You won't find a higher quality plasma TV for this price!
Written: Sep 03 '03
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Pros: Relatively Low Price & Large variety of Audio/Video Inputs/Outputs
Cons: The internal speakers are basically worthless.
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this TV to anyone who dreams of having a pretty good quality Plasma TV without spending $10,000. I am extremely satisfied and think you will be too.
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| nate873's Full Review: Gateway PLSM42TV 42 in. EDTV-Ready TV |
I have spent many of days this past year comparing various Plasma Televisions on the market. My wife would always know where to find me when we were at Best Buy, Circuit City, or the Good Guys... I would be examining in detail all of the plasma TV’s trying to figure out which TV was the best for the price. My major issues with the Plasma TV, was that I wanted a sharp picture with every audio and video input and output that could possibly be needed someday. And of course the biggest issue I had was the price tag. As much as I would love to have the highest quality Plasma TV available, there is no way my wife would let me spent $10,000 on a TV!
The reason I wanted a Plasma TV was largely do to space concerns. We have a relatively small area for a television set, so we were pretty limited on options if we wanted anything larger than a 37” TV in the TV cubby space we have. Now, a 42” Plasma TV fits perfectly on top of the TV cubby, so that was a HUGE selling point. Also if I ever choose to mount it on the wall, I can!
After finally convincing the wife to let me buy a Plasma TV between $2000 and $4000, I considered buying the 42” Sampo model or Samsung model at Best Buy. Both are decent models for the price, but I decided on the Gateway model, largely due to the name brand, but mostly because of the 12-month free financing deal they were offering. I also figured I could get this TV tax-free by ordering it on the Internet… NOT the case. If Gateway has a physical store located in the state you are having the TV shipped to, they have to charge you sales tax on Internet purchases. Had I known that, I would have just bought it at a store instead of waiting 2 weeks for shipping.
Picture Quality
Anyway… I have had my 42” Gateway Plasma TV for about 4 months now. I am happy to say that overall I am very pleased with the unit. The picture leaves a bit to be desired when it comes from anything other than a digital source. When using the plasma to watch regular TV, the picture is stretched to fit the 16:9 display. This takes a little while to get used to, but now I don’t even notice it when I watch the TV. You do have several display options with this TV to not stretch the picture and just shows black bars on both sides of the display where there is no picture. I think this looks tacky and prefer the stretched picture. When watching a DVD movie in widescreen mode, you will get horizontal black bars above and below the picture. There is a digital zoom feature to basically blow up the picture to get rid of these bars, but it also distorts the picture quite a bit and in my opinion is not worth it.
The PIP and POP features are very nice. You have the option of moving the PIP anywhere you want on the display and changing the source of the PIP or POP to basically anything you want, except RGB. You can even split the screen in half and watch two separate sources if you would like.
INPUTS / OUTPUTS
Audio/Video Inputs/Outputs
1 Composite Video
1 S Video
2 Component Video (Y/Cb/Cr and Y/Pb/Pr)
1 DVI video input
1 RGB input
6 Audio In ( L/R )
1 Audio Output ( L/R )
1 Subwoofer output
I use nearly all of these inputs. I have my Playstation2, Laptop Computer, Digital Cable, Regular Cable, DVD, VCR, and an external surround sound system (an external sound system is a necessity with this TV, due to very poor quality internal speakers) hooked up to the TV. I watch DVD movies and DIVX movies from my computer quite often and the quality is amazing as far as I am concerned. When I watch a DVD, I can’t tell the difference between the display on my Gateway and the display on the top of the line $10,000 model out there. The computer and video game display is pretty darn good as well. The computer display is clearest when I set the output to 800 x 600. The text gets fuzzy if I try to go any higher on the output.
Physical Appearance
This unit weighs about 80 pounds with the stand attached, so you can move it around with one person if you really wanted to, but I wouldn’t recommend it. With two people, you can move this TV very easily pretty much anywhere you want. You probably want to put it on something very stable tough if you are using the included stand. I don’t think the TV would survive a fall from very far.
The outside casing seems to be pretty sturdy and has a very nice look to it. This is a fan-less system, so you don’t have to worry about having to listen to a fan running all of the time. With that being said, the TV does run rather hot after having it on for several hours. Some people have complained about a buzz coming from the TV. I have never experienced this. This unit has always operated very quietly for me.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3000
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Epinions.com ID:
nate873
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Member: Nate Anderson
Location: San Diego, CA
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
US Navy Pilot (SH-60B)
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