"Which?" Best Buy Panasonic Viera TX-P42S20

Hi guys.

I'm asking for a little favour if you could hep my poor old Ma out.

She has been looking for a new TV.

Her friend subscribes to Which, but the latest review she can find goes back to '10, and the best buy is the above TV. What's more they reckon it is available at JL. Not according to JL it isn't.

All of which leads me to believe it is obsolete. Indeed, according to Panasonic's UK site, it would appear that is not a current model.

Could anyone in the know please advise which model superseded that one and if anyone is a Which subscriber, could they tell me which is the current best buy in the £600 bracket please?

Grateful thanks.

You are more likely to get a reply on a busy forum such as AVforums or Digitalspy.

Main brand TV models change at least once a year, and it is usually timed to occur in the spring. Any review older than 12 months will definitely be out of date for current ranges. Anything 6 months or older could also be out of date depending on the timing of the review and range change.

As far as brands go, Panasonic is generally excellent, as too is Sony. You pay a bit more but get the best picture quality per £ and the best reliability too.

Panasonic TX-P42ST30 is £549 at JLP with their 5 year warranty. The TV has just won Best Buy awards from What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision's group test against the other major brands, and a Recommended from HDTV Test which is a very good testament to the quality.

Samsung and LG are cheaper and/or have more toys but the trade off is in picture quality and reliability. Samsungs aren't too expensive to repair but LGs can be very costly. In other words you'll make a small saving at purchase, but end up buying new again much sooner or giving a repair man a lot more than you saved to fix the TV. I know this because I am a repair man. Depending on the fault the average Samsung out-of-warranty repair is £100~£150 plus transport. Factor something in too for your own inconvenience being without the main TV. LG you'd rarely get change from £200 because the parts are that much more expensive.

Good points from Chris.

Another point I just thought of is that no review of a current model can comment on reliability. Therefore a long guarantee is worth having, but read the small print for exclusions. Also bear in mind that most guarantees offer a "return to base" repair or replacement at the shop's discretion. Returning a large TV to a shop is a pain. Returning it to a mail-order company is even worse - especially if you threw away the packaging.

If you DO have to return it, expect to be without it for at least a fortnight.

Thanks chaps!

Apologies for the lengthy delay, I've been an inpatient at Stepping Hill Hospital.........and I've survived to tell the tale!!

Yes, the human body has reliability problems, too! Unfortunately, it comes without warranty.

Dead right.

If I were a car, I would have been returned to the dealer or scrapped by now...

Me and my Ma recently went to JL and have had possibly the worst service from JL ever.

First, there was a huge wait. Then the guy knew nothing about the products, had to look eveything up on the net.

We expected him to know which model superceded the old one and maybe even to be a bit savvy about which models have won performance awards, but no.

Anyway, apparently, this is the nearest, according to him:

http://www.johnlewis.com/231546907/Product.aspx

What say you?

looks a good one, ive been very pleased with my panasonic plasma for the last 6 years and had no trouble with it. I will be buying another soon, probably from jl because of the 5 year warranty

securespark said:

Anyway, apparently, this is the nearest, according to him:

http://www.johnlewis.com/231546907/Product.aspx

What say you?

Click to expand...

That's an LCD TV, not a plasma like the S20 you first linked to.

If it's a plasma you want, the 2011 replacement for the S20 was the S30 which you might still be able to find for a decent price, but not from John Lewis.

The only 2012 42" Panasonic plasma that John Lewis currently sell in your price range is the 42X50B : http://www.johnlewis.com/231570054/Product.aspx

There aren't many online reviews for it though, so I've no idea what it's like - it's an HD Ready set (1024x768) rather than Full HD/1080p (1920x1080), but it all depends on what your mum is likely to watch on it - if it's just Freeview and DVDs, then an HD Ready set should be fine.

If you look at places other than John Lewis, you should be able to pick up one of the better plasmas in Panasonic's 2012 range like the UT50 and ST50 models (the GT and VT50s will be out of your price range)

Panasonic's Viera model numbering works like this;

TX-L.... LCD TV
TX-P... Plasma TV

Then the size in inches, so TX-P42 for 42"

The next 1 or 2 characters are where it gets a little tricky, as they state which technologies are used (the "G" for example, has better black filtering).
TBH, though, most folks won't necessarily see a massive difference in performance, but it is worth bearing in mind that some of these technologies are more expensive than others.
So, you may find that a TX-P42G30 is more expensive than a TX-P42S30

Next comes the software generation. The 2010 models were 20, and the current models are 30.
Finally, you may have a trailing letter, which denotes the country it is targeted at, B being Britain. Often. though, retailers won't use the country code, as they only ever sell UK TVs.

So...

a TX-P42S30B (or TX-P42S30) is a current-year, British spec 42" plasma.
a TX-P42G30 is the same telly, with the black filter, and is probably slightly more expensive than the other one.

I happen to have a TX-P42G20B, which is a 2010 year model. You may spot a bargain Viera with the 20-designation but please do be aware that the bundled Internet software (for Youtube, Netflix, etc) is *miles* behind the software on the current, 30-designation, models.
If that doesn't bother you, then you can probably pick up a 20 for a lot less than a 30.

Hope that doesn't over-explain it, and helps a little

Cheers
Scott