Helps you spend less time watching TV. Writing this review may have assisted in my therapy

The most worthless pieces of dog excrement I have ever purchased. A gift to yourself that keeps on giving- like herpes.

It is too bad I am writing this review at this late date because I guess all of the damage has pretty much been done. I am referring, of course, to all of the people duped into purchasing this virtually unusable piece of junk thinking that they were buying a unit as represented by Panasonic, ie. a state of the art HDTV receiver that supports 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. Unfortunately, I discovered that I could not return my unit because I had already activated the unit's HDTV card which, I was told by the friendly folks at The Home Theater Store here in Austin, Texas, renders the unit unreturnable. Nevermind that they recommended the purchase of the Panasonic over the Toshiba and Mitsubishi units they also carried at the time when they should have been cognizant of the fact that the Panasonic was not even suitable for retail sale given its multitude of sins,a few of which are apparent after even a few minutes of use. Allow me to share a few of the most vexing of the issues that plague this model (apparently Panasonic got out of the HDTV tuner biz altogether because, as of a couple of years ago I visited their website for assistance with my problems and discovered that they no longer made ANY HDTV satellite receivers). THE NOISE Noise is important, right? Not at Panasonic. They apparently LIKE noise, otherwise why would they make an HDTV Receiver that should be branded "Hoover." Perhaps their HDTV units are designed to be used in the family of other Panasonic components so that their fan noise can mask system noise inherent in their other audio components. I don't know but, whatever their motivation, they managed to manufacture a fan-cooled receiver so obnoxious, my wife even complains about it! The pernicious sound from the Panasonic is not unlike the sound a Hoover vacuum cleaner makes, hence the nickname "Hoover" assigned to the receiver. It is so bad that my wife actually ENCOURAGED me to buy another receiver to replace the Panasonic! Imagine that- This is the same wife, who abhors my wise investment of our hard-earned money into depreciating electronic equipment! But, like Popeil TV ads, there is more, much more! GLACIAL SYSTEM RESPONSE Glaciers move very slowly. Hence the glacier metaphor to way the Panasonic works. Say you want to change channels. Go ahead and push the buttons on the remote. Assuming, the system responds to the input (which it does not do about half the time), get up and make yourself a sandwich. Why? Because that way you won't have to sit there and wait for the "state of the art" Panasonic receiver to respond, thereby wasting valuable minutes which could be best used doing some useful task. A nap, perhaps. Am I exagerating? A little, but not as much as you might think. THIS IS NOT A NICE RECEIVER! There are many other issues pertaining to the "Panasonic" experience that I could share. But suffice it to say that if you are interested in buying this unit (used, of course, at this point) try it out first. If you feel that you can stand using it- buy it. Understand that there is a distinct possibility that, at some time during your ownership experience, you will begin to "act out" (a term my therapist has taught me). DESPERATION MOVE After about a year of suffering and being unable to confront the fact that I had wasted $750.00, I contacted Panasonic and found out that they (according to them) could fix my unit with a hardware upgrade for the fan noise and the glacial system response. I gladly shipped the receiver to them for the free fix! At last, I would be free of my demons. My life was about to change for the better! I didn't know it, but this must have been part of Panasonic's plan all along. Their version of a cruel joke! Because when I got the recever back, it made as much (or, possibly, even more fan noise! The system response was unchanged and last, but not least, the video and audio dropouts (one of the features of the Panasonic I left out) that were supposed to be fixed by the upgrade were much more frequent and of longer duration! PERFECT! I'VE GOT TO GO NOW. I NEED A DRINK.

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