New Plasma by Panasonic - Viera P42G10 (Launched in India)

Bangalore Panasonic auth dealer offered me for 72.5K that too with 15 days of waiting period

Hi all, thanks for the input on Panasonic 42G10 on this forum...I bought a one from unilet showroom, bangalore today for 64.5k + Reebok watch worth around 2500 (total crap though)...I was waiting for G10 from couple of weeks and the best price quoted by Panasonic showroom in bangalore was 71k...so just bought it ..However on the box it says made in singapore...Does Pana has a manufacturing plant for panels in singapore r they just assembled it?. Just wondering whether the quality n price of panel differs from place to place for G10

thanks

Best in black - Panasonic
Best in clour reproduction - Samsung (18 bit panel)
Best in features - LG.

Do NOT go to LG if your primary objective is black levels. You have been WARNED!
LG has black levels greater than LCDs but nowhere near plasmas. Featurewise they are the leader.


G10 makes sense at this point only if you have a blue ray player and disk collection. Getting G10 believing on 1080p transmission in india is like aiming a stone at the moon.
I can with much guarentee say that 1080p transmission is >10 years in india. The 720p TVs can handle 720p and 1080i transmssions BETTER than G10.

For the price of G10, You can get a 50" samsung plasma (<60k) and then save some. By 10 years when and if 1080p transmission comes to india, A much better and much much more afordable 1080p TV will be available in the mainstream market.

Another way to think of it is if you buy an X10 instead of G10 today and deposit the difference (~20k) in the bank, You will have enough money and more when 1080p transmission is available in india to BUY A NEW 1080P TV with the savings. You will have both the 720p and 1080p TVs in hand then.

Buy G10 only if you have access to blueray content (period)

My analysis made me believe the below..
Best in PQ - Big TV
Best in Customer Service - TATA Sky
Best in packages - Airtel
Best in south Packages - SUN DTH

Blasto, thanks for your thoughts and congrats on your TV. :-)

I, however, do not agree with your reasoning for choosing an HD Ready set and not going for a full HD one. While I understand that full HD transmission is not likely to be made available anytime soon, the truth is HD Ready transmission is also not available at the moment and will all likelyhood not be available for a yr or more. The argument of waiting for better models till the time full HD content is available applies for HD Ready as well. Why not wait till HD broadcast in India starts before you buy any kind of an LCD/Plasma?

If one really wants to buy an LCD/Plasma at the moment, there are really two existing sources of HD content.. downloaded files from the net and blu rays/console games. Let me look at this one by one.

Regarding downloaded files from the net, you can get 1080p rips, just as you can get 720p rips. Going forward, as the world moves to blu rays and HD Ready sets are much lesser in demand in the west (our source for ripped files), 1080p rips would most likely be easier to get than 720p rips.

As for blu rays, I do understand that present prices make them difficult to buy outright, but there are already rental services in India for blu rays (Rent Movies | Buy DVD Movies Online at Lowest Price - Movie Mart). Others like bigflix, seventymm will also soon add blu ray disks to their lineups. Yes, one does have to buy a ps3 or another blu ray player.

My personal view is that if you really want to enjoy the shift to HD from SD, you'll not be wowed by a 50" 720P set. At smaller sizes where it's difficult to tell the difference between HD and HD Ready at the buyer's viewing distance, there could still be a case for HD Ready sets. But even then, i personally would prefer sitting closer to a full HD set to appreciate the higher resolution rather than sitting farther away from an HD Ready set to make the resolution benefit diluted. If you are spending 50-60 grand or more on a new TV set, you surely want to be wowed! Don't you?

I perfectly agree to your comments. I will not buy a 720p set if I cannot play 1080p videos in it. But in all reality, 1080p looks as much better in an 720p set as it is in a 1080p set. Atleast at that level of detail, You would not be able to tell the difference betwen the sets when viewed from "normal" viewing distance.

Owning a 720p TV, I can guarentee that you can see a very good picture from 5 feet if the feed is HD.

What matters is the SD quality in which 720p sets are superior to 1080p sets (or atleast on par).

Misleading my earlier post may be, Iam still not recomending a 720p 50" TV as I have not personally demoed them. But for a 42", 720p plasma is great from my experience. The reviews from various places like amazon suggest that 720p is still great for 50".

Again, Iam NOT recommending ANY 720p LCDs. I don't have sufficient knowledge in them to give any suggestion.

Thanks again for your thoughts, Blasto. Glad you are enjoying your TV. :-)

I think we disagree on the value of a 720P set, especially at higher sizes. I could try to elaborate on this, but i'd only be repeating myself for most part.

Just wanted to say one thing. I don't think "But in all reality, 1080p looks as much better in an 720p set as it is in a 1080p set." is true. G10 owners in this thread can elaborate on it, i'm sure. If possible, would be great if you could visit one of the G10 owners and try out a blu ray. I'm specifically talking about G10 because a Full HD plasma to HD Ready plasma would probably be a fairer comparison than Full HD LCD vs HD Ready plasma.

Anyway, everyone is perfectly entitled to their views and none of us are "absolute experts" here. What matters in the end is that you are happy with your TV. Best wishes.

Hey Guys,

After years of waiting for the "right" TV, I finally took the plunge and got the 42G10 delivered today for 68k. Have been loving every minute of it.

I had initially no hopes of getting one because everywhere I asked in Bangalore, they said they were out of stock . The Panasonic brand shop guy gave an availability only at the end of January '10 and quoted a price of 75k.

I then saw that a fellow enthusiast "JamesBondu" had posted in this thread about getting his 42G10 just a couple of weeks back. He was good enough to give me the contact details of a person from the Unilet store from where he got his set.

I then started calling all the unilet stores in Bangalore and finally got a positive response from the contact given by JamesBondu. He told me they have just one set remaining with them. He quoted a price of 70k. I asked him to price-match JamesBondu's price of 64.5k but he was unwilling to do it. After a lot of haggling, I was able to get the price down to 68k . But I so badly wanted this TV, I was willing to spend the extra couple of thousand on it.

I will be purchasing a Blu-ray player and a surround system later this month so cannot talk about the "home theatre" experience at the moment

Hey elcaro

How is the standard defination picture quality. (Cable / DTH / DVD)

I would be thanful if you describe in detail with your viewing distance

All the reviews I had read were not too happy with the 576i > 1080p upscaling capabilities of this set. So I was a bit apprehensive at first.
But I was very happy and pleasantly surprised to see the SDTV quality much better than I had expected.

Setup:
Tatasky - via Component
LD DVD Player - via Component ( yet to buy HDMI )

Viewing Distance:
13 feet - I found this distance to be optimum. My initial seating was at 10 feet but at this distance, the imperfections in the Tatasky picture were too visible and was putting me off. My wife was also complaining about eye-strain at this distance.
I found 13 feet to be optimum for DVD too.

Picture Settings:
For the break-in period, here are my settings ( from avforums.com)

Normal or Cinema mode
Warm Temp
Contrast 50% or lower
Brightness 45% (this is perfect before and after break-in)
Colour (up to you but id say 40% max)
Sharpness 0% for blu-rays and 30-40% for freeview/SD
Enhancements - off


With these settings, watching DVD movies was a treat. The black level was amazing and so was the contrast. One advertised feature of the NeoPDP panel was the improved brightness comparable to LCD panels. I was really able to make out the increased brightness ( or so I think )

Well, here's my short review. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the HD capabilities of this set until I get my Blu-ray set later this month.

42" should be great at a distance of 10 feet?
How was DVD images without imperfections from this distance?

Thanks,