Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ81 46in Plasma TV Review

Great to see an HDTV actually coming with HD viewing built in at last. Now just add twin tuners and a hard disk recorder ala Sky+ and I'm sold! Fed up paying Sky so much for so little.

On a slightly different note, when will you start including power figures in your TV reviews? I quite fancy a 46 inch plasma but not if it's going to use more power than an iron. I know plasmas are heavier on power than LCDs but any idea how much? Standby power figures would be useful too.

Great review btw!

Couldn't find details for the 46" version but Panasonic do have power consumption figures for the 42" model. Power consumption figures of 324W (actual use) doesn't look too good really (assuming it's same model line then powering a larger screen will eat up even more energy). Standby use figure is 0.4W "without DVB Tuner Lock On" (presumably without EPG updating itself overnight).

Links to Panasonic's model specification for 46" (TH-46PZ81B) and 42" (TH-42PZ85B) models:

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/874561/index.html?trackInfo=true
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/557581/index.html?trackInfo=true

The dynamically adjusting backlight 'eco' mode might help save on the 'leccy' bill though. Essentially turning down the brightness and especially contrast levels should help shave off a few watts as well as prolonging the panel's life. Daytime usage with strong ambient daylight would use more power than watching the screen at night/in dark surroundings.