Lcd and Plasma Reviews

Spring is nearly upon us and as is the tradition in the world of TV manufacturers, recession or not, this year’s models are coming out in force.

The TXP42X10 is Panasonics latest middle of the range, HD ready (not full HD) plasma TV offering.

For those who can’t be bothered to read through my slightly educated ramblings, let me start by cutting to the chase and say as usual Panasonic have got it right.

We are now on, I think, the 14th generation panels from Panasonic and if they can’t get it right by now, then they might as well pack up and go home.

Personally I have been selling these screens for years and they were pretty good from day one.
Well except for the crazy price tag back then!

So to the TXP42×10 in person, to start it has Panasonics excellent 100 Hz Double Scan system providing a sharp, none blurred image for all you sports fans and for anything with a fast moving image.
This is starting to become pretty old technology now but whether we need to go beyond to 200+ like Sony, I’m not so sure. Can your eyes will notice the difference? You tell me, mine definitely can’t!

It goes without saying that this screen is HD ready, though not full HD.

For those who don’t know the difference, standard HD, or just HD, is made up from usually 1024 pixels across by 720 pixels high.
This is compared to 850px x 480px for standard resolution and 1920px x 1080px for full HD.
What this means in layman’s terms, is that with more dots/pixels in the same area those pixels are smaller.
The smaller the pixel the greater the detail we can show in a set area.

For an example of this, open up a photo on your computer.

Go on, do it now, I’m not going anywhere.

Now zoom in as far it goes.

Good, now when you zoomed in did you end up with a picture made from blocks?

Yes, well then this is how your TV works.

Now as you zoom back out the picture gets better and better, as the dots get smaller.

There is a limit to this effect, after a while you just can’t see the difference anymore.
Eyes eh? Just not what they are cracked up to be…

So how does this lack of full HD affect our Panasonic?
Well on this size screen you are just getting to the point where full HD starts to make a difference.
Anything below this and most people are hard pushed to notice any difference, above and I would definitely recommend it.

As is always my suggestion, go find yourself one HD and one full HD screen on display in your local high street and get them to show you the difference.
Trust me they won’t have much else to do at the moment.

If you really notice a difference then you know your answer, if like a lot of people you don’t, then you should be just fine at the normal HD.

The other thing to consider is where you are getting this full HD from.
As of now, Feb 2009, the only real sources for full HD are blu-ray, the PS3/Xbox 360, a serious upscaler or a pc.
The HD offering from Sky, Virgin and Freesat are only standard HD, as is likely from any future offering of Freeview HD.

This is unlikely to change in the near future due to the huge amount of bandwidth it would take to send a full HD signal using the current compression.

So to sum up on the HD, Full HD is good, but only if you have the right equipment source in the first place.
So for the majority of viewers, the HD on the Viera TXP42X10 is going to do just fine.

Coming in from the tangent and back to the Panasonic, the rest of the spec is pretty much what you would expect.

3 HDMI’s should be enough for most, one handily mounted on the side for easy access with next generation cameras, camcorders, laptops and so on.

Twin tuners are a nice touch, though in these days of twin tuner set-top boxes and DVD recorders maybe an unnecessary one.

As is seemingly becoming standard on Panasonics, the SD card reader and display is a very useful feature, though due to the various formats we all use, a multicard reader would be better.
Of course as Panasonic helped develop and market the SD card format and it still very much tied into it today I can’t see this happening anytime soon.

Colours are fairly neutral across the board and the black levels superb as we have come to expect from plasma in general and definitely from Panasonic’s Vieras.

Picture quality for both SD and HD is superb with no real faults for the human eye.
A test machine may tell a different story but I don’t let them watch TV with me, they are always moaning on about stuff I can’t even see.

Sound is reasonable but won’t be winning awards anytime soon.
This is unfortunately this case in most screens in this range and is one of the limiting features of the thinner and thinner screens we all crave.
This definitely shouldn’t distract from your choice to purchase this great set as you are not likely to get better for this price.

The TXP42X10’s finish is up to Panasonics usual high standards with a nice gloss black surround, the current trend until silver becomes popular again, in a year or two.

In summary the Panasonic TXP42X10 is well positioned as a good quality, middle of the range spec, 42″ plasma screen.
Though we are not looking at the cutting edge of plasma TVs, this is a screen that should and will take pride of place in many homes across the nation.

For the best price on the Panasonic TXP42X10 visit Cheap LCD and Plasmas

For Panasonics overview of the TXP42X10 please see page 2.

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Filed under: 42 Inch, HD Ready, Panasonic, Plasma TV by TVMan