Panasonic plasma to...
Discussion
We have an old 42 inch Panasonic plasma, which I am looking to change soon. It is still okay, but has no smart features, high energy consumption, a knackered remote, cables running out the front of it, no HD on terrestrial and I fancy a change...... ( This is probably the primary reason 
).
We don't have high demands for a telly, with just general viewing (streaming and terrestrial, the odd rugby game) and some gaming on a Switch and an old Xbox ( mainly Forza Horizon)
I am thinking of getting an LG OLED A2 48 inch in the black Friday deals..... will I be disappointed? The other, cheaper option is a Hisense QLED 50 inch...... The telly does get some direct sunlight in the mornings meaning the curtain is drawn a little, but this is seldom an issue.....
).We don't have high demands for a telly, with just general viewing (streaming and terrestrial, the odd rugby game) and some gaming on a Switch and an old Xbox ( mainly Forza Horizon)
I am thinking of getting an LG OLED A2 48 inch in the black Friday deals..... will I be disappointed? The other, cheaper option is a Hisense QLED 50 inch...... The telly does get some direct sunlight in the mornings meaning the curtain is drawn a little, but this is seldom an issue.....
Coming from plasma, I think you'll be very happy with OLED.
Stuff you've been used to such as the motion handling and wide viewing angles will be as good or better on the OLED. They've had to sacrifice the full 10Hz panel for a 50Hz version, but that's no different to your plasma anyway even if the two techs work in a slightly different way.
Stuff that'll knock your socks off will be the additional contrast (TV is brighter but also significantly better black level), less colour banding(*1), better colour saturation, less fizzing in dark portions of the screen. Just wait until you get some 4K HDR content. Go have a look on YouTube or watch Blue Planet II from iPlayer. You'll be in for a treat.
It's not all good news though. The extra resolution of 4K means that the scaling has to work a lot harder to play standard-def material. Before the gnashing of teeth and wailing starts, let me say that a lot of this is down to the TV settings. I have a Panny 50GX800 LED TV, and SD is perfectly watchable. HD is better of course, but if features such as contrast- and colour-enhancement are switched on and the sharpness is overcooked then it's possible to make SD look like a real dog's breakfast. Fortunately the LG does okay here. Set up the TV properly though and SD can still be a useful source.
If there's a fly in the ointment with the lower priced OLEDs it's the limited brightness for HDR content. It's not far off the pace, and given all the other benefits then it's possibly an acceptable compromise, but if you could step up to a C1 then you'd have a bit more pop from HDR content.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/a1-oled
The Hisense TVs offer a lot of performance for the price, but there are limits with LCD-based displays (even QLED/ULED variants) which, IMO, will be far harder to live with coming from plasma. One big one is the viewing angles on VA panels.
You won't have experienced this with plasma, but with LCD-based displays there's a toss-up between gaining better blacks for improved contrast but losing colour saturation when viewed from more than 20 degrees off axis, or keeping the viewing angle good but suffering grey blacks and a corresponding drop in contrast. Most sets aimed at better performance go for the VA panel (better blacks, worse viewing angle).
Stuff you've been used to such as the motion handling and wide viewing angles will be as good or better on the OLED. They've had to sacrifice the full 10Hz panel for a 50Hz version, but that's no different to your plasma anyway even if the two techs work in a slightly different way.
Stuff that'll knock your socks off will be the additional contrast (TV is brighter but also significantly better black level), less colour banding(*1), better colour saturation, less fizzing in dark portions of the screen. Just wait until you get some 4K HDR content. Go have a look on YouTube or watch Blue Planet II from iPlayer. You'll be in for a treat.
It's not all good news though. The extra resolution of 4K means that the scaling has to work a lot harder to play standard-def material. Before the gnashing of teeth and wailing starts, let me say that a lot of this is down to the TV settings. I have a Panny 50GX800 LED TV, and SD is perfectly watchable. HD is better of course, but if features such as contrast- and colour-enhancement are switched on and the sharpness is overcooked then it's possible to make SD look like a real dog's breakfast. Fortunately the LG does okay here. Set up the TV properly though and SD can still be a useful source.
If there's a fly in the ointment with the lower priced OLEDs it's the limited brightness for HDR content. It's not far off the pace, and given all the other benefits then it's possibly an acceptable compromise, but if you could step up to a C1 then you'd have a bit more pop from HDR content.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/a1-oled
The Hisense TVs offer a lot of performance for the price, but there are limits with LCD-based displays (even QLED/ULED variants) which, IMO, will be far harder to live with coming from plasma. One big one is the viewing angles on VA panels.
You won't have experienced this with plasma, but with LCD-based displays there's a toss-up between gaining better blacks for improved contrast but losing colour saturation when viewed from more than 20 degrees off axis, or keeping the viewing angle good but suffering grey blacks and a corresponding drop in contrast. Most sets aimed at better performance go for the VA panel (better blacks, worse viewing angle).
- 1 - this is subject to how much compression has been used in the source signal
When our Panny plasma packed up one Saturday lunchtime it was our only TV at the time - in the past we had three - and we had the grandchildren for the weekend so rushed off to Costco and grabbed a cheapy 49” LED.
For SD TV it was unwatchable so took it back and got a £600 Sony which is absolutely fine. We also now have a 42” Sony OLED in our kitchen / diner which looks great in the dark but the room is far too bright for it in the daytime.
One thing coming from the plasma is the sound had always been fine - had an old surround sound set up for films but rarely used it. I found the LED TV sound unlistenable to so bought a Sonos Beam.
The OLED has Sony’s acoustic surface (the main reason I got it) and it works well.
For SD TV it was unwatchable so took it back and got a £600 Sony which is absolutely fine. We also now have a 42” Sony OLED in our kitchen / diner which looks great in the dark but the room is far too bright for it in the daytime.
One thing coming from the plasma is the sound had always been fine - had an old surround sound set up for films but rarely used it. I found the LED TV sound unlistenable to so bought a Sonos Beam.
The OLED has Sony’s acoustic surface (the main reason I got it) and it works well.
mike9009 said:
I am thinking of getting an LG OLED A2 48 inch in the black Friday deals..... will I be disappointed? The other, cheaper option is a Hisense QLED 50 inch...... The telly does get some direct sunlight in the mornings meaning the curtain is drawn a little, but this is seldom an issue.....
I went from a Panasonic Plasma to Sony OLED. The LG Oled's are strong but the picture motion and built-in speakers on the higher-end Sony's I found to be more to my own personal taste.The anti-reflective coating on most OLED's is pretty awful, regardless of price range.
When I was looking a couple of months ago, the LG OLED was the C2 - is the A2 still available?
We bought 42" Sony (for its acoustic surface) which apparently has the same panel as the C2. One thing on the C2 (I don't know if this applies to the A2 too) is the LG blurb mentions brightness booster as a feature - that only applies to the 55" and bigger.
User interface is mentioned above - no idea what the LG one is like but it can't possible be any worse than the Sony which is Android and it's terribly slow and clunky.
We bought 42" Sony (for its acoustic surface) which apparently has the same panel as the C2. One thing on the C2 (I don't know if this applies to the A2 too) is the LG blurb mentions brightness booster as a feature - that only applies to the 55" and bigger.
User interface is mentioned above - no idea what the LG one is like but it can't possible be any worse than the Sony which is Android and it's terribly slow and clunky.
Our 42" Panasonic plasma died in style with a surprisingly loud bang during the Queen's funeral. Advice on here led us to a 55" LG G2. Everyone says the C2 is all the tv anyone needs, but the G2 was only £100 more than the C2 and we were going to wall mount it anyway, so made sense. Impressions are that the picture is great, interface is good, controls our 10 year old Denon amp no problem. Perfectly bright enough in our possibly brighter than typical living room, and seems to be less reflective than the old Panasonic was as well. Very happy with it.
I have a 42" Panasonic Plasma which according to the instruction manual consumes just under 500w/hour. My Smart Meter confirms this.
I'll be purchasing a new TV soon as the annual running cost at say 6hrs/day is quite a lot of money each year.
Does anyone have a view on what the most reliable brands are now?
I'll be purchasing a new TV soon as the annual running cost at say 6hrs/day is quite a lot of money each year.
Does anyone have a view on what the most reliable brands are now?
jmn said:
I have a 42" Panasonic Plasma which according to the instruction manual consumes just under 500w/hour. My Smart Meter confirms this.
I'll be purchasing a new TV soon as the annual running cost at say 6hrs/day is quite a lot of money each year.
Does anyone have a view on what the most reliable brands are now?
500W!!!!! Ouch. Mine only consumes 280W so just over £200 per year at current rates. So, man maths means I can afford a new telly!I'll be purchasing a new TV soon as the annual running cost at say 6hrs/day is quite a lot of money each year.
Does anyone have a view on what the most reliable brands are now?
You could use yours for cooking the evening meal on to make some savings!
To be fair, if Panasonic are anything like they used to be, then they are not a bad brand. I seem to remember when buying my plasma there were 'scare' stories about their reliability.....last couple of years, I have been willing it to fail....but it won't die....
skilly1 said:
Just about to replace Panasonic plasma with Panasonic TX-48LZ1500B. Top spec, 48 inch OLED, with good sound, should arrive next week.
Really hope it lives up to my old plasma, as I love that screen, but it now has lines running down it.
I would love to hear your immediate thoughts when it arrives. Going for something similar in a few weeks.....Really hope it lives up to my old plasma, as I love that screen, but it now has lines running down it.
Just done the same thing, was going to get the new Panasonic OLED, but so much more expensive than the LG and the LG make the screen. Also some great deals on the LG at the moment, especially Argos.
Make sure you follow a YouTube video on how to set it up, the auto dimming has to be turned off, otherwise it looks really dark.
Still not 100% sure it’s better than the plasma in terms of brightness, however, the screen definition is a lot better.
Make sure you follow a YouTube video on how to set it up, the auto dimming has to be turned off, otherwise it looks really dark.
Still not 100% sure it’s better than the plasma in terms of brightness, however, the screen definition is a lot better.
One thing I am looking in to are the warranties - specifically the Richer Sounds warranty appears to taper off the voucher payments as you get through their 6 year warranty whereas the JL (John Lewis) warranty appears more robust?! No evidence to support other than what is on their respective websites.
I am looking at the 55" of either LG C2 or the Panny 980B from JL. I always focus on detail so have a hang up with LG not having HDR10+ support & Panny OLED's not having NowTV App support . . .
First World problems
I am looking at the 55" of either LG C2 or the Panny 980B from JL. I always focus on detail so have a hang up with LG not having HDR10+ support & Panny OLED's not having NowTV App support . . .
First World problems
skilly1 said:
but so much more expensive than the LG and the LG make the screen.
LG do make the panels but they don't make everything else, including, the motion and picture software that drives the display. Apart from the build quality on the higher-tier models that's what makes Panasonic and Sony the better choice, if you are into standard definition TV and movies the LG will lose the 2022 head-to head and its been that way since I got into OLED.
LG make solid panels and, for a Gaming Telly, LG is gonna be great but it comes last when compared to the Sony, Panasonic and Samsung TV's, in that order.
Sony and Panasonic are more expensive than LG for a reason. The Panasonic LZ2000 is sensationally good.
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