Panasonic TH-58PZ800U HDTV Review

Quote:	TH58PZ800u a fantastic deal..
Rating:
Reviewed On:	Amazon.com

Thanks to another poster here, I discovered the “bundle deal” – 58″ Panasonic w/ the BD35 Blu-ray player. All did not go smoothly at first. I tried to buy the bundle which was a no-brainer – Buy the BD35 for $232 and get a $300 credit on the combo (w/ free freight). After entering both items (which were both listed as in-stock), the $300 credit never appeared on the last screen before hitting the “purchase” button. So I cancelled the transaction and cleared by cache and tried again. This time I used “option 2″ which was a small link to the deal. After everything looked ok I hit the purchase button and when I printed it out, it said that the TV would ship between Dec 30 & Jan 20! – Needless to say I freaked. I called Amazon Customer Service immediately and they explained that the “deal” was only through Amazon – if I didn’t want the free freight and $300 credit I could’ve purchased it through their partner and received it in a week or so.

The order was placed on Tues, Nov 18 at 9pm (I kept the Amazon deal). The Blu-ray player arrived on Thursday, Nov 20 (w/ the free freight option). On Sunday, Nov 23, the TV still had a ship date of Dec 30 – Jan 20. On Monday I rec’d an email stating that it should arrive around Dec 12 (awesome compared to the original estimate). Guess what – The TV arrived via CEVA on Wed, Nov 26! The whole deal took one week w/ free freight and arrived in perfect condition and the guys even carried it upstairs to my home theater room. I tried to tip them and they said they weren’t allowed – I felt bad cause they looked like they were gonna die after navigating my stairway.

By the way – I mounted it w/ a Sanus LT-25 tilting wall mount which I bought through Amazon for $107. It was $219 plus tax at BB. Picture is awesome w/o even tweaking the controls yet. Flesh tones are spot-on. Love the way it looks so much more natural than an LCD.

Panasonic TH58PZ800U Plasma Review

Quote:	TH-58PZ800u is Crisp & Beautiful
Rating:
Reviewed On:	Amazon.com

I got this TV b/c cnet seemed to rave about it. I had a TH-50PX600U and that was a nice TV and I’m a big panasonic fan, but this TV I can definitely notice an improvement in quality from my cable HD channels, even though both are from the same 720p signal. In addition, watching Blu-Ray from this is beautiful (I’m using a PS3). I’m really happy with the purchase. One recommendation for anyone owning this TV is to use custom settings and not use the settings that are default.

The rest of the review is copy/pasted from “daarrid” over at avsforum.com

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1056962

However lets remember that the THX mode can be adjusted!!!! Panasonic’s default settings for THX are just wrong. The CNET reviewer, using a completely dark room, adjusted the THX settings considerably upward from their default settings. Just for the sake of example – CNET increased the picture setting from 50 to 100 for their review.

I’d suggest that anyone owning this set start with CNET’s THX settings:

CNET’s THX settings (completely dark room):

Picture: 100
Brightness: 55
Color: 56
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Warm
Cats: Off
Color Man.: Off
MPEG NR: Off
HD Size: Size 2
Black Level: Light

Or try My THX Settings (for a dimly lite room):

THX MODE:

Picture: 95
Brightness: 62
Color: 50
Tint: -8
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Normal
Cats: Off
Color Man.: On
MPEG NR: Off
HD Size: Size 2
Black Level: Light

While I use my Custom settings occassionally – tweaking the THX settings are much more important for everyday use. I use THX 90% of the time. The Custom Mode I created, I generally use ONLY for broadcasts made for TV. Remember THX is a movie standard and does not technically apply to TV shows (although some of these TV shows may also look better in THX).

Here are my custom mode settings again (already posted). Use these settings for TV shows and/or movies shown in a bright room:

CUSTOM MODE:

Picture: 85
Brightness: 50
Color: 34
Tint: -7
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Normal
Cats: Off
Color Man.: On
MPEG NR: Off
HD Size: Size 2
Black Level: Light

Panasonic TH58PZ800U Review

Quote:	The Viera PZ800u is AMAZING…
Rating:
Reviewed On:	Amazon.com

I recently purchased the panasonic th58pz800u from amazon for $3019, which I feel is very reasonable (The price has indeed fluctuated between $2899 and $3799 on amazon during the time I was shopping for it). Once ordered, the television was delivered in 3 business days (I’m in CA). Although the amazon website said it would be delivered “white glove”, the delivery persons did not have that information. However, when we let them know that’s what we were expecting, they willingly obliged by unpacking the t.v., placing it on it’s stand, turned it on and left with all the packing materials. Pretty nice! Before purchasing this t.v. which I waited for a while before it was even available, I was considering the Pioneer pdp6020fd, which in my mind is the only other comparable plasma set, image quality and features wise. I opted for a plasma because I felt that it had the superior picture (contrast, colors, sharpness) over all the nicer lcd screens available (120hz sony xbr, samsung, toshiba) particularly when viewing lots of full-range motion (sports and movies), the panasonic and pioneer plasmas handled the edging the most smoothly. I found the Panasonic set to be very close in image quality with the pioneer but for $1000-$1500 less. I didn’t care for the samsung sets because they generated so much heat. The panasonic and pioneer sets both don’t noticeably change the temperature of a room.

I setup my panasonic with all my sources being piped through my Denon avr2808ci, which upconverts all sources through it’s hdmi out. I have a hd cable box (connected via hdmi), a dvd player (connected via component) and a sony ps3 (connected via hdmi) hooked-up through the denon. The 1080i from the hd cable box looks amazing! The 1080p from the ps3 bluray is flawless and the 480p upconverted from dvd looks surprisingly great as well. In each case, the colors are vibrant and the blacks are so black that the blacks in an image are consistent with the black of the screen when it is turned-off. All in all, I am extremely pleased with my purchase of the panasonic and find it to be the finest television I have owned (The t.v. I replaced was a hd-capable 57″ sony xbr rear projection whose blacks were actually dark gray…I bought this t.v. for $1500 more than the panasonic set 7 years ago).

In my particular setup, I had to make sure that all my hdmi cables were hdmi v1.3 cables otherwise the denon throughput no signal to the television. Monoprice.com had excellent hdmi v1.3 cables for about $13 each. I was able to get a great bdi stand for it from dynamichomedecor.com which I also found to be an excellent resource.

I highly recommend the purchase from amazon.com primarily because of the included “white glove” delivery, just make sure at the time of purchase that it is stated. I know that vanns.com and other reputable places may have slightly lower prices, but for me the “white glove” delivery really made the whole process much easier and sweeter.