The Official Panasonic TC-P50X1 and TC-P42X1 Owner's Discussion & Information Thread - Page 4

My impressions of the p42x1 are that the blacks are much deeper than my a550 sammy lcd were. The color depth is excellent in comparison to that same lcd but a little short of my old samsung plasma. HD (1080i & 720p) look great, very little noise at about 8 ft away. I watched a yankee spring training game on it and it was fantastic in hd. The SD looks fine to me but i don't spend much time watching SD. Killzone 2 demo on ps3 loooks awesome, i keep the mode in custom rather than game and its night and day compared to the sammy lcd. I didnt realize how much lag there is in the LCD until i played uncharted on the plasma. Huge difference. Basically I love the set, its not perfect (bit of a green push, lacks some depth in color and blacks). Also, when watchign a blueray on the ps3, the picture is very dark. It may be becaue I have RGB set to full but 300 loooks amazing. Just a tad dark. Liek i said in an earlier post, the cinema mode is just too dull. I dont want too much "pop" but I want sunny days to look sunny and not like thre is massive cloud cover. Umm.. what else. I've witness zero glare issues and zero IR on my settings. I watched sd for about 5 hours the other day and there wasnt a hint of IR where the black bars had been. Ive watched in the day time and night time... set loses a lil pop during the day but nothing very noticeable and at night with a feint light behind the set it looks perfect. I love the TV. I'll post some pics later on today.

Also, coming from a 1080p set of similar size (LN40a550), I havent noticed a difference at all regarding 1080p and 720p. I've watched BD on both and there is no image quality lost and I'm at roughly 8feet away. I've read so much on these boards the last 2 years that if there is a difference, i;m one of the many who cant see it. No need to drop more money on set for "1080p" at this point its moot. This is the best of the 3 sets i've owned in the past 2 years by far. I'm very happy with the purchase. Oh, and i think the set is quite attractive. Glossy black, the plastic trim doesnt have the same "cheap" feel as the sammy lcd either. Very study and polished look. Plus, to me the glass screen on a plasma adds a bit of character and depth on its own. Matte always looks so dull.

Will be going to take a look at the X1 and would like to also see the S1 in comparison so it shouldn't be long now.

Had been with folks that said what is the value of 1080p when there is nothing really to watch (this was several years back) when 1080p front projectors were first coming out. Lots of technical discussion but here's what I learned when I bought the Sony Pearl (1080p) when it came out initially.

There is most definitely benefit having 1080p when viewing a 1080i source. I saw this with the Sony Pearl and also now with the JVC RS-1 in my home theater. It's very clear on a big screen (106") but would be more unlikely on a 42" screen sitting maybe 8 feet back or more.

The stations that are 1080i, CBS, NBC, PBS, and many cable stations can benefit (depending on your personal setup).

Had done some viewing on the PX series at about 8 feet or so. Could not tell any difference going back and forth (the sets were not side by side) from about that distance in a Sears. It'll be interesting to see how the X1 stacks up with the S1 though as the latter has the NEO technology.

See over 50 reviews on Best Buy online.

I picked up the TC-P42X1 last week and spent Friday night playing with some of the settings. This is my first plasma, and it is being used as a secondary use set (I have a 100" dedicated HD basement theater projector) for my wife to watch TV and play Wii on. My television source is the Fios Extreme HD package.

So far, I really like this set, after a little bit of 'eyeball' calibration (didn't have time to use Avia yet). HD looks great and I was also impressed with SD as well (in that it didn't look as bad as I thought it would). I sit about 11-12 feet away from the set. In daytime we have a lot of sunlight in the room and I had no problems seeing the screen (there is no sunlight actually hitting the screen itself). I have noticed no IR issues at all, no dead or stuck pixels, no fan noise issues. No trails or slop, and black levels look good on the "light" setting. The remote is average but I won't be using it much after setting up since I programmed a universal. The speakers were better than my old crappy Sony stereo system so that's a plus as well not to have to hook up a receiver. For what I want out of this TV, it is delivering beyond my expectations.

One weird thing: I labeled inputs with both upper-case and lower-case letters, but it seems to revert them all to upper-case after a while. That is probably a firmware glitch.

I have noticed the slight greenish hues on some of the HD viewing, whether a well-lit night football game or something dimmer like The Lord of the Rings. However other programs showed little or no green tendency (such as the interiors on the Titanic movie). I am going to try some of the suggested settings tonight and see if that helps.

Thank you to those who have posted their settings!

heres some pics. keep in mind i used my iphone. this is under normal 4p lighting conditions. no lights on in my apartment, only one window slightly open.

whoops here they areAttachment 135384

Attachment 135383

Attachment 135385

Not bad via the iphone. Blacks look pretty good. Obviously really seeing is believing.

One of my favorite sports films: White Men Can't Jump.
"Your woman's calling."

I know the movie almost by heart.

In our store (Manchester center Fresno) the 450 is above and two sets to the right of the P50X1. Last I checked (yesterday) the PN50A450 was out of stock and not available for order, but not yet on closeout so there's a very slim chance they might be available again at some undetermined time in the future. Our facing warehouse is, I beleive, in Mendota which means this unavailability would probably apply throughout the central CA valley. Several calls to other stores within a 50 mile radius of Fresno have turned up none in stock. Occasionally a customer who's ordered one will cancel it after it comes in which can mean on rare occasions that one will turn up in store stock even when they're unavailable for order. These "not picked up" sets usually don't show up on the computerized inventory available at the register terminals, so I often make a physical inspection of the stockroom before giving up.

Steve,

The reason I asked about the Sears PN50A450 on display:

At the local Sears here last week, that set was mounted above the new P50X1. They were running a Sears store loop. There would be a still scene, maybe ten seconds long, where the "SEARS" logo would display in blue, centered, on an otherwise white background.

I was able to access the controls for both sets, and cranked both up to maximum brightness. (Both sets were almost set that way anyway.) The A450 looked brighter and whiter than the P50X1, which kind of looked light gray (instead of white) by comparison.

I've noticed similar behavior at Best Buy, though I could not access the controls there to be sure.

Have you observed the same thing, between the two?

I just got my 42X1 home a little bit ago. This is my first flat panel, my previous tv is a 27" crt so this is amazing!!!!

I'm so happy I came across this TV absolutely loving it!

what settings u using?

This seems to be a central theme to people new to plasma technology. The displays are designed for home environments, not a store. Unless you have a massive array of overhead fluorescent lights in your home, like a retail outlet, you don't want or need an overabundance of light. That's why an LCD doesn't perform as well in the home environment as a plasma. While the over brightness of an LCD is an asset in a retail store, it's a liability in your home. Then the other problems with flesh tones are even more pronounced against this artificially bright background. Plasma colors are more natural.

I'd never "crank" up the brightness to maximum, in any display, it just creates more imbalance in the color palette.

I'm not talking about maxxing out the BRIGHTNESS to adjust the displays for better picture quality, or to emulate an LCD.

I'm talking about maxxing out the brightness on a white test pattern (the SEARS signature logo, in this case) to reveal what the sets' relative maximum light output/white balance capacities are. Which will eventually become apparent when viewing outdoor sports, ice hockey or bright-daylight scenes in movies.

In the case of the two sets in question, I believe the SEARS logo test reveals that the P50X1 does not have the light output capacity of the two older displays. And I think that is confirmed, albeit more subtly, while viewing program material with daylight sky scenes that are rendered more dimly than the other displays.

Very nice!

Chris

If you mean me its straight out of the box

I plan on trying out your settings after its a little broken in. Although I dont think I'm really going to use the break in cd. Just watching it on various things should be fine.

And I was worried about the brightness but once its in my home I don't notice it a bit.

whiteboy,

Most of the comments (mine, anyway) relating to brightness pertain to the 50" model, not the 42".

Review

It has been 4 years since my last TV, a flat screen CRT with component video. Wow! After getting a feel for the LCD/Plasma markets and watching prices fall for years. I finally decided that the market was at a point where prices had fallen substantially for most TVs, the technologies on the TV unit itself, and broadcasting sides were fairly consistent, and I couldn't wait for ever. I knew that I would need a wall mount, a new entertainment system, new cords, a new satellite/cable subscription, and I had to be careful about past equipment that I already had, and future ones that I might want.
Last spring I started visiting websites once in a while, and store models when I was waiting for my wife to finish shopping. I started getting educated on different things, and developed my own opinions/tastes. After I had some idea, I would ask my wife to look as well and give me her opinion.
Along the way I found a few good websites that got me started.
Educate yourself on everything HDTV related - TweakTV
blogs.zdnet
hdtvinfoport.com/hdtv-buyers-guide
cnet.com/hdtv-world

From there I Googled specific issues/topics and then ran across blogs and forums.

My priority list:
1. Great picture
2. Reliability
3. Reasonably price
4. Ports for my equipment

I narrowed down the field to plasma, because my family stretches all around the living room from different angles. It also, in my opinion, looked the best and was the best product of the 2 (vs. LCD) from research.

I settled on a 50 inch because of my room dimensions, and at that size 720p would look great if I decided on that resolution, and finally anything over 50 inch was very expensive.

The whole 720p/1080p debate was confusing, I will admit. But I saw little difference when looking at models that I knew were connected to HD. I also looked at the Circuit City display at my local store and they were right in presenting the incredible difference due to signal (SD vs. HD). Since it appeared that difference stations/broadcasts sent out signals at different resolutions, I could easily pick up another TV in 3-5 years at the 1080p if everything was made just for that.

While I would have gone for 1080p, the price leap was astronomical. I couldn't justify it to myself since I have a family and am the only one working.

Panasonic (TH-50PX80U, TH-50PZ80U, TH-50PZ85U) and Samsung (PN50A510, PN50A450, PN50A550, and PN50A650) became my favorite two brands to look at.
For Samsung, they had the edge in features and ports, but Panasonic was a better picture.

From there, I took a break and looked at entertainment centers. Anything less then $300 was made of particle board, so I went to my local Solid Woods center, and picked up a real full hardwood cherry for $150 more then I was about to dish out. This occurred after looking online (Overstock, Amazon) and local (Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears).

Just as I was about to look for sales, the new Panny TC-P50X1 came out at my local Sears and Best Buy. Comparing it to their previous model series, this was the one for me. Reliability, great color, great contrast ratio 30000:1, good darks, and plenty of ports (3 HDMI, 2 Component, 2 Composite, and DIG opt out). But, it was 720p. And new. Go for it. I did. I had it delivered for free, and the BB knocked off 100 due to them lowering the price the next week. I ordered pizza and carefully installed the mount.

I picked up a Level Mount DC65T tilt for screens 33-65 inches. It was very reasonably priced through Wal-Mart. I didn't want a 35-50 inch because that would be on the border of what my 50 in. TV could take. This thing is pure steel. It's heavy and made of parts that will only melt off the wall. I think the wall might fall off before it ever moves. The in mount level works well, although I had my own, and the stud finder is barely adequate. My iSensor stud finder had conflicting ideas around outlets and I really want to tear down that wall just to prove to myself that one of the studs is not 16 inches away from another! Stupid builders! Anyway, I was just barely able to mount it to 3 studs. The TV is really light, I could have lifted it myself but I didn't dare. It locked in very well in 6 different ways. Tilting is a one time thing but requires two people. My hands were just big enough to fit in behind the TV.
The ports on the TC-P50X1 are on the back right and easily accessible. There are a few on the side too. On the left hand side are easily accessible TV buttons if you lose your remote every few weeks like I do.

I had mapped out all the connections to my equipment:
-Wii with an upgraded component cord
-Pioneer VSX 515 Audio Receiver (no HDMI)
-a new SONY DVD player DVP-NS700H
-a new Vip722 from Dish
-my SONY amp

I had to read through all of the instructional manuals to update/relearn all of the menus, features, setups, etc.

I ordered 2 HDMI through Monoprice.com, the new Wii component cable, a Digital optical cable, a new component, an extended telephone line, and an iPod stereo output all for under $40.

The Panny TV was very easy to connect to, I still wish they had an aux out but that's becoming old school! The menus are easy to scroll through and you can change settings very easily. Check the online owner's manual (I did the same for the Vip722 Dish receiver and SONY DVD player to get an idea of what to expect and for the spec section).

Colors are wonderful, NASCAR Sunday was so real. It does all the thinking/processing of different signals very quickly as it upscales and downscales and pulls 3:2 menus blah blah blah. I was wondering if I should let the Dish receiver output 720p or 1080i, but I could see no difference either way, nor could my wife. I reasoned to leave it on 720p output because of fewer steps to get to the 1368x768 res of this TV.

I am completely impressed with this P50X1, with HD signals, with the new technologies, compared to the black and white 16 inch I grew up with, or the 22 inch color my parents bought, etc. The jump between SD to HD is huge, the jump between various broadcast signals and various program signals in 720p or 1080i, at the 50 inch stage, is negligible in my opinion. I save money all along the way by researching and asking questions (470 from Dish by asking them to match what DirecTV would have given me...free installation, new receiver, new intro packages, etc). The speakers are fine, what do you expect on a flat screen? They really work well. I use them when I don't want to turn on my sound system (to keep things quiet).

My lasting impressions will be that the P50X1 is built by a company that has been making plasmas a long time, and the previous year's model, from which it was built, was highly successful because of price/product ratio. Time and time again, people pointed out in real life, forums, blogs, and reviews, that you either have to wait 3+ years for broadcast stations/satellite to set up an HD standard for signal broadcast, or you have to get a tv over 50 inches to really just BEGIN to see a small difference in 1080 and 720. Now I'm not an HD expert, this is my first one, I don't buy them to review them. I'm just an Language Arts teacher, (try to find grammar mistakes above if you're bored), but, this is a great respectable buy for most consumers at this point in time if you want to pay about 1 grand for a tv. Enough said. I'm going to leave my computer and go enjoy it right now!
Oh, btw, I'm waiting on Blue-ray for a few years before I buy one, but with HDMI, it will enter into my system with ease. I took my SONY DVR and put it in the master bedroom with my CRT flatscreen.

Be careful! To see how much time the tv has been on:

The Panasonic TC-P50X1 service menu is easy to get to. For the most part, you should not access it. Doing so can supposedly harm your TV in many bad ways if you don't know what you are doing. However, a lot of new owners want to know how many hours their new Plasma TV has. You can either keep track of the number of hours you have on the TV, or you can find the information in the Service Menu.

It took me a while to finally find out how to access it to determine this, but here is how.

1. On the TV itself, hold down the Vol - Button
2. While holding the volume button down, press info on the TV remote three times. Wait. Depending on what mode you are in, you will notice the display change. Two blue windows will appear in the upper left portion of your screen. This is the service menu. Keep reading if you want to know how to determine the number of hours on the set.
3. Now press the 2″ button on the remote. This will pull up a window with the word SRV-TOOL
4. Press the OK button on the remote. A light blue grid will appear.
5. On the Grid, cursor down (using the remote down arrows) to the row labeled PTCT
6. Cursor to the right. It should be an empty box.
7. Hold MUTE for 3 seconds. The amount of time the display has been on will be next to the word TIME this is in hours and minutes.

To get out of the service menu, I just power cycled the TV by holding the power button down on the TV itself.

LeM22...nice short review!

Chris

I have to say I love my TC-P50X1. Just picked it up this weekend. My brother-in-law, who owns 3 year old 6 series Samsung, was blown away. His family could not believe that this quality was coming from a tv that was 1/4 the price of what he paid for his.

HD content looks just amazing. PS3 games look awesome. I was even impressed how it handled xvid files. They upscale nicely for files less than SD.

Over all I would recommend the TC-P50X1 to anyone looking for a 50" sub $1000 tv. You just cant go wrong with it.

I don't know where you are shopping but that is simply not the case anymore. There was just a sale on the Samsung 50a550 for sub $1000 and there have been many other 1080p sets get close to that price.

So I am trying to decide between the TH-50PX80U and the newer TC-P50X1. I like that the X80 has the buttons on the front along with inputs right on the front. The only real advantage I see from the new X1 is higher contrast (30,000 vs 15,000), and higher refresh rate (600 vs 480). I can't image 600 Mhz being that much more noticeable over 480, especially since both of these blow the 120 and 60 mhz rates of LCDs out of the water. I also have to question how noticeable the contrast ratio is and also how accurate those readings really are. I'm really leaning towards the X80 but would love to hear any other arguments in support of the newer X1s. Please help me out.

Micah,

I'd go with the PX80U. I think it has a brighter, snappier picture. Plus, it has analog audio out, in case you want to run a soundbar.

Panasonic's Contrast Ratio specs are not reliable, even within their own product line.

In any case, I'm sure you'll enjoy either one.

Just my .02

I can confirm that the new panasonic px1 42 in is not as bright as as the px80 42in

they had the px80 and I almost bought it. saw px80 next to lcd and plasma and it held it's own in the brightness department and was bettter color and motion resolution then the lcd. went back to hhgregg to check out the newer x1 and it looked dimm next to the lcd tv's . and dimmer then the px80 .

saw the x1 . great price but I and didn't buy after
i was unable to brighten the tv even after I turned tv to "vivid" and brightnes 100. it still looked like every scene was taking place at sunset. And still duller then samsung 450/550 and lg 50 lcd sitting right next to it .

panni needs to revive plasma and cranking out dull plasma panels marketed with great black levels aint gonna cut it .

Their entry level sets are the only tvs that don't have NeoPDP tech for deeper blacks and brighter picture. They never marketed these entry level 720p sets as having great black levels, although they are still better than most sets.

The new X1s are, most likely, the same basic display with a smaller power supply behind it.

Panasonic's doing what they think they gotta do to pass regulatory muster.

And they HAVE been marketing the X1s as having a higher contrast ratio. Since the X1s are obviously less bright, that means they are in effect marketing them as having better black levels. Which is way overstated.

I am in the market for a Panny. Done lots of research and decided that Panasonic was the way to go. My friend just purchased the 50PX80U about a month ago. So I was excited to go check it out. Viewed a couple of Blu-ray movies, HD shows and SD on her set. Awesome TV. I was sold. I went to BB to check if the had any in stock..they did; 2. That's when I noticed the 50" X1. First impression....I LOVE the newer, more sleek design. Sorry...the
PX80U looks cheaper. However, what counts is the pic. The pic looks just as great. Unless you have ultra eagle eye/bionic vision...you can't tell the difference. So I am going for the X1. Of course the Panny looked dimmer next to all those freaking LCDS...However, the Panny did look more "natural". The LCDs just went overboard with the brightness. I swear they are set to max brightness. I did have the rep turn up the brightness on the X1 and if did start to "pop". However, most people buy plasmas for their deep blacks and natural looking colors settings, especially with movies. Also...if you have that eagle eye/super human eye vison...as most of us know, you eyes can not distinguish the difference between 720p and 1080p from a normal viewing distance of more than 6 feet on 50". If you are sitting closer, hope you have medical insurance to take care of your eyes afterwards. I will review once I have the set up and running. And If I feel the PX80U is better after testing , trust me when I say I will RETURN the X1. I will let you guys know!

I actually liked the looks of X80U and Z85Us better than this years X1 series. To each his own. I think I may actually end up getting the TH-46PZ85U as I was at a local retailer just now and the Z85U series seem to have better blacks, in addition to being 1080p. They can be found online for huge discounts off of their original retail value.