Is the Panasonic 42PZ700 the ultimate plasma?

For quite some time now I have been holding out buying an HDTV until I could get a full 1920 x 1080 resolution 42" plasma. There are loads of 40"+ LCDs that have that high resolution but I am not a great fan of LCD, I much prefer the picture on a plasma. So I have been waiting.

Getting the 1920 x 1080 resolution into a 42" screen is a challenge for plasma technology but Panasonic have managed to achieve it with the TH-42PZ700 - and it's pretty special.



So is it the holy grail of plasma TVs? It has all the benefits of native 1080 resolution and the ability to display every detail of a 1080i or 1080p picture without having to scale it to fit. And if you connect a PC up to it you're going to be able to use a much higher resolution.

Certainly, from the reviews I've read so far, people seem to think it's a great TV. This is from HDTV.org's review:

Combine Panasonic's latest 10th generation screens with Vreal processing and Full HD however and in the TH42PZ700 you have what is possibly the best High Definition (HD) performance available today from a 42in screen. The level of sharpness and detail is absolutely stunning, showing every possible nuance of detail imaginable.

So it's good then. Deep blacks, high levels of detail. Cool. But do you really need 1080 resolution?

After all this time waiting for it, I'm now questioning whether, in the real world, it's necessary. You see, for my eyes to even be able to perceive the increased resolution, I have to be sitting about 5 feet away from the screen.

In my lounge I would be sitting about 7 feet away from it when sitting on my sofa. So will I see the extra resolution? Well probably not. But that's hardly the point is it? Gadget freaks need the best and I think I would always regret it if I didn't buy the full resolution set.

Anyway, I can just about justify it for gaming when I will be sitting about 4 or 5 feet away and for the extra resolution when connecting a PC :-)

But for most people who just want an HDTV in their lounge, I really don't think the extra £1000 or so over a Panasonic PX70 is probably worth it.

Panasonic only made the PZ700 for gadget freaks who insist on the best, normal people need not apply.

Plasma vs LCD - Plasma best?

I have to admit, I've always had a preference for plasma over LCD. Every time I've gone into any large retailer and looked at all the sets, plasma has always seemed to produce more realistic colours, deeper blacks and much less blur in fast moving scenes, in my opinion.

In recent years, however, LCD has considerably closed the gap and the top manufacturers are consistently producing sets with better contrast ratios and lower response times.

So it was with much interest that I found and read a piece of research on the subject that looks at the views of 603 people in London, Paris and Cologne directly comparing the two technologies in a controlled environment.

The research was commissioned by Panasonic, Pioneer and Hitachi, some of the largest and most respected plasma manufacturers, so clearly their objective was to highlight plasma's superiority. Having said that, Panasonic and Hitachi both also manufacture LCD.

The research was conducted by a completely independent and well respected research company, Synovate. Having checked them out, they do seem to be completely legit.

Onto the results of the research then, this is taken directly from the executive summary:

The results reveal a strong preference for the contrast, black tone, resolution, image depth, sharpness, colour and response speed of plasma.

More importantly, opinions among those who had some prior knowledge of the two technologies swung dramatically toward plasma once they viewed the content side by side in an environment similar to their homes.

Some specifics from the report:

• 65% favour Plasma over LCD for best Colour Quality
• 61% say Plasma delivers the best Sharpness Quality
• 62% indicate that Plasma has the best Response Time
• 72% deem Plasma to have the best Black Quality performance

So, the results of this survey seem very clear then, plasma is superior in almost every way. I have to say, I'm not particularly surprised, as I said, it's been my feeling for a long time.

It's a very interesting read though and even if you don't agree with the results, there are some excellent explanations of the differences between the two technologies and various myths are also dispelled.

I definitely learnt a lot reading the report and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the subject.

If you're in the market for a new big screen HDTV, you should definitely read the report thoroughly and then go and make your own judgement on all the sets in your nearest big retailer. The best judge will always be your own eyes.

You can read the report here.

Panasonic announce "world's smallest" solid-state camcorder

Panasonic has announced what it claims is the world's smallest solid-state camcorder i.e. it has no tapes or hard drives, just SD or SDHC cards to record onto, much like a digital camera.

This has several advantages, apart from the small size, including shock resistance (as the recording mechanism has no moving parts), fast start up times and efficient battery life. Other features include a 2.7” wide-screen LCD, 10x optical zoom lens and USB 2 connectivity.

A 4GB SDHC card allows up to approximately 100 minutes of recording and the supplied 2GB SD card allows about 50 minutes.

It also has impact resistance and can survive a drop from up to 1.2 metres. In addition, it's water resistant which makes it great for recording poolside, at a beach or while skiing.

It's designed for easy shooting and you grip it so that you can stabilise the shot by bracing your elbow against your body or you can shoot in pistol-grip mode, all comfortably in the palm of your hand.

I'm not usually massively into camcorders but this does look like a real carry anywhere device that would be great for holidays and special events (skiing and my wedding come to mind!).

The Panasonic SDR-S10 is expected to be available in Europe from May 2007. See more details on the Panasonic site.

Panasonic Lumix FX30

Panasonic have announced a new ultra-compact camera, the world's thinnest at 22mm, with a wide angle 28mm lens. The zoom is 3.6x, so as well as the wide angle for capturing large group shots, landscapes or buildings, you still get the 100mm top end for far off subjects.

It's 7.2 megapixels, has a 2.5 inch LCD screen, high ISO setting and Panasonic's latest image processing engine, Venus III.



It has some other nice tricks up its sleeve as well, like optical image stabilisation, 848 x 480 widescreen video mode and a clever additional zoom that lets you go up to 5.3x but only using the centre of the CCD at 3 megapixel resolution, potentially very useful in certain situations where resolution isn't paramount.

Certainly looks like a really interesting little compact and, if it takes good pictures, it could take over from the Canon 850 IS as my new favourite. I'll be on the lookout for the first reviews.

It will be available in the UK in March. Panasonic UK site.

CES roundup

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is under way in Las Vegas this week and there has been a deluge of new products announced from all the major manufacturers.

A lot of them are not that interesting or significant (to me anyway), so I'm going to try and cut through the crap and highlight here some of the things that interest me and hopefully you.

Xbox 360 IPTV

Microsoft kicked of proceedings with their keynote, of which the most interesting thing to come out was the announcement that in late 2007 they will be offering TV over your internet connection direct to your Xbox 360. They gave a demo at the keynote and there are some screen shots and a video about as well.

It does look quite cool and allows you to do Sky+ type things as well as some intriguing ideas such as recording a TV program in the background while playing a game in Xbox Live! Could be interesting competition to Apple's forthcoming "iTV" as well.

Microsoft really do appear to be trying to cram everything they can into the 360. They also announced that they have shipped just over 10 million 360s to date.

Samsung Blu-Ray player and 1080p TVs

Samsung announced the BD-P1200, their second generation Blu-Ray player. It's slimmer, cheaper and better specified than the previous BD-P100 and should be hitting the US in June.



Samsung also announced 3 new 1080p LCD TVs in 40, 46 and 52 inch varieties featuring 3 HDMI 1.3 ports, 12,000:1 contrast ratio and 1920x1080 resolution among other things.




Pioneer A/V receivers

You're gonna need some sounds to go with your new TV and Blu-Ray player, so how about one the of the four new monster Pioneer receivers: VSX-517, VSX-817, VSX-917V, and VSX-1017TXV (pictured).


Featuring satellite radio (big in the states), iPod integration, 120Watts over each of the 7 channel outputs and THX Select 2 certification for the top of the range beast.

Toshiba REGZA LCD TVs

Four new 720p LCDs in 26, 32, 37 and 42-inch screen sizes and updates to the 42, 46, 52 and 57-inch 1080p Cinema Series, which include 120Hz anti-motion blur technology, ethernet port and HDMI 1.3 connectors with Deep Color and xvYCC support. They also found the time to introduce two new 26 and 32-inch models that include a built in DVD player!

Philips wireless HDMI

Hate that clutter of wires behind your TV? Everything seems to be going wireless these days and HDMI is no exception with Philips announcing a new solution with enough bandwidth to send an uncompressed HD stream of up to 1080p resolution. It's based on an ultra wide band frequency so shouldn't interfere with other wireless stuff like your WiFi network or DECT home phone.

Sharp's new Aquos TVs

Sharp announced 4 new lines of TVs, from the top of the range, 8th Generation 1080p capable D92-Series to the more affordable 720p capable D43-Series with others in between. The D92s feature 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 4ms response time, 120hz refresh rate and 3 HDMI ports.



New Panasonic plasmas

Last but not least, Panasonic announced a new 42" prototype 1080p plasma, possibly the holy grail as far as I'm concerned, as well as new 50, 58, 65 and 103-inch plasmas. Also new HD camcorders, Blu-Ray and home theatre stuff.


Phew, that's about it. Now, get ready for the Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld tonight, it looks like it's gonna be a big one.

HD: 1080p TVs

1080p, the so-called "holy grail" of high definition, is pretty near impossible to come by at the moment, particularly here in the UK.

Basically, it's a higher resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels progressively scanned; as opposed to the 'normal' HD Ready TVs which usually have a resolution of 1280 x 720 or 1366 x 768, which can be used to display 720p or 1080i content. In theory therefore, 1080p should give a sharper, more detailed picture. More on all this and the pros and cons of each in a later post. (If you want to read more on this now, try this, it's quite techie though).

Anyway, with the imminent launch of next generation technologies like Blu-Ray and the PS3 that are capable of outputting 1080p, we are seeing more and more 1080p TVs being launched or announced. Here are a few examples of some of the 1080p capable TVs that are either already available or coming soon:

Sony KDL-46X2000
Sharp LC65GD1E
Sharp LC-37D90U
Panasonic VIERA PZ600 series
Toshiba 47WLT66 and 42WLT66

So there you go. They are about, if you're prepared to pay top dollar! I'm certainly waiting for the dust to settle a bit with HD before I get myself a 1080p set.

Tags: hd, 1080p, high definition, tv, sony, sharp, panasonic, toshiba, plasma, lcd