Finally buying Panasonic TH-42PWD7UY - connection advice

macana

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Howdy everyone,

Very excited! I'm finally buying a Panasonic TH-42PWD7UY and hoping for delivery today, but just have one or two questions to put my mind at ease.

First off, yes, I'm buying the older generation, unfortunately the 8 series isn't available in South Africa yet, and at £1500 it's the best deal I've found. I have been assured (mainly in this forum) that the difference between the 7 and 8 series is not worth waiting until March for (and paying more).

The deal includes a wall mount bracket and an input board that provides Component, S-Video and Composite inputs, but the vendor has warned me that I can only use 1 input at a time on this board.

This raises a question I'm hoping someone can help answer for me:

Everything will be routed through my Yamaha Amp, which can upscale Composite to S-Video, but won't upscale S-Video to Component... so I will be plugging in as follows:

Amp -> Plasma via Component
Amp -> Plasma via S-Video

DVD -> Amp via Component
DVDR -> Amp via Component
Sat-tuner Channel 1 -> DVDR via SCART
Sat-tuner Channel 2 -> Amp via S-Video
PS2 -> Amp via Composite

So, given the limitations of the board (and my amp), does it mean that the above config will work, but I will have to change inputs on the plasma manually (via remote) between S-Video and Component for each device?

And does it mean that I cannot make use of the PIP/PAP functions since only one input will work at a time?

Then, I need to buy a desktop stand, which will cost me £150, is this a fair price? Apparently a non-Panasonic alternative is available for £50, would that be an unwise purchase?

Thanks to everyone in this forum for helping me finally make my decision! :clap:

Cheers,
 
that sounds like the 2 slot board to me (it's two boards in one but takes up two input slots) and i think what he means is that only svideo or composite may be used at one time (as they occupy one slot) but either may be used with component at the same time as it's in a seperate slot.
 
Mep's right again.

You can use the component and either S-Video/composite at the same time. it's a dual slot board and I canvouch for the quality over component. It's excellent..

Your proposed set up looks fine, an added benefit is that you will get pip/pap on the component & S/video connections iirc

Hope you're happy with the panel, I'm still over the moon with my TH42PWD7B(s) after 10 months.
 
Thank you...

Delivery was delayed, so should get it today only (big surprise!)

Any comments on the desktop stand?
 
the panasonic low profile desk top stands sell for about £120 here so not sure if that makes £150 about right in RSA? Probably best to go for that one as it comes with everything you need and you know it will fit properly.
 
It sounds about right, I'll go for the proper stand... no point in buying an expensive TV only to plug in cheap junk.

If/When I get a PS3 next year... will component inputs still give me a good picture on this PWD7, or am I limiting myself by not waiting for the PWD8 ?

HDTV is still a good few years off for us, so no concern there.
 
you will still get a very good picture from an hd source like the PS3, of course it wil be scaled down to the screens own resolution but that would also be the case with the PWD8, you would would need PHD8 for higher resolution.
 
Ok great, that is how I understood it. So it will still take an HD source, but it will downscale accordingly. Perfect.

So the difference with the PWD8 would have been that the PS3 or XBOX360 would plug into a compatible HDMI/DVI input, but the resultant image would still be the same downscaled quality?

So there really isn't any need to worry about that compatibility difference, especially since we don't get Sky down here.
 
the 360 wont even have hdmi, it will have component / vga output options so the PWD8 will do just the same as the PW7. The difference with the PWD8 is that the HDMI is HDCP compliant for copy protected HD sources.
 
Cool... thanks for all the help mep!
 
Well there you go, dunno why I'm surprised, but the order was cancelled!
Supplier called me to say they had run out of stock of the charcoal (absolute must for me!) and would I take a Silver? I said no.

He then said he'd be getting in more charcoal units in about 2 weeks, but (driven by guilt?) advised me to wait. It seems a number of Chinese/Korean brands will be flooding the market in preparation for Christmas this year at really low prices, and since Panasonic have a shipment of over 4000 PWD7 units on the way (We are frequently the dumping ground for the final production run of "last year's model"), there will be massive price cuts by December.

So, if I'm happy to wait (not really) I can get a charcoal PWD7 in December for under £1200 - how could I say no to that??!!

Oh well... patience...

mep and vileda, one interesting point, the supplier insists the input board is a single slot unit, and will definitely not support two sources at the same time. So dunno what kind of board it is, but seems different to the one you both mentioned.
 
mep said:
so I don't know what he is talking about (and maybe he doesn't!) :)

Exactly what I'm worried about!

As a regular reader of these forums, I can confidently state that I am by far more knowledgeable than ANY Plasma salesperson I've ever dealt with in South Africa, and I've spoken to over 30 guys ranging from huge discount stores to niche audiophile/videophile places.

But he insists: 1 slot, has Composite, RGB and S-Video.

Cheers,
 
mep said:
ask him for the part reference

Ask him for a quote on the dual slot board instead of the single composite board, you seem to have a good relationship with the dealer anyway so should only be £40-50 ish more which you will have more than saved by the delay.
 
Thanks Vileda, is there a single slot version of this board? (You referenced a composite board) Is it inferior in any way?
 
composite is the lowest of the low and is therefore inferior to all other connections.
 
Thanks mep, I understand that, but as per the previous conversation, the dealer says the plasma will be supplied with a single slot board that provides Component, S-Video and Composite.

The issue here is that I'm not sure if the dealer knows what he's talking about, because according to (the knowledgeable) people on this forum such a input card does not exist in single slot form.

After re-reading my last post to Vileda, I can see that I did not articulate my question properly :)
 
:) as I said before if you ask the dealer for the part number of the board that he intends supplying we'll know where we stand then.
 
Fair enough... just got impatient since he has not returned my call yet.

Let me jump into another question:

What is difference between RGB and Component? I've heard many people reference the two connections as though they were the same thing.
 
macana said:
the dealer says the plasma will be supplied with a single slot board that provides Component, S-Video and Composite.

The issue here is that I'm not sure if the dealer knows what he's talking about, because according to (the knowledgeable) people on this forum such a input card does not exist in single slot form.

There is no such thing as a single slot board that provides Component, S-Video and Composite, just a dual one.
There are single boards that provide composite(worst) & s-video(better), and single boards that provide Component (best), but not a single card that does all 3
 
yes, it will be inetresting to see what the dealer comes back with
 
I'd put money on it being the single composite board though
 
Finally got the answer to this question.

The input board is the TY-42TM6Y

So when I finally receive it I will let you know that you are all correct that it is a dual slot card, which will confirm the dealer was wrong in saying it was single slot.

Cool, so that means I can use both Component and S-Video and get PIP functionality to work.
 

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