Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I spent the last couple of years researching televisions looking for the replacement for my Toshiba 50" widescreen rear projection set. It was starting to have shudder problems on certain inputs and I was not going to go to the trouble of replacing parts on this older set.
Since I am a film junkie I have always leaned toward plasma sets due to their more accurate blacks and generally better handling of movement on screen. The drawbacks have been the glare issue, potential burn-in and power consumption versus LCD.
When I saw that Panasonic had addressed the burn-in and power consumption issues with their current series of plasma sets, I decided to look closer at the S1 series which is more attractively priced than their higher level TVs but with most of the same features.
My Toshiba died the day before Father's Day (lucky me) and I bought the Panasonic TC-P54S1 on Father's Day - an unexpected but appreciated gift to myself.
First impressions:
- Outstanding build quality. I sold electronics for about 5 years and Panasonic/Technics products were always well-built and very reliable. This set appears to continue that legacy. Panasonic is a large industrial manufacturer and builds their consumer products in the same way - well designed and well thought out with high quality components.
- Nice non-glare screen when off. I have two windows behind my viewing area that let light right onto the screen during the daytime. I can watch shows and movies without closing the curtains but their is a little noticeable glare. The set shows this less than my old projection set and with the curtains pulled it's no issue.
- Cable viewing with component cables - generally good on non-HD channels and very good on HD channels with Charter cable. Cable viewing with HDMI (just got the new box yesterday) - noticeably improved over component input. HD channels are very clean - better than DVD on my old set. Go for HDMI to get the full benefit of this set.
- Nintendo Wii with analog cables - actually worse than the old set. With a new component cable the Wii image becomes much more solid and enjoyable. It's not the best videogame for resolution anyway, but a component cable and this TV bring out the best in the system.
- Blu-ray DVD via HDMI - I bought the Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray player along with the TV. With this player (or, I imagine, any other blu-ray player) this set shines. I should re-phrase - this set is spectacular. I have seen Blu-ray demos in Best Buy and other stores, but in your own home, with direct connections and normal lighting, it is absolutely the best picture I have ever seen on a television. I ran Kill Bill 1 Blu-ray as my first movie and was floored. The quality is very film-like - clean, clear, vibrant, without a hint of grain or motion blur. I also watched Dirty Harry Blu-ray and GoodFellas Blu-ray and both were the best video images of these two movies I have ever seen.
- Regular DVD - there have been some reviews of this television on the web that stated it has trouble with upconversion. I could not tell this from my experience. Older DVDs were noticeably better looking than they were on my old set with a non-Blu-ray player. Some are so good that I won't have to re-purchase as Blu-ray which is nice, since I have a sizeable investment in older DVDs.
The remote is as complete as it needs to be and easy to use. It is not backlit, but this is not an issue as I use a universal remote and put the regular remotes away as soon as I program them into the universal one.
I cannot speak to the picture settings yet as I have not fiddled with the manual settings or the presets. I will say that the pictures seems slightly dark on some DVDs and this makes sense as the factory settings are set up to reduce power consumption compared to older plasmas. I will definitely run a couple of set up discs through the set and alter the brightness and contrast a bit.
When I have really tuned the set, I will update this review. Suffice it to say that out of the box with no altered settings this set is outstanding. And the discounted price at several retailers is around $1700 so that makes it all the more attractive.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Panasonic VIERA S1 Series TC-P54S1 54-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV, Black
54" Plasma, 1080p, NEO PDP Panel which is brighter, Full-time 1080p TV lines of moving picture resolution, 3 HDMI, Native contrast ratio 40,000:1, Dynamic contrast infinite black 2,000,000:1, Game Mode, Anti Reflective Filter, 600 Hz Subfield Drive
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