1080p HDTV Blog

Panasonic Viera TH 42PZ800U 42 Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

42″ widescreen HDTV (16:9 aspect ratio) * built-in digital (ATSC) and analog (NTSC) tuners for over-the-air TV broadcasts (antenna required) *

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars A great buy!
This is the second Panasonic plasma HDTV that I have bought. I bought my first one back in 2006. That one is great and the picture and quality are fantasitc. But my new Panasonic Viera TH42PZ800U 42″ plasma 1080p blows my old one out of the water. Granted my new plasma is 2 years newer than my first, but the picture and colors are great. I also bought a Blue-Ray player (Panasonic of course) and the DVD’s play great on the plasma. For the money, you can not go wrong with this Panasonic model.

So in short, if you are in the market for a new plasma HDTV, you should definitely consider buying this plasma (or another Panasonic plasma).

4 Stars Decent TV, not the best speakers
The TV itself is very good. Nice resolution and color, multitude of inputs etc.

The only real complaints I’ve found so far is that it does NOT have any form of PiP (Picture in Picture). Most people probably don’t care, but I sometimes find it a nice feature. Also, the closed captioning option can only be OFF or ON - there is no option for the captions to be displayed only when muted, so every time you want to mute audio AND see captions, you have to go through and turn on captions, then mute, then undo all that to go back to normal operation. Slight annoyance.

Finally, the speakers aren’t that great. With high bass levels, there’s a lot of humm and buzz produced, which detracts a lot from the audio quality, and requires a lot of adjustment. If you plan to use this TV with some sort of external audio system, that won’t be an issue, but if you want to use only the enclosed speakers and especially if you watch a lot of music videos, it could be a real problem.

5 Stars Quality blows me away
I decided to spend a little more on this model. In addition to the improved picture quality, card reader and extra HDMI input I chose this because it was crafted from a single sheet of glass and had a swivel stand (the tv sits in a corner and allow us to swivel to face the kitchen if we need).

I did a lot of research on TVs and knew I wanted a Panasonic plasma from the outset. The picture quality is excellent (colors and blacks are extremely well defined), menu’s easy to navigate and the THX certification was noticeable when you switched - particularly on DVDs. All in all a great price for this TV and a solid, good looking performer.

5 Stars Expectations Met. Period.
I researched this tv for 3 months before pulling the trigger. I was only disapointed in paying a buck fifty more then what I could have gotten it for but the price has since risen since.

I purchased the Plasma on 10/3 and right out of the box it was great. The picture was great and that was just in Standard. I got the HD receiver three days after and thats when I really fell in love with it. It is also good to note that you can not find this tv in retail stores. I actually had a saleman at Circuit City tell me that the 42pz800u didn’t exsist.

The only draw back on this Plasma that i could actually complain about would be the sound. Not the best but not the worst. Nothing a cheap home sound system couldn’t fix. This Panasonic gets a 10. If there’s a Plasma better, well…I won’t worry about that for some years to come.

Tom

South Jersey

5 Stars Is this tv really worth $1700 ????
Is this tv really worth $1700 ???? You can get the 85u 42″ for $1,000 !!!!

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