TV Reviews

I had a long time to research which TV I was going for and if you want a theater style experience with lots of great features, and fit it into a budget, get this set. The biggest consideration in my opinion AFTER image quality (which is outstanding, but that's been dertermined in other reviews) is Aspect Ratio and how the TV deals with the two different formats. (There are several aspect ratios, but I'm speaking on 16:9 "theater" & 4:3 "television") This set does a good job of giving you several basic formats in which to choose from. If you're looking for a TV that you can completely fine tune your picture with several zoom settings, this may dissapoint. I found that they've included the perfect mix and I constantly find a perfect aspect ratio for me. One setting titled "JUST" takes a 4:3 image and keeps the center 2/3's in original aspect and gradually stretchs the remaining 1/3 equally to the edges, this gives the most pleasing results for TV viewing. On another note, Please read the manual for any TV you purchase. The manual of this set says to not use the 4:3 drop down (which will make a television (4:3) signal display in the correct aspect, but will leave you with bars on the left and right of the screen) should be used LESS THAN 15% of the time. If you don't you'll get image burn in. And nobody wants that.

I would recommend Panasonic TV's to anyone, this is my second, and I will continue to purchase them in the distant future.

If you want a nice HDTV and have the room, I recommend the 53" rear projection PANASONIC.

Take a look at the Amazon reviews, Circuit City (or Best buy, can't remember which has reviews between BB and CC).

The reviews were so stellar that I actually bought it sight unseen and shipped it from Amazon. And man!, were they right....the features and clarity is amazing (remember to lower brightness and no game systems for 1st 100 hours to avoid burn-in...also, avoid playing in 4x3 mode with vertical black bars for same reason).

When you do all the math, it is cheapest to buy from Amazon (but only with an Amazon Credit Card) becuase it sells for $1499 at Amazon plus $119 for shipping... but then there is NO TAX (most states) and with the Amazon CC you get Triple point for Amazon purchases (and for every $2500 points you get a $25 Amazon Gift code in the mail), so that gets you *almost* enough points for $50 in Gift codes.

Even with free shipping promo's or the $100 GC from BB, Amazon beats them becuase of the no sales tax.

IMPORTANT: Everything I have read and heard from tech people in the industry (not you minimum wage CC or BB sales clerks) say that Plasma is too young of a technology, doesn't generally come with a tuner or speakers, costs a ton more and has a lifespan measured in hours (instead of years). My research suggests your plasma will last 5 years (and start to get fuzzy in about 2) and the rear-projection will last approx 20 years (but will of course need some maintenance over that time frame).

Also, I have also heard that you should stay AWAY from LCD Projection TV (just get the standard 3 gun projector type) becuase the LCD type is driven by a bulb that costs $200-$300 and blows out every 5000 to 8000 hours (but indications are that your first one will happen in approx one year...which seems even faster than the the hourly guestimate). In fairness the bulb (on some models) is user replacable and the bulb may come down in price if the technolofgy catches on, but i wouldn't bet on it.

The panasonic 53 inch has a native resolution of 1080 (and I believe you need a converter box to scalle the 720 broadcasts....it does regular old cable without a box , but becuase it is digital the picture ain't amazing with regular cable...but that doesn't matter to me...I wanted the HDTV for DVDs and when I eventually feel like shelling out more $$ for HDTV cable.).

BTW, My last box was a rear-projection and died in about 6 years, so I was NOT ready to buy another rear-projection. But after research I found that my old box was notorious for a very high failure rate...there was even a class action lawsuit. I would mention the manufaturer, but it wouldn't matter becuase it was branded under multiple names and they don't make it anymore, so I don't want to prejudice people against a brand becuase of one particulr (defective) 6 year old model. However, I will say the manufacturer was NOT Panasonic.

Suffice it to say, that I was all gung-ho for plasma and NOT looking for rear-projection, but after all the research and info I got, rear-projections in general, and the 53" panasonice model specifically, won the contest hands down !

If you have info that counters all this, please post for others to see...These are just my opinions based on my experiences/research and this is a big purchase...the more opinions the better.

Panasonic Part Number: PT53WX53 (They also make the same unit in 47 inch: PT47WX53)

I bought this TV last month but before I did, I surfed the web for about 2 weeks to read reviews and compare prices. I even went to the Electronic stores that sold the models to see which one was more appealing. This model in each and every store I went into was CRYSTAL CLEAR, the picture was GORGEOUS. The Amazon price is so/so but right around the store price. I bought mine from a MErchant affiliated with amazon and WHAT A DEAL I got !!!!!!! $350 cheaper then the Amazon price.

When I got the TV 8 days after ordering, it was delivered and opened. I then realized how big it was compared to how small it looked in the store. I WAS PLEASED. the sound was EXCELLENT, picture perfect. I bought some home theater speakers and WOW. AMAZING !!!!!!!! 1 tip- when fine tuning the picture set it while your on a nature/wildlife show/channel its a good measuring stick for picture tuning.

negatives-per channel watt output is only 15w, and it doesn't really look good inside a enclosed wall unit. other then that I LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!! YOU WILL TOO !!!!!!!!!

I really wanted an HD (High Definition) TV. But I noticed when HD's take a normal picture, such as Cable TV or DVD movies, they have to stretch the image to fit the screen. Which makes the picture look nasty.

Enter the 50P8341. The price was fantastic since it was on close-out for $898 at [local store]. I bought it, not knowing what was in the box! (Yeah, I took a huge gamble on this one.)

I also purchased Sound & Vision Magazine's Audio/Video calibration DVD. (A must!) I spent a half-hour tweaking the picture's color and tint setting. Once setup, it was time to watch movies. Cable TV is a low quality signal source, so the TV's picture is a bit of give and take here. But it's clear unlike HD TV's digitally stretched images. DVD playback is breath taking! Very much like being at the movies. As with any rear-projection TV, brightness drops off center. But it's not to bad with this set. The size is a bit more than I need for my 13 foot viewing distance. Bottom line, it's a keeper!

Just bought my 50P8341, set it up a few days ago. Real nice picture, easy to set up, grest sound as well. I'm pretty impressed. Good for cable TV and awesome DVD watching. Real shweet deal for the price ! I'm happy.

This TV is incredible. The picture is beautiful and the sound is movie-theatre quality. It was exremely easy to set up. I would recommend it to anyone.

Just got the set couple of days ago. 1)It DOES NOT take 2 minutes to "warm up" it is on fully bright at 15 seconds or so. I haven't seen it with an HDTV source yet but I can tell you that a "superbit" DVD looks stunning. It also looked very crisp with my XBOX hooked up. The EZ picture formatting is great for stretching the 4:3 TV signal (i like the 2nd zoom best) there are plenty of inputs on the back and the set has lots of nice features (pic in pic, pic out of pic, 3 window channel scanning)
You can view the display at almost 180 degrees and it doesn't "black out" like an LCD panel. Don't be disappointed if a standard TV signal doesn't look "stunning" I think it's just the nature of the beast. It still looks pretty good. I am anxious to switch over to "the dish" so i can get HDTV. Oh yeah, it's light (for a big set) 135 lbs. you can actually move the damn thing if you need to! Aesthetically the set is gorgeous to look at even when its turned off. My favorite thing is to put 2 large pictures side by side and watch the main channels (coming straight from the cable) and then "surf" the cable box channels and the window beside it. This can be done by piping the cable box output into a video input. I was very hesitant buying the tv sight unseen but am very pleased. BTW, you can go to the Zenith website and download the PDF manual for the set, that is very helpful. Finally saw picture in HDTV and it was STUNNING. Downside, NO DVI INPUT! DVI is apparently the newer pure digitial uncompressed connection (a little larger than an RGB jack) Newer TVs have them WHY DOESN'T THIS ONE? That's the only drawback I can think of. The HDTV picture into the RGB jack still looks fantastic.

Got this baby a week or so ago and it's great. I almost bought the 50" Sony which I had seen at the store but a last minute search revealed some issue with the bulbs burning out so that scared me enough to choose the Zenith. I'd wanted a plasma originally, but the quality of this picture is comparable to a $6,000-$7,000 plasma of the same size. Nice.

The HD programming while limited in availability looks outstanding. I thought the brightness levels might be an issue in a bright room like I have but it's not. The TV is surprisingly slim, and not particularly heavy for a set of this size.

I had alot of time to research TV's. We just built an addition
that will serve as a media/rec room. I wanted to buy a tv that we could surf the internet and play video games on without worrying about burn in. The picture quality is just as good as the Sony and Panasonic and is 2" bigger. It is very stylish. The pictures dont do it justice. You can't see the front speakers like in the pics. I could not find a picture of the matching stand anywhere online, but ordered it any way. The stand is just as stylish. It has 2 heavy glass shelves for components that are open and do not have doors. The TV only takes 15-20 secs to turn on. My kids won't let me near it. They have been playing Xbox on it non stop. The built in speakers are very good. I purchased mine for $2,499 right here on Amazon. $1000 cheaper than Bestbuy. It goes on sale periodically. I recommend waiting for such a sale. It was delivered in perfect condition.

Just got the set couple of days ago. 1)It DOES NOT take 2 minutes to "warm up" it is on fully bright at 15 seconds or so. I haven't seen it with an HDTV source yet but I can tell you that a "superbit" DVD looks stunning. It also looked very crisp with my XBOX hooked up. The EZ picture formatting is great for stretching the 4:3 TV signal (i like the 2nd zoom best) there are plenty of inputs on the back and the set has lots of nice features (pic in pic, pic out of pic, 3 window channel scanning)
You can view the display at almost 180 degrees and it doesn't "black out" like an LCD panel. Don't be disappointed if a standard TV signal doesn't look "stunning" I think it's just the nature of the beast. It still looks pretty good. I am anxious to switch over to "the dish" so i can get HDTV. Oh yeah, it's light (for a big set) 135 lbs. you can actually move the damn thing if you need to! Aesthetically the set is gorgeous to look at even when its turned off. My favorite thing is to put 2 large pictures side by side and watch the main channels (coming straight from the cable) and then "surf" the cable box channels and the window beside it. This can be done by piping the cable box output into a video input. I was very hesitant buying the tv sight unseen but am very pleased. BTW, you can go to the Zenith website and download the PDF manual for the set, that is very helpful. Finally saw picture in HDTV and it was STUNNING. Downside, NO DVI INPUT! DVI is apparently the newer pure digitial uncompressed connection (a little larger than an RGB jack) Newer TVs have them WHY DOESN'T THIS ONE? That's the only drawback I can think of. The HDTV picture into the RGB jack still looks fantastic.

Got this baby a week or so ago and it's great. I almost bought the 50" Sony which I had seen at the store but a last minute search revealed some issue with the bulbs burning out so that scared me enough to choose the Zenith. I'd wanted a plasma originally, but the quality of this picture is comparable to a $6,000-$7,000 plasma of the same size. Nice.

The HD programming while limited in availability looks outstanding. I thought the brightness levels might be an issue in a bright room like I have but it's not. The TV is surprisingly slim, and not particularly heavy for a set of this size.

I had alot of time to research TV's. We just built an addition
that will serve as a media/rec room. I wanted to buy a tv that we could surf the internet and play video games on without worrying about burn in. The picture quality is just as good as the Sony and Panasonic and is 2" bigger. It is very stylish. The pictures dont do it justice. You can't see the front speakers like in the pics. I could not find a picture of the matching stand anywhere online, but ordered it any way. The stand is just as stylish. It has 2 heavy glass shelves for components that are open and do not have doors. The TV only takes 15-20 secs to turn on. My kids won't let me near it. They have been playing Xbox on it non stop. The built in speakers are very good. I purchased mine for $2,499 right here on Amazon. $1000 cheaper than Bestbuy. It goes on sale periodically. I recommend waiting for such a sale. It was delivered in perfect condition.

Based on the reviews and the average 5 star rating I thought I would upgrade from my 15 year old 25 inch Zenith, hoping to get significant improvement in resolution quality. However, the resolution was not much better than my old TV, ...

The Toshiba 27AF42 offers a good combination of price, features, and picture quality. I'm very pleased with my purchase. These are some things I like and would nitpick:

1) Picture is sharp and colors are good. The image has slight pincushion distortion. This is the opposite of barrel distortion where a squarish flat object would appear slightly spherical with the center closer to you. I created an image with fine print and sent that from my PC via its S-VHS output so it filled the Toshiba's screen edge to edge. Focus was slightly soft at the edges. Viewing a perfectly rectangular image you can see the pincushion distortion but you only notice it with video if you're looking for it. The slight edge softness isn't noticeable with video.

2) Tuner is reasonably good. I live in a rural area and use a rooftop antenna, and the Toshiba pulls in the stations as well as can be expected.

3) Having 2 S-VHS and 1 component input, all three with matching audio inputs, allows you to use the TV to switch between sources (which perfectly matches what I have). The Toshiba has one audio output and what comes out of this audio output (as well as the built-in speakers) is from the input that matches your video source. So you only need one audio cable to your receiver and you no longer need to select your audio source at the receiver to get hi-fi sound -- tidy. There's a dedicated button on the remote to switch between sources.

4) The remote is basic and easy to use. The menus are easy to navigate. The remote should have a dedicated sleep timer. You set the sleep timer from the menu. It's easy enough but who wants to navigate a menu when ready to doze off?

5) Finish is silver but I wish there was an option for black.

I use this TV with a Panasonic DVD-RV32 with component cables (AR PR-191). DVD movies are just fantastic with incredibly sharp images. The color quality is outstanding. Switching the DVD Advanced Surround Sound ON makes a much improved difference in movie sound quality. The Menu on the remote makes it very easy to change settings. You can change picture, audio, and video preferences very easily. Movie mode provides a softer picture which may look better when watching cable programming. Standard and Sports settings provide a slightly brighter picture with more contrast. Cable viewing, especially digital channels, is very high quality, but not as good as DVD. This TV will correctly show 16:9 format movies from my DVD player. I don't need to buy fullscreen format DVD's. I plan on adding a NAD C350 integrated amp and Pinnacle AC400 speakers for outstanding audio. I also purchased a 3 year in home repair plan. This is a great TV costing just slightly over $ 400.

When i walked into the store , i had in mind buying the 24" Sony FD Trinitron WEGA™ TV , without knowing much about tvs , i was just going to get that TV because of the brand . Well now i have this one , and to be honest , ist not bad at all , very sharp image , cool remote control , the only thing i didnt like bout it was the sound , it has the BBE system that its supposed to make a good "enveloping" feeling , and it does it but it gets bad when u turn it all the way up , i am a music maniac , and i know bout sound quality , and this sound its not the best at its maximun level. Lets say , if u wanna show off , get the sony , cause it has more sound power , and Sony its Sony , but if you wanna get the most out of ur hard earned pennies , go for the Toshiba. (it even has the component video) BOTTOM LINE , if u wanna be shaked by the sound quality , consider investing in a home teather system. Cause the image quality its pretty good.

This TV rocks! The picture quality is outstanding for DVD's and even regular old Cable TV. I've only been using the S-Video input upto this point for DVD, and the picture is terrific, can't wait to get the color stream hooked up. The sound is very solid, there are several sound variables that you can adjust to your liking. I generally run sound through my stereo though. I compared this unit with it's Sony counterpart in the store and was blown away by how much better this unit was... you actually get more for your money with the Toshiba. You really have to see it to believe it. It is a very good looking too, it looks cool, when it's not even on!

What else can I say? Best picture I've ever seen on a TV that wasn't high-definition. DVD is stunning; the size was perfect for my apartment.

These and all other brand cables from MC are all overpriced including these. I have a 20" JVC I'Art television and I have my DVD connected through component. I have used Monster Cable component cables and they put out pretty much the exact same picture as my newer PHILIPS brand component cables that I only had to pay about [$$$] or so for. The PHILIPS are also shielded and gold plated and all that good stuff. So buy these MC component cables if you dont care about price, but otherwise buy PHILIPS brand that are way cheaper and put out the same quality picture.

It may sound somewhat surprising, at first glance, that a short piece of cable between your TV and DVD player can make a noticeable difference in the picture quality, but once you compare a cheap cable with a good one, you'll see that there is a difference! My DVD player came with a very cheap-looking cable with three RCA connectors on each side, and I used this cable to hook up the DVD player to the component (RGB) input of my TV before doing anything else. I dismissed this cable immediately as the picture was much noisier than I expected. A $15 S-Video cable performed better. However, I had to adjust the settings in video equalizer of my DVD player to increase color saturation, and also had to decrease sharpness of the picture to make noise unnoticeable. Finally, I bought the Monster cable (don't tell my wife about it!). This cable resulted in a perfectly sharp and clean picture without any adjustments in the CD player. Due to double-shielding of this cable, there was no sign of the noise that I saw with the S-Video cable either.

I do not know if there is a noticeable difference between this cable and a less sophisticated one that may cost half of its price. I guess, everything depends on the kind of TV and DVD player you are using. But I can say for sure that my experience convinced me that there is a tremendous difference between this high-end cable and those from the very low end.

The last thing: I do not think that it makes any sense to use such an expensive cable for a connection other than component video (Y + two color difference channels), also called "color stream" by Toshiba. If you do not have a component video input, use either S-video, or composite video (Video+2 audio connector). In the latter case (or if you need a cable to connect your VCR) a cheaper cable would do. This one is worth the money only if you do not want to settle for anything less than perfect.

Recently bought a Analog Big Screen TV. Switched from S-Video to Component cables. There is a big difference. The picture looks more film like with Component cables. Do not hesitate to upgrade. Stay away from cheap Wally World brands. You get what you pay for. The S-Video cable I used was Monster Cable M1000 sv.

These and all other brand cables from MC are all overpriced including these. I have a 20" JVC I'Art television and I have my DVD connected through component. I have used Monster Cable component cables and they put out pretty much the exact same picture as my newer PHILIPS brand component cables that I only had to pay about [$$$] or so for. The PHILIPS are also shielded and gold plated and all that good stuff. So buy these MC component cables if you dont care about price, but otherwise buy PHILIPS brand that are way cheaper and put out the same quality picture.

It may sound somewhat surprising, at first glance, that a short piece of cable between your TV and DVD player can make a noticeable difference in the picture quality, but once you compare a cheap cable with a good one, you'll see that there is a difference! My DVD player came with a very cheap-looking cable with three RCA connectors on each side, and I used this cable to hook up the DVD player to the component (RGB) input of my TV before doing anything else. I dismissed this cable immediately as the picture was much noisier than I expected. A $15 S-Video cable performed better. However, I had to adjust the settings in video equalizer of my DVD player to increase color saturation, and also had to decrease sharpness of the picture to make noise unnoticeable. Finally, I bought the Monster cable (don't tell my wife about it!). This cable resulted in a perfectly sharp and clean picture without any adjustments in the CD player. Due to double-shielding of this cable, there was no sign of the noise that I saw with the S-Video cable either.

I do not know if there is a noticeable difference between this cable and a less sophisticated one that may cost half of its price. I guess, everything depends on the kind of TV and DVD player you are using. But I can say for sure that my experience convinced me that there is a tremendous difference between this high-end cable and those from the very low end.

The last thing: I do not think that it makes any sense to use such an expensive cable for a connection other than component video (Y + two color difference channels), also called "color stream" by Toshiba. If you do not have a component video input, use either S-video, or composite video (Video+2 audio connector). In the latter case (or if you need a cable to connect your VCR) a cheaper cable would do. This one is worth the money only if you do not want to settle for anything less than perfect.

Recently bought a Analog Big Screen TV. Switched from S-Video to Component cables. There is a big difference. The picture looks more film like with Component cables. Do not hesitate to upgrade. Stay away from cheap Wally World brands. You get what you pay for. The S-Video cable I used was Monster Cable M1000 sv.

Since the other reviews here already mention this TV's features etc. Ill just get right to it,I saw this TV in Consmuer reports as the highest rated 32" model among the many models tested,also Toshiba has one of the best repair history records according to Consumer reports , afer looking around I found it at Bestbuy.com on sale for $407 (as of 02/3/04), I'm really picky with picture quality (maybe a bit to much? =) but this TV has a really nice picture ,in fact it comes very close in picture quality to our $700 Flatscreen 27" Wega ,Also the sound quality is much better on the Toshiba, my only (minor) complaint would be the 'Black Retention' is a slightly weak (a tv's ability to maintain black in dark scenes without it looking 'grey') turning down the brightness helped this a lot but still not quite on par with the Wega,The factory picture presets on the Toshiba are badly set in my opinion ,After running the Video Essentials DVD I noticed this TV has very good Convergence and only a slight Geometry issue in the bottom left corner(picture "sags" down a bit) ,After running through the video test patterns on the dvd I ended up with the following settings: Contrast 53,Brightness 43,Sharpness 58, Color 48, Tint 0 ,Color Temperature: Medium, This may not be the 'perfect' settings for you but im 99% sure it'l look a lot better than any of the factory preset settings (Movie/Standard/Sports). With these settings watching Cable,playing Xbox or watching DVD's all look great.

The remote control is nice ,very similar to a Sony's remote layout,I was able to easily program it to operate my DVD player, VCR and Cable box.

For the money you really cant go wrong,Excellent TV overall,Also worth noting is even tho its not a Flatscreen it still looks flatter than most conventional 32" TV's I've seen.

I just got this TV to replace an old 31" GE TV I had. I looked at a bunch of 27" and 32" TV and this TV had by far the most crisp picture. It even looked better than a lot of the HD ready TVs. Make sure when looking for a TV that you see how it looks in low light screens as well as how crisp the lettering seems. These are the two areas where I could really see a difference in picture quality. Also, play around with the picture settings on the display TVs. It makes a big difference especially if someone else has monkeyed around with the settings.

Overall, if you are in the market for a conventional 32" TV, this one is a great purchase especially for the price. Lots of inputs, great picture, and good sound.

I also can't say enough about this tv.. I was in the market
for a flat screen HD TV ready 32" or higher and looked and
did the research and waited and didn't rush. I had gone to
the stores and compared pictures and I always went back to this
Toshiba, its even got a screen that is pretty close to flat and bought it and I love this set and I saved hundreds
of dollars if I went to HD TV ready. Great Picture and value
for those looking for a reasonably priced TV with great credentials. It also ConsumerReports #1 rated 32" Conventional tv for the money
even listed slightly better than the more than twice as expensive Sony FD trinitron Wega V310 at over $900.00.

This Keyboard and its individual keys is/are too narrow to type
efficiently.
This results in your making many typing errors to go back over ( such as 'tanks' for 'thanks',etc.
On the other hand; it does connect to the receivor pretty good as long as you have an unobstructed view and they are on the same level.

The Keyboard needs to be revised badly before it can rate 5 or more stars!

Very pleased with the service, speed of delivery, and so far the quality of my new WebTV keyboard! The old keyboard only used one AAA battery; this one uses FOUR AA batteries, so speed is noticeably faster. Also appreciative of all the informative e-mails that came to me, both from Amazon and from the seller, NW ITV Dealers.

This keyboard is all that the seller said it is. I can write and write and never have to worry about another sticky or completely stuck key. I'm satisfied!!!