Panasonic Plasma v Sony LCD

dafunk2

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I've got bit of a toss up....

I'm looking at either a Panasonic TH-42PZ80 or a Sony KDL-40W400.

I'm aware the former being plasma and latter being LCD (and of course 2" difference), but really not sure which is best?
Or for a similar budget is there a better option?

Would mainly be used for wtaching SKY (Sports and other stuff in HD) and probs hook up to a Blu-Ray player.

Any advice or pointers would be great!! :thumbsup:
 
panasonic, its the recommended buy all over, if you check out tests
 
Always plasma for sports!

panasonic
 
Has to be the panny:thumbsup:,if you like average blacks,unnatural picture,average sd material,crap design,no 100hz,motion judder,clouding then go for the sony.
 
I'd only ever consider the sony if it was for 100% gaming, Panny Plasma all the way :thumbsup:
 
Has to be the panny:thumbsup:,if you like average blacks,unnatural picture,average sd material,crap design,no 100hz,motion judder,clouding then go for the sony.
On the W4000 blacks are better than average for LCD, and not far behind the PZ80 in a dark room (N.B. from what I have read, I have only seen them together on a bright showfloor), picture is definitely far more natural than the green push of the Panasonic, SD is better from a decent viewing distance than PZ80, much nicer aesthetically, 100Hz is no huge loss, not going to judder any differently to how the panny would on such content, clouding is a potentially problem though, yes (affecting 4500 more than 4000 it seems?)

Basically, between these two it's going to be mainly down to taste. Although I would really like to see the two side by side in a normal living room, based on judgement in terms of the colour and SD quality and stuff, on a shop floor, I prefer the Sony. Didn't get a chance to see how well it could manage SD sport though.

That is, of course, if you could get hold of one in the first place, at any rate, it is really going to be a case of taste between the two models. Admittedly, even when both were in stock at work, the Panasonic was still more popular as more people seemed to prefer its picture.
 
On the W4000 blacks are better than average for LCD, and not far behind the PZ80 in a dark room (N.B. from what I have read, I have only seen them together on a bright showfloor), picture is definitely far more natural than the green push of the Panasonic, SD is better from a decent viewing distance than PZ80, much nicer aesthetically, 100Hz is no huge loss, not going to judder any differently to how the panny would on such content, clouding is a potentially problem though, yes (affecting 4500 more than 4000 it seems?)

Basically, between these two it's going to be mainly down to taste. Although I would really like to see the two side by side in a normal living room, based on judgement in terms of the colour and SD quality and stuff, on a shop floor, I prefer the Sony. Didn't get a chance to see how well it could manage SD sport though.


That is, of course, if you could get hold of one in the first place, at any rate, it is really going to be a case of taste between the two models. Admittedly, even when both were in stock at work, the Panasonic was still more popular as more people seemed to prefer its picture.

You cant really compare the sony to the panasonic. pz80 wins hands down. You are joking about the sd arent you? SD is far better on pz80. LCDs are hopeless with hd.

You have only viewed these tvs in a showroom so you cant really say which is better. I felt that the pz80 was poor in the shops. But i brought it home and played decent sources and it was amazing. My friend has the sony and it looks rubbish compared to the panasonic
 
Panny - No question

Use your eyes! You will see the massive difference between them!
 
You cant really compare the sony to the panasonic. pz80 wins hands down. You are joking about the sd arent you? SD is far better on pz80. LCDs are hopeless with hd.

You have only viewed these tvs in a showroom so you cant really say which is better. I felt that the pz80 was poor in the shops. But i brought it home and played decent sources and it was amazing. My friend has the sony and it looks rubbish compared to the panasonic

Agreed, SD on large LCD's is awful, I've seen enough of them recently, in and out of showrooms, originally I was looking at a Sony LCD at 40", think I got caught up in the hype. Eventually I went with the 42PX80 and couldn't be happier, and it was cheaper.
 
On the W4000 blacks are better than average for LCD, and not far behind the PZ80 in a dark room (N.B. from what I have read, I have only seen them together on a bright showfloor), picture is definitely far more natural than the green push of the Panasonic, SD is better from a decent viewing distance than PZ80, much nicer aesthetically, 100Hz is no huge loss, not going to judder any differently to how the panny would on such content, clouding is a potentially problem though, yes (affecting 4500 more than 4000 it seems?)

Basically, between these two it's going to be mainly down to taste. Although I would really like to see the two side by side in a normal living room, based on judgement in terms of the colour and SD quality and stuff, on a shop floor, I prefer the Sony. Didn't get a chance to see how well it could manage SD sport though.

That is, of course, if you could get hold of one in the first place, at any rate, it is really going to be a case of taste between the two models. Admittedly, even when both were in stock at work, the Panasonic was still more popular as more people seemed to prefer its picture.

sd better on the w4000?,i doubt that very much,pannys aint nothing to shout about but the sonys are way to soft and not having 100hz makes it even worse ,better natural picture on the sony,i dont agree,i have never seen a lcd which has a more natural picture than a plasma thats common knowledge,by the way try watching a game of football on a lcd and then a plasma,trust me"huge difference".
 
Sony 40W4000 all day long. Superb TV set, can't really fault it in any area.

If i was i the market for a new set now though i would be looked at the W4500 range now though as that suppossed to be even better.
 
There are quite a few people here who will say plasma all day long, LCD is rubbish with SD, terrible blacks, motion blur bla, bla, bla and a few months ago I would agree. But it's not so easy now.

The latest Sony's are very good and are starting to show up the shortcomings of the latest Panasonic Viera's, particularly their soft SD picture, inaccurate colour - especially green, muddy whites, reflective screens and high power consumption - which will be addressed with neoPDP.

I would say pick the one you like the look of best, you won't regret either decision.
 
Well as you can see from my siggy i have both the 32" an 52" w4000 Sonys and they are great tvs as you said you want it for Sky Sports HD and other HD content well that was the reason i bought an HD tv for the football in HD and the picture quality is STUNNING:thumbsup: no problems with motion blur or anything,but the best thing is to see both and see which you prefer,i prefer the LCD for HD content
 
You cant really compare the sony to the panasonic. pz80 wins hands down. You are joking about the sd arent you? SD is far better on pz80. LCDs are hopeless with hd.

You have only viewed these tvs in a showroom so you cant really say which is better. I felt that the pz80 was poor in the shops. But i brought it home and played decent sources and it was amazing. My friend has the sony and it looks rubbish compared to the panasonic

:eek::eek::eek:
 
Fanboyism again...from the LCD owners

Plasmas are still the better display-

Just had my Panny 37PX8 arrive this morning - I could so easily have ordered an LCD for the size but didnt due to the lack of picture quality.
 
You will be lucky to get a Sony at the moment anyway, they have no stock until mid February. Both types have their plus points, however if you are going to use it for heavy gaming, I suggest the Sony. For average use (mainly watching tv/movies and occasional gaming) the Panasonic is a much better choice. :thumbsup:
 
Fanboyism again...from the LCD owners

Are we not aloud to say anything good about lcd tv's then?

I thought this was a Panasonic Plasma v Sony LCD thread.

No point in just hearing one viewpoint is there?
 
Are we not aloud to say anything good about lcd tv's then?

Not when the infomation given is your viewpoint and not fact.

The fact of the matter IS the Panasonic Plasma gives a better picture than the Sony LCD... And its not just my opinion its a fact
 
Are we not aloud to say anything good about lcd tv's then?

I thought this was a Panasonic Plasma v Sony LCD thread.

No point in just hearing one viewpoint is there?

The problem with this sort of thread is that people have their own preferences. It's all subjective to the viewer! Your own preference is factual to you but not necessarily to anyone else!

The only way to decide between these two sets is to actually go and look at them. Buy whichever you prefer, that's the end of the story, surely!
 
Not when the infomation given is your viewpoint and not fact.

The fact of the matter IS the Panasonic Plasma gives a better picture than the Sony LCD... And its not just my opinion its a fact

How do you measure picture quality? What evidence have you got to back up these facts? Quality of picture is at the complete discretion of the viewer so sorry, I disagree with you.
 
Not when the infomation given is your viewpoint and not fact.

The fact of the matter IS the Panasonic Plasma gives a better picture than the Sony LCD... And its not just my opinion its a fact

Talk about contradict yourself.

You have a go at people for giving viewpoints and not so-called facts and then you do exactly that in your very next sentence.
 
The w4000 is a good and popular set(sonys first in years) but it still falls short of the top plasmas but the new samsungs are a different kettle of fish,they are the first lcds i have seen that can rival the top end plasmas without a doubt,give it a year and some lcds will be right up there with the plasmas.
 
I've been in the hunt for an HD TV for the last 6 years and have tried many different technologies including 3LCD, DLP, LCD and Plasma in my home. I've also had multiple sets at home at the same time for direct comparison (no doubt aided by the generous US return policy). At the end I liked the Panny plasma's picture the most but the QAM tuner was crap in it so I kept waiting.

Last month I had the KDL-46W4000 for 10 days in my home. I've never seen blacks like that before on an LCD TV. There is a scene in the Cars animated movie where a proposed ad is running with a black background that just blended right into the black bezel in a darkened room!... when the set was viewed head on. Move off center a few degrees and it gets bad quick! The viewing angles are pretty bad on it. Straight-on the picture is great with very good color fidelity save for a slight reddish cast which seem to be a Sony trait. It also is not the best in SD content scaling and if you get a big enough set for wide screen movies to look good SD's problems will be magnified quite a bit.

The reason I returned it because of the bad motion resolution. It has a very slow screen that makes it pretty bad for fast gaming and action movies.

I was truly impressed with many aspects of the set but these few faults were just a deal breaker for me. For what it's worth I'm waiting for the new Panny plasma line to come out now...
 
There is no doubt, Panasonic plasma everytime:thumbsup:, even at the smaller sizes where only lcd is applicable I'd have panasonics lcd's over the sony's:smashin:. Panasonic are the top brand, just behind Pioneer:clap:.
 

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