New TV: Panasonic TX-P42S30B / TX-P42UT30B or something else?

Associate
Joined
30 Jul 2003
Posts
2,267
Hi all, don't venture in here too often and hope people aren't fed up of 'spec me' TV threads.

I'm looking to buy a new TV:

- Small-ish living room and thought 37" to 42" would be about right
- I don't have a set budget but it seems like £500 will get a decent set and I'm comfortable paying that much
- Main use will be DVD/Blu-Ray, Xbox 360 and some Freeview (HD here in April). We don't watch a lot of TV or sport.
- iPlayer would be good
- Not particularly interested in 3D

LCD TVs in around this size and budget seem to be reviewed as being a bit slow/blurry and for the Xbox 360 am I right in thinking a Plasma would be better?

I had my eye on the Panasonic TX-P42S30B and it's just dropped by about £20 on the site I was looking at (to £465), however I've also just noticed the TX-P42UT30B for about £35 more. The main difference seems to be the UT is 3D whereas the S has a "Mono filter" (not sure what this is), both seem to have iPlayer.

I like Panasonic as a brand but would consider others if there's anything else I should be considering? Do I need to spend more or are these sets good?
 
Last edited:
I read those models have quite a reflective screen, i went for the G30 recently and am very happy with it, even it has a slightly reflective screen though, so i don't know how bad the others might be in a well lit room.
 
Thanks Radiation. From a bit of Googling the "Mono filter" on the S30 is apparently a bit of an anti-glare thing (if the poster is to be believed). Might have to venture out and see if any shops local have them on display.

Do you game on your G30? How have you found it?
 
Yeah i do it's very good, best image settings are THX for everything, intelligent frame creation off, that's about it as these don't need much calibration to get good results, i suspect the mono filter helps over the basic version, i never bothered to compare them, just ended up going for the best 2d model.

Just been having a look and the TX-P42ST30B seems very good without going over budget too much, it's 3D and has the high end filter and contrast for £565, doesn't have the extra settings like thx though or usb, i might of gone for this if i knew about it at the time ordered, it's £100 cheaper than the G30 and even has the improved infinite black pro, do a comparison on the Panasonic site to see what i mean.
 
Last edited:
The st30 does have usb as its used for films,photos recording and charging the 3D glasses. for the money its a fantastic telly, i would pick/sell one over the g30 every day.
 
Thanks chaps. The ST30 does look like a good buy actually, includes an extra rear HDMI over the S30 too. Even if I don't plan on using the 3D aspect it looks like a better buy.
 
Just took delivery of a 42" st30 and its blowing me away at present. The infinite black pro filter means good contrast all hours of the day, just looks fantastic really. Any questions and ill try my best to answer :)
 
Any feedback / review once you've tried it out would be appreciated, more of a curiosity than something that would affect my purchase but one thing nobody seems to review is the record to USB functionality - wondering if it's serviceable on the odd occasion we want to record something (which is rare tbh with our TV viewing and iPlayer).

A certain department store has them for £599 with 5 year warranty but out of stock at the moment.
 
The st30 does have usb as its used for films,photos recording and charging the 3D glasses. for the money its a fantastic telly, i would pick/sell one over the g30 every day.

You're right, though it appears to not have usb recording or dlna, still i would probably go for it over everything else in this price range, as it will produce better blacks under ambient light, at night though there's not much different between it and the G30.
 
Any feedback / review once you've tried it out would be appreciated, more of a curiosity than something that would affect my purchase but one thing nobody seems to review is the record to USB functionality - wondering if it's serviceable on the odd occasion we want to record something (which is rare tbh with our TV viewing and iPlayer).

A certain department store has them for £599 with 5 year warranty but out of stock at the moment.

Unfortunately I only use mine for Blurays and Xbox, so I don't actually receive a live TV signal to it to record from!

Put Toy Story 3 on again last night just for some background noise for the missus, and even the Disney intro screen really is impressive. You know you're in for a treat when you see that swish across the screen. As has been mentioned above, put it in True Cinema mode, turn off the intelligent frame creation thing and forget about it!

I've not used any of the Smart TV stuff yet, but I'll get it hooked up to the tinterweb later and report back on the iPlayer functionality. I'm always watching things from there so it depending on whether it's better than just watching it through a browser via the HTPC I may use it.
 
Had a look at some sets today in the local retail park stores, probably not the best setup to check things out but the blacks on the ST30 (and other neo panels) sure did look black.
 
Back
Top Bottom