Me and PV500 bashing?
nah, maybe I just got a little carried away after reading Faust's comments.. i will just say that i haven't seen the PE50 with High Def so can't say with certainty that its as good as the PV500 -- but I have seen the PV500 with High Def video and it is jaw droppingly good, so i'm in no way saying you've been ripped off if you got a PV500... -- the only thing i'll add is that if my PE50 can give HD video quality that is even remotely comparable to what i've seen on the PV500 than I'll be more than happy!!
As far as my decision to get the PE50, Dave's pretty much summed up why I went for the PE50 but I should just make clear that initially I had no specific budget in mind ..
I've said elsewhere that I was willing to spend upto 4 grand if it would give a perfect tele, that gives flawless pic quality, is HD Ready and most importantly, gives me the peace of mind that i was after in terms of reliability and screen burn/image retention resistance..
Sadly, after looking around for nearly a year - I arrived at the conclusion that there wasn't anythign out there in the market to my needs , a HD Ready plasma tv that was robust and would give me peace of mind that I was after...
I had two choices - either go for something like the 42PV500 and see it as meeting my needs in terms of HD plasma with superb pq but I felt it was compromising on the peace of mind factor (given the various bugs/issues with the PV500s).
The alternative choice was to change my needs - and so i did.. I decided i should go for a SD plasma which gives great PQ with Sky/DVD and is known to be reliable, robust and one on which screen burn is a non-issue.
The Panasonic 42PE50 was the only plasma that I could find which met these needs and I felt, it would give me the satisfaction/peace of mind that I was after...
Was price a factor for me going for the 42PE50 over the 42PV500 ? I can honestly say no it wasn't -- in fact, as i've said elsewhere.. call me insane for saying this, but if the 42PE50 was priced at £2500 and the 42PV500 was at £1500 -- believe it or not, after the reviews and positive experiences i've read about the 42PE50 by those who owned it.. compared to the many negative reviews/comments I read about the PV500.. , I would have had no hesitation in still going for the 42PE50 (even priced at £2500).. -- why? well simply because it satisfied my needs better...price was a non-factor.
And so far, so good.. i'm glad i made the decision that I did.
i hope my comments don't put off ppl from buying the PV500, because I think its a pretty good plasma.. but being a first time buyer, I was put off by reading so many negative user experiences , with issues such as buzzing, horizontal lines, image retention, auto contrast changes - making it seem like a bit of a gamble to me, going for the PV500..
The 42PE50 in comparision, i could rarely find any negative user feedback on it.. or to be honest even better in this regard were the PWD6/7 panels, i could only find positive user feedback for these ... on every aspect , be they pic quality, reliability, performance, even screen burn/image retention (even claims by ppl that they had left their Gamecubes on overnight and had no problem)... --- my only uncertainty was whether a panel would be wife/kids friendly.. so i felt the 42PE50 was the better option for me, right now..