Great TV for the Price
Written: Feb 02 '04 (Updated Feb 03 '04)
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Pros: Great price, great picture, what else is there to say?
Cons: Unique design makes it difficult to hide cables or store components.
The Bottom Line: If you are ready to make the conversion to HDTV, but this product. A great value and you get the tuner built-in.
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| wcdaniels's Full Review: Panasonic PT-53WXD63 53 in. HDTV TV |
When we were finally ready to upgrade our television, we had a few things in mind. Our new television had to fit the following requirements:
1. It had to be a HDTV, and it had to have the HD tuner built into the television.
2. Widescreen
3. At least 51 inches
4. Under $2000
After searching, there was only one television that fit all of the categories, and that was the Panasonic PT53WXD63. With a normal list price of $2199, it was on sale at Circuit City for $1774. This looked to be a great deal, since Best Buy was selling the same model without the HD tuner built into it for $1699. I was worried that it might be too cheap, but I was wrong.
The television is absolutely beautiful. The picture is very clear, vibrant, and stunning. The first DVD we watched was Adam Sandler's The Wedding Singer. When you look at the old woman who is learning to sing, you can see every wrinkle in her face. We noticed two small moles on Adam Sandler's face that we had never seen before. The detail is incredible.
I had to wait a week for Comcast to install the HD cable box, so I went to Wal-Mart and bought the cheapest set of rabbit ears to try some of the over the air HDTV signals. This is incredible! I didn't know this before, but with OTA HDTV signals, you either get the whole picture, or none at all. There is no snow. This was wonderful. We saw a nature program about groundhogs, and you could count the individual hairs on the creature.
The best part was watching the Super Bowl in HDTV. It is like looking through a window in the stadium, and watching it in person. Everything is great.
This is the first television I have ever owned that had enough inputs for all of my components. It has two coax inputs (one for cable, one for antenna), two composite inputs, HDMI-HDCP input for HD connections (which I understand is not as common as the DVI input, but is a superior connection. Also, you can get an adapter for the DVI if you need it), 3 rear A/V inputs (two of which have an s-video input as well), and one front A/V input. I have my VCR, DVD, Xbox, and PS2 all connected without using a switchbox. The only drawback to all of these connections is that you have to press the TV/Video button to cycle through them. It would have been nice to have a direct input of the video source you wanted to use.
The television also has two features that are kind of need, but I won't be using them for a while. The first is the Photo Viewer SD/PC Card Slot. If you have a digital camera that uses SD cards, you can simply insert the card and look at all your pictures on the big screen. This SD slot also doubles as a way to update the software in the television. If you have any number of other memory cards (including the ones my camera uses, xD), you can get a PCMCIA adapter, used in laptop computers, and plug it right in.
The other feature I unfortunately won't be able to use is the Digital Cable Module (CableCARD). If supported by your cable or satellite company, they can install this module, and you would be able to receive all of the cable channels on your television, including pay channels and pay-per-view channels. This would be great, and I would love to eliminate another box on my TV, but alas, my local Comcast doesn't support it. Maybe in the future.
So far, there are only minor negatives to this product. First of all, I am not thrilled about the base of the television. Instead of it being one big square in the front, the screen itself is on a narrow stand. It is still very sturdy, but it makes it a little harder to hide all of the cords and cables.
Also, the top of the cabinet is narrow, so you can't put the cablebox, DVD, or VCR on top of the television. The rear projection unit still sticks out in the back, so this was more of a reason to make it lighter rather than save space for it's profile, but again, this is not a big deal.
The sound from this television is adequate. It has a nice, deep bass sound, and you can adjust it even higher if you wish, as well as the treble. It has what Panasonic calls BBE High Definition Sound, and it makes television and DVD's sound good. It also has Artificial Intelligence Sound, which reduces the volume of those annoying blaring commercials. However, for a true home theater system, you will want to add a dedicated 5.1 Surround Sound system. As great as the picture is, it really deserves the sound to be equal. Besides the audio AV output jacks, it also has Digital Optical Output, so you can get some quality sound.
The universal remote works well, but it is really pretty basic. It has a nice layout, and the buttons are intuitively placed. It controls all of my equipment, but it is missing some controls for my Comcast Digital Cable box (Motorola). I ended up using my old universal remote instead.
Overall, this is an excellent television for the price, and it is highly recommended.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1774.99
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Epinions.com ID:
wcdaniels
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Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
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