Pioneer PDP LX5090 or Panasonic TH50PZ80B

[airmark]

Originally Posted by Costas

I said look for yourself... for me it is a massive amount.... nearly 100% like black and white difference!

I went to John Lewis and saw them both. I could see zero (0) difference! Granted, the source was different (on the Pioneer it was a DVD, on the Panasonic SkyHD). But still I couldn't see how the massive price difference could be justified. This Sunday I'll go to the store with my laptop with HD material to try to compare them again. Unfortunately they are not side by side, but, still, if the only way to notice the picture quality difference is to have them side-by-side, then I will not pay the premium for the Pioneer, because I will definitely NOT have them side-by-side in my living room.

[reaper12]

If money is an issue at all go with the 50Pz80, you will be very happy with it. SD is soft on some channels with a lot of noise, but otherwise it's fine. It really depends on the channel you are watching.

As for bluray, well, both sets look fantastic. and if you are coming from an LCD, then you will find both sets so much better. I went from a 40 inch Samsung F7 series to the PZ80 and was stunned by the difference.

My advise to you Airmark is this, If SD is very important to you then go with the Pioneer. It does look really well. But, if you plan to watch a lot of bluray material or even DVD's then you are right in what you say, the only way to see the difference is to have them side by side which you will not have in your sitting room.

I know I am going against the trend of others in this thread, but, the PZ80 is a fine TV. THe Pio is better, but like you say Is it that much better??

Oh, and before you all shout at me, I have the Lx5090 and the PZ80 and the PZ800(currently waiting for it;s new owner to collect it) all in the house and HAVE compared them side by side.

[Costas]

Originally Posted by reaper12

THe Pio is better, but like you say Is it that much better??

OH YES IT IS.... I will positively insist !!!

[reaper12]

Originally Posted by Costas

OH YES IT IS.... I will positively insist !!!

lol, so you say, but, after comparing the three TV's side by side all day, it's a question that is still going through my mind.

In defence of the Pio, it has only about 20 hours viewing time on it where the other two TV's have 300+ hours.

[airmark]

Originally Posted by reaper12

If money is an issue at all go with the 50Pz80, you will be very happy with it. SD is soft on some channels with a lot of noise, but otherwise it's fine. It really depends on the channel you are watching.

As for bluray, well, both sets look fantastic. and if you are coming from an LCD, then you will find both sets so much better. I went from a 40 inch Samsung F7 series to the PZ80 and was stunned by the difference.

My advise to you Airmark is this, If SD is very important to you then go with the Pioneer. It does look really well. But, if you plan to watch a lot of bluray material or even DVD's then you are right in what you say, the only way to see the difference is to have them side by side which you will not have in your sitting room.

I know I am going against the trend of others in this thread, but, the PZ80 is a fine TV. THe Pio is better, but like you say Is it that much better??

Oh, and before you all shout at me, I have the Lx5090 and the PZ80 and the PZ800(currently waiting for it;s new owner to collect it) all in the house and HAVE compared them side by side.

Thanks for going against the trend!

I think it's always good to have arguments of both sides laid out.
Now, more specifically, money is always an issue in the sense that it is generally limited, and therefore you have to justify spending it (i.e. spend more if you get more out of the additional consumption). I can buy either set, but the way I see it, I can spend £1k for the Panasonic, or £1.8k for the Pioneer (roughly), and with either of them I will have a massive step up in my home theatre experience. But will there be a material difference in this experience between the two models? If not, then I'm better off saving the extra £800 (although I know that "saving" is almost a forbidden word in the UK) and in a couple of years (or less ) spending it in something that WILL make a material difference.

With regard to the viewing source I will not watch SD TV channels. 100% of the viewing material will come from my HTPC. Mostly BluRay, DVDs and downloaded videos (with the trend obviously going toward more and more BluRay). And a lot of web surfing and possibly some gaming too. But all of it will be driven by my PC's graphics card (ATI HD2600) in 1080p (via HDMI connection) so the superior Pioneer scaling capabilities are irrelevant, since all of the scaling will be handled by the PC, correct? So, does this change the equation?

[reaper12]

I am sure some of the more knowledgeable will be able to help you more on this. Maybe the Pioneer upscaling abilities are much better than a PC.

There is a review of the PZ80 on HDTV test, Here it is

Panasonic TH42PZ80 / TH42PZ80B Review: 42" Viera Plasma HDTV

They also do a review of the PZ85, PZ81, PZ800 and the LX5090.

Again the Pio is the best of the TV's no doubt about it. But, if you are mainly watching bluray and stuff from your PC then the PZ80 will be really good too, and you can put the money you save to a new receiver, or speakers which will offfer much more enjoyable movie experience than the difference in picture quality between the PZ80 and LX5090 can provide.

[YellowSphere]

The biggest problem with the PZ is that the colour and greyscale just aren't great. I would be happy to go for a PZ, but I'd have to add on £300 for a calibration, and about the same at least on decent scaling equipment.

And then I'd sod it and spend roughly the same amount on a Pioneer.

[airmark]

Originally Posted by YellowSphere

The biggest problem with the PZ is that the colour and greyscale just aren't great. I would be happy to go for a PZ, but I'd have to add on £300 for a calibration, and about the same at least on decent scaling equipment.

And then I'd sod it and spend roughly the same amount on a Pioneer.

Can you elaborate? What kind of calibration are you talking about? Is it something that we can do ourselves?

Also, given that all the scaling is done on the PC and the picture is sent to the tv with 1:1 pixel mapping, there's no need for scaling equipment. In fact the internal scaling capabilities of either set are irrelevant since thery are never used. Am I wrong here?

Forgive me for not joining the cheerleading here, but I prefer to be fully convinced before doing so. So far it seems to me that the Pioneer is the Lamborghini, and maybe the Panasonic is the Porsche. The thing is, given my driving skills, I would see ZERO difference between the two cars, so the value for money is far greater in the Porsche. Again, I beg for someone to prove me otherwise (and I will try to see for myself tomorrow for the second time).

[audiphile76]

Originally Posted by airmark

I think it's always good to have arguments of both sides laid out.
Now, more specifically, money is always an issue in the sense that it is generally limited, and therefore you have to justify spending it (i.e. spend more if you get more out of the additional consumption). I can buy either set, but the way I see it, I can spend £1k for the Panasonic, or £1.8k for the Pioneer (roughly), and with either of them I will have a massive step up in my home theatre experience. But will there be a material difference in this experience between the two models? If not, then I'm better off saving the extra £800 (although I know that "saving" is almost a forbidden word in the UK) and in a couple of years (or less ) spending it in something that WILL make a material difference.

Panasonic products have one bad feature, be it cameras or televisions. In dark scenes, there is apparent noise present. If this does not bother you, PZ80 is the way to go.

Originally Posted by airmark

With regard to the viewing source I will not watch SD TV channels. 100% of the viewing material will come from my HTPC.

This gives a good possibility to NOT consider plasma and go for a high-end LCD and be non-bothered about IRs.

[Kryptix]

Pioneer dude -- get the best.

[boxrick]

Ive seen both of these sets ( now own one ). As far as price goes i really didnt have the money to spend on the pioneer. However over the last few years ive been jumping around from set to set, various faulty reasons then last year after owning many sets i eventually settled on an 8G Pioneer. Was always fairly happy with my decision. Then this year i purchased a PX80 for my bedroom, which apparently has pretty decent blacks and good processing. To be honest for £600 i wasn't expecting a world beater, but overall its a fairly decent set. But in all honesty, sticking my 8G Pioneer next to the panasonic screen made it look literally grey. With obvious poor contrast and black crushing.

Now last week i took delivery of my PDPLX5090, setting it up in my home and making a comparison to last years pioneer ( which in my honest opinion no other screen still even comes close to ) my jaw just dropped this was before i played with the settings and let the set bed in. It really is *that* good. Blacks are so incredible, the colours and overall detail is absolutely phenominal, even SD DVDs look great.

Most of my "scaling" isn't even done by the tv but that hardly matters....

I realise its going with the flow... but if you have the cash just get the Pio.... I was thinking ( but i can get 5 tvs with the money for this one... but they would be 5 rubbish tvs .... )

[Costas]

Originally Posted by airmark

Thanks for going against the trend!

I think it's always good to have arguments of both sides laid out.
Now, more specifically, money is always an issue in the sense that it is generally limited, and therefore you have to justify spending it (i.e. spend more if you get more out of the additional consumption). I can buy either set, but the way I see it, I can spend £1k for the Panasonic, or £1.8k for the Pioneer (roughly), and with either of them I will have a massive step up in my home theatre experience. But will there be a material difference in this experience between the two models? If not, then I'm better off saving the extra £800 (although I know that "saving" is almost a forbidden word in the UK) and in a couple of years (or less ) spending it in something that WILL make a material difference.

With regard to the viewing source I will not watch SD TV channels. 100% of the viewing material will come from my HTPC. Mostly BluRay, DVDs and downloaded videos (with the trend obviously going toward more and more BluRay). And a lot of web surfing and possibly some gaming too. But all of it will be driven by my PC's graphics card (ATI HD2600) in 1080p (via HDMI connection) so the superior Pioneer scaling capabilities are irrelevant, since all of the scaling will be handled by the PC, correct? So, does this change the equation?

you are seriously compromising but this is of course your choice. In any such case I will try to save and get the very best as much as possible. You can save and buy other stuff now but it will not always be the best. Your choice at the end. You have asked for help and you got a lot of inputs and comments ... in my opinion sad that you are going against them and the good information you have been provided with!

[Costas]

..and by the way ... i missed mentioning...just through a bit of light on the panasonic screen and then do the same with the pioneer.... just see how it glares and washes out!

[Filo25]

Had the same decision to make myself went to a viewing at TLC and didn't think twice about going for the 5090, and that was at the old price (which I might add TLC were generous enough to refund the difference on when the price cut came through a week later).

While HD is obviously superb on the set, its the excelent SD performance for a set of this size which has impressed me most.

When watching anything on the PC I let the Pio handle the scaling rather than my 8800GT, and it does a great job there too.

[reaper12]

lol Costas why do you think He is going against the advice here? Everyone here is going on about how great the SD material is on the LX5090 and yes it's amazing, but He will not be watching any SD material, He has stated that already.

Yellowsphere, I have read your comment about how you would have to get the PZ80 calibrated, well even with calibration the PZ80 is still 3 to 4 hundred pound cheaper. And I have read lots of posts on the LX5090 thread that if you would be stupid to buy the LX5090 and not get it calibrated. both TV's have to be calibrated to get the best out of them.

The guy wants best bang for his buck. If He was watching SD and HD material then I would say get the LX5090, but, since He is only going to be using the TV attached to His HTPC then the difference isn't so great. The best bang for his buck is the PZ80.

If money isn't an issue then there is nothing to lose go out and get the LX5090 it's the best TV of the two.