| | | |  - 42-inch plasma HDTV with full 1080p HD resolution and three HDMI inputs
- Neo PDP screen provides brighter panel, Full-Time 1080 TV Lines Moving Picture Resolution
- VIERA Image Viewer lets you share your digital photos with friends and family directly from SD cards
- VIERA Link lets you control your compatible Panasonic DVD recorder.Blu-ray Disc player, home theater sound system
- 600Hz Sub-field Drive produces crisp, focused images for sports, dramatic action, and all other fast-moving scenes
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| | | |  Product Description:
42" Plasma, 1080p, NEO PDP Panel which is brighter, Full-time 1080p TV lines of moving picture resolution, 3 HDMI, Native contrast ratio 40,000:1, Dynamic contrast infinite black 2,000,000:1, Game Mode, Anti Reflective Filter, 600 Hz Subfield Drive | | | | |
Average Rating : 
Rating :  - Good value, but there are a lot of areas for improvement
This review is going to be biased.
Info: I live approx. 6 mi from the TV transmitters in my area.
Previous TV for comparison: JVC D-series 27" CRT w/ Insignia SD tuner box
Other equipment: B&W speakers, Pioneer Elite receiver, Oppo BluRay player
Tech level: High. I read AVSForum, listen to tech podcasts, and program computers for a living.
Also note, this is my first HDTV purchase, and I made some mistakes in the process, so I'll share them with you so that you can perhaps avoid them.
Advantages:
-The fact that you get a performance plasma for a low price means this unit is a great value. You'd be hard pressed to find another plasma that has the performance/price ratio this one does.
-It *is* a plasma. As such, you get spot-on motion resolution (very natural!), wide viewing angles, and good black levels. It produces a very nice, non-fatiguing picture, which many LCDs simply can't compete with, at or above this price point.
-Optical audio output works very well; it can even put out 2-channel audio from HDMI input sources out over optical.
-I thought I would hate the glass face (potentially reflective), but I found that if you don't have lights back where you sit, it actually brings the picture out and makes it look better.
Disadvantages:
-The color performance on this display is so-so. People, in general, tend to look pale and bland (too green), especially with DVD, SDTV material on TV after using a calibration disc. Out of the box it was too yellow. It's kinda boring to look at, perhaps like you're watching a lake with a mild algae infestation. Most of the Panasonic THX plasmas (G10, V10) above this model aren't this bad, so you may want to spend more if you don't like the color on the S1. Note: With truly HD or BluRay material, I've found the color doesn't bother me as much and I'm okay with it. I'm not sure why, maybe its the way the S1 does color conversion. In short, this HDTV cannot provide a picture that's remotely close to reference, even with significant tweaking. It's better than many of it's peers, but it still falls short.
-Calibration controls for this set are few. There is no 11-step gray scale adjustment, or any color management system. Because of this, you really can't fix the color decoding issues without expensive external hardware. Even the service menu controls are limited, which means even an ISF calibrator would be hard pressed to fix these problems.
-No VGA/PC input. Thought I wouldn't care too much about not having this, but discovered that I do. There are so many times where I wish I could hook up my laptop to my TV (streaming video, playing video games, etc) that I wish I had this. YMMV. I could get a VGA to HDMI adapter, but that actually costs more than moving to a 42" G10 with the VGA input.
-The ATSC tuner is very bare-bones. You can't see extended show information, what's coming up next, no guide or anything other than the title of the show from show metadata. The tuner is also not very sensitive, I find I need to tweak the antenna a bit more to keep the station coming in well. (I'm comparing to an Insignia SD tuner box I used previously; LG made it and use a similar ATSC tuner system in their TVs, I believe; much better IMHO).
-After I got it, and had it in the room, I realized that yes, I could have gone 50" and it would have made a big positive difference. If your'e hunting for a TV, you may want to think about getting one size bigger than the size you want.
Conclusion: while this display met my budget requirements, and while it is a pretty good display for the money, if you are kinda picky about picture quality you may be disappointed. I learned, after this purchase, that I should have saved a bit more and gone for a G10/V10, even if I had to mail-order it. I'll make a better decision next time.
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