tell me about the panasonic PT-50LC13 (1 Viewer)

[Daniel_Burke]

I checked out Good Guys and Circit City with out any luck. They had some LCD projector style HDTV and some flat pannel screens but they were all out of my price range. I originally wanted to stick with the $2,000 price range until I found the PT-50LC13. It is a projector style LCD screen. Any one hear of good or bad reviews on this screen? In stores they sell for $3000 to $3200. I found several online places that are letting them go for $2300 to $2700 price range. The only problem is all of the online stores that I find seem to be in NY or Florida. I'm located in California and I dont want to ship a TV that far. Cross country in a truck would beat up the TV even before I get it. I'd rather buy one closer to me. Any ideas on where I should start looking? I wouldnt mind travling to pick it up if that is possible. Thanks for the help.


Daniel Burke

 

[Chris*C]

I have this set and I'm happy with the dvd PQ it puts out, however I am not happy with the cable PQ it is putting out. My cable sucks to start with so I am getting ready to switch to Directv, hoping that it will improve the PQ! I also haven't seen HD on it yet, other than at BB and it looked stunning there!

 

[DarinB]

Hi Daniel,

I've had mine since November, and have been hooked up to Time Warner Digital cable since then.

The Good:
On DVD's, using a progressive scan DVD player (Panasonic as well, forget the model at the moment...) the picture quality is extremely good. On most of the HD cable stations, the PQ is absolutely stunning - however...I get a couple of channels that sometimes are suspect - FOX being the worst of them. On other HD channels though, I have no complaints - the PBS station plays a HD loop - flowers, various other pictures - some of the flower scenes will make you want to get up and smell your tv...

Watching the Denver / Indianapolis game last night almost made my jaw come unhinged - I've never seen a more brilliant blue or green than that.

The Bad:
Black levels. The fact that you can't get 'really' black is noticable (I'll add the disclaimer that if this is the only tv you watch, you'll get used to it really quick); for me and my family, we could care less - the PQ makes up for that tenfold. If that's very important to you, you may want to keep looking around.
Other than HD signal. Standard cable can be so-so. My personal hunch is that after watching HD, standard looks so bad that it ain't funny. Digital cable seems to be a lot better, but still not as good as HD.

Overall:
I am completely stoked with my tv. Compared to anything else I've ever owned (and honestly, that ain't much...), the PQ is unbelievable. Watching movies at home now is almost more enjoyable than going out - if I had a bigger Sub, I don't know if I'd bother going to the theatre anymore!!

Also...I bought mine locally at CC - wound up paying 2699 (with the rebate) - we found it the day before the store flyer jacked the $$ to 3299 and advertised the rebate.




hope this helps............Darin

 

[SteveAnd]

I purchased my set online, shipped by truck from the east coast to Salt Lake City. There was no problem with the shipping whatsoever. Not even the smallest of dents in the large box it comes in. If I were you, I would reconsider your position on that. I know that when I was ready to purchase, none of the stores locally had the set in stock, which made me look online for one. I ended up with the PT-50LCX63, which is the same set but includes the ATSC tuner built-in.

I have been very satisfied with mine so far. The colors are unbelievable with a good feed, especially true HD programming. If you have decided on this set after looking at all the models in the stores, then where you get it from should not be an issue. If it is, you may have a long time to wait for anyone locally to have one in stock again.