Panasonic TC-L42E50 - Anyone?

I posted a earlier post to compare the samsung 40eh600 to this model. My local bb has only the 47" in this size. Yes bigger is better but still trying to decide on this or the samsung.

Both look good. The panny has 4 hdmi hook ups I believe which is good. The sammy only two. They differ by 2" inches not a great deal if comparing 40 to 42".
It is a hard decision but the eh6000 in earlier post on this site has great reviews. I think the price for the panny will come down in june/july.

I would like to hear what others think too. Samsung is a very popular and luv'd here even with problems. They all have problems. lol

One advantage is that the panny has a isp panel maybe the sammy does too not a expert. But the view angles I think might be the same. If there is a bb near you I say go check them out.

I lean alittle towards the panny but in a 42" but does not mean I am picking that one. Also the panny has internet hookup too and some apps. While I think the sammy does not? Not sure.

I just got a 2012 42" E50. It had been on my short list for a while, and I was checking out HDTVs in the stores and online. I was going to take a wait-and-see approach, but Amazon was offering a $100 credit ($640+tax and free shipping) so I couldn't resist. I don't care that much about 3D--I like it at the movies, but don't care at home ... my budget has dominion.

Keep in mind I upgraded from a dirt-cheap Vizio Razor edge-lit 32" and the only comparisons I can make are to the Vizio, the HDTVs I checked out, and my brother's 55" Panasonic Plasma, which is a few years old.

My impressions:

Hardware: plenty of inputs for HDMI, USB, SD. The panel isn't the "thin bezel" of some other HDTVs I've looked at, but there's no gorilla glass and no glare.

Picture: the viewing angle is fantastic. This is good, since the stand doesn't swivel much at all (it's soon going on the wall). I'm familiar with IPS panels from graphics work, so I wasn't surprised. The default motion smoothing is "strong" and it makes everything look like "days of our lives." I turned it off, and then yesterday set it to "weak." It improves picture quality for HD broadcasts quite a bit without the soap effect.

Bleed: I could not detect ANY, and that alone made it worth the upgrade from older edge-lit LEDs. Blacks and darks were very good; significant clarity and detail over the Vizio. Not as good as a Plasma. I do think it's superior to my brother's plasma, which suffered some degradation after a while, but that could be a sibling thing. (He's a plasma man, and I'm an LED woman.)

I'm still futzing with calibration. The Viera offers a few different modes for owners who aren't as OCD. Picture settings aren't "universal" so it's possible to set up each HDMI device differently. I was able to get close to the "cinema quality" of my brother's older plasma. I like that it's possible to turn off or modify all the features (my Vizio was pretty much "you get what you get").

I tried out most of the other features to test them out. I have an Apple TV 3 so I can easily send all my content from my Mac to the TV, and for streaming Netflix, so I don't care much about the apps. I didn't have a wireless adapter so I hooked up my ethernet cable. This was the only time the remote wasn't intuitive. It has an alpha-numeric panel, but for inputting network information you click twice and use the on-screen keyboard. (The onscreen keyboard was a lot easier to use than my LG BD player!)

Internet Apps: You can go into Viera's app center and there will be a PiP of whatever your watching on TV in the menu. Netflix streaming worked well, Hulu+ didn't .... lots of lag. (This is a chronic complaint for Hulu and not unique to the E50, but I want to find out why.) I could not locate some of the apps mentioned on Panasonic's web site, so I'll find out if I can add them. It allows Skype (with a webcam) and some social networking apps. The Netflix navigation menu is a bit easier than the Apple TV, though there was more buffer lag at the beginning. There are more apps I didn't check out, and plenty of room on the scrolling menus for several more.

There's enough to replace a Roku or an Apple TV if you were using these devices just for internet streaming content.

Remote App: I have an iPad and tried out the Remote App, but not extensively. I can confirm that it works, but not how well it works. If there's interest, I'll try it out further.

DLNA: Didn't try it. I bought the AT3 because DLNA on OSX is flaky. I could try it out with my OSX PS3 medialink software if that's something people want. My experience is that both USB and DLNA playback will always be a bit limited in terms of accepted formats.

Remote: overburdened to excess like all of them, but not counterintuitive.

Gaming: I'm not a gamer, but the few reviews on the TV from gamers have been very positive.

CONS: there doesn't seem to be a default setting for Cable TV or devices. When you turn on the TV, it remains switched to whatever you were using before. That is, unless I haven't figured out something yet. I want to have cable set as the default.

Sound: Um, it sounds better than the Vizio.

The wireless adapter is a separate purchase. Only the ET5 and up have it built-in. A cheap move by Panasonic.

Overall assessment: There's a lot of features in that "something for everyone" way. For example, It's possible to hook up my Lumix camera and control it with the remote, but .... why? Swiping through the Remote App for the remote controls (on a few different pages) seems absurd when the remote is right next to me. Of course, if your SO hides the remote, or the dog eats it, you have a backup.

For what I paid for it, and for my small studio apartment , it's fantastic. If you are moving from an older LCD HDTV, and want to lose a media box (or not buy one), it's an even better deal. At the normal high retail price, well.... if you factor built-in wifi (the adapter is $70) and think you might want to play 3D content at some point in the future, it's worth checking out the ET5.

FYI, the current Amazon price this weekend for the 42" is $649, and the 47" is $759. (you have to "add to cart" to see the price.)

KDNYC, thanks for the informative report. I have my eye on this model.

I too had also narrowed my choices down between the E6000 series Samsung and 42E50 Panasonic.

I went with Panasonic for a few reasons, I liked the extra 2 inches.

The Samsung was much sleeker, thinner and looked to be alot easier to move around, then I looked closer at the screen and in two different stores I had seen a vertical row of dead pixels on 40 inch D6400 models. Yes those are last years models of the 6000 series, but I didn't want to take the chance of getting an E6000 series panel prone to dead vertical pixels.
Maybe the persons setting up the Sammys in either store had caused the damage, the sleekness of the Samsungs probably doesn't provide as much support and protection for the screen. Since buying and setting up the Panny, I can assure you that the frame around the Panasonic is very sturdy and substantial. The thicker Panasonic probably allows for slightly better speakers too.

I think the viewing angles are better on the Panasonic, the brightness can actually get too bright and hurt your eyes on the brightest setting. Black performance is probably the item that bugs me since it could be better, but the Samsung seems to have similar issues with blacks, so it's a bit of a wash in that department. It also seems that certain shades of black perform better than others, there is a black performance option on the Panny, it does seem to help, however everything on the screen is made darker, maybe the image is closer to a Panasonic Plasma, I prefer a brighter screen and turned the enhanced black option off

Netflix performance on the panny is fine, however, when watching movies, there is sometime a 1 frame black flash, usually once or twice a day, this also doesn't happen when I watch tv shows on Netflix.
Maybe it is some sort of bandwidth issue.

The tie breaker for me was looking at the quality of all the Panasonic and Samsung products I had purchased over the past 20 years. I have had several issues with Samsung products and no issues with Panasonic. I'm typing this on a Samsung laptop, which has some annoying quirks.

I would recommend going with the 47 inch Panasonic over the 42 if you have the space for it.

Stronty, I had similar responses to the Viera. It was heavier than I expected, but feels sturdy.

Honestly, I think Samsung, LG, and Panasonic are all competing for the budget consumer/family market in this range, where ease-of-use internet apps (cable-cutting) and 3D capabilities are the only selling points this year. Panasonic seems to have put more effort into connectivity and apps; the E50 is the lowest-priced model that has Viera Connect, and it works very well.

Calibration for daytime on the E50 was superb, great skin tone and greyscale. Even with the glossy screen, there's no glare. I can skip a tilt-and-swivel mount and use a slim-mount because the viewing angle is great. However, nighttime/dimly lit viewing was good ONLY with HD and Blu-Ray content. With an old episode of Damages via Netflix, the difference between dark scenes in dark rooms and daytime scenes was rather obvious, but this is a TV that cost the same as an iPad, so there you go.....

App, DLNA, and Game access are all easily available with just one button on the TV remote. The Remote App (on an iPad3) was easy to use, and includes a gamepad and keyboard that are useful for game and social networking apps. However, the E50 lacks a web browser app. This is obviously crippleware on Panasonic's part.

If you buy a WiFi adapter, the cost difference between the E50 and ET5 goes down by a 1/3.

I'm a bit tempted to consider the ET5 even though I don't care about 3D, but I'm going to do a dead pixel monitor check first. If there are any flaws, I'd feel justified in sending it back to Amazon despite the hassle. But for $200 more than what I paid in 2010 for a smaller (32") edge LED, I got a MUCH better, and larger TV. With the couch 6' away from the wall, I *could* squeeze a 47-50" but it's a bit overkill for me.

I was wondering if you could expand upon this. I'm considering this TV but I'd normally watch FiOS on it in a nearly dark room. What are you saying is the problem here?

Anyone run a calibration on this yet? I have real bad soap opera on it. Othewise, nice TV.

As per a review on amazon,

SOE can be turned off in "Advance Picture->Motion Picture Setting"

Just ordered one from Amazon for $629. It will be my second Panasonic. Have high hopes for this. Will let you all know what I think.

I just ordered one from Amazon for the bedroom and to watch in my home office while "working" from home...seems like a great panel for the price, will report back once I get it set up this weekend

Hi. "Problem" is the wrong word. As with any expensive (for me) purchase, I'm actively looking for any flaws during the return period. The E50 picture is good and HD content looks superb. I've owned two LEDs, and watching sports on the E50 in the daytime blew me away with how much better it is than the older HDTVs.

It doesn't do some dark levels in dark scenes, in a dimly lit room, very well. Tweaking calibration settings helps, up to a point. This is a characteristic of most LED-LCDs.
Edited by KDNYC - 6/14/12 at 9:16am

As the other commenter pointed out, you can go into the Picture settings and adjust or turn off motion smoothing Go into Menu- Picture and then scroll down until you see the "Advanced" settings.

Found out today that when using Skype you have to turn the TV speakers back on for audio. Will not work via arc or optical. What a dumb set up. Problem is, it won't do it automatically, you have to exit out of skype, go into menu, change audio, bla bla bla. What are these people thinking.

Hi, would you mind sharing your calibration settings? I'm having a hard time finding the "right mix", which is odd because I had no problem setting up my Sammy Plasma last year - the Panny's settings seem a little more harder to work in order to get the right pic setting, regardless of mode (to me at least).

I've been playing with this TV for about 2 weeks and here is where I'm at:
picture standard
backlight 60
contrasr 55
bright 50
color 50
tint 0
sharpness 80
color temp norm
color management on
ai pict on
cats off
vid nr auto
black nr auto
mosquito nr off
motion pic setting weak
blk lev light

Overall I like the 42e50 a lot. Audio is as expected for and LCD. I'm going to work that out and get external sound. I have cable but do keep an antenna connected and I found the tuner to be better than my 4 year old Pana LCD. Picked up a few more stations. I tried a wired connection for the internet and while the set found the connection it won't pick up an ip address even though my router has DHCP (or whatever) enabled. I'm not up on routers so if anyone has a suggestion I'd appreciate it. Overall a good buy for me.

Picture Mode: Standard
Back light +85
Contrast +80
Brightness +85
Color +60
Tint -15
Sharpness +85
Color temp. - Normal
Color mgmt. - Off
A.I. picture - On
C.A.T.S. - Off
Video NR - Auto

Advanced picture:
Block NR - Auto
Mosquito NR - On
Motion Picture Setting - Weak
Black level - Dark

Eco Power Settings - Standard

These are the settings I got after running the THX Optimizer on the Star Wars Attack of the Clones DVD. They're still not perfect, but they're alot better than the default settings, which I think are pretty bad.

Edit - I changed the Tint from +15 to -15 and now flesh tones look better to me.
Edited by ShinobiX - 7/4/12 at 3:44pm

Just received my TC-L42E50 from Amazon.com for $599 on Friday (7/6/12) with free shipping. I took ShinobiX's (thank you!) settings and tweaked them myself.

Currently I have Comcast HD, and an LG BD-390 all running through a Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver via HDMI cables then out to the Panasonic via HDMI Input 1. This is my second Panasonic (first was a plasma) and I've heard/read not to use any filters since your receiver should be doing most of that for you. So my settings so far (and they aren't perfect) are:

Picture Mode: Standard
Back light +85
Contrast +80
Brightness +75
Color +60
Tint -15
Sharpness +85
Color temp. - Normal
Color mgmt. - Off
A.I. picture - Off
C.A.T.S. - Off
Video NR - Off

Advanced picture:
Block NR - Off
Mosquito NR - Off
Motion Picture Setting - Weak
Black level - Dark
3:2 Pulldown: Off

Eco Power Settings - Standard

So far I'm loving the TV (my wife watched Rio last night). I have a PureAV stabilizer and the power saving alone make this TV worth the price. Before I pulled over 85% of my capacity running the plasma. Now I can't get above 17%. At $0.075/KWh thats some real savings!

***7/18/12 updated Brightness from +80 to +75
Edited by MediaMikeDC - 7/18/12 at 5:05pm

Two recent reviews of the E50 series. One is on CNET, the other on televisioninfo.com. Very different opinions.

Thanks for the info. Kind of interesting. I have this TV and am very happy with it. My judgement is only based on TV watching. I played with the settings for about two weeks and I'm at my happy point, for now. I sometimes think these in depth tests send people away from a product. For the average buyer most of the supposed faults would not be noticed. Buy a TV from a store with a good return policy and watch it. I think big drawbacks will be noticed and the set can go back.
Probably my biggest complaint is the sound and the lack of an analog audio output. I'm not going to get into a new sound system at this point. Other than that, for me, it's a winner.

Hi -

I have an ethernet cable connected to my L42E50, and while I can play Netflix, etc., with no problem, I can only get sound through the TV speakers. Shouldn't i be able to run a toslink cable from the optical audio out to my the optical audio in jack of my receiver (older model, pre-HDMI) and get some kind of sound? So far, no sound .

Really appreciate any suggestions - as you can tell, I'm new to this.

Thank you.

I think you should be able to do that. If you press the option button on the remote it should pull up a small menu and if you have the toslink hooked up, it should show up as an option for the audio. HDMI link on this TV is fantastic. With ARC I am able to get everything going through my Denon. I can even use the Panny Remote to start my PS3 and control Netflix and what not. Pretty awesome stuff (even though I have the PS3 Media Remote)!!!

Hello! Has anyone plugged in a laptop via VGA or HDMI?

However, when I plug in my laptop via, VGA - VGA, I'm stuck in 1024 resolution! Moreover, display options in Windows 7 do not reveal 1080p as a valid option. My laptop is capable of outputting 1080p. I have a 46" Westinghouse that works like a champ! Here, when I try to select another output resolution (say, the biggest resolution available, 1600 x 1200) the screen goes blank and I have to wait until the laptop automatically reverts to original resolution.

In conclusion, the problem is I don't see 1920 x 1080 as a resolution option AND no resolution besides 1024 seems to be working. Any suggestions?

I contacted Panasonic and, as usually, they were terrible. Check out the response below....

Anique C.: To get a 1080p resolution from the laptop to the TV, use a hdmi cable. A vga cable outputs a 1280×1024 resolution
james: ...and 1080p
james: it's true!
james: it's rated to carry 1080p and, in fact, I have successfully carried 1080p over a VGA cable
Anique C.: Never heard of a vga cable outputting 1080p
james: Ha, really?
james: http://www.wirelessforums.org/alt-comp-hardware/max-resolution-vga-connector-22437.html
james: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index
james: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA
james: listen, you're wrong, no worries, let's move on
Anique C.: Ok.
james: So?
Anique C.: This Tv doesn't allow 1080p via VGA
james: Well that would explain the problem
Anique C.: Is there anything else I can help you with at this time?
james: What is the reference source for that information? I need to return the TV and I need to cite the reason why the product was misleading
james: where on the website is this information?
james: where in the manual?
Anique C.: I'll send you a link
Anique C.: One moment please...
james: Thanks
Anique C.: http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/E-HELP_E50.PDF
Anique C.: Page 32

I clicked the link and I'm not convinced this is the end of the line, right? I can't believe that this TV can only kick out
1280 x 768, right?

It seems all Panasonic panels have this bug feature.

I'm usually not in the LCD section, but I've been looking at Panasonic Plasmas for 5+ years. I checking into this panel because I saw a nice price on it and was researching reviews.

All the consumer plasma panels have this limitation as it will not accept any resolution higher than 1366x768 via VGA, even though the panel itself is 1920x1080 capable. On page 33 of that manual you cited, the maximum listed resolution is 1366x768. So it looks like that limitation is applicable to LCDs as well.

If you want full 1920x1080 resolution to be displayed on the screen, it has to be via HDMI input.

Up (regarding the audi issue) : I am stuck with the same problem.
Any idea for a converter to go to a 5.1 system (logitech z503 in my case) ?

Any other reviews of this model? How does it compare to the LG 42LS5700? I am looking for a 1080P 120hz LED that has nice fluid motion for sports. My parents don't give a crap about 3d or internet apps so the only thing we are concerned about is picture and sound.42" is the biggest they can put in their enclosure. Is the sound really that bad on this model? Any other 42" models you would recommend?

Anyone alive in here? Can anyone comment on this set? I am trying to decide between this and the 42LS5700.

No, the sound is not that bad. I wished for analog outputs so I could connect to my stereo but no luck. I'm close to 70 but still want a good picture and this set does the job. No calibration here, it's just set for the picture we like. For the price we paid I think it's an excellent set. If you happen to use an antenna, our backup, the set has a great tuner.