LG42LV550T or Panasonic Viera TXL42E30B ?

[Timulo]

Hi All - assistance required

I'm looking to get a long overdue from a beast of a 32" old CRT for the living room and I've narrowed my options down to 2 (so far!) but I'm struggling to chose between them. If anyone can offer any insight it would be much appreciated.
I'm not looking for any 3d functionality, I'm not a gamer at the moment but with 2 growing boys at some point there will be a console arriving (that they may get to play with of course) and I'm not a BlueRay / SkyHD addict yet. Basically, it's just a good TV with as good a picture as possible, iPlayer etc a bonus as is being able to use USB / PC to stream.

So best to connect to basic Sky+ box with some DVD (normal).

1. LG42LV550T. Got an LG in bedroom and more than happy with it (32LD690). Good picture, handles video well of USB, Freeview tuner works a treat. Have been impressed with what I've read but concerns over light pooling and how darks are handled. Not convinced by the stand either as it is not to be wall mounted.

2. Panasonic Viera TXL42E30B - seem to be quite a few issues with shadows at bottom of the screen and other banding / bleeding. Also, I don't think it has ethernet port so only wireless connection? It does record to USB HDD which could be a bonus however.

Any comments very welcome. Thanks

 

[Timulo]

Bump.
Quick thought I've looked at the Panasonic, but have only been able to compare to the 32" LG and the image lag on the Panasonic was very very noticable, as was the washed out colour (compared to the warmer looking LG, of course no idea what settings on them were).

Leaning towards the LG - any thoughts from anyone?

 

[AlandEi]

That Panasonic model does have an ethernet port... USB HDD is dedicated to that set only, and cannot be read by any other device, or content from another device read by the TV... settings need some tweaking to get the best from the Panasonic.

Alan.

 

[stevep94]

settings need some tweaking to get the best from the Panasonic.

Any idea of the best settings for this set? I've just had mine delivered today and want to get it looking its best asap!

 

[AlandEi]

These settings are what I have gleaned from this forum and various review sites, have not tried them all yet...

Cinema Mode

CATS... OFF

Vivid Colour Off ?

P-NR Off ? perhaps on for SD.

Intelligent Frame Creation Off

Resolution Enhancer off for HD, perhaps On for SD

16:9 Overscan Usually off unless noise at edge of picture

Alan.

 

[AlandEi]

How are you getting on with it Steve. I seem to have a particularly good set, as no backlight bleed evident at all, no motion blur, even with IFC turned off, and blacks are excellent.
I switched to Cinema mode, and initially thought I needed to increase the brightness, but as it turned out to be the content displayed at that time, I have gradually reduced the brightness, until it is now about midway on he metering bar... important to make any adjustments on one of the better quality freeview channels such as BBC1, as poor studio conditions, lighting ect on some of the "budget" channels becomes very obvious on this set.

Even the lower signal SD channels, such as Bid TV, Dave ect, are of excellent quality, and a clip of wartime black and white on the Yesterday channel last night, was superior to my old CRT set, even though this set has a much larger screen... sound is set to "Music" as I find speech to be rather "thin"... the sound on this set is also excellent... perhaps I am easy to please ?...

Still tweaking, much to Eirwen's dismay, but I am pretty happy with the way I presently have it set up.

Alan.

 

[stevep94]

How are you getting on with it Steve.

I am in two minds so far to be honest!

I'm sure its a fantastic set compared to my old (faulty) Sony set but for the last week I've had the Panasonic P42ST30 plasma sat in my living room and compared to that set, the picture is not nearly as good! (swapped it because my wife couldnt live with the reflection off the glossy screen!)

Trying to be impartial, its a very good set with a cracking picture but I cant help but compare it to how stunning the plasma was!

I'm sure in time, the memory of the plasma will fade and I'll grow to like this one!

 

[AlandEi]

Yes,the reason we went for LCD rather than plasma was the reflectivity issue Steve, you are unfortunate to have upgraded to plasma, then downgraded a little to LCD again.

Eirwen found the whites rather bright at first, so I have now amended the settings in my earlier post, and set it to True Cinema mode in order to disable Auto Dimming, see the owners thread, and have reduced brightness down to approx 40%

Hope it grows on you.......

Alan.