Samsung 47" or Panasonic 47" RPTV?
 

At Best Buy, the Samsung HCL4715W is $1699 and the Panasonic PT-47WX42 is $1599. Both seem to have the same options. Anyone here have a recommendation or personal experience with either of these? I'm leaning to the Samsung simply because it is 1.6" less deep and about 22 lbs lighter.

I own the 47" Panny so I might be a little biased but it will be a little easier to find information and tweaks for the Panny. I have no experience with that Samsung but I've been happy with my Panny for over a year now. You can visit www.panny.tv for more info on the Panny. Good Luck!

We sell the Panasonic at work, and I must say it is quite nice. Aside from some of the newer large Hitatchi TVs, Panasonic still makes the best tv's :)

BMELLO or DISCOST,

Have you personally witnessed any burn-in problem on the Panny? How is the stretch mode? I prefer native 4:3 but fear burn-in damage. Might watch 2-3 hours of full screen tv per day which from what I've been reading would likely cause burn-in if I don't use stretch.

toy story dvd menu burned into ours after a few days, so dont leave the same thing on all day :) Otherwise no problems yet at all....But i'd use a wide screen mode, instead of 4:3...4:3 just bugs me on those tvs.

So Discost, did someones butt get chewed for leaving Toy Story DVD Menu on for days? What good is the TV then? Who would buy it after it has burn in? Do you have to have the guns or screen replaced? I not sure what component actually gets damaged when burn in occurs but I'm sure it's not cheap to replace.

I have been told that Panasonic RPTVs generally require a lot of calibrating in order to look very good. Once properly ISF-calibrated, they are suppose to look awesome, one of the best. So budget $300-$500 for a ISF calibration by a qualified video professional.

Dave

Jamers...dont really recall what we did with the tv...someone may have actually bought it, or we sent it back...dunno :)

DavidY...We have 3 Panny RPTVs on display right now, and they all look great out of the box. They do require some contrast/brightness tweaking of course ( I generally use a dvds THX optimode...unless I find our Video Essentials).

I guess I'm a rookie on this topic but what is ISF calibration. Don't the RPTV's come with a 9 point calibration that the user can adjust?

A TV can be calibrated in many ways. ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) calibration is very through, complex, and requires expensive special equipment and a very experienced professional. ISF pros are very rare and many people have to schedule an appointment far in advance during a tour of the area by a pro. Here as an article on DVDFile with a lot of good info:

http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_...alibration.htm

BTW, this should not be done straight out of the box. You should give your set a while to break in first. You don't have to budget for it, simply do it at some point in the future when you have the money.

Bottom line, a HD RPTV can very good without ISF calibration, but it is the only way to get the best possible picture and difference is very noticable.

Jamers -

I'd highly recommend the Panasonic over the Samsung. I originally bought the Samsung, returned it and now own the Panny. IMHO, the Panny has a better NTSC picture than the Samsung. It uses a Motion Adaptive 3-D Y/C filter where the Samsung uses a 3-line filter. This will not make a difference if you are using S-video or component, but regular NTSC looks much better on the Panny. Also, I felt that the stretch modes on the Panny are better than the Samsungs. The Panny has more video inputs than the Samsung and also allows both a fixed and variable audio output. The Samsung locks into FULL mode when fed a progressive signal. This will be an issue when watching 4:3 or non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs (unless you have a DVD player that can scale). The new Panny's DO NOT lock into FULL mode. A peeve I had with the Samsung was that it would always default to a certain (I can't remember which right now) stretch mode which wasn't the one (panorama) that I felt was the best. The Panny remote is much, much better than the Samsungs. Finally, the Panny is a brand new model whereas the Samsung is last years (it was released in the fall of 2001). Samsung's new line begins with HCM. By the way, did I mention that the Panny is $100 less?!? The Panny has more than exceeded my wife's and my expectations. DVDs are stellar and cable TV is far better than we expected (after living with the Samsung for a month).


DavidY -

As far as Pannys needing a lot of calibrating, that was then - this is now. That statement was very true on last year's PT**WX49 and 51 models but does not apply to this year's PT**WX42 and 52 models. They are differnet animals altogether and require minimal (AVIA or Video Essentials) tweaking out of the box. Panasonic made a load of improvements (including new lenses) in this year's models and it shows!

I'm interested in this too.

So the Panasonic is better for non-anamorphic DVDs?