Looked at Panasonic Plasma vs. Sony LCD. HELP!

Kelly · 12-03-2006, 11:53 AM

Visited Best Buy last night as I am in the market for a HD television to help my son take advantage of his new PS3 he is getting for Christmas as well as for standard viewing. We also occasionally watch DVDs. DirectTV upgrade to HD will soon follow. Have been reading here and have decided that it appears that Panasonic is a highly thought of Plasma and the Sony LCD is reviewed highly by magazine articles I have read. Money is a real issue so I have been leaning toward the plasma (42" or 50"). Last night at Best Buy, the Panasonic sets were NOT impressive, but then again, none of them were. The only thing that looked impressive was the higher quality Sony LCD (XBR2 / XBR3) sets. The smaller Sony LCDs (23") were not impressive either so I am not real sure why only the high quality Sonys were so much better. Oh yeah, the Pioneer Elite also looked very nich but too expensive for me. Are the Panasonics (and all other Plasmas for that matter) that much inferior to the Sony LCD or did they just have something going on that was keeping the quality of the pictures poorer than they should be. To be honest, if I were buying last night, it would have convinced me to keep by 11 year old Toshiba 37" tube. If you have experience with these, please give me your feedback. Also, LCD or plasma? Thanks!

DougR · 12-03-2006, 01:47 PM

Some will argue that Stores such as Best Buy, Circus City,etc...don't Tweak the settings alittle to make one or two look a little better than the others on Display?
It might have to do with Inventory, what they want/have to move out the door quicker? Plus the overall presentation in a Store with not the Optimum Lighting and Source material might have something to do with it too?

SethH · 12-03-2006, 05:14 PM

There is a good chance that none of those sets were calibrated at all. It may be that some of those sonys have their defaults set better than the other sets you looked at and that the people at the store have never made any changes.

Brandon Pop · 12-03-2006, 08:45 PM

Well first and foremost what content was playing on each of the sets? Best Buy is notorious for running compressed satellite standard definition broadcasts on their HD sets.

Second, the Sony is a 1080p monitor while the Panasonic Plasmas are 720p so that will also make a difference. I've seen the Sony xbr2/3 LCD and it looks beautiful with HD content and I highly recommend it, but the Panasonic plasmas are a real bargain nowadays simply because 720p is not the HD standard of choice for the future and manufacturers are all shifting to 1080p sets.

Clanky · 12-03-2006, 09:57 PM

We just bought a Panasonic TH-58PX600 58" Plasma. Our decision was made simple by the fine staff at our local electronics store. We were able to watch the same HD program on numerous sets. We sat in front of a Sony 46" XBR Bravia LCD, a Sharp LC46D62 LCD and the Panasonic. The Sony and the Sharp had very visible motion 'blur' in action sequences and lacked quality in darker scenes. As far as the 720p vs 1080p issue,.... if you are sitting further than 8 feet away from your 720 set, you will not notice the difference. The Sony and the Sharp did look amazingly crisp, even at 3 feet from the screen,... but is this really a factor? I then had the sales person hook up a new Toshiba HD-DVD to the Panasonic and viewed the 1366 by 768 Panasonic for about an hour followed by a standard 480i DVD in one of the upconversion 1080i DVD players (S-77) and was amazed by the picture quality. for the $5500 CDN. budget I gave myself, I could of purchased the 46" Sony, or the 46" Sharp, but the extra 12" and the quality of the picture was my deciding factor.

I'll keep you updated on my prized possesion....

Frank

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