Panasonic TX 26 LXD 60

Author's product rating:   

How is the Picture Quality?	Excellent
How is the Sound Quality?	Good
Ease of Installation	Simple
Range of Features	Above Average
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	picture quality
Disadvantages:	remote buttons

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The betting shop said the odds for England to win the 2006 world cup were 10-1. That was in February 2006
I thought that maybe it was best to wait to place a bet because I thought anything may happen, players might get injured etc. My intuition was subsequently proved correct.
It was about the same time that I started my occasional search to replace my aging CRT TV, preferable before the World cup started in June. It was after assessing and viewing several makes and sizes of TV; LCD, Plasma and even CRT over those few months that I eventually read some reviews and saw one of these in a shop.
My intuition told me that this was the one for me.
TD (Oct 2006) my intuition has again proved to be correct. I've had this TV since mid May 2006 and continue to be impressed with its performance (unlike that of the England team) and design.

Features:
Setup\Tuner\Recording
The TV has a freeview tuner built in and this itself improves picture quality because it removes the need for an external connection to a freeview box.
During start up the set automatically tunes itself into all freeview stations. The initial settings for brightness and contrast are too high for my taste so these may require a tweak using the picture menu. However that's it, you're ready to go almost immediately.
Using the remote one can quickly switch between digital (freeview) and analogue service, though I find the analogue picture to be very poor in comparison.
I find the ability to choose what channels you prefer to appear in the program list very useful, these choices are stored as 'Profiles' that you can switch between very quickly.
Worth a mention is that if you have a DVD recorder that supports Q-link (or similar) then you can get the TV to control the recording even if the TV is to be in standby at the time of the recording. This is done by selecting a program to record in the list of programs, called the DVB=Digital Video Broadcasting.

Picture/Sound menus
With the Picture menu you can control the brightness, contrast, colour, sharpness and colour balance
I find the ability to store a set of settings as a 'mode' very useful. You have 4 modes, each one being a saved set of personnel brightness, contrast etc preferred settings. I use these modes to quickly change the picture settings depending on the state of the lighting in the viewing room.
The sound menu consists of settings to control Bass, Treble, Balance, NICAM on/off (not used with freeview) Mode, Ambience and Headphone volume. Here there are two modes, named Music and Speech.

Other settings.
The setup menu provides for many other settings including a child lock, timer programming and multi audio. The visual bar display of signal quality and strength is of particular interest. Apparently LCD's are sensitive to poor signal strength. These bar indicators are therefore useful if you get picture break-up on certain stations or at certain times of day. The bars change colour to red if they get below a certain %. I found that a signal booster (approx £12) resolves this problem giving me an increase of about 50% in signal strength.

Operation.
The remote is pretty easy to use though I would prefer some of the buttons to be larger; especially the
more frequently used ones that in my case are the Guide, TV/AV, Menu and Exit buttons.
You can control the aspect ratio of the picture via the remote. The default may be 'Auto' but sometimes the choice of either 16:9, 14:9, 4:3, Zoom1, Zoom2, Zoom3 does improve the image.
I find some older programs/films and indeed some channels are best viewed at 14:9, while some overseas broadcasts (football etc) get better results using choice of Zoom1~3.
It is worth noting here that the choice of aspect ratio and picture mode (see 'Picture/Sound menus') seems to be stored by the TV for each channel and connected device.
A brief or full description of the current and next program can be displayed on screen via the remote while in the DVB or while viewing a program.
There is an array of buttons on the top panel of the TV. Along with the on/off switch there is a channel change, function (to change picture/sound settings) and a store button (stores settings etc). These buttons are discretely designed to be flush with the main case of the TV, so are virtually invisible.

Picture/Sound quality.
The picture quality is quite stunning at times though like all LCD's viewing from an acute angle is unwise. Motion blur is almost none existent. I do notice however that a cricket ball, if travelling quickly on its way to the boundary, will have a half moon of white around it. I have not noticed any similar effect with tennis or footballs.
Sound quality is very good giving crisp clear results. I have not had the volume above 50% much, but do not perceive any distortion at the higher volume levels.

Connectivity:
This set is HD ready so has 2 HDMI sockets at the rear.
I recently bought a cheap HD DVD player (£40) and am using it in one of these sockets and do perceive a slight improvement in picture quality over same through the SCART socket, even though the DVD's being played are of course not HD.
It also has 2 SCART and Component sockets at the rear with the S.Video inputs and headphone socket on the right side panel.

Design
Elegant is the word I would use to describe the look of this TV. When switched off it looks really good and when on the set does not intrude into your viewing experience. I think this is because the speakers are housed below the screen not at the side.
The attached stand does not tilt (but I understand that the 23" version does) but does swivel 20 degrees left and right of centre. It does not come with a wall bracket but it is equipped with the necessary holes in the back.

Conclusion.
Sometimes a purchase like this is done by intuition or through the result of detailed analysis of available similar products. I like to think I used a bit of both. In the end you only know for sure when you have lived with and used the product for a while. In my case I think, so far, my choice has been vindicated and I hope that the TV will add longevity to its other excellent features.