Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80

Panasonic TH-42PX80

The Panasonic TH-42PX80 sports a design that features subtle upward curve at the base of the screen along with a wedge shaped pedestal that makes it stand out from the crowd of shiny black flat panel TVs.

Features

The Panasonic TH-42PX80 features 3 HDMI inputs including a PC/ VGA input along with 2 SCARTs and the usual composite, component and S-video inputs. Additionally, the Panasonic TH-42PX80 also comes with an SD card slot. Besides that, it also features 100 Hz processing with a contrast ratio of up to 10000:1 to 15000: resolution. In terms of the screen, it measures 42 inches in size with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. Besides that, it uses a DVB-T digital tuner and Nicam sound system. Other features include V-real picture processing and integrated Freeview. In addition to that, the Panasonic TH-42PX80 has a Game Mode that has been designed to minimize time lag when displaying game images on screen to synchronize the game image to the player’s movements to create a more involving gaming experience. Although there are no major advances to the V-real picture processing engine, it now sports a 16-bi processor. Other than that, the Panasonic TH-42PX80 also incorporates Viera Link technology that uses high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connections to automatically control similarly enabled devices using a single remote. Besides that, the Panasonic TH-42PX80 also has superb colour and an incredible level of accuracy and saturation that allows colours to appear deep and natural while skin tones remain subtle and believable. The Panasonic TH-42PX80 also has unbelievable motion handling with no evidence of smearing at anytime, even with the quickest movie action sequences or sporting action.

Review Summary

Panasonic TH-42PX80 is a 42in plasma TV with a high contrast ratio of 15000:1. It includes 1080p/24 feeds from Blu-ray players and the latest embodiment of Panasonic’s V-Real Pro picture processing engine, and features 100Hz processing, all combined to make images look slightly brighter and unwavering. The images are very sharp with no blurring at all. Colours look radiant and above all natural, and video noise is at a minimum irrespective of whether you’re watching standard or high definition. The 100Hz engine reduces flickering effects without causing any serious image side effects. However the same thing cannot be said for the sound. The Panasonic TH-42PX80’s sound isn’t as remarkable as its pictures though it is good. Reviewers from avreview.co.uk are more or less satisfied with the Panasonic TH-42PX80 excellent picture quality and good feature count; however they found that some rich red colours take more of an orange tone. Reviewers from hdtvtest.co.uk find the multilayered plasma glass to create some sort of "ghost image"; that is a white text on a black background can be seen behind the original image, and this becomes noticeable from some certain angles. But they agree that the Panasonic TH42PX80 represents a gradual development and change rather than innovative improvement over its predecessor the PX70 series. They consider it worth buying due to its inexpensive price.