Panasonic Viera TC-L32X1 32" HDTV LCD TV

My 2003 television set went, so I was forced to be in the market for a new TV set. My top priority was getting a 32 inch LCD TV in my budget range - under $500.

Review of Panasonic Viera TC-L32X1 32 in. HDTV LCD TV

Picture:

Plays recorded VHS tapes horribly – The picture is very grainy. The 4:3 space on this Panasonic Viera 32 inch Widescreen LCD is about the same as my old 27 inch CRT Fullscreen TV set. So the display space is almost comparing apples to apples. The old set played the same VHS tapes with the same VCR well enough to watch and get lost in whatever I was watching. The old CRT TV set displayed them to the best of the VHS tapes and VCR's ability. This Viera TC-L32X1 LCD TV displays them as if the VHS tapes were sending out a HDTV image and the TV is trying to get every little detail correct making it completely unwatchable. I was shocked to see such poor image quality. Think of the TV sets back in the 1950s, this Viera TC-L32X1 produces that bad of image quality for my recorded VHS tapes. Video NR did not reduce the picture noise at all. (Tested with composite, component and HDMI.) Less than a star.

Plays DVDs well – (Tested with component and HDMI.) 4 stars.

Vintage/older video/older commercials played on cable TV – grainier than it should be. Somewhat poor image quality. (Tested with component and HDMI.) 2 stars.

480i SD cable TV – Good/average image quality. Slightly fuzzy when viewing up close, with better image resulting from being about 7 feet away from tv set, enough space for your eyes to blend moderate/slight distortions. Minor bleeding from white text on dark color. (Tested with component and HDMI.) 3 1/4 stars.

720p HDTV cable TV – Slight image improvement over 480i. Although still present, there is less fuzzy/graininess in picture. (Tested with HDMI.) 3 3/4 stars.

1080i HDTV – Crisp, sharp, bright images. Difficult to find any faults with the picture. Picture is stunningly beautiful and life-like. (Tested with HDMI.) 4 1/2 stars.

This Panasonic Viera TC-L32X1 does not know how to properly display images of poor/sub-par quality. For that reason, I can only give it 3 stars for picture.

Sound:

The sound quality from TV speakers is good. 3 3/4 stars.

Can adjust sound – bass, tremble, balance, and turn AI sound & surround sound on or off.

Features:

Inputs: antenna/cable in, 2 x composite video in (with option of S-Video on one), 1 x component, 3 x HDMI inputs, PC input, SD Card reader, and iPOD Universal Dock. Output: Digital audio out.

Have not tested the Viera Link, Viera Tools (such as playing iPOD on tv - this LCD TV set come with iPOD univeral dock), SD card reader.

5 different picture modes (presets) with ability to customize them all (and of course reset them back to defaults) Vivid (very bright), Standard (bright), Cinema (dimmer), Game (somewhat dimmer), and Custom.

On each of those picture modes, you can change backlight luminance, contrast, brightness, color, tint, sharpness, color temperature (warm, normal, cold), color management (enhances greens and blues – particularly good for enhancing outdoor scenes of grass, trees, sky, etc), AI picture (controls dark area), Video NR (reduces noise/snow), and zoom adjustments (a great feature for fine tuning your zoom level and vertical location).

Format – you can change picture from 4:3 to H-FILL (stretches 4:3 image to 16:9), JUST (stretches 4:3 image to 16:9, but keeps center more in line with original image and distorts the left and right extremities more), and ZOOM (zoom adjusted in picture menu options).

Placement of inputs and buttons - the power, volume, channel changer, menu and input buttons are all on the right side of the TV. The SD video card reader, one HDMI input, and the composite/S-Video input are on the left side of the TV. On the back of the TV are the other two HDMI imputs, the other composite input, the component input, the PC input, the iPOD dock input and the digital audio output.

4 stars for features on the Panasonic Viera TC-L32X1 32 in. HDTV LCD TV.

I am very impressed with the minimal light reflection/glare (there is some minor glare, but it is minimized). I am also impressed with the wide viewing angle (you can see the picture from 70 or 80 degrees off center, with some loss of brightness/vividness).

The TV Changer gets 2 stars. I am usually not picky when it comes to changers, but the most used buttons on the changer (other than power) are at bad locations – the input and menu buttons. I am always pressing the viera tools button when I want to press menu. This is because like almost all changers this changer has a round OK button with four arrow buttons surrounding it. But around these arrow buttons are the viera link, viera tools, and SD card buttons. All three buttons are elongated and form a half circle around the top of the arrow buttons. The problem is the menu and input buttons are directly above the viera tools button, with very little space for your finger to distinguish between all the buttons around the OK button and the input and menu buttons. What makes it worse is the placement of this problem at the top of this very long television changer (it is long as DVD changers). I normally pick up changers in the middle, and feel from there. Which I can't with this one when I want change input signals or menu options. I can't pick it up from the top of the changer when adjusting volume because the volume is in the middle. So after many years of not caring about changers, I have come across a changer I don't care for.