Panasonic TC-P65S2 65-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Review by Raul G. for Panasonic TC-P65S2 65-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV
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I’ve spent the last 2 months researching my next television purchase. I’m one of those people that over-researches the pros and cons of any major purchase. I specifically set out at the beginning of my research to purchase a television for my finished basement. Since I can easily control ambient light pretty much any display technology was on the table – Plasma, LCD, LED-LCD, DLP, etc. I love the picture quality of DLP sets but ultimately decided to rule out that technology mainly because of the size (width) and the fact that I would eventually need to replace a bulb. I decided against traditional CCFL LCD displays too despite owning a Sharp Aquos LC46D84U. That essentially left me with LED-LCD and Plasma technology. After going back and forth I finally ended up deciding to go with Plasma. I think ultimately the deciding factors for me were the overall picture quality and cost.

I’ve been using my TC65S2 for about the last 2 weeks and I’m absolutely floored by the picture quality. I’m actually surprised at how much better the display looks than my Sharp Aquos. Black levels are incredibly detailed, inky-black that leaves my Aquos’ display looking like it can only generate gray instead of a true black level. Out of the box the TV came on ‘vivid’ setting which makes colors impressively “pop” on-screen, however, it somewhat distorts flesh-tones and makes people appear a bit orange. I used my DVE HD Basics calibration disc and calibrated my TC65S2 myself. It’s probably not as good as a professional calibration but I feel satisfied enough with the results.

The TV comes with additional pre-settings such as ‘Cinema’ and ‘Game’. I’ve used both and I’m happy to say that the settings are actually useful. I use a PS3 for both gaming and watching Blu-ray movies. The cinema setting on BD movie playback tones down the overall brightness and gives movies a ‘warm’ color setting similar to movie theaters. The ‘Game’ setting is impressive too and maintains a good black level while increasing the overall color levels. I can honestly say that after playing God of War 3 on my Aquos and again on this set, it’s like playing a different game. There are many areas in GoW3 that are extremely dark and I’m now noticing details that just weren’t there with my Aquos. Everything looks cleaner, more detailed and colors are more accurate.

Aesthetically, Panasonic seems to trail Samsung, Sony and Sharp. While those companies have invested significantly in the looks over everything from their bezel to the remote, Panasonic maintains a cleaner and simpler look. Personally I don’t have a problem with the subdued look – I’m more interested in the picture quality than anything else. That said the TV does have a pleasant piano-black glossy finish. That continues with the rather simple wedge-shaped stand that is included. The remote unfortunately leaves something to be desired. Perhaps most importantly it is not back-lit. Simple things like adjusting the volume in a dark room are easy due to the shape of the particular key, however, changing the input for example is not. I believe that the G-2x & VT Panasonic plasmas do offer a better & back-lit remote. After the first week or so I finally had the time to program my Harmony for my new TV and I won’t miss the Panasonic remote at all.

The included television speakers are adequate but nothing impressive. Honestly, at 65″ I think most folks that purchase a set like this are doing so for a home theater and have surround sound. I used the included speakers for about a day before I switched over to my home theater speakers.

Feature wise the S2 might be called “bare-bones” by some. Personally I was on the fence about getting a G25 or jumping up to the VT (3D) series. Ultimately though I think 2 things swayed me to the S2. First the size; I wanted to create a home theater setting and the G25 tops out at 54″. Panasonic does make a 65″ VT25 that is full-HD 3D, however, that set is around the $4000 dollar mark. With such limited 3D offerings currently on the market I just couldn’t justify the price. Second, the extra bells and whistles in the more expensive sets like the G25 and VT series are nice though I’m not sure how often I’d watch YouTube videos or listen to Pandora radio on my TV. The Netflix integration is probably the best feature, however, I’m already getting that with my PS3. For someone looking for a TV with a great picture and not really interested in peripheral features, the S2 is the way to go!

Lastly, for those not aware Panasonic was recently in a bit of a scandal – at least as far as AV enthusiasts go – with their plasma sets. It seems that after varying degrees of usage Panasonic plasma TVs started losing their deep-black level. There is a lot of discussion on various AV sites about the severity of the issue but as noted by CNET’s reviewing editors it does happen and it is an issue with the 2009 and earlier sets. For the S2, Panasonic is using a new Neo-PDP panel and it remains to be seen what will happen. This was an issue that nearly derailed my purchase of this set. However, after reading more into the issue and the fact that the change is gradual – not something that happens overnight – I felt like I could go ahead and make the purchase. I’ll follow up in the months to come to this review and make comments as necessary. I’m hoping that with the 2010 sets Panasonic was able to mitigate the problem. Time will tell.

Other information:

– In the box this TV weighs in at 165lbs! The TV alone weighs 123lbs and 137lbs with the included stand. Be sure to have adequate help when setting up this TV! Fortunately Panasonic designed hand grips into the back of the set to make is somewhat less unwieldy.

– I’ve noticed that when using HDMI directly to my PS3 I can utilize some of the Viera-Link features. For example when I switch my television input to my PS3 it automatically powers on my PS3. Kind of a neat feature that I thought was only compatible with Panasonic products that are Viera-Link enabled.

– This features 3x HDMI inputs and 2x Component inputs. There are additional inputs for composite and SDHC. The S2 series lacks a lot of the additional inputs that you gain with the G2x or VT series like USB, ethernet, RS232C, PC, etc.

– For such a large plasma television, the S2 does not generate as much heat as I expected. Even after recently watching a long movie and then a World Cup soccer match the TV wasn’t hot.

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UPDATE 7/5/10:

One minor annoyance I just noticed today is that the volume controls are not unique to the input. Not a big deal if you’re using a home theater setup as the TV volume wouldn’t matter – just something that I noticed will tinkering around with my set.

Review by T. Howlin for Panasonic TC-P65S2 65-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV
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We got the TV a week ago, did the 100 hour burn in using software available for free online. Then, a day spent calibrating it to our taste and when all that was done, we had a spectacular picture, especially sing our BR player. We have owned a Panasonic Plasma for four years now, no burned out pixels, no quality issues at all, hopefully this one will be equally as reliable.

For those that want to use this with your PC, understand that this is a next generation TV and isn’t going to interface to a normal video card. If your PC is current, it may well have an HDMI port on it and then this TV will work just fine. Or, if your Blu-Ray player is Internet ready, you will be able to download movies to it and watch them on the TV.

The sound quality from the TV is marginal at best, I’m not even sure why they put speakers in the set. I can’t imagine anyone buying a set this size and not using a home theater setup with it. When played through our Onkyo system, who cares about the TV speakers.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably researched LCD, LED, HDLP and Plasma and in sets this size, the transitional capability is much better than the other technologies in my opinion. No matter the level of the set, every LCD/LED set I previewed had momentary blurring in fast action scenes like sports. I get none of that on the plasma set. Although our media room allows for the proper viewing angle from every seat, you can get well outside the ideal range and the plasma picture is still accurate and bright.

There is some glare off the screen in bright light but again, in a dedicated media room application, it’s not an issue. The price of this set has been dropping pretty steadily so it’s quite a bargain at under $2K. Do check it very carefully when delivered, including using a flashlight at an oblique angle on the screen to detect any hairline cracks. It wasn’t a problem with mine but have heard of screen being broken in transit and hard to detect small cracks in normal light.

I think Panasonic owns the plasma field and this is a another step up in what they offer.

Review by svenlg for Panasonic TC-P65S2 65-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV
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The LCD vs. Plasma vs. LED essays by Consumer Reviews are the most useful articles I found before purchasing this screen. ( […] ) Because of their articles, I trusted this screen to be the perfect balance of size, viewing clarity from any angle, reduced glare, comprehensible options, and price. So far, it’s better than I’d imagined.

Review by E. Valderrama for Mitsubishi WD-65737 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Home Theater DLP HDTV
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I had been looking/researching HDTVs for several years. Price watching, bargain hunting etc. Plasma is awesome, but still much higher in price when comparing similar sized models. Plus I play video games, watch ESPN etc, so Burn In has to be considered. LCDs are nice too, better price points, but I could not find a similar size and 120hz refresh model for less than $2000.

And really that was my determining factor. I could not stomach paying more than $2000 for a TV. I paid $1299 for my TV on special at Tiger Direct. It was 1599 online, but 1299 if you picked it up in store.

With this particular model, no quality is sacrificed. The only negative I have so far is when I put in GTA 4 for PS3. There was a lot of light in the room and some of the shadows in the game made it impossible to play. I adjusted some of the default GAME settings and that helped, but I think the light/glare issue is just too bad. So my wife is making curtains to fix the issue. Fixed the Display issues when I used the HDMI vs Component. WOW…..Blue Ray source 1080p over HDMI…that is the best picture money can buy, no matter what TV you get.

I also popped in a Star Wars DVD and ran the THX tuning program that comes with the disc.

This TV does not disappoint. Does not wall mount, but that was preferred for me. Also buy your HDMI cables from Amazon, in stores there are at least $30 vs Amazon where they are less than $5 with shipping.

Review by Ken for Mitsubishi WD-65737 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Home Theater DLP HDTV
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My WD 55589 had the dreaded blinking green light. I tried fixing it, but NO go. Long Story short I called Mitsubishi and they gave me an in store credit for $925 for a like TV. The 65737 was the closest model so I went back to my original place of purchase and I got the Mitsubishi WD-65737 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Home Theater DLP HDTV on sale at Ultimate Electronics for $1,083.74 (including tax). With my $925 credit I ended up paying $158.74 for a new 60″ 1080P TV that replaced a 55″ 1080i 7 year old TV.

First let me say I cannot express how good Mitsubishi was to me. Sure I bought the extended warranty, but if was five years and I was two years outside of the warranty. They didn’t have to do anything, but did. This in its self bumps Mitsubishi up to five stars in customer service! The only drawback was I had to take my old TV to the store to receive my $925 credit. Getting a 300+ pound TV to the store in the rain was no easy task, but alas I did it.

After waiting for over an hour for Ultimate Electronics to create what they call a “Wizard” ticket I was ready to leave. I would like to note that I did have to purchase a TV stand because the new TV was much lower than the old one. However I was given a $225 credit for a purchase of a new stand providing it was over $399 dollars.

TV set up. READ the manual before you begin, and LOOK at the remote very closely. They suggested I have everything hooked up, and on before I turned on the TV (tell you why later). I did that. When I turned on the TV up came a menu and it was automatically finding my devices. So far so good. Then came the part where it asked for my language preferences I choose English. The menu asked me to press the arrow key to go to the next screen I press WHAT I THOUGHT was the arrow key. It wasn’t. I accidentally changed the language to Spanish. Since I don’t read Spanish I was now in a myriad of menus I wasn’t quite sure of. After spending over an hour trying to change the language back to English I finally saw that inside the buttons was another set of buttons, and was able to change the language back.

I hooked up a DVD player, DVR (Dish 622), VCR, and Pioneer Receiver. I made two hook ups from the 622 one HDMI, one component, and fiber optic cable to the receiver (the receiver doesn’t have HDMI). NO sound. Went back and read the manual this time, followed the trouble shooting guide to no avail. I checked the mute, the connections, and the source nothing worked. I reset the TV to the factory defaults, still nothing. I was beginning to think that nothing would work.

Finally with the TV on I unhooked everything, turned the TV off, then back on with nothing hooked up. Turned the TV off again, re-connected everything, powered them on, and turned the TV back on. This time the menus came up in English, all of my devices were recognized and wa-la I had sound. I am assuming the plug and play needs a bit of work, but yes I realize it could be me.

Now I have sound. On my old TV I could run the TV speaker and surround sound at the same time with NO problems. On this TV the sound is off by about ½ a second so when I turn on the surround sound I have to mute the TV.

TV Review

The BAD first:

The remote is not back lit. The buttons are small, and the selection buttons when you are in the Menu/Setup mode are just plain ridiculous. Trying to push the buttons resulted in many miss-keys. The Volume up and down are marked with a speaker, which is by a +/- keys. I continually kept pressing the +/- to change the volume.

Menus: What were they thinking? Sometimes you press enter to get to the next menu, sometimes the inside arrow key, sometimes the outside arrow key. Can anyone say consistency?

Manual: Nowhere did it state you may need to unhook your devices so the unit could re-find and properly assign them.

TV Speaker sound: It is very tinny and weak. Yes I know I have surround sound, but at night I don’t turn it on so as not to wake the other s in the house. It would be nice to have a bit better speaker for these occasions.

Recovery Time: If you accidentally turn the TV off it can (not always) take up to 60 seconds for the TV to come back on. I believe this is because of the heat of the lamp, how long it was on, etc. Other times it takes only about 10 seconds.

The Good:

Plug & Play: 4 Stars If done properly it’s easy and straight forward. Just make sure you have ALL your connections in place and on before you turn the device on.

Picture Quality (HD Source): 5 Stars Stunning picture. On par with my other two 1080p plasma & LCD TV’s.

Picture Quality (SD Source): 4 Stars With a TV this big you will see more artifacts, yet I found the SD sources on Dish to be acceptable. (Note I am 12-14 feet from the TV).

Looks: 4 Stars. I have an inset in my theater room so I am able to push the stand and TV into the inset so they are flush with the walls. If I did not have the inset I believe looking at the slopped back from an angle would be a bit annoying. However in my set up I would give it 5 stars since it looks flat.

Price: For 60″ it’s a great deal.

Review by John Durham for Mitsubishi WD-65737 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Home Theater DLP HDTV
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After I did months of research the new model year came out. I was ready to buy the old year model but when I showed my wife the difference at a local retail store she made up OUR mind that the couple of new features looked a LOT better. Not it the least regretted the purchased. Cost vs. quality and even quality vs. other types of sets it is FANTASTIC. My son has a nice 50″ plasma set that is a LOT heavier than this 65″ DLP. I like our set better. The sound from the speakers is acceptable, but we do use a tuner 5.1 system.

We also use it with a computer for Slide shows, collaboration on projects, and even have a Blue Ray / HD Disc player. After two plus months of having it I am still THRILLED with our purchase. Even with old VHS 6 hours tapes it is ok. And with DVD media it is superb. So if the sheer size of this doesn’t impress you I would be surprised but that the size is not nearly the most awesome part. Clarity and sharpness is GREAT. The Mitsubishi WD65737 is worth every penny. The picture quality CAN’T be beat. . It feels like you are actually down in the action! The set receives a Full five stars!

The good: Excellent screen-size-to-price ratio; accurate color; plenty of connectivity including three HDMI and three component-video inputs; extremely thin bezel results in nearly “all screen” look.

The bad: If you REALLY need to have it mounted to the wall then this is bad. But if you have the room for it this is the way to go.

The bottom line: The rear-projection Mitsubishi WD-737 series offers the most screen for the least money, and great picture quality to boot.

Paid $1339 delivered

Mitsubishi WD-65737 65″ 1080P DLP

Review by Y. Vroman for Mitsubishi WD-65737 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Home Theater DLP HDTV
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The colors on this tv are so vibrant, the picture will not disappoint. I haven’t had any problems with window glare and my tv sits across from a 3′ x 4′ window. Hubby had no problems connecting everything, didn’t even glance at the manual.

Review by Randy for Mitsubishi WD-65737 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Home Theater DLP HDTV
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I really cant add much to the good points already covered in the other reviews. It is a great tv with an out of this world picture. My only gripe is the having to replace the light bulb so much. we had to replace it already and the new bulb costs $250.00! Since this will happen once a year it seems, it kinda makes this tv a money pit. Its not hard to replace but $250 a year. Of course this depends how often you use it. We have it on all day every day just about and so it burns out fast. Another thing ive noticed is as the bulb dims so does the picture plus projection televisions have moving parts so they could wear out to. of coure an LCD tv this big would cost mega-bucks so its all reletive I guess. I just wish it had a more dependable light source.