Panasonic Viera TX-P42S30B

A 42 inch 3D plasma TV

2011 was, for Panasonic, a fruitful year with a lot of successful plasma TVs with 3D possibilities and slender frames released at short distances one from the other. Both critics and consumers bought the company’s products and were very pleased with them if we take a look at sites such as amazon.com. Today, though, we won’t be reviewing a device in this category. Instead, we’ll dwell on the 2D and slightly thick $1254 ($784 online) Viera TX-P42S30B and what resulted from our testing it.

Glossy design

It’s not even necessary to say that the TX-P42S30B is a plasma TV, because its looks give it away the instant you see it before your eyes with the glossy and also quite thick black bezel and its edges that are somewhat rigid. The word “slim” has nothing to do with this product. Under the logo with the name of the company on it is a touch that makes sure the device won’t bore owners with its black color: a bright grey highlight. The stand that lends stability to the TV is also black and square and in the form of a tabletop. It enabled us to easily mount the product on the wall when we wished to do that. The fact that this is a plasma TV we’re talking about is no hindrance at all to it being very solid.

Freeview HD tuner

The Viera TX-P42S30B has, like all Toshiba TVs, ports, but instead of the usual four USB options there are only three. But there are also the likes of Component, Ethernet (no Wi-Fi), SCART and Composite video sources to connect various devices. This product has an upper hand over Samsung ones, due to the presence of a DVB-T2 (Freeview HD) tuner. The remote control worked without complaints from our part and the menus that opened on the display offered a lot of help throughout the navigation once we noticed the interactive instructions, despite not being of a bling-bling kind. The actual screen of the TX-P42S30B was perfected with glass of the best quality.

Impressive colors

Even if the display can rival many of its counterparts, the levels of brightness aren’t of an extreme quality and they appear dull when the TV is sitting in a room with all the lights turned on. The tools for adjusting the images onscreen didn’t increase the brightness by much, but still, it was better than nothing; or we could simply turn the lights down or off and get superb colors, motion clarity and contrast. Calibration brought things up to a normal state by quite a lot. Motion clarity was amazing for a TV that costs so little and we were able to see sharpness when moving objects appeared.

Medium sound quality

Contrast was very apparent especially when we wanted to see really detailed shadows. Blacks were deep and we detected no motion blur. Testing the viewing angles we had pleasant surprises, because there was no loss in contrast or color when we chose to sit in various positions that were more or less on the side or far away from the screen.

The Panasonic TX-P42S30B was no expert in the sound quality department. Treble and bass in particular proved tricky when loud action scenes took place.

Test and review conclusions

Drawing a review conclusion on this plasma TV, we find ourselves with not many appreciative words about this model. We expected at least varied features, the LCD technology and 3D, but the depth of black levels, the nonexistence of motion blur and presence of shadow details were more than enough to satiate us. But don’t expect Panasonic Viera TX-P42S30B to be the best TV in the world.

Technical specifications

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