HDTV Reviews

I bought this TV as a replacement for an RCA 36" HDTV that I had had some problems with.... While I don't have the same problems with this TV, I do have some other annoyances....

I have the RCA DTC100 hooked up through a VGA to component video adapter, and two problems appear:
1. The TV always defaults to a 16:9 aspect ratio, even though the TV, picture source (satellite or local broadcast), and satellite box are 4:3. You can manually go into the menu and change this each time you turn the TV on, but it's a mess. Panasonic told me there is nothing they can do to make sure the TV senses the right aspect ratio or that it "remembers" the aspect ratio that you entered when you turn the TV on the next time.

I am thinking about buying a new HDTV box, but I'm not sure that would solve the problem. The output of the DTC100 is a 1080i output, which is inherently 16:9, from my understanding. Some of the other satellite boxes allow you to choose different outputs, such as 720P or 480P, but those should also be a 16:9 aspect ratio inherently as well - causing the TV to still default to the incorrect aspect ratio when watching standard definition TV. The other concern I have with the TV is that I changed the DTC100 to the 16:9 aspect ratio, but the result was a 16:9 within a 16:9 (the resultant picture filled out the width of the TV, but was only 1/4 the height...).

2. The second problem I've had with the DTC100/Panasonic combo is that when viewing a HDTV picture that has a distinct line between a dark part of the picture and a bright part of the picture, such as a landscape/sky picture, the edges of the picture, right around the transition of the light/dark objects, starts waving around and shrinking from both sides of the TV edge by a couple of inches or more. The rest of the picture looks fine, and the center part of the lines that are shrinking looks fine - it's just that one part of the picture that has a problem.

I've made all the recommended adjustments, and nothing has any affect on this wavy edge. I have a service guy coming later this week to look at it, so I'll update this review if I have any luck.

I did a lot of research on these TV's before buying the Panasonic, so it's very frustrating that these minor problems exist. The picture is outstanding, most of the time, but there are times where the wavy lines get really bad, and you can't focus on the story line of what you are watching. And their service number is ridiculously slow - I waited over a month for them to research the issue #1 above, only to have them tell me I was SOL and it was my fault, not theirs...

I did a lot of research before buying this TV, and concluded that this Panasonic is the best 36" HDTV monitor for the money. It has great picture quality, more than enough A/V inputs, and the cosmetics of the cabinet is great too!
I was a little disappointed to find out that they offer a better remote with another similar model, one that operates more devices, but I wouldn't pass this TV up for that minor issue.
I totally recommend this TV to anybody!

After doing MONTHS of research, I went out and bought this unit.

Here are my main impressions:

1. The Picture quality is FANTASTIC. I have played both normal and progressive scan DVD players on this unit, as well as a XBOX, VCR, and Cable Box. The store "floor model" does not do this justice, you have to get it home and run through the "set-up screens". The only downside is if you are in a bright room (lots of windows, etc), as the brightness of the room will kill the picture. As most entertainment rooms are not bright this should not affect most people.

2. The remote needs some work. It does not have "full" control over my Cable Box like it should. It is not able to access the on-screen guide (SA3000 Model). I was told that that HL42 (The one with the sub-woofer) model has a higher grade remote and controls the cable box. Why they did not include this remote in this model TV is just stupid. The remote is also not "feel" friendly. It takes ALOT getting used to certain buttons. That said, get a "all-in-one" like I am going to.

3. As most channels are not in HD yet, don't expect to see that many. My cable company (COX) is coming out with HDTV in mid-Nov...so I should be able to see alot more. But, as the technology moves forward, I see almost ALL channels starting to have a HD option.

Closing....best buy for the money (and HD's are not cheap). But, this unit gives you all you need in a good home TV with HIGH QUALITY results!!

After researching all the tvs . I've noticed that the panasonic only came with 850 lines of horizontal resolution compared to toshiba's 1200.. I would have expected the panasonic to have better picture quality than the other as the price is higher.. but I'm not sure if that's the case... I don't have the toshiba next to me to compare.. but i do notice that when i watch regular cable on the tv, that it is noticabley not as sharp as I thought it would be...

Although it's hard to judge as in the stores they always play dvd quality images..

I am very impressed by the remote being able to handle my receiver and my DirectTV remote..

If you're expecting plasma quality, don't look here. I paid $... for this TV, which was a bargain. The quality isn't perfect, but I would have had to pay double for that. It certainly is a move up on my 11-year old 27" TV.

One caution, filtering your incoming analog signal can make all of the difference.....

I can't list price, but I paid well below other brands in a similar size because I got it at a Thanksgiving special at circuit city. I am extremely pleased with it so far. Excellent picture (slight differences in brightness and quality when comparing side to side at the store, but are you going to do that at home?) providing outstanding picture on everything I've watched, DVDs and cable. This TV has it all for a great price: HDTV, progressive scan doubling, 3:2 pulldown, great virtual surround sound, built in protective screen, picture in picture and split screen, nice remote, etc. Sure it's not plasma quality, no projection TV is. But for your buck you can't go wrong with it. I'm still AMAZED!!! Only problem is that the 56" is slightly TOO big for my little apartment! Enjoy!

great picture, but broken comes out of the box. only hdmi works, the rest of videos and components do not work. tv is going back to Panasonic for service.

After researching and looking at plasma, lcd, lcd projection tv's for couple of months, I finally bought this TV from amazon.com. Had it for couple of weeks now, and am amazed at the quality of the display. Got HDTV from comcast cable and the HDTV channels look and sound great. Of course I wish there were more HDTV channels. I recommend using the Monster DVI-HDMI cable. This TV has a HDMI port. I also recommend Samsung DVD player HD-931 that generates HD outputs via DVI for your DVDs. The resultant image quality is excellent, even though it is not "TRUE HD".

After a large amount of research, we finally bought this tv and are very happy about it. We don't yet actually have HD but the picture is still great...I can't imagine what it'll be like with HD.

The only problem on the previous model was that the remote was cheap-looking and made badly. This remote looks very nice, with a metal cover and many nice features.

Of course, the signal on regular tv is not top-notch, but that is true on every tv.

this is sick...first of all the tilt problem..that you CANT correct will drive you crazy. All they did was take an analog tv and stamped an Hdtv logo on it....hahaha this is not even close any hdtv 36inches and under including Zenith, Samsung, and Hitachi have a sick tilt problem. The the best picture out of all of them is the zenith...but hey ive takin back 7 tvs in a matter of 2 months..maybe im just picky.

I admit I do not have a lot of experience with consumer HDTVs, even though I am a video engineer. I saw the Daewoo set at NAB 2003 last week (4/10/03) and it attracted my attention because of the high quality picture. As I investigated further, I discovered that the set had the ATSC digital receiver built in! Up to now, this seemed to be an option on all the sets I'd seen. I was told that the set was obtained for $1,600! This is 1/3 the price of the nearest equivelant product I'd found! Since then, I have found this set for as low as $999. A bargain at twice the price! In all respects, for the price, I would rate this set very highly! Four point nine out of five at the least!

This is a great TV for those who desire size & and good picture. The screen is squarer than the more popular "widescreen TVs" showing picture in the standard TV 4:3 aspect ratio. However with such a large 60" screen when watching movies that have been formatted in the 16:9 aspect ratio (widescreen) you will receive the widescreen picture with top and bottom letterbox bars (black bars) in screen size of 55"! It has 4 AV output (3 back , 1 side). To top it off it was a great price! My husband loves watching the football games on it and I love watching CSI. Great Picture _ Great Deal _ Get the TV the whole family will love it!

This TV is huge and is great for anyone that wants a big screen TV with standard 4:3 aspect, but still show a large 16:9 widescreen display for under $2K. The widescreen is 55"! It is beautiful as my wife has said. I recommend this TV for anyone that is on budget, not that this TV is cheap. The size and picture are absolutely stunning. I've only had minor issues with this product. The single HD tuner required me to purchase an HDTV swither so that I could play 480p (progressive scan) DVD's and also hook up my HD cable TV box. I bought the MadCatz HDTV swither for $20. Works great. The HD tuner cannot understand analog or 480i signals. I don't know if this is normal, but being a newbie at this stuff, it took me a while to figure out the right configuration for all of my hardware. The TV comes with a protective screen which has already paid off since my kids have written on it with pens and also scratched it within the first 2 weeks of ownership. Also, closed captioning is not an option under HD mode, unless you switch it on "manually" through the cable box or subtitles on the DVD player. I couldn't figure out how to turn it off until a service guy came out and figured the problem. The manual omitted that you cannot control it through AV-4 (HD mode). Customer Service was responsive when I contacted them regarding the closed captioning issue. My Playstation 2 is also fun to play on this set.

TV has no inputs for a center channel so one must be set on top. My first unit had a black spot on the screen, I couldn't find anyone to do warranty work for Philips (neither could they). After 7 weeks of calls, emails, waiting on parts, and finally a complaint against Philips to the Better Business Bureau and a credit card dispute. The store I purchased the unit from agreed to exchange it for me.

Make sure there are no flaws in yours before you get it home, it is a pain to get someone to do anything for you after that. Philips made no efforts whatsoever to get this matter resolved, I had to call each repair center myself.

The Ultravision (Hitachi) seemed to have a better picture.

This is the best tv in the whole wide world.

I love it. I bought it primarily for PC use and decided that if i am going to spend 400 bucks for a 17 inch LCD then might as well spend a little more and buy a LCD PC with TV too. I love the High Definiton capability. I love the picture quality. Course i have used CRT's till now so cant really say that it is the best buy out there for 500 dollars.
But i like it. I bought mine at costco and then was amazed to see the huge difference in prices everwhere else.
Its a bargain for that price.
I am not giving it 5 stars because i havent really used a lot of LCD's

I have been using this as a TV and sometimes to view DVD's from my computer. The resolution/picture quality and the connections/setup are very intuitive and easy to use.

Overall an excellent product at an excellent price (I picked it up from Costco).

The design is wonderful. The tilt is adjustable. It's great for watching DVDs, but get up close and you'll notice that it suffers from not having a DVI connection; text looks like it's smudged, sort of ghosty-like, even at the native resolution. If you're just looking for a flat panel television then it's great, but if you need a computer monitor look for something with a digital interface.

This LCD monitor is simply superb. Even when it is powered off, it looks superb. A 17" screen that is only about 2" thick. This is a very compact and extremely lightweight LCD (10.4 lbs) that displays gorgeous visuals for PC, TV, and my PS2.

I have a GeForce2 graphics card, and the image quality at its native resolution of 1280x1024 is bright and crystal clear with great vivid colors. You must make sure to touch the Auto adjust button which calculates the best image quality for the signal coming from your video card signal at each resolution. After you do, even the scaled-down resolutions of 1024x764 or 800x600 is very good. (At these lower resolutions, games have an anti-aliased look.)

I also have the highly-respected Samsung 770TFT, and using the 770 as a benchmark for comparison, the 171MP seems to outperform the 770 overall in picture quality, especially in brightness. Blacks look very black (best I've seen on an LCD), and the presence of the backlight cannot be detected in full-screen black, even around the far edges of the screen.

TV quality seems to be better than on a regular television, having higher detail and clarity. However, the quality of the TV output on the 171MP seems dependent upon your incoming TV signal. On a weak or bad signal, the 171mp's TV mode will bring out all the noise and graininess more so on its high-resolution screen, possibly making TV viewing worse than on the television in your living room. So make sure to have a good strong signal. If you don't, lowering the sharpness will help. Btw, the remote controller is great and does not have the problem of the 150/170mp models; the remote sensor is very sensitive, and one does not have to point towards the screen to change channels.

As far as viewing moving images, the display performs wonderfully. I use WinDVD, and DVD movies look absolutely stunning and incredibly detailed and sharp (appears sharper than the 770). Ghosting and "trails" is very minimal in the 171MP, a problem prevalent in most LCDs today. "Trails" is slightly noticeable in high-motion fast-paced FPS games such as UT and Q3, but not enough to detract from your fragging performance. Playing FPS games on the 770TFT was barely bearable, but now with the 171MP, it is an improved LCD fragging experience.

Lastly, playing console games with this thing is near unbelievable. Once you plug your Playstation2 with the Monster S-video cable for PS2 into the 171mp, you realize that you were missing out on the true graphical capability of the PS2. If you have been playing games such as GT3 on a normal TV and you thought the graphics for GT3 were impressive, then I must tell you that playing on the 171mp with monster s-video makes GT3 even more impressive. It almost seems as if your PS2 is suddenly outputting video at a higher resolution. This setup makes the PS2's graphics seem better than the Xbox. This graphical improvement of the PS2 is not seen when connecting the monster cable to a regular TV--so it is the 171mp that is bringing out the best of the PS2.

The speakers on this monitor are better and more powerful than the 150/170mp, and they are surprisingly very good for built-in monitor speakers, which are usually disappointing.

Overall, this monitor is THE ONE for anyone who is seeking great image quality, style, multitasking work with play, easy portability for presentations or LAN parties, or a compact all-in-one entertainment center.

Zenith has made a good start here, but it is missing some key features. Notably: sharing between PVRs (e.g. like ReplayTV does out of the box and like TiVo does with an extra option). Also it needs a larger drive - 160GB at minimum, 250 or larger preferably.

Let us hope this is an early version of what will become a full-featured PVR like the TiVo or ReplayTV because it has plenty of promise!

The tuner on this box is terrific. It changes channels quickly, has never locked up (unlike the Samsung SIRT-165), and has a good remote that lets you quickly pull up the channel info or signal strength. All of my local stations also broadcast in DTV, so I don't miss the lack of an NTSC tuner. The antenna pass through allows me to connect my analog VCR as well (useful to have a second tuner for PIP).

When considering whether or not I wanted to spring for the extra dollars to get a PVR or just a plain tuner, I hadn't realized the difference HD recording would make. I really don't want to watch TV shows any other way! And for sharing purposes, you can always edit out the commericals of your recorded program and copy it to an analog VCR.

The timeshifting feature is pretty cool. Unfortunately, you can't rewind material you've currently started recording through the timer. You have to start out using the timeshifting. The manual was a little unclear how it works exactly, so I've managed to lose 1/2 hour of a show while trying to figure it out. Suffice it to say that if you want to save timeshifted material (beyond the show's duration), you need to use the clip record function as well. Once you get used to timeshifting, you'll love it. Friends calling in the middle of your favorite show aren't a nuisance any longer.

The only feature I really miss is the ability to seek to a particular time. Instead you have to fast forward at 50x speed (unless you've bookmarked it) to the spot you want. You also can't delete the multi-channels. For example, say you only want channel 4-1, but not 4-2, you can't delete 4-2. There is a surf button that moves the channel changer between channel numbers (and then you can use the ch+/ch- to move between the multi-stations). Also be careful about your how you set the clock. I was using "automatic" and failed to record a few shows. I wonder if the machine received an errant signal and it triggered some of the reservations early. Once the clock was set, I had to switch it to manual set to get consistent results.

So far this TV is fine, but nothing special. The wide screen gives the picture an "off" quality to me, and I don't know if that is just true of all wide screens. Picture is not as clear as I get from my Panasonic flat screen, audio is fine, but for me it would have to be bad to be a problem. One irritant is a misunderstanding in the product data. It is described as having PIP, which I thought was great for the price. When I got it, I found out that it does not have 2 tuners, so can't do TV PIP, but can be used as a computer monitor, and get TV or video PIP on the computer screen if you want it. Or, TV, plus video PIP. I think the Panasonic is a little better quality, but this one will do the job for a basic TV if you are not too fussy. I wouldn't get it unless it was on sale, but it isn't bad enough to send back.