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Do not buy. After 2 years and warranty running out tv stops working. I can not find anyone who can even work on tnis piece of junk. Circut City where I bought it are idiots, have had 2 service techs here so far. When you spend this kind of $, you expect your tv to work longer than 2 years, 3months, 2 days

Progressive inputs/Line Doubler/PRICE 25-50% less than HDTV

more control over aspect ratio with certain DVD's would be nice

Dollar for dollar I don't think you can buy a better big screen at this point in Digital Technology. I paid $1959.00 for this TV compared to $3000. to $7500. for HDTV's. I have a progressive DVD player. I used it with true HDTV's and this SDTV at my dealer, and the picture differences were all negligable. For the cost of this TV now, in 7 years when HDTV is broadcasted on a regular basis the $7000. models will all cost around what I paid for this and i'll get one then. Until then, I don't know why anyone would pay more for technology that you can only use for very select viewing that is available presently. If you can live with the black bars on top during widscreen veiwing than this is an excellent TV.

For analog viewing the line doubler in the panasonic is great. No bars in the picture at all. No comparison to regular projection televisions!

Build quality is nice and panasonic has always been known for making quality televisions.

I've been extremely happy with the performance to this point.

If money is no object

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denon 2500

Inputs and Great Picture

As with all Digital TV's - The grainy backgrounds on dark scenes and detailed backgrounds can be annoying.

I was looking at the 36" Toshiba Cinema Series until I read all the problems from reviewers. I settled on this set based on the Picture at the store. The 30 day money back Guarentee made me comfortable to try out in my home. I bought the Onkyo 777 and Onkyo DVD player with Polk Audio speekers. Great sound.

The inputs are easy to hookup and switch from DVD to Satalite to VCR. The PIP is great. Postions and sizing is available.

The remote control is very basic. Don't plan on using this for your universal remote.

Based on my picture, I am very please with this set. I have no issues and would buy it again.

progressive scan (SDTV - 480p), very good line doubler, backlit remote

only 1 saveable picture setting, terrible colour decoder

Being a progressive scan television, it is much better than any interlaced RPTV. There are no visible scan lines, no flickering, and the picture is very smooth and film-like. Compared to other progressive scan televisions, however, this TV does not do so well. The similarily priced Toshiba 51" SDTV can do 1080i as well as 480p. The Toshiba also has a Theater mode in which SVM is disabled (to save you having to disconnect wires inside the TV), and the picture settings are more appropriate.
Out of the box, this TV is horrible. The default picture setting is WAY too bright, and will seriously damage the TV if not turned down immediately. Upon calibrating the TV with the AVIA DVD, I discoverd that the red gun was pushing 25% too much, and the blue gun MORE than 25% too little. This translates to a picture with dull blues even at full saturation setting, and WAY too much red.
In the service menu you will find a good multi-point convergence set-up system, as well as the means to correct the colour problem. I am having my set ISF calibrated as soon as the service manual becomes available. Hopefully then, with the colour and gray scale tracking properly set up, will the TV look as good as it should.
Just for reference, the white temperature in the warmest setting, is in the 10,000K range, whereas the NTSC standard is 6,500K. When are TV manufacturers going to start making TVs that do what they are supposed to?

Great Picture, Good Service, Great Price

None So Far

I have found the product to be great. It was a great price at best buy, and i have enjoyed it greatly. It has almost as good of picture as any TV i have ever seen, and i am looking forward to getting the HDTV tuner to hook up to this baby. Maybe its just my living room, but the TV looks great from any angle, and DVD's look spectacular on it.

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Progressive inputs(2 of them) Good line doubler

You cannot assign picture settings for each video input
Poor convergenge pattern. I like the 9 point convergence scheme by other manufacturere

Out of the box the contrast was set to maximum and could damage the CRT's quickly. After calibrating the set using the Video Essentials DVD, the picture became sharper and the colors were less saturated. The manual that came with this monitor is next to useless unfortunately. I'm so used to manuals that contain the technical information at the back and the Panasonic doesn't have any of the specs written. Although the set allows you to change the color temperature I get the feeling they are still too high from the NTSC standard of 6500K temp. Panasonic seems to be pushing the reds rather high.

The line doubler works quite well with very little motion artifacts. I have connected a RCA DTC-100 HD receiver using one of the component inputs and the picture is very clear. Again this TV like most projection TV's looks best in a darkened room. I've had the TV for less than a month so I have all the contrast/picture settings quite low until I break in this monitor. One of the HDTV sites recommend not pushing the CRT's beyond 50% on the first 100 hours of use to prolong the life of the TV.

I'm still waiting for my progressive scan DVD. Right now I'm using a Sony DVP7000 using the S-video to watch DVD's. The picture is sharp and clean. I don't know what the requirements are for HDTV but the colors fade a bit when I use the component inputs for DVD. Hopefully this will improve when I get my DVD player with progressive scan capablity.

My only major gripe about this monitor is that there is no memory settings for each input. My old JVC 27 incher had three user assignable presets. With the obvious difference in the picture settings of HDTV and SDTV, I had to write the settings on my remote and adjust the picture accordingly depending on the material being watched. It would have been nice if you can just hit one button instead of going deep into the picture menu.

Pricewise I think this is a very good buy if you like your DTV now and wouldn't like to spend $4000 or more.

None that outweigh the problems

Convergence, color tuning, SERVICE

Anyone thinking of investing a couple thousand dollars on a Panasonic TV, my advise to you is...DON'T.

Much like the post below from Eugene in Texas, I have had the most frustrating experience with the Panasonic Service department. These are people who are either completely inept or just don't care about supporting their products and the consumers who purchase them. When I read Eugene's review my blood whent cold. The awefull realization that mine was not an isolated incident has me completely depressed. I've been trying to get my PT51DX80 serviced for several months now because the convergence is bad on half the picture. Panasonic did send a service tech from a local electronics store to my house but when he arrived, he claimed that he didn't have an updated service manual so he couldn't adjust it that day (one wasted day without pay for me). He returned a day or two later and worked with the set but to no avail. He finally got Panasonic on the phone and made the adjustment. You'd think that would be the end of the problem, right? Not so fast. What ever change the tech made didn't keep the next time I turned the set on (another wasted day without pay). I called Panasonic again and they got in touch with the servicer to set up another appointment. This time a different tech came out and uppon arriving he realized that he too didn't have a service manual and couldn't adjust the set (another wasted day without pay). I finally went out on the Panasonic website and found different servicer in my area (there are only four and none have weekend or late service hours). This particalr sevicer agreed to meet me at my home at a specified time. Hooray! Only they called back the next day to cancell the appointment because I didn't buy the TV from them. So for the past month, I've been trying to get some one at Panasonic to take action and get my $2300 set fixed. I have made nearly a dozen call while receiving a dozen promises, none of which have been kept. Not once has a call been returned. I emailed the company and have never received a response. It seems that PAIN-a-SONIC wants to wash their hands of me and any other customer that requests waranty service. I have learned my lesson the hard way and hope other consumers heed the warnings from this forum and don't make a dreadful mistake by purchasing a Panasonic product.

Tim
Kansas City, MO

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price!!

need almost frontal viewing to see clearly

i'm sattisfied until a football game with 5 or more guests