Hello Guys, was hoping you could give me some advice about a HDTV I'm looking to purchase soon.

On a whim myself and the missus went looking at various Electronics places yesterday at the HDTV's available. After much time browsing and chatting with the sales reps we had our eye on the 50" Panasonic TH-50PV500A, it looked really great and I got a price of $5,500 at the Good Guys with 2 years interest-free no deposit.

The Good Guys rep threw a stick in my spokes (or whatever the saying is ) when he mentioned during a conversation that the Panasonic would not be the best if I'm looking to play my Video Game systems on my TV. He told me that I should get the 50" LG 5PX-5D $5,400, as it has some sort of in-built system to combat any image retention, as well as coming with an in-built HD tuner and having more inputs than the Panasonic.

This would be fine an dandy, and I normally would just go for the LG, but the thing is side-by-side the Panasonic looked like it had a-lot crisper image, the LG seemed sort of blurry, or not sharp around edges.

So I have been surfing around the web all day trying to find advice on this situation, including reading multiple pages of topics here at dtv, however I have not yet really been able to satisfy my doubts.

So what do some of you guys recommend out of these two TV's? I would like to be able to use it to play my video games (lots), DVDs and lots of sport! (Rugby League mainly)

50" Panasonic TH-50PV500A $5,500 Vs 50" LG 5PX-5D $5,400

I'm no expert but if I was faced with the same choice I'd go for the Panasonic due to its better picture quality and brand reputation.

If, on the side by side comparison, the Pana was better, then get the Pana. No amount of reading forums/reviews on the Internet should disuade you from what your eyes are telling you.

Plus, LG is (IMHO) not as good a brand as Pana - have heard more bad stories about LG than Pana.

Image retention shouldn't really be a problem - if anything, Pioneers seem to be most susceptible.

No question the LG is not even in the same league.

Some of the better 50" HD Panels include the Fuji, Pioneer, Hitachi and the Panasonic.

Cheers

Remember instore settings can be quite varied. Contrast 100%, colour 5%, digital processing ON/OFF etc. Make sure the two TVs are being feed the same image from a unit (STB or DVD Player). Have a fiddle with the settings (reset to default for a start) and see if it makes a lot of difference.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Yeah I understand that if the picture on the Pana was better looking then my choice should be obvious, my main concern was that the Sales Rep was telling me the Pana could be trouble when used with my PS2 etc..

I thought that he was probably exaggerating so I thought I'd check with some knowledgable folk first.



I understand this, I did ask the sales rep at two separate stores what settings the LG and Pana were running, they told me that they were playing from the same source and settings were similar.


Thanks to everybody for the replies so far, I would appreciate any other opinions, especially on how the Panasonic goes with Game Consoles.

Same source, now that should set the alarm bells ringing..........If he meant that "Look, they are both connected to that same box at the same time", ask how many HDMI / Component outputs the box has, chances are one of the feeds to the screens is s-VHS or composite............

Planning on playing PS2 24/7 ? If not, don't worry, the feeling seems to be wind the brightness back a bit for the first few hours and then enjoy your new toy.

It'll suffer less wear if you leave it in the box, but you're buying to enjoy it !!!!!

Also, there's a reason you thought the Panasonic looked better than the LG !!

Having said that, get the Panasonic looking the best it can, compare it with Pioneer and Fujitsu and take your pick. Any of those three will see you right. (The new NEC's are also getting nice words said about them).

The built-in tuner ? Skip it. Go for a PVR and you'll never look back.

Austen.

For $100, more the answer is simple.

Panasonic.

Just do a search on Google for "Panasonic plasma problems"

and do the same for "LG plasma problems" ( you might get a SHOCK! ).

Ok guys, looks like I'll be grabbing the Panasonic 50", should I be worried about the "dimple" issue mentioned in the other thread on here? Has that issue been resolved in newer stock of the Pana 50"?

Additionally, apart from a HD STB that I'm looking to pick up, what other things will I need 'right away' in order to get my setup going good?

A re-think!

Plus a LG 9921P Upscaling DVD player.


If you got the LG you would not need a STB, and one less remote!. and more connection options.

Do you watch many DVD's? what kind of DVD player do you have..?

You may want to consider an up-scaling DVD player (scales DVD's which are SD, to higher-res formats such as 720p or 1080i - makes all the difference when watching DVD's on a HD panel)... but only really worth it if you watch a lot of movies I guess

cheers

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=...sma+problems%22

Very interesting!.

i faced the same dilemma for the past two months - guess what? i got the pana

no question it has the better picture

was worried that i just spent $4000 on a TV and set top box and warranty, felt like madness to spend my hard earned that way.

but got it delivered last night, setup with my dad and fired up HDTV last night (cold case) - was floored, worth every single cent.

by the way - i plan to play the xbox360 with it as well. its going to be awesome.

How's the remote juggling going!.

well until I invested in my harmony 880 remote last year, I was juggling 6 or so remotes... not sure i'd base a purchasing decision based on how many remote I may have to deal with! as this can easily be overcome with a universal remote anyway...

cheers

Just wait till you try to put some of the commands into your programmable remote, you will see.!

yes I must admit that when I was first setting the remote up, it took a fair degree of tweaking to get everything right... but after that initial period, it is welllll worth the effort!

cheers

"good Luck" with the pana.!

Just wanted to post saying thanks and to let you guys know what I ended up getting.

I bought the following yesterday from Harvey Norman Maitland (Newcastle) on 12 months interest-free -

50" Panasonic TH-50PV500A $4,999
5-Year Warranty Extension $500
Toshiba HD-C26H/HB HD STB $600
Generic HDMI Cable $55
Delivery to Port Stephens $45

TV should be delivered on Tuesday.

Don't know if anybody else will be able to get the $5k price from them for the TV, apparently it was only a sale price from last week, but I told them I was quoted over the phone and with a little pushing got the price.

Thanks again!