Warm? Panasonic 42" 1080p Plasma and Blu-Ray Player for $1299 at Fry's

ScotteusMaximus

Limp Gawd
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I missed this in Friday's ad because of the way Fry's advertises ($1799 before savings), but they have the Panasonic TH-42PZ77U and a free Panasonic Blu-Ray player for $1299. Sales tax kind of hurts the deal, but if you're in the market for a new TV, Panasonic plasmas are hard to beat.

The Fry's near me was sold out and wouldn't do rain checks, but my friend said that they'd do an "oversell," where you pay for it ahead of time and pick it up when they have it in stock. He went yesterday and is getting it next week. Of course, ymmv as to whether or not your local Fry's will honor the deal.
 
Panasonic plasmas are hard to beat.

Actually, they're pretty easy to beat with any Pioneer Plasma. But that's a different story.

The deal is certainly a good one, considering a minimum of $399 for a Blu-ray player, makes this 1080p Plasma $900, which is pretty darn nice.
 
This is a pretty hot deal.

I have a Sharp 1080p LCD for about that price from 6 months ago and I think Panasonic plasmas have better pq.
 
How do these TV's handle burn in? Could it be used sometimes as a computer monitor? I use a 37" LCD in my room and it's working out fine, but I heard plasmas aren't suitable to be used as computer monitors. This would be used in the living room as a family TV hooked up to a media center PC.
 
^^As long as you are smart about it and don't leave a static image on the screen forever, you'll be fine. Word on the street is the Panasonic factory practically abuses the crap out of these before they are even distributed to make sure image retention and burn-in (two different things) don't become an issue. I have the 720p version of this tv I just paid $1,199 for so this is certainly a smoking deal. That tv alone, is about $1500 at the local BB and CC. The tv itself, has an awesome picture that beats the chit out of any LCD anywhere close to the same price.

If it were a Samsung, I'd caution against use as a HTPC screen as they seem to have more of an issue with image retention.
 
How do these TV's handle burn in? Could it be used sometimes as a computer monitor? I use a 37" LCD in my room and it's working out fine, but I heard plasmas aren't suitable to be used as computer monitors. This would be used in the living room as a family TV hooked up to a media center PC.

Once plasmas hit their third gen most of the burn in issues went away. Not even sure how far they have come since it has been a while dealing with them. Generaly unless you leave something up on the screen a very long time you should be fine.
 
i've been doing a TON of hdtv research, these panasonics are probably the best you can do short of a pioneer kuro.
 
I don't know how this Panasonic plasma might compare to a Hitachi Plasma, but I will say that if you're going to watch movies in 2.40, I.E Black bars, you might have some "burn in" or light shadowing after a good amount of time. Or that might just be my cheap ass tv
 
^^Hitachi's are actually very good sets. It just seems that some plasmas are better about image retention than others. For instance, I had an LG that was horrible about image retention. Samsungs also have a problem with IR from what I have read. As long as it goes away after a few minutes or in my LG's case, a few hours:mad:, it is just the inherent nature of plasma screens.

Image retention and burn-in are two different things. Image retention is watching something with black bars, or say watching ESPN and noticing after you change the channel, you can still see the outline of the sports ticker. If it goes away after watching something else, it's image retention and only temporary. If it is permanent, it is burn-in. Some say permanent burn-in is way overblown. I tend to somewhat agree, because everywhere I go where they have plasmas mounted on the walls such as restaurants, I never notice them having burn-in and those suckers are on cable news channels all the time (which is a big no no if you listen to some). And yes I am a geek and actually looking for it:D. Plasma technology has been around awhile now and burn-in is much less of an issue as it used to be. Especially in Panasonic's case as they are on their 7th generation of plasma sets and I think Pioneer are on their 9th or 10th. Just like anything else, the technology improves.

Thankfully, the IR was enough on my LG to convince me to return it to Best Buy during the 30 day return policy and I now have a Panasonic plasma (same as one at Fry's, but 720p) that is no where close to having the same IR issues the LG had.
 
Smoking hot deal. I picked up my Panny 42" for $1499 3 months ago and it was a good deal then. THIS is amazing.

A word about image retention and burn-in:

Image retention can be called "temporary burn-in". It's ugly, it's distracting unless you're watching moving images, and I dislike it. I would not use this as my primary monitor. I currently use it as my primary HTPC display with a small LCD screen as backup in case I want to change config.

I believe permanent burn-in is no longer a problem. Temporary image retention goes away with 5-15 minutes of playing full-motion video.
 
I have the Panny 42" 720p version, I didn't pay much on boxing day as PC Richards was getting rid of them for only 700$, but the image quality is amazing, blows away my friend's 1080p LCD in blacks and sharpness. Getting this for ~900$ is amazing for non-Black Friday
 
I just get nervous because it's in that specific spot, and I don't want those phosphors to stay like that forever.

I feel somewhat cheated that I can't, or choose not to watch movies in 2.40 because I fear I'll get image retention. I know my TV has this "SWIPE" feature that blankets the screen in grey...i'm assuming it's to clear it?
 
I own this TV and can say that I am very happy with it. This model has anti-glare built into the screen which in my case is awesome as the TV is in a room where 3 out of the 4 walls are full of windows. Before this TV, daytime TV was unwatchable in this room on a CRT.

That price is quite good. Normal B&M retail is about $1799 for this TV but you can often find it on sale for $200-$400 less. $1299 is a common online price, but the blu-ray would make this deal hot.

If you research this TV you'll find some people complain that the anti-glare has a slight impact on picture quality. For me, its slightly noticeable if I am within 4 feet of the TV but if I am any farther away I can't really see it. Some people say the anti-glare makes it look a bit more like an LCD.

The speakers on this TV are completely adequate for average use but if you are thinking of a home theater you'll definitely want a separate sound system.
 
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