The Official Panasonic TC-PXXS1 Owner's Discussion Thread - Page 5

Ok you are both basically saying the same thing, so you've restored my faith in this set. I'm just going to wait for the reviews between the S1 and the G1 now.

how do I access your pictures, please

will be picking up my 50s1 in a week and will post pics/first impressions if not posted yet by that time....

Quick hint: every tv in the stores looks like garbage compared to how it will look at home. They all are set on vivid default and they look alright up against the bright fluorescent lights, but at home it will look overly bright and cartoonish. The goal of the manufacturers is to have a bright picture in the stores not an accurate one. The general public thinks bright=better. If you take a set and put it on Cinema in the store it will actually look pretty dull in comparison to the other tvs, but this is how it is supposed to look.

Ordered TC-P50S1 Sunday at 10:14 Pm, I received a confirmation at 11:10 pm. It shipped from Missouri on Monday...will be delivered to Ohio on Wednesday. Best deal going on the Web! I can't wait!!! Upgrading from a 32" JVC... I guarantee there will always be a newer, latest and greatest model every year. .....forget all the techno B.S I'm going to enjoy HDTV on my new plasma.

Hi,

Not sure if this was already addressed in a previous thread, but with the S1 series do you have the full ability to calibrate the TV yourself. I believe this was considered as the "pro setting" for the PZ850U.

Thanks,

Any idea how much power the S1 takes?

According to the owners manual, the maximum power consumption for the 42", 46", and 50" S1 series is 485 watts, 526 watts, and 584 watts respectively. And note that these are the absolute maximum they will draw when displaying abnormally bright content, but in typical use a plasma TV will average a little over half that amount. Case in point, i run my older PX50U very bright and my measured wattage over a week averaged 220 watts even though the TV is rated for a maximum of 395 watts. Many others have reported similar averages, so don't let those high maximum specs scare you.

better question is it energy star complaint. Like I mentioned in the other thread the S1 was putting out quite a bit of heat not much improvement from last yr which we all assumed there would be. The 720p LG near it which was labeled smart energy consumption was not warm or hot at all to the touch of the screen. Winter time it's great but from july-sept you sometimes don't even want to turn it on in the bedroom.

thattaboy!

It's funny but I've seen similar critics on the front projector game which I got into some several years back with a Panny AE700. The size itself certainly made one a bit less critical with the wave of HD programming coming through at that time. I listened to the critics year to year and digested and went following years to the Optoma H78 then next to 1080p with the Sony Pearl then next to JVC RS-1. Learned a lot and also that some can't see a half full glass, or better. Now I understand the law of diminishing return and know better. So I'm now enjoying the full value of the RS-1. And looking at the new Panasonics for a den/bedroom.

And similarly, the improvement in plasma at rock bottom prices is amazing.
Several years back it's hard to believe you could get so much quality even if you went back to 2005. Shoot, a buddy of mine has a nice Pioneer (model unknown) and I think his 42" does a great job even now with HD and SD programming via cable.

These Panasonics are going to be enjoyed by a lot of people. And it's never been a better time to get one. I'm divided between the S1 and G1 series. Still looking forward to the initial user reports.

So enjoy and no doubt you will.

Good move! Sometimes the erroneous speculation and invalid observations on here are a detriment to potential sales of great plasmas. Enjoy your new plasma!

Just got my P42S1 from Sears last night. This is my first TV in 15 years so I can't help with discussions on red push or crushing blacks, but the TV is absolutely fantastic. It does not run hot at all and is energy star compliant.

I made the mistake of assuming my Scientific Atalanta 2200 box would also allow me to see OTA HD along with my basic digital tier, but this is not the case. Anyone know of a decent workaround instead of paying for a new hD box just to get OTA HD? I tried a cable splitter to hook up both an antenna and the STB, but it degraded my STB signal. Any help would be appreciated.

Also, the P42S1 looked great in the store even with the overhead lights. I was going in thinking it was going to look like crap from what I read on here, but that was not the case.

You should be able to get OTA HD just from the antenna. Try that first.
Then as for your cable box, contact the provider. A simple swap of the boxes should be fine. Then you could compare OTA to HD via the cable box.

My local cable company charges the same for both cable boxes. Perhaps it's the same for you and you have fine geographic access to OTA HD too.

Congrats on the Panny S1. Feel free to share any other thoughts.

Yeah, I hooked up an antenna and it found the OTA HD stations fine, but when I hook up the STB it can't find any of them. I'm guessing that's how they force you to upgrade and pay more which sucks considering the stations are free. Here is what my cable co. offers:

HDTV Package (Requires Digital Cable Service)
Requires HD Set-Top Box $4.95/upgrade
Includes local HD channels & TNT HD $13.30/additional
HD Tier $8.00

Is the only way to connect your cable to your TV via a coaxial connection? I know that is how the older cable boxes work. If you have a newer one, you could use an HDMI or component connection, and then keep your antenna connected to the coaxial in. In the old days, Panasonic had two coax inputs, one for cable and one for Antenna.

Another idea to try is eliminating your cable box altogether. Take the coaxial cable that goes into the cable box and connect it directly into your TV, as there is a built in QAM tuner. You might be surprised at all the HD channels you pick up. I connected my parents PZ80 this way, and they picked up the cable and OTA channels that way.

The cable box has no HDMI or component. Only one coax input and one output and an S video and some RCA's.

I thought about ditching the box, but I'll certainly miss not having the onscreen guide to see what is on all the stations. I'll just have to give them a call and see if their HD box will let me see the OTA HD channels. Somehow I doubt it unless I upgrade. Thanks for the help.

I believe using the S-Video and RCAs to connect your cable box to the TV will give you better quality, as well as free up the coax jack for your OTA antenna. I know it would for an SD TV but I will let others more knowledgeable comment on the HD situation.

Can I ask where you ordered it from? We are also upgrading from a 32" JVC. I want either the 46" S1 or the 50" S1.

Ok, so you have one of the small, old boxes. Let me let you in on a secret. You will probably get not only the OTA HD channels if you plug the coax from the wall directly into the TV, but you will get any HD cable channels that are being sent "in the clear". The reason you currently don't get them is the small cable converter box you have is not designed to process or output HD signals. It is strictly for analog signals. Your shiny new Panasonic can interpret and display the digital signals that are already there. IMHO, giving up the guide is a small price to pay for all those digital channels. I would say try it, and see how you like it.

I wouldn't even call them about it, just get the HD box. Chances are that you'll at least get the OTA HD channels, if not more, without paying an extra fee.

Not sure what the feeds were when I went to Sears but I had to laugh when after I had tweaked a Sammy and a Panny Plasma to cinema mode and made some other adjustments a sales lady came by and redid all of the TV's to torch mode.

I recall that when these were introduced at CES they could put out either more brightness at the same energy use as 2007 or the same brightness at 1/3 of the energy use. Maybe this was the case in torch mode.

cnet just posted a detailed review of the TC-P42S1.

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-t...?tag=mncol;txt

It looks like the real life power consumption has dropped 50% from 2007 and they have corrected the excessive noise issues. Green accuracy is still an issue and the 1080 motion resolution has been confirmed.

Very interesting review.

He couldn't see any improvement in the quality of motion even though it measured 1080 lines of motion resolution. He's passing this improvement as being indistinguishable by the human eye, but the superior quality of CRT motion is pretty obvious so there's definitely some significant room for improvement.

I wonder if this is a little like the response rate wars that LCDs went through a few years ago -- it turned out that the response rate wasn't even the real problem.

Also did you see that it can get over *80* ftl in vivid mode?

Wow!

Much like last year, I imagine that the green accuracy (and other color points) in the models which bear the THX logo will be pretty close to spot on. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they intentionally fudged the color decoder in the lower models to create an artificial performance gap between the THX and non-THX models.

Finally, a full review

I think it was a nice review by cnet. It seems that most things performed well and were generally improved upon, except for color accuracy which was not expected to be good. I know they get some criticism for it, but I'm glad color accuracy is the thing that doesn't perform well on the entry level sets, rather than black level, contrast and motion performance etc. on so many others. The poor color accuracy allows for a great step up to the better models for those who find it important. Meanwhile those who are looking for a cheap set with excellent blacks have a clear choice, and the sacrifice in color accuracy may be worth it.

It seems to me we have an entry level set with great blacks, great motion performance, and the usual perfect viewing angles. This will be a winner.

Also the (completely useless) 80+ FtL will help in the showrooms. Good for panasonic.

And the 1080 lines of motion resolution is a major breakthrough and I am quite surprised and pleased they pulled this off. I still see blurring in plasmas and of course tons in lcds. This set really has a lot of technical achievements. Now I'm looking forward to the G series review.

+1

My plan was to get an S1, until I read the CNET review, which mentioned the inaccurate color of green and red push.

Now my plan is to get a G10.

It was really good to read that the S1 has excellent black levels and shadow detail. Thank goodness for that.

If the only issue is Color then the THX mode G10 should be the Set to get.

but back on the S1. I'm sure colors are fine in real-time viewing and with awesome blacks,motion,contrast and brightness and low consumption this is Budget set that doesn't have anything budget about it but Price.

A+ to Panasonic.