Viera Viera Good Telly! (Panasonic TX-26LXD60)

Member Name: fergusa

Product:	Panasonic TX-26LXD60
Date:	17/06/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent picture, built in digital (DVB), looks sytlish.

Disadvantages: Top of the range pricewise.

We bought our Panasonic Viera TV almost three years ago, so I've had plenty of time to try out all the features and find any pitfalls.

**The look
It's a stylish looking LCD (flat screen). Silver in colour with a black frame around the screen. Ours is the 26" but they are also available in 23" and 32" (just substitute the first 2 digits in the model number with the appropriate size.) The measurement of the screen is taken on the diagonal not width of screen.

I know massive TV's are popular but, in my opinion, this 26" is certainly big enough for a general family lounge. The flat nature of the screen makes it very space efficient. It comes with a stand but can also be wall mounted.

The speakers are in the silver area below the screen, but they are pretty much invisible to the eye - very clever. The buttons (on/off etc) are on top of the TV and are flush with the frame so again these are hidden from general view making the TV look super sleek.

**The setup
Setting up the TV was extremely easy. All the channel setting, time setting etc is done automatically you just have to turn on and enter through a few screens.

**Features
Intergrated digital (DVB) means you can view digital channels without the need for a set top box or sat dish, and it's all free.

The digital programme menu makes viewing the day's TV easy and you can flick forward through the next week too. (No need for a TV mag again).

Picture and Sound quality are both excellent. We have never had a rooftop aeriel and still have an excellent picture (we live in a conservation area and the aeriel would need to be sited around the back out of view, while we were waiting to get this done we had a little indoor aeriel which is hidden behind the TV, it gave us such a good picture we decided not to have the external one after all). The TV is HD ready and has a high resolution (1366 x 768 pixels). There are 7 aspects (wide screen, zoomed in to three views, etc) and the sound is NICAM stereo.

The remote control is quite large but packed with features. Text (the red button), a hold button to freeze the picture, subtitles (provided the programme has them available). Plus all the usual - sound, channel select, TV/AV.....

There is also a DVD/Video section at the bottom of the remote which I assume is for use with a Panasonic model to save the number of remotes you have.

In case I've missed something important, the manufacturer information says the features are:
66cmV HD LCD Widescreen
Remote Control
XGA Panel (1366x768 Pixels)
VIERA Colour Management System
Built-in FREEVIEW DVB Tuner
HD Ready
2 x HDMi Inputs
PC INPUT
SD Multi-Media Card Slot
MPEG4 Record/Playback (Via SD Card)
Multi-Window - PIP, PoP and P&P
NICAM Stereo
2000-page Level 2.5 Teletext
16:9 Screen Aspect
Picture-and-Text Multi-Window
800:1 Contrast Ratio
2 x 10 Watts Audio OUT
3 x SCART Connections (Inc 1 x RGB)
7 x Aspect Modes
S-Video IN

I'm sure there are features this TV doesn't have but for general, user friendly viewing it is excellent in terms of quality and reliability. We paid close to £1000 3 years ago but I've seen them advertised for around £900 now. There are models on the market with a similar specification which are cheaper, but Panasonic Viera TV's seem to get consistently good reviews.

Summary: Can buy cheaper models, worth it for quality sound and picture.

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