Panasonic TH-42PX600U 42" HDTV Plasma TV

[see 1 year update at the end]

I looked for a new HDTV for over a year before finally deciding on this Panasonic 42-inch plasma. I considered all types of HDTVs, including LCD, DLP RP and LCD RP. During that time I found that there was a near total lack of professional reviews for most models, and the quality of most user reviews was pretty poor (mostly either “wow, isn’t hi-def wonderful?” or “this TV stinks because it broke”), so here’s my attempt to do better.

First, why plasma? The simple answer: picture quality. I like the picture on my old Sony XBR CRT, and I just couldn’t convince myself that picture quality compromises demanded by LCD panels and RP TVs would be a step forward. Obviously plasma has many drawbacks too: price, weight, less PC-compatible, more sensitive to burn-in – but at least these drawbacks aren’t in the area of picture quality.

I was a little surprised and disappointed in my extensive search to find that a lot of $2000 TV sets are considered “budget” models by the manufacturer, and are stripped of useful features and connectors just to distinguish them from their more expensive product line. Why would I want to buy an expensive HDTV that has no digital tuner or only a single HDMI connector? That’s like making an entry-level luxury car that has vinyl upholstery and no glove compartment. In the end I rejected all of the budget-priced models as too expensive to justify their shortcomings, and I bought the Panasonic TH-42PX600U that was at the top of my barely-affordable list.

The PX600U has essentially the same panel and electronics as the less-expensive PX60U model in Panasonic’s 2006 model line, but I wanted the VGA connector found only in the PX600U since I often plug a laptop into my TV. In case you’re wondering what else is better on the PX600U than the PX60U model, it also has:
- Better speaker system (4 speakers instead of 2, 31 watts instead of 20 watts, BBE Viva 3D surround sound simulation)
- Split-screen capability (the equivalent of PIP)
- Cablecard slot
- TV Guide function
- IR Blaster remote-control output
- Better looks (in my opinion)

Unpacking and setup:

Definitely a 2-person job. The carton is pretty big and heavy at 54 kg, and the plasma panel inside is most of the weight. We were able to get the carton into the back of my station wagon on its side with some assistance, but the box says "Transport only in upright position" (I drove home very, very carefully!). The only assembly required is to attach a couple of mounting posts to the base (screwdriver needed), mount the panel on the base, and plug in cables. It’s not completely beyond the realm of possibility for one person to unpack the panel and mount it on the base, but given that you’re handling a big glass panel that’s expensive, fragile, and extremely heavy, and it needs to be precisely aligned with mounting posts on a base you can’t easily see before you can release it, I sure wouldn’t want to try it alone.

The included base is quite heavy itself - it’s clearly designed to provide a very secure foundation for the TV. It spreads the weight on a wide area of table top, and it feels like it would be very difficult to tip it over. Nevertheless Panasonic includes mounting braces and straps to secure the panel to the table or the wall behind in case of earthquake, accidental bump etc.. The included base does not tilt or swivel, which is a little disappointing. The panel can also be wall-mounted, keeping in mind the weight. The panel itself is fairly thin except at base where the rear speakers are located, which is a little deeper at around 5.5 inches.

While we have the measuring tape out, I have to point out that the visible screen size is 41.5 inches, not 42 inches.

Included in the box:
- panel
- base
- mounting straps and screws
- cable clamps and ties
- power cord
- remote control with batteries
- manual

No A/V cables are included.

This model can use up to 410 watts of power according to Panasonic’s specification, but normally uses less when not operating at full brightness, full volume etc. Panasonic claims that it uses only a little more than an equivalent-size LCD, and they should know since they make both types. In fact the back of the TV is still cool to the touch after it has been in operation for a couple of hours at low brightness, and compared to my old CRT TV I feel relatively little hot air coming from ventilation holes on the back of the set. (Update: according to my power meter it actually uses an average of 150-200 watts in normal use, depending on my picture settings and sound volume.)

Out of the box the picture is set to Vivid mode for all the inputs by default, i.e., way too bright. That’s intended to impress customers I guess, but it’s difficult to understand why Panasonic would do that when it’s specifically not recommended for the initial 100-hour break-in period when the panel is most sensitive to burn-in from bright fixed images. In fact the manual says nothing about the break-in period and very little about avoiding burn-in – a serious oversight in my opinion. There is a low-key warning up front about avoiding fixed images to prevent image retention, and an exclusion of warranty coverage for burn-in at the back (interestingly it only appears in the USA warranty, not the Canadian warranty on the next page). The recommended 100-hour break-in period is mentioned only in a separate Panasonic white paper (see http://www.dynamicdigital.ca/documents/Plasma Facts and Myths.pdf ). Panasonic claims to have greatly reduced the likelihood of burn-in with this 9th-generation plasma panel design. Overall the consensus seems to be that if you keep the brightness low and avoid fixed images on the screen during the break-in period, you need only use moderate care after that. But I have read several message board postings from PX60/600 owners who have suffered significant image retention or permanent burn-in during the break-in period through ignorance or carelessness, so don’t let anyone tell you that it’s no longer a concern. Personally I have seen some slight image retention from fixed menu bars and such, but it disappeared within seconds of normal viewing. I've never noticed any image retention from normal TV programs.

Appearance/Style:

Overall I think this TV looks quite good on the standard base, with the brushed metal-looking cabinet (it’s actually plastic) and the thin flat-black bezel surrounding the screen. Front controls and connectors are hidden behind a flip-up panel in the middle of the lower bezel, with the SD card slot behind another separate flip-up panel to the right. There’s no controls or connectors on the sides or top. There’s only a single small discreet red LED on the front to show power on, no flashy backlit logos or anything like that. The built-in speakers are down-facing in the back. I like the look better than Panasonic’s PX60 models, the ones with the big silver bulge below the screen.

Inputs:

This model includes:

- 2 HDMI (with separate analog audio inputs for DVI-HDMI cables)
- 2 component
- 3 composite (2 rear, 1 front)
- 3 SVideo (2 rear, 1 front)
- RF (antenna or cable input)
- SD card slot (front)
- 1 VGA with computer audio (only difference from the PX60U model)

Outputs:
- composite video + stereo audio
- Digital audio (optical)
- IR blaster (LED transmitter cable included)

What’s missing:
- DVI input
- IEEE 1394 (Firewire) output for HD recording
- Speaker outputs
- Center speaker input
- Headphone jack
- Digital video output
- Coax digital audio output
- RS-232 serial control port

These are for the USA/Canada PX600U model. The versions of the PX600 sold in other countries may differ, sometimes for no apparent reason - for example the UK model does have a headphone jack.

The HDMI inputs accept sources up to 1080p, and the component video inputs accept sources up to 1080i. The PC input accepts resolutions up to 1366 x 768 (horizontally subsampled to 1024, but correct aspect ratio for the panel).

Picture quality:

Overall, picture quality is excellent – the key reason to buy this TV. DVD movies and good HD programs from my satellite receiver look fantastic. I’m even very pleased with the quality of SD programs – they look really good, especially compared to the ghastly SD quality on some of the other HDTVs I looked at. I’m glad I went for at least 42 inch panel size now – I was worried that SD programs would look horrible at viewing distances less than 10 feet, but they’re fine.

All plasmas have good contrast ratios, and are able to achieve fairly dark blacks and reasonably high brightness levels. The Panasonic panel has an exceptionally black background, allowing it to deliver a claimed 4000:1 actual contrast ratio, and up to 10,000:1 with dynamic contrast control (although all the manufacturers are using non-standard measurements - independent test labs normally report the ANSI standard contrast ratio measurement to be about half the claim, and dynamic contrast ratio is fairly meaningless). It's not quite as black as the best CRTs, but a lot better than most LCDs. Some of the other plasma panels with lighter gray screen backgrounds that I looked at in the brightly-lit store environment seemed to have a noticeable haze over the picture compared to the Panasonic. The Panasonic consistently looked the best of any of the plasmas I saw. Room reflections on the dark and shiny glass panel don’t bother me any more than my old CRT TV.

By comparison to this and other good plasma sets, the LCD and DLP TVs that I looked at all seem to me to have an unnaturally vivid picture which looks like the contrast is set too high. Impressive on brightly-lit outdoor nature scenes and cartoons (the usual content of in-store display loops), but not so good when picture gets darker and subtle gradations of color and shade are called for. I've tried many times to adjust DLPs and LCDs side-by-side with a plasma to make them look as good, and it just can't be done. Here's a perfect example of what I see wrong with the picture on a typical LCD panel: http://www.denguru.com/2006/10/19/the_westinghouse_lvm/page2.html. The picture on the LCD panel looks fine with no standard of comparison, if perhaps a bit contrasty, but compare it to the way the original image was intended to look, and it's not very close (these photos are comparing a Westinghouse LCD panel to the original digital reference image - for comparison you can see the same exact same test on a Vizio plasma panel here: http://www.denguru.com/2006/11/28/the_vizio_p50hdtv/page3.html).

Obviously the native resolution on this panel at 1024 x 768 is not quite up to 1080i or even 720p, although it's the same as other plasma panels at this size. The LCDs and DLP sets all have better resolution. I even looked at some true 1920 x 1080 LCD panels for comparison - some of which cost less than the PX600U. But the plain fact is that the higher resolution is just not visible at ordinary viewing distances - while the inferior contrast and color and video processing artifacts on those TVs were readily apparent to me. According to the ISF, the most important aspects of picture quality in descending order are contrast ratio, color saturation, color accuracy, and then resolution (see http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6449_7-6661274-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt). My eyes agree with the professionals. In the end, better contrast and color almost always wins over more resolution.

The color calibration of the Panasonic seems pretty good out of the box, but you have to be prepared to adjust the picture settings depending on the program material to get the best out of it (see Picture Calibration below). Comparing side-by-side to my old Sony XBR CRT, the Panasonic color decoder seems to have less "red push" (over-emphasized reds producing ruddy flesh tones). That gives a more natural color overall, but it takes some getting used to. I sometimes see the "clay face" effect (unnatural flesh tones) or other colors that appear a little unnatural to me with some programs, but there's so much color variation between sources that it's hard to attribute any problems to the TV. The best programs appear beautifully natural on the Panasonic (both HD and SD), while others can be pale and washed out, over-saturated, or oddly off-color.

The scaler and de-interlacer also seem to be excellent. (The scaler is responsible for scaling video inputs of many different resolutions to fit the native resolution of the panel, while the de-interlacer converts interlaced signals like 480i to progressive scan.) I haven’t noticed any visible artifacts like jagged lines, macroblocking or shimmering edges (at least none attributable to the TV scaler - my digital satellite HD service is another story). The picture on the Panasonic always looks smooth and detailed, even from SD sources. The overall quality of SD varies a great deal depending on the source, but with the best digital SD channels I sometimes have to look twice to see whether it's SD or HD. Initially my 480i SD input came from a digital satellite receiver over SVideo, and with that setup I'd say that the resolution appears much better on the Panasonic than any conventional CRT TV. Now I'm using an HD satellite receiver with HDMI connection, but SD programs look exactly the same as they did via the SVideo input, whether at 480i or upconverted to 1080i. This set converts all inputs to 1080p internally for processing and then downconverts to the screen resolution of 1024 x 768 for display. Panasonic claims 3072 displayable shades per color or 29 billion total colors, which is better than most of the competition and helps to avoid false contouring in subtly-shaded areas.

I have to mention the possibility of rainbow effect here for potential buyers (red/green fringes appearing for an instant around bright objects when your eye flicks rapidly across the picture). I don't personally see any rainbow effect on this TV in normal viewing, but some people do (see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=603995&highlight=plasma+rainbows for a long thread on the subject). Rainbow effect is more common and easy to see on DLP sets, and I do see it on most DLPs. It's a side effect of temporal color modulation (creating color gradations by turning a pixel on and off rapidly, relying on persistence of vision in the eye to fuse the rapid on/off into smooth color variation), an effect which didn't occur with CRTs. About 10% of people are bothered by it on DLP sets, much less than that on plasma sets - but you should probably check before you fork out thousands of dollars to buy one. Unfortunately it's not easy to check in the brightly-lit store environment. The effect is maximized if you are watching a bright picture in a dark room, or if you sit closer to a bigger screen so that your eyes tend to move more. I tend to keep the screen brightness low when the room lights are low, and we sit about 9 feet back from this 42-inch panel, so our chances of being bothered by rainbow effect are minimal.

There’s a bunch of other picture controls that Panasonic doesn't bother to describe clearly in the manual, and that I doubt the average home user will know how to use. Do you want MPEG noise reduction on or off? How about Color Management? Yes, I know now what they do, but I’m not even going to try to explain them all here. For the most part the experts seem to recommend that you leave all of these features off for the best picture, as they all have unwanted side effects.

Professional reviewers also rate the picture very highly on this and the other similar Panasonic models. The one criticism I have seen in those reviews is one that is common to many other TV models: floating black level. This means that while the TV is trying to dynamically adjust the contrast according to the picture content, the black parts of the picture (like sidebars) will brighten and darken slightly. I have noticed this effect, but personally I don't see it as a significant problem in ordinary viewing. Maybe that's because the dynamic contrast adjustment is less aggressive in the Cinema mode which I use for most of my viewing. Supposedly there are service menu adjustments to reduce the effect if it really bothers you, but Panasonic feels that they have fine-tuned it for best performance, and don't offer an enable/disable as a user menu option on their consumer models.

There is one more issue, and I hesitate to mention it since many people won't understand it, but like many current-generation HDTVs the current Panasonic plasmas do not handle 3:2 pulldown (reverse telecine) for 1080i inputs. Movies and many TV shows are originally captured on film at 24 frames per second. When this is converted to a 60Hz interlaced signal for broadcast, the only way to make it fit is to take 3 samples from one film frame and 2 from the next (5 frames at 60fps and 2 frames at 24fps both take 1/12 sec.). This wasn't important with CRTs that displayed an interlaced picture, but it is important with progressive-scan digital TVs. If the TV doesn't detect the 3:2 cadence by recognizing identical frames in the input, it will de-interlace incorrectly, resulting in picture blurring when things move or change in the picture. One of the reasons that the picture on the 600U appears so smooth for SD sources is the excellent de-interlacing and 3:2 pulldown for 480i input signals. The same issue affects interlaced sources at 1080i, but unfortunately the Panasonic does not handle 3:2 pulldown at 1080i. If you are playing a DVD movie that was originally filmed at 24 fps from an upconverting DVD player into the Panasonic, you will get a smoother picture at 720p than at 1080i (of course 1080p would be best, but many upconverting DVD players don't support 1080p). I believe I have seen this effect on my TV, but the problem is that's it's hard to know whether motion blurring is due to this effect or to MPEG-2 compression when I see it, since there's no way to freeze the picture and examine it closely. If you don't understand this paragraph, don't worry too much about it - very few current-generation HDTVs support 3:2 pulldown for 1080i. See http://www.hometheatermag.com/hookmeup/1106hook/ for test results. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine) has an illustration that helps you see why the progressive-scan picture looks fuzzy without 3:2 pulldown.

Picture calibration:

Once my TV was past the 100 hour break-in mark, I turned up the brightness and had a first crack at calibrating the picture using the Avia test-pattern DVD. I'm not sure that it's more useful than adjusting by eye, as individual sources and programs seem to vary quite a bit. At best it's good for calibrating the DVD picture with your specific DVD player. A few things stand out:
- The low-brightness default Cinema setting works well for HD sources and DVD movies in a dimly-lit room, but SD TV broadcasts usually need to be brighter to look normal and avoid that "clay face" look.
- Sharpness can be turned down quite low for HD sources to avoid obscuring detail, but a higher setting is needed for SD sources to avoid a fuzzy-looking picture.
- Setting black level is a fine compromise between obscuring shadow detail and getting really black blacks. Ideally it should be adjusted once to the standard zero black level for each source and left there, but in practice you may end up having to fine tune it for best viewing results. Fortunately the gross Black Level adjustment (Black Level = Light or Dark) on the Advanced menu is remembered independently for each input.
- There are 3 color temperature presets (Warm, Normal and Cool, primarily affecting the blue-yellow color axis), but the professional reviews I have seen consistently agree that the Warm setting on the Panasonic plasma is closest to the reference standard 6500K color temperature, and will therefore produce the most accurate color with properly calibrated sources. I leave mine set on Warm.
- My efforts to adjust color with the tint control (green-magenta color axis) don't tend make things look better, so I decided it looks good enough at the neutral setting where it is.

A professional grey-scale calibration using the fine adjustments on the hidden service menu would require pro equipment such as an analog/digital test-pattern generator and a colorimeter to read the screen. Best not to fool around with it without having such equipment.

Sound:

Sound quality of the built-in speakers is reasonable, a step up from the basic Panasonic models. There are 4 speakers (2 woofers, 2 tweeters) in the back, rear facing. Total power is a generous 31 watts. The deep bass is understandably lacking, but otherwise it sounds well balanced and natural except for a slight harshness to voices on some programs. In normal stereo mode there’s adequate stereo separation. This model has BBE Viva 3D surround sound simulation mode (see http://www.bbesound.com/technologies/BBE_ViVA/), which attempts to simulate a bit of surround sound effect from the built-in stereo speakers. It does enhance the apparent depth and width of the sound stage a bit, but as with all such systems, the effect is at its best only when you're sitting directly in front of the TV. It's nowhere near a real 5.1 surround system. I don't mind listening to ordinary TV programs on the built-in speakers for convenience, but I generally prefer to switch on my 5.1 surround sound system for movies. This TV will pass Dolby Digital 5.1 sound through from the HDMI inputs to the TV's digital optical sound output, unlike many others, providing added connection flexibility (but only if you have applied the latest firmware update - the original firmware had a problem with this).

The speakers are not detachable, but they don’t take up any extra space on the bottom or sides of the TV like some other models. Too bad there’s no speaker outputs, since I have some even better speakers of my own that I’d like to drive from the internal amp (like I could do with my old Sony XBR TV). There’s also no headphone output.

By the way, the TV will not enable an input unless there's a video signal present, so you will get no sound if only audio cables are connected to an input.

I have read some complaints from plasma owners about audible cooling fan noise or a buzzing sound coming from the TV, but I can't hear anything like that from mine, even close up in a quiet room. But my TV room is almost always cool, so I'm not sure the cooling fans on the TV ever run, and I live at sea level, while the problem of transformer buzzing sound is more common at higher altitudes I understand.

Features:

This set has NTSC (analog) and ATSC (digital) tuners. Unfortunately all the digital stations operating in my area are either very low power or very distant, and a quick auto-scan with a set-top antenna only picks up a few of them. I guess I would need a rotating rooftop antenna to do better in my area. There’s only a single RF input – you would have to swap cables or use an external RF coax switch to share the input between an OTA antenna and an analog cable system. In any case, I’m using it with a digital satellite receiver.

Panasonic doesn’t provide an independent memory per input for picture settings (aside from some of the settings on the Advanced menu like Black Level, as noted above). That's a bit of a shortcoming. Instead there are 3 user-adjustable modes for picture settings, labeled Vivid, Standard, and Cinema. You can change the settings independently for each of these 3 modes, and the new settings are retained. Each input separately remembers which of the 3 modes was last used. But you can’t adjust the settings for one input without affecting all the other inputs which are using the same mode. That seems a bit limited – 3 modes are barely adequate given the range of settings that might be needed (e.g., DVD movie, TV live action/cartoon/sports, PC input, Day/Night etc.). Other users have reported that these 3 modes cannot be made to look identical even with the exact same Picture settings on the user menu. I haven't tried this test myself, but there are some differences in settings available only on the hidden service menu - which would restrict the use of these 3 modes even more.

There is an ambient light sensor on the front panel for automatically adjusting brightness and contrast – it’s called the CATS sensor on the menu, where it can be enabled or disabled. I find the effect way too much, so I leave it disabled.

Technically this set doesn’t have true PIP capability, but there’s an equivalent split-screen function that lets you view two different inputs side-by-side. The two screens can be at the same size, or one large and the other small. I think that’s just as useful as PIP. There are some restrictions on which inputs can be viewed side-by-side – for example you can’t view two HDMI inputs at the same time, or an HDMI input at the same time as the PC input. I have both the HDMI and component inputs from my satellite receiver connected to the TV to work around this limitation.

You can plug a camera SD card into the front SD card slot to view pictures or run a slide show. We tried it with SD cards from a couple of different Canon cameras. There’s a 9-photo thumbnail index screen view, but I couldn't find any way to advance through a large set of photos more quickly than stepping through the index screen one line at a time. You can adjust the duration between slides in the slide show. Auto-rotation from EXIF orientation data is supported, and you can rotate photos manually. You can't zoom or pan within photos. Normal horizontally-oriented photos are not shown at full-screen size for some reason – perhaps to keep them the same size as vertically-oriented photos. The on-screen navigation help diagram actually covers the bottom left corner of landscape-oriented photos, and it took a bit of digging in the manual to find that the Recall button toggles it off. I don't think Panasonic put a lot of effort into this feature.

The SD card slot is also used to upload firmware updates to the TV. With the current state of HDTV (see Not Ready for Prime Time below), you can expect to do this a couple of times, especially if you use HDMI or CableCard. Panasonic doesn't post firmware updates on their support site, preferring that customers leave it up to professional installers - probably a wise decision for a consumer product - but they are available elsewhere on the internet. In the last few months the firmware for the tuner board has been updated to fix a few bugs (version 1.76), and the firmware for the digital signal processor board has been updated to improve picture quality (version 1.46). I installed the latest firmware updates following the very clear pdf guides, and it went smoothly. New owners might want to note that updating the firmware resets the picture settings, zeroes the hours-of-operation counter on the service menu, and possibly resets any custom professional calibration settings - so write them down first!

Interestingly the UK version of the PX600U allows video recording to an SD card, and playback of MPEG-4 video from the SD card. That’s a great feature – I don’t know why it was deleted from the North American model – could be the different digital TV broadcast system here, or perhaps some lame legal copyright concern. I also note that the composite video output of the TV is disabled when it is displaying the picture from an HDMI or component input, probably as a copy protection measure, although it still works when displaying the HD picture from the built-in ATSC tuner.

I've tried the VGA input with a couple of laptops at various resolutions, and in general it works fine. There's an advanced menu with a set of fine adjustments for matching the PC input to the display, but I didn't need them. The panel's native resolution is 1024 x 768, but it accepts input up to 1366 x 768. At vertical resolutions greater than 768, the bottom of the frame is cut off. The picture can be shown in 4:3 mode to give a true aspect ratio with a 4:3 input from the PC, or stretched to fill the screen horizontally using Full mode to take advantage of the full panel resolution. In the latter case I can correct the aspect ratio for video playback in the PC's video playback program, but Media PC owners should note that the Just and Zoom aspect ratio modes of the TV are not available with the PC input. The picture looks sharp at the native resolution of 1024 x 768, or for a better aspect ratio at the 1280 x 768 setting available from most graphics adapters (you might need optional software like Powerstrip to get 1366 x 768 with some graphics adapters). Text is easily readable. The color seems a bit over-saturated on video playback though, and it is difficult to adjust since only the contrast and brightness controls are available for the PC input. It's unfortunate that the TV doesn't have separate input memory for the PC input. Of course it's also possible to use the HDMI input with PCs that have DVI or HDMI output.

The PX600U includes a Cablecard slot (on the back) and QAM digital cable tuner, but this is of use only with U.S. digital cable systems that support it. It also has a built-in TV Guide capability, which is primarily useful in the context of OTA reception in areas where the TV Guide service is available (most major U.S. and Canadian cities), or certain cable TV systems which don't provide their own interactive channel guide. I don’t expect to use any of these features. Ditto for the IR Blaster that’s intended to work with the built-in TV Guide to control an external recorder. The TV Guide function can actually be a bit problematic even if you don't use it. Unless you disable it by setting the zip code to 00000 (an undocumented option), it causes the TV to consume more power in standby mode and make occasional clicking sounds from an internal power relay.

This TV doesn't have an RS-232 serial port to connect to professional control systems, but it has a feature Panasonic calls HDAVI Control, which allows the TV to directly control other audio-visual devices connected via an HDMI digital link. I suppose it might be useful for people who don't have a multi-system programmable remote and need to turn on a couple of devices at the same time, but it strikes me as one more new feature which is a little too far ahead of its time to be reliable.

There’s no mention in the manual of any features designed to prevent or minimize burn-in, aside from the recommended default setting of light grey for the 4:3 side bars.

Aspect ratio control:

The following aspect ratio choices are available:
- Full - shows HD picture at full screen size, the normal mode for watching HD; stretches 4:3 SD picture horizontally to fill the screen
- Just - stretches picture horizontally to fill the screen, but with an uneven stretch, less at the center and more at the edges in order to reduce center distortion, intended for watching 4:3 sources at full screen size
- 4:3 with side bars (choice of black, dark grey, light grey side bars – light grey recommended to minimize image retention)
- Zoom - stretches picture horizontally to fill the screen left to right, and then you can adjust the vertical stretch and position, ideal for removing top and bottom bars
- HFill (HD only) - explanations are vague, but the only apparent difference from Full is that it does the same sort of horizontal panel-filling stretch for 4:3 HD sources that Full does for 4:3 SD sources.

Aspect ratio can be changed for both HD sources (HDMI and component input) and for PC input.

I find that the “Just” mode is the best for watching 4:3 SD TV. I could watch in 4:3 mode for an undistorted picture, with black side bars to avoid distraction, but I’m a little worried that it might cause burn-in. The stretching is not too bothersome in the Just mode where the center of the picture is less stretched – it’s only really apparent when the camera pans horizontally, where it looks like you are seeing lens distortion at the left and right sides of the picture.

When the 4:3 SD broadcast is actually a wide-screen picture with top and bottom bars, I can switch to the Zoom mode and adjust the vertical size and position if necessary to remove the top and bottom bars.

Anyway, there seems to be enough control of aspect ratio between these options to handle most requirements. The one thing that's missing is the ability to zoom in on a wide-screen movie (like 2.35:1 aspect ratio) to fill the screen vertically and cut off the sides without distorting the pixel aspect ratio. In some other countries Panasonic seems to offer a wider choice of fixed zoom modes rather than a single adjustable one (e.g., Zoom 1, 2, and 3 in the UK).

I have to say that I find all the fiddling with aspect ratio when switching back and forth between programs and sources to be a real pain. You’re telling me that this fancy digital TV can’t figure out the right aspect ratio on its own?? (see below re Not Ready for Prime Time)

Remote control:

The included remote control has nice big buttons with a reasonably clear layout, but it’s not backlit. It is programmable to control up to 3 other devices (labeled VCR, DBS/CBL, DVD). It does not have buttons to go directly to specific inputs. I use a Harmony programmable remote, so I won’t be using the Panasonic remote control much.

Menus and controls:

The on-screen menu layout is reasonably clear and logical for the basic items, but some unique terms I had to look up in the manual, and some features can be difficult to find.

Pressing the Menu button calls up a menu with these items:

> Picture (picture controls)
> Audio (sound controls)
> Timer (on/off timers for use with TV Guide)
> Lock (toggle Parental Lock)
> TVG/Photo (TV Guide and SD Card photo viewer)
> Setup

You navigate the menu with a standard 4-way navigation pad on the remote (left/right/up/down, Select in the middle). A navigation Help diagram is displayed at the lower left of the screen to show what the buttons on the navigation pad do in the current context.

Some menus have 2 pages to step through, or have additional functions hidden under “Advanced”. On the positive side, the menus don’t completely obscure the picture, and when a picture adjustment item is selected, the menu is replaced by an adjustment bar at the bottom of the picture.

The TV/Video button on the remote or the front panel cycles through the inputs. To select an input source directly you can press the TV/Video button and then select the input you want on the Source menu by pressing a number key or using the up/down arrows on the remote. You can label each input with your own labels (e.g., “SAT”, “DVD”, “VCR”). You can also select SKIP to have the input skipped while cycling through the inputs.

I’m not normally using the TV tuner, so I can’t comment much on the TV tuner functions. The remote has a Favorites button to quickly call up favorite channels, and a Previous Channel button that Panasonic cryptically calls “R-Tune. If the TV Guide function is supported in your area, you can use the guide to display program schedules, select programs directly by name, and set timers for future viewing. There’s also the usual Parental Controls stuff.

There are hidden service menus to access features like fine color calibration, or total number of hours of operation on the panel. The secret codes are widely available on the internet.

Manual:

There's a full printed manual (in 3 languages), and it covers just about everything, albeit not in much detail. More detail on some of the unique or obscure functions would be helpful. It would also be nice to have a little bit extra about HDTV in general and some instructions for optimizing the picture. But there's always the internet...

The only real shortcoming with the manual is the aforementioned lack of warning about the default Vivid mode and the recommended break-in period.

Warranty and support:

Warranty is one year, parts and labor. My credit card doubles that to 2 years at no extra cost. U.S. customers also get a two year parts-only warranty from Panasonic on the panel itself, but Canadian customers don't. An additional 2 years parts and labor extended warranty directly from Panasonic would have cost 13% more.

Panasonic includes in-home warranty service with all their consumer-model plasma TVs (and their RPs and larger LCDs as well, but not industrial models). They have a dedicated support web site and customer service number for plasma TVs (see http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/plasma_concierge). I haven't had to use it (knock wood!), but the user comments I've read over the last year are generally more positive about Panasonic's service than other brands. That's not to say that the first-line technical support staff you'll reach are any better than other manufacturers, but at least they're trying!

I'm a little concerned that some plasma TVs seem to have a relatively high failure rate, but I respect Panasonic's reputation for quality and service, and I hope that 2 years warranty will be enough to work out any problems.

Value for money:

Purchasing a TV this expensive in today's rapidly-changing market is a tough call. Panasonic has reduced the list price on this set twice in just the last 3 months since I bought it, so it's substantially cheaper now (grrr!). Also the normal feature set keeps changing with each new product generation (e.g., 2 HDMI inputs became essential this year, next year everyone will want a true 1920x1080 screen resolution). That doesn't exactly inspire confidence that you're buying something with a known stable value. For me the timing was right, and I was willing to pay a premium to get a TV I'd be happy with for a few years. It's an individual choice as to whether the Panasonic's superior quality is worth the price premium over the competition, or the few extra features in the PX600U model are worth 15% more than the PX60U. Bargain hunters might want to look elsewhere, or maybe think about buying next year instead of now.

Update on 2007 models: Apparently Panasonic decided not to make any major changes to the panels themselves for their 2007 model line. Some have a new anti-reflective coating on the screen, but it doesn't seem to make any great difference - the picture looks pretty much the same as the 2006 models. The 2007 models have a glossy piano-black finish which is likely to be more popular than last year's silver 60U models, but I still prefer the 600U style with the wide flat-black strip around the screen. The 700U model won't be released until later in 2007.

HDTV Not Ready for Prime Time:

So far my in-home experience of HDTV is limited, but I have to rate it Not Ready for Prime Time so far.

- The total HD content I get on my digital satellite service is not very impressive – there’s not a lot of HD content compared to SD, and most of the time the HD channels are not showing true HD.
- Compression effects are visible on most of the satellite HD channels. Mostly they're minor (obscuring fine detail on moving objects), but I've seen cases where any rapid movement caused the scene to break up into gross macroblocking, probably due to transmission bandwidth badly mismatched with source bandwidth. The lack of 3:2 pulldown for 1080i in both the TV and the satellite receiver makes motion blurring worse for films (see explanation above). Looks like broadcasters need more experience with HD!
- Constant manual fiddling with the aspect ratio is required, as it changes back and forth between different sources and programs, and even with every commercial. Any cheap LCD computer monitor can automatically fit the picture to the panel - why can’t they automate this for HDTV?
- Some features don’t work in HD mode, e.g., split screen with two HD sources, or (on other TVs) inability to control the aspect ratio.
- They can’t seem to agree on the right type of connector – my TV has two HDMI inputs, while my satellite receiver has a DVI output.
- There seem to be still a lot of bugs between the TV and the digital receiver, especially when it comes to bungled attempts at content protection, requiring frequent firmware updates that don’t seem to fully resolve the problems.

I’m just sayin' !

1 year update:

I've owned this TV for more than a year now, and I see that this has been a very popular review, so I thought I'd add a few comments from the perspective of having owned it for a while.

First, I continue to be amazed (and yes, a little annoyed) at how much prices have fallen in the last year. But I've been enjoying my TV for a year, so I guess that's ok. :-)

The TV continues to operate flawlessly. There have been no glitches, and it has worked perfectly with the wide variety of equipment I've connected to it, including cameras, upconverting DVD players, computers etc. I haven't had any opportunity or need to test Panasonic's customer service personally. But I haven't read anything negative about it either in the last year that I've been looking out for customer service reviews.

I've settled on the Cinema setting for most of my viewing, with the Picture and Brightness cranked up a few notches, black level set to Light for my HDMI-connected equipment. I'm still impressed by the excellent scaler and de-interlacer on this TV. Differences in input resolution are certainly apparent between different sources, but I never see any scaling or interlacing artifacts, and nothing ever looks really bad. The only video effect I do see regularly is occasional false contouring in areas of smooth color graduation - but I only see that on satellite HD input, never on DVD, so it could be due to over-compression of the sat HD signal.

I do find it limiting that there isn't an independent setting memory per input. I wish that Panasonic had provided that feature last year. There have also been times when I wished for some more user-accessible adjustments for things like color balance and overscan, but I recognize that they would be problematic for the average consumer, and for the most part I'm content to do without them.

So overall, still a happy customer, but just wish I had paid half as much!

3-year update: still no problems, although the price I originally paid looks ridiculous now.