If u read the news your will find out that panasonic go from strength to strength. (pioneer are now working with panasonic whitch are the two most respected plasma manafactures in the current market)
You will find that LG are making bigger steps than Panasonic, especially in the more 'affordable' market where Panasonic are throwing out decent sets, but not necessarily up to Panasonic standards. Pioneer and Panasonic aren't working together, there are various rumours going around about it and the partnership was almost confirmed, but then Pioneer announced financial difficulties and finally ended TV production after the 2008 Kuro's. There is still possibilities of Pioneer engineers and technology going over to Panasonic, but there is nothing confirmed yet, it does seem likely though.
Panasonic decided plasma is the way to go for bigger screens (37in and over).
meainng? LG released a 32" plasma last year, if that's the kind of thing your after there's not much going for you there unless you're comparing to Sony and other brands who have pulled out of the plasma market.
but who wouldn't also be at least intrigued by a contrast ratio deemed to be 'infinite'? Exactly.
Nice to see another person drawn in by marketing numbers
Panasonic's on-screen menus are the usual standard fair they're not broken so the company has sensibly chosen not to fix them and the TX-P42G10 can be set up quickly and comprehensively.
The menus are good and clea, installation is easy, and the picture is good, but there is a deffinite lack of controls to get the most out of the TV.
Broadcast TV reception is impressive
Funny you should say this after directing us to reviews, the G10s SD TV picture has been described as average at best, I think it's underrated, but it's by no means the best
colours are neutral, subtle and believable.
again, lack of controls mean that they're not
quite right, the G10 pushed greens and blues specifically, although secondary colours are accurate. The gamma tracking isn't perfect either, images are just slightly washed out.
You seem to be stuck a few years ago (at least). Panasonics high end range cannot be beaten by the LGs, and the G10 isn't necessarily beaten by the PS8000, but the LG plasmas are very good indeed, and very cheap compared to the Panasonics. Can you please enlighten us in why the LGs are so bad? Just to emphasise my point here are some quotes from Phil Hinton's recent review of the 50PS8000, some of them link to a few things you've mentioned about the G10 too.
your average LG display now has some of the most cutting edge technologies employed in well priced displays throughout their range
Unpacking the TV and attaching the stand takes a few minutes and is easy to do.
So, as you can see there are enough connections to keep even the most demanding AV enthusiast happy.
the TV auto tuned all available channels in around 10 minutes
Although the LG doesnt offer the most designer style menus for the EPG, they are well laid out.
Moving to the main TV menus we are met with LGs unique menu system display which is large and extremely easy to use.
This is the first time I have ever seen such dedication to users and professionals in menu systems. How many times do we have to keep pushing the other display manufacturers to provide these options? And it cant be expensive to add if LG are doing the full thing with ISFccc & THX certification at this price level! Come on Panasonic et al
.
(he's telling Panasonic to follow LGs example there...)
This is the first time that any manufacturer has attempted to put a useful feature into a TV so you can set up the main controls correctly for your environment and viewing room, without the need for a THX optimode or Digital Video Essentials test disc.
Everything from test cards to white balance patterns (0-100ire) to the basic Picture wizard, tells us that LG take calibration seriously and leave other more premium displays in the shade.
Even with DVD the LG produces fine images that have a nice natural skin tone
we could correctly set up two memories for room conditions, ISF Day and ISF Night. This is where the LG really impressed me with its image quality and excellent colour balance
This is really interesting and goes against everything you seem to think
Running it side by side with our reference Pioneer Kuro was great fun and in most areas the LG could stand up there with the Kuro in terms of colour performance and detail levels once calibrated to the standards. Skin tones and shadow detail looked very convincing with only the slightly reduced dynamic range and black levels pegging back the LG
I'll give you this
In terms of blacks, they are certainly improved slightly on last years PG7000 TV, but not quite up there with the Pioneer and indeed, the latest Panasonics are probably a smidge better here as well.
but...
only the really dark and dynamic scenes look a little washed out
looking at this LG, especially with Blu-ray material, the image performance against the cash outlay makes this screen at 50 inches a bit of a bargain in my book. Even when you add in the cost of an ISF calibrator setting it up with optimum care and attention, it is still a bargain!
The feature list and calibration controls offered are certainly amongst the best in the industry and the THX mode is an excellent out of the box picture preset
Sorry for taking up so much space, and sorry for quoting a lot of the review (I did miss a few things out as I good bored of "it's incredibly easy to use" etc...) the full review is here where it also outlines some of its problems (all TVs are with them) -
LG 50PS8000 THX Certified 50inch Plasma Review at AVForums.com
sorry, but I'm not taking your LG bashing