Panasonic CT-32HX40 32 inch TV
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- Screen Size: 32 inch
- Built-in Tuner: NTSC
- Screen Type: Flat Screen
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Digital TV Standard: HDTV-Ready
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Panasonic CT-32HX40 TV -- H/DTV Drops to $1,500
Pros
Displays at 480p and 1080i Resolutions, Flat Screen, Cinema Mode
Cons
Expensive (though a bargain compared to similar sets)
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
This set breaks another low-price barrier for an H/DTV-ready set, offering 480p and 1080i resolutions for a street price of $1,500. Watch out for screen geometry problems, though.
Panasonic's new CT-32HX40 lets you get into H/DTV-ready quality with one of the lowest price tags around for this kind of set. If you want a direct-view (standard tube) TV with analog inputs and the ability to project a screen image at the SDTV (standard-definition television) resolution of 480-progressive (480p) plus the HDTV (high-definition television) resolution of 1080-interlaced, it can be yours for $1,500.
With the old NTSC color standard of 480-interlaced (480i), each of the 30 video frames per second (fps) is divided into two fields in the first and second 1/60th-of-a-second of each frame. The first field contains the odd-numbered lines of the frame and the second contains the even-numbered lines. At the 480p resolution, the first of the H/DTV-ready resolutions available on the 32HX40, all 480 horizontal lines of the picture are projected onto the screen each 1/60th of a second. At the higher resolution the set handles, 1080i, two interlaced fields of 540 lines are projected onto the screen.
The 32-inch screen on the 32HX40 is in the NTSC-standard 4:3 aspect ratio (ratio of width to height). Ideally, an H/DTV (high-definition digital-TV)-ready should have a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. But this won't stop you from viewing widescreen material. You'll still be able to view widescreen video on this set, but it will have to be letterboxed, meaning black horizontal rectangular bands will be automatically inserted above and below the widescreen image to compensate for this type of image being too vertically narrow to fill up a 4:3 screen like that on the 32HX40.
Speaking of screen, the 32HX40, like Sony's line of Wega TV's, features a completely flat screen. The flat screen doesn't provide a significant increase in picture quality compared to the screens of most other direct-view sets, which nowadays tend to be pretty close to flat anyway, but some people find that this type of tube, since it doesn't bring any curvature to the edges of the image, provides a more aesthetically-pleasing picture. One definite advantage of a flat-screen picture tube is that it greatly reduces reflection and glare from light sources in your viewing room. However, you can get a similar effect by dimming any lights that are directly in front of the set.
While we're talking about Sony's Wega TV's, it's very interesting, in terms of value, to compare the 32HX40 to Sony's 32-inch Wega sets. Some of the higher-priced 32-inch Wega's, such as the KV-32FV16, have street prices that are either the same as, or within a couple hundred dollars of, that of the 32HX40. When you consider that, among other features, the 32HX40 has over twice the horizontal resolution of the Wega sets, which can only display images at the old NTSC standard of 480-interlaced (480i), you can see what a superior value these sets represent. If you're in love with the silver cabinets of the Wega sets, Panasonic has even matched that feature with the 32HX40 (and their other new H/DTV-ready direct-view sets such as the 36HX40 and the 34WX50).
The reason a set like the 32HX40 is called "H/DTV-ready" is that, while it can display an image at the new H/DTV resolutions, it doesn't actually have a digital tuner to pick up the new H/DTV broadcasts off the air. However, you might view this as an advantage, since the digital tuners, known as set-top boxes, which you need to use to turn one of these sets into a true H/DTV set, are currently very expensive. Thus, you have the option of waiting a year or two, until H/DTV becomes more popular, and prices on the set-top box digital tuners begins to drop a bit, before you invest in one of these.
This doesn't mean you can't start enjoying high-resolution images right now with the 32HX40. First of all, the set has a built-in NTSC tuner, so you can receive standard NTSC broadcast signals over the air, and you can input cable TV. Since the 32HX40 has line doubling circuitry, it will upconvert the standard broadcast signal from its native resolution of 480i to 480p, meaning the picture will be twice as detailed.
The 32HX40 also has a full complement of analog video inputs, including component inputs, the highest-quality type of input generally used with consumer video gear. While standard DVD players put out a 480i video signal, you'll be able to feed the output from a DVD player with component jacks (all the but the least-expensive DVD players now have this type of output) into the component input jacks of the 32HX40 which can line double the DVD signal to 480p, meaning you'll have image quality that's twice as good as on a standard TV.
Keep in mind that the set won't necessarily give you optimum quality when line doubling the 480i input from a standard DVD player. Because the line-doubling circuitry in the 32HX40 might not be optimized to work with movie DVD sources, it's possible that it will add some motion artifacts, and other types of distortion, when line doubling from a 480i DVD source. Panasonic says the set has "progressive cinema scan" and "1-D1 detection for anamorphic DVD." Presumably, these are features which would optimize the set's internal line doubler for working with a movie-source 480i DVD signal.
One way to greatly increase the odds of getting a high-quality progressive-scan (the equivalent of the quality of a line-doubled image) picture from a player is to go with a progressive-scan machine, such as the Toshiba SD5109, SD6200, or SD9200, or the Panasonic DVD-H1000. For an complete explanation of the advantages of using a progressive-scan DVD player with an H/DTV-ready set like this, see my review of the SD6200. The 32HX40 will work well with the output from a progressive-scan DVD player, such as the SD6200, as you can feed a 480p signal directly into the sets component video input jacks and the set will directly display this input, bypassing the TV's line-doubling circuitry and avoiding the distortion which might be added to the signal by subjecting it to that needless processing (it's already been bumped up to 480p, and in a manner which preserves as much of the original film image quality as possible, in the progressive-scan DVD player).
Whatever kind of video device you want to connect to the 32HX40, this set's comprehensive set of video and audio inputs and outputs will have you covered. First of all, the TV has two sets of back-panel component video input jacks. Each of these consists of three RCA jacks which take the three cables used to carry a component video signal: Y, Pb, Pr (luminance, yellow-blue chrominance, and yellow-red chrominance). The most common devices that use component output, for which you'd use these jacks, are DVD players and satellite-receivers.
Also on the back panel, there are two S-Video input jacks. Almost as good for maintaining image quality as the component jacks, the S-Video jacks split the video signal into Y and C portions (luminance and chrominance). S-Video connection is typically used for S-VHS tape decks, higher-quality camcorders, DVD players, and satellite receivers. Finally, the back panel sports three standard, RCA-jack, composite video inputs (these carry all the elements of the video signal mixed together, in composite form, on a single line).
All of these analog video inputs have corresponding L/R analog stereo analog audio input jacks. There's also a "center-channel" audio input allowing you, if you wish, to use the TV's speakers instead of the center-channel speaker in a surround-sound configuration. This isn't a great idea, because, since the TV's speakers won't match the sonic coloring of the other front surround-sound speakers (front left and front right), you'll get an odd effect as sounds pan across the front of the sound field and the audio hue shifts from speaker to speaker.
The back-panel also has two RF inputs, allowing you, for example, to connect an antenna and a cable TV box and switch back and forth between the two with the TV's remote control. Fixed and variable-level audio output jacks on the back-panel allow you to feed the set's stereo (or Dolby Pro Logic with certain broadcasts) audio to a surround-sound A/V receiver in a home-theater setup. Finally, the back panel has a composite-video output, should you wish to send the TV's video image on to another device.
For convenience, the front panel of the 32HX40 has an S-Video input, a composite-video input, and set of L/R analog stereo audio inputs. These allow you to quickly connect a camcorder or video game to the set.
For those of you who like to do two things at once, the 32HX40 features two-tuner picture-in-picture. This actually allows you to split the screen, watching one channel, or video input, on one half, and a second broadcast channel, or video input, on the other half. Of course, you'll only get the audio from the primary channel.
Picture enhancement features on the 32HX40 include a 3-D comb filter. The most advanced and highest-quality type of comb filters, the 3-D version works to fight moire and dot-crawl on broadcast images and images that come into the TV via the composite-video input. Since S-Video and component-video signals are already processed in a such a way that they're not susceptible to these problems, these types of signal are not passed through the comb filter. Other features that help with picture quality are velocity modulated scan (generally best to turn this off, if possible), horizontal edge correction, and vertical edge correction.
Overall, the picture quality of the 32HX40 is quite sharp, though not quite as nice as some other H/DTV-ready direct-view sets, such as the Sony KV-XBR400's. In the model I evaluated, I did notice a geometric distortion problem. At the letterboxing-band (the black band used across the bottom and top of the screen to make a widescreen image fit onto the 4:3 screen) border, there was a small area where the line was curved instead of straight. This might be a fairly widespread problem on this set, as I've seen more than one newsgroup post which mentioned a similar type of problem with this set.
The built-in speakers on the 32HX40, mounted along the right and left sides of the picture tube, work together with the set's stereo dbx noise-reduction audio system to provide sound that's even adequate for movie soundtracks. Using reverb and other digital effects, the set provides a simulated surround-sound effect, though this is greatly limited by the set's only having the regular stereo speakers on the front of the cabinet. If you want real surround-sound, you need to invest in a full set of surround speakers, along with an A/V receiver. Those who want an enveloping sound experience on a budget, or who just want to not wake up their roommates, can use the set's headphone jack. Oddly enough, this is a feature that many sets, even high-priced ones like the Sony Wega's, omit.
The so-called "Director" remote that comes with the 32HX40 has a full complement of controls, yet you can actually operate it with one hand, without having to flip it around. This is accomplished through the cross shape of the remote, thin at the bottom, top, and along the sides, and then bulging out along the upper-center area which contains the main channel up/down and volume up/down controls.
With a street price of $1,500, the 32HX40 is one of the lowest-priced introductions you can get to H/DTV-ready video. It's not the biggest set around, that's true. If you want a truly large screen, you'll need to go with a projection set (although projection sets never have picture quality that's as good as direct-view sets). The 32HX40 is also a standard 4:3 aspect-ratio set, but, as I said, it will display widescreen material with letterboxing. When you compare this set with models like the Sony Wega's, TV's which are long on high-tech styling but short on actual high-tech features, you can see what a good value it is. It's true that H/DTV video hasn't quite started to reach the number of viewers where prices on the equipment will begin to plunge, as happened so quickly with DVD players, but a set like the 32HX40, with its moderate price, will certainly start to tilt the balance toward widespread acceptance of H/DTV.
While the 32HX40 appears to be a good-quality set, Panasonic plans to replace it soon with a new model, the 32HX41. It's unusual for a model which has come to the market as recently as the 32HX40 to be replaced by a new model that quickly. This might indicate some inherent flaw in the set, so make sure you have a solid return policy from your retailer.
With the old NTSC color standard of 480-interlaced (480i), each of the 30 video frames per second (fps) is divided into two fields in the first and second 1/60th-of-a-second of each frame. The first field contains the odd-numbered lines of the frame and the second contains the even-numbered lines. At the 480p resolution, the first of the H/DTV-ready resolutions available on the 32HX40, all 480 horizontal lines of the picture are projected onto the screen each 1/60th of a second. At the higher resolution the set handles, 1080i, two interlaced fields of 540 lines are projected onto the screen.
The 32-inch screen on the 32HX40 is in the NTSC-standard 4:3 aspect ratio (ratio of width to height). Ideally, an H/DTV (high-definition digital-TV)-ready should have a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. But this won't stop you from viewing widescreen material. You'll still be able to view widescreen video on this set, but it will have to be letterboxed, meaning black horizontal rectangular bands will be automatically inserted above and below the widescreen image to compensate for this type of image being too vertically narrow to fill up a 4:3 screen like that on the 32HX40.
Speaking of screen, the 32HX40, like Sony's line of Wega TV's, features a completely flat screen. The flat screen doesn't provide a significant increase in picture quality compared to the screens of most other direct-view sets, which nowadays tend to be pretty close to flat anyway, but some people find that this type of tube, since it doesn't bring any curvature to the edges of the image, provides a more aesthetically-pleasing picture. One definite advantage of a flat-screen picture tube is that it greatly reduces reflection and glare from light sources in your viewing room. However, you can get a similar effect by dimming any lights that are directly in front of the set.
While we're talking about Sony's Wega TV's, it's very interesting, in terms of value, to compare the 32HX40 to Sony's 32-inch Wega sets. Some of the higher-priced 32-inch Wega's, such as the KV-32FV16, have street prices that are either the same as, or within a couple hundred dollars of, that of the 32HX40. When you consider that, among other features, the 32HX40 has over twice the horizontal resolution of the Wega sets, which can only display images at the old NTSC standard of 480-interlaced (480i), you can see what a superior value these sets represent. If you're in love with the silver cabinets of the Wega sets, Panasonic has even matched that feature with the 32HX40 (and their other new H/DTV-ready direct-view sets such as the 36HX40 and the 34WX50).
The reason a set like the 32HX40 is called "H/DTV-ready" is that, while it can display an image at the new H/DTV resolutions, it doesn't actually have a digital tuner to pick up the new H/DTV broadcasts off the air. However, you might view this as an advantage, since the digital tuners, known as set-top boxes, which you need to use to turn one of these sets into a true H/DTV set, are currently very expensive. Thus, you have the option of waiting a year or two, until H/DTV becomes more popular, and prices on the set-top box digital tuners begins to drop a bit, before you invest in one of these.
This doesn't mean you can't start enjoying high-resolution images right now with the 32HX40. First of all, the set has a built-in NTSC tuner, so you can receive standard NTSC broadcast signals over the air, and you can input cable TV. Since the 32HX40 has line doubling circuitry, it will upconvert the standard broadcast signal from its native resolution of 480i to 480p, meaning the picture will be twice as detailed.
The 32HX40 also has a full complement of analog video inputs, including component inputs, the highest-quality type of input generally used with consumer video gear. While standard DVD players put out a 480i video signal, you'll be able to feed the output from a DVD player with component jacks (all the but the least-expensive DVD players now have this type of output) into the component input jacks of the 32HX40 which can line double the DVD signal to 480p, meaning you'll have image quality that's twice as good as on a standard TV.
Keep in mind that the set won't necessarily give you optimum quality when line doubling the 480i input from a standard DVD player. Because the line-doubling circuitry in the 32HX40 might not be optimized to work with movie DVD sources, it's possible that it will add some motion artifacts, and other types of distortion, when line doubling from a 480i DVD source. Panasonic says the set has "progressive cinema scan" and "1-D1 detection for anamorphic DVD." Presumably, these are features which would optimize the set's internal line doubler for working with a movie-source 480i DVD signal.
One way to greatly increase the odds of getting a high-quality progressive-scan (the equivalent of the quality of a line-doubled image) picture from a player is to go with a progressive-scan machine, such as the Toshiba SD5109, SD6200, or SD9200, or the Panasonic DVD-H1000. For an complete explanation of the advantages of using a progressive-scan DVD player with an H/DTV-ready set like this, see my review of the SD6200. The 32HX40 will work well with the output from a progressive-scan DVD player, such as the SD6200, as you can feed a 480p signal directly into the sets component video input jacks and the set will directly display this input, bypassing the TV's line-doubling circuitry and avoiding the distortion which might be added to the signal by subjecting it to that needless processing (it's already been bumped up to 480p, and in a manner which preserves as much of the original film image quality as possible, in the progressive-scan DVD player).
Whatever kind of video device you want to connect to the 32HX40, this set's comprehensive set of video and audio inputs and outputs will have you covered. First of all, the TV has two sets of back-panel component video input jacks. Each of these consists of three RCA jacks which take the three cables used to carry a component video signal: Y, Pb, Pr (luminance, yellow-blue chrominance, and yellow-red chrominance). The most common devices that use component output, for which you'd use these jacks, are DVD players and satellite-receivers.
Also on the back panel, there are two S-Video input jacks. Almost as good for maintaining image quality as the component jacks, the S-Video jacks split the video signal into Y and C portions (luminance and chrominance). S-Video connection is typically used for S-VHS tape decks, higher-quality camcorders, DVD players, and satellite receivers. Finally, the back panel sports three standard, RCA-jack, composite video inputs (these carry all the elements of the video signal mixed together, in composite form, on a single line).
All of these analog video inputs have corresponding L/R analog stereo analog audio input jacks. There's also a "center-channel" audio input allowing you, if you wish, to use the TV's speakers instead of the center-channel speaker in a surround-sound configuration. This isn't a great idea, because, since the TV's speakers won't match the sonic coloring of the other front surround-sound speakers (front left and front right), you'll get an odd effect as sounds pan across the front of the sound field and the audio hue shifts from speaker to speaker.
The back-panel also has two RF inputs, allowing you, for example, to connect an antenna and a cable TV box and switch back and forth between the two with the TV's remote control. Fixed and variable-level audio output jacks on the back-panel allow you to feed the set's stereo (or Dolby Pro Logic with certain broadcasts) audio to a surround-sound A/V receiver in a home-theater setup. Finally, the back panel has a composite-video output, should you wish to send the TV's video image on to another device.
For convenience, the front panel of the 32HX40 has an S-Video input, a composite-video input, and set of L/R analog stereo audio inputs. These allow you to quickly connect a camcorder or video game to the set.
For those of you who like to do two things at once, the 32HX40 features two-tuner picture-in-picture. This actually allows you to split the screen, watching one channel, or video input, on one half, and a second broadcast channel, or video input, on the other half. Of course, you'll only get the audio from the primary channel.
Picture enhancement features on the 32HX40 include a 3-D comb filter. The most advanced and highest-quality type of comb filters, the 3-D version works to fight moire and dot-crawl on broadcast images and images that come into the TV via the composite-video input. Since S-Video and component-video signals are already processed in a such a way that they're not susceptible to these problems, these types of signal are not passed through the comb filter. Other features that help with picture quality are velocity modulated scan (generally best to turn this off, if possible), horizontal edge correction, and vertical edge correction.
Overall, the picture quality of the 32HX40 is quite sharp, though not quite as nice as some other H/DTV-ready direct-view sets, such as the Sony KV-XBR400's. In the model I evaluated, I did notice a geometric distortion problem. At the letterboxing-band (the black band used across the bottom and top of the screen to make a widescreen image fit onto the 4:3 screen) border, there was a small area where the line was curved instead of straight. This might be a fairly widespread problem on this set, as I've seen more than one newsgroup post which mentioned a similar type of problem with this set.
The built-in speakers on the 32HX40, mounted along the right and left sides of the picture tube, work together with the set's stereo dbx noise-reduction audio system to provide sound that's even adequate for movie soundtracks. Using reverb and other digital effects, the set provides a simulated surround-sound effect, though this is greatly limited by the set's only having the regular stereo speakers on the front of the cabinet. If you want real surround-sound, you need to invest in a full set of surround speakers, along with an A/V receiver. Those who want an enveloping sound experience on a budget, or who just want to not wake up their roommates, can use the set's headphone jack. Oddly enough, this is a feature that many sets, even high-priced ones like the Sony Wega's, omit.
The so-called "Director" remote that comes with the 32HX40 has a full complement of controls, yet you can actually operate it with one hand, without having to flip it around. This is accomplished through the cross shape of the remote, thin at the bottom, top, and along the sides, and then bulging out along the upper-center area which contains the main channel up/down and volume up/down controls.
With a street price of $1,500, the 32HX40 is one of the lowest-priced introductions you can get to H/DTV-ready video. It's not the biggest set around, that's true. If you want a truly large screen, you'll need to go with a projection set (although projection sets never have picture quality that's as good as direct-view sets). The 32HX40 is also a standard 4:3 aspect-ratio set, but, as I said, it will display widescreen material with letterboxing. When you compare this set with models like the Sony Wega's, TV's which are long on high-tech styling but short on actual high-tech features, you can see what a good value it is. It's true that H/DTV video hasn't quite started to reach the number of viewers where prices on the equipment will begin to plunge, as happened so quickly with DVD players, but a set like the 32HX40, with its moderate price, will certainly start to tilt the balance toward widespread acceptance of H/DTV.
While the 32HX40 appears to be a good-quality set, Panasonic plans to replace it soon with a new model, the 32HX41. It's unusual for a model which has come to the market as recently as the 32HX40 to be replaced by a new model that quickly. This might indicate some inherent flaw in the set, so make sure you have a solid return policy from your retailer.
