I was just about ready to pull the trigger on purchasing a 58in Panasonic Plasma TV, from Crutchfield of course, when I came across a number of disheartening consumer reviews on a well known consumer electronic website. From the less than stellar reviews on that site, it seems that Panasonic knows that they have a problem with their internal power supplies that cause the TV's to power down repeatedly ("power light blinks 7 times" etc.).
Can anyone shed light on the subject? Even those "victims" who have experienced this problem acknowledge that the Panasonic plasma picture is first rate, but is it worth the potential headaches?
Thanks!
I've got a 42" Panasonic plasma. I bought it in 2005 and haven't had any power problems with it.
The one problem I've had with it was picture burn-in. When I was setting everything up I set the side bars to "off" when watching a 4x3 image because it looked the best. After watching it like this for not more than a couple of days I noticed while watching in full screen that the sides of the picture were a lot darker than the rest of the screen. It was a very clear line on both sides that was obviously from watching it the way I had it set up.
It wasn't permanent , thankfully. I changed the settings so the side bars were bright (really annoying) for a few weeks and the dark area went away. Now I have it set on medium which I don't like but I've gotten used to it.
My next TV will definately be LCD.
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I bought a 42" model (th42pz77u) in October. I love the HD picture and most SD looks pretty good. I came home last week and turned it on and nothing but red led flashing 7 times over and over. Panasonic support is hard to contact. ( busy signal or "we are closed, try later.) They use a local company for warranty repair. They set up an appointment for this week and nobody showed. I finally have appointment scheduled later this week, but repairman was familiar with this problem and seemed skeptical about getting parts and said they will probably take the tv for a while.
I have researched online and found that this is still common in new models. This model came out shortly before I purchased it. The problem seems to be a lot worse with this model than others. I returned to Sears the day after I bought it to buy an HDMI cable and a repairman had the floor model on the floor replacing the circuit boards. Circuit City and Best Buy have stopped selling this model.
Other models have problems, too. Read all the reviews you can. Sears website has a bad review of the 58" model. You have to figure that people with problems are going to show up disproportionately in reviews and forums, but I would check around. People are saying the failure rate is about 3% and that's not that bad, but out of 1000 products if you're one of the 30 who weren't lucky, you're going to be very unhappy.
I'll be happy to try and dig into this further for you. dpk, which model is it that you are looking at, and which model or models did you see the bad reviews on?
Forgive my thoughts on this matter as I have not researched properly to totally understand but: If the power supply of said TV were a bit on the "touchy" side of things, would it not be wise to also invest in a serious surge protection device [such as this: Link ] that could help filter the AC power to avoid upsetting the power regulator within said Television set?
Has a setup like this been tried before?
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I'm looking at the TH-58PZ700U. I've seen bad reviews (power supply issues, with various "blinking light" indicators) on this model as well as earlier models (and possibly the new 750 as well, but I can't confirm at the moment) that people have purchased from various vendors over the last 9-12 months. Obviously, there are always disgruntled, or simply unlucky, customers with any product. But I saw enough consistent complaints to make me think twice about the product line. You can do an internet search for "panasonic plasma power supply problems" or "panasonic plasma 7 blinking lights" and you'll see a sample of what people have said.
If you have some insight from within the industry, or from Panasonic directly, that would be great. Heck, I'm currently using a Panasonic CRT TV, vintage year 2000, that hasn't given me any problems, so I'm not biased against Panasonic. I'm just trying to make a wise investment. Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
I did some research, and talked to the head of our Tech Support Department. The return rate on the TH-58PZ700U is lower than the average for LCD & Plasma TVs. Our reviews on this product are very positive, and historically Panasonic has solid products.
One of the tricky issues is that most reports of failure that we see online do not have a reference point. Basically there is no way to determine a rate of failure. While we may see 6 reports of an issue in reviews, or somewhere else, if this is out of a couple hundred units then it is a pretty low incidence rate.
From what I can tell (from our info, and info from other websites) the power supply could end up being an issue but it seems to be at a low rate of incidence.
For anyone looking at this (or any other TV), I would recommend some power conditioning and protection. In addition, I would recommend considering the extended service plan to help protect your investment.
Hello Jeff,
I have a couple of questions for you so bare with me.
First, I recently bought the Panasonic TH-42PZ77U (Black Friday weekend 07'). My brother bought the same model two years ago and his tv has an automatic shutoff feature after 6 hours of use. Mine does not (at least, not that I'm aware of), and I didn't know if this was something to do regardless of whether it had an auto shutoff feature or not.
Also, the main reason for me contacting you is that I also own a Pioneer SD-533HD5. It's been out of commission, well since Black Friday and I do not have a vehicle large enough to transport it to a repair shop. We're planning on selling it but I want it to be fixed before we do so. We currently live in Palmyra (Lake Monticello), VA and I know that you guys are located in Charlottesville. Does Crutchfield have repairmen that will come to your house to help repair tv's such as this? I would greatly appreciate your advice.
Welcome to the forums Zach.
ZachDahl: First, I recently bought the Panasonic TH-42PZ77U (Black Friday weekend 07'). My brother bought the same model two years ago and his tv has an automatic shutoff feature after 6 hours of use. Mine does not (at least, not that I'm aware of), and I didn't know if this was something to do regardless of whether it had an auto shutoff feature or not.
The info on the automatic shutoff is on Page 29 of owner’s manual & it’s under setup menu.
ZachDahl: Also, the main reason for me contacting you is that I also own a Pioneer SD-533HD5. It's been out of commission, well since Black Friday and I do not have a vehicle large enough to transport it to a repair shop. We're planning on selling it but I want it to be fixed before we do so. We currently live in Palmyra (Lake Monticello), VA and I know that you guys are located in Charlottesville. Does Crutchfield have repairmen that will come to your house to help repair tv's such as this? I would greatly appreciate your advice.
We can do this for local repairs, and I have replied to your e-mail with some additional info on this.