Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Received the G15 instead of the G10. The only difference is the thickness, the G15 is slimmer. The picture on this TV is absolutely amazing, the best I have ever seen. My friend has a new Samsung LED LCD that cost him over $2,000 and the Panasonic, which cost me $800, has a better picture.

I absolutely loved this TV when I got it. Set up was easy and I had the Olympics on and looking great! On day number 2, I was watching a blue ray movie and the TV just turned itself off. It died. I tried to get it to reset while my son searched the internet for troubleshooting tips. A red light on the TV would blink 7 times, wait, and then blink 7 more times repeatedly. My son said, "Here it is dad- I found an article called 'Panasonic's 7 blinking red lights of death!' and the symptoms were exact. (I thought this was hysterical at the time...) I've waited over 2 weeks for a repairman to come and fix it, but the part is backordered. Apparently that part is in demand for some reason. (I wonder why???) Even so- I LOVED this set when it was working and hope to have my problem resolved and my TV nightmare ended soon. Meanwhile I have a Panasonic surround system, a Panasonic BluRay player, and a Linksys Media Center expander sitting in the floor waiting to hook up to a working PANASONIC TV!!! If they fix it, I'll get over my misery. If they don't fix it soon, I'm going to replace it with something that works. I've had a Sony in another room for 4 years and it works great... tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock ...

There's a reason why prices for the TCP42G10 have cratered. In set audio for the TCP42G10 is really inferior. If you are going to listen to any music at all (like movie or TV show sound track, at least) you will need to buy at extra cost a separate sound system that plugs into the back panel RCA jack for audio out. And mute the in-set audio. The in set audio does all sort of weird things to music and even voice unless you turn all the audio "enhancements" off. You will also need to make sure the audio sound system has its own remote control for volume because the set's remote does not control the volume of the RCA audio out. I got a Frisby 5.1 which does the job. Internet via Viera is even worse, abysmally mickey mouse. The Panasonic server forces you to download "new" software before you can access and unless your router firewall is totally off, the download always fails. Nice. Many other times they tell you their server is "busy" or "overloaded." Even if you can get thru that minefield, internet access is slow and loaded with weird problems, like some videos from a given user on youtube are mysteriously missing, etc. etc. Picture strength is weak for a normally day lit living room. And pull down menus are more complex than needed -- too many submenus. If I had to do it again, I would look for better HDTV alternatives.

I picked up this television a couple of weeks ago and have been very pleased with it. This is the first Plasma television I've owned and I love it! Researching this television I learned more about Plasma's, like the history of burn-in issues, that they don't work well in brightly lit environments, and that they are a lot more affordable now than in years past. Image burn-in issues are perhaps fully resolved with the newer Panasonic Plasma's. They even have a feature accessible in the menu where you can "sweep" the image processor's, or pixels, clearing any possible issues out. My other televisions are a 17" Samsung LCD from 2003 which actually run me several hundred dollars more than this machine, and a 1080p Sony projector which is a joy to own. On the negative side of my projector, it is virtually unusable during the day, and bulb life can vary, depending upon whether I use a lamp directly from Sony or a cheaper alternative. A Sony bulb will last several years with 10 hrs. a week use, but will run several hundred dollars. A cheaper bulb might only last 200-300 hrs. I would recommend 1080p projector: you get a great 113" image, and the projector itself is unobtrusive, out of sight when not in use.

So I wanted to get a better television for regular use (during the day, casual viewing, etc.) and I started off with a 32" Samsung LCD, which I liked a good deal, but was not satisfied with the image quality when viewing regular DVD's, which is important to me. The images frequently exhibited a waveryness quality, or a digital noise quality, where parts of the picture were not solid, especially as the camera would pan, creating movement in a scene from the camera's perspective.

I thought about just getting a nicer LCD, but there were no televisions for under $1,000 which garnered universal praise. It seems as though the LCD television I would want may cost quite a bit more, as many run into the $2000 range and up.

Then I began to learn about Plasma televisions, and how there are some pretty nice ones for under $1000 (in some cases $300-$400 under). It doesn't seem as though 1080p for a screen of this size or smaller is really a big deal, but it didn't really cost much more for the price that I got this one, and why not? If the price isn't much different, then why not go for 1080p, even if the difference in image quality is small. I do own a nice Sony Blu Ray player (5000 ES) and I want the image to look as good as possible, but I think I would be happy with this televisions equivalent in 720p.

I am very impressed by how well made this television is. The build, the image quality, etc. I would not recommend this television to be used in a brightly lit environment. The screen is quite reflective and I tend to draw the blinds as it were when viewing it. It is not nearly as bright as The Samsung 32" 350 LCD model I tried. There is a vivid mode which does make it much brighter, but it is virtually unwatchable if you care about crisp lines. Things tend to bleed together in that mode in a very unfortunate way.

I tend to use the THX mode for most viewing and it looks great. But you can customize your own settings to brighten things up a bit if you need to.

Just at the time when I was settling in on this purchase, reports online were coming to the fore describing problems with the black levels over time, where the picture would arbitrarily "brighten" at certain intervals in a pre-programmed order to compensate for the aging, and maturing of the plasma display materials. This was resulting in a reduced image quality over time, where the black levels would not be as good as when the television was new, and consequently the leading review site online changed their review of this television (and perhaps relevant to other related plasma models from Panasonic's 2009 range) to say that they no longer recommended this television. This report was almost enough to stop me from making this purchase, but at this price point, well under $1,000, there is not a perfect television. Samsung has a very well reviewed plasma television in this range (price, size, 720p vs. 1080p) and should be worthy of consideration, but I just decided to go with this one and am hoping for the best. Not everyone has had the same experience of diminished performance (perceived or otherwise) with this set over time and again, for the price it is worth it to me. If I were spending 2 or 3 times what I spent on this, then it would be a different story. As it is,
I needed a good television and I'm very happy with this purchase and would recommend it to others. The image quality is stunning.

To be honest, if they continue to make significant improvements in regards to reliability and quality over the next 3-5 years, and televisions of this type continue to be this affordable or even more so, then I'll replace this one if it should somehow fail, or diminish in quality. I hope this one lasts a long time, but I'm willing to live with the risk, however slight it may be. Better value at this price is not obvious to me right now, and I just want the nicest television I can get for this price and this one does not disappoint.

I picked mine up through 6thAVE for the best price going, and it arrived double boxed in perfect shape, free UPS shipping and zero tax. I can't complain. The 720p Samsung and Panasonic plasmas are very well reviewed, and I'm planning on getting one of those for my father sometime soon depending upon price/availability.

I bought this same TV at Sears for $720.00 and it was a 50". So for another $20.00 you can get a larger TV. I also seen this same TV at Wal-Mart just recently & for the 50" it was $699.00.
So far I've been pleased with my purchase. This TV was easy to set/hook up and the picture quality is real good!
Just wanted to say this is really not "The Best" deal out there for this model TV.