I ordered the panasonic pt53wx53 Jan 19, 2004 and when Circuit City came to deviver the order, to my advantage they brought the pt53tw53 instead.
Right away I was impressed with the sound. VIVA sound is quite impressive for what it is. But, it wasnt until I ran the audio through my receiver that I realized that the sound from the TV wasnt as good as I originally thought. Compaired to the sound from my Onkyo 6.1 system the Panasonic sound is just underpowered and weak. Like most, you will probably buy a home theater system, or already own one and will never even use the extra 2 speakers in the TW so this really isnt a big deal. Strike one.
Next, the picture was great from the moment I plugged it in. Even without an antenna TV is realatively clear to my suprise. It wasnt until after I began watching movies that I noticed a small alignment problem with the wide screen bars at top and bottom. To make matters worst, there is no geometry setting to correct the nearly .5 inch difference in height of the bars from teh left to the right side. I spent hours adjusting the convergance with no significant progress. Strike two.
Finally after setting up all my components, i realized that the space provided in the sets design was going to be too small to house even a few simple additions. Receiver, DVD and Xbox barely fit. The design of the TV doesnt allow for storage of additional components on the top due to the slant, from the top down the back, of the set. Compared to similar sets with a box design and a flat surface to place components on top this set just falls short. Now I have now where to store my sat receiver and equalizer.
Strike three.
I called CC to arrange for the correct set be sent to me in hopes that the widescreen alignment problem be corrected, in my mind this was the only real significant down fall of the unit, but in addition to the other problems, I did not feel comfortable "making due with a few small problems" seeing as I just spent $1500 ot get the set.