Washington, DC

I did a pretty large amount of research into HDTV before I chose this unit. I have been in the IT business for about 30 years now, and I have seen everything from CRT to LCD for small/medium/large/incomprehensible stuff. One thing about LCD screens is that no matter how one tunes the output, many of them produce obvious ghost lines (look carefully -- the straight lines usually stand out, and ghostly seam is about 3 millimeters to the right of the picture). I decided to go with plasma because they are brilliant emitters, and because the picture itself never has the ghostly seams. The VIERA I got does things that are amazing. Black on this unit is black -- any blacker and there would be a singularity involved. I waited until 6/24 to activate HD programming, and made a quick comparison of Spongebob Squarepants. In standard definition, the picture has artifacts in it, but you have to work to find them because of the 600hz subfield processing of the picture. Anyway, in high definition, the picture has no artifacts at all, every line in the cartoon looks like it was drawn right there on your screen! I really could go on and on. Color is no more brilliant, but the overall quality of the picture is much, much higher than on older sets. With this unit, watching HD is like watching Kodachrome move. You really have to see it. Sound is not bad. Only 720p native; but it does an accurate job of down-converting 1080p. Even so, this thing is like a geyser of cool mountain water in the Sahara. Despite its bulk, it can be single-handedly mounted on a VESA mount. Use as many extenders as possible -- otherwise the cord yard is unmanageable without taking the unit off the wall. Also, with the picture on full brightness, the screen is only as warm as a handshake (back in the 80's, touch sensitive plasma terminals usually got uncomfortably hot to the touch). Picture has excellent visibility from about 12 feet at nearly any angle. A trio of 100W equivalent compact about 4 feet away interferes with the picture, however, the anti-glare coating works. The bulbs reflect as bulbs on the screen, but only about an eighth of the screen is overwhelmed by their light, and the rest of the screen is not reflecting back much, if any at all.