If Only Programme Content Had The Same Quality!! (Panasonic TH-37PX80)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	Panasonic TH-37PX80
Date:	08/01/09 (213 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Picture quality on SD. V good VFM for a 37" set. 100hz technology. Excellent connection capability

Disadvantages: Not 1080p, only 720p HD

In the early stages of this opinion, I hadn't actually bought a new TV, but the process in buying one was such agony, I thought I'd give it an airing.

You, see, I'd already got a widescreen 32" Sony TV. I can only assume that picture-quality wise, the Sony has been punching above its weight all this time, as the number of people I've had round who have then expressed the opinion that I'd be hard put to it to find a 'panel TV' any better than that are legion.

To be fair, there's little pressure to upgrade to Hi-Definition (HD) in our house, since I don't have Sky (nor never will), and I don't have a Blu-Ray DVD player (yet!). Freeview might not be slated to become 'HD' for several years yet but, just to muddy the waters, Freesat, a free-to-view service using the same satellite as Sky has now reared its head with HD content from BBC and ITV.

No, any justification would be by creative accounting, disguising the fact that 'I want one'.

Perusal of the 'wall of TVs' at our local big Tesco didn't help.

They were all demonstrating BBC HD Preview on Sky (what a surprise). Nowhere was a set to be found actually showing live terrestrial TV, which to my mind seemed highly unfair, as most of us will be watching a very high percentage of standard definition pictures for years to come.

How is someone supposed to decide on parting with several hundred smackers on the strength of what is shown? Even in stores where they ought to know better, like Currys Digital, just try finding live TV from Freeview.

In the end, you begin to wonder whether or not it wouldn't be better to go with what you know, read a few reviews that are favourable, including towards the standard definition picture, and find the best price for the lucky TV.

Then along came John Lewis' Kingston branch with a wall of TVs showing Freeview, bless 'em! It would seem that to really get to grips with a set's picture quality, checking out its standard definition makes a whole barrel o' sense, since they are ALL good at HD (well they would be wouldn't they?)

From what I'd read, one 37" set stood out for me - the Panasonic TH-37PX80B. This is a 'plasma' TV, not a liquid crystal, the impact of which is initially difficult to spot, but as you move around the set, you become aware of no picture fade of the kind you'd expect with LCD - yes, plasma can be viewed from just about any angle that you're likely to throw at it within the average lounge. Of course, you don't have to pay John Lewis prices, and a quick check of www.richersounds.co.uk revealed that it could be had for a very reasonable £499 (or £549 with 5-year warranty).

Why so cheap? Well, a cynic might say that because it's been a current model for nearly a year, it's due for replacement no doubt and it's only 'HD Ready', not 'Full HD Ready', which means that it's limited to 720 horizontal lines, not 1080. However, at 37" screen size, it's doubtful if there's much real difference from 11 feet away, and anyway, the likes of Sky HD and Freesat only push out 720 lines at the moment.

SO OF COURSE, I GOT ONE!

Once I'd read the accolades heaped on the set by the press, I was hooked.

In October 2008, What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision named it 'The Best 37-inch TV" and in September 2008, Which? Magazine made it their Best Buy. Most heartening were the several mentions of its excellent Freeview performance

Just about the only drawback I could see is that it was rather glossy and black in the surround area, all of which shrieks 'dust magnet' at me.

My heart sank as I approached the new Richer Sounds branch in Chiswick, W4. No sign of the set on display, but then it is only a little shop and panel TVs take up a lot of wall. As luck would have it, they had one in stock, so with a bit of a struggle to get it onto the car's back seat (plasma sets are supposed to be kept upright), home it came, completely unseen and on trust that the magazines were right.

Once you've struggled with a box large enough to live in, you have to mate the set with its base, which is an anxious moment as you gently lower 500 quid's-worth over two metal prongs and fit the retaining screws.

SORTING THE SPAGHETTI

Set-up is largely automated these days. Once the mains and aerial are plugged in, off it goes finding channels. In my case this was a 'full house' of all locally-available Freeview channels, all at 10/10ths signal strength (Thank you Crystal Palace for being so powerful). The menu allows for hiding pay-channels so that they don't appear when using the channel up/down button. You can of course pay to rent channels like TopUpTV or Setanta Sport using the 'CAM' slot, (Common Access Module) with a suitable subscription card.

Initially, I've no HD sources to connect, although my Sony DVD/HDD/Freeview recorder does have what's known as an 'upscaled' HDMI output which affects some gentle enhancement of its picture quality over its already excellent SCART output.

My other set-top box, a Topfield twin-tuner PVR also puts out an excellent picture.

The only fiddly one is my laptop PC feeding the PC input. Why bother with a computer connection? Well, if your PC has web access, you can access facilities like BBC iPlayer or C4OnDemand and use them full-screen as if they are recordings you've made yourself.

A graphics card with widescreen capabilities is a distinct advantage, but even so, you may find you have to go through a whole raft of settings to get a good picture.

The Panasonic isn't exactly short of inputs. You have two full-function SCART sockets, three HDMI terminals, a SVGA PC input, a set of three component video phono plugs and various audio in/out option. At the front under a discrete flap, you have another set of video inputs which can be used as a quick connection for a camcorder. There's even an card reader for direct viewing of digital camera slide shows.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The standard definition picture really is as good as the magazines say. In the early days of colour TVs, they used to say that you could judge a set's colour quality by the accuracy of its rendition of black and white. Panel TVs seem to follow a similar rule, in two ways. As a new rule maybe you should judge an HD set by the quality of its SD, and perhaps the old rule about blacks and whites still applies too.

Such is the contrast and colour rendition that I began to wonder whether a Blu-Ray player was going to be necessary. After all, players are pricey and we can't expect the format to be around anywhere near as long as plain old DVD before it's superseded so it may not be such a good idea to commit to an expensive U-turn in movie collections. OK, I know existing DVDs would still be playable, but Blu-Ray disks cost considerably more in most cases.

Contrast and colour are the two key areas where plasma seems to win over LCD sets in my limited research (i.e. looking at several of each!). Firstly, the contrast; the blacks really are as near black as they can be - technically it's got a real contrast ratio of 15,000:1, i.e. the black is 15,000 times darker than the white! Beware claims that some sets have 50,000:1 ratios - these may be post-processing figures, not the 'native' ones. My old TV was never going to achieve this, since even switched off, the screen was only light grey, and you can't get any blacker than 'OFF'!

The colour is quite stunning - brighter than before but never garish. Of course there's a whole gamut of variations from 'Edward Scissorhand's' complexion down to positively 'Dale Wyntonian' skin tones if you must, but after playing around, I've come to the conclusion that the defaults were well-enough chosen in the first place.

Thanks to the 100hz picture scanning, the result is rock steady with not a hint of flicker on large expanses of sky. Although susceptible to 50hz flicker, I'd previously avoided 100hz technology on cathode ray tube sets as it always felt like someone had hung a net curtain across the screen, but this is something else. Motion is smoothed, and there's no annoying bleeding of saturated colours at the edges.

Frankly, I never dreamed that 'ordinary' TV could look this good.

It may well be some time before the dreaded words 'upgrade to Blu-Ray' play around my lips as there's a whole DVD collection out there just begging to be re-watched!

My only minor disappointment compared to my old set, it that in making a slim surround to the screen, speaker size has been compromised, and therefore the sound is only adequate, which not much bass. However, movie buffs, me included get over this by having a 'home cinema' set up with enough loudspeakers to start a political movement in Nürnberg.

The remote is capable of controlling my Sony box too after a brief perusal of the manual, which up to this point has been largely superfluous.

Thanks to a level of compatibility between the Panasonic Q-Link and the Sony Smartlink, I able to send a direct command to the recorder to start recording whatever's on my TV screen.

In amongst its viewing mode (Normal, Cinema, Game etc) there's an 'Eco' mode which matches picture brightness to ambient light, thanks to an electric eye at the front of the set.

VALUE FOR MONEY?

There are three key features that make this set very keen VFM.

a) Firstly, try finding a 37 inch set from a major maker for £499 without it being an old model.

b) It's just about the smallest plasma set anyone makes.

c) 100hz technology usually adds about £100 or so to a set, if Panasonic's other sets are anything to go by.

It's extremely versatile with more HDMI ports than I'll be using in the foreseeable future, and it handles all my existing needs better than my poor old Sony which was starting to look like the limiting factor to my future projects.*


*(One of which will be to build a 'multimedia' PC using the TV as its screen, so that I can use the internet for applications like iPlayer, take recordings from my PVR via a USB lead, and thence make DVDs. I may even install a Blu-Ray DVD ROM/DVD writer unit, thus obviating the need for a dedicated player, should the HD bug bite)

CONCLUSION

As a mainly Freeview- and DVD- watcher, this set is an immense upgrade to my viewing standards. The 'future-proof' mob who would baulk at buying a set with a 'mere' 720 lines of resolution when 1080 are already available will give it a wide berth, but I'm happy with it.

So there!

Summary: 37" Plasma panel TV with Freeview