panasonic veira

vyle

thescouselander wrote: »

Obviously the smart bit of the TV wont last as long as the picture display parts so an additional box is probably inevitable within the lifetime of the TV. What annoys me is that a TV becomes obsolete within months of buying it when one of the selling points is that the smart features are upgradable and in some cases features are promised that never arrive.

I actually cant see any point in buying a TV at all since the sound is usually diabolical on flat screens and with all the extra boxes I've got the tuner is redundant. Seems a monitor might be a better prospect.

Since viera connect was added back in last year's range of sets, they've had loads of apps added. Netflix and lovefilm weren't on there from launch, for instance.

The TVs don't go obsolete in a few months, though.... the range is only changed in about april each year....yes.... ONE new generation of products each year (I don't get why people think it's more...).

Yes, internet content soon outstrips what the TVs can handle, but that's why TVs are TVs and computers are computers.

I'd like to see a 42 inch monitor with the same amount of connections and the colour quality of my plasma.

thescouselander

vyle wrote: »

Since viera connect was added back in last year's range of sets, they've had loads of apps added. Netflix and lovefilm weren't on there from launch, for instance.

The TVs don't go obsolete in a few months, though.... the range is only changed in about april each year....yes.... ONE new generation of products each year (I don't get why people think it's more...).

Yes, internet content soon outstrips what the TVs can handle, but that's why TVs are TVs and computers are computers.

I'd like to see a 42 inch monitor with the same amount of connections and the colour quality of my plasma.

Yes, they added netflix to viera connect but it only works on 2012 models hence no older sets benefited form an upgrade.

As for monitors, the screens are often better than tv screens both in resolution and colour calibration.

vyle

thescouselander wrote: »

Yes, they added netflix to viera connect but it only works on 2012 models hence no older sets benefited form an upgrade.

As for monitors, the screens are often better than tv screens both in resolution and colour calibration.

Serious question (because i'd like to buy one if there is one):

Where would I buy a 42" plasma monitor with, say, 4 -6 HDMIs, and component in? Because if it beats my TV in quality, I'd gladly buy one, sell my tv, and presumably have some spending money left over. Like you said, the boxes I have render the tuner redundant, but I've always been put off monitors because most I've seen are LED with backlight bleed and limited ports.

SAHD_Jim

vyle wrote: »

Since viera connect was added back in last year's range of sets, they've had loads of apps added. Netflix and lovefilm weren't on there from launch, for instance.

The TVs don't go obsolete in a few months, though.... the range is only changed in about april each year....yes.... ONE new generation of products each year (I don't get why people think it's more...).

Yes, internet content soon outstrips what the TVs can handle, but that's why TVs are TVs and computers are computers.

I'd like to see a 42 inch monitor with the same amount of connections and the colour quality of my plasma.

If you buy a "new model" only months after launch then it could well be obsolete within a few months. My Panasonic Viera was the top of the range plasma in 2009 (model was 1 month into UK release when I bought it). VieraCast was promoted as "infinitely upgradeable" and yet by the end of that year, Panasonic announced that the upgrades coming to VieraCast in the 2010 models would not be available for my 6 month old TV.

You may find that acceptable, I do not.

almillar

For me, the TV is just a dumb panel. It's nice if it has halfway decent sound that you can use instead of turning the amp on (don't understand why people want crystal clear HD picture and rubbish tinny sound), and an HD tuner built in, but otherwise, I plug things in for the content.
Anybody want to volunteer a company that DOES keep TVs up to date beyond, even, 18 months?
thescouselander - if you can find me a nice cheap 60 inch monitor I'd be very interested!

thescouselander

I haven't really the time to go searching round but I can tell you I have bought some very good display panels (through work) for various bits of equipment I have worked on. I'm not sure how much they'd cost the consumer but I wouldn't necessarily say they would be cheap. They would however, be good quality and your money will be going into a decent screen rather than all of the other superfluous rubbish they pack in a modern TV.

NonGeographicalMan

This is really annoying as I advised one of my close relatives on which tv to buy back in January 2013 to replace a 20 year old Sony CRT set.

After much looking around we went for a Panasonic TX-P42GT50 because all the review magazines said oh the blacks with this Plasma are are to die for and made no mention that Panasonic have a totally disgusting policy of actually not bothering to put any relevant Apps apart from the BBC Iplayer on their Viera Connect Service but are instead basically just loading it up with complete rubbish like numerous film trailer services and cheap games that the makers of these apps pay Panasonic to stick on the Connect platform.

The Panasonic reps who work in John Lewis stores on Saturday and Sunday basically simply lied to potential buyers by making out that their high end Panasonic Plasma sets are by the far best sets you can get.

I now wish we had bought a Samsung 40ES8000 model because Samsung already have ITV Player and Demand 5 and I am sure will add 4OD in the end as when and stupid Channel 4 finally realise the point of catch up tv is to watch it on a tv and not only on a laptop.

It is a totally disgusting that since we installed the tv Panasonic have issued another 14 Apps for the Viera Connect platform but they are all a complete waste of time and not anything you might want (loads more games and pointless film trailer services). I know when they issue a new App because as long as you go to the Internet side of the tv and look at the description of any new App in the summary screen it resets the counter that shows any new Apps that have become available in each section of Viera Connect to 0.

They have just released something called Couchy Play as of late March, which they claimed in the Viera Connect description should get NASA TV. So given the latest interesting flight to the international space station I installed this App only to find it doesn't do Nasa Tv at all and instead only something called Monocle Tv ,which is full of boring rubbish about the current state of Chinese industrialisation.

Also although you can plug a hard drive in to the GT50 series to record or have a live buffer it is a complete waste of time as you have to have remembered to start recording to be able to rewind in live tv and the recording facility is a joke as all it lets you do is record anything in the EPG in the next 7 days just once. It doesn't let you set up recordings at the same time of day each day or week as per at least a 1970s video recorder timer and it certainly doesn't let you set up a Freeview+ or Freesat+ Series Links or do keyword matches against EPG descriptions. So the recording feature is a complete waste of time and you have to go off and buy as separate YouView box to cover all the features that Panasonic should have inlcuded in their Dumb Smart tvs but couldn't be bothered to due to lieing tio their customers and treating them with total contempt, especially the lieing Panasonic sales advisers who hang out at John Lewis's stores at the weekend!!!:eek::mad::mad::mad:

moneysaver

You should have spoken to JL when you discovered these issues & they would have swapped the TV for something else. I would give them a call & highlight the issues & see what they say.

I have the same TV but bought it mainly for the excellent picture quality. Not all TV's will have every app you want or need.



Moneysaver

NonGeographicalMan

moneysaver wrote: »

You should have spoken to JL when you discovered these issues & they would have swapped the TV for something else. I would give them a call & highlight the issues & see what they say.

In addition to the above issues John Lewis have information tags on the TX-P42GT50 in their shops showing it as only using 137W of power.

This is a complete lie. I have had it on an energy monitor that does Power Factor and its Power Factor is 0.89 It uses a displayed 270W to 320W during daylight hours so about 260W after allowing for Power Factor. At night it reads about 220W to 280W (the menu function which provides extra backlight boost in the day does not run at night) so about 225W after Power Factor allowance. So overall about 247W power use compared to John Lewis's completely wrong stated 137W.

I have the same TV but bought it mainly for the excellent picture quality. Not all TV's will have every app you want or need.

So why didn't you just buy a non smart tv if you planned to use it with Windows Media Centre, YouView or whatever so that you actually had a Smart television (as opposed to a so called Panasonic Smart Tv that only can do BBC IPlayer, YouView and a load of Panasonic enforced video advertising whenever you go in the internet tv menus).

As to taking it back it belongs to one of my relatives and (a) they are less technically minded than me so less disappointed by the very poor Smart Tv and abysmal tv recording functionality and (b) are of the old school where they don't like to make a fuss.

May be the 2013 Panasonic smart tvs will be better or may be they just have four tuners so they can do one recording of a program from the EPG over the next seven days and they still can't so Freesat+ or Freecview+ recording support along with Series Link.

The features of these televisions seem to purely based on what Panasonic feel like throwing at the customer rather than based on any form of proper customer research as to what customers actually want or need.:eek::mad::mad::mad:

loracan1

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I now wish we had bought a Samsung 40ES8000 model because Samsung already have ITV Player and Demand 5 and I am sure will add 4OD in the end as when and stupid Channel 4 finally realise the point of catch up tv is to watch it on a tv and not only on a laptop.

They've done it. (got a 6500) Slightly more limiting than the online version but eminently more user friendly than the itv app. Have to say the picture isn't as good as a panasonic but has way more functionality.