Sony KDL V3000 Vs. Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80

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All,

I currently have a Sony V3000 but am very dissapointed with it's black levels. I have recalibrated the screen, even gone into the service menu, to change settings advised on avforums.com, but they are still shockingly bad.

I am now considering the PX80 as a direct replacement. I can return the item within 28 days (the set is only 5 days old). Please note that the Pro's & con's below are comparing against the V3000.

Pros of PX80:

Better black levels
Better HD & SD performance
Bigger set...an extra 2"
Better sound
better motion handling
100Htz tech

Cons of PX80:

no 1080p
no 1.3 hdmi's
Image retention?
Damage to screen when using Xbox 360?
Poor gaming in general?


Questions:

I would be hooking the PX80 up to my media centre pc using hdmi. Firstly, will the set do 1:1 pixel mapping, and secondly, can you see any other issues which may be brough about while displaying 720p HD .mkv files through this set?

I will also be gaming quite a bit on my 360. Is this recommended? What are the perils? Image retention? Screen 'smearing'? Imput lag?
 
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All,

I currently have a Sony V3000 but am very dissapointed with it's black levels. I have recalibrated the screen, even gone into the service menu, to change settings advised on avforums.com, but they are still shockingly bad.

I am now considering the PX80 as a direct replacement. I can return the item within 28 days (the set is only 5 days old). Please note that the Pro's & con's below are comparing against the V3000.

Pros of PX80:

Better black levels
Better HD & SD performance
Bigger set...an extra 2"
Better sound
better motion handling
100Htz tech

Cons of PX80:

no 1080p
no 1.3 hdmi's
Image retention?
Damage to screen when using Xbox 360?
Poor gaming in general?

1080p will only be a problem if you sit at around 5-6ft from your set, and will actually hinder normal tv footage (freeview, sky etc) compared to a non-1080p set.

1.3 HDMI, bah, not even worried about that, and I don't honestly know what the difference is. Cheap HDMI cable and a good 720p tv anyday for me.

Image retention will probably be seen, but only if you actively look for it using a blank / white screen, and play games for long session or leave a windows destop on. I haven't heard of screen burn in plasmas for a long long time from any users on avforums, so nothing to really worry about.

Gaming looks excellent on a plasma, mainly because of its better motion handling. I even chose the Kuro over a 1080p Panasonic PZ 42 beacuse it looked better and more natural, and only lost a tiny bit of detail by not being 1080p.


Questions:

I would be hooking the PX80 up to my media centre pc using hdmi. Firstly, will the set do 1:1 pixel mapping, and secondly, can you see any other issues which may be brough about while displaying 720p HD .mkv files through this set?

I will also be gaming quite a bit on my 360. Is this recommended? What are the perils? Image retention? Screen 'smearing'? Imput lag?

Honestly don;t know about hooking up a HTPC, but for gaming I still prefer plasma. Used my PS3 on the parents toshiba 1080p LCD, seen my bro's 360 on it, took my PS3 into 'waitrose associated department store' and tried it on the kuro, panasonic PZ and a samsung 1080p tv, and the plasmas still looked just 'better', leading to me discounting LCDs. It was back in January, so I can't rememebr all the specific details.

Hope that helps a bit, but definately ask over at avforums, lots of info there :)
 
-Ad-, Thank you very much for your reply. It is a difficult one for me. I was so excited to get the V3000, and in all fairness it is a wonderful set, but the black levels are really appaling...To really test them I put Blade runner on. It was 720p and I was not impressed. In areas of little or no light the set just couldn't hadle it whatsoever. It showed the characters faces or whatever, but everything else in the background was almost pitch black!
 
I got the panny 37px80 have it hooked upto ps3, pc via hdmi. The res of 1024 x 768 is a native pc res i thjink, anyway I get a really good picture!

The contrast/blacks are amazing on the PX80 series. I highly recommend this set!

isnt hdmi 1.3 only needed for some hd camcorders?

my games on ps3 look amazing!

No issues with screen burn or image retention, ever!

Follow the guide on avforums.com regarding tv settings for it.

PS: I got my 37px80 pricematched at £595 with free del & free 5 yr warranty, email in trust if you wanna know more *Cough*
 
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PS: I got my 37px80 pricematched at £595 with free del & free 5 yr warranty, email in trust if you wanna know more *Cough*
I've had a Panny TH42PZ85B price-matched at £1030 by them too, 5 year warranty (and a decent "no catches" one at that) & free delivery is awesome :)
 
I have the 40" V3000 got it last friday, great pic except it does suffer from motion blur display fast moving action like football & gaming. I did think about getting a plasma but didn't because of the lower res and screen burn.
 
I wouldn't say screen burn is a thing of the past, i've noticed in my local supermarket, they have 2 LG plasma's on display. A 42" and 50" which display BBC HD (god knows how long for though) and they now have screen burn, not a very good advertisement tbh :o
 
I wouldn't say screen burn is a thing of the past, i've noticed in my local supermarket, they have 2 LG plasma's on display. A 42" and 50" which display BBC HD (god knows how long for though) and they now have screen burn, not a very good advertisement tbh :o

Yeah, that would be true enough, but it's not really real world use. There are enough people with current generation panels who have left the Sky menu on overnight without realising and found that it had no effect.
 
I wouldn't say screen burn is a thing of the past, i've noticed in my local supermarket, they have 2 LG plasma's on display. A 42" and 50" which display BBC HD (god knows how long for though) and they now have screen burn, not a very good advertisement tbh :o


They will be displaying the same things day in day out, and will probably be on for 24 hours straight.

I did think about getting a plasma but didn't because of the lower res and screen burn

Sounds like you have been in certain electrical retailers too much, next thing you will be saying that plasmas have to be 're-gassed' every 2 years ;)
 
Im in the same boat but was looking between the panasonic TH42PZ80 and Sony KDL V3000.

Heres how I see it so far.. after testing both sets with a HD video camera the panasonic plasmas look much more natural in colour and pleasing to the eye, the detail in blacks are superior, and I definitely prefer the look of plasmas compared to the "sparkerly" look of LCDs. The sony suffers from auto dimming during dark moments which I think could get annoying.

The plasmas tho do need to be baby sat compared to LCD.. true technology has made screen burn less of an issue. But it is still an issue!
 
Lets get things straight first, Plasmas are not poor for gaming...the only thing that puts people off is screenburn...they have superior response times (my panel apparently is 0.0001ms compared to the best LCD's which is around 4ms) thus ghosting is non-existent. Colours, contrast, blacks etc. also apply to games and not just film/tv material, so plasmas are better in this instance as well. Gaming is great on my pz85.
 
Lets get things straight first, Plasmas are not poor for gaming...the only thing that puts people off is screenburn...they have superior response times (my panel apparently is 0.0001ms compared to the best LCD's which is around 4ms) thus ghosting is non-existent. Colours, contrast, blacks etc. also apply to games and not just film/tv material, so plasmas are better in this instance as well. Gaming is great on my pz85.

To be fair I haven't noticed ghosting on any rather modern LCD, including PC monitors in the last 3 years of having them.

But you are right, Plasmas have great picture quality (Panny Plasma downstairs), rather useless for me though so I was forced to go LCD, not really wanting to use a Plasma for a PC monitor!
 
I bought a Panasonic PZ80 (1080P screen) for £849 a few weeks ago. Fantastic picture quality. SOunds not too great but I listen to most stuff through the Amp anyway. 1080P is nice to have but from where I sit at the moment (about 10ft away) I couldnt honestly say theres a noticeable difference over 720P
 
What do you guys use for cabinets? I need to replace a crappy 27" CRT TV asap but I have limited room for a wide cabinet :(

TBH, mine sits on top of my sideboard:

Plan.jpg
 
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