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Date: 2009-02-24 Great TV, and fantastic service from Amazon I've had the Panasonic TH46PZU for about three weeks, and I love it. The initial set up and programming was simple, the picture is clear and crisp, and the sound quality from the in unit speakers is a lot better that I had hoped for. When I have time to watch TV I just want to turn the set on, plop down on the sofa and enjoy myself. I'm not a video-phile who's going to spend a lot of time fiddling with a TV to get the ultimate experience, so I don't miss the extra fine tuning capabilities that others have mentioned. The Panasonic delivers everything that I want from a TV. Also, I just want to mention that I was REALLY impressed with Amazon during this purchase. I was a bit concerned ordering such a large electronic item and having it shipped, but the delivery company got the TV to my home four days ahead of schedule and in perfect shape. There was a price reduction on the set just after I ordered it, and I had no trouble at all getting through to Amazon's customer service center on the phone. They made an adjustment on my account right away, no hassles, no transfers, no excuses, no problem at all. Very, very professional service. Date: 2009-02-23 Enjoying it very much It is everything I expected. Found the best price here. Wonderful images. Had it a month now. HDMI cable is best way to go with a blu ray player. I have compared/researched other models. The 46 is the smallest home theater system I recomend. Panasonic has great track record and quality. These are heavy mothers/ If you plan to wall mount, get some help. Date: 2009-02-22 Great TV, well-delivered by Amazon Great price, great product, great shipping. To be honest, we bought this particular TV because we trusted Amazon to deliver... literally. As the owner of a tiny car, I was pretty interested in how I was going to get a new TV home without paying a lot for shipping. Amazon offered free, APPOINTMENT-BASED delivery; no worrying that a giant TV would be sitting on our snow-covered front step all day. It went as advertised; that is, the carrier called us to establish a good time for delivery, they brought it into the room where we would set it up, and they unpacked it to inspect it for damage. It was too cold here to start it up right away so we weren't able to have the carrier do that final test. No problem. To be clear, this service does NOT provide for complete set-up. The carrier won't program the TV or even attach the table-top stand. It was all as I expected, though. (Note: this delivery option is only available if Amazon is the source of this TV model; other shippers use other methods so pay attention to the actual seller if this service is something that would matter to you.) The TV itself has been great. Some reviewers have been disappointed by a lack of customer-accessible color tuning adjustments. If you're like me, that's a feature. The picture is great right out-of-the-box. If you want a TV you don't have to spend hours setting up, this is a good one. Other things I like: all of the inputs that I need. I have a TiVo, a computer, a home-theater receiver, and a DVD player hooked up. I appreciate the SD card reader, but usually use the connected computer for photos. I haven't used the internal speakers since it's connected to a receiver. Two wishes: I was surprised that there was only one antenna input. I still use analog cable TV as my primary input, but I also have an old amplified rabbit-ear antenna nearby for over-the-air HD (this is working great, by the way). I was stumped as to how to use both my cable coax and the rabbit-ears for a while, but ended up plugging the rabbit ears into the antenna input, and running the cable to the TiVo, and THEN to the TV. I think that's probably how it's supposed to go, but if you don't have a cable box or other intermediary device, you might have some figuring out to do. No picture-in-picture. No big deal for me, but I'd probably play with it if I had it. The TV has several aspect controls, more than most, but I still wish for total control of the zoom function. Because 4:3 content doesn't fit the 16:9 screen correctly, you have the choice to leave the side areas of the screen unused, to stretch the picture (that is distort it) to fill the width, or to zoom the 4:3 image until it fills the screen (which cuts off some content from the top and bottom of the screen. This TV DOES allow some customization of the zoom feature by allowing for vertical picture position adjustments and for vertical squeeze (how much of the top and bottom to cut off). While this is MORE control than most HDTVs offer, it would still be an improvement if the user could adjust BOTH the vertical and horizontal squeeze. That way a user could decide exactly how much distortion in the image he/she could tolerate by, say, leaving just one or two inches of unused space on the sides instead of the default horizontal squeeze setting. (My computer allows this flexibility in my DVD player app, so I expect that it would be possible in a TV too.) Those two caveats aside, I am a big fan of the beautiful image, the attractive case, the quite effective anti-glare coating on the screen, the remarkable black-levels in the image (don't crank up the brightness too much!), the compatibility with my other devices (TiVo, Apple laptop, Apple TV, SD cards, XBox, etc) and Amazon's nice free delivery option. Date: 2009-02-21 Fabulous set There are close to a hundred other reviews of this TV, so it's hard to avoid being redundant. But basic truths: 1. The picture on this thing is fabulous, OTA reception is like a good blu-ray, 2. With a decent up-scaling DVD player it's like my entire DVD collection has been dramatically upgraded. I have ZERO desire to replace my DVDswith blu-ray except for a few classics 3. Sound quality is very good, have no idea what the negative reviewers are listening to. If sound is critical of course you want to get a separate audio system 4.Check any of the consumer electronic reviews suggested by other posts-this is a top-rated choice and Panasonic's reliability record is unmatched 5. This set is going to blow away anyone with a older TV, it's like going to a good theater, but the reality is all TVs are improving and many people are happy with Samsung, Sonys whatever. We're getting close to perfect picture quality with any number of sets. So two determinants should be price and at $1099 this set is top value, and plasma vs. LCD? From all I've read plasma still has the edge in B&W contrast by a wide margain and pixel "speed" to a smaller degree. Buy with confidence-there is no better choice for the money and unless you spend thousand(s) more you will not get an appreciably better HDTV. Date: 2009-02-19 Great for the price! I have had this TV for about 3 weeks, and I have been up and down about it. Right at first I wasn't that impressed. Even on DishHD the picture just wasn't what I was expecting, but the more I watched, the more I liked it. I don't know if my expectations were just too high? The black levels are amazing on this TV and standard def, I think, is as good as or even a little better than my parents Samsung 46a750. Many people have complained about the speakers, but I don't think they are that bad, but I do plan on getting a surround system. Panasonic says this TV "expands the available range of colors" so you don't get banding, but I have noticed quite a bit of banding, worse than my parents Samsung. I use the TV as my computer monitor, and have had no problems with burn-in. When I first hooked the computer to the TV I couldn't get the settings right. On text, it was dropping vertical lines which made it difficult to read, but I changed the setting from XGA to WXGA and that fixed it. I do not like the design of the remote. Most of the buttons are shaped the same and arranged in rows which make it hard to distinguish sometimes. I have memorized their placement, and can find the button I want without looking, but it is just not as easy as the Dish remote. It is nice having an SD slot on the side, but I would rather have a USB port. While this TV isn't perfect, it is incredible for the money, and Amazon has been great. The price dropped almost $100 by the time it had shipped, and they refunded me the money. The delivery was quick and better yet FREE. * Price is subject to change. |
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