Panasonic42PHD8 - friendly owners required

fid

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I think I've finally made my mind up and am going to go for the panny HD panel

But before I bite the bullet, does anyone know anywhere locally that I can actually see one in action, or any friendly forum users willing to let me take a look at their set up ? (I live in warrington) as not surprisingly the local pioneer shop didn't even know they made them :rotfl:

I don't bite, honest :laugh:
 
you'd be welcome to come and look at mine, but it's in the box and I live nowhere near Warrington ;)

It's great, buy it.
 
cheers mate, but if it's great what's it doing in the box? :rotfl:

any chance of any photos (of the screen, not the box :rolleyes: there doesn't seem to be much on the forum
 
Hi fid,

I own a panny 42phd8. Buy with confidence-most CRT type picture you will see on a plasma. It looks acceptable with freeview [2-3 mbps low bit rate] and via the component inputs with a good quality progressive player it looks very good. satisfying blacks, good colour range and good image depth albeit with occassional colour banding which is quite rare. Pioneer 436 is also a good choice. blacks not as deep but colour is very good. slightly less colour banding but for me the image lacks a bit of depth compared to the panny phd8. But still a very good screen. panny is one of the few plasma screens that to my eyes looks better with analogue component than digital video connections like dvi/hdmi. my advice is buy the screen and purchase a denon 2900 second hand [ebay] and sit back and enjoy! I bought one recently and it looks great with the panny.

Just my humble opinion.
 
:smashin: thanks, it's always reassuring to have someone elses opinion ... just those last few nervous steps before taking the plunge!

How's your system connected up?
 
Also must be noted 8 gen panny screens suffer from contrast/black lvl shifts.
I'd go with a Pioneer personaly or wait for 1080P screens.
Will
 
pic of my 42PHD8 - showing freeview tv from Topfield 5800 connected straight into component

Buff.jpg

I've had it a month now so haven't had it calibrated, but will in another month. I am very happy with it, consoles are superb through it.
 
buff99

:smashin: , looks good, is the picture good through your freeview? it's always difficult to tell from a photograph

rover2002
I thought there was a workaround for the black level shift on the PHD8's ?

Think they 1080p screens may be prohibitively expensive for a while, and no real source material to make much difference from the 720p (which the phd* can accept)
 
fid said:
buff99

rover2002
I thought there was a workaround for the black level shift on the PHD8's ?

There is, so no need to worry on that account.
 
Fid, I was pleasantly surprised how good freeview looked - lots more detail from the same device compared to my old 36" Tosh CRT picture frame.

I think a PHD8 will stand you in good stead until 1080p content becomes common.
 
fid said:
cheers mate, but if it's great what's it doing in the box? :rotfl:

any chance of any photos (of the screen, not the box :rolleyes: there doesn't seem to be much on the forum
I was re-doing the lounge to hide cables etc and didn't want to cover it in dust :)

Some pics in this project diary I did for a "laugh" - should be finished tomorrow. I hope. Again.

http://www.choddo.co.uk/plasma.htm
 
What's the cheapest you can get these for? Sorry to hijack a thread.. just I'm trying to decide between this and the PX60.. they seem to be the same price and a similar panel but the PX seems to have a few more things for the money, ie digital tuner.
 
Im on the wirral, is that close enough ?
and im off all next week !
 
mk85 said:
1650 without a hdmi card.

For a 42PHD8? Where from mate?
 
Nicke20, thanks for the offer :smashin: , I may well take you up on that next week (can i just pm you about it?)

Seems to be a lot of pro's to buying the panel rather than the tv, but what are the cons?
 
fid said:
Nicke20, thanks for the offer :smashin: , I may well take you up on that next week (can i just pm you about it?)

Seems to be a lot of pro's to buying the panel rather than the tv, but what are the cons?

No built in tv tuner, no built in speakers and, umm, well that is it, so if you have sky/freeview/cable and a sound system it really doesn't matter anyway. :smashin:
 
well I already have sky, and a dolby digital amp, so I'm ok there :D

is there a preferred connection method to the panel (e.g. is it better to connect to the vga, or would it be better to connect to a component?)
 
fid said:
well I already have sky, and a dolby digital amp, so I'm ok there :D

is there a preferred connection method to the panel (e.g. is it better to connect to the vga, or would it be better to connect to a component?)

I am very pleased with mine, i have scart for sky, component for dvd,comonent for xbox 360 and dvi to vga for the pc, all on seperate cards, not very cost effective but suits me:)
 
pm away

i go into mine via vga from a scaler
and i go scart to component from the sky box into the scaler
 
nicke20 thanks - pm sent

thanks gpa - do you have any photos you can post?

i intend initially to have it stand mounted, and ideally i need one that allows me to put my centre speaker in front of the panel (it's about 14 cm high) any advice on what options i have?
 
anybody else like to contribute before I spend my hard earned cash?
 
why are you paying more for the phd8, when you could get thw px60 for a lower price...

which has more features than phd8.... and no degradation in pq reported so far...
 
My PHD6 still looks perfect, closest to CRT of any plasma I've seen, so I would expect the same fromt the PHD8 with the advantage of a 50hz HDMI card which is my main irritation of Panasonic.
That said I'm quite tempted to sell my PHD6 as a large 42" PC monitor to someone and pick up a PX60 for less money that the PHD8 with the 2xHDMI, component, scart slots all built in, and digital tuner.

There must be a catch somewhere, I suppose the 3 fans in the PX60 might be a bit irritating but I barely notice the 2 in the PHD6.

Steve
 

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