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Pioneer PDP-436RXE
by mng70
I purchased this TV a few years ago when LCD TVs were still developing. They suffered from a restricted viewing angle, poor black levels and blurring. Wanting the best, I went for plasma technology and haven't suffered with any of the LCD short comings. Pioneer also erm, pioneered plasma technology moving onto the amazing Kuro range. ... Sadly a few years later they pulled out of the market probably because LCD was taking more market share and the cost of plasma tech was always going to put potential buyers off.
The Pioneer PDP-436RXE was the baby in the range as it didn't come with a Freeview tuner and was the smallest screen size of 43 inches. 43 inches is a strange number in todays market and even to this day I'm not sure what that extra diagonal inch gives me.
The design of the TV is typical of Pioneer. A beautiful piano black bezel with the screen slightly inset into the unit. A soothing blue hue emits from the power button on the lower left of the bezel and the whole set looks the asking price. The TV is a 720p unit - yes it's a few years old now. But despite this, I haven't seen another TV show such beautiful colours and imagery - well not under £1500 anyhow. The sound is adequate for a standard TV and goes loud without distortion, however most will opt for a seperate sound system. Connectivity may sound a little misery by today's standards as it only has a single HDMI port (get an HDMI switch box on order!) but it does have component, composite and SCART inputs too. Three AV ports are supplied.
The remote control is of good quality and is easy to use. The onscreen menus are crisp and clear and offer various sound modes and picture enhancement technology.
One word of warning is that when new, Plasma TVs can suffer from burn in (well this set being a few years old does) which means that you must be careful how you use it initially. Try not to have too much brightness and contrast for the first hundred hours especially watching static images or playing video games. This can cause the image to stay (burn-in) on the screen and you may find you can't shift it. Most times the burn in dissapears over time but you must be aware of this.
It's a real shame that Pioneer have pulled out of the plasma market as they were the best plasma makers in the business - in my opinion. Even with only 720p on tap, at 43 inch you can't really tell the difference between this and 1080p so I'm not looking to upgrade. However, if I get offered a Kuro I may reconsider.
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Pioneer PDP-428XD
by tastydooyoo
Lets not get too embroiled in the historical reasons for Pioneer exiting the plasma market, but if you look closely you will see a company basing it's long term strategical planning on an ever increasing loss of ground to Panasonic and a very clever insight in to the future of flat screen TV's.
When considering this ... particular brand and even model of plasma it's important to remember that, just prior to the announcement that Pioneer had decided to pull the plug on plasma manufacture, they had invested billions of dollars in creating the worlds best plasma sets - the Kuro range. It's not that Pioneer were making poor screens, in fact totally the opposite, they just couldnt catch rivals such as Panasonic, they were losing vast amounts of cash and plasma was becoming a dirty word in the consumer world.
All this makes for an interesting recipe resulting in the emergence of the 8th and 9th gen Kuro screens.
I own this 428XD and frankly I am still astounded at the picture quality and detail even 3 years on. So, when in standby it's not the most stylish looking with it's 90 degree sharp corners but switch on and you get an immediate indication of what this screen was designed to do.
Starting with SD signals (that's standard definition, non HD signals) the screen looks detailed, sharp, rich yet natural colours and no motion pixilation even at the quickest of movements or picture panning, in fact you would almost think you were viewing HD. This is what sold me in the first instance, that and the black levels. Speaking of which the contrast ratio on this panel boasts a claimed contrast ratio of 16000:1 - a huge 80 per cent improvement over anything Pioneer had managed before, the result is such a natural and well balanced picture it's simply a joy to watch.
The plasma has three HDMI inputs. These are no ordinary HDMI inputs, they're compatible both with the 'CEC' industry standard, and with the 1080p/24fps 'pure' HD movie format used to encode the vast majority of films to HD disc. Plus there are all the usual connections associated with a TV digital tuner; a D-Sub PC port; a subwoofer line-out; a digital audio output; an RS-232 port; and a USB 2.0 input for viewing digital stills in glorious high definition via Pioneer's Home Gallery software. This is all on top, of course, of basic TV stalwarts like SCARTs, S-Video inputs, component etc.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about the 428XD is that it is not a full HD screen - indeed, its 1,024 x 768 native resolution entails some rescaling of an HD source. Yet the processing engine driving the TV is so accomplished that HD pictures actually tend to look cleaner and sharper than with many full HD TVs - especially models that use LCD rather than plasma technology. I run mine at 720p and friends are still amazed at the performance compared to most screens around even now.
In summary if you get a chance to pick up a decent one of these then dont hesitate, they are superb screens even 3 years on. Dont be put off by all that plasma burn rubbish either - sure if you leave a static screen on for 24 hours you will see a burn but with Pioneers latter technology even that sort of burn would fade out over time. The plasmas also have around the same running life as an LCD screen.
As you can tell, I love this set - get one if you can!
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Panasonic TH-37PX70
by malteser1987
***Brand***
Panasonic began in 1918 in Osaka, Japan with the invention of a two-socket light bulb by Konosuke Matsushita. He sold these light bulbs from his own home. With ongoing inventions metting demands of consumers, the company grew and nowadays accounts for $51.7 billion net sales worldwide. For more info, check out the ... history page on their website, www.panasonic.co.uk. Interesting reading!! They are well known for their electronics although this is the first product I can recall owning by them.
***Features and Ease of Use***
HD Ready
V-real 2 : The name of technologies being developed by Panasonic - meaning exceptional processor (signals), driver (performance) and panel (high quality of image)
Max 100000:1 High Contrast : Contrast between brightest white and darkest black that can be produced.
3072 Graduation Steps : Smoothness of colour expression.
Lead-free display : Reduces impact of environment when disposing of, or recycling later on in the tvs life.
VIERA Link :The ability for the tv to communicate with other devices connected to it and set them up without having to do it yourself!
This is just a handful of the design features of this tv set but there are many more. At the end of the day this is an overview of the product and a review of how it works. I'm not retyping the manual!
The tv is easy to connect - the power cable goes into a socket that is situated upwards on the back of the set. Being stubborn, I didn't look at the manual as there was such a display of ports for aerials, scart leads etc...I assumed it would be easy to find. Both my aerial and power socket have ports that are situated on the overhang above this array of sockets - neatly hidden and probably designed to stop the cable from bending unnaturally or falling out. Once in you are ready to go.
The tv remote control is a bit daunting at first but it has to be remembered that this tv is capable of many things and these all have to be accommodated onto this one remote. The channels are automatically searched for and collated into the usual order - as this is all done automatically there is no hassle with manually searching for channels. You can type in an owner name and pin number for your tv, personalise it and choose automated picture settings for when the teacher is turned on.
I tend to watch the TV in DVB mode (Digital Video Broadcasting) where all the channels have been automatically found. The modes can be changed to analogue tv, the AV channels as well as PC link and other such options. You can view the channels via a TV guide button, much like you find in the grid format of Sky tv allowing you to view all channels, current programmes and upcoming programmes and events. One great feature is the ability to programme in advance anything you want to see, and the tv will switch to that channel when it is on. This is a feature I associate with purchasing a Sky or Virgin Media digi box, so I find it a bonus having a tv with these features as standards.
A feature I haven't been able to use (read the Alba DVD review!) due to the basic quality of my DVD player, is that if you have a player that records, you can programme just the tv, via the viera link to record those programmes once they come on. So although you can time your DVD player seperately, you don't need to as your TV is capable of overriding all of that and running the whole operation for you. You also have 100's of hours that the tv can be programmed to remember to record. I believe this feature really aids what can appear to be quite a complicated tv, to make your whole home entertainment system run smoothly and simply via one device as appose to having to ensure that every seperate device is programmed properly.
For what I use this tv i.e. watching programmes, playing on my Nintendo Wii etc...it works perfectly. The screen quality is flawless - it is exceptional - clear, crisp with no dead pixels. 37" is ample for watching movies and feeling like 'you're there'. as well as the volume bars not having to be more than half way across before you can hear it perfectly - a problem I have found with my other tv.
***My Opinions***
I think this is a great television set. My parents both envy me for having it as appose to the brands they went for and I can see why. The television offers so many features to make everything simpler. It is a complex television really - I mean when I first got in, it was given to me by the family on my Grandads passing as he was death. For 2 days before the manual came forward, there was a spoken narrative of what was going on. I thought I was hearing voices as the sound would phase out and the event narrative would suddenly come in. Obviously an excellent feature which my Grandad benefitted from but it wasn't overally simple without the manual to switch it off.
It has a beautifully, rich screen and as said previously, the volume is excellent - you can be half way across and hear it perfectly. You can also get that cinema surround sound by pumping it up and making the light fittings rumble. My bf thinks this is acceptable during football matches. The colours are exceptional - it really is a great screen and obviously 'high definition' which complements a large number of channels and programmes which are transferring to HD.
Everything works quickly and the menus are clean but unless you know what each word means, it's not going to be straightforward. It can be overcomplicated in that respect, but the viera link simplifies the process of adding external bits and pieces to your tv and the fact that you can arrange for all your favourite programmes to be recorded simply and easily by telling just the television set is a really great feature. It is easy to make minor changes to the set i.e. change the screen size, brightness etc...and to get to the function which automatically searches for new channels that haven't been picked up before. For the basic use of watching television, it is perfect with its tv guide built in to scroll through your favourite programmes.
I would highly recommend this tv set - 5/5
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