From NAB99 Editors Choice
http://www.vidy.com/stories/nab99.awards.shtml

Panasonic Consumer Electronics
PT-56WXF95 rear- projection HDTV

Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company previewed their universal HDTV monitor/receiver, the 16:9, 56-inch diagonal PT-56WXF95, which is capable of displaying 480i (line-doubled to 480p), 480p, 1080i, and -- here's the impressive part -- native 720p, i.e.: without conversion. Conventional NTSC analog signals are upconverted, or "line-doubled" to 480p by its built-in progressive scan converter. The PT-56WXF95 provides Picture-in-Picture, and a built-in four-speaker sound system; the center channel input allows the set to be used as a center speaker for a Dolby Pro Logic or Dolby Digital surround system. The set is expected to be available in July.

lots of input options, awesome picture

Toggling video sources is slow, split screen only works on ANT1, cheap heavy cabinet, poor ANT1/ANT2 support, poor manual

I picked the PT-56WXF95 based on comments and observations made here in www.audioreview.com plus some hands-on play at a Circuit City that had several HDTVs side-by-side. In general I really like the PT-56WXF95, especially for the price I paid! As others have commented, it's got a great picture, 2 component inputs, and the gamut of resolution and zoom support.

However, last night I was tweaking various settings and was annoyed to find out that the split screen feature works only partially when using ANT2. I can't swap or freeze. ANT1 works fine. This is very frustrating to me, because San Jose has a A/B cable system. AT&T Cable supplies signals to both cables, so I'm using both ANT1 and ANT2 often.

Which brings me to another problem -- the channel labelling straddles both ANT1 and ANT2. Since ANT1 and ANT2 are completely different channels sets, I had to pick and choose which label I would actually use. Should Ch 2 be FOX or CNN? Should Ch 9 be PBS or CARTOON? Also, the custom labelling seems to have very limited memory. I could only label a dozen channels (4 character descriptor) before I got a message that the label memory was full. C'mon, 4 character descriptors and a few dozen bytes for labelling?!

These are all pretty nitpicky complaints. The picture and sound are great. The remote is pretty easy to navigate. Most of the setup and configuration is good. It's just the dual cable and channel labelling that have problems.

I noticed a slightly horizontal jitter in the picture when viewing video tapes (Svideo). Based on what I know about multisync'ing monitors, I would guess it was having a hard time locking into the horizontal sync signal. DVD was crisp and clean (Svideo and component). Analog cable was.... well, analog cable quality. I haven't signed up for digital cable or DSS yet. I was dismayed to find that AT&T Cable currently does not provide any HD resolution channels in their digital cable. They are promising some near the end of the year. DishNetwork offers just a few HD channels. I guess that's the penalty for being an early adopter.

Similar Products Used:

I checked out the Mitsubishis, Toshiba, and Panasonic side-by-side at a Circuit City

versatility, 720p capability, excellent image quality

build quality of cabinetry is only adequate

These are rare, but I was fortunate to receive one of the first ones. The image quality on NTSC sources, cable, DSS, and DVD is excellent. In my opinion NTSC images equal any I've seen on RPTV's at any price.

Have had STB TU-DST51 only one week. OTA HD images are incredible, better than store demo tapes. Watched Monday Night Football last night in 720p. Televised sports are about to undergo the most radical improvement since the switch from b/w to color. The clarity, range and depth of color are amazing, producing an almost three dimensional effect. Can't wait for the Super Bowl.

Similar Products Used:

none - first RPTV

Excellent picture! DVDs look awesome, regular cable is even good, which looks crappy on most digital RPTVs. I just got DSS and the picture even better! The speakers work also well as a center channel in a 5.1 setup.

The manual really sucks, it's as bad or worse than my HK receiver manual. The protective screen is too reflective. Switching inputs is slow. I can't get the universal remote to work with my HK receiver or Samsung DVD player.

I bought this TV sight unseen based on everyone's reviews, and I am very happy with it. My final decision came down to this tv or the Pioneer SD-532-HD5, and it was a close one. Both were the same price, but the Panasonic has 3" and 720p compatability over the Pioneer. The line doubler seems better then the Pioneer for non-dvd viewing, which is a big deal. In all fairness the Pioneer had a nicer cabinet, but does that really matter?

Mine did come with a cracked mirror though, and the speed of getting this fixed greatly depends on your local service dealer. The first place I called, left me hanging for 3 weeks, so I gave up. The 2nd place I called was at my house in less than a week, figured out what was wrong with it (it had these weird color streaks down the middle) and already ordered the replacement part. So if you don't get results from one place, try another. Luckily the crack in the mirror is very tiny, so the tv is totally watchable for the time being.

You can't beat it for the price, but you have to order on the internet to get that price, otherwise it'll cost $4000+ (nobody in my area actually had one anyways).

Knowing the service mode menu is essential, otherwise you can't set the convergence right. See http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/usefulinfo/panasonic/panasonic_tips.html for info on how to get into the service menu.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer SD532HD5

Great Picture for the Price

Slow video source switching, ugly remote, and the clear picture makes me realize I need aprogressive scan dVD player ;)

Had this TV for about 5 months now. First I had my DVD using S-Video. Looks great, but now on a big screen I can notice some pixelation. So I switched to component video. Oh man, what a difference. Super crisp... so crisp I noticed the interlaced effect. Maybe it was just me and my eyes. But watching Braveheart the people in the background looked like a jpeg picture in the fight scenes. But I dealt with it, until I read on this board about the Pioneer D434. I bought it and tried it out. After reading reviews on the player in the other boards, I have to say.... it does not do the TV any justice. The colors are more vibrant, but the picture seemed anti-aliased. Kinda like S-video, but better. I spent about an hour switching from my Sony DVD player's component video to my playstation 2's S-video. I have to say, I had to try really hard to like the Pioneer system. But I couldn't. The reviews are correct. You get what you pay for... a cheap (even cheap looking) progressive scan dvd player. It does look alot better than my playstation 2 dvd capabilities (S-video). But as a conclusion, I'm going to move up to either the Toshiba or the JVC DVD player. Otherwise, I have no gripes about this TV except for the ones already discussed on this board. I do want to add to the comments that I love how thin the TV is. I mean, it's about 2 1/2 feet in depth. Not bad, fits perfectly.

Similar Products Used:

none, except using Sony D500 dvd player and Playerstation 2

Video switching speed

I bought this set after doing 3 months of research. Iread the reviews from this site and from a couple of Home Theater magazines, then I went to my local Home Theater specialists and looked at every HDTV I could. At a couple of them they had three sets next to each other so you could compare properly. I got to see the Panasonic, the Pioneer and Mitsubishi sets side by side displaying the same source material. Initially the Pioneer seemed to be marginally better than the Panasonic, with the Mitsubish not in the same league! But as I watched various DVD's I noticed that the Panasonic seemd to be better focused at the edges. All of the sets had been ISF'ed so I assumed that all were set at their optimum. When I started watching High Def, the Panasonic had a clear edge in every area except maybe in color. I came back three or four times to watch the sets again to make sure that I got used to the WOW factor of the whole experience. After spending a total of about 6 or 7 hours comparing the sets, I decided that the panasonic was better focused, had more modes (4801, 480p, 720p, 1080i) was better value and I came to like the color balance better than the Pioneer. After spending a month or so with the set ( I have a Toshiba DST-3000 HD receiver and also an Iscan-pro ) I can say that it is amazing. Everyone I show the HD broadcast of HBO to literally is speechless, The Sopranos in Hi-Def is astonishingly good. The combination of the Iscan pro and my DVD player produces an output that is superb and utterly without artifacts of any kind, no jaggie, pixelation or any other kind of video noise. It is a significant improvement over the internal scaler/doubler. I am about to have the set ISF'ed and expect more improvement. I highly recommend this set to anyone who wants the best quality picture at a great price. If you want one, I paid $2,783.00 from onecall.com, ask for Larry, he was great.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer Elite 510HD, various Mitsubishi and Toshiba

Great picture, native 720p support

Slow input switching, limited user menu convergence control

Follow-up to my previous review. I have now had the set for over 8 months. Using the viewer's menu control I just couldn't get the converence just right. No one else but me noticed anything but I wanted it to be perfect. I called Panasonic's 800 number for service and they had a technician in my home in 48 hours. Not bad if you ask me. He went "into" my T.V. and tweaked the converence and now the set looks better than ever. The service call was covered under my warranty so there was no charge. I noticed some other reviewers having trouble with service but in my case I give the Panasonic service department 5 stars. I'm still extremely pleased with this set. I can't say enough about the picture quality with a progressive scan DVD player. I highly recommend one with any HDTV ready T.V.

Great picture with DSS & DVD

Shows weakness in source signals

I have used this TV for about 7 months and have suddenly noticed a red tinge that comes and goes. I just called for service and they reported someone else having the same problem. Has anyone else seen this to be an issue? It happens with all source material and seems to be getting worse.

DVD using Progressive scan player is stunning! Four ratio modes, NO lines... DSS looks good. Two component inputs. Separate memory settings for component inputs. TV can be used as the center channel for Dolby 5.1. Nice looking set (dark stone finish)

Advanced convergence cannot be set by the user. Video 1,2,3 use the same color settings.

I looked at all the comparable sets, and this set impressed me from the first view! This is my first RPTV, so I was really picky about the picture. I thought that the Panasonic had the best looking picture both using DVD and Satellite. Regular TV viewing isn't going to drop you jaw like a DVD movie. Movies are what made me drop the cash for this set. After a short time with the TV, I decided to get the DVDH1000 progressive player. The two together give an image that has to be seen to believe! It is better than I can describe.

Only thing that could be changed about this TV are:

1. Adding memory settings for all inputs, as it is now you have to memory settings, one for video 1,2,3, and one for component video 1 and 2.

2. Being able to change inputs without scrolling through all of them. It takes about 2 seconds go from one input to another.

3. One last thing... Hey, Panasonic, Give us a better remote!!!

The above improvements are suggestions or a wish list. All and all I am totally pleased with the TV. Oh, by the way I haven't used this set in HD mode so I can't judge that.

Get this TV, and then get a progressive scan DVD player... then throw away your sun block, you'll be inside from that point on!

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Looked at Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Sony, and Sharp.

Price, Performance, Great picture, lots of inputs

small manufacturing problems

Wow... Spent about six months looking at new HDTV capable tv's. Had my heart set on a sony when I saw the picture on the Panasonic. It is so much sharper, more focus, more detail! I couldn't wait to get one home.

There are a few minor problems to note with this set. First off is the vertical stripes that show up when any S-video input is used. They are minimal, but still visible with sharpness turned all the way to zero. The only way to fix this is to have panasonic change out the Y/C board with an onsite call. The other problem was the convergence. Out of the box the picture looked ok, but after tweaking the convergence in service mode it looked superb. DVD playback is better than being at a movie theater. Haven't got my HDTV tuner yet so I can't comment on the picture there. The amazing part about this set is the price. It was less than half that of a pioneer Elite set in the same screen size. The scan doubler in this set easily matches that in an Elite. There are no jaggies on DVD playback using analog component inputs. For the money I don't think you can find a better picture. The price I got was matched at sears as an internet price match. They have changed their policy since. They will discount up to 10% only now. I got mine discounted 36%. Great deal on a great set.

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi 53SDX01B, Sony KP53HS10