Panasonic TH-42PZ85B - any good?

MeEsH BaKkA

MeEsH BaKkA

MeEsH BaKkA

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Hi, im about to finaly move out from living with parents and I have decided that first things first I need a decent home theater setup. I have been looking in here recently and I understand that Panasonic plasmas are very good, so heres what im planning on getting,

Panasonic TH-42PZ85B

and

Panasonic SC-PT860 - 5.1

Is this a good starting setup? Can anyone offer any improvements, Mainly im after image quality and the audio isnt as much of a massive problem aslong as it isnt terrible.

My price range is around £1300-£1400 for surround sound and tv.

Thanx for any help :)
 
Yes the PZ85's are awesome. First panny screen to truely support 24P @ 72hz (3 refresh per frame), this have smooth pans from BluRay. The PZ80's still had 60hz with processing to try and hide the stutter, which worked reasonably well, but was rubbish compared to pannys Kuro.

For the price, I dont believe you'll find a screen the beat a 42PZ85.

Not sure about going for cheap audio though. The whole theatre experience is the combination of a big picture, and powerfull engulfing sound.
 
I thought all the PZ series had 24p playback support. The PZ85 just adds '24p Real Cinema' which is mostly a marketing gimmick and most AV Forums users seem to have it disabled.

Just read a thread on this subject but closed the tab unfortunately. Panasonic's site, though, lists 24p playback support for all PZ models.

If this is correct I'd go for the PZ80 (the PZ85 is also ugly imo) and spend the difference on a better sound system.
 
Ive just swapped my PZ70 50" for a PZ42" 85, just waiting for the thing to be delivered. I was swithering between the PZ80 and PZ85, but it was only £60 more for the 85, and i preferred the looks and the position of the HDMI sockets.
 
I've also read that the PZ80 is the one to have over the PZ85.. the 85's extra bits aren't really worth the money from all the stuff i've seen :)
 
Beansprout said:
I thought all the PZ series had 24p playback support.
Click to expand...

Guess I remember wrong, I do recall the PZ70's could accept a 24p but juddered, Could have sworn I read on AVforums that the PZ85 was the first to match the Kuro in smoothness of panning. If the PZ80 can do perfect 24p then thats a plus :P.

At 3 meters I would recommend going up to a 50 at the least, as on a 42inch at 3 meters you'll be right on the edge of where a person with 20/20 vision can tell the difference between 720p and Standard Def, let alone 1080p. (If you have better than 20/20 vision and can see the difference grats you)

If economy sound lets you stretch to a better screen, you could always upgrade the sound to something better later on :) My house has 2ft thick stone walls, and double glazing, my neighbours have never complained about late night movie's ;)

EDIT:

According to the avsforums, even the PZ85 is still using a 3:2 pulldown for 24p support, Only the PZ800 (and PZ850 if they have released it) actually include true 24p support and thats at specced at 48Hz not 96. So Panny still havent resolved the bluray judder issues properly on their less expensive sets.
 
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AbsenceJam said:
The 80's and 85's both support 24p input and display it at 96Hz. The 85's also have Real Cinema mode in addition, this adds extra frames and is a bit crap.
Click to expand...

They also have intelligent frame creation and better sound. The intelligent frame creation is really good on Blu-rays and smooths out panning landscape shots brilliantly. Have it on anything like football and it spazzes out though.

If I was you I wouldn't bother getting the 860 kit as it is one of the worst panny have done. If that's the way you want to go I'd wait for the scbt100 to be out, which is a 3.1 surround kit with bluray and you can add either wired or wireless rears.

IMO stretch to the 85 and be happy with it's good sound for a telly, and go the full home cinema route in due course when funds allow.

:)
 
If you look on panasonic UK, it lists two options

24p Real Cinema (adds processed frames)
24p Playback.

Both are listed as "Yes" for the TH42PZ85.

But if you go to the USA site, it says

24p Cinematic playback NO
24p playback 2:3 YES

So, the UK site is vague and doesnt mention the playback ratio, while the USA panny site says that a 2:3 is used for 24p even on the TH42PZ85. Real cinema is supposed to help mask the judder further, but as I dont have an 85 I cant comment on that.

The US panny site does list the TH42PZ800 as 24p Cinematic playback YES.

There are certainly reports of panning judder on the PZ80, though the reports on the PZ85 do indicated an improvement. But still plenty of evidence that its still converting 24p to 60hz. The 800's are the only panels supporting 100hz, and I guess those panels support 96hz on hdmi as well.

I've got an older Panny TH42PX60... old school now, and it supports 72hz on the VGA input, but anything sent via hdmi is 50hz or 60hz. (But I dont know if it then fudges it back to 60hz electronically)
 
Corasik said:
If you look on panasonic UK, it lists two options

24p Real Cinema (adds processed frames)
24p Playback.

Both are listed as "Yes" for the TH42PZ85.

But if you go to the USA site, it says

24p Cinematic playback NO
24p playback 2:3 YES

So, the UK site is vague and doesnt mention the playback ratio, while the USA panny site says that a 2:3 is used for 24p even on the TH42PZ85. Real cinema is supposed to help mask the judder further, but as I dont have an 85 I cant comment on that.

The US panny site does list the TH42PZ800 as 24p Cinematic playback YES.

There are certainly reports of panning judder on the PZ80, though the reports on the PZ85 do indicated an improvement. But still plenty of evidence that its still converting 24p to 60hz. The 800's are the only panels supporting 100hz, and I guess those panels support 96hz on hdmi as well.

I've got an older Panny TH42PX60... old school now, and it supports 72hz on the VGA input, but anything sent via hdmi is 50hz or 60hz. (But I dont know if it then fudges it back to 60hz electronically)
Click to expand...
Doh - so confusing. Got a link to the Avforums thread you read? I'll go over and do some more searching....
 
Not to hard if to find if you google PZ85 in combination with judder, or 3:2 pulldown and/or 24p.

I have to say though, it does look like the PZ85 does the best job of 3:2 pulldown. It's clearly doing more than the pulldown to smooth things out, as its better than a basic 3:2 and no other processing.

The PZ85 is a very nice TV (and so's the PZ80). I'd get one myself if I didnt already have Panny's PX60 (complete with purple snakes!) At the moment, I only have SkyHD for HD sources and its very nice. But have yet to try bluray to see how much I notice 3:2 pulldown. Somepeople arnt bothered by it. But other people hate it.
 
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