Panasonic 20" Flatscreen TV (CT-20SX11)

Rating:
Summary: great but the remote has a built-in problem
Review: I bought this at a dealer at a nice discount since it was the display model. When I got it home, the right speaker produced bad distortion and the left speaker sounded just okay. Also, the remote control's light function only lit up the top four buttons (the component selectors). So I took the TV back for repairs (under warranty) and ordered a new remote.

When I got the TV back, the sound was very good. Last night I hooked it up to my stereo, and it was, like, totally awesome dude! I found some audio functions I wasn't aware of, so I'm sure with a little more time and fiddling, it's going to sound even better.

The picture is very nice, too. I don't have a DVD player yet, but I'm sure when I hook that up with the S-video jack, I'm going to be very impressed.

But that darned remote... I got the new remote and same thing, only the top four buttons light up. I took it apart, and sure enough, the only LED's are in the top of the unit. So even though all the buttons are transluscent so as to accept backlighting, this crazy remote was designed only to have the top row of buttons light up! What were the geniuses who designed this thing thinking? That we wouldn't need any of the other buttons in the dark?

And, like with most modern consumer electronics, the manual is worthless. It simply lists the different buttons and what they do. But that doesn't help--what I want to know is how to use them and why I'd want to use them. It took me about two weeks to figure out how to set up the TV so I could use my VCR to record shows. In the end, it makes sense, but why not have someone who knows how to write edit the user manual?