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The Panasonic TH-42PD50U Plasma TV
By admin | November 15, 2007
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What You Get…
The Panasonic TH-42PD50U plasma offers a 42-inch screen display in EDTV and has a widescreen format ratio of 16:9. The resolution is 853 X 480 in EDTV. It comes complete with built-in bottom mounted speakers that are NOT detachable, a built in NTSC and ATSC model tuner, remote, and a stand. It is completely silver except for the viewing area, of course, and it measures around 30.5” tall with the stand. It is 42” in width and the body is about 4” in depth.
The Basics…
The TH-42PD50U is the replacement for the discontinued TH-42PD25U which was last year’s best seller and I believe its going to live up to those same expectations. The model contains the plasma panel that Panasonic is famous for. This panel has a good long life, almost never has any image retention, and offers much better brightness.
The Picture…
The Panasonic TH-42PD50U offers amazing contrast (which is standard) as well as a nice sharp picture. The range is unbelievable! The contrast can be adjusted by the user and each area of contrast offers a scale from +30 to -30 which give the user great customizable results. It can reproduce realistic colors and tones with awesome clarity. The gray scaling on this particular model allows very fine viewing of those darker scenes and the resolution was absolutely stellar as was the visibility.
There are also several preset picture settings available on the TH-42PD50U. I liked the “Cinema” setting best but the “Vivid” mode was nice as well - providing that there is a good amount of light in the room. The downside was the glare reduction method which was not all that effective.
All the Rest…
The menu was refreshing and unique; offering various options for incredible control of features. It offers the correct amount of jacks for this day and age and you can easily connect it to virtually any input source.
The tuner that is built-in can react a little slowly at some points and it can take a second to switch the channel if you have a weaker broadcast signal. Of course, all in all, it is up to par with any other model on the market in this area.
The bottom mounted speakers offer 16 watts of total power but that is more than required for a model of this size. The sound quality was fantastic and even at the highest volume the sound did not become distorted. The Panasonic TH-42PD50U also has equalizers that assist the user in limiting the difference in volume when switching channels.
The user manual is very well written and easy to read and understand. The comprehensive information is a refreshing change from some of the other models that I have recently reviewed.
The Panasonic TH-42PD50U also comes with a universal remote control capable of controlling up to 7 devices. This is a very nice addition to the package. I can always use an awesome remote like this!
The Bang for Your Buck…
In the more popular stores the model runs around $2499.00 and the street or internet price is probably somewhere around $2000.00 but overall I believe that the Panasonic TH-42PD50U is a great deal for the price. I do not think that any other plasma on the market currently can even come near the quality for the price that this model is being offered at. Go ahead and compare but I refuse to believe that you will find another offering so sweet.
Topics: Panasonic Plasma TVs, Plasma TV Reviews |