Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
 Awsome TV March 12, 2009
Mr. G. P. Miller (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Have been looking for about 2 years and settled on Panasonic Plasma 1080P
this fits the bill, Terestrial Tv is good and clear, Digital tunner TV good and SKY HD, 1080p DVD and X box all great.
Black Blacks, crisp clear pictures. no blurring.
very happy. by brother came and saw this and was was about to buy a 46 inch LCD LG canceled order and bought the 46" one of this one.
Outstanding for Blu-Ray, DVD and PS3 gaming, okay for Freeview! January 23, 2009
KILLEMALL13 (Feltham, UK)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
After owning a Toshiba 37xv3030 LCD for over a year, I became decreasingly disatisfied with the Tosh's HD performance. Despite being a Full HD LCD, the contrast ratio was a very low 3500:1, and this basically showed on films that were shot in low lighting conditions.
So, it was at this point, that I decided to upgrade. A Panasonic plasma was the only way to go with my budget, and I'm thoroughly pleased with the results.
Having seen the 42PZ85 on sale at Comet (sorry Amazon!) for £799 I got this badboy after months of deciding.
Firstly, Blu-ray movies look truly stunning on this TV. The difference between this and my barely one year old Tosh are immediate.
Post calibration using THX Optimizer and Digital Video Essentials and having watched The Dark Knight, Apocalypto, Hellboy 2, Dark City, Blade Runner: Final Cut, and The Thing amongst others in my Blu-ray collection several times already on this TV, the Panasonic delivers a near flawless image!
Dark scenes that were a murky squint inducing mess on my old Tosh, are presented on the Panny with superb detail and brilliant contrast, while colours are spot on and realistic without ever being overly garish or saturated as many LCDs have a tendency to do.
Motion is also rock solid, played via PS3 with 24fps activated, and the added bonus in being finally able to see even more shades of colour via ths PS3's HDMI 1.3 output. My Tosh only had HDMI Version 1.1!
The Warriors: Director's Cut, and The Dark Knight on Blu-ray look particularly impressive. The pristine remastered transfer for the Warriors shines here, and the dark scenes of er, the Dark Knight, are no longer dark at all. The thrilling set piece with the Batpod and the Joker are rendered with such breathtaking conviction and clarity, it's actually arguable that watching this was an even more enjoyable experience than when I saw the film on the IMAX a year ago. And yes, the Panny IS that good!
PS3 gaming is also a refreshingly involving experince. Since this is a plasma, there is very little if no input lag compared to even the very best LCD's out there, with it noticebly quicker than my Tosh. COD : WAW and COD 4 are now lag free murderous rampages, and because of the 30:000:1 contrast ratio and zero backlight, dark levels like Makin on WAW, reveal even more details in the picture that my LCD never picked up. Brilliant!
Where the Panny falls slightly short of my Tosh however is the tv's in built upscaler for Freeview. PQ is decidedly soft, and you may have to bump the sharpness a couple of notches. If you already have Freesat or Sky HD this isn't really a problem, since you're viewing material that is 1080i anyway, but upscaling picture quality plugged directly to the aerial could be better. I may decide to purchase a separate freeview tuner preferbly with a harddrive and HDMI out to 1080p to solve this problem.
Other than that, this TV ticks all the important boxes with Blu-ray movies, DVD (particularly good remastered films) and PS 3 gaming. I have yet to play my XBox 360 on it, but I have no doubts that will be brilliant too. Forget LCD until they fully sort out the technology, plasma is still superior for overall picture quality! BUY AND ENJOY!
Sublime Picture Quality!!! January 12, 2009
R. K. Patel (UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought this 42" PZ85 (over the PZ80/81) set last week with the recent Panasonic BD35 blu-ray player and a QED SR Reference HDMI cable - WOW...totally impressed. The picture quality is razor sharp, the black levels are on par with my brothers 50" HD Pioneer plasma (very deep indeed), and the colour range is simply superb. LCD Vs Plasma? You just can't beat a decent plasma for overall picture performance...that simple. I like how the blu-ray player upscales standard DVD discs, improving the picture sharpness and depth of colours (almost like watching a blu-ray from distance). Having looked at the Sony PS3 BD player in atleast two store demos, the picture looked quite grainy, and it seemed to over cook the colours, especially in the reds. I am looking forward to trying some recent blu-ray movies soon. All in all, this is a a great screen and definately the more affordable high-end solution to a Pioneer Kuro, as both units at HD 1080p perform with splitting hair differences to be honest. A side by side demo should say it all. Also, a high grade HDMI cable makes all the difference in PQ terms, not always the panel. Once you get past a certain level of spec, it's down to the overall chain.
The one to watch! January 9, 2009
Claire (Worcester, UK)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I purchased this TV last year and it is absolutey amazing. The screen images are clear cut with out any distortion. It handles fast moving films and sport without ghosting or staggering images. The quality of the freeview is also excellent which considering i could barely get terrestrial images on my old telly it provides a third option when recording two sky plus channels. Installation was simple as the TV does everything for you, barr the security inputting and regularly alerts you to extra satallite channels found which it will automatically update at the touch of a button in seconds. I am so pleased i chose the panasonic TH42PZ85B and any myths i heard about plasma have been dispelled. The only advice I would give is shop around as there is a huge margin in what you can pay for this TV, but what ever you spend it is worth every penny.
Awesome November 9, 2008
Peter Hawkins (Swindon, UK)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Partnered this with a Panny 35 Bluray and the results are really stunning. Considered the 800 but could not see the benefit over this one and the money saved = the bluray player.
Delivery was pants thu.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
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