Samsung 42" Plasma HDTV + XBox 360 Arcade = $799 at CC

Gotta be 720P at that price. Only plasma worth buying right now is Pioneer KURO which I think is better than anything including PDP/LCD on the market.
 
Not a great deal. Many stores like PC Richard & Son and Boscovs have been selling a superior 42' Panasonic Plasma for under $600 this holiday season.

The only Plasma TVs I would buy are Panasonic & Pioneer. Which are essentially the same since Panasonic makes Pioneer Plasma TVs.
 
[quote name='PaRappa/GMRTAG']Gotta be 720P at that price.[/QUOTE]

It also has to be 720p because the specs specifically say so. No guesswork required.
 
[quote name='Marat']I can't find the TV or the Xbox 360 when i click on the link, please help.[/QUOTE]

if i could find a panny or pioneer for $600 around the same size i'd return/sell my TV right now
but i have never heard of any of those stores in Vegas

edit: wonder why the link doesn't work
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Tele...2867/N/20012866+20012867/rpem/ccd/category.do
scroll down and select gamer's dream package
 
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Is this really a good deal? I have always heard conflicting opinions about Plasma vs. LCD. I just bought a 42" 1080p LCD Vizio at Walmart for about $850 with tax like 2 1/2 weeks ago. Im about ready to take it back and go for this, but is Plasma really that much worse than LCD? I've got a 32" plasma in the berdroom and it seems pretty good. I'm not sure what to do. Is the CC deal too good to pass up?
 
[quote name='brewin']Is this really a good deal? I have always heard conflicting opinions about Plasma vs. LCD. I just bought a 42" 1080p LCD Vizio at Walmart for about $850 with tax like 2 1/2 weeks ago. Im about ready to take it back and go for this, but is Plasma really that much worse than LCD? I've got a 32" plasma in the berdroom and it seems pretty good. I'm not sure what to do. Is the CC deal too good to pass up?[/quote]


It depends on the plasma. I'd only get a Panasonic or Pioneer plasma. I'm getting a 46" Panasonic plasma from Costco in a couple of weeks. They are under 1k and awesome TVs.
 
[quote name='brewin'] Is the CC deal too good to pass up?[/quote]

Not really.

These plasmas are very power hungry and this one is only 720p.
 
I went for it, used my $50 coupon i got in the mail so that was just the icing on the cake.
Thanks a lot for posting this.
 
[quote name='brewin']Is this really a good deal? I have always heard conflicting opinions about Plasma vs. LCD. I just bought a 42" 1080p LCD Vizio at Walmart for about $850 with tax like 2 1/2 weeks ago. Im about ready to take it back and go for this, but is Plasma really that much worse than LCD? I've got a 32" plasma in the berdroom and it seems pretty good. I'm not sure what to do. Is the CC deal too good to pass up?[/QUOTE]

i've seen a 47" 1080p Vizio next to a 42" Plasma Vizio playing the same games
IMHO the plasma looks better, the black colors don't seem to have any fade to them
the plasma also seems brighter in terms of contrast

I think the thing most people fear with the Plasma is the burn in effect
If you run your TV for the 1st 100 hours playing full screen images than that reduces the chance of burn in
After the 1st 100 hours you should be ok, and nowadays most Plasma's have built in Screen Cleaners that blast a bright image onto the screen just incase you get some image retention effect

I have a Plasma myself and I love it
My TV is less than 55" so I could care less if its not 1080p
My games look great, and I don't play games that have a still images, HUD, Health bars for more than 2 hours at a time
Then I usually watch a full screen movie just in case of any burn in

I useto have a CRT which displayed amazing colors compare to any LCD or Plasma
When I first got my Plasma I was a little disappointed in the colors
But now that i looked at others LCD's, I know that the Plasma is as close to my CRT that i'm going to get
 
[quote name='qwerty1']you wouldnt notice the difference between 720p and 1080p at 42 inches anyway so what does it matter.[/QUOTE]

Uh, you totally would. It's at smaller sizes that you don't notice the difference...
 
[quote name='greyzieoriental']i've seen a 47" 1080p Vizio next to a 42" Plasma Vizio playing the same games IMHO the plasma looks better, the black colors don't seem to have any fade to them
the plasma also seems brighter in terms of contrast

I think the thing most people fear with the Plasma is the burn in effect
If you run your TV for the 1st 100 hours playing full screen images than that reduces the chance of burn in
After the 1st 100 hours you should be ok, and nowadays most Plasma's have built in Screen Cleaners that blast a bright image onto the screen just incase you get some image retention effect[/QUOTE]

I just called my local CC and they are, naturally, all out of the Samsungs for this deal. They say they can order it, but require a down payment. I guess I will have to just stick with what I got. Oh well. I paid less than $1500 for a 42" 1080p Vizio LCD and a 32" Insignia Plama within the last month, so I cant really complain.
 
I got a Panasonic 42'' 720 Plasma from Costco recently for $629 - the 1080p was 799 - great TV - from what I've read is for most people difference between 720p and 1080p on screens 55 inches and lower is negligible.

Costco membership is 50 - but they had a deal where they gave you a free 25 dollar costco giftcard with membership so - this with membership would be 654 for 42'' panasonic plasma.

Plasmas tend to have faster processors and overall better specs at the same price or lower than LCD.

Costco does tend to have some deals on games, dvd, blu ray players and other things so the 25 membership would come in handy - this price would leave you 144 for an arcade if you needed one - and maybe a better tv? I don't know honestly I have heard people say Samsung is best TVs but Panasonic is good for me.
 
When I visited Circuit City a few days ago, the knowledgeable and honest sales rep told me the best plasmas were Panasonic.

Also, he mentioned that even though plasmas now have "rotating pixels," image burn from playing games was still a problem. (No prob there. Just play on your computer monitor. I bought two HP w2207's on sale this past spring just for that reason).

I still have my Panasonic CT-26WX15 *CRT* HDTV, which I've never used, but want to sell. It's what I call a big booty tv, weighing in at 80 lbs, but CRT's are known to have a better picture and true colors, like one poster mentioned, but I have no problems playing games on my computer monitors and am even considering using a monitor for HDTV, until after I move.

Is anyone here a big believer in CRTs for HDTV viewing? I want to get rid of it, but don't know if I'll get a better picture for as cheap a price as I bought it.

Still, if you don't have an XBox already, and are in the market for a plasma, it's not a bad deal -- especially if you find a coupon or check to see what live.com's deal is with CC.
 
[quote name='CoffeeEdge']Uh, you totally would. It's at smaller sizes that you don't notice the difference...[/quote]

No, he was right, you wouldn't notice the difference. I've compared my 42'' 720P Plasma Panasonic Viera to similar 1080P models, and there is no noticeable difference...except for a couple hundred dollars of course. Shoot, playing games on the Viera 50" Plasma at 720P won't even show a difference. I honestly feel you are throwing away money if you get 1080P on anything 50'' or below...there is no noticeable difference.
 
[quote name='artvandelay30']Not a great deal. Many stores like PC Richard & Son and Boscovs have been selling a superior 42' Panasonic Plasma for under $600 this holiday season. [/quote]



(Making whistling sound)...Man, what a deal. What do they deliver that sucker on, a flat-bed 18 wheeler? :lol:
 
I'll just throw my 2 cents in on this one. Have a 42 inch samsung plasma 720p. I love it. It looks great on all formats. (Standard TV, High Def, Blue Ray, Video Games) I've played over 100 hours of video games on it and I don't see any sign of burn in what so ever.

The funny thing about these tv's is, I think the only way you would ever be able to tell slight differences in models would be to have them sitting side by side. And when is that ever going to happen in your living room? Sure that 1500 dollar one looks slightly better than the 700 dollar one in the store, stacked right next to each other, but are you going to be able to tell a 800 dollar difference at home?
 
[quote name='CoffeeEdge']Uh, you totally would. It's at smaller sizes that you don't notice the difference...[/quote]

[quote name='Trakan']42" is when you first start to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.[/quote]

Im not going to flat out call either of you wrong, maybe you're freaks of nature that can tell a big difference. However the rest of population wont notice. Heres some comments about the subject.


We still believe that when you're dealing with TVs 50 inches and smaller, the added resolution has only a very minor impact on picture quality. On a regular basis in our HDTV reviews, we put 720p (or 768p) sets next to 1080p sets, then feed them both the same source material, whether it's 1080i or 1080p, from the highest-quality Blu-ray and HD DVD players. We typically watch both sets for a while, with eyes darting back and forth between the two, looking for differences in the most-detailed sections, such as hair, textures of fabric, and grassy plains. Bottom line: It's almost always very difficult to see any difference--especially from farther than 8 feet away on a 50-inch TV.
Click to expand...

Our resident video guru, Senior Editor David Katzmaier, stands by what he said two years ago: The extra sharpness afforded by the 1080p televisions he's seen is noticeable only when watching 1080i or 1080p sources on a larger screens, say 55 inches and bigger, or with projectors that display a wall-size picture. Katzmaier also says that the main real-world advantage of 1080p is not the extra sharpness you'll be seeing, but instead, the smaller, more densely packed pixels. In other words, you can sit closer to a 1080p television and not notice any pixel structure, such as stair-stepping along diagonal lines, or the screen door effect (where you can actually see the space between the pixels). This advantage applies regardless of the quality of the source.
Click to expand...

Now thats from CNET, many people dont like them for some reason, so feel free to also search on AVSforums and you'll see sentimates saying pretty much the exactly the same thing. The average person will not be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at 42 inches. Its only when you get 50+ you actually get a visual benefit. Even then it depends on how close you sit to the thing.

Its rediculous that people would honestly think that the fact it isnt 1080p means its somehow inferior. Not sure if thats the result of really bad information from retail stores trying to push the most expensive thing on the shelf or if its reverberation from Sonys PS3 marketing of "true" HD or what. There is absolutely nothing wrong with 720p vs 1080p. Plus this being a gaming forum, how many games are natively 1080p? Less than 30 out of how many hundreds?
 
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I have a 52'' 1080p sammy and quite frankly I sit pretty close when I play games because the resolution is so high. At 42'' 720 is not a bad thing at all. Trust me. Also plasma's are great for games. They have less motion blur than even the 120hz LCDs (that's what I have). Also - for gaming very few games actually truly output to 1080p. The 360 and PS3 typically scale up from 720p.
 
[quote name='fake larry']I have a 52'' 1080p sammy and quite frankly I sit pretty close when I play games because the resolution is so high. At 42'' 720 is not a bad thing at all. Trust me. Also plasma's are great for games. They have less motion blur than even the 120hz LCDs (that's what I have). Also - for gaming very few games actually truly output to 1080p. The 360 and PS3 typically scale up from 720p.[/quote]

...that, and all HDTV from Comcast to the Dish all use 720p for their broadcasts.

Nothing utilizes 1080p consistently at this point. Buying a 1080p tv future-proofs your tv, but by the time that future arrives, you'll be in the market for a new tv.

720p is perfectly fine for the next few years.

How do HDTV CRTs stack up against plasm and LCDs?
 
[quote name='Telemakhos']
How do HDTV CRTs stack up against plasm and LCDs?[/QUOTE]

Besides the weight and size, I think CRT's look noticeably better.
CRT's produce deeper more richer colors than plasma's or LCD's
A lot of gamers prefer using CRT's to game still(either they live with their mother, don't have a job, are still kids, have a lot of room, i dont know)
Also CRT's have better viewing angles
Like I said before, when I first went from CRT to Plasma I wasn't impressed at all
But the amount of space you save and having an HD Tuner is worth it

The best thing is being able to hang it on a swivel TV stand (left and right turns) and have all you gaming systems and surrond sound system under it
it gives it a nice clean feel. no wires, no cabinet like spaces for overheating of your systems

I actually gave my CRT set to my mother, which she loves over her old SD CRT (which we said goodbye to)
 
[quote name='artvandelay30']Not a great deal. Many stores like PC Richard & Son and Boscovs have been selling a superior 42' Panasonic Plasma for under $600 this holiday season.

The only Plasma TVs I would buy are Panasonic & Pioneer. Which are essentially the same since Panasonic makes Pioneer Plasma TVs.[/quote]

Not yet, Pioneer and Panasonic use completely different technologies. Next year Panasonic and Pioneer will be the same. Just go look a Pioneer and compare it to ANY Panasonic. If you can't tell a difference you don't need an expensive tv cause you might be blind.
 
[quote name='greyzieoriental']Besides the weight and size, I think CRT's look noticeably better.
[/quote]

Yes, but good luck finding one for sale.

Nothing wrong with the RPTV's on sale now. Like CRT the RPTV's have better picture quality than plasma/LCD. Samsung even has a RPTV with no color wheels, it uses LED's instead.
 
[quote name='greyzieoriental']that's a great deal, and if you already have a 360 you can quick sell it for $150 and get the TV for $700[/QUOTE]

Not really, you can get a 42" 1080p Vizio for 699.99 at Costco.
 
I own a Samsung 50'' Plasma 720p. At first I was worried about not getting a 1080p but after I hooked up my PS3 I am not disappointed.

The picture is so big I have to sit back and watch the tv. Have yet to notice any lack of quality on my HD movies and MGS4 looks amazing.

I use to not be a 720p fan since 1080p was out but, for the price these days I honestly think 720p is a much better deal.

Plasmas take more maintenance and care due to image retention and burn in which is much harder to get. Avsforum has an entire post about it.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=949107

BTW: Vizios/Polaroids etc. brands have terrible speakers and the quality is sub par when I compare them to Samsungs/Pioneers/Sony units IMHO . I'd rather get a 720p with great speakers right on the unit since I don't have a SS system and a unit that has decent contrast/color depth/refresh rate/etc.
 
I have a 42" Vizio plasma downstairs and Blurays look WAY better than they do on my 50" Samsung 1080p upstairs.

What I'm trying to say is yes, this is a great deal. I paid $699 for the Vizio about two months ago at Costco and if I could I would return it for this deal...but alas, it is too late.
 
Beware that the 42 inch "720p" plasmas are actually only 1024x768 resolution (with non-square pixels), which is even less than the 720p standard of 1280x720. Note that 50 inch "720p" plasmas and pretty much all 720p LCDs have 1360x768 resolution.

Now whether or not you'll actually notice this outside of side-by-side comparisons I can't say but it's worth considering.

I really wouldn't worry about 1080p btw since outside of Blu-ray there is not much out there that can even take advantage of it.
 
[quote name='Trakan']42" is when you first start to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.[/QUOTE]

Only if you sit closer than 6 feet away from your TV, which I doubt anyone does.

1080 is wasted on 42" or less. Save your money and get 720.
 
[quote name='Aleman']Beware that the 42 inch "720p" plasmas are actually only 1024x768 resolution (with non-square pixels), which is even less than the 720p standard of 1280x720. Note that 50 inch "720p" plasmas and pretty much all 720p LCDs have 1360x768 resolution.

Now whether or not you'll actually notice this outside of side-by-side comparisons I can't say but it's worth considering.

I really wouldn't worry about 1080p btw since outside of Blu-ray there is not much out there that can even take advantage of it.[/quote]


Call me crazy, but I thought 720p is lover resolution than 768p but companies don't say 768p to avoid confusing consumers and call all the 768p 720p - and I thought in this situation what matters most is the lower number and not the larger?
 
[quote name='CheapLikeAFox']Call me crazy, but I thought 720p is lover resolution than 768p but companies don't say 768p to avoid confusing consumers and call all the 768p 720p - and I thought in this situation what matters most is the lower number and not the larger?[/quote]

You've got the "p" stuff right but it does matter what your TV's native pixel resolution is... this plasma with its 1024x768 resolution would never be able to display the same amount of detail as a true 768p (1360x768) screen when the source material is 720p or greater. It just doesn't have as many pixels as the true 768p screens do, the same as how 768p screens don't have as many pixels as 1080p (1920x1080) screens.

Again, you probably won't notice it outside of displaying test patterns or a side-by-side comparison, but it's there.
 
I like the Panasonic plasmas.

I was looking at the 720p model and would have likely bought if it were much cheaper than the 1080p. I couldn't find the 720p for less than $799 (but Sears has it right now for $699). The 1080p model (42PZ80U) was $899 at Sears, so I bit but then found the model that is a step up was featured from Tigerdirect on Cyber Monday for $799 with $60 shipping (no tax) so I bought it and returned the Sears set.

I just checked and the 720p Panasonic 42 inch is $649 on Amazon with free shipping and no tax.
 
I was able to pick-up 2 sets of these one for me(bedroom set-up), and one for my brother-in-law the TV's will be shipped to our stores and we will have to pick them since the store did not have any left. The best part was the guy let us use 2 sets of movers coupons to knock anther $100.00 of each set. He let us both use the 10% off a 42" or bigger TV and the $40.00 off a $199.00 purchase, since the TV's and 360's ended up on 4 different receipts. I think he was so cool since my brother-in-law used to play hockey with him in high school and he opened up a credit card account while we were there to pay for his set.
 
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