Summary: Home Theatre Fan
Comment: I bought this TV about 2 months ago and must say that the quality of this TV is almost as good if not better than the 27 Wega. Picture quality is excellent in my opinion and have my Pioneer DVD player connected via component and the colors almost seem lifelike. As far as sound, I really do not use it at all since I have it all connected to my Home Theatre Receiver. Only thing that this tv did not have over the Sony Wega is PIP but I really don't care about that either. For the price I paid, it was preety much a steal ... at JandR Music World.
Customer Rating:
Summary: well worth the money
Comment: I was TV shopping for awhile since the trusty old RCA died. I wanted a flat screen and the Sony Wega was my first choice. But the problem was that no TV I liked would fit the entertainment center I had. I was stuck with a 28" width. The Sony and JVC had a comparable picture, but were too wide. I saw the Panasonic and the dimensions were perfect. The picture quality is as good as the Sony for less money. One caveat: eat your Wheaties, you'll need them as this TV is one heavy bugger. Forget about lifting it out of the box, you'll end up in traction. I cut the sides of the box open to remove it. The controls are easy to use, with tons of features that i'm still figuring out. I hooked up the DVD player and was in awe. The picture is that good! The sound quality is above average as well, all-in-all this is a great TV for the money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Picture slants up on top and down on bottom...
Comment: Is anyone having trouble getting their picture adjusted? The picture slants up on the top and down on the bottom. This is especially noticiable when viewing shows in wide screen format. Also, we are unable to view any of our movies in wide screen. Which seems odd. We just bought this television yesterday and will probably be returning it to the store. I don't see these problems mentioned anywhere so we must have gotten a lemon. Otherwise, the picture is good and the sound as well. Really easy to hook up and learn to use.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good picture, but stereo sound is poor
Comment: The picture quality is very good. But the sound is poor. The speakers are small and separated by the entire width of the TV screen. The sound seems disconnected from the picture, which is very distracting. Even when sound is set to mono, the sound quality is still poor. The on screen menu....well, I've seen better and easier to use.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great picture and FANTASTIC sound!
Comment: I won't list all the great features this tv has because other reviewers have done a far better job then I could.
I had narrowed my choices down between a Sony WEGA and this Panasonic. I went to several local big name electronic stores and compared the the Sony and Panasonic picture, side by side. Both pictures look great. There were very little difference. Features were very nearly equal. But be aware that the picture quality depends on how the electronic stores have the tv's hooked up. I went from one big name electronic store to another one literally across the street and the picture quality between the Sony and Panasonic were differet between the two stores. You won't truly get a good idea of the true picture quality until you get it home. This applies to any tv.
What made up my mind was that I've read several complaints about the Sony WEGA line having HALO effects and a Pink stripe in the picture. That worried me. There were many complaints about this problem.
The Panasonic has BETTER sound then the Sony. The sound is FANTASIC. The Panasonic has 'BBE high-definition audio enhancement' which provides crisp and clear and loud audio. Loud in a good way. Combined with the 14 watt (total) speakers you can hear every word and breath of dialog that actors speak. Gun shots and explosions sound great!
The Panasonic produces crisp and clear picture. The colors are vivid and true to life. There are no HALO or Pink stripe or any other picture distortions. Set up as easy.
My only complaint was the weight of the tv. It's around 108 pounds. The box the tv was packed in was bulky. You can't get a good solid grip. There were no hand holds built into the box. I would suggest that you bring a buddy with you to help you man handle the tv. Be sure to have your buddy hang around to help you get the tv out of the box and lift it up onto the tv stand.
The weight and lack of hand holds built into the box was why I almost gave the Panasonic 4 stars instead of 5. But I think tv performace is more important then packaging.
Oh, the Panasonic was less money then the Sony. I got is on sale.
The Panasonic has a Sound Level Monitor feature that the Sony didn't have. This feature keeps the tv commercials from blasting you out of your chair with their usually LOUDER volume level. This might not seem like a major feature but for those of us who use the tv sleep timer to help us drift off to sleep, it's a life saver.
To sum things up: great picture and FANTASIC sound. I have no regrets.