JohnN1553552709 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 I think this is the TV that I will buy as it is within my budget & rates highly with you good folk. I had a look at one & liked the size & picture. However, I read somewhere that it only has one HDMI input. Is this true? and wiould that be an issue? I currently have a DVD/Video combo and a PS2, though I will be getting a PS3 soon. Would thiis model have enough inputs for my needs? Please excuse my utter ignorance.... Anything else I need to be aware of? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyril Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 The PV7 is an excellent display and at a good cost. It has two component video inputs and only one HDMI input. If you spend $600 more then you can get the PV70 which is essentially the identical beast but with two HDMI inputs. A HDMI switch would cost you around $2-300, most AVR's have HDMI switching, although its a pain to have your AVR on just to watch the news. The other thing you have to ask is will FreeView and Sky be limiting their HD STBs analog component outputs via the ICT flag for the forseable future, somehow I doubt it so you will still be able to view Sky/FreeView in full HD via a component video input leaving the single HDMI input free for your PS3. Cyril Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnN1553552709 Posted November 21, 2007 Author Share Posted November 21, 2007 cyril;52416 wrote: The PV7 is an excellent display and at a good cost. It has two component video inputs and only one HDMI input. If you spend $600 more then you can get the PV70 which is essentially the identical beast but with two HDMI inputs. A HDMI switch would cost you around $2-300, most AVR's have HDMI switching, although its a pain to have your AVR on just to watch the news. The other thing you have to ask is will FreeView and Sky be limiting their HD STBs analog component outputs via the ICT flag for the forseable future, somehow I doubt it so you will still be able to view Sky/FreeView in full HD via a component video input leaving the single HDMI input free for your PS3. Cyril Hi Cyril, Thanks for your post. So a standard DVD player would just be hooked up to a component video input? The HDMI side of things is for the likes of PS3/Blu Ray/HD-DVD/Sky Digital? (I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to HT) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam1553552670 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 A HDMI switch would cost you around $2-300 Noel Leeming sells a Joytech HDMI switch (3-in, 1-out) for $35. It even has a remote control. It doesn't have an equalizer so isn't ideal for long lengths (I had issues with it using a 10 metre cable) but it works fine over shorter distances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little blue penguin Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 Hi John, Now's a good time to buy one of these as Noel Leeming have them on sale at $1999. They are also offering 36 months interest free. I bought mine last Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyril Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 So a standard DVD player would just be hooked up to a component video input? The HDMI side of things is for the likes of PS3/Blu Ray/HD-DVD/Sky Digital? Hi John, yes that would be fine, and just a further point, I would leave the DVD player outputing 576i (ie dont use a progressive or upscaled output) as the PV7 has a pretty good deinterlacer, so it better to let it do that task and also do the one off scale to its native panel resolution rather than by some intermediate like 720 or 1080. I actually setup a PV7 for a client just like this the other day, both a Pioneer DVD and Strong FreeView box via component. Cyril Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyrs Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 JohnN, make sure you shop around for this... I've seen them around $1900. The cheapest places, that I've seen, are JB Hifi & Appliance She I concur with all opinions above and it would be the plasma I'd buy, if wanted to buy a plasma. I'd suggest checking the power usage - if you're concerned about ongoing costs. I understand it runs at about 300+ Watts. A friend of mine who bought one commented on the heat coming off the display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixon76 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 One (encouraging) thing to note about power usage of a plasma is that it isn't constant. It changes with how bright/dark the scene being displayed is. This contrasts with LCD which has a constant power usage. In theory over time and depending on what type of thing you watch the average power usages of the two technologies aren't as far apart as they seem on the face of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnN1553552709 Posted November 21, 2007 Author Share Posted November 21, 2007 johnnyrs;52479 wrote: A friend of mine who bought one commented on the heat coming off the display. That could come in handy during Dunedin's Winter(11 months of the year). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnN1553552709 Posted November 21, 2007 Author Share Posted November 21, 2007 johnnyrs;52479 wrote: JohnN, make sure you shop around for this... I've seen them around $1900. The cheapest places, that I've seen, are JB Hifi & Appliance She Sadly these stores are not in Dunedin, Noel Lemming has them for $1999 & I received a flyer in the post from Bond & Bond advertising them for $1993(I think) I'm hoping to purchase a PS3 at the same time which hopefully will help on the discount/freebee front. Also, thanks everyone for your posts and validation of this particular model as 2K is still a lot of money for me to spend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatF1553552715 Posted December 2, 2007 Share Posted December 2, 2007 Can any one comment as to how gaming on these plasmas is as well? I'm thinking Wii and 360... thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suneaku Posted December 2, 2007 Share Posted December 2, 2007 MatF;53336 wrote: Can any one comment as to how gaming on these plasmas is as well? I'm thinking Wii and 360... thanks I have used my 360 on this tv and compared it to my 720p LCD, and the only difference I could tell were that the colours were more vibrant on the Plasma. There wasn't any noticable loss in detail/sharpness despite the slight resolution difference. They make great gaming tv's in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatF1553552715 Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 Awesome thanks for the comment. Now to convince the wife... :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrangeDrink Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 Suneaku;53339 wrote: I have used my 360 on this tv and compared it to my 720p LCD, and the only difference I could tell were that the colours were more vibrant on the Plasma. There wasn't any noticable loss in detail/sharpness despite the slight resolution difference. They make great gaming tv's in my opinion. The only thing to watch for if you do a lot of gaming might be burn in problems. If you play one game an awful lot and it has bright overlays you could get a burn in problem with it. It'd take a lot to make that burn in problem permanent though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curiousgeorgenz Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 If anyone still looking for a 42" plamsa, check out the latest specials on the Hitachi units at Eastern Hi Fi. HD and made in Japan. Price advertised was $2699. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr99 Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 I finally got myself a plasma, the Panasonic 42PV7. Hooked up to a Samsung DVD recorder (which I eventually managed to multizone from just being region 4, thought that was a thing of the past), using HDMI. Picture is fantastic, but I am comparing it to an old 29" TV... Most noticeable thing for me is how much variation there is in picture quality on Sky. Currently on S-video from pace decoder, will look to get a Scart to component cable. Has anyone calibrated the PV7 and have recommended settings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam1553552670 Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 I don't have a Panasonic plasma or calibration suggestions other than to keep your brightness and contrast down for the first hundred hours or so of use. These early hours are the panel's most susceptible for image burn-in, especially at their factory default (ie. blazingly bright) settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Beale Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Yes avoid the dynamic mode as these tend to drive everything to high. Digital video essentials is a good PAL cal disk to get some basic settings. Good for brightness setpoint, although be careful with contrast as it is easy to drive that to high on these displays. Try to use the softer settings and things like warm, they tend to be closer to D65 out of the box which is where you want to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatF1553552715 Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Just bought one of these myself yesterday (the boss gave her blessing ) Looks great so far - and I haven't even adjusted any settings yet. Got a good deal at JB-Hifi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyrs Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Just got What HiFi's October edition that was devoted entirely to screens & video playing devices. The *7 Pana plasma was still rated incredibly highly, even against all the 1080p panels. In fact, I think every Panasonic display got 5 stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Postie Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 To anyone in Wellington considering one of these, I picked one up yesterday from HN in Lower Hutt for $1687. Be in quick, they are competing with a new store Norman Ross who are doing them at $1697. This weekend only or while stocks last. Can't go wrong at that price! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckiestmanalive Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Postie;53678 wrote: To anyone in Wellington considering one of these, I picked one up yesterday from HN in Lower Hutt for $1687. Be in quick, they are competing with a new store Norman Ross who are doing them at $1697. This weekend only or while stocks last. Can't go wrong at that price! Thanks Postie! I was going to go in to Norman Ross tomorrow morning and take them up on their price... apart from the $10 was there anything else about the Harvey Norman offer that sweetened the deal for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Postie Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Mainly I had some HN vouchers to spend - but at that stage I also had no idea of who Norman Ross were, and preferred to buy from someone I knew would be around in a couple of years time. Turns out they are all part of the same company anyway! Very happy with the new telly so far - DVDs look fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyrs Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Sorry to tell you guys, but picked a PV7 up from Dick Smith Powerhouse for $1598 (and some cents) yesterday. Sounds like this is near or even under cost. What a great screen. Powerhouse had every setting at 100 (no 111 available). Factory settings of 50 for everything seems okish but initial setting of Dynamic almost blinds you! The upscaling of my Denon DVD player makes a gobsmacking picture on this. Unfortunately it makes watching the poor quality terrestrial and low bit rate Sky channels almost unbearable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Davey Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 I was in HN in CHCH the other week and they had 2 of the 1080p plasmas set up side by side running the same picture, 1 the panny, the other a Samsung. I was extremely surprised to see the samsung have a markedly better picture. Detail was sharper, blacks were blacker and even colours were very good on the Samsung. The HN guy cycled through both sets settings (sharpness, contrast, brightness etc) and neither was inflated (IE sharpness on the Samsung wasn't wound up or anything), so it appeared that the Samsung was just doing a better job of it. IIRC the Samsung was a little pricier than the panny, but there wasn't that much in it. $ 1598 for the panny sounds like a fantastic deal. Who'd a thought that in so few years, plasma prices have dropped to about 1/5th (or less) what they originally started at with the quality that you can get now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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