Pioneer or Panasonic High end Plasma??

PeterT

PeterT

PeterT

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Hi, I am in the fortunate position of being about to order a top of the range 42" Plasma but I am torn between 2 top of the range models from Pioneer or Panasonic.
I would value your thoughts and any links comparing both sets.
Here are the contenders:

1) Panasonic TH-42PZ700B

2) Pioneer PDP-428XD

thanks for your help, PeterT
 
I have a Pioneer 507XD and it blows my frineds 42" Panansonic (42PX600) out of the water. Your decision really should be based on how important you think it is to have a full 1080P screen, as the 428XD does not have 1080P only 1080/24.
What will you be using for audio? I think you have to buy the speakers for the 428XD separatley.
 
pdw8 said:
I have a Pioneer 507XD and it blows my frineds 42" Panansonic (42PX600) out of the water.
Click to expand...

That Pio is 7th gen, the 8th gen are considerably better.

pdw8 said:
Your decision really should be based on how important you think it is to have a full 1080P screen
Click to expand...

Resolution alone does not make for a great picture, in fact it's pobably only a quater of the story. You have to think about how far away from the screen you will be sitting, SD handling, colour / black reproduction, motion handling and many other aspects required to get a good picture.

pdw8 said:
as the 428XD does not have 1080P only 1080/24
Click to expand...

You mean 1080i? It's actually a 720p panel.
pdw8 said:
What will you be using for audio? I think you have to buy the speakers for the 428XD separatley.
Click to expand...

The 428XD comes with speakers, it's the 508 and 608 that don't.

I was looking at the Panny plasma and the Pio before Xmas and I've ended up with the Pio. I much prefered the Panny plasma to the LCD but the Pio was just on a different level. Unfortunately so was the price tag.

The Pio is a much better TV, it's just a case of whether you think it justifies the cost.
 
The Panasonic.

My dad just bought one for himself and it really is a nice display.. impressed with the detail, and unless you were pitting it against the new 8th gen Pioneer's then I'd go so far to say it's one of the nicer displays on the market (at the price) :)
 
Thank you for your replies. In money terms I am looking for the best 42" Plasma at the moment.
I see that the latest 50" Pioneers have the 1080p resolution but that size might be a bit too big for our room.
The TV will be used for Freeview (eventually HD) and dvd movies including some that have been DVD Fab Decryptered.
I have experienced all aspects of the Pana PZ 700 as my bro in law has got one. You would have difficulty telling a genuine and ripped DVD apart when using the Pana EX 87EB DVD recorder as the player.
The thing that has put me off Plasma is the SD quality. I have to do something as my Sony CRT is on Ebay at the moment and so we are going to be TVless until I sort something out.
Which of the 2 sets is better on SD and why did you go for the Pioneer Dod??

Keep your thoughts coming!

PeterT
 
PeterT said:
Which of the 2 sets is better on SD and why did you go for the Pioneer Dod??
Click to expand...

I'd been looking at the Pio since it was first released, but I simply couldn't justify the cost. Eventually I dragged my Wife into a local store for a demo of the TH-42PX70PED since this was a much cheaper alternative that I thought she might go for.

Anyway, we demoed the PX70 and the PZ70 on both HD and SD. I wasn't stunned by their performance and neither was the other half. At the end of the demo she turned and said 'If we are going to spend this money on a TV we may as well go the whole hog and get something like that" and pointed at the Pioneer.

The Pioneer is twice the price, but it's (IMO & highly subjectively) 10% better than the Panny at both SD and HD. I wanted to have the best TV I could afford and one that will last me at least 5 years without me regretting making a compromise. The Pio is the first TV that, for me looks as good as CRT when viewing SD content.

The Pio takes some setting up, there is a great 500+ page thread on AVForums, but once it's properly done it's a fantastic screen.

My viewing distance is about 9' so at that range I (and most people) probably can't tell the difference between 1080p and 720p and if I had a bigger screen I'd have to move my head to take in the full picture.
 
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Id go for the Pioneer, Ive got an older Pioneer at the momnet and have just taken my farther in law to buy a Panasonic 42pz70, Im not sure how much difference there is between the PZ70 an dthe PZ700 but even though his PZ70 is good I dont think its as good as my "old" Pioneer 436xde (he doesnt think it is either) and the newer 428xd is a nice step up from mine.
 
What shop did you view the Panasonic models in? Had they been properly setup/calibrated. The Panasonics are pretty poor out of the box on the vibrant settings they ship with.
 
I viewed them in Audio T in Epsom. The guys there are pretty good at on the calibration front.

Don't get me wrong, the Panny is a good TV, it just didn't have the WOW factor of the Pio.
 
I've got the Pio 428XD and it's bloody fantastic ! The SD projection is by far the best. We've got PS3 running on it playing COD4 and it's great.
 
Hello Tyke, did you compare the 428XD to any of the Panasonic models and if you did what was better about the Pioneer?

PeterT
 
No sorry I did'nt compare to any of the pannys. I just went with the reviews. I got mine from Flatdeals @ £1500, no problems with Flatdeals at all :D

Ooops am I allowed to mention them
 
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I was looking at the panasonic 50pz70 and pioneer 508xd today, the first shop we went in both sets didn't look like they were setup properly and looked similar. The second place we went to was much better, and the pioneer looked a bit better, but I couldn't justify the price difference considering the pioneers only 1024x768.

I've pretty much decided I'm going to wait until theres a 1080p screen at the price of the panny with the blacks of the pioneer - hopefully this will come in march/april with the next gen panasonics.
 
I wouldn't get so hung up on 1080p if you don't intend to use as a PC monitor.

I have seen a fair few excellent 720p sets perform better 90% of the time than an average 1080p set.
 
Even if you're happy to stick with 720p, the Pioneer still costs £500-600 more than the Panny PZ70. Whilst it may be "better" in some ways, I seriously doubt it's "better enough" to justify that kind of price differential.
 
PeterT said:
Hi, I am in the fortunate position of being about to order a top of the range 42" Plasma but I am torn between 2 top of the range models from Pioneer or Panasonic.
I would value your thoughts and any links comparing both sets.
Here are the contenders:

1) Panasonic TH-42PZ700B

2) Pioneer PDP-428XD

thanks for your help, PeterT
Click to expand...


i will save you the trouble of hours and hours of reading on avforums.com


The Pioneer PDP 4280 and 428 are the best 42" plasmas available for £1500, and most certainly better than the Panasonic.
Any thread on www.avforums.com will backup the Pioneer being better than the Panasonic.

However the Panasonic PX70b offers in my view far better value (£629), and the difference could be stashed away for a replacement in 2 years that will likely walk all over the Panasonic.
 
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Depends on money and screen size.

If you're considering the Pioneer 428XD then you must have at least £1500 to spend. In that case you could afford the 50" Panasonic PZ70 1080p.

If I had the space for a 50" plasma, I'd go for the 50PZ70 over the 42" 428XD. But.. if 42" is the size you want, and I had the £1500 then i'd definately go for the Pioneer. It's not full HD, but that doesn't matter as the picture quality is superior in several other areas. The main point being that it supports proper 1080p/24Hz input (displayed as 720p / 24Hz). The Panny doesn't display 24 Hz properly :(
 
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