Panasonic Viera TX-P46G20 46in plasma TV

Bursting at the seams with cutting-edge tech including dual HD tuners, both Freeview and Freesat, the Full HD TX-P46G20 is Panasonic’s highest-spec'd, non-3D, plasma screen. Functions such as 600Hz Sub-field Drive Intelligent Frame Creation Pro, Infinite Black contrast and a THX viewing mode supposedly combine to deliver knock- …

[Elmer Phud]

So nearly there but . . .

"and when you loose the filmic look you loose the magic."

"Cry 'Havoc!' and let lose the dogs' of war' ?

[Adam Williamson 1]

Indeed, and...

...that's followed by:

"This affect applied to older films especially can be most disconcerting."

Fired the last proofreader and spending the savings down the pub, El Reg?

[Trollslayer]

Very good review

I read technical reviews on AV Forums and this user oriented review compliments those very well and still contains a lot of useful information.

All in all, a very nice TV.

[Anonymous Coward]

Was?

>and four of the other six services are in German

dann Deutsch lernen du verdammter Englisch Krämer

[Tim Spence]

Sky vs Freesat

It's interesting that the comparisons between BBC HD on Sky HD and Freesat indicate that Sky HD has a better picture quality... given that Freesat is using the exact same signal as Sky.

[cre@mstick360]

Love Pansonic Viera's...

Currently own a Panasonic TX-L32G10 32in which sits in the bedroom and I'm very pleased with it.

Having owned both Phillips and Sony LCD's in the past, Panasonic would be my recommended choice for those of you looking to buy.

This TX-P46G20 46in Plasma looks good and would certainly be on my shopping list.

[Anton Ivanov]

No DVI

No DVI. Bummer...

So what this test is missing is if it can fully compensate for any overscan/shift/etc when using a DVI-HDMI converter from a PC or media center. So far half of the HD TVs I have tried cannot handle this properly and it is a major bummer.

[Arctic fox]

Could try investing in.....

......a screen card with native HDMI? They do not cost the earth now. I did, no problems thereafter whatsoever.

[fattybacon]

DVI - why?

I don't think you'll find many televisions with DVI. Monitors.. yes, but not tellies.

You can get DVI-HDMI cables from anywhere these days, even Asda, believe it or not. You'll have to supply the audio some other way though.. see why DVI isn't a go-er on a telly :)

[tin 2]

Adverts

Despite there being a shot of it - no mention of and subsequent markdown for the advertising in the freeview EPG (I'm guessing the freesat EPG lacks them). I seethe with fury every time I press the guide button that Panasonic deemed my purchase suitable for displaying their unsolicited, flashing shitty adverts at me and I have no way to opt out. Free sites on the Internet - fair enough, £1300 telly - taking the piss. Notably advertising in the EPG is otherwise the sole domain of cheapo freeview boxes that have had dubious firmware updates quite some time after purchase.

Panasonic's newer advert-laden EPG is also slower, crashier and, ridiculously since 1080p became the norm, has less actual EPG space in it than what they used to have, which looks exactly the same, aside from the ads and Radio Times logo.

I love(d) Panasonic sets - especially as most things content still being blocky horrid compressed mpeg-artifacty SD they have the best processing to make as much of that disappear as possible. I just want to punch the face of whichever clown in Panasonic decided they could use my telly as their own personal billboard every time I forget and press the guide button to check what's on.

Panasonic - if you want to advertise on TV - pay ITV or Sky some money like everyone else has to.

[bluest.one]

Woah, Say Whut?

They have ads in the EPG?

I was seriously ONLY looking at a Panasonic HD Freesat/Freeview set as my option for getting a new TV, but if you're saying I'd have to put up with spamevery time I want to check out what's on next, then furgeddaboudit.

What a crazy way to ruin your prestige piece of home entertainment tech.

[Anonymous Coward]

Review

If this set does this, why was the review missing this important detail ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the router can cut the access to Ads if internet is used

If Internet is used to update the Ads the router can cut the access to that IP/URL and solve the annoying stuff ;)

[zubinho]

Controversial

"In some respects you get too many adjustment options. Not only is there the usual selection of viewing modes (Dynamic, Normal, Cinema, Game), there are pre-set THX (for THX-certified movies), photo and Professional modes, which allow advanced setting adjustments including individual gamma levels. Frankly, what is the point?"

Mention this down on AVForums and they would eat you alive. A big draw back with the 09 models was that fact that our american brothers were able to 'professionally' calibrate the screen while this feature was omitted for the UK models.

Frankyly, I have never tried to calibrate a screen but apparently the results are good. I'll definately give it a try when the 50V20 eventually makes it here. Please Reg, hurry up with the review!

[DPWDC]

Clarification

"The biggest weaknesses are a shortfall in detail in darker areas and black levels, whilst superior to LCD are still not as good as some LED-lit screens. "

Probably being dense but I can't figure out how to take that. Is it saying this plasma is better than LCDs backlit with a flourescent tube, but not as good as an LCD backlit with LEDs? It is the "LCD are still" that is throwing me... Not being a nazi - I'm just confused.

[romega]

Does anyone know...

Does anyone know if the USB ports are active? What formats of files can be read? jpeg, mpeg, div-x mkv etc? I can't seem to find it on Panasonic's blurb...

[Si 1]

Gaming?

What's the 600Hz motion interpolation like on games? It would be interesting to know if it's any good at smoothing out games with a juddery frame rate (which is probably most of the games from this generation).

[Michael Ross]

Guide+

Our angry friend tin2 above might like to know that the adverts alongside the programme listings are what fund the provision of the EPG. The system is operated by a company called Rovi who licence the Guide+ system. I believe it comes from the same company who invented Videoplus+ for setting analogue video-recorders.

[Frank Bough]

Just once

I'd like to see a TV reviewed by someone who knows something about how video actually works.

[Elsie]

Adverts?

I've got the previous incarnation of this TV, the TX-P46G15B and I've got it connected to Freeview HD via the sattelite dish and I've not seen any ads on the EPG. Maybe it's something new to this TV? Very happy with my TV TBH and the benefits of this newer version (i.e. with the USB ports) are outweighed by the extra cost so I'm still happy with my purchase!

Paris because she looks good in night vision mode.

[fattybacon]

Adverts only on Freeview

So, one advantage of Freesat is you don't get the dirty great adverts in the EPG that you do get with Freeview.

Oh.. and another, the G20 now supports BBC iPlayer via Freesat - tried it last night to watch last week's Doctor Who in the Higher Quality setting and it pretty darned good.