Deal or not?

LG 50PQ30
HHGREGG circular has this 50 inch model on sale next week for $699. That seems like a great price.

We may be looking for another TV for the bedroom but at that price I could swap the 50 for the living room and put our 42" Panasonic X1 in the bedroom.

Is the LG comparable to the Panasonic TC-P42X1? I really like this TV. Compared to the old Sony we replaced I am amazed.

Thanks in advance.

Nick

That's a good price, but I personally would cough up 80 extra bones for the Panny TC-P50X1

http://www.butterflyphoto.com/prodinfo.phtml?id=4185&ref=grabber

The X1s aren't the best Panasonic offers, but they're better than the LGs.

I do like HHGREGG, and I would rather do business with them rather than some anonymous e-tailer.

That's a good price, but I personally would cough up 80 extra bones for the Panny TC-P50X1

http://www.butterflyphoto.com/prodinfo.phtml?id=4185&ref=grabber

The X1s aren't the best Panasonic offers, but they're better than the LGs.

I do like HHGREGG, and I would rather do business with them, rather than come anonymous e-tailer.

That's what I was wondering. I will probably wait and see where the price goes near Thanksgiving. If the Panasonic 50X1 goes on sale for that price around here(right now $899), we'll probably jump on it.

Nick

I would avoid the LG plasmas based on what my friend went through with 3 of them over 2.5 years. His had Image Retention just from showing the TV menu for under 10 seconds, each had pixels that went bad, and 2 of them had issues with the HDMI HDCP handshake with many devices, and 1 of them couldn't display black areas without a lot of colored noise mixed in.

He sold it off for short money and bought a Panasonic plasma and couldn't be happier he says.

I will wait and see what the 50" Panasonics go to around the holidays.

Thanks for the invaluable advice.

Nick

nick9, keep an eye out at amazon.com for the TC-P50X1. I'm going to buy one when it gets down to $700. It got as low as ~ $735 recently with free shipping. It's back up to ~$767 right now.

nick9, keep an eye out at amazon.com for the TC-P50X1. I'm going to buy one when it gets down to $700. It got as low as ~ $735 recently with free shipping. It's back up to ~$767 right now.

I don't see how they can do it with free shipping. That is crazy considering what shipping must cost.
Thanks for the heads up.

Nick

I don't see how they can do it with free shipping. That is crazy considering what shipping must cost.
Thanks for the heads up.

Nick

They probably just deliver it and place it in your room but you're on your own as far as setting the TV up. I bought my Panny from Crutchfield, who also offer free shipping. I talked to the csr rep and she said that the free delivery only pertained to the tv being deliverd to the house but I was on my own if I wanted to hook it up in the basement. They offerd a "white glove service" where they would not only place it it any room that I wanted but they would hook it up as well. It cost an extra $99 but the peace of mind was worth it.

I would avoid the LG plasmas based on what my friend went through with 3 of them over 2.5 years. His had Image Retention just from showing the TV menu for under 10 seconds, each had pixels that went bad, and 2 of them had issues with the HDMI HDCP handshake with many devices, and 1 of them couldn't display black areas without a lot of colored noise mixed in.
Not good. Not good at all. Haven't there been rumors about LG getting out of the plasma business? If so, that leaves Panasonic and Samsung, correct?

It would make the choice easier, but it seems to me the future of the plasma business would be in doubt.

It would make the choice easier, but it seems to me the future of the plasma business would be in doubt.

The future is not really all that relevant. Right now plasma is pretty much tops. If they stop selling plasmas tomorrow, and you bought a plasma today, it still would deliver better picture quality than the other options on the market. Unless there is an alternative technology that will beat plasma in the important areas in the near future, buying plasma makes the most sense unless you're a PC user or plop your set in a sun room.

Not good. Not good at all. Haven't there been rumors about LG getting out of the plasma business? If so, that leaves Panasonic and Samsung, correct?

It would make the choice easier, but it seems to me the future of the plasma business would be in doubt.

LG has already said this was false and that they have no plans to stop making plasmas. See this response quoted below as well as to why that doesn't matter even if they did stop making them. ;)

The future is not really all that relevant. Right now plasma is pretty much tops. If they stop selling plasmas tomorrow, and you bought a plasma today, it still would deliver better picture quality than the other options on the market. Unless there is an alternative technology that will beat plasma in the important areas in the near future, buying plasma makes the most sense unless you're a PC user or plop your set in a sun room.

Well said. :thumbsup:

After the so-called burn-in period, wouldn't those channel logos or black lines, or news scrolls still cause burn-in, if the same channel was on for hours?

After the so-called burn-in period, wouldn't those channel logos or black lines, or news scrolls still cause burn-in, if the same channel was on for hours?

Most logos are translucent so they won't be bad, but if you do keep black bars on for many hours daily and hardly any full screen programming then over time the area where the black bars are will wear out slower than the active area, but most people run a mix of content and Panasonic plasmas allow you to use a JUST screen format so if you use that while on a SD channel and then change it to FULL for HD content the display will remember those settings when you change back & forth between SD & HD content so you will not have the black bars.

The key to all this is pretty simple and as long as you mix up the content displayed (as most people do anyway) and adjust your display properly then you should not have any problems. This is what I have found in the 1.5 years I have had my plasma and I have zero issues.

Hope this helps!

I would avoid the LG plasmas based on what my friend went through with 3 of them over 2.5 years. His had Image Retention just from showing the TV menu for under 10 seconds, each had pixels that went bad, and 2 of them had issues with the HDMI HDCP handshake with many devices, and 1 of them couldn't display black areas without a lot of colored noise mixed in.
http://www.tracker-analytics.com/track/01-00
He sold it off for short money and bought a Panasonic plasma and couldn't be happier he says.

Agreed. My friend is away and let me borrow his LG plasma. It's alright I guess but not like the Panasonics I've seen. :)

When I found out LG was really Goldstar, that was enough for me not to buy LG.

When I found out LG was really Goldstar, that was enough for me not to buy LG.

Smart girl. ;)

The future is not really all that relevant. Right now plasma is pretty much tops. If they stop selling plasmas tomorrow, and you bought a plasma today, it still would deliver better picture quality than the other options on the market. Unless there is an alternative technology that will beat plasma in the important areas in the near future, buying plasma makes the most sense unless you're a PC user or plop your set in a sun room.

But I'm NOT buying a plasma today. I'm not planning on replacing my main TV anytime soon. I just hope that there's a robust plasma market when I get caught up financially 2 or 3 years from now. So the future IS relevant, thank you very much.

Look, it sounds like you think I'm arguing against plasmas. Trust me, if I had the bucks there'd be a shiny new 54G10 in my old Bat Cave right now. I'm in a position to appreciate its strengths, and I can deal with its weaknesses.

When I found out LG was really Goldstar, that was enough for me not to buy LG.

Now that's using your noggin...

I came across this cool interactive buying engine at TweakTV. I think it is fed by Amazon. One cool feature is that you can select by calibration settings they already have, then buy the TV. So, free settings and a cheap TV. Worked for me. www.tweaktv.com/comparisonTool.php