42" Viera here

Post #319,352 by scoenye 12/30/09 7:18:52 PM Reply	42" Viera here Rated at 335W. Actual consumption is a lot better than that but it strongly depends on use. If you watch a lot of dark movies, then it uses even less than a CRT. A Kill-a-Watt session averaged at about half the rated wattage. The UI on our particular model is not exactly the friendliest I've ever encountered. Panasonic saw fit not to use the remote number pad for programming, so expect a lot of use of up/down left/right buttons to get things configured. And it does not retain the clock when main power is lost (more and more button presses required to reset until June, the year has to be selected on a dropdown.)
Post #319,357 by Another Scott 12/30/09 8:15:01 PM Reply	Excellent points on the power. Thanks for the info. Can I ask why you chose it over an LCD? Did you get it in the US? At a store or via the web? I assume we'll use a universal remote with it after it's been adjusted. Thanks! Cheers, Scott.
Post #319,368 by scoenye 12/30/09 11:23:10 PM Reply	US, Costco, in store It is a 720p model, not 1080. We looked at all the models they had going in the warehouse. Finally decided that the picture looked best on this one among TVs of comparable size and price. IIRC, it was the only plasma model there and it came with a $200 rebate. The other choices for the price were a ~30" 1080 LCD or a ~40" 720 LCD. The saturation on the LCDs didn't look right. Of course, it's unknown what settings they were running under but the Viera appeared to have been running at its default settings. I didn't even know about the difference in power consumption between plasma and LCD until after we got it. I did do some research on the pros/cons of each, but somehow that didn't come up.
Post #319,369 by Another Scott 12/31/09 12:15:32 AM Reply	Thanks. I keep reading horror stories of sets being delivered with cracked screens. I bought a 32" Samsung LCD from B&H about a year ago, and it was fine when I picked it up from UPS after work. I'm leaning that way again, but I'd have to check to make sure that a larger box would easily fit in my car if I needed to pick it up. And the thought of agonizing over a web purchase like this again, waiting for delivery, possibly having to pick it up, possibly having a cracked screen and waiting another week or so for a new delivery attempt isn't terribly appealing. Of course, I could buy it locally for more money and have to pay sales tax.... Decisions, decisions. :-) Thanks again. Cheers, Scott. (Who hates big purchases...)
Post #319,416 by scoenye 1/1/10 10:23:58 AM Reply	We got ours on the local Sales Tax Holiday ;-)
Post #319,418 by Another Scott 1/1/10 10:28:23 AM Reply	Heh! :-)

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