Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

So far so good. Picture quality is amazing. Blu-ray movies look fantastic.[...].

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

The handling of this order was great. The unit was shipped quickly and the unit was brought in the house and opened to insure no damage. The setup was easy but heavy and the picture was
outstanding......highly recommend the unit.

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

I'm in the process of upgrading my surround system and this plasma panel is the cornerstone of that upgrade. I'm very impressed with the HD resolution, and of course pleased with Panasonic's high standards of quality.
Dealing with B&H was the icing on the cake.

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

We bought this plasma after doing a considerable amount of research through CNET, consumer reports and by seeing demos and reading blogs. It paid off - it is a top-notch TV and the top offering at this price point - the only TV which may beat this one is Pioneer Kuro 60" which is at least 2K more in price. If you buy this one, be sure to get its color calibration and set-up done by a professional - also plasmas look better in somewhat darker corners of the house and so put it in an enclosed place where the light is dim. We are regular customers at B&H - earlier purchases included a piano, and a high end camera. [...]

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

Solid picture at very competitive price with deep blacks and extremely life-like facial colors and stunning landscape colors. Use "THX" picture mode and adjust "picture level" to 70 (instead of 50) to get brighter picture with natural color. The "Vivid" or "game" video settings are at "max" setting and extremely bright - great for showroom stores but not for home use (power consumption is higher at these settings).

4 HDMI inputs, but only 1 composite (non hi-def) input in rear for VCR or karaoke. The 2nd composite is in front.

Easy to set up. Beautiful frame and stand.

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

Picture quality is excellent. Easy to set up. Visitors to my home can't believe the picture. Plasma technology allows incredible viewing angles. HD movies (Blueray) is awesome! Definitely recommend this TV! B&H has the best price around [...]

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

The quality of the picture is fantastic. Watching movies in High Def is just like at the theater.

Comments about Panasonic TH-58PZ800U VIERA Plasma 58" TV:

This TV was purchased for use in my living room (main room of the house). I use the included stand right now, but might mount it on the wall in the future if we feel like a change.

What immediately strikes everyone about this TV is that it's absolutely huge. I would guess that most people have 42" - 50" TVs as their "big screen," so this 58" really stands out. The main reason I got this TV was because it fit perfectly in the wall space where the TV was to go. It was important to make sure that the wall didn't dwarf the TV and reduce the appearance size. Granted, I'm lucky enough to have a wall that stretches 80" where the TV goes, so approximately 10" on either side of the TV makes for a properly-fit TV in the living room, without overwhelming everything else.

All the research pointed me to this Panasonic plasma because of how well it reproduces color, and how dark the black level is. While the best of the best is still a Pioneer Kuro (Elite), the price premium puts that panel out of reach for most people. The important thing was to get a top tier plasma (Pioneer, Panasonic, Samsung) and I'm glad I did.

People have complained about the brightness level of this panel in other comments around the web. People have been disappointed with how "dull" or "dim" the picture appears. In retail stores, often times the contrast and brightness of all flat panels are cranked up to the max in order to really POP out at potential customers. Plus, as all retail stores are very brightly lit, it's nearly essential for TVs to be set at their brightest in order to show off their picture capabilities. Real-life TV watching doesn't normally happen under a multitude of fluorescent lighting.

I would recommend using a "burn in" DVD, or even cycling "burn in" images on an SD card for at least the first 100 hours. Now, I'm not saying that you should have to do nothing but run the burn in images straight for 4 days without watching anything else, but the first 100 hours are critical and more susceptible to image retention. Watching TV without black bars (above or below) is fine, but playing video games (static images), watching sports (with score board being static on the corner of the screen), channels with continuous tickers (MSNBC, etc.), or even non-transparent TV logos (like TLC) should be avoided for the most part during the first 100 hours of TV viewing. Letting the TV chew on the burn in images when you're not watching TV should be easy enough, especially when utilizing the SD card slot. The phosphors in the plasma age differently depending on what's on the screen, so static images and white text on black backgrounds are likely to "ghost." Using burn in images (several images of solid shades of primary colors; white, blue, green, red) helps to evenly age all the phosphors on the screen and reduce the likelihood of future image retention.

A lot of rambling, but basically, this is a great TV. Had one stuck blue sub-pixel that went away, but 2 more showed up. While annoying, you can't see them from more than 2 feet away, and since no one watches the TV from that range, it's fine. I've only been able to notice it when looking at a solid blue image, never when anything else was on. Dust shows up pretty easily on the black set, but that's not too big of a problem.

Hope this helps people looking to buy!

PS - Don't get fooled into purchasing HDMI or any other kinds of cables that cost $50 or more. Really, $15 should be the LIMIT for any single cable used to connect to the TV, including HDMI. There is absolutely no reason, ever, to purchase monst. cables.