Panasonic 42' G10B and G10L

mac09

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hi guys

Just a query referring to the two items above. Im based in ireland and have a basic sky dish. From my research and demos so far:
G10B - uk model including freesat with no mpeg4
G10L - European model excluding freesat with mpeg4.

Nows here where it begins to get confusing, i received a demo in a shop yesterday (G10B) showing freesat, which i already know about as i set up my dads panny pz81, but the demonstrater also showed me the rte channels (ireland) through what he described was a trial frequency from rte. he did say that rte could change this frequency and then the G10B may not pick these up whereas i believe the G10L still will.


Received another demo today, G10L this time showing rte channels, that was grand (on an aside does anyone know exactly how the tv picks up these channels, does it need a seperate aerial or does the tv have all the inbuilt technology to receive them directly?) but the assistant said that while the tv wasnt advertised as freesat some people where picking it up along the border with northern ireland and the east coast of ireland. this appears to boil down to the signal for freesat not being available in ireland yet.

my query is which tv should i purchase as i am confused at present, as both possess some firm assets along with other perhaps less tangible attributes.

as i have basic sky already, it is the same as freesat minus bbc hd, itv hd and couple of music channels, so im thinking that the G10L would be of more benefit as it would allow me to receive rte, tg4 and tv3 channels.

Also i understand that the G10L has more scope for advanced calibration in comparison with the G10B.

Does anyone know whether panasonic will be extending their 5 year warranty. gentleman selling the G10B said there would be no problem and the g10L salesman said that panasonic where more than likely to extend their warranty but he couldnt gaurantee it.

Apologies for the long post but my head is spinning.

Cheers for any comments or assistance
 
hi guys

could really do with some feedback on this

thinking about buying very soon

cheers
 
.

as i have basic sky already, it is the same as freesat minus bbc hd, itv hd and couple of music channels, so im thinking that the G10L would be of more benefit as it would allow me to receive rte, tg4 and tv3 channels.
Cheers for any comments or assistance
Yes, so you're better off with G10L. And you can always subscribe to SKY HD if you want to.
 
can anyone else offer an opinion on the above issues.


cheers
 
Hi Mac09, have you ever been in touch with RTE concerning their position on providing some sort of freesat service that would make the G10b the better option?
As you are obviously in a buying mood with time of the essence, you will have to take the best available set to meet your current need's and if that includes all your basic RTE channel's, and you can do without the freesat, then the decision is made!! G10L it is. :thumbsup:
Worth trying RTE and asking if or how long it would be, that should confirm your choice!!
Good Luck. :smashin:
 
The RTE channels or any of the other Irish terrestrial channels will never in the foreseeable future be available unencrypted on Satellite TV so no chance seeing them on Freesat. You can't even subscribe to the Irish channels on Sky if living in the UK. There are reasons for this, no time to explain right now, but essentially it's all down to the cost RTE would have to pay to the programme makers to allow them to be available for viewing outside of Ireland.
 
thanks for the feedback guys. its greatly appreciated. im sold on panasonic but the additional 5 year warranty is only available in the one panasonic shop in ireland where the base price of the unit is greatly enflated. i think i will wait until panasonic hopefully reintroduce the extended warranty.
anyone got any ideas or inclinations as to when this might happen?
 
I'm in the same position as you mac09, I currently have a Panasonic TX-L32G10L 32" LCD which is the Irish model The "L" denoting the Irish model.

I have decided firmly to go for the G10b UK Freesat model, there are a few difference between both the G10b and G10L, let me explain;

The G10b is the UK spec version and come with a built in satellite tuner for reception of the FREESAT channels, you connect the TV to a lead from the satellite dish like you do your Sky box and it works perfectly. For reception of RTE DTT you need to connect to an external UHF aerial pointed to the transmitter, there is no internal antenna.

The G10b (and G10L) can also receive DTT (Digital Terrestrial TV) which at the moment includes, RTE 1, RTE 2, TV3, TG4, RTE News Now, plus a handful of radio stations. These are broadcast in Standard Definition using the MPEG4 standard, which is fully High Defintion compatible. Thus in the future when RTE and our terrestrial broadcasters go High-Def the TV (and Irish Mpeg4 standard) is future proofed and there will be no need for upgrades of equipment. Think of it like buying a colour tv before colour tv actaully launched!

Now the difference between the G10b and G10L in this is that the G10b is not fully compliant to the DVB standards and when RTE broadcasts a certain code and if you happened to retune at that time your G10b would lose all channels and not be able to tune them back in until RTE had stopped broadcasting it. Wheter RTE will or will not broadcast this always is specualation.

In the UK for their DTT, they use MPEG2 which is standard definition only and they are in the process of upgrading their entire network for High-Def as the UK began DTT with OnDigital in 1998 and in 2010 Ireland still does not have an offical service and nothing has offically launched yet.

With a G10b once you get it tuned into Irish DTT then you are set so long as you don't retune and turn off the auto retune. There is also a hotel technicians menu you can use to back up your saved channels to an SD card incase of channel loss during a retune, but for the average person this is a no go. Details of that can be found on boards.ie

Finally another and it is however the biggest difference for me between the G10b and G10L is Panasonic have stripped a feature from the G10L called "Power on Preference" this acts like scart used to and changes channel automatically on HDMI port 1, when you are using SkyHD/BluRay player etc. this is so handy rather than having to select AV input each time. It only acts on HDMI1 though but is a big help. Letting this out of the Irish model reminds me of how Irish cars used to come without things like a CD deck and airbags stripped out where the UK version was fully loaded with specs.

Another reason for the G10b over the G10L is price, the average 50" G10L is around €1500 in the ROI and in NI it is £899.99 a saving of €500 with current exchange rates. I plan to travel from Kerry to Belfast for mine when it is back in stock and let the ROI ripoff retailers get stuffed.

Pixmania.com (UK) is £904
Pixmania.com (ROI) is €1460 for the same G10b so go figure!
 
I'm in the same position as you mac09, I currently have a Panasonic TX-L32G10L 32" LCD which is the Irish model The "L" denoting the Irish model.

I have decided firmly to go for the G10b UK Freesat model, there are a few difference between both the G10b and G10L, let me explain;

The G10b is the UK spec version and come with a built in satellite tuner for reception of the FREESAT channels, you connect the TV to a lead from the satellite dish like you do your Sky box and it works perfectly. For reception of RTE DTT you need to connect to an external UHF aerial pointed to the transmitter, there is no internal antenna.

The G10b (and G10L) can also receive DTT (Digital Terrestrial TV) which at the moment includes, RTE 1, RTE 2, TV3, TG4, RTE News Now, plus a handful of radio stations. These are broadcast in Standard Definition using the MPEG4 standard, which is fully High Defintion compatible. Thus in the future when RTE and our terrestrial broadcasters go High-Def the TV (and Irish Mpeg4 standard) is future proofed and there will be no need for upgrades of equipment. Think of it like buying a colour tv before colour tv actaully launched!

Now the difference between the G10b and G10L in this is that the G10b is not fully compliant to the DVB standards and when RTE broadcasts a certain code and if you happened to retune at that time your G10b would lose all channels and not be able to tune them back in until RTE had stopped broadcasting it. Wheter RTE will or will not broadcast this always is specualation.

In the UK for their DTT, they use MPEG2 which is standard definition only and they are in the process of upgrading their entire network for High-Def as the UK began DTT with OnDigital in 1998 and in 2010 Ireland still does not have an offical service and nothing has offically launched yet.

With a G10b once you get it tuned into Irish DTT then you are set so long as you don't retune and turn off the auto retune. There is also a hotel technicians menu you can use to back up your saved channels to an SD card incase of channel loss during a retune, but for the average person this is a no go. Details of that can be found on boards.ie

Finally another and it is however the biggest difference for me between the G10b and G10L is Panasonic have stripped a feature from the G10L called "Power on Preference" this acts like scart used to and changes channel automatically on HDMI port 1, when you are using SkyHD/BluRay player etc. this is so handy rather than having to select AV input each time. It only acts on HDMI1 though but is a big help. Letting this out of the Irish model reminds me of how Irish cars used to come without things like a CD deck and airbags stripped out where the UK version was fully loaded with specs.

Another reason for the G10b over the G10L is price, the average 50" G10L is around €1500 in the ROI and in NI it is £899.99 a saving of €500 with current exchange rates. I plan to travel from Kerry to Belfast for mine when it is back in stock and let the ROI ripoff retailers get stuffed.

Pixmania.com (UK) is £904
Pixmania.com (ROI) is €1460 for the same G10b so go figure!


cheers for the detailed reply whizkid. i have sourced this information over the last couple of days, but it is good to have it confirmed.
One issue, are you sure that once the irish channels are tuned in on the G10B, they will stay there. it seems fine in principle but ........

are you going to wait until panny reintroduce the warranty, which they more than likely will do
 
also just wondering, does the g10B pick up the irish channels without the use of an external aerial? my dad has a pz81 and uses a dedicated aerial for the irish channels
 
also just wondering, does the g10B pick up the irish channels without the use of an external aerial? my dad has a pz81 and uses a dedicated aerial for the irish channels

Neither the G10L or G10B could pick up the Irish (or British channels) without an Aerial, if you are living close to the Transmitter you may manage on a set of cats-whiskers/rabbit ears or an aerial in the attic without having to go external.

In my case with the TX-L32G10L I have an external aerial pointed at Mullaghanish and a mast head amp and even then I am struggling for signal and am waiting because Mullaghanish is getting a new transmitting tower which should give better signal so I may not need a higher gain aerial.

With the G10B once you've managed to tune in the channels you'd be well advised to backup the settings using the hotel menu and an SD card. Also turn off auto tune as when the TV detects a change (as there are a few because of the unofficial adhoc service which is undergoing tests) then you or the missus etc. could inadvertently say yes and and retune losing all the channels if RTE were broadcasting the blocking code.

I am not sure what to do yet with regards the 5 year warranty as Richer Sounds in Belfast still have no stock upon a phone call this morning:thumbsdow and I am getting sick of the waiting game which has been going on since St. Stephen's Day as they still have no stock in. I am thinking of paying a bit more and getting it from Laptopsdirect.ie for €1,148.88 + shipping, but there is no mention of the 5 year warranty there either.
 
Neither the G10L or G10B could pick up the Irish (or British channels) without an Aerial, if you are living close to the Transmitter you may manage on a set of cats-whiskers/rabbit ears or an aerial in the attic without having to go external.

In my case with the TX-L32G10L I have an external aerial pointed at Mullaghanish and a mast head amp and even then I am struggling for signal and am waiting because Mullaghanish is getting a new transmitting tower which should give better signal so I may not need a higher gain aerial.

With the G10B once you've managed to tune in the channels you'd be well advised to backup the settings using the hotel menu and an SD card. Also turn off auto tune as when the TV detects a change (as there are a few because of the unofficial adhoc service which is undergoing tests) then you or the missus etc. could inadvertently say yes and and retune losing all the channels if RTE were broadcasting the blocking code.

I am not sure what to do yet with regards the 5 year warranty as Richer Sounds in Belfast still have no stock upon a phone call this morning:thumbsdow and I am getting sick of the waiting game which has been going on since St. Stephen's Day as they still have no stock in. I am thinking of paying a bit more and getting it from Laptopsdirect.ie for €1,148.88 + shipping, but there is no mention of the 5 year warranty there either.


hmmm interesting. i was taking to a representative in the panasonic shop who told me that there was no requirement for an external aerial as the G10L (42-50) had in built technology to receive the irish channels via mpeg4. was a bit dubious about this and as i live in an appartment block was going to go with the g10L based on not requiring an external aerial but your comments turn that on its head.
rang richersounds this morning myself regarding the pannys. no sign for a while yet they said. also rang panasonic regarding warranty, automated message, sent an email but dont hold out much hope.
 
hmmm interesting. i was taking to a representative in the panasonic shop who told me that there was no requirement for an external aerial as the G10L (42-50) had in built technology to receive the irish channels via mpeg4. was a bit dubious about this and as i live in an appartment block was going to go with the g10L based on not requiring an external aerial but your comments turn that on its head.
rang richersounds this morning myself regarding the pannys. no sign for a while yet they said. also rang panasonic regarding warranty, automated message, sent an email but dont hold out much hope.

I also rang RicherSounds in Belfast on Monday morning (yesterday) and was told to call back on tomorrow morning (Wed) to see if they have more details. I also called Panasonic and they are optimistic that the 5 year warranty will be back within the next month or 6 weeks as the fella who I spoke to seemed pretty sure that Panasonic were not launching new models this year. He explained that big UK multiples like Currys, Maplins, John Lewis etc. bought up all the UK stock before Christmas and that the 5 year warranty will usually only be offered by the smaller retailers to help them compete against the big guys.

The CES in Las Vegas this week will be the test of whether or not new models are on the way but I would not be surprised if he was accurate and there is no new models as the bigscreen tv market has matured to saturation and Panny are probably working away with the ex-Pioneer engineers behind the scenes to launch some new fangeld 3D LED TV which is where the market is inexorably headed.

i was taking to a representative in the panasonic shop who told me that there was no requirement for an external aerial as the G10L (42-50) had in built technology to receive the irish channels via mpeg4. was a bit dubious about this and as i live in an appartment block was going to go with the g10L based on not requiring an external aerial but your comments turn that on its head.
Yes the G10L has the ability to receive the broadcast signals and decode them into watchable TV wheras alot of TV's still don't, however you will need an aerial of some sort to "catch" the signals and feed them to your TV, every single TV in the world is the same practically! If you live in Dublin City or close to a transmitter you may be able to getaway with a small internal aerial or an external aerial on the balcony (if you have one!). You could always mount an inconspicuous aerial like this outside and people would think it is just a burglar alarm etc.

An easy way to test the signal in your apartment would be using a DVB-T USB stick on the laptop/pc like this or this which if gave reception in your apartment would mean that all you need for the TV is a small internal aerial something like this.

However alot of newer apartments have a shared aerial piping in the signal to the respective wall plates and some better planned apartments even have Sky TV satellite signals for the box piped in also. Although knowing the sorts of "Couldn't swing a cat in" shoeboxes built during the boom you are probably lucky if you have an electrical socket near the TV location! Electricians here haven't a clue on the non-electrical side of wiring tbh.
 
I also rang RicherSounds in Belfast on Monday morning (yesterday) and was told to call back on tomorrow morning (Wed) to see if they have more details. I also called Panasonic and they are optimistic that the 5 year warranty will be back within the next month or 6 weeks as the fella who I spoke to seemed pretty sure that Panasonic were not launching new models this year. He explained that big UK multiples like Currys, Maplins, John Lewis etc. bought up all the UK stock before Christmas and that the 5 year warranty will usually only be offered by the smaller retailers to help them compete against the big guys.


The CES in Las Vegas this week will be the test of whether or not new models are on the way but I would not be surprised if he was accurate and there is no new models as the bigscreen tv market has matured to saturation and Panny are probably working away with the ex-Pioneer engineers behind the scenes to launch some new fangeld 3D LED TV which is where the market is inexorably headed.

Yes the G10L has the ability to receive the broadcast signals and decode them into watchable TV wheras alot of TV's still don't, however you will need an aerial of some sort to "catch" the signals and feed them to your TV, every single TV in the world is the same practically! If you live in Dublin City or close to a transmitter you may be able to getaway with a small internal aerial or an external aerial on the balcony (if you have one!). You could always mount an inconspicuous aerial like this outside and people would think it is just a burglar alarm etc.


An easy way to test the signal in your apartment would be using a DVB-T USB stick on the laptop/pc like this or this which if gave reception in your apartment would mean that all you need for the TV is a small internal aerial something like this.

However alot of newer apartments have a shared aerial piping in the signal to the respective wall plates and some better planned apartments even have Sky TV satellite signals for the box piped in also. Although knowing the sorts of "Couldn't swing a cat in" shoeboxes built during the boom you are probably lucky if you have an electrical socket near the TV location! Electricians here haven't a clue on the non-electrical side of wiring tbh.

i was told to ring back wednesday or thursday but the feeling i got was that they would not have the stock in. i rang panasonic myself and got the same impression myself however to the contrary, the individual i spoke with thought that there be new products released circa march/april and the information on here would confirm this theory.
as an aside, if you want to ring house of fraser in victoria square belfast, they may have stock (check out their website for prices-(£999 for 50G10)

im aware of the CES show in vegas, but dont think i will wait for the 3D models to be released as they will out of my budget. im thinking of goin for the 42V10 at the moment (addition of THX and better calibration out of the box in comparison to G10, im sure you are aware the limited capacity to calibrate the panasonics in general)

This would contradict with what the representives of the panasonic shop and DID stated; that the tv would produce the irish channels without an aerial, that it had the inbuilt technology. I preceded to question that theory on the premise that the tv would either require an external aerial (worst case) or a pair of rabbit ears or equivalent (best case). They both refuted this.
 
i was told to ring back wednesday or thursday but the feeling i got was that they would not have the stock in. i rang panasonic myself and got the same impression myself however to the contrary, the individual i spoke with thought that there be new products released circa march/april and the information on here would confirm this theory.
as an aside, if you want to ring house of fraser in victoria square belfast, they may have stock (check out their website for prices-(£999 for 50G10)

im aware of the CES show in vegas, but dont think i will wait for the 3D models to be released as they will out of my budget. im thinking of goin for the 42V10 at the moment (addition of THX and better calibration out of the box in comparison to G10, im sure you are aware the limited capacity to calibrate the panasonics in general)

This would contradict with what the representives of the panasonic shop and DID stated; that the tv would produce the irish channels without an aerial, that it had the inbuilt technology. I preceded to question that theory on the premise that the tv would either require an external aerial (worst case) or a pair of rabbit ears or equivalent (best case). They both refuted this.


I took the plunge last night and ordered the 50" G10b Freesat model from laptopsdirect.ie for £1054.87 with shipping, VAT and Credit Card surcharge all included. It hasn't registered on my online banking yet so I don't know the exact euro figure as the rate changes daily.

I got a nice phonecall today from them to let know it was shipping today and I should have within 3 working days, very professional! A friend of mine ordered a 50" LG 720p last year from them also and they were good, he claimed the VAT back (he has a business!) and got it for a song!

I'll post back up in a few days when I have it all hooked up for DTT and Freesat, looking forward to it now as I Technomate 6900 HD Dual Sat DTT receiver and a 1 metre dish and motor awaiting this TV so I should have the guts of 10,000 channels by the time I am finished, yet there will be still nothing good worth watching :facepalm:
 

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