Smaller screens have always been the domain of LCD TVs, with plasmas being more comfortable in the larger sizes. Lurking around in the background were 37-inch plasmas, but they generally weren't good value in comparison to LCDs of the same size. Now, Panasonic has a TV that should offer people who want smaller screens a credible alternative to LCD TVs.
The TH-37PX80B is still more expensive than a budget 37-inch LCD but as we discovered, those extra pounds could translate to extra happiness when you see what this TV can do. It's available for around £750.
Design
As it sits at the bottom of Panasonic's range, we wouldn't expect a huge song and dance about the design of this TV. With its piano black finish, though, the 37PX80 will look great in any room. The bezel is rather thick, which does hint at its non-premium roots as it's more expensive to make it thinner, but does that really matter?
Another visually appealing attribute is the near-invisibility of the speakers on this television. Sadly, it's a disaster for sound quality -- more on that later.
The remote control is sturdy, with large buttons that are easy to press. The TV also responds quickly to any commands you issue, which can be a problem on some makes of TV -- sometimes, it feels like you could squeeze in a short holiday during the time it takes to switch from one menu item to another.
Features
All of Panasonic's plasmas have 100Hz refresh rates included. Panasonic calls this feature 'double scan' and it does a pretty good job, too. We like that it seems to take a very moderate approach to adjusting the picture, meaning that movies don't suddenly start looking like video, but have a nice smooth motion to them.
At the front of the 37PX80 is a slot for an SD card and the TV even supports SDHC for extra capacity. We took some shots with a Panasonic Lumix in 16:9 mode, played them back via the TV and were amazed by the quality. Imagine -- your TV, the massive photo frame! If you have a camera that shoots on SD, it's a much better way of viewing your photos than having the whole family crowd around a 51mm (2-inch) camera screen. The only disappointment is that the TV refused to play a short video we'd shot with the camera.
The setup procedure for the 37PX80 is amazingly simple, too. The moment you turn it on, it begins searching for channels -- both digital and analogue -- and has everything tuned and stored within a few minutes.
Performance
After setup and making a few small adjustments to the picture settings, we plugged in an HD DVD player, flung The Matrix Reloaded into the disc tray and fired that bad boy up. It's not an exaggeration to say that we were blown away by -- we must point out -- what is essentially a low-cost plasma TV.
We were absolutely enchanted by the startlingly sharp picture. This is most obviously apparent from the TV's menu system, but looking at the on-screen HD DVD menus in the Matrix films, we were amazed at the sharpness of the text.
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basart 23 February 2009
Good: everything nothing to dislihe at all
Bad: bright sun light on pannla
Comment: my wife finds the controlls easey to use . all she has to do is turn it on , sit back and enjoy a good picture with wonderful colours
Late8 24 September 2008
Good: Best SD Picture on a flat TV I have ever seen.
Bad: Being a Plasms and having a glass screen viewing in bright daylight rooms suffers
Comment: This TV has got to be the best flat panel I have seen today- with only exception to the Pioneer Kuro Plasmas. LCD's of all shapes and sizes cannot match the Panasonic on overall picture performance- especially SD material.
I'm very picky about picture and sound etc when choosing a TV and for the past 5 years or so I have been disappointed with the latest offerings of the HD revolution. My first TV of the HD age was a Samsung LCD- Although top of the range and highly rated at the time, the picture was very disappointing.
I always (and still do) find that LCD TV produce a unnatural and pixelated picture- particularly on SD material from Freeview or Sky etc. In a dark room the black parts of a picture were not black but a dark blue, and for the majority of the time Blacks were crushed and shadow detail lost- this is still seen on LCDs today and is the nature of the technology along with motion blur.
The Panasonic plasma is very different. When first switching it on it was clear that the Standard Definition picture material processing was superior to and LCD and colours and contrast was very natural. Its worth noting that a lot of TV today is still Standard Definition, this TV copes extremely well with SD material blown up onto a large flat screen. Black levels were .. well Black! And the image was very cinematic and professional looking. Performance on HD was out of this world!- the pros of plasma technology- ie black levels, contrast and colour handling etc made HD even better to watch.
I have quite honestly never seen such a natural picture on a flat panel TV in this price range- the only TV I have seen that’s better and performs as well is the Pioneer Kuro Plasma TV’s at nearly 3 times the cost!
Sound performance was better than expected, clear speech and a good bass response (particularly for a flat TV) was noticeable- but with a TV like this you must go for a separate sound system to make the home cinema experience even better.
The inbuilt freeview picture quality is better than other TV’s I have tried, but I’m currently using a Humax PVR Freeview box attached via RGB scart and its image just beats the inbuilt one in terms of sharpness. I’m also impressed with the amount of connections too and the SD card slot at the front makes it great for quickly showing your Digital Camera photos on the big screen. The images from a camera take a few seconds to load but there sharpness and detail is fantastic.
Oh no.. The Bad:
There are one or two downfalls to the Plasma tech its worth baring in mind however. The first is the screen itself. Because it’s a plasma it has a glass screen- I found that during the daytime or a very brightly lit room the image brightness suffers slightly due to the reflective nature of the screen. An anti reflective coating is on the outer side of the glass but it seems to be from the gauze and pixel panel behind- it can cause the image to look duller and slightly grey if showing a dark scene. – I have seen it a few times but its very slight.
The second is something called Image retention. Basically if you leave a static image on the screen for a long period of time a ghost image can be seen when watching normal TV- this can be cause by on screen logos etc but soon goes after 1-2min of viewing and is barely noticeable.
Another thing to bare in mind that a lot of review seem to miss is that motion blur still does occur on a plasma. Its mainly phosphor lag and is very very slight. Motion response on fast scrolling text or quick panning shots goes slightly blurry and suffers some slight judder. BUT don’t be put off- you will never find a LCD that comes close to this TV or any other Plasma for motion response.
Overall I recommend this TV if you want a natural high quality image across the board for HD and SD material. At the price you simply cant beat it on picture performance.
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