Purchased a 42" Panasonic Plasma PX77 model with the Anti Glare. Should be coming in sometime tomorrow. So now what...I ordered an HDMI cable, optical cable and component cables from Monoprice at very good prices. Here are my components

TV
HD Cable Box
Dvd Player (5 yr old)
Receiver (5 yr old)
360
PS2
VCR

Since this TV has more inputs I might hook up the dreamcast and N64 maybe. I am going to buy a new dvd player in the next 2 weeks or so. Don't think I will go with HD-DVD or Blu-ray but simply a nice upconverting dvd player for now. I printed off some break in instructions and setting options online and will play around with these.

So anything else? Any experience with this particular model.

Do those break-in instructions also include an .iso to burn to DVD?

Easiest way to get to that magical 100 hours without much fuss.

it will be in torch mode right out of the box. change all of your settings to zero for about 100 hours of break in.

there is a file you can download on avs that is the break-in disk. just leave your tv on with that disk for 100 hours straight. then use avia or something similar to set it up.

the thread on avs has different settings that people use. i would start with one of those settings and then make changes according to your room conditions.

dont believe the upconverting hype. either your player can upconvert or your tv can and the panasonic has an excellent upconverter built right in. if you NEED a new player, then sure, get an upconverting one. if you dont and you just have a good progressive scan, see how the tv does with upconverting before you spend the money on a new player.

All good suggestions. I d/l the Break in dvd so I will be using it. My current dvd player is a Sony from 2001 and has treated me very well. It is not progressive scan. I was thinking I could move that to the bedroom with my 27" Sony Wega going in there as well. Gives me an excuse to buy a new player

What about watching Standard, non HD television. I heard the quality was horrible. My parents bought a new 40" Samsung LCD and I thought the quality was pretty bad. We will still be watching a lot of regular channels.

Also, I play a lot of 360, 2-3 hrs a day sometime and more on the weekends. I don't plan on playing any during the break in period, but just wondering if this could hurt the TV.

It is. I have the same TV.

It's not that bad from ~6 feet away. Just don't look at it up close.

I love this tv.

Turn down the settings at the start and take it easy on the games for a while. I burned the break-in dvd and never even used it. Just watched tv from day one.

Don't use it at all during the first 100 hours.

Panasonics claim to have "pixel shift" to help avoid image retention, so after the 100 hour break-in I don't expect there should be any issues.

Damn, that sucks.

Blame the source not the tv. Yes you can see pixels and other problem with the image. Hopefully you will have many other sources of programming to watch.

Oh, I'm not blaming the TV, I'm just agreeing that SD programming doesn't look good on it - but then it doesn't look good on any HD set.

I will be sitting around 8-10 feet away. I am hoping the SD is at least somewhat watchable.

EDIT: Dave, you play any games at all on the tv?

It'll be very watchable. I'm about 6-7 feet away and I'm OK with it. It's nowhere near as sharp as it was on my old CRT, but anything HD or upconverted SD-DVDs look amazing.

Yeah. I don't play marathon sessions, but I have a Wii and have had no problems. Thinking about adding a PS3 too.

There are lots of gamers on these (and other) forums that play on Panasonic Plasmas with no problems.

i am not a gamer necessarily but i have had some marathon sessions on my ps3 and wii with absolutely no problems.


i accidentally paused a tivo show one night and went to bed leaving the image up on screen for a total of 13 hours. there was some image retention but it was totally gone in a couple of hours.

That's great to hear. I have took in quite a bit of information over at AVS and it was very overwhelming. Just hope the TV dosen't have any problems from the warehouse. I will post some pics once everything is set up and running.

Just mentioning that SD looks awesome on a Sharp Aquos 46" 1080p, so it's not true that all SD looks horrible on an HDTV...

Set up the stand last night, took about 2 hours doing it solo with some beer drinking during the process. Pretty sweet looking stand. TV will be coming tonight, not sure when I will be getting the HD hooked up.

For HD-DVD players, do regular dvds look better on those than your typical dvd player.

Another question. I have heard problems with 5.1 audio with HD-TV's. My receiver is not HDMI and currently I have my dvd player hooked up with component to the tv and optical going to the receiver.

Will I be able to hook up my dvd player the same way and still receive 5.1? And what about if I hook up another optical from the HD Digital Box to the receiver? Will I get 5.1?

AVS is very overwhelming with their info and basically you will never buy any TV listening to them... The SD on broadcasts is bad, but I find that its better on my new plasma then it was on my old RPTV so thats a relief. Maybe Im just used to watching it now, and I dont watch that much that isnt in HD.

Just got it home. Man the box is a big bastard. Still going through the process of unhooking the old TV and all of my components. Going to pick up the HD-PVR box tomorrow morning.

Going to be hard going with the break-in period but it will be worth it.

All set up now...well, I have the DVD player hooked up thru component. Threw on Requiem For A Dream and the picture looked good but not great. Of course, I have all of the settings turned on zero and haven't tweaked anything else. Looking forward to the HD box tomorrow.

A big dissapointment for me is that the base that the TV comes with doesn't swivel at all. It's tough to get behind there and hook up components, much easier if you could swing it around.

Everything is set up now. Got my HD up and running. Certain HD channels look awesome, others look average. Not sure why. Some HD channels have the bars on top or the side. Why is this, if this is HD shouldn't the channel be tru widescreen and crisp and clear.

Also, right now if I hit the recall button, it says I am at 720P. How do I switch to 1080i...which is better?

The reason some HD channels have bars on the side is they aren't in HD. Not every channels shows HD content 24/7.

If HD channels have black bars at the top and bottom, then they're most likely playing a 2.40:1 widescreen movie. Not everything played on an HD channel is actually in HD, especially on the networks (which would be your bars on the side). And not all HD channels are made the same: NBC typically looks poor in comparison.

From Cnet:
In other words, regardless of the incoming signal, the TV is going to convert the picture to it's native resolution.