Panasonic TX-P42U30B (TXP42U30B) 42 Inch 600Hz Full HD 1080p Plasma TV Freeview-HD Tuner,Viera Link,Game Mode,1080P,SD Card Slot

The also have a contrast level of 2 million : 1.  2 million : 1 contrast is extremely high. You are going to get really good black levels on the TV, so a good natural colour palette, great depth of field in the image and also good detail in dark scenes on there as well. So, really good contrast, really fast scanning ratio on there as well.

They have also got HD tuners, so you can get BBC, ITV and Channel Four in high definition – in fact we have got Channel Four HD-rated in HD showing here right now. So, as long as they are broadcasting in high definition in your region, you have got a free HD service – as I said, it has got a free HD tuner built in; just put your aerial in there and you have got BBC, ITV and Channel Four available in high definition.

So, some really good specification on there for the picture.

You have also got a decent sound system on this TV. You are looking at 2 x 10 watts but one of the main factors on this set is that the speakers are actually facing you – they are not firing down into the floor; the sound is being projected towards you so you get a really good, clear sound from the TV.

You have also got things like V-Audio Surround built into the set, which we will have a look at in just a few moments in the menu system. What we will do now, we will spin the TV around – we will just have a look at some of the actual sockets on the rear of the TV before we go into some of the menu systems.

So, on the back of the TV you have got your aerial, your coaxial socket here – as I said, it has got a Freeview HD tuner. You have got an Ethernet port on there so if there are any firmware updates you can update your TV as you go along as well.  You have got Audio Out, so if you want to feed the sound out of this TV, you can do so, into an external amplifier. You have then got Component In and Composite Video In, which are the red/green/blue and the yellow, red and white. Games consoles such as Wii games consoles can use Composite or Component, as can the Xbox – but you have got both on there as well. 

You have then got Digital Audio Out, so you have got an optical socket to take the sound digitally out of the TV, as well as analogue – so both sockets there.  You have got two HDMI inputs on the rear. Coming down from there you have got one Scart on the TV. 

To the side of the TV you have got your manual control, to work the TV manually. You have got a common interface slot if you want any pay per view channels on there as well you can buy additional cam slots for that. You have then got an SD card reader, just coming down from there, so if you have got a digital still camera, pop the card in the side of the TV and you can have your photographs on the TV itself; headphone socket, and then physically a manual On/Off switch on there as well.

Just one other thing to mention on the rear of the TV are your wall fixing spaces. You are looking at 400 mm by 300 mm. it is the same on the 50 inch as well, so your wall fixing is the same on both models.

So, let’s take a quick look at the TV set itself. First of all, it is finished off in a high-glass piano black finish, including the actual base itself. The remote control you get with the TV – you have got a Menu button which is just here, and you have got Up, Down, Right and Left on the keypad, and OK in the centre.

If we press the Menu button – we have got a nice little menu system on here – Picture, Sound and Setup. The Picture menu is highlighted in yellow. So we press OK, it will put us into various picture settings that we can adjust. First of all, it is saying Normal on there – that is a preset by the manufacturer for contrast, brightness, colour and sharpness. If we adjust that you will see the picture changing from Normal to Dynamic, and these levels are changing accordingly. These are preset modes from the manufacturer for colour, contrast, brightness and sharpness.

You can go into any one of these levels – if we drop it down from there, we come into the Contrast, then just press to the right or the left and you can raise or lower that contrast level accordingly, and you just jog down the one you want to adjust and then move to the right or the left.

You have also got Panasonic’s CATS system built into this TV which is an automated adjustment where, if we come down here – it is switched off at the moment – there is a little photocell at the base of the TV here which, if you switch it on, it is then constantly measuring the ambient light of the room and will always keep your picture at optimum picture performance for you. If we switch that on and off, you may see a difference there in the actual picture itself. So, as I said, you have got Panasonic’s CATS system on this particular model of TV.

You have also got things like noise reduction systems which you should always leave off, unless you are in a really poor reception area on an analogue transmission where you are getting some grain in the image. If you switch the Noise Reduction System on, it will diffuse the grain in that image for you. But it does tend to diffuse the whole picture as well, so in general, if you are getting good picture quality, generally leave the noise reduction switched off.

So, that is a little bit of a rundown for you on the actual menu system. So you can get into things like Resolution Enhancer on this set as well – if you are just watching not an HD channel but sort of standard BBC / ITV, or any channel at all, in standard definition, the resolution enhancers you can have Off or switched onto Mid or Max. and what it will do is artificially sort of boost the resolution of that image for you, to try to give you an artificial HD image on a standard def picture as well.

You have then got things like Overscan On and Off – and you can probably see the picture change in the actual size there to crop the actual image for you, so you can get more actually on the screen of what you are watching there.

If we come out of that for a second – we were going through those menus before, at the top of the picture – just go back up to where it says Viewing Mode. You have got Normal, Dynamic, True Cinema, Cinema and back to Normal. If you go into – we are just on the TV tuner at the moment – if you press the AV button; if you have a games console wired into this, you will probably have it into one of the HDMI ports. If you go on the HDMI setting there, if you go back into the menu, you have then got the usual ones for Dynamic, Normal and Cinema but you have also got an additional one there which is Game. So if you have got a PS3 or an Xbox 360 or whatever it may be plugged into this particular TV, select Game Mode. It increases basically the speed, once the TV reacts, but it has also got a facility on here which is basically what it does is it moves the pixel so fast on any still image, so if you are gaming and you have got a static image on there for hours while you are gaming, it moves the pixel so fast that you can’t see it but it stops any screen burn and any image retention that you may get on the TV itself. So if you are using this TV for gaming, do select the Game Mode on the TV set itself to stop any image retention that you may get on some other TVs.

So, plenty of TV picture adjustments. If we come down to the Sound, yet again, sound menu, just jog down, press OK and we are into the Sound Menu. First of all, on top of the screen there you have got Speech or Music. In Speech or Music mode you have just got the two adjustments for bass or treble. If we go back into that you have also got one that says User. If you go into the User menu, you have then got access to a graphic equaliser. If we go into that menu, you have got adjustments for bass and treble at the top end here, but then you have also got all the mid-tone adjustments that you can alter as well – so a lot more variation over the tone of the sound as well.

As I said, the speakers on this TV, 2 x 10 watts but they are forward-facing so they are firing towards you as well so you get a nice, clear, distinctive sound from this particular model.

You have also got there, coming down from there, Surround Off where it is just basically standard stereo sound, or if you put it into V-Audio, you will tend to throw the sound out at a wider angle and around you as well. And depending how you have this TV situated in your home – whether it is wall-mounted or on a stand as we have it here – you need to set the distance to either over 30 cm or up to 30 cm, to make sure you get the correct sound from the TV set itself.

And that’s about it for the Picture and Sound Menus. The last one on there is Setup which puts you into things like your tuning menus. The good thing about this TV as well is it is nice and easy to set up once you receive it. Just put the aerial into the back of the TV, switch it on – it will tune itself in and set itself up. If you move regions you have then got DVD Tuning Menu which you can access and you will just go down to Auto Setup and the TV, yet again, will tune itself in automatically. Nice and easy to actually use.

So, we have got a new model here, available in 42 or 50 inch. Excellent picture and sound quality. As I said, a brief rundown – you are looking at full HD – 720p, 1080i or 1080p resolution, extremely fast movement control – as I said, 600Hz scanning, so you get no delay or drag in the image. High contrast level at 2 million : 1 contrast, and an HD tuner built into it as well so you can get BBC, ITV and Channel Four in high definition.

Both these models, the 42 and the 50 inch, are on demonstration in both our Bolton and Leeds stores. If you are watching this video clip from sort of YouTube or any other site that may be out there, click through, you will go through to our website which is www.soundandvision.co.uk, where you will find hundreds of video clips – not just on TVs but on amplifiers and speakers as well. Or if you would like more details, please give me a ring – my name is Chris – on 01204 861 861.

Thank you.