Sony KDL V3000 Vs. Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80

I have a v3000 and its great bar slight motion blur, no more than any other LCD! but me being fussy I wasn't happy so I went and had a look at the PX80, and even that had some blur imo! blacks were better but not by much. however the picture on the v3000 looked sharper, more so when I watched a few mins of casino royal on blu-ray @1080p.

blacks whilst gaming on my PS3 were poor, anything dark was almost pitch black! I have managed to sort that by changing the hdmi colour setting on the PS3 to limited, it was set to full.
 
topher said:
I have a v3000 and its great bar slight motion blur, no more than any other LCD! but me being fussy I wasn't happy so I went and had a look at the PX80, and even that had some blur imo! blacks were better but not by much. however the picture on the v3000 looked sharper, more so when I watched a few mins of casino royal on blu-ray @1080p.

blacks whilst gaming on my PS3 were poor, anything dark was almost pitch black! I have managed to sort that by changing the hdmi colour setting on the PS3 to limited, it was set to full.
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Do you know if there are other setting for 360 or in the Tv HDMI settings menu on the Tv?
 
In the System section of the Xbox Dashboard, select Console Settings.
In the Console Settings area, select Display.
In the Display Settings area, select Reference Levels.

try the option in there ;-)

ps my V3000 has developed 2 stuck/dead pixels! so I will getting it swapped out, also notice some clouding when displaying a dark picture..
 
Just to keep th thread updated, I had the JL Engineer round an Saturday morning. He rung me on my mobile at 7.45am :/
He was round at 10am and he quickly established I knew what I was talking about and immiately agreed a full refund or exchange were the best options. He said that although the Tv was up to manufacturers specificatons, it was unfit for purpose as the black levels were too poor.
I have arranged for an exchange for a PX80 so once that arrives (either Thursday or Saturday this week) then I will be able to compare them which may well be of interest for anyone else looking to buy one.
Cheers
 
TheDean said:
Just to keep th thread updated, I had the JL Engineer round an Saturday morning. He rung me on my mobile at 7.45am :/
He was round at 10am and he quickly established I knew what I was talking about and immiately agreed a full refund or exchange were the best options. He said that although the Tv was up to manufacturers specificatons, it was unfit for purpose as the black levels were too poor.
I have arranged for an exchange for a PX80 so once that arrives (either Thursday or Saturday this week) then I will be able to compare them which may well be of interest for anyone else looking to buy one.
Cheers
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Tooooot, good old service strikes again from them :D
 
-Ad- said:
Tooooot, good old service strikes again from them :D
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I tell you what - Thay have been utterly brilliant so far! Once I paid for the original Tv (the V3000) I asked them if I could pick it up on Thursday night from their depot (late opening on Thurs). The woman on the phone said yes, that was fine. I rung up again on the afternoon to confirm and another woman said that although the shop was open till 8.30pm - the depot wasn't so I'd have to wait till Saturday. I didn't go mental or anything just said, "Well that's not them best is it?" - She immediately said she had already spoken to the duty manager, and as a geture of good will they would give me £50 worth of vouchers when I came in to collect the TV!!! :eek: FIFTY NOTES!!! I was a bit shocked to say the least....

Anyway...we go to pick it up on the Saturday morning. I hand over my recipt in the Audio Visual dept and the bloke says "We'll arrange for the set to be taken to the customer collection point for you now, it'll be about 5-10mins, take this voucher so you and your friends can have a complimentary Tea or Coffee while you wait in one of our Cafe's". He then gave me £50 in cash rather than in vouchers which I loved!

As all this was happening I said to my mate that this was the best single example of customer service I had ever come accross ( and I used to work in CS!) and that when (if) I get Married, John Lewis are getting the list!
 
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TheDean said:
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:eek: I had better complain that my Kuro has eaten all my expensive italien leather furniture and my hobnobs, maybe they will give me couchers for that :)

Awesome CS there, I almost want something to go wrong with my set in the 4th year of the warranty and get upgraded to a brand new set.
 
do you have your px80 yet TheDean? Improvement?

I'm stuck in the position of V3000 or PX80, did you pump a games console through the V3000? Was that not good?
 
BobBrainy said:
do you have your px80 yet TheDean? Improvement?

I'm stuck in the position of V3000 or PX80, did you pump a games console through the V3000? Was that not good?
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I'm getting it on Saturday morning so will be in a position to tell you about it on Sunday night. I have a 360 going through the V3000 which does look good, but the black's aren't very good at all hence why I am swapping for the PX80 ;)
 
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TheDean said:
I'm getting it on Saturday morning so will be in a position to tell you about it on Sunday night. I have a 360 going through the V3000 which does look good, but the black's aren't very good at all hence why I am swapping for the PX80 ;)
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Got the PX80 yet? :p

I am getting the exact same TV on Wednesday and I can't wait. :)
 
Zildjian said:
Got the PX80 yet? :p

I am getting the exact same TV on Wednesday and I can't wait. :)
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O noes Dean is suspended, think I can see that he mentioned a certain competitor, damn didn't notice that even though I knew who he was on about.

Im sure he will be back with HOVIS + tv pics soon enough :D
 
I got the 37'' version on wednesday, i cannot compare to any other LCD/PLasma as this is my first but i think its "lush" (thought i would bring a word back from the 90's there).

It took a couple of days for my eyes to adjust to the size and scope of the screen (moved from a 21" CRT). I think it is an amazing set for the price paid, loads of connections, lovely Freeview implimentation and a good picture (even using s-vid) from the computer (dont panic not desktop use just streaming vids).
I know a lot of people have gone on about image retention on plasmas and say swap channels every 30 mins only watch static for the first 200 hours dont enjoy the screen never hook a Pc up to one, DONT PLAY GAMES ON IT!!! etc etc. but i have had no problems, first thing I watched was the champions league final even after the hours that went on for there was not even a hint of the score card being retained, I have played GtaIV on it for a few hours and all is good. I have however put the screen into Cinema mode which I read may help (so Dont sue me if your set retains everything.)
 
I upgraded to the 42px80 last week, its an amazing screen for the price, I paid £650 after a pricematch, never going back to LCD now for a TV, the difference in picture quality is simply amazing.
 
Full Write Up:

Sony 42" V3000 vs. Panasonic 42"PX80

Well,

First thing is first - Massive respect to John Lewis who took the Tv back no problems. In fact, I almost thought they were too relaxed about the whole thing! When I came to drop the Sony off I went into the CCP (Customer Collection Point) and handed the bloke my papers. He and his helper wheeled the new PX80 to the car and helped me unload the V3000, then reload the PX80.
It is worth noting that the PX80 box is lighter, 'fatter' and shorter than the V3000 and fitted confotably in the back of a 207 with the seats down.
So, back to the whole 'too relaxed thing'. We handed over the v3000 and the bloke didn't even check to make sure there was even a Tv inside it! It could well have been a few bricks. Anyway, they did have my address and postcode I suppose, but If I were them, I would have checked it!

Anyway, we got home and started the unboxing. This seemed much easier than the v3000 and set up was a doddle. The set also seemed lighter, although this may well be because of the heavy Sony stand.

Once I plugged in the Tv box (scart), Media Pc (HDMI) and Xbox 360 (HDMI) I moved back to work out the correct angle and viewing distance. We se it to approx 6 feet from the sofa and then began the set up.

I skipped the digital scan for channels as this was not needed and selected the scart output. Straight away I noticed the Tv was BRIGHT - and I mean stupidly bright. I changed to cinema mode and instantly felt much better about it all.
It is set to 'Vivid' by default and this looks flipping awful. Colours didn't seem accurate and it would blind you in a dark room I recon.
Once set to 'cinema' and brightness / contrast / etc etc changed to the setting recommended on the www.hdtvtest.co.uk website.

Against all advice I put the cricket on!!! This is only worth mentioning because some bloke on AV Forums got, what he thought at the time, was the dreaded permanent screen burn (It actually turned out it was just very bad retention and went after a few days). Signal was through Scart on Sky Sports 1. The colours looked life like, vibrant and in my opinion, not as over-powering as the Sony. Motion handling was smoother and even when the camera had to pan very fast for a 6 played to the leg side, the set did not display any issues I could see at my viewing distance. This may or may not be due to the introduction of 100Htz tech in this set which I had not seen before. The V3000 does not have this.

I then tested it with my media Pc. Using a 720p x264 version of Blade Runner the set showed how it was head & shoulders above the V3000 in black levels. It is fair to say the V3000 was destroyed in this aspect. Before the Sony would have serious issues trying to display dark scenes and you would really struggle to see any detail at all. With the PX80 dark, smoky scenes are shown in all their glory. This is not to say that the PX80 could not deal with bright scenes as well, in fact, against a dark background the panel was very impressive.

For watching SD the PX 80 is crisp, clean and shows clear definition. It is noticeably better than the V3000 in this respect. In HD the PX80 destroys the V3000 in black level, and I feel this is a very important part of watching movies.

Is there anything that I am not happy with in regards to the PX80? Well, not really to be honest. I prefer the look and design of the V3000 and its remote, but that is personal preference. The picture (SD & HD) and Sound are far superior, to the point that it is noticeable. I originally didn't think there would be that much difference between two sets of fairly equal value - how wrong I was!

I hope this fairly brief write up was useful to some who are considering which set to go for. It took me a long time to decide, and I made the wrong choice in the V3000, but now that I have the PX80 I am over the moon! Please note that I am not a professional reviewer, and may not be able to answer all of your in-depth questions.

For a professional review & settings go to http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Panasonic-TH42PX80/
 
Thanks for your review. It's yet another opinion enforcing my choice in getting this set. Nice to hear it passed the Blade Runner test in your eyes too.
Enjoy

Should purchace mine. in about 3 weeks, can't wait!
 
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