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Panasonic VIERA S1 Series TC-P54S1 54-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV, Black Description:

54″ Plasma, 1080p, NEO PDP Panel which is brighter, Full-time 1080p TV lines of moving picture resolution, 3 HDMI, Native contrast ratio 40,000:1, Dynamic contrast infinite black 2,000,000:1, Game Mode, Anti Reflective Filter, 600 Hz Subfield Drive

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10761 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: black
• Brand: Panasonic
• Model: TC-P54S1
• Dimensions: 32.80″ h x 51.70″ w x 4.20″ l, 90.40 pounds
• Display size: 54

Features

• 54″ Plasma, 1080p, NEO PDP Panel which is brighter
• Full-time 1080p TV lines of moving picture resolution
• Native contrast ratio 40,000:1, Dynamic contrast infinite black 2,000,000:1
• 600 Hz Sub-Field drive for razor sharp moving images
• Viera Image Viewer, enjoy your photos on the big screen via SD card

Customer Reviews:

My first true HD set and it is outstanding!
I spent the last couple of years researching televisions looking for the replacement for my Toshiba 50″ widescreen rear projection set. It was starting to have shudder problems on certain inputs and I was not going to go to the trouble of replacing parts on this older set.

Since I am a film junkie I have always leaned toward plasma sets due to their more accurate blacks and generally better handling of movement on screen. The drawbacks have been the glare issue, potential burn-in and power consumption versus LCD.

When I saw that Panasonic had addressed the burn-in and power consumption issues with their current series of plasma sets, I decided to look closer at the S1 series which is more attractively priced than their higher level TVs but with most of the same features.

My Toshiba died the day before Father’s Day (lucky me) and I bought the Panasonic TC-P54S1 on Father’s Day - an unexpected but appreciated gift to myself.

First impressions:
- Outstanding build quality. I sold electronics for about 5 years and Panasonic/Technics products were always well-built and very reliable. This set appears to continue that legacy. Panasonic is a large industrial manufacturer and builds their consumer products in the same way - well designed and well thought out with high quality components.

- Nice non-glare screen when off. I have two windows behind my viewing area that let light right onto the screen during the daytime. I can watch shows and movies without closing the curtains but their is a little noticeable glare. The set shows this less than my old projection set and with the curtains pulled it’s no issue.

- Cable viewing with component cables - generally good on non-HD channels and very good on HD channels with Charter cable. Cable viewing with HDMI (just got the new box yesterday) - noticeably improved over component input. HD channels are very clean - better than DVD on my old set. Go for HDMI to get the full benefit of this set.

- Nintendo Wii with analog cables - actually worse than the old set. With a new component cable the Wii image becomes much more solid and enjoyable. It’s not the best videogame for resolution anyway, but a component cable and this TV bring out the best in the system.

- Blu-ray DVD via HDMI - I bought the Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray player along with the TV. With this player (or, I imagine, any other blu-ray player) this set shines. I should re-phrase - this set is spectacular. I have seen Blu-ray demos in Best Buy and other stores, but in your own home, with direct connections and normal lighting, it is absolutely the best picture I have ever seen on a television. I ran Kill Bill 1 Blu-ray as my first movie and was floored. The quality is very film-like - clean, clear, vibrant, without a hint of grain or motion blur. I also watched Dirty Harry Blu-ray and GoodFellas Blu-ray and both were the best video images of these two movies I have ever seen.

- Regular DVD - there have been some reviews of this television on the web that stated it has trouble with upconversion. I could not tell this from my experience. Older DVDs were noticeably better looking than they were on my old set with a non-Blu-ray player. Some are so good that I won’t have to re-purchase as Blu-ray which is nice, since I have a sizeable investment in older DVDs.

The remote is as complete as it needs to be and easy to use. It is not backlit, but this is not an issue as I use a universal remote and put the regular remotes away as soon as I program them into the universal one.

I cannot speak to the picture settings yet as I have not fiddled with the manual settings or the presets. I will say that the pictures seems slightly dark on some DVDs and this makes sense as the factory settings are set up to reduce power consumption compared to older plasmas. I will definitely run a couple of set up discs through the set and alter the brightness and contrast a bit.

When I have really tuned the set, I will update this review. Suffice it to say that out of the box with no altered settings this set is outstanding. And the discounted price at several retailers is around $1700 so that makes it all the more attractive.

A Great TV!
My choices were between the 58 inch Samsungs and the Panasonic 54G10. The Samsungs were too heavy and were said to have annoying “buzzing” sounds at certain volumes coming from their televisions. When I looked at the Panasonic 54G10, from a television-broadcast persepective, I was quite disappointed. The 54G10 looked somewhat jittery and blurry (I must admit, though, that from a blu-ray perspective that this tv looked very nice). On the other side, in a not so obvious part of the showroom was this other 54 inch Panasonic. The picture was very stable and the colors were vibrant. I looked at the model and saw that it was the TCP54S1. I asked about this televsion and not long after, decided to order it online, as I got a better deal.

When it was finally shipped, I examined it very carefully. To my eyes it looked good, but needed to be tweeked. On the cable tv side, I like how this panasonic looks in “game” mode. I watch the television solely in 1080i and 480p as these resolutions appear to look the clearest. I watch my Panasonic blu-ray player dmp60, in conjunction with the TCP54S1 in “standard” mode. EVERYTHING that I look at is FLAWLESS! Our family and friends are also taken aback as to how everything looks and sounds. For those who hate black bars while watching DVDs, the “Format” button on the remote allows you to zoom the picture without any noticeable picture degredation. I hope that this helps you make your decision on this very nicely made 90.4 lb. flat screen.

Great picture after break-in and tweaking
I researched TVs extensively prior purchasing this TV. Both plasma and LCD have their respective strengths and weaknesses. I went with a plasma TV vs a LCD TV based the room the TV was going to be placed in and my viewing habits. I went with Panasonic after comparing various models in store and reading reviews.

In my opinion, this is the best TV at this price range. It is lacking some features of other Panasonic models (G10, Z, V Series) such as THX mode, more robust picture settings, and Viera Cast. However, these features were not deal breakers for me since I was going to be primarily using this TV for sports, tv shows and gaming. And from my understanding, the S1 series uses the same panel as the G10, Z, and V series. My non-videophile eyes could not tell a difference in picture quality between the G10 and S1 when I compared them at the store.

The picture quality was good initially, but got even better after the TV was broken-in. I did not get the TV professionally calibrated but got valuable tips on the proper settings for this TV from the AVS Forum website (as another reviewer pointed out). The picture quality is excellent, the colors are vibrant and accurate and the picture using a Hi-def source is sharp. I noticed that this TV is able to provide more details in dark scenes compared to my friend’s LCD TV and other plasma TV. The picture quality out the box is good, but superb after some setting changes and time.

The sound is adequate, but I recommend hooking it up to a surround sound system.

The bezel on the TV is a nice piano black but is a fingerprint magnet, but that is not a problem since I don’t touch the TV bezel on a regular basis. The anti-glare coating is effective. I don’t notice glare while watching TV during the day, in fact the only glare that I really notice is from the piano black bezel.

The bottom line is if you can’t afford the high-end TVs such as the Pioneer Kuro Series and just are looking for a TV with an excellent picture just to watch TV, you won’t be disappointed with the S1 Series.