Norcent PT-425 42-Inch Plasma Flat-Panel HDTV-Ready TV
By: Norcent Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 6
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 On: 2003-12-31
Im not an expert so Ill just say it how it is. This TV was 1600$ off for a Boxing Day sale and cost me 2999$ CAD. When I got home with it and plugged it in, it had a hard time recognizing the component hookup. But I believe it to by my “monster cable” cables. The picture as some other said was a bit dark but I have brightness and contrast set to about 90% and its perfect. One thing to keep in mind I found that when I plugged in the s-video cable for some reason it would make the screen darker...not sure why myself. I have it on component and then plug in S-Video...goes darker. Anywho I don’t use S-Video because I feel its garbage:) What I also love about the TV is the remote. The setup is nice and the lighting on it is great! Its a VERY bright red and you can easily see what buttons are what when watching your movies in the dark. What don’t I like about the TV? I think the quality could be a bit better but when I was looking at them in the store I ranked it higher than the Sony one sitting beside it. The colors are very nice but slightly more pixilated than some of the other brands. The hookups in the back are nice and well labeled. Also the stand it comes with and the look of the plasma screen itself are very nice. I feel that if you slapped a Sony label on this and jacked up the price 2000+ people would still buy it. (Maybe not the experts, but the avg Joe would just dive for the name) To summaries it all off, I saved myself an easy few 1000 dollars by buying the Norcent, and very happy about it. If you want plasma and want really good quality TV viewing, this is the one that let you do that without taking out a second mortgage:)
Plasma screen = Cosmetically nice and visually VERY good as well
Connectors = nicely placed connectors
Options/remote = Got all your esencial options but not as many if you pay 3000$ more. Remote very nice in the hand well placed button and wonderful bright red light that light up all buttons.
4 stars just because the picture could be more solid and could have more options. But if you want to rank it based on its cost it gets a definite 5/5 if not more. I paid 2300 USD for it and when you sit back and relax...its picture perfect.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-10-03
Along with the Norcent Home Theater, its an awsome addition to our game room.
 On: 2003-08-27
The price obviously was fairly convincing, however, upon receipt, the display surface looked as though it were a very used product. It lead us to be believe that maybe we had received a refurbished unit. Additionally, the picture was distorted over half of the viewing area to the point where once you try to adust it, it equally distorts the other half of the picture. I also expected a much brighter picture with Plasma as Ive seen with other units Ive seen in stores, however, even with it brightness maxed out, it was only 50% as bright as those on display in stores. Tech support was of very little help to us to solve any of the problems we exprienced. However, the begged and pleaded with us not to return it as it thats all theyve been dealing with-obviously a trend with this company. There was just too many serious issues with this product to accept and it has since been returned. We purchased a 30inch LCD-TV which draws a lot less power and has a much brighter picture.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-08-18
I would have given this 3.5 stars, but I give 5 to balance out the review from "Laura" who apparently works for a competitor of Norcent.Norcent seems to be a manufacturer owned by a large Taiwanese OEM but operating out of China. (Dont quote me on this.) They sell some very good DVD players, which have a huge fan base across the world. I own one such DVD player and have been very happy. Which led me to check out their plasma offering. The exterior design of the plasma TV is quite attractive, but you can tell that the overall build quality is not as refined as units from the Japanese manufacturers (Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Panasonic, JVC, etc.). But not bad when compared to a South Korean brand (Zenith or Samsung). So if you are already thinking of a "cheap" unit from Korea, this Taiwanese/Chinese model will save you money and give you the same quality. Picture wise, its bright, but not as sharp as the standard bearers from Fujitsu, which arguably makes the best plasma screens on the market today. I see some blocks of pixelation which is usually associated with LCD screens. Response time seems ok. Setup was a bit confusing and you might want to hire a professional. (Note: many plasma TVs require tune-up, and like the Norcent, the users guides are usually inadequate.) This is HDTV-ready, like all other plasma TVs on the market today, which means youll need an HDTV decoder to get HDTV broadcast. If you do get an HDTV decoder, get a quality one from Sony or Panasonic or JVC. I recently saw a no-name one and also a Samsung one at Circuit City selling for cheap, but the salesperson said they were terrible because they couldnt even decode a lot of information. So stick with a name-brand like Sony. You get what you pay for. So this is a good plasma TV for the price, especially if you know how to work around plasmas. For my money Id get a Fujitsu for the top-notch picture quality. I think Ill wait for the Xmas season to see if the Fujitsus price comes down.
On: 2003-08-07
Ive been very impressed with this Plasma teleevision, the quality is so awesome not to mention the price, I cant wait until the Lakers season starts to watch my games in HDTV. I was so impressed that i decided to buy 2 more before they run out.The quality of the screen is very sharp and clear. I did encounter some setup issues, but i called Tech Support which, may i add, were very helpful and knowledgeable, and they quickly sorted me out.
On: 2003-08-01
Well after determining we wanted to make the plunge into new technology, we took a chance on a product/brand we never heard of. Wow, was that a mistake! In fact, 1 star is probably too generous in this case. Everything from poor set-up information, very poor users manual, very-very poor tech support people who we could barely understand, to the most important disappointment...poor-fuzzy image quality of the product. We tried all the suggestions provided to improve the picture, however, we had a far better one with our big screen-projection TV prior. Needless to say, we exercised our consumer rights and returned the product. Well instead take a closer look at brands and products weve heard of and used before such as Sony, Envision, Samsung, etc.
Keep shopping.
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