Great TV

I bought this TV about 1 month ago after a lot of deliberation. My main concern was most of the time is spent watching freeview and I new this was an LCD's biggest weakness. After reading other reviews, I opted for this model with 100hz and motion technology. I found it for £699, which included a DVD upscaler and 3 years free warranty. Firstly it look very expensive when I set it up, even with the screen off, it has a rose black effect, which is lost on me but my girlfriend assures me is a subtle colour. Anyway set up is really easy and I was supprised with the built in digital tuner, which picked up far better signals than my current PVR. King Kong was the first film I watched on freeview, which looked amazing, seriously good and not even in HD. Next was the F1 racing in Singapore again a really really good picture, no motion blurring, which I was expecting on the fast action shots. I've also got it hooked up the the Xbox, playing Brothers in Arms, there's no picture judder, really smooth. As with all slimline TVs the speakers are fine for normal viewing but for films I would recommend you hook it up to your hi-fi for extra depth of sound. The DVD upscalling works a treat, playing Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd - again it really gets close to HD and brings the cinema to the home. All in all can't fault it.

Not Reliable

Bought this item as an upgrade and first tentative steps into the HD World.
Amazon delivered very quickly.

Took around five minutes to rip open packaging and Plug in,was very impressed by the Flat Black screen,little blue Power light came on and the set automatically scanned available channels.

However there the story turns sour,the image from this model is not all that,
Colours temp is set to very red,too compensate you'll find the picture eventually looks washed out.

There is Clearly a problem with the Power Board,I have now returned my Second set to Amazon Refund (Pending) after it developing another Power Failure.

I can not reccomend this model please avoid at all cost Phillips have a Problem with this Model and need to resolve it...

I am usually a Phillips customer and have used their products in the past which have proven reliable,and usually outlasted my interest i.e uogrades etc.

AMAZON Pull the Plug On this Model Range.....

Cool tv

Ordered this TV on Sunday and received it on Thursday around 11am using the super save free delivery. Liked the tracking of the product via email but I expected to receive a call to say when my product was arriving so almost didn't get time off work to wait for the delivery. Also surprise to see only one person to deliver the TV - Considering how much I paid for it I would expected a little more care would been taken. Not sure if paying extra would of helped.

Anyway about the product. Just viewing through SD at the moment. But have to say the Freeview is rather good. It does take about 10 mins to get the colours right as the standard set up is not good as it seems matted out. But with a play around with the simple controls allows you to find the right picture. Also the auto configuration of the Freeview was quick. (Oh a tip you might what to set the transpacy of the menu to"High" so you can see the image easier

But I was very pleasantly surprise to see the DVD quality - again SD and makes me think what HD would look like. Was very impressed. Especially watching Doomsday which has a lot of blacks and the car chase scene looks great. No picture judder at all. But if you use the dynamic filter the image looks like it is in fast forward in the gun fire scenes. So best to switch it off.

But the downside: The sound is ok but only on low volumes - but who buys a HD tv and does not have a home cinema anyway.

Recommend to get a proper tv stand - It not that heavy about 27kg, but weight distribution might make you think twice about using a standard piece of Ikea furniture.

I did consider a Sony 46W4000 which does have a sharper image - I think the blacks are deeper - When it seems the case when comparing it in Currys to this TV. But I had to spend about 1 hour cross referencing it to believe it. Initially there is not much difference. Infact I compared against a seris 7 which as a 70,000:1 contrast and I can't really notice anything from HD source. But the display movie was a slow moving picture"Get Smart" trailer so perhaps different for sport or action movies.

Overall a great buy for the money.

Fantastic - almost like a cinema at home!

I spent several months deciding which TV to get and in the end I plumped for this one, and I am not disappointed. At first I thought it was too big (I had an old-style 32 inch before) but it was only an extra 4 inches wider (in actual measurement) and it didn't take too long to get used to it. Because it is 'pictureframe' it's ALL screen and the quality it brilliant. We have a PS3 and have watched several Blu-ray DVDs with surround sound on and its almost like being at the cinema! Superb!! I would recommend this TV to anyone. Oh and by the way Amazon delivered very quickly and well packaged.

Perfection

Just received this on the 29th August as promised by Amazon.
Perfect delivery and the tv is brand new and is a gem.
It looks very classy and the picture quality is outstanding.
Anyone Pondering over this should stop pondering and just order it.
Much much cheaper than the shops.

Best TV EVER !!!!

I Won £1000 Pound in a compotion and i really wanted an xbox 360 and a TV so thats what i spent it on ! And this TV is the best thing ive ever spent money on !!!!

Awsome HD Experience on an Xbox 360 !!!!

EASY

Ordered the TV and selected express guaranteed delivery for £8.99, arrived by City Link at 8.30am within 20 hours of ordering it. Suspect folks having difficulties with delivery selected the Free delivery. I'd say worth spending extra £9 to know the delivery is guaranteed. No wasted days off work.
TV is really easy to set up, excellent picture quality. Now watching the rugby without the faintest hint of ghosting. Sound quality is excellent, heard on digital spy that some people are not happy with the sound but it is very good - don't know what they were complaining about. Theatre button is great, press it once and your living room will turn into a cinema. Great value and very easy!

Good all round perfromance.

I think this product has a good clear picture easy to use menus.Bit disappointed though that you cannot switch it off completely on the set.You have to pull the plug out.I think that in todays climate that is a mistake.Also why did you have to have three leads going to the set.I'm sure that could have been avoided.Impressed with the three year warranty.Over all I'm pleased with it with just a couple of disappointments

Nearly the best TV ever owned

I purchased one of these TV's a couple of months ago, we actually only wanted a 26" for the bedroom and ended up with 32" for the same price - one major benefit I found immediately is I can still see the TV without my glasses on and the sound is terrific plus with built in freeview no additional remote controls to loose in the bedcovers. I would recommend this set wholeheartedly for anywhere around the house. The only reason I mark this as second best was because we bought a 50" plasma for the lounge and you just cannot beat that.

Great Value

I bought this TV just before Christmas 2007. The picture quality is great and the sound is better than any other TV I have owned. It was easy to set up and I haven't got any gripes about it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this TV

Excellent product

I currently have this TV connected via HDMI to my Playstation3 which I use for gaming as well as watching Bluray films. There are 3 HDMI ports and usual SCART and SVideo connecters. I was unsure if the 8ms response time would be quick enough but I have no motion blur whatsoever. I have a friend which has the 46" which I believe has 4ms response time, though I could only see a difference when the 46" was running in 100Hz mode which is only really good for non HD sports programmes.

The TV has options to skip any inputs/freeview/analog which is not being used.

I cannot comment on freeview as I have no reception for that.

The surround bezel of the TV is very thin and overall looks excellent in black with silver speakers bar at the bottom. The standard definition TV picture is very good also.

The sound probably would not fill a larger room, but as I have an external Dolby Digital amplifier I am not bothered.

The price has dropped quite considerably since I bought my set and the larger screen models are now probably much better value for money, but I am extremely happy with my purchase.

Not great via aerial

I saw this TV in the showroom playing a film on Blu-ray and was so amazed at the picture quality that I bought one from Amazon on the strengh of it. I did expect to just attach it to my existing equipment via scart leads, turn it on, tune in the stations and get a reasonable quality picture. Unfortunately this has not been the case and I have been so disappointed in it that for now it has gone back into it's box. I remain using my 10 year old TV which it was supposed to replace as the picture is better than the Sony. I don't know if it's because I get my digital signal from an aerial instead of a cable but the picture is not clean and sharp and any movement is accommpanied by blurring around the edges which is far too annoying to watch. This is an HD ready TV but I would say that it's a HD only TV.

TH-50PZ800B UK Version NOT ---> THX <---

After reading a few online reviews and seeing online retailer's product descriptions it does seem the PZ800 is a very nice plasma indeed. But, the US version the TH(42-50)PZ800U is THX certified and the UK version the TH(42-50)PZ800B"isn't". What a lovely kick in the teeth from Panasonic. After phoning Panasonic UK's customer services they confirmed the 800B's are not THX certified, and was glibly informed THX isn't a UK standard, to which I added"you better start telling all those UK cinemas there needlessly spending thousands of pounds to be THX certified then". Yes sarcasm, but it had to be said. When I pushed the telephonist I asked,"so did Panasonic just not bother with THX for UK customers?", he replied"it doesn't look like it".

In my humble opinion the whole point of having a high-spec"huge" screen (try not to think of a freudian explanation) in your living room is the"home cinema experience"

So why wouldn't Panasonic"a maker of impressive plasmas" put the 800B's in for THX certification?.

Panasonics UK customer services informed me that the specification on the 800U & 800B are different. It does beg the questions,

How much difference is there?
Would the 800B not pass THX testing?
Or are Panasonic just saving money?

The main problem is there are a lot of online retailers who are mixing up the specs in the"Product descriptions" Including Amazon, there listing states"THX Certification on PZ800 and PZ850 series", true enough just not the 800B, the UK version.
If I had spent a whopping 2k on what I thought was a THX plasma, and then later found out it wasn't, I would be a lot more than cheesed off. Buyer Beware!