Mini review of Panny TH-42PZ85U

[annunaki]

I just set up my brother's new Panasonic TH-42PZ85U. I used the Avia disc for adjustment and "calibrated" in the Standard mode.

The Color Management and C.A.T.S. were set to off. The Color Temperature was set to Warm, the black level was set to light*.

Picture (Contrast) +74

Brightness +57

Color +54

Tint -7

Sharpness +14


All in all this set looks really nice and the image really pops. The blacks looked very nice and HD material looked fantastic. The colors were very nice & natural with slight oversaturation in the green & red but this is pretty normal with most Panny's. This could only be remedied with a full ISF calibration (which my brother will not pay for) which will yield small gains (i.e. diminishing returns).

*The black level was set to light since the dark mode it seemed to crush most all black level detail.



The remote, as always with Panasonic, was a joy to use. Simplistic layout and big buttons are very much welcome. The overall look of the set (excluding picture) is very nice and clean. The layout of the connection panel is simple & straight forward with no problems that I could come up with. The SD card slot (which has become a Panasonic trandemark) is a great touch.

I would have no issue with this set in my home. Very much recommended.

 

[Alex2507]

I just had my sister in OK buy a TH-50PZ85U and I have a TH-50PZ77U mostly because you and bandphan speak highly of them. I like mine and look forward to calibrating my sister's come Christmas time with an Avia II disc.

Thanks for continuously posting about the PQ of these sets and the non issue of burn in/image retention associated with them. Getting info from you guys has been my pleasure. I have tried on several occasions to pass this wisdom on to others but people just don't take me seriously.

I can't say I blame them.

 

[annunaki]

Thanks for the kind words Alex. I hope the sets have been working fine for you & your sister.

 

[Alex2507]

Her TV is waiting for me to reconfigure a room, assemble an entertainment center/TV stand:

and hook up the usual suspects (PS3, Yammy 663, 7.2 surround). Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

My set has been pretty nice. When people see it I take a minute or 8 to explain to them that if they look out the sliding glass door and back at the TV, the TV should be no more 'real' (vibrant) than what they see outside with natural sunlight. If they absolutely need the pic to pop, I set it to Vivid Mode for them.

The choppy motion (artifacts?) that my previous disposable LCD had during camera pans are nowhere to be seen. What's nice about watching this display is that you just watch it and never notice anything wrong, the only thing to pay attention to is the content of the source material.

Sooner or later Blu-ray will happen for me and I probably won't be able to contain myself at first. After a while I imagine I will get use to it and will have joined the ranks of true A/V snobbery.

I will say one bad thing about it: this thing is a huge heat source. My consumption of electricity had gone up due to the A/C running more. Now that winter is setting in we leave the windows open.

 

[annunaki]

I am a bit surprised there was not more interest in this thread?