The Best Way to Watch Movies at Home. Ever. With superior video resolution as well as audio playback, Blu-ray Discs are six-times better than DVDs. Not sure which players are BD-Live enabled? Or of what BD-Live even is? Visit your newly redesigned High-Def Headquarters to find out more and get in the know. This TV was just recently released as of the time of this review, and it's one of the best TVs under $500 you can find on the market. I did a LOT of research looking for what I wanted in a TV. I've been wanting a nice flatscreen for a while now. I've been holding out as and quality has been improving while prices have been dropping. I finally settled on this Panasonic.
I wanted a TV for primarily movies (Hi Def and standard or upconverted Def) and video games (Hi Def and standard def). I do not have a cable subscription and am not curious in HD cable services. That being said, I wanted a TV that would double as a humongous PC monitor. I'm pleased to say this TV meets and exceeds my needs so far. It's a big upgrade from the 20 inch tube TV I was using before the VIERA.
The LCD TV is nice looking and has a variety of cable inputs. Both the remote and menu systems are top-notch and useful. This TV puts out true 720p resolution and has 4:3 ratio (standard, full-frame) and zoom scaling as well. For TVs 32 inches and under, 1080p (while nice) is not necessary, as you'd be hard pressed to notice a dramatic difference with your HDMI or component sources. The picture is super sharp, and the image control obtainable with this TV is pretty impressive. You can really play with the picture and color. I was laughing at the efficacy to essentially reproduce that 60's Technicolor supersaturation if you want. It really brings films to life. You can make up to 4 preset color choices, too- One for films, one for sports or live action TV, one for video games, one for kid's cartoons, etc, etc.
There is 1 stuck pixel on the TV. This is to be expected, and is not noticeable unless you're looking for stuck or dead pixels from about 18 inches away. I cannot look the pixel when watching, though, exclusively when I'm up close on the screen. This is not an issue at all. You cannot pick out 1 dead pixel on a TV of this resolution. 1 out of over 1 million pixels, the rest are flawless.
I've just gotten this, and haven't fully tested completely the bells and whistles, like the SD card port or the VIERA Link HDMI software (waiting for 1080p media player, coming in the mail). PC to TV was effortless and looked great. Even my old PS2 looked pretty good, albeit jaggy. I think that's more the game than the TV, though.
I almost went and got a $300 or $375 no-name tv at Walmart or Target, but I'm glad I paid a bit more for a higher-quality product. This Panasonic is really, really, well built, and is a near-perfect 32 inch TV. I'm more than happy with my purchase. As I test it out more, I plan to update this review, but so far, I'm loving it! This Panasonic is a great TV at an affordable price point, and 32 inches is complete for most small to medium sized rooms.
Also, if you have any certain questions, post 'em and I'll do my best to answer.
**UPDATE**
I've had the TV for a while now and still love it. I got an upconverting Sony DVD player (model DVPNS710HB ) that puts out 480p, 720p, and 1080i upconverts of standard DVDs. I bought a $3 HDMI cable from buy.com (skip the $100 monster cables, trust me) and the picture is fantastic. The trick is that since the TV displays 720p, by switching the DVD player to send the data in 720p, you get a native resolution that lets the image look its best on the TV. While the TV has a scaler built in, having the DVD player scan and scale and then transmit via HDMI produces a signifigantly clearer picture. Some of the DVDs I have that were shot on digital video look very, very close to HD programming. My digitally remastered James Bond DVDs look signifigantly better than through a component DVD player. I was impressed.
As for the other features- the SD card reader is slow for my tastes. It takes a couple of seconds to load each picture. Of course, I have a VGA connector hooked up, so its much more convenient to load the pictures to my PC and view them thru windows. HQ images look AMAZING on this TV, though. I had always shot digital pictures at high resolutions, but couldn't really see them as they were meant to be seen, only having a 15 inch LCD. With the early TV as my monitor, my pictures now look 100 times better.
Another cool feature- through Viera Link, the HDMI Sony DVD player works with the Panasonic remote- no programing needed. I simply went into the Viera Link menu and selected the HDMI DVD player, now my DVD player will initiate and interrupt when I power on the TV and I can control it all from my TV remote. Very cool.
I'll post some more updates if I have anything else to say or if anyone has any questions.
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