Panasonic 42-inch Plasma

Panasonic kicked off its Tuesday with what it says is one of its most important TV updates yet. Its Viera PZ700 line includes a 42-inch model that breaks the seemingly impenetrable barrier of producing a full HD, 1080p plasma set under 50 inches. Panasonic's PEAKS processing engine keeps the contrast strong at 4,000:1. The rest of the line, which includes a 50-inch model, also packs ample connections with three HDMI inputs, dual D4 (component equivalent) inputs, and an SDHC card reader that can play H.264 or MPEG-2 video directly from flash storage.

Versions of the PZ700 pare available either with 20W chin-mounted speaker sets in 42- or 50-inch models ($3,437 and $4,442 respectively) or with 31W side-mounted speakers for $168 more. Panasonic hopes to ship these plasmas on April 27th along with the PX70, which mainly shaves prices through 720p screens and a lack of H.264 support for its SDHC slot.

By Electronista Staff