Hi all. Just thought I'd post my review of the Panasonic TH-42PWD4UY.
For those who are still waiting for this display, be patient, it is WELL WORTH IT !!!
A little time line:
Ordered the unit last Wednesday, order status states that it is scheduled to ship on 1/7/2002. Friday afternoon, I decided to CANCEL my order by submitting a customer resolution form on Dell's website to cancel my order due to the fact that it was on backorder and won't be shipping until next year. Monday night I decided to check my order status on Dell's website to make sure that my order was indeed cancelled as I was also thinking of ordering the Nec display (sight unseen). To my surprised, my order stated it was SHIPPED, I said WHAT?!! I almost fell out of my chair as I can't believe it shipped, after hearing from the folks here who ordered this unit from the beginning of the month who still have shipdates of December/January. I thought for sure that there was a mistake somewhere... well morning came and the fedex guy showed up (it was raining), he asked to see if I could give him a hand since he said he was all by himself, I was a little shock since I was expecting this thing to be on some sort of a wooden crate, but it was just shipped in its regular box packaging. I automatically said to my self, Uh oh... this is not good, though I didn't see any dent on the box it made me worry that that only protection it had was just the styro stuff inside. The fedex guy ask if this was one of those wall tv thing and of course with a huge grin on my face
, I said "YUP". Anyway, after signing for it I took a few snap shots of the box and unpacked it. First thing I checked was for any sign of dings, scratch and damage glass, glad to see that there were none that I could see. I checked for production date and was also glad that it had Oct 2001 production date in the back. The unit is currently sitting on top of a small table prop againts my old Sony 36" XBR Wega. I told you I wasn't ready for this thing, I placed an order for the desk stand yesterday. I hooked it up to my Panasonic RP56 DVD player via S-Video since this thing uses BNC for Component Input. Picture looked "great" but it was pretty much the same with my Sony XBR, so I went to Radio shack to buy some RCA to BNC converter (sheez, spent over $100 on monster component cable only to use some cheapo $1.99 converter from Radio Shack), got everything hooked up that way I wanted it and fired up Star Wars, didn't have a chance yet to calibrate via Avia but the picture was beautiful.
List of dvd movies I've watched so far:
Star Wars, Toy Story 1&2, Bugs Life, Antz, The Fifth Element (Superbit), Sleepless in Seattle, Pretty Woman, Star Ship Troopers, Crouching Tiger (Superbit).
- No dead pixel
- No lip-synch problems that I can tell
- Pretty quiet, slight hmmm, only audible when you stick you ear behind the unit (it seems like mine have the the updated chips), my stand alone Tivo and DVD player makes more noise than this thing.
- No problems so far (knocking on wood).
- This display brings out the best in DVD, unfortunately it also brings out the worst, some first gen dvd's shows crappy grainess (Pretty Woman & Sleepless).
- I enabled WOBBLING and you can notice when it shifts the picture a bit.
The only question I have is:
On the back unit, it says that this is the Broadcast Model, I thought mine was the Consumer Model?
I called LaserLand here in the Bay Area to ask to see if they carry the desk stand for this display model, to my surprise, they told me it should have come with it? I said huh!? This is the Panasonic model, not Nec or Pioneer (I'm not sure which one but one did came with feet as I remember a post here about it). The salesman insist that it should have come with one, I told him that it didn't, it says on Panasonic's website, catalog, manual that this is an optional accessory, anyway I ended up telling him thanks for checking, but I thought being one of the high end shops in Silicon Valley they would know their product well, I went to their place last week to check out the Pioneer Pro 1000.
One of the most annoying thing with my old Sony XBR Wega was scan lines, with this display, it's all smooth!!!
Just my .02,
Jeff
ps. Somehow watching broadcast TV, even on Satellite doesn't look the same anymore...
For those who are still waiting for this display, be patient, it is WELL WORTH IT !!!
A little time line:
Ordered the unit last Wednesday, order status states that it is scheduled to ship on 1/7/2002. Friday afternoon, I decided to CANCEL my order by submitting a customer resolution form on Dell's website to cancel my order due to the fact that it was on backorder and won't be shipping until next year. Monday night I decided to check my order status on Dell's website to make sure that my order was indeed cancelled as I was also thinking of ordering the Nec display (sight unseen). To my surprised, my order stated it was SHIPPED, I said WHAT?!! I almost fell out of my chair as I can't believe it shipped, after hearing from the folks here who ordered this unit from the beginning of the month who still have shipdates of December/January. I thought for sure that there was a mistake somewhere... well morning came and the fedex guy showed up (it was raining), he asked to see if I could give him a hand since he said he was all by himself, I was a little shock since I was expecting this thing to be on some sort of a wooden crate, but it was just shipped in its regular box packaging. I automatically said to my self, Uh oh... this is not good, though I didn't see any dent on the box it made me worry that that only protection it had was just the styro stuff inside. The fedex guy ask if this was one of those wall tv thing and of course with a huge grin on my face
List of dvd movies I've watched so far:
Star Wars, Toy Story 1&2, Bugs Life, Antz, The Fifth Element (Superbit), Sleepless in Seattle, Pretty Woman, Star Ship Troopers, Crouching Tiger (Superbit).
- No dead pixel
- No lip-synch problems that I can tell
- Pretty quiet, slight hmmm, only audible when you stick you ear behind the unit (it seems like mine have the the updated chips), my stand alone Tivo and DVD player makes more noise than this thing.
- No problems so far (knocking on wood).
- This display brings out the best in DVD, unfortunately it also brings out the worst, some first gen dvd's shows crappy grainess (Pretty Woman & Sleepless).
- I enabled WOBBLING and you can notice when it shifts the picture a bit.
The only question I have is:
On the back unit, it says that this is the Broadcast Model, I thought mine was the Consumer Model?
I called LaserLand here in the Bay Area to ask to see if they carry the desk stand for this display model, to my surprise, they told me it should have come with it? I said huh!? This is the Panasonic model, not Nec or Pioneer (I'm not sure which one but one did came with feet as I remember a post here about it). The salesman insist that it should have come with one, I told him that it didn't, it says on Panasonic's website, catalog, manual that this is an optional accessory, anyway I ended up telling him thanks for checking, but I thought being one of the high end shops in Silicon Valley they would know their product well, I went to their place last week to check out the Pioneer Pro 1000.
One of the most annoying thing with my old Sony XBR Wega was scan lines, with this display, it's all smooth!!!
Just my .02,
Jeff
ps. Somehow watching broadcast TV, even on Satellite doesn't look the same anymore...