Hi all -

Im leaning on purchasing the Panasonic TH-58PZ800U - I plan to get one in the very near future.

Right now I am still using a 36" Toshiba CRT TV. Its a monster heavyweight - It works great but I want to step up to something more advanced and with a better picture quality. Baseball season is right around the corner and I'd like to have a nice TV for baseball this year and football in the fall.

Im not an audiophile at all - I watch a lot of regular TV programming, a lot of sports, ( I currently get the MLB extra innings package and the Sunday Ticket - thru DirecTV ) few movies on DVD, and play a very little amount of games. I have a younger son who will want to be playing more videogames in about 6-10 months.

My satellite company is DirecTV - I have a standard DVR receiver and a cheapy DVD player and a PS2 for games.

I will most likely get the TV first and then make the call to DirecTV to get a new satellite dish and a new Hi-Def DVR Receiver installed.

My question is - When I get the new TV - can I plug in into my standard DirecTV receiver to watch TV ? ( I know nothing would be in hi def , etc - but would I be able to ck the TV that Im getting a signal and at least be able to watch some TV before DirecTV gets out to my house to add the new dish and receiver?

Also - any recommendations for a home theater system / sound system in conjunction with this TV? From all the reading Ive done - people seem to recommend getting an additional audio source ; since the TV sound/audio isnt the greatest.

Thanks for all your help and replies.

The Panasonic TH-58PZ800U

You can download the manual here:

http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/support/Televisions/VIERA-Plasma-HDTVs/model.TH-58PZ800U

Page 9 thru 12 show you how to hook up ....

and yes it will hook up to a regular Cable hookup.

Yes, you can watch through an SD DVR, but it's not going to look pretty!

Defenitly you can hook it up to an sd dvr. I did the same thing as you, bought the tv then called dish network and got them out to fix me up.

As stated above its not going to look great, but when your box comes you'll be blown away and you'll never want to watch another sd channel again.

Your tv should have rca jacks so you'll be fine.

As stated above its not going to look great, but when your box comes you'll be blown away and you'll never want to watch another sd channel again.


Agreed, I never really saw the big deal about "high def" until i had my first HDTV and cable box http://www.entertainment-place.info/smile/img/2464/*************************

Standard defination is not going to look great the bigger then set the worse SD will look.

directv offers HD for only 10 dollars more in case you dont like what you see.

use your RCA+ s video if you have the option to do so.

and to the poster please stop advertising and going off topic

.....My question is - When I get the new TV - can I plug in into my standard DirecTV receiver to watch TV ? ( I know nothing would be in hi def , etc - but would I be able to check the TV that Im getting a signal and at least be able to watch some TV before DirecTV gets out to my house to add the new dish and receiver?As the others have said, yes you can connect it to your standard D* Receiver. I presume the Receiver has a regular Composite Output (Red/White Audio + Yellow Video, or S-Video instead of Yellow) so just connect it to the TV with that. And it won't look good so be prepared for a temporary letdown until you get an HD Receiver (or better yet, an HD DVR so you can record HD and watch it later or whenever you want to). Even the regular SD channels will look better with their HD Receiver or HD DVR since they have better processors and better connections (HDMI and Component).

In the meantime, if you're closer than say 30 miles from the local broadcast towers, you can connect the TV's internal tuner to a good indoor antenna or rooftop antenna and pull in the new local digital channels over the air and watch some High Def primetime and sports programming.

The programs are going to look WORSE on your HDTV then on your old SDTV that's for sure. The sooner you can make the switch over the better. You'll never want to go back to SD again.