walkerpkw's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PL4272N 42 in. HDTV Plasma TV
What started out as a definite purchase for a 42" LCD wound up being this Hewlett Packard PL4272 Plasma and I'm very happy with this purchase. 30 days have past and the return privilege has expired and I have enjoyed it every day. Having owned one of those huge 150 lb 32" CRT TVs and switching to this Plasma is a whole new experience in itself.
Why I chose the HP PL4272N
I planned this purchase for about a year getting myself up to speed on what all those phrases meant: Contrast Ratio, HDMI, 720p or 1080i, and finally I had a TV picked out and was ready to spend $2500. That's $1800 for the set and $700 for everything else including sales tax and extended warranty. I knew almost everything about LCD's & PLASMA TVs as I prepared myself in purchasing our first big screen TV for our main family room. The very knowledgeable sales person at Best Buy filled me in on the subtle differences between plasmas & lcd's. For the most part I had a Sony 42" LCD in mind but I picked out this Hewlett Packard PL4272n Plasma out of a lineup of 6 other 42" plasma & lcd TVs.
At first glance this HP stopped me dead in my tracks. It had the best picture and at 720p or 1024x768 resolution while the others where boasting 1080p and 1365x768 resolution. What I agreed with the sales person on is, and told him was "I'm watching DVD's and HD cable shows mostly". He replied "Plasma". Sure enough after looking back and forth between the 2 (LCD vs PLASMA) it will simplify your decision. Another thing I do when comparing is I don't look at the price tag until last! Why? Because sometimes that $900 set might look good enough next to the $1800 one, but in this case the picture quality surpassed the competition and was hundreds less. This HP PL4272n had undoubtably the best picture and was under $1100. With my 12% off rewards coupon and the they were out of stock, I got the one on the floor (out of box and 1 week old) for $880.
BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK:
The signal you're seeing at many stores displaying HD TVs is usually 1080i or 720p, but this model supports up to 1080p using the HDMI port and a 1080p input signal. Since 1080p "Full High-Definition" is the highest you're not going to get a broadcast signal in the near future so this HP PL4272N @ 720p is fine for now and years to come. Currently the best images being broadcast at the moment are only utilizing 720 vertical lines, this I have confirmed with several sales associates at 2 major retailers. Don't buy a HD TV and expect a high resolution or HD picture as I did about 4 years ago when I bought my first 24" LCD TV for my bedroom. Get ready to spend hundreds more on an upgraded DVD player, and for TV upgrade to a HD cable box, mines a $10 monthly rental from Comcast.
GETTING IT HOME & HOOKING UP ALL THE GOODIES:
We had this up and going in 15 minutes, and 15 minutes to assemble the new TV Stand (another $150.) We recall how well it performed on viewing a standard cable signal and then I switched over to a High Definition Cable channel and found a NASCAR race. Unbelievable clarity! If I added some burnt rubber smell and exhaust fumes it would seem like being there! When I purchased this TV I included some decent remote speakers, (Bose 201V's). As with any Television we looked at the speaker or sound output was inadequate. Remote speakers are something you will need or want to include in your next big TV purchase. For more $$$ and if you have the room it's going to be a home theater system.
PUSHING THE BUTTONS ON THE INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL:
Easy, only took a little time to get use to and learn all the features and settings. The default settings are fine, you can also fine tune them to your liking. Only problem I've had was when we lost the remote and couldn't find the buttons on the TV to turn it off. It's very thin and will easily fall between the cushions. The remote must be somewhat pointed directly at the set to work and will work from 25 ft away (directly pointed at TV). With this remote having the same features as other TV remotes I've seen and owned, this one has a few I haven't used before:
(1) INFO, small window pops up and tells you the signal your receiving, (480i) watching standard cable to (1080i) switching to a HD cable channel.
It gets to other devices quickly, if your going from a DVD to CABLE to Nintendo Wii or whatever you have hooked up to this set. All I hit is the (source) button and scroll to what the device is hooked up to and hit the OK button. As I said it's got all the features similar to my other remotes so it won't take long to figure this one out. It does have a "SIMPLE MENU or FULL MENU" choice for you to decide just how many choices it gives you for settings. The "Full Menu" selection gives you all the options available for fine tuning both picture and sound where the Simple Menu" has less options. I was hoping the password would lock the remote but it does not, that would prevent little hands or pets from accidental changes. The password lock only accesses the parental settings, movie ratings ect..
WHAT WE HAVE HOOKED UP NOW & WHICH *(CONNECTION):
(1) A regular $100 DVD player *(AV1)which plays good enough so I don't have to spend another $300 to $600 HD-DVD or a blue-ray disk player.
(2) A digital HD cable box *(component1) , the HD channels are so realistic!
(3) Nintendo Wii *(component2), unbelievable family fun. Wife says "I've got a bowling alley in my living room"
(4) Temporarily hooked up an X-Box 360 *(component2), my 17 year old son took it upon himself to do this. Halo 3 was the game tried and visually the graphics were stunning! This was the best picture I've ever seen yet on this TV. In my opinion this would be a very good gaming monitor.
(5) Surround sound stereo receiver. This to me me is a must have item. This is hooked up from the audio out on the TV with RCA cables to the audio in on the receiver.
I'm eventually going to have my PC hooked up to this set. The combination of it's higher than average resolution output (Sony VGC-RC210G) and the MS XP Media Center Edition we'll have our cable box hooked up and be able to record movies ect.
We didn't have to buy any extra cables or wires to get anything to work. So this set was a plug-n-play.
TOTAL CONNECTIONS:
I'm not an expert but I'm counting 9 connections from a device that can input a signal to this TV. I'm sure there will be one I missed or you'll tell me. For now I have the 3 and will add the 4th being my computer. You have room for more. Obviously I will add an (5)external antenna, that old VHS (6)player and there's room for more. Looks like my digital (7)camera will hook up to unoccupied AV2 slot. I can play movies directly from my camera as well as view photos, WOW!
WHY I CHOSE PLASMA over LCD in the 42" Range:
While LCDs are great pc monitors, I can also see LCDs catching up or trying to match viewing angle ratings that PLASMAS have. It's a close call but the plasmas and lcds I compared, this HP was best.
(1) Better contrast due to its ability to show deeper blacks, plasma screens typically have better viewing angles however most new LCD TVs offer extreme viewing angles at or above 170 degrees. I did noticed the plasmas I looked at were better, the LCD's I looked at did not have a decent picture beyond 150 degrees. Let's face it, if you see one of these charts you wouldn't want to be at this angle but when a LCD says it has a 176 viewing angle rating it means you can practically see the picture on the screen and say what's on it from the side of the TV!
(2) There's some brightness and color shift when you're on too far of an angle with LCDs, while a plasma's picture remains fairly solid. Because I own several LCDs, 2 are 22 and 24 inch I noticed 2 things, great picture but when there's a little more light in the room you notice the glare an the picture gets harder to see at the higher veiwing angles, say 140 good or OK, and 150 pretty bad viewing angle.
(3) Plasma TVs can produce brighter color while light leakages in LCD screens affect the color saturation.
I was not concerned about "BURN IN". Newer plasmas are less susceptible to this thanks to improved technology and other features such as built-in screen savers, but burn-in is still a problem. But after a few days of use most burnt-in images will fade. On this HP PL4272N you'll notice it when pausing a movie and going to a blank screen. Under normal circumstances or normal viewing you're not going to notice it unless you're looking for it. I have an older DVD player that has a screen saver feature, it's got what looks like a "DVD" emblem that bounces around like a ping pong ball in the game "PONG". This doesn't produce burn in but the DVD players main start up screen does or did when left on for several minutes. Once you start the movie you will notice it in dark scenes only! This lasted for about an hour watching the series "24". OK, Season 5, disc 6 Episode 24, Jack in the Helicopter with the President.
TUNER:
If you have an antenna or you're not hooked up to cable or satellite and want to receive free HD and digital shows from other sources, this PL4272N has an integrated ATSC & NTSC clear QAM Tuner—receiver. I have not tested this feature so I'm not able to comment on the picture quality or other functions. Sorry, I don't have antenna and I don't want to borrow the neighbors or buy one at Radio Shack. Do they still make these or sell them? I don't know....
Minutes later: I did go out into the garage and found a pair of "rabbit ears", but I'll need an adapter: 75-300 ohm, I'll try it some time. If you want to know the results leave a comment asking and I'll post the findings or update this review.
Here's some info from the manufactures data sheet, very little lacking here, i.e., No Picture-In-Picture.
AUDIO:
No. of Speakers.. 2
Audio Output (Total) 20 watts
Speaker Type Integrated (concealed)
Dolby Digital Out .....Yes
Virtual Surround Sound Theater, Music Hall
SAP/MTS ....Yes
CONNECTIVITY:
HDMI... 3
Component In... 2
Composite/S-Video In... 2
PC input 1 (RGB-VGA)
Antenna In (RF) ...1
PC Audio In ...1
HDMI Audio In (RCA) ...1
Analog Audio In ...4
Digital Audio Out ...1 (optical)
Analog Audio Out (stereo) ...1
RS-232c ...1
VIDEO:
Resolution 1024x768
Supported Inputs 480i,480p,720p,1080i,1080p (HDMI only)
Contrast Ratio (max) 10,000:1
Panel life (half brightness) 60,000 hours
What's in the box? I'll mark what I didn't get with an (x) because it was purchased out of the box.
• 42" HD Plasma Television w/stand
• Remote control with batteries
• US power cord
• Users manual(X)
• Warranty and support guide(X)
• Quick Start Guide(X)
FINALLY:
I hope this review helps you in your decision whether you purchase it or not. What really impressed me most about this set over the competition is the price. I personally feel the sound output is a little better than the comparable TVs we listened to. This set has 20 watts total which is average, some sets had 2X15 or 30 but I couldn't hear the difference. Something else worth mentioning, all the comparable plasmas and lcd's came in at around 72 lbs., not a big deal but this is an easy size to move around or hang on a wall for one person.
Again I don't always buy the cheapest priced anything, but in this case it had the best picture quality, looks, and met or exceeded my requirements. I still haven't gotten rid of my 10 year old 32" CRT television, it still works great but weighs a ton! I hope my new HP Plasma holds up as long!
1024 x 768 pixel resolution 3D Digital Comb Filter 10,000:1 contrast HP Virtual Surround audio processing, Dolby Digital 5.1 optical digital output Fi...More at Amazon Marketplace
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