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

[intelxeon]

Here comes the pics


out of the box.

It is TH-P42G10D

Remote. Looks and feels solid. (can not find the {INFO} button to get to the service menu?), but was able to get to the Hotel Menu (-V and AV on remote together - 3 times...)

Advanced settings (looks like P42G10D is a european version?). Tweaked the Gamma and Blues

Playing some Alizee clips from my laptop - SD

More pics

Final thought - really love the set. Vibrant colors. Toned down the brightness and contrast for the first 200 hrs. SD through Hathway look good (sometime soft due the quality). No Ethernet port (?, no big deal).
Overall - very happy with the set.

 

[pm123]

Hey but the panasonic website in india still does not list this model. I enquired about this model in the panasonic brand shop in kolkata and they haven't heard of it.

Piyush.

 

[intelxeon]

Hey but the panasonic website in india still does not list this model. I enquired about this model in the panasonic brand shop in kolkata and they haven't heard of it.

Piyush.

I got it from Panasonic Brand Shop, Bangalore. It is available from last Friday. Give them a couple of weeks to gets the stocks in.

Even here at Bangalore, they told me that they have never heard of G10 a couple of weeks ago. Talk to the brand shop owner/manager.

 

[reignofchaos]

Awesome - absolutely awesome . We have the US/Euro version of the G10 which is better than the UK G10. It has white balance and gamma. I'm getting it next week :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

intelxeon can you confirm - does your TV have THX mode?

 

[theEnd]

Congratulations on your purchase intelxeon!

Could you please answer one question for me. Does the tv have a THX mode? I've been confused after reading many reviews, some of which say that the G10 has the THX mode and some of which say this is only available on the V10.

 

[reignofchaos]

Congratulations on your purchase intelxeon!

Could you please answer one question for me. Does the tv have a THX mode? I've been confused after reading many reviews, some of which say that the G10 has the THX mode and some of which say this is only available on the V10.

Exactly the same thing I'm wondering too - The panasonic USA site says THX mode exists in the G10 while hdtvtest mentions that THX mode doesn't exist.

 

[Stauffenberg]

Beautiful intelxeon!! Looking at this makes me want to get one of this rather than a PV8 or a PV80 :clapping:

I can see that you are from Bangalore too, How much did you pick this for?

 

[TechHead]

Very nice! THX mode, anyone?
US/Euro model FTW.

 

[suprateep]

me a geek.....me wants a hyeah: pana g10

BTW congrats man on this fantastic purchase...........

 

[Reds4ever]

Congrats on your G10 purchase, Intelxeon and great to see that you are really happy with it.

I was also initially quite keen on this set and am glad to see that it's finally available in India.

Having said that, I'm mightily disappointed that it doesn't have a USB port for playing SD/HD media (like Samsung B650 or LG models). Please correct me if it actually does have that.

To me, that's a deal breaker. With television still being SD, Not having a USB port where u can plug-in a hard-drive or a USB stick seriously limits the sources of actual HD content for playing on this TV, thus defeating the purpose of buying such an outstanding TV in the first place. I do own a PS3 but it doesn't support MKV yet, thus limiting its potential as a media player. Up-scaling, albeit quite good, is not why you buy a full HD TV.

Hoping to either have MKV file support in the PS3 through a firmware update soon or HD TV channels available before I can take the plunge.

 

[intelxeon]

Beautiful intelxeon!! Looking at this makes me want to get one of this rather than a PV8 or a PV80 :clapping:

I can see that you are from Bangalore too, How much did you pick this for?

75K (they gave out a phone worth Rs500 and 3 DVDs free)

 

[intelxeon]

Awesome - absolutely awesome . We have the US/Euro version of the G10 which is better than the UK G10. It has white balance and gamma. I'm getting it next week :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

intelxeon can you confirm - does your TV have THX mode?

No THX. Sorry guys.

 

[suprateep]

Congrats on your G10 purchase, Intelxeon and great to see that you are really happy with it.

I was also initially quite keen on this set and am glad to see that it's finally available in India.

Having said that, I'm mightily disappointed that it doesn't have a USB port for playing SD/HD media (like Samsung B650 or LG models). Please correct me if it actually does have that.

To me, that's a deal breaker. With television still being SD, Not having a USB port where u can plug-in a hard-drive or a USB stick seriously limits the sources of actual HD content for playing on this TV, thus defeating the purpose of buying such an outstanding TV in the first place. I do own a PS3 but it doesn't support MKV yet, thus limiting its potential as a media player. Up-scaling, albeit quite good, is not why you buy a full HD TV.

Hoping to either have MKV file support in the PS3 through a firmware update soon or HD TV channels available before I can take the plunge.

how can the absence of an SD card make a dealbreaker???

1. People should buy a TV for the picture quality first - some value add features come next - USB card for SD movie playback is one of them. While Samsung LG others do offer this option (seen in LG60 plasma - the playback features are far from effective - no active ff/rw - and being limited to divx/xivd - i did not see mkv being played).

2. HDTV (will be 720p at max in India that too after 2-3 years maybe) will take some time to launch in India - till then we would be happy with tatasky/dishtv - and if you have ever seen tata sky on a full HD TV you will be in for a shock. My neighbour has LG80 Jazz which i think is one of the best Full HD LCD tv from thr LG stable - problem is he complains how the tatasky PQ in his TV is worse than my Pana PV8. I do not understand the Full HD hullaboollo when there is a lakc of HD content in the first place. BTW I have tried a lot of HD BR rips/isos on my HTPC and PV8 at full HD 1080/720p inputs (pana scales to 720p) and it looks fantastic. Colours are excellant and so are the details.

3. Please do an audition with proper equipment - do not be encouraged by HD content being played in a showroom on mulitple displays - sonys look a lot redder, samsungs more brighter hence tend to catch to a buyers attention and in India 90% of the people buy stuff lie that. Take you sources and see.

4. Regarding mkv playback - dunno if sony is going to support that - mkv is a container and is used a lot for h264, brrips - so sony might want to prevent piracy so not support it at least in the short run. BTW if dedicated media boxes like popcorn hour etc sometimes have problems with mkv - what to expect from TVs man.

Still if you want an all round solution - go for the newer Samsungs they do a lot more than offering a slightly offcolour PQ

 

[GeoTracks]

My neighbour has LG80 Jazz which i think is one of the best Full HD LCD tv from thr LG stable - problem is he complains how the tatasky PQ in his TV is worse than my Pana PV8.

Forum members, in comparision with the LG80 Jazz, would the new Full HD SONYs with BE3 fair better in terms of PQ with TATA SKY or other dish network STBs?

 

[suprateep]

Forum members, in comparision with the LG80 Jazz, would the new Full HD SONYs with BE3 fair better in terms of PQ with TATA SKY or other dish network STBs?

ok here is my take....

I checked sony x series and w series side by side in a sony showroom using tata sky - there was no difference wrt PQ and was not acceptable - simply because of the poor quality of tata sky. Looks ok till 32" on HD ready TVs. - anything over the screen size - there is a lot of noise etc.

The ZX series with BE3 was obscenely priced - and was not available but as people at the showroom suggested - its same only that the PQ is smoother and judder free in comparision to old LCD's - blame the response time.

Then I tried the Samsung 40" LED TV elsewhere - looked great from a distance but Quantum of solace looked much better on the Sony wrt blacks. And wrt Airtel TV - they all looked horrible - samsung series full HD, LG scarlet, Sony V/W series. It was more to do with the source than teh TVs themselves.

So while a PQ of the full HD tvs are good when you have hd content - in lack of HD content they look horrible.

Also understand when you go to a showroom - they play HD stuff that has been created by the manufacturers themselves to suit the TVs, plus:

1. You will see an emphasis on reds and contrast with sony - that attracts initially. Back home on normal SD content you will be hard to fidn that perfect picture. BTW the sony V and W series also have a slightly more processed visuals that look okay for certail genres of films and animation - looks bad on other occasions.
2. Samsungs have some colour issues plus they do not do blacks well.
3. LG - usually sucks but are VFM anyday. Plus the JAzz is actually a superb HD tv that never got the fan following.
4. Panasonic - though i am a pana fanboy - and the PQ is classic on a hd ready tvs, most of my friends in other forums say the full HD panny suffers from the same issues the full hd sonys suffer with poor sd content. Again there is a slight emphasis of green - as I found out while calibrating my PV8 and the white and RGB balances are hidden away in the service menu - that take sbrownie points away - but with the newer g10 models this menu available - this makes a fantastic tv

 

[theEnd]

1. You will see an emphasis on reds and contrast with sony - that attracts initially. Back home on normal SD content you will be hard to fidn that perfect picture. BTW the sony V and W series also have a slightly more processed visuals that look okay for certail genres of films and animation - looks bad on other occasions.
2. Samsungs have some colour issues plus they do not do blacks well.
3. LG - usually sucks but are VFM anyday. Plus the JAzz is actually a superb HD tv that never got the fan following.
4. Panasonic - though i am a pana fanboy - and the PQ is classic on a hd ready tvs, most of my friends in other forums say the full HD panny suffers from the same issues the full hd sonys suffer with poor sd content. Again there is a slight emphasis of green - as I found out while calibrating my PV8 and the white and RGB balances are hidden away in the service menu - that take sbrownie points away - but with the newer g10 models this menu available - this makes a fantastic tv

so many tvs, so many problems. I guess the only solution for those who are very critical is to go out and find a Pioneer Kuro!

I'm still in a dilemma about my tv choice. Have to pick it up within 10 days, and cant decide between the 46" Samsung B650, 46" Sony V5500 and the 42" Panasonic G10.

Back to the original topic... its too bad the G10 doesn't have the THX mode. I wonder if Panasonic will be launching the V10 in India soon.

 

[Reds4ever]

how can the absence of an SD card make a dealbreaker???

1. People should buy a TV for the picture quality first - some value add features come next - USB card for SD movie playback is one of them. While Samsung LG others do offer this option (seen in LG60 plasma - the playback features are far from effective - no active ff/rw - and being limited to divx/xivd - i did not see mkv being played).

2. HDTV (will be 720p at max in India that too after 2-3 years maybe) will take some time to launch in India - till then we would be happy with tatasky/dishtv - and if you have ever seen tata sky on a full HD TV you will be in for a shock. My neighbour has LG80 Jazz which i think is one of the best Full HD LCD tv from thr LG stable - problem is he complains how the tatasky PQ in his TV is worse than my Pana PV8. I do not understand the Full HD hullaboollo when there is a lakc of HD content in the first place. BTW I have tried a lot of HD BR rips/isos on my HTPC and PV8 at full HD 1080/720p inputs (pana scales to 720p) and it looks fantastic. Colours are excellant and so are the details.

3. Please do an audition with proper equipment - do not be encouraged by HD content being played in a showroom on mulitple displays - sonys look a lot redder, samsungs more brighter hence tend to catch to a buyers attention and in India 90% of the people buy stuff lie that. Take you sources and see.

4. Regarding mkv playback - dunno if sony is going to support that - mkv is a container and is used a lot for h264, brrips - so sony might want to prevent piracy so not support it at least in the short run. BTW if dedicated media boxes like popcorn hour etc sometimes have problems with mkv - what to expect from TVs man.

Still if you want an all round solution - go for the newer Samsungs they do a lot more than offering a slightly offcolour PQ

Thanks for your thoughts..

First and foremost, I completely agree with you that TVs should be bought for the Picture Quality and not "extras". In my post, i never disputed that and I believe that G10 is indeed a brilliant TV (based on reviews, haven't seen it in person yet though). Having said that, i think u've completely misunderstood my point. Let me try to bring it out again..

If u r going to use an HDTV as capable as G10 for watching only SD content from Tata Sky or DVDs, it's a waste of your money and an insult to the effort put in by the manufacturer in developing such good technologies. You'd be better-off sticking to a CRT which does a great job at it at infinitely lesser cost. If you are indeed considering buying an HDTV and a seriously good one at that (a G10), the first question that pops up and which I believe everyone should consider is "how am I going to enjoy HD content on it". As I see it, there are a few ways that could be done.
- PS3
- Blue Ray Player
- HD files in MKV or other containers
- PC (with HDMI out)

Blue Ray Players are still too costly and Blue-Ray disks are as well, apart from not being easily available. Using PCs can be a way out (but full HD support is still rare). So, practically speaking, the most likely source of HD content for you is going to be HD files in MKV or other such containers. Hence, G10's lack of a USB slot where you could plug-in a hard-disk for playing HD content (MKV files) is a serious deal-breaker. Atleast, that's how it is for me.

Discounting the USB support for playing these files provided by B650 and a few LG TVs as "optional extra" is, in my opinion (you might, of course, disagree), grave injustice to the sheer practical value of this feature in really making full use of your TV's HD capability.

 

[suprateep]

Thanks for your thoughts..

First and foremost, I completely agree with you that TVs should be bought for the Picture Quality and not "extras". In my post, i never disputed that and I believe that G10 is indeed a brilliant TV (based on reviews, haven't seen it in person yet though). Having said that, i think u've completely misunderstood my point. Let me try to bring it out again..

If u r going to use an HDTV as capable as G10 for watching only SD content from Tata Sky or DVDs, it's a waste of your money and an insult to the effort put in by the manufacturer in developing such good technologies. You'd be better-off sticking to a CRT which does a great job at it at infinitely lesser cost. If you are indeed considering buying an HDTV and a seriously good one at that (a G10), the first question that pops up and which I believe everyone should consider is "how am I going to enjoy HD content on it". As I see it, there are a few ways that could be done.
- PS3
- Blue Ray Player
- HD files in MKV or other containers
- PC (with HDMI out)

Blue Ray Players are still too costly and Blue-Ray disks are as well, apart from not being easily available. Using PCs can be a way out (but full HD support is still rare). So, practically speaking, the most likely source of HD content for you is going to be HD files in MKV or other such containers. Hence, G10's lack of a USB slot where you could plug-in a hard-disk for playing HD content (MKV files) is a serious deal-breaker. Atleast, that's how it is for me.

Discounting the USB support for playing these files provided by B650 and a few LG TVs as "optional extra" is, in my opinion (you might, of course, disagree), grave injustice to the sheer practical value of this feature in really making full use of your TV's HD capability.

well i get that buddy - there is always a market for cheaper mistashi DVD players as well as higher end ones from denon to something like the all in one oppo. Yes some of the TVs do have xivd/divx playback - I I dunno how many actually end up using it - its more of a gimmick.

See I have a ps2 (capable of playback of DIVX/XIVD movies of a pen drive), a ps3, a HTPC and all these feed into the onkyo 606 and Pana PV8. And I have a growing collection of over 200 DVDs and a quite a few BRRips (downloaded from the net - which i will delete after testing).

Its not always PQ but SQ which is important as well - if someone spends a bomb on a system to listen to 2 channel sound from puny TV speakers from a BRRIP mkv h264 file - then the person should be shot.

BTW have you yourself tried playing a mkv file on the usb slots - and the quality of playback, ff/rr a file - the sheer practicality will go for a toss with the menu system and playback features.

 

[psychotropic]

if you have the budget and the space in your room, go for one of the 46 inchers for sure. The additional pleasure from 4" of screen diagonal will ceteris paribus be greater than whatever PQ improvements you would get from the 42" panasonic, and these LCDs are supposed to be excellent by all accounts (i think this is the first time i've ever recommended LCDs over plasmas ....unique circumstances )

but then for the prices of the 46" LCDs i can't help but ask why you are not considering the 50" B550 FUll HD plasma from Samsung? At least have a look at it. the MRP is 1,00,000, so street price must be at the most 95.

so many tvs, so many problems. I guess the only solution for those who are very critical is to go out and find a Pioneer Kuro!

I'm still in a dilemma about my tv choice. Have to pick it up within 10 days, and cant decide between the 46" Samsung B650, 46" Sony V5500 and the 42" Panasonic G10.

Back to the original topic... its too bad the G10 doesn't have the THX mode. I wonder if Panasonic will be launching the V10 in India soon.

 

[Reds4ever]

well i get that buddy - there is always a market for cheaper mistashi DVD players as well as higher end ones from denon to something like the all in one oppo. Yes some of the TVs do have xivd/divx playback - I I dunno how many actually end up using it - its more of a gimmick.

See I have a ps2 (capable of playback of DIVX/XIVD movies of a pen drive), a ps3, a HTPC and all these feed into the onkyo 606 and Pana PV8. And I have a growing collection of over 200 DVDs and a quite a few BRRips (downloaded from the net - which i will delete after testing).

Its not always PQ but SQ which is important as well - if someone spends a bomb on a system to listen to 2 channel sound from puny TV speakers from a BRRIP mkv h264 file - then the person should be shot.

BTW have you yourself tried playing a mkv file on the usb slots - and the quality of playback, ff/rr a file - the sheer practicality will go for a toss with the menu system and playback features.

I'm not talking about upscaling DVDs through a Mitashi or Denon or Oppo. I was talking about an HD source.

MKVs can hold 5.1 audio (AC3) which is supported by B650 and other TVs offering similar features. There's no reason why one has to live with poor 2 channel sound. Of course, MKVs can hold DTS audio as well, although that's not presently supported by B650 (not sure about others).

Anyway, I do not want to go into the argument. I think I've made my point. You have every right to have a different opinion.

Glad you are happy with your system. Best Wishes.