Panasonic VIERA 42 Inches HD Plasma TH-P42X30D Television

Purchased VIERA TH-P42X30D and i must say, its a wonderful television. I am a movie freak and i have a lot of movie collects in my laptop. My collections vary from 450MB to 3.5 GB. However, for my surprise this TV plays all the movies with HD clarity irrespective of whether its 450 MB or 3.5 GB movie. I recently watched Thor which was 750p movie and the experience was incredible. It has Cinema, true cinema and Dynamic pre-settings which you can change accordingly. And, i connected the sound to my hometheatre and the affect was mind blowing.
And, I have Airtel dish tv and HD channels are a pleasure to watch. ESPN, Discovery are my favorites. Its really a wonderful experience. Normal channels are not quite impressive, but channels like normal ESPN, STAR, still are good. You may adjust your contrast and sharpness to make it look good. Overall i would say its an incredible television and value for money. I am enjoying everymoment i watch this. (Specially, My movie collections and HD channels). If you are a movie freak, sports fan (ESPN HD, Star HD, Ten HD) and like to save money go for it.

Pros : Picture quality, price, format support, DLNA, Cinematic Experience
Cons : Low back light, bulky

Bought this panel a week ago from a store in Delhi for 32K. This visual beauty is a real value for Money. Its about 20K cheaper than a 42 inch led. Plasmas were never my choice, I was looking for the LED TV but when checked it out on the net I found it a better & cost effective solution over LCD or LED.

Build : Quite a heavy body when compared to LCD or LED(of course because of the technology it uses). Build is solid with decent enough bezel area to hold and carry it across the rooms.

Installation : I installed it myself on a pedestal using the guide and some help from youtube. It was a breeze, only thing is you need at least 2 persons to handle this screen because of its size and weight. Wall mount option is also available.

Picture : colors are natural(no plasticy feel like samsung/LG has), picture is sharp enough, much less pix-elation when viewing a small size content as compared to a LCD/LED, no change in picture quality when viewed at different angles, customizable picture modes (Normal, Cinema, True Cinema, Dynamic). All these modes are individually customizable(color, brightness, sharpness) and retain their settings even on restart. It will give you a cinematic experience once the lights are switched off.

Only weak point I noticed is the back light is less when compared to LED which makes this TV a bit difficult to view in direct sunlight. Avoid placing it under direct sunlight. I am using it under a tube light and there is no loss of details.

Sound : Its loud enough for in house use. Volume correction option is also there to boost it if you feel that even 100% is not enough. I never used this though. Even the low volume avi files played loud enough without any volume correction. 8 channel equalizer gives to abundant options to play with sound in user mode.

Format Support : Cant get better format support in such price range. Plays 95% of my movie collection which comprises of avi, mp4, mkv, mov. Not sure if it can play mpeg though. In some of the mp4 files audio was not supported. For avi and mkv no problem as such.

Connnectivity : SD card slot is there to watch your pics directly out of the camera. 3 HDMI slot to connect devices simultaneously. 2 USB slots, both of them on the side for easy operation.

DLNA : This is where it stands out to a similar priced Samsung Plasma. Samsung does not have DLNA support. I connected this to my router using LAN cable. Smoothly stream content from my XPERIA and Laptop. Windows media server will not be detected, you have to use the third party S/W like Serviio Media Server. Have not tested the wireless connectivity as it supports only the specialized Netgear wireless adapter. DLNA experience was overwhelming.

Misc : Facebook, Shoutcast, Vierra Link can be used for centralized control of the connected devices.

Conclusion : A great all rounder. Best features in this price range.

I bought this TV in feb12 and believe me its amazing in half price. i researched very much on this and then i went to croma and watched all LED,LCD and plasma that are mounted in same wall. It is easy to observe their that there is hardly any difference but price almost double. 180 degree viewing is ultimate and internet connection is also available. colors are awesome smooth and doesn't give stress to your eyes. There might be little more consumption in light but that doesn't matter much if you compare to quality and price.
It is little heavier and bit thick compare to LED but you would not repent with your decision.
It works fine with Tata sky HD.
IT has ARC(audio return channel) and it works marvelous with Sony dz-310 home thetare with one HDMI cable and you would get 5.1 channel audio for the same cable.

I never thought I would buy a plasma.

This TV is excellent...simply superb. Picture quality is really good. It has all the options you need. Plays almost all formats though USB. It has even played an 8GB MKV smoothly. Sound quality is good.

To have same viewing experience we need to pay atleast Rs 80000 for an LED TV.

I have visited several showrooms but could never understand the difference between LCD LED fullHD....all looks same to me.

The only difference I noticed was sales people keep high contrast ratios and brighness for the tvs they wanted to sell and dull ratios for the other ones. If I keep similar contrast and brighness levels all TV look same for me.

This TV consumes more power when compared to similar sized LCD or LED tvs. But you have to use it for atleast 10years to make up for the price difference.

If you care for slimmer, lighter and a little bit energy efficient panels, go for LED or LCD

But if you care for superb contrast ratio, ultimate color reproduction, faster response times and 180 degree viewing angle go for plasma panels (above 40 inches), only OLED display panels can beat this.

I bought this 30 days back and believe me this is the best. You can play .mkv and .mp4 (may be audio issues with some .mp4 files) from SDHC cards or USB portable hard drives (only FAT16/32). Yet to connect to internet.

Go for it!