Thankfully, the Panasonic TC-P42X1 comes in a couple of plasma models in 720p resolution. Since most of your high definition viewing is going to be in 1080i or 720p you still get the maximum high definition quality from a 720p panel. I would guess for Blu-ray the better black levels would more than make up for the lost resolution. With Game Mode turned on you get the motion resolution and enhanced details you need to win. And don't worry about racking up all those long hours playing anti-image technology and a remarkable 100,000 hour panel life ensure that your HDTV will still run smoothly and beautifully. Brings high quality viewing to your home.

Let's start with the screen itself whose resolution of just 1024x768 has an obvious negative impact on the amount of detail it can show. We even noticed the staircase effect having to scale a 1920x1080 source to fit onto a 1024x768 42'' screen just won't do. HDTVs with a diagonal screen size between 42 and 45 inches are LCDs or Plasmas usually with a resolution of either 1366x768 or 1920x1080. The optimum viewing distance for an HDTV screen like this one is generally considered to be about 6.5 to 7.5 feet.

This technology produces razor sharp images even in high-speed chase scenes. Thoughtful additions like the pixel orbiter, an Anti-Reflective panel, and an Energy Star certification add up to the impressive 100,000 hour panel life span. This technology converts the motion in each scene into data and each frame is practically displayed for a shorter length of time than in previous systems to reduce after effects. The 600Hz Sub-field Drive produces crisp, focused images for sports, dramatic action, and all other fast-moving scenes. Your full-HD movies and games never looked sharper.

The Viera Image Viewer enables you to enjoy and share your photos with your family and friends. It has a another great feature Viera Link for compatible home entertainment components such as your camcorders, digital cameras and now you can control all A/V home entertainment components via a single remote and helpful on-screen menus.

Colors look rich and natural and contrast is crisp with deep black levels. Compared to last years model the Panasonic TC-P42X1 delivers improved picture quality while consuming significantly less power. Color reproduction was about average once we'd calibrated the TV before calibration we found all of the colors peaked at very high intensity levels the trade off being a much better contrast level. The main problem with the TV's color representation it's a little choppy as the TV tries to boost the intensity of a color the actual visible increase was not consistant.

Panasonic Plasma HDTV brings vivid colors from 6,144 steps of gradation. Plasmas still beats LCD on viewing angle but the LCD TV's are still the cheaper alternative. You can be at almost any angle viewing a Plasma TV and the picture is clear as can be. Plasmas are suppose to have the higher contrast advantage over LCDs and shouldn't suffer from lost details of dark scenes. It leads me to think the dynamic range of this TV isn't really that great despite what the manufacturer says.