<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Panasonic CT27HL14 HDTV plus DVD players
Review: For those looking for a 27" HD ready television with very good to excellent PQ (picture quality), this TV can not be beat. I have a 57" large screen Hitachi (57XWX20) and needed a replacement for a 27" in our bedroom. Wanting to stay in the 27" range because of space constraints, we were limited in choices. But, we also wanted to be "HD ready" for the upcoming future.
I would like to point out at this time that,I (the author of this rather wordy diatribe), have been into TV and electronics since I was 16 working at a small TV repair shop in 1965. So I have seen TV's come a long way! I have always been almost addicted to what the latest technology had to offer.... within price vs. value limitations. I had my first home theater set up in 1983 with an RCA front projection TV and a Pioneer laser disk player with "matrixed" surround sound. Suffice it to say, I would like to let the reader know I'm pretty well versed and knowlegable in these matters. :) That being said, this TV has a great presentation.
Out of the box the CT27HL14 did need a little tweaking to get a little better display. I know some reviewers indicated the picture was a little on the dark side. I have brightness set at about 52 and contrast at 23 on most program material. The "normal" setting for color temperature seems the most accurate. Being a technician, I also went into the service menu and corrected color balance for a bit better gray scale tracking. For the layperson, I adjusted a few things to get black and white pictures closer to true black and white. These adjustments were minor and probably not an issue for the casual viewer. During and after the few tweaks, I viewed the first 6 minutes of "Sea Biscuit". I can not overstate how great this movie is for PQ adjustments on a TV. It has , of course, the black and white stills in the beginning. (Great for blacklevel (brightness) and white level (contrast) adjustments.
While viewing this movie on DVD connected to a Samsung DVD-P341 player, detail in the darker shadows was VERY visible on this set. Small specs in the antique car photos in the beginning were visble from apparent dust on the negative of an otherwise very clear picture of a man in an antique car. Some of this detail is only slightly visible as such on my top of the line Hitachi large screen HDTV.
Later, in a scene with a red and green street car, color level could be adjusted to a satifactory level to tone down oversaturated reds and greens, and still give a nice natural flesh tone to Jeff Bridges face a few moments later. In a scene with Chris Cooper on horseback, detail on his face in slight shadow and the fuzz on his gray wool jacket was very clear.
I also have the set connected to an SD regular satelite receiver and the picture quality is very clean and pleasing for movies, sports, and live coverage. The satelite is connected via the standard NTSC AV cable inputs. The DVD is a newer progressive scan Samsung DVD-P341 connected through the component inputs. Here is where things get a little particular.
I tried several DVD players with this TV. While they all worked, as some readers also may have noticed, some TVs perform better with certain DVD players or vice versa. This seems especially true with HD TVs that I have audtioned. The first DVD player I tried was a Philips DVD-Q50 that is connected to the afore mentioned Hitachi.
This DVD player is a top of the line unit with Farouda deinterlacing, 3:2 pull-down, etc. It performs marvelously on my Hitachi.
For some reason, the DVD-Q50 caused the Pansonic TV to "get nervous" on horizontal lines especially in the begining of Sea Biscuit where the boxy antique autos horizontal egdes danced and wavered as the camera moved verticaly up or down. I tried setting the DVD player to it's 480i ( non progressive ) scan mode. This was actualy somewhat better, indicationg that maybe the Panasonic was happier doing it's own conversion. I also tried a Philips DVD-642 which is also progressive scan and offers 3:2 pulldown. Again, the Panasonic was happier with progressive scan turned off. Wanting a separate DVD player for use with the Pansonic HDTV, I now tried a Samsung DVD-P341 player.
The Samsung DVD-P341 is an entry level, but high quality DVD player with progressive scan, 3:2 pulldown, and a neat feature called "EZview" which is particularly useful with this TV. EZview allows you to slightly enlarge the picture and fill almost the entire 27" screen while playing a widesreen 16:9 DVD if desired. Very handy for those of us not quite used to those wide black bands above and below a widesreen presentation.
This player also worked best in "regular" 480i mode and letting the TV do it's work. With the DVD player set up in 16:9 mode and using component inputs, the picture is very clear, smooth, with little or no artifacts and minimal horizontal edge waviness. All for the low price of around $70. I would imagine any of the Samsung models such as the DVD-P731 or even the DVD-P4600/4800 combo DVD VCR would also work fine. As an added feature besides the great picture quality with this DVD player, it provides a memory card access through a small door on its front panel so digital camera photos can be viewed directly without addtional camera cable or hookups. It supports all standard memory card formats (SD, xSD, Compact Flash, SmartMedia, etc).
All in all, the Panasonic CT27HL14 HD ready TV is a great solution for people, with limited space or an older home entertainment cabinet, to enter the realm of HDTV. Providing pleasing picture quality and also being high definition ready with the addition of a separate HD tuner or HD cable/satelite input.
Rating: 
Summary: DON'T BUY THIS TELEVISION!!!
Review: I bought this model in late June of 2004 at Best Buy in Seattle for around $600.00 - It's now January and the TV is broken....just doesn't have a picture. The "parts" are covered under warranty but it does NOT cover labor and every TV repair place is charging me $100 bucks an hour to fix. I'm going to end up paying at least a 1,000 for this. I've called Panasonic, I've called Best Buy and I pretty much get a "too bad" attitude. Plus, from the consumer websites, I've been on...I"m not the only one. Consider this a warning!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great for the price of HDTV
Review: I had this set for three months and it has been a very wise pick for me. Panasonic offers the best bang for your buck. For a couple of hundreds more a Sony or Samsung's set provides better image quality with the same spec of this model. Not to say that the image quality of this set is quite remarkable.
What it like:
HDTV is way, the only form of over the air broadcasting within a couple of years, so upgrade now. For the first time I got to use the progressive scan feature on my DVD player. The quality of the image is greatly smoother, but for some movies it looks a lot less detail, since the sharpening/noise/edge has been removed. Maybe that just the DVD player problems. I have a HDTV tuner, a Zenith model since this set is only HDTV ready, that pick up "over air reception" and the image quality is unparallel. But only a few stations now actually play any HDTV signal at all. I can pick up about 5-7 stations in Seattle, but usually only one has true HDTV broadcasting. I don't have cable or digital cable so I can not speck for that.
The remote is one of the easiest and most convenience to operate. With the major functions located within a big circular disc. The Menu is easy to navigate and to change features. There are three color/image settings. I have a setting save for DVD, normal local reception and one for HDTV reception, since each come in usually brighter or darker then other.
The average:
1 Component input is not very much nor is 1 s-video input, but why 3+1 Composite video for a HDTV set? The price of HDTV is falling but should fall more within the next couple of years. HDTV and wide-screen DVD image is 16:9 so you lose about 2 inches each on the top and bottom for this 4:3 unit. So this 27" is equivalent to a 24-25" wide-screen HDTV. BBE and AI sound are features on this set that you don't really notices at all. There is an annoying humming sound that can be heard when the volume is on 2-3 notches or less or depending on the distance you are from the set even with the mute on. My old analog TV with analog antenna gets better reception then this digital TV with an analog antenna.
Overall I am very please to have this set. The image quality is an upgrade over my older analog unit. I almost returned it for a 26" wide-screen Samsung, but didn't. This set 27" footprint and weight is less then other 27" set.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent HDTV for the price
Review: I have this TV for past serveral months and have *Love* *Hate* relationship with it.
The *Love* Points
1. Can't Beat the price for this HDTV
2. Can't Beat the size, It is small enough to fit into those tight entertainment centers, Honestly buying a bigger TV means you will have to replace your existing old Entertainment center which will cost you another $200 not to mention the pain of replacing the old Entertainment center.
3. Great HDTV reception via Component Video Input. (Note: Needs additional OTA HDTV tuner)
4. Very Good Picture quality for the price.
The *Hate* Points
1. Constant buzzing sound from the speakers even when the volume is low
2. Poor convergence at the edges looks that Speakers inside the TV produce magnetic interference that the manufacturer failed to notice.
3. Picture is too Dark in Standard Defination Mode (SD)
4. Unable make the 4:3 Aspect ratio lock permanently when used in HDTV mode it always defaults to 16:9 after power off.
5. The Menu for adjusting TV settings is TOO bright and *NOT* transparent.
6. Only *ONE* component Video Input!!!!!!!!!!! Come on panasonic, What were you thinking?.. This is a HDTV for Goodness sake!
7. HDTV ready only, No HDTV tuner included!!
If you can learn to live with the *Hate* points, then this is a decent TV.
I am keeping this TV as in HDTV mode the picture quality is excellent! in 1080i mode. It upconverts all signals to 1080 mode (Frequency doubling). It also as 3:2 pull down conversion for Flims, Velocity Modulation and Video Noise reduction makes the pictures very clean and sharp.
If you can ignore the poor convergence or lucky with your set you can surely keep this one for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: I Love This TV
Review: I looked at several TV sets and settled on this one. Viewing it side by side other brands in the same price range allowed me to see for myself why this was the set for me.
This set has a great picture and terrific sound. Even with a rabbit ear antenna I'm getting great reception. When I get an HDTV receiver I expect to have an even better display.
When I watch a DVD it's like having my own little movie theatre at home...except I have to make my own popcorn.
For me to take the step from an old 13" screen to a 27" screen and having a limited income you better believe I researched and shopped very carefully.
Rating:
Summary: great television
Review: this is a great television, and it is a big improvement over an analog set. There are a few aspects of the tv that make it a #2 choice, though compared to the sony. Consumer reports (2003 issue) states that not all hdtv's are the same in terms of the hd picture quality. this is definitely true. they rank (10 point scale)
sony 10
panasonic 9
samsung 5 (boy is Samsung bad. the king of fuzzy images)
the panasoic image is very close to the sony image, but not quite as good. images run prog. scan through a dvd player (not 720 high def., it is 480 lines (enhanced def.)when playing dvds prog. scan) the image is very very good, but there is slight blurring (probably only noticable by those of us that are very detail oriented, but it is there. a good way to test is to turn on the subtitles and you can see how well the letters look). I compared the panasonic and sony at the stores, with some difficulty becasue the images on screen keep changing, and rarely show a steady detailed image for long, but the sony picture (as of August 2004) were better than the panasonic. I would have gotten the sony, but they didn't make a 27" hdtv in early 2004 when I got this set.
Another advantage of the Sony is there are 2 component inuputs, this set only has 1, so you can't run a DVD recorder signal and DVD player into the set at once. also sonly has 4 picture settings, panasoic only has 3, and two of them are really dark. the Vivid setting is the only one that looks good.
The buzzing coming from the set is from the transformer (claims a repair person), that sound isn't from the speakers. a bit annoying, but there's nothing that can be done as far as I know to fix that.
one note on the s-video. the s video images are really dark on this set. I use the s video to get the closed captioning off some dvd disks that don't carry over on prog. scan, but it's unlikely many people will be using s video much unless you have a specific reason like i do. It's too bad they seemed to have messed up the s video on these hd sets (I tested a few). that may have to do with the hd technology inside. an anolog set may give a better image that these hd sets with s video.
this is still a great tv compared to others and the picture is great, I would imagine these tvs will last a long time so one should make the best decision. ( I chose the 4 by 3 shape because that's the format I watch the most of).
<< 1 >>
|
