Tosh 50H82 vs. Panny 47wx42 (1 Viewer)

[Matthew_S]

I was wondering if anyone could list for me some pro's and cons of these two sets. Went to Best Buy today and the wife was asking me why the panny was so much cheaper? Good question, i thought. I've always heard good things about the Toshiba, but now i see that a lot of folks love their panny's. I'm a newbie to this stuff (don't understand the 720p/1080i stuff and yes, i've even read up on it.) Anyway, some pro's and cons would be nice and any other advise you could give. I'm anticipating using this set for 60% dvd viewing, 30% television, and 10% xbox use. But i don't have to use the xbox on it. Thanks a lot.

 

[Jan Strnad]

You'll find people who love both!

Sharpness: Panasonic is sharper by a bit. Will you be able to notice the difference? Maybe, maybe not.

Out of box experience: Panasonics typically need more tweaking, maybe even an ISF calibration, to get a great picture. Reportedly, the new models are better out of the box than previous models were. Toshiba has generally better out of box color fidelity, but you'll want to tweak a Tosh, too, and they can also be improved with an ISF calibration.

Form factor: Tosh is about 6" shallower, which may make a big difference in your room or maybe none at all.

Protective screen: Got kids? Rambunctious dogs? Tosh comes with a protective screen, the Panasonic offers it as an option for around $200. The protective screen adds glare, so some people remove them. If you have small kids, you want one.

DVI: Panasonic doesn't have it, Tosh is supposed to be upgradeable to include it (but expect to pay a premium for that), and you may not ever need it, and if you do need it and your set isn't upgradeable, somebody will offer a workaround. Pretty much a non-issue IMHO.

Which will make you happy: Either one!

Cheers,

Jan

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

A set sitting in a room by itself can be made to look really nice regardless of which one you take.

Both units have strengths and weaknesses, but the Panasonic has a more crisp/detailed DVD image.

On HDTV ... both sets are on even ground.

Panny has a slight deficiency when it comes to colour decoding. A bit too much red push even when done tweaking the decoder items.

While the Toshiba has no access to colour decoder parameters, the factory settings are still usually lower than where you can get the Panny unit.

I think one word came to mind when I opened a Panny 42 recently ... the word was "cheap" wrt some items found under the hood.

Regards

 

[Matthew_S]

Thanks a lot guys. I'm going to keep looking at replies to this thread and doing as much research as i can on my own.

 

[Ken Custodio]

One thing that I liked about the Toshiba that was an important decision for me when buying the TV (50H82) was that I liked the Theater Wide 1 stretch mode of the Toshiba. Since I would be watching a lot of 4:3 cable programing (about 60%). In stretch mode 1 it is hardly noticeble that the picture is being stretched.

 

[Matthew_S]

Well, i just figured out that the panny 47 inch won't fit up my staircase anyway. So it looks like the Toshiba...(if i can get my wife to cave in) ! Thanks, guys.