HDTV Reviews

Do your self a favor and don't waste your money on this poor excuse for a plasma screen. The pixilation is incredibly obvious and there are much better screens out there for a lot less money. Sony, Samsung or even Gateway would be a better choice. Compared to the set I have, a $200 CRT would be a better choice. This is a $4500 boat anchor.

On top of everything else, JVC's customer service (which borders on being non-existent) is terribly rude and not helpful at all. They are unprofessional in the extreme.

This plasma has great specs on paper, but actually looks terrible. The color banding and pixelation is horrible in all resolutions and formats. I tried this tv with every connection it had from multiple dvd players and a pc. The problems were obvious regardless of the source.

I sent it in for repair only to hear back from JVC that it is performing within specifications, which is pretty sad considering I have a 25 year old CRT that looks better.

Avoid this plasma. The specs and price may look good, but the plasma itself is horrible quality.

Poor analog picture quality regardless of source (including component input). Severe solarization from bright or reflective picture content. Spent 5 months trying to have it repaired and now it's worse! HDTV 1080i w/HDCP only works with the Samsung Direct TV Receiver. HDTV/HDCP/DVI compatability a BIG problem! Actual HDTV via DVI input looks good when I finally got it to work! These issues might be the reason that the price for this model have dropped over $1500 in the past 6 months! DON'T BUY JVC! Much better choices out there!

Simply put, Exactly as the other say, zero support, complete lie in specification. even in this page it say once 650 brightness level, then you click to see complete specs and it say 750.
You figure it out...

If this is soo Bad then WHy is this screen one of the best selling screen in Amazon?

After reading the two negative reviews I felt that I had to respond in defense of the 42 inch Zenith Plasma Display. I have had mine almost a year and I am very pleased with it. Our decision to purchase a Plasma display was to remove the huge bulky tube TV (35" Toshiba Cinema Series) from the living room although we were satisfied with the picture quality and features. I chose the Zenith after viewing the competition in various stores and settled on it for the price vs. performance and features. Mine is set up with Directv, VHS, and DVD inputs and output the audio to a Denon sound system. I have not had a single problem with it so I can't comment about the service issue. The picture quality is very good for the specifications but depends on the input signal. Low bandwidth input will show some pixelization in the dark areas but a digital signal or even better DVD, is crisp and vibrant. While not true HDTV, it is EDTV but we didnt have HD available at the time. The glass has an anti reflective coating and you can view the picture from almost sideways as opposed to straight on. In summary I find the P42W22 to be a stylish, well performing plasma display at a very modest price. We enjoy it thouroughly just be sure to use the best quality signal source for the best display.

...been in the shop many times, total of 6 months, and have had techs come out over 20 times. Replace tubes and 2 other parts of different occasions. Panasonic wouldn't replace the TV and now it is out of warranty and is still broken. Panasonic has said sorry but you are out of luck. Called them probably 40 times over past year and a half, but of course they only have record of a couple. If you buy it, definately get the extended warranty. Didn't work since the first week I had it. Beaware of what you a getting in to...

I've owned the set for about 6 months (its now May 31st), and while I like the picture very much, I've had major problems with it. The convergence function never worked right and needed constant adjustments and there were times the picture would just drop out and pop back on. The thing to be aware of is that there arent too many warranty centers that know how to fix these, so mine ended up back at the factory after a few weeks at a local warranty place. Its now been two months and I still dont have the set back. The factory has given up trying to fix it and and have promised me a new one, only they cant get one for another month, so if I do get it as promised it will have been a 3 month repair with about 40 phone calls....... If you really want this set purchase it from a local store and buy their extended warranty so that if this happens you might get a replacement from the retail store much more quickly. This has been completely ridiculous. The technician told me that they have LOTS of problems with this particular model. You have been warned. Update on this review, I received a call from Panasonic this morning telling me they have given up trying to get me a new set and are going give me a refund for the purchase price plus tax. Its now August 8th and the I've now been told I will finally get my refunded purchase check by September 4th. Only buy this set if you want to be treated badly...

Final Update on 8-15-01, I was happily surprised to have a check from panasonic in the mail today for the correct amount plus tax. I decided to purchase a pioneer 610hd instead, and I am already much happier than I ever was with the panasonic. This did take a while, but at least panasonic did the right thing in the end when they couldnt find me a new set to ship.

I've owned this TV for almost two years and it has continually wowed me. Fed with DVDs, Directv, and HDTV it looks very, very good. In fact, it is one of the few models to display 720P without any conversion. This is excellent when watching any of the ABC shows in HDTV. Overall I am very happy with this set. It required a little bit of tweaking and there were two problems that were fixed under warranty but now it is stunning. I highly recommend this television.

I helped install one for a friend and was amazed at just how mediocre its reception was. Personally, I was never a fan of Terk stuff... back to when they had those space-age looking amplified indoor FM antennas - they didn't work well either. TV antennas are not rocket science. Look at name brands with long histories that include GAIN specs. One such name is Channel Master. Remember that name? I bet you had both VHF and UHF types on your roof before you got cable/sat service. Anyway, HDTV antennas are MERELY UHF antennas. Nothing more. The Channel Master 4228 is a SOLID performer and sells for about $50. Oh - keep it OUT of your attic! Esspecially if your house is aluminum OR vinyl sided (vinyl sided homes usually have the foil backed styrofoam insulation underneath) plus all those nails holding the shingles in place don't help either.

Summary:

I live in the Washington DC area, within about 15 miles of several transmitting towers. According to antennaweb.org (you should visit this site if you are planning to buy a TV antenna), the TERK TV36 should have been more than adequate. It was not. I substituted a much better quality Winegard 7082 antenna (about the same price) and am getting all the reception I had hoped for.

Details:

I installed the TERK TV36 on a 15 foot mast on the roof of my two-story home. I was able to receive VHF analog signals pretty well, some UHF analog signals relatively poorly, and no UHF digital signals at all. I added a Winegard AP 4700 pre-amplifier, and was able to pull in two digital channels (NBC and FOX), but nothing more (there are over a dozen UHF digital channels I should be able to receive where I live).

After talking with a professional installer, I chose to try a Winegard 7082 antenna instead (about the same price as the TERK TV36, perhaps a bit cheaper). The first thing I noticed was the higher quality of the antenna construction. The next obvious thing was the greater number of elements, and finally, the built in balum (much better quality than the TERK Transformer). I installed the antenna exactly as I had the TERK TV36, and am getting all the digital signals I had hoped for.

I suspect it's no accident TERK doesn't post their reception specifications like Winegard and Channel Master do.

Bottomline, the TERK TV36 was a great disappointment; for the same price you can do much better (check into either the winegard or channel master antennas).

The Panasonic Tau has the potential to be an excellent television, however I have had some unaddressed techinical problems with it. When there are darker images and flesh tones a "streaking" is observed to make it look like wavey when the faces or other images move slowly. However, the Picture quality in bright conditions is excellent. My daughter watches the movie "A bug's life" and it is amazing on this set. However, skip movies like "The hunt for Red October" unless you like to watch your characters streak.

I'm shopping for a simple monitor. That's all. Nothing more. Just something that can simply show a picture, an image, a movie. Beware, this model can be connected to a PC or a DVD player but with only one connector. You'll need an adaptor to plug a DVD player through the PC input (RGB or D-Sub 15 pins). Good thinking RCA. What if I need to connect a DVD AND A PC ???
Better think twice before getting this one.

After buying this "HD-ready" set in September of 2000, I used it as a regular large-screen TV for about 18 months until I bought an RCA HDTV tuner for OTA and DirecTV signals. I became acutely aware of bad convergence with the VGA input from the RCA tuner box. I had everything looked over by an authorized service center, and they discovered that a board was probably bad in the set. After months of trying to get this board from RCA (and they are really not even sure if it will fix the problem), I have called RCA/Thompson customer service repeatedly since May of 2002. They will not respond to our questions on reimbursing us for a part that could not be detected as being bad during the 1 year warranty period, much less as to when the part might be available. The authorized service center informed me that he would recommend against buying an RCA product worth more than several hundred dollars due to the frequency with which quality problems occur, and the prolonged waiting required to get parts. I have since bought a new Panasonic LCD TV with much better features and quality for just a few hundred dollars more than I wasted on this RCA MM52100. Although this set may have features that purport to show DVD and HD signals well, I was unable to partake of those features. Buyer beware!

I bought this television and took it back a week later. There was a bow in the lower third of the screen where one would expect straight horizontal lines. Additionally, when the screen was supposed to be fading to black, 3-4 inch wide dark black stripes appeard on the screen with a charcoal black color in between. In other words, the blacks are not consistent. I thought this was the best buy given the number of component inputs, HD ready, flat screen, etc.. and I got burned. Atleast I got my money back. Now I don't know what to buy. Thinking about the Hitachi but there seem to be people not happy with thise as well. Sony is the answer bu tnot sure I want to spend the extra buckx. I may just wait until later this fall (2002) to see what else becomes avail and buy a 27 inch for $400 until then at which time I can upgade the 13" in the br with the 27.

We bought a Samsung TXN3271HF 32" HDTV last August. We noticed about a month later that when watching TV in the dark the picture is "striped". That is parts of the screen are one darkness and part are another. We have had a very difficult time getting service help from Samsung. Calls to their service center go unreturned. When we finally got a referral to a competent local service company, the head tech told us that Samsung admits the design of the TV is flawed and that this problem is COMMON AND CANNOT BE FIXED! Do not buy this television! I have called Samsung service more than 12 times and never recieved a satisfactory answer to this problem.

Again, as post indicated above, standard cable is fuzzy and looks like there is some sort of compression going on. Not a clear picture like the other televisions. did extensive troubleshooting, Samsung admits fault and now has a new model, replacing this one..boy i wonder why! Those reading this, get the txn-3275hf which fixes this.

I think other reviewers must work for Samsung's competition. Recently received mine and the picture quality is excellant. Yes, there are some extras missing I would like to have like PIP but after all, look at the price. Once again those other reviewers listed I suspect may be working in concert

When you spend 5 figures you expect good quality and good support. Oops, no, not from Zenith, which was bought out by LG of south korea a few years ago. The picture is bright, which is good, but there's distortion along the edges, and color reproduction is poor even after extensive adjustments using two leading adjustment software programs. Many people who watched mine commented on how "fuzzy" the picture looked. It's stylish, but falls flat in picture quality. I highly recommend against this poor product from a company with a poor reputation for poor customer support. Check out Cnet's rankings; get a Fujitsu or Panasonic or Sampo/Gateway if you are short on cash.

The picture on the 50" plasma is good, the company support is awful. I purchased the set and it had a white powder between the screens. I have made numerous phone calls and have gotten no response from either the seller or Zenith. I purchased a Zenith dvd/vcr combo player at the same time and the dvd quit working 60 days after purchase.

The Plasma runs very hot, the color and brightness are both good. If I were to buy today I would go with the LCD tv's and would not even consider a Zenith product.