So yeah! I steadfastly talked myself out of a 1995 BMW M3 as my new toy.....right into a far too big for the 7 feet I sit away 50" Panasonic Plasma.

Hours. Upon hours of reading reviews.

I have come to conclude the Panny 800U is going to be my best bet for the money. Best Buy will be getting my business, especially with their new Black Tie extended service (blatantly covers burn in wheeeeeeeee). Sunday at 4pm I start a solid 6 days off, to which I have impressive goals in which to get as much play with WoW/Spore/Sins/Whatever during my wonderful 6 days off (first vaca in 3 years). Yes, I do have a female in my life and she is allowing it, anything to stop me from talking about work in my sleep and keeping her awake.

Problems of course arise.

My Best Buy has 2x total of the 800U.

One open box with 400 hours, this was shown on the service menu, no flaws I could obviously see, I'll take tips to look for problems, I tried the rolling white bar and didn't see any retention, the screen did look greyish, however there is horrid lighting (flourecent (sp sorry)) a foot above the TV. The TV was not ISF calibrated nor sitting on the THX setting.

The second they have in stock is a straight out wall display. Didn't check, but a few thousand hours at the ABSOLUTE least. This TV however was ISF calibrated.

Both will have full factory warrenty.

Both will end up with a 4 year plan on them.

It does slightly concern me that the sku for the 800u is now showing Deleted in their system (aka no longer going to be carried, but no signs of that on the website).

Thoughts? I will be getting all your loving replies to my noobly questions hopefully via my blackberry today.

BTW, sources, Time Warner Cable over component, moderate gaming PC DVI->HDMI, and a fair progressive Toshiba dvd player, a Wii as well. I'm waiting to see if there are more price drops on the consoles before jumping over to one of them (always been a PC gamer).......Cables will most likely be from bluejeancables.

So yeah! I steadfastly talked myself out of a 1995 BMW M3 as my new toy.....right into a far too big for the 7 feet I sit away 50" Panasonic Plasma.

Hours. Upon hours of reading reviews.

I have come to conclude the Panny 800U is going to be my best bet for the money. Best Buy will be getting my business, especially with their new Black Tie extended service (blatantly covers burn in wheeeeeeeee). Sunday at 4pm I start a solid 6 days off, to which I have impressive goals in which to get as much play with WoW/Spore/Sins/Whatever during my wonderful 6 days off (first vaca in 3 years). Yes, I do have a female in my life and she is allowing it, anything to stop me from talking about work in my sleep and keeping her awake.

Problems of course arise.

My Best Buy has 2x total of the 800U.

One open box with 400 hours, this was shown on the service menu, no flaws I could obviously see, I'll take tips to look for problems, I tried the rolling white bar and didn't see any retention, the screen did look greyish, however there is horrid lighting (flourecent (sp sorry)) a foot above the TV. The TV was not ISF calibrated nor sitting on the THX setting.

The second they have in stock is a straight out wall display. Didn't check, but a few thousand hours at the ABSOLUTE least. This TV however was ISF calibrated.

Both will have full factory warrenty.

Both will end up with a 4 year plan on them.

It does slightly concern me that the sku for the 800u is now showing Deleted in their system (aka no longer going to be carried, but no signs of that on the website).

Thoughts? I will be getting all your loving replies to my noobly questions hopefully via my blackberry today.

BTW, sources, Time Warner Cable over component, moderate gaming PC DVI->HDMI, and a fair progressive Toshiba dvd player, a Wii as well. I'm waiting to see if there are more price drops on the consoles before jumping over to one of them (always been a PC gamer).......Cables will most likely be from bluejeancables.



Kind of hard to tell what's really going on with this set, I just bought one from our local BB and they had to go out to another store (about 90mi.) to find one new in the box. It's on it's way now. What's funny is, if you go on Pannys website they list the 50/58 800s as being out of stock but more due in mid Oct. So i'm not quite sure whether BB is really going to discontinue this model, or whether they are simply out of stock :confused: With that said, I did er on the side of caution and grabbed one now, just in case;)

BTW; did you have them check other district stores for one still in the box, most of the time they will transfer between stores.

I don't think seven feet is necessarily too close for the 50" 1080p. It'll look great, you'll see every detail.

I don't think seven feet is necessarily too close for the 50" 1080p. It'll look great, you'll see every detail.

I'll second that. I'm watching the Ryder Cup right now from 6.5 feet and it looks terrific.

for perfect eyes, a seating distance of 1.52 times the diagonal size makes full use of 1080p. for a 50 inch display, thats 6 feet 4 inches. you guys are right in there...

So yeah! I steadfastly talked myself out of a 1995 BMW M3 as my new toy.....right into a far too big for the 7 feet I sit away 50" Panasonic Plasma.

Hours. Upon hours of reading reviews.

I have come to conclude the Panny 800U is going to be my best bet for the money. Best Buy will be getting my business, especially with their new Black Tie extended service (blatantly covers burn in wheeeeeeeee). Sunday at 4pm I start a solid 6 days off, to which I have impressive goals in which to get as much play with WoW/Spore/Sins/Whatever during my wonderful 6 days off (first vaca in 3 years). Yes, I do have a female in my life and she is allowing it, anything to stop me from talking about work in my sleep and keeping her awake.

Problems of course arise.

My Best Buy has 2x total of the 800U.

One open box with 400 hours, this was shown on the service menu, no flaws I could obviously see, I'll take tips to look for problems, I tried the rolling white bar and didn't see any retention, the screen did look greyish, however there is horrid lighting (flourecent (sp sorry)) a foot above the TV. The TV was not ISF calibrated nor sitting on the THX setting.

The second they have in stock is a straight out wall display. Didn't check, but a few thousand hours at the ABSOLUTE least. This TV however was ISF calibrated.

Both will have full factory warrenty.

Both will end up with a 4 year plan on them.

It does slightly concern me that the sku for the 800u is now showing Deleted in their system (aka no longer going to be carried, but no signs of that on the website).

Thoughts? I will be getting all your loving replies to my noobly questions hopefully via my blackberry today.

BTW, sources, Time Warner Cable over component, moderate gaming PC DVI->HDMI, and a fair progressive Toshiba dvd player, a Wii as well. I'm waiting to see if there are more price drops on the consoles before jumping over to one of them (always been a PC gamer).......Cables will most likely be from bluejeancables.


The Black Tie service from Best Buy is an insane rip-off. I curiously asked what it would be on a 60" Kuro plasma. It was $1000! It _might_ be a good deal for 40% of that.

Costco now has the PZ800 back up on their website for $1,999.99 with free delivery & a 2 year Warranty.

^^^ still expensive......

-How much are they asking for the open boxed items? That is what makes or breaks the deal, if it is used they should be a smokin' deal, if not buy on the net.

They are charging $1,999 for the open box, I'm skipping the open box and trying to get a new one. Looks like I'm driving an hour and a half on monday to get one potentially. My vacation starts later today....

I appreciate the offers, the costco deal and the PM's that I've gotten were very nice and helpful, thanks guys!

Re: Geek Squad Black Tie, PM me, I'll tell you why I'm getting it.

good choice to pass, that is expensive.