[CBlazer]

My sister has just purchased a 32" Panasonic LCD TV (32LE8 I guess). I believe the remote doesn't have a swap button. Is this typical of Panasonics?

[cvvikram]

Hey Friends, does anybody know the price of Samsung LA32B530P7R in Bangalore after all taxes?

[VSG12777]

Originally Posted by Proxima

Samsung LCDs seem to have the best customer reviews on CNET. Is any Samsung 32in ok?

Hi Proxima

I'm also from Chennai. Just about 10 days back, we exchanged our Thomson 29 inch Fusion Plus CRT TV (100 channels with remote in good working condition) for a brand new LG Plasma TV - model 42PQ70. This is the top of the range in LG's 2009 plasma series, and is a completely frameless model with 3 HDMI ports, USB 2.0 which plays JPG, DivX and MP3, and the TV even has Bluetooth. So I can wirelessly display images from my mobile phone on the TV using bluetooth, and I can also use a bluetooth wireless stereo headset for audio.

We have bought this and put it in my parents' place. The A/V rack we had was just nice for the 42 inch plasma and it fits beautifully.

The TV itself has been amazing. We watched a couple of DVDs on it and the picture quality is superb. Big screen experience is really nice. It also has an automatic picture sensor (energy saver) which adjusts the on screen contrast, colour, brightness etc according to the ambient lighting. And this feature really works as tested by me.

The plasma cost us 46k, and we got 2.5k for the old Thomson CRT TV. Maybe LG is number 2 and Panasonic is number 1 in plasmas, but I have no regrets on this model. It is superb to say the least.

We also picked up a Philips HDMI DVD player, model 3996K for about 3.8k. The player is so compact and nicely designed, it is only slightly bigger than the Tata Sky STB. The player came with a good quality HDMI cable in the box and it plays just about any format you throw at it. The player has a USB port which plays MP3, Divx and JPG as well, and the USB port even supports DivX with 5.1 sound. I personally tested this. The player has full HD upscaling thru HDMI as well. Normal DivX rips themselves look so clear on the plasma. DVDs look really good, especially original Hindi and English ones (not the cheap 50 bucks DVDs).

I would highly recommend the LG 42PQ70 plasma. For normal TV viewing thru Tata Sky too, the picture quality is very good. The TV has a built in feature to prevent screen burn-in, where when you set it to 4:3 mode, it automatically fills up the sides with a grey shade, so that the entire screen is filled up. Features wise this TV is fully loaded. Design is very elegant and sleek. Looks far better than a PV8/PV80 for sure.

We bought this TV at a shop in Alwarpet. If you are really interested, please do PM me, and I would give you the contact details of the shop and person you can get in touch with. He will know once you mention that Venkat has referred you. 2 of my office colleagues have also picked up LG 42PQ30 and 50PQ30 (entry level models) plasmas last month on my reference.

And the best part about plasmas is that you get a lot of TV for the money. Where else can you get a nice 42 inch fully loaded TV for just 46k ? You can never get an LCD TV for that price for sure. Plasmas produce natural colour and nice blacks, along with very smooth pictures. The same movie looks so different on the plasma compared to my Samsung 19 inch widescreen LCD monitor in the computer.

Hope that helps. I shall try to upload some pictures of the TV on this thread soon.

Warm regards,
Venkat

[kannan666]

Crisp review Venkat, was thinking about going in for this model myself, do post some pics of the TV soon !

[bharanidharang]

venkat, see if u can get a video as well of the tv running. would help so many of us

[anurag_p80]

Venkat, very nice purchase and very nice review. I am also considering the same model, as mentioned a couple of pages back. Few pointers from you would help:
1. The IR, biggest achilles heel of plasmas in general. Heard LGs are particularly prone to them. While I know the set has a lot of features to prevent/ recover from IR/ burn-in, have you experienced any burn-in at all?
2. What settings are you running your set on? Presets any good?
3. What are you using for sound? TV speakers any good? Seemed decent enough at the showroom....
4. Hows the USB performance- I mean if the same video is played by the TV directly, or through your DVD player, which will look better?

EDIT: And how is the SD performance with cable/ DTH?

[jreddy420]

Originally Posted by CBlazer

My sister has just purchased a 32" Panasonic LCD TV (32LE8 I guess). I believe the remote doesn't have a swap button. Is this typical of Panasonics?

Yes, I think Panasonics remote do not have channel swap button. I have a Panny 32LX800 and it does not have the swap button which I miss dearly

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by bharanidharang

venkat, see if u can get a video as well of the tv running. would help so many of us

No it wont help you in any way because you will still see the recorded video on your computer monitor so cant really decide if the PQ not good enough due to distortion at the time of recording or if is due to limited contrast ratio on Computer monitor or if this is what TV was actually playing out.

Only a side by side evaluation in Showroom from your own eyes, played from same source will tell the real difference between two models / brands/ technologies of TV.

[Proxima]

Originally Posted by VSG12777

Hi Proxima
I'm also from Chennai.
...

Thanks a bunch Venkat. Will definitely like 42in over 32in. However, need to see if my hall can take that size. Will let you know.

[CBlazer]

Originally Posted by jreddy420

Yes, I think Panasonics remote do not have channel swap button. I have a Panny 32LX800 and it does not have the swap button which I miss dearly

Thanks!

That's pretty weird. Assumed it was a standard feature on all modern TVs.

[Raajiv]

I am looking for a small LCD TV within the budget of 25K.Any VFM model in that price range?Looking for a screen size less than 26".

Primary Purpose is for watching movies from the DVD and i am going to connect it to my Tata Sky STB.

[VSG12777]

Originally Posted by anurag_p80

Venkat, very nice purchase and very nice review. I am also considering the same model, as mentioned a couple of pages back. Few pointers from you would help:
1. The IR, biggest achilles heel of plasmas in general. Heard LGs are particularly prone to them. While I know the set has a lot of features to prevent/ recover from IR/ burn-in, have you experienced any burn-in at all?
2. What settings are you running your set on? Presets any good?
3. What are you using for sound? TV speakers any good? Seemed decent enough at the showroom....
4. Hows the USB performance- I mean if the same video is played by the TV directly, or through your DVD player, which will look better?

EDIT: And how is the SD performance with cable/ DTH?

Hi Anurag, good to know you're planning to get an LG plasma. LG plasmas are great man. No doubt. They have improved lots over the last 2 years, since I've been constantly comparing models out of my own interest. Prices have dropped, quality and features have gone up. It's a bargain now for us consumers.

Let me try to answer your queries point wise:

1. Image Retention - well no problems at all till now. My mom uses the tv for watching her serials in the evenings from around 6.30pm to 10pm (including news in between on a different channel). Parents did not like the image stretched in 16:9 mode and hence I've set the tv to use 4:3 mode. In this mode, it automatically fills up the sides with grey, so that the entire tv screen is filled up with something. This is a nice feature to prevent burn in. Also, there is a "wash" option, where it throws up all kinds of coloured boxes all over the screen. Apparently, this is supposed to identify dead pixels or something. Tv has too many options to describe !! DVDs and Divx movies are played using 16:9 mode which I have set as default in the HDMI 1 input mode. For AV1, it is 4:3. My Philips DVD player is connected to HDMI 1.

2. Settings - there are quite a few presets, like Cinema, Sports, Game, Standard, Vivid etc. However I have chosen Standard and then customised the contrast, colour and brightness as per our taste and also switched on the "Intelligent Sensor" which basically adjusts your on screen parameters according to the ambient lighting. It works very well. Of course, we always have the option to turn off the Intelligent Sensor to see the difference. Apart from the Intelligent Sensor, for Energy Saver there are separate options - low, medium, high etc. Turning on Intelligent Sensor basically makes sure that the tv adjusts on its own.

3. Sound - the tv's speakers are quite good. Only the PQ70 series comes with a 2-way 4-speaker system while the PQ30 and PQ60 have a normal 1-way 2-speaker system. The difference definitely shows. My friend says normal tv sounds much better on my PQ70 compared to his 50PQ30. The Tata Sky STB is connected to AV1, while on the DVD player, I have connected the HDMI out to HDMI 1 on the tv, and Coaxial Out to the Coaxial Digital In on my Sony 5.1 receiver. I have the older 5.1 system, model HT-DDW840 (600W RMS, 100W RMS per satellite and 100W RMS powered subwoofer) which is still working superbly. Also, there is an option in the tv menu to turn off the tv speakers, in case all your sources are connected thru HDMI and the audio is connected separately thru your A/V receiver. This prevents the tv speakers from blaring in case someone accidentally raises the tv volume when something is playing thru HDMI. I'd say overall that the tv speakers are quite good.

4. USB Performance - the PQ70 series of plasmas from LG plays Divx, MP3 and JPG files thru the USB 2.0 port. Slideshows with music are also possible. Divx movies copied on a USB flash drive and played thru the USB port on the tv do look good. But, if the movie has 5.1 sound, you would get only stereo sound, since the tv does not have built in 5.1 encoding. And, the tv plays the Divx file as it is. No upscaling, etc. Looks good though and loads and plays the files quite fast.

However, the USB port on my Philips 3996K DVD player gives excellent performance, since the player does full HD upscaling, as well as sends the 5.1 output via the Coaxial Out to my receiver. So writing 5.1 Divx movies onto DVDs just to play them on the big tv are now a thing of the past. The Philips DVD player plays MP3, JPG and Divx files with aplomb. And I must say, even normal DVD rips in Divx format with 5.1 sound (usually around 1.4 to 1.6 GB in size) look amazingly clear on the plasma when played thru the Philips DVD player's USB port. Probably due to a combination of the HDMI connection and upscaling. If normal DVD rips look this clear, I can't imagine how blu ray 720p rips would look when I connect my Western Digital TV HD Media Player thru HDMI.

Overall Divx movies played thru the DVD player's USB port look much better than when they are played on the tv directly using the tv's USB port.

5. SD (DTH/Cable) Performance - I must say the tv excels in this area too. Tata Sky programs look very clear at our viewing distance of 13 feet. Last Sunday I watched my favourite car shows (Car & Bike Show, Overdrive Show, Autocar Show, Times Drive) just to check them out on the new tv, and they looked really nice. It was a world of difference watching the programs on the new 42 inch plasma compared to our old 29 inch Thomson Fusion Plus CRT TV.

Fantastic tv I would say and an equally enticing price. 46k for a top of the line fully loaded frameless plasma with Bluetooth is unbeatable. Just go for it.

I forgot to mention that the Bluetooth feature works well too. I tested this using some images from my Nokia N96 phone. The phone detects the tv as PQ70BR, the pin to be entered is given on the tv (which you can change as well) and once you pair the devices, you can send either single images or even a set of selected images to the tv using bluetooth, and the tv displays the images one by one. Very neat feature. Plus, a bluetooth wireless stereo headset can also be used with the tv for listening. There is a separate option in the tv for this as well.

Since my wife and I live in our own flat now and the tv has been bought at my parents' place, I am unable to get any pictures of the same during the week. However my parents would be out of town next week and we would be stayinig there for a couple of days starting this weekend. So I shall get some good pictures (of the tv and some menu options as well) to help those considering this plasma tv.

Hope that helps !

Warm regards,
Venkat

[VSG12777]

Hi guys


Finally I managed to get some good shots of the plasma tv this morning using my Canon PowerShot S3 IS (6 MP, 12x optical zoom with image stabilisation).

Here is the 1st set of pictures of just the TV from various angles etc.

What you see on the screen is DD National running thru Tata Sky in 4:3 mode. The tv automatically fills up the sides with grey to prevent any burn in. The Philips DVP 3996 DVD player with HDMI can also be seen. It's just slightly bigger than the Tata Sky STB. The Sony 5.1 receiver is also seen in the bottom compartment of the A/V rack.

The A/V rack seen is an old one we got from Singapore years back when we relocated to Chennai. In a couple of months I plan to change the rack as well. For now though, it's fine as the tv perfectly fits in width wise.


Warm regards,
Venkat

[VSG12777]

Hi guys

Here are some shots of the various menu options in the new plasma tv.


Warm regards,
Venkat

[VSG12777]

Hey guys

Here are some shots from some DVDs that I played. The titles played were:

Animusic 2 (1.78:1) (USA, Region 0)
Spiderman (1.85:1) (Aus, Region 4)
The Fugitive (1.85:1) (USA, Region 1)
Om Shanti Om (2.35:1)
Heyy Babyy (2.35:1)

All the above are original DVDs. I stopped buying the cheap 50 buck DVDs long back. Most of the Hindi movies nowadays, I pick up the original DVDs once they are released - preferably the double disc edition if available. The Spiderman DVD used was part of the 2 DVD set purchased in Australia. Om Shanti Om and Heyy Babyy were also from my 2 DVD packs bought here. The Om Shanti Om DVD set was 499 bucks, but was packaged well with a poster signed by SRK, special booklet and all. Nice.

Animusic 2 especially looks fantastic with all the colours etc on screen, and especially since it fills up the entire screen. Lovely to watch in 16:9 and the music and animation is top class. Check it out on Animusic.com.

Had my sister get me the DVDs of Animusic 1 and 2 from the USA last year when she came. Both DVDs have stereo as well as a very nice 5.1 Dolby Digital surround mix which sound fabulous on the 5.1 home theatre setup at home. This time (next Thurs, 16 July 09) hopefully she's getting me the Western Digital HD Media Player !! I'll then have to buy a 1 TB external hard drive here for all my downloaded HD 720p blu ray rips and stuff. Can't wait to see how the HD titles would look on this tv thru HDMI.

Of the other DVD titles played, Spiderman looked superb too and I was surprised that even at 1.85:1 the movie filled up the screen. Usually only 1.78:1 titles will play full screen. I never use any zoom when playing DVDs or Divx etc. The Fugitive was also a 1.85:1 title (actually it's a double sided DVD from USA, which has the 4:3 version on one side and the 16:9 version on the other side. This and Executive Decision are double sided DVDs, though the latter is in 2.35:1 ratio.

Om Shanti Om was also very colourful and considering it was an Eros DVD, it looked very nice on the screen. Some of the blurred shots are because I took the snaps while the DVD was playing.

The experience of watching the Om Shanti Om songs on this 42 inch plasma was a class apart. Everything was so much bigger and clearer. Picture quality and colours were awesome to say the least. We feel like watching some of the movies all over again just to experience them on the plasma. That's how nice it is.

Oh well ... enough of description. Enjoy the snaps guys.

Warm regards,
Venkat