Panasonic TH42PX80 42 Inch Plasma Freeview
Panasonic TH42PX80 
Price in GBP: £409.99 Incl VAT (EU)
Review: The Panasonic TH42PX80: Top-Rating 42" Plasma TV in a Class All By Itself
If there's one plasma TV manufacturer that you could rely on to produce a television that has the body of a working class hero, the brains of a geek and the beauty of a celebrated painting, it's Panasonic. Panasonic has consistently come up with some of the world's best plasma televisions, distinctly without the frills, preferring instead to offer more weight on functionality. With the Panasonic TH-42PX80 42" plasma TV, it has achieved that all over again.
What to look forward to
The Panasonic TH42PX80 42" plasma TV is the next generation of widescreen TV following the company's PX70 series. What should excite you with the newer models is the picture quality. With a contrast ratio at an impressive 15,000:1, you can expect it to function even when the brightest white and the darkest black are displayed on-screen. This ratio is one of the highest yet among big-screen plasma TVs in the industry. What this means to you is that this flat screen TV will deliver the best possible picture quality without the need for any manual adjustments. Which leads us to…
Black levels. This area is one of the greatest concerns among video connoisseurs, the criterion on which many well-meaning plasma flat panel televisions have already failed in the past. The Panasonic TH42PX80 42" plasma TV can assure you of excellent delivery of the deepest black. It's still not the best (compared to Pioneer's Kuros series) but it's sufficient reason for you to love this new offering.
Image quality also comes courtesy of its HD 720p resolution, which increases details significantly and adds a crispness in the pictures that wasn't readily available before. As for colour, you'll be glad to know that with the Panasonic TH42PX80's perfect colour gamut, every colour, shade, hue and tint that you could ever imagine can be captured by this TV, thanks to its 16-bit C3 Image-Enhanced Video processor.
It also shows a lot of desirability in terms of motion handling – pictures appear fluid and seamless and blurring is severely minimized. Thanks to built-in double scan and noise reduction technology, overall picture image is clean and baseline digital noise is reduced significantly.
The Panasonic TH42PX80 42" plasma TV also lets you achieve most connectivity functions – it has 3 HDMI inputs, an SD card slot (for viewing slide-shows of last month's vacation) and 2 high-def component inputs. No PC inputs, however, so any games you're raring to play can only come courtesy of a video console.
Any cons?
It's still not the perfect plasma and aside from the rather competitive black level showing, it also only offers a native resolution of 1024 x 768. Although you could expect excellent sharpness and clarity from this TV, for purists, those figures do not have the makings of a true HD. It also has a few problems with posterisation, especially if the source does not deliver well. If material is film-based, the Panasonic TH-42PX80 42" plasma TV also doesn't interlace well.
Although it delivers excellent colour overall, it can sometimes display greens with bluish tinge, something that might trouble some viewers. Black levels can also sometimes fluctuate. But heave a sigh of relief, though, because it's not always that noticeable. If you wish to maintain certain settings, know that they can't be saved on their own for every input.
Overall rating
The TH42PX80 42" plasma TV is an excellent offering from Panasonic in terms of colour, picture clarity, image contrast and motion. Add to that the simulated surround sound system that comes with every unit. That assures you of enhanced audio-visual entertainment that packs a heavy punch. Plus, you get everything at just under £600, an amazing combination that is not easily topped by other manufacturers.
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Posted under Panasonic TVs
This post was written by discountlcdtv on October 19, 2008
