The Panasonic TX32LXD52 - Extra Terrestrial's first-play.
I'll start with a brief summary:
I got the HDTV on Monday morning to find the box not only smaller than I expected but was reasonably light as well, so those who think it maybe heavy or overwhelming - it certainly isn't and you should be capable to carry the box inside yourself.
My first impression of the TV was how big that screen is. Going from a 26" Sony Widescreen to a 32" Panasonic HDTV is quite a small shock, especially considering my bedroom is not large by any means.
The speakers are sitting at the base of unit - it is the silver part that you can see in the images shown above. All I can say is that that any TV looks better in the flesh but the Panasonic screen really does the job of looking rather grand.
Installation is automatic, from finding the channels - remember to plug in your TV aerial first, something I had forgotten briefly - to setting up some nice features that make good use of your TV.
The menu has 3 features - picture settings, sound settings and an options settings, which has a lot of security and update/firmware installations: I have yet to get around those because I think I will have a look at the instructions incase I do something awfully wrong, which normally happens(!)
The picture settings is rather simple. There is about 6 picture tabs where the images suit whatever your watching, from movies to sport - it suits the picture quality very well.
I have customised my own setting because the factory set-up is rather eye-tastically bright so I turned dynamic off (thankfully) and ramped up the sharpness, then notched down the brightness a bit to find a very pleasing picture quality.
The sound settings is fine, but I think I will leave it as it is because the factory setting did a great job of making the guns on Predator sound very heavy and gritty whereas watching the finale battle on Star Wars Episode II last night on ITV was a step ahead of anything I think I have heard on a TV in years - dare I say it: almost cinema quality!
Moving onto the movie and gaming aspects of the Panasonic TV:
I played Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube - the black/grey colour scales are indeed awful but after switching from my picture settings to the cinema option, which washed out a lot of dark colours - I felt mighty proud of RE4 on the TV, especially during Chapter 2 in the darkness.
I did not try too many games because I watch more DVDs than anything, but I can assure you that the quality for all the games I played was well above anything I saw on my widescren TV. The vibrant colours in The Wind Waker makes me want to experience the game all over again!
Another important aspect for my TV is the football. The night before I watched Liverpool and yesterday I watched Arsenal - apart from the rather bright contrast (I turned it down eventually), football has never looked better. It might be because my parents got an aerial on their roof specifically for their freeview box downstairs - which looks rather nice and sharp - is perhaps the reason why my built-in freeview looks so very nice.
For anybody who is intereted in the HDTV I have been writing about, I got it from sound and vision online. Delivery is free and takes between 5-7 days to arrive - I got my TV for ?1090 compared to the price of ?1349 I saw in comet 2 weeks ago. You may as well save the money and hassle by ordering online.
Any questions related to the Panasonic I have been writing about, please feel free to ask.
All I want now is *fast forward to the future* Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 with the fullest possible use of the HDTV era, especially when both Halo games made great use of sound effects and music. I cannot wait until the High Definition technology takes off because it is far too good to miss out on.
Thanks for reading.
I'll start with a brief summary:
I got the HDTV on Monday morning to find the box not only smaller than I expected but was reasonably light as well, so those who think it maybe heavy or overwhelming - it certainly isn't and you should be capable to carry the box inside yourself.
My first impression of the TV was how big that screen is. Going from a 26" Sony Widescreen to a 32" Panasonic HDTV is quite a small shock, especially considering my bedroom is not large by any means.
The speakers are sitting at the base of unit - it is the silver part that you can see in the images shown above. All I can say is that that any TV looks better in the flesh but the Panasonic screen really does the job of looking rather grand.
Installation is automatic, from finding the channels - remember to plug in your TV aerial first, something I had forgotten briefly - to setting up some nice features that make good use of your TV.
The menu has 3 features - picture settings, sound settings and an options settings, which has a lot of security and update/firmware installations: I have yet to get around those because I think I will have a look at the instructions incase I do something awfully wrong, which normally happens(!)
The picture settings is rather simple. There is about 6 picture tabs where the images suit whatever your watching, from movies to sport - it suits the picture quality very well.
I have customised my own setting because the factory set-up is rather eye-tastically bright so I turned dynamic off (thankfully) and ramped up the sharpness, then notched down the brightness a bit to find a very pleasing picture quality.
The sound settings is fine, but I think I will leave it as it is because the factory setting did a great job of making the guns on Predator sound very heavy and gritty whereas watching the finale battle on Star Wars Episode II last night on ITV was a step ahead of anything I think I have heard on a TV in years - dare I say it: almost cinema quality!
Moving onto the movie and gaming aspects of the Panasonic TV:
I played Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube - the black/grey colour scales are indeed awful but after switching from my picture settings to the cinema option, which washed out a lot of dark colours - I felt mighty proud of RE4 on the TV, especially during Chapter 2 in the darkness.
I did not try too many games because I watch more DVDs than anything, but I can assure you that the quality for all the games I played was well above anything I saw on my widescren TV. The vibrant colours in The Wind Waker makes me want to experience the game all over again!
Another important aspect for my TV is the football. The night before I watched Liverpool and yesterday I watched Arsenal - apart from the rather bright contrast (I turned it down eventually), football has never looked better. It might be because my parents got an aerial on their roof specifically for their freeview box downstairs - which looks rather nice and sharp - is perhaps the reason why my built-in freeview looks so very nice.
For anybody who is intereted in the HDTV I have been writing about, I got it from sound and vision online. Delivery is free and takes between 5-7 days to arrive - I got my TV for ?1090 compared to the price of ?1349 I saw in comet 2 weeks ago. You may as well save the money and hassle by ordering online.
Any questions related to the Panasonic I have been writing about, please feel free to ask.
All I want now is *fast forward to the future* Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 with the fullest possible use of the HDTV era, especially when both Halo games made great use of sound effects and music. I cannot wait until the High Definition technology takes off because it is far too good to miss out on.
Thanks for reading.
They actually said that and refuse to refund on that basis!?
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