Price Paid:  $1695.00 from video only

Summary:
BAD BAD BAD! Dont buy this TV! After just 1 month 3 mother boards replaced. After 2 years somthing else burned up again. I give up! NOT worth the money. Bad HD picture also compared to other sets. Any one elese with this problem?

Strengths:
NONE

Weaknesses:
3 main boards replaced and it now has only lasted 2 years and another thing has burned!

Similar Products Used:
JVC

Price Paid:  $1799.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I purchased the 53" vers. of this HDTV in Sept. 2002. I was very pleased with the picture quality and the price/performance compared to other manufactures that I looked at(at first). For several months I watch regular TV in 4:3 mode, but mostly watched DVD's in either full or zoom modes. After only 8 months of use (casual use at that) I noticed yellowing had occured on the inside part of the screen due to watching it in 4:3 mode (and way below the recommended 15% of the total veiwing time per week). On page 6 of Panasonic's manual it does say that use of this TV in 4:3 mode is only recommend for 15% of the total veiwing time per week. I think that statement from Panasonic is VERY deceiving!!! After all, some may only watch TV for a few hours a day while others may watch TV for several hours daily. I called Panasonic to have tech. come out to the house to look over the TV to determind the problem. Of course it was screen burn in. And of course Panasonic WILL NOT cover that in their warranty. The technician that came over told me that he had customers that owned both Sony & Hitachi HDTV's that had similar problems within the warranty period and both Sony & Hitachi DID cover the repair and parts costs for their customers. After lodging several complains about this prematual burn in with Panasonic, they basically burried my case & completely blew me off as a customer. Everytime I called or was contacted by them, I was treated like a burden instead of a customer. After spending almost $2000 with them I would have expected better treatment. I will never buy another Panasonic item of ANY design after my experience with this TV. I now watch regular TV in ZOOM mode ONLY!!! For those of you that have this problem, expect to pay around $300 for the part and up to $200 for installation if you're going to pay to get it fixed yourself, which I will end up having to do. If you do buy this type of TV, it is a high maintenance TV. Expect to have this problem eventually, even as a casual watcher. As I said before, I bought it mainly to watch DVD movies on. But even if you're buying it for that purpose alone, also be warned that 80% or more movies are filmed in 70mm compared to 35mm. A 35mm movie on DVD would fill the screen completely; no black bars on the top & bottom. That is basically the difference between 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and 16:9 widescreen. So most DVD movies that you'll watch on this TV WILL have thin black bars at the top & bottom of the TV in "full" mode. Panasonic in their infinite wisdom has no compensation mode for this, where as other manufactures do, thus eliminating the top & bottom black bars by cutting off a small portion of the left and right sides. In doing this, they FORCE their buyers to watch movies in a modes that is NOT recommended in manual. That is utter BS!!!!! Panasonic knows this! And they know that everyone that buys one of their rear projection 16:9 HDTV's will eventually have to also buy replacement tubes and pay for repair costs. I DO NOT recommend this TV for someone that will be watching it on a regular basis!!! I will probably end up selling mine, taking the loss for it, and getting one that has additional viewing modes. Right now I have not fixed the TV and the warranty just ran out last month, however I did purchase the extended warranty with Circuit City and they did tell me that this problem would be covered. That remains to be seen however. Now, the TV also has begun to exhibit burn in due to watching DVD's that have black bars on the top & bottom. Not to mention the contrast is WAY OFF. Dark images blend in with no detail whatsoever going completely black, while brighter scenes become washed out. There is no way to adjust any of the setting to compensate for this after trying just about every adjustment within the TV's menuing system. And by the way, I've never connected a game system or computer system to this TV as they produce a "hotter" signal than the tuner or other video input devices (dvd player, vcr, laser disc, etc). I also kept my brightness, color, and picture levels BELOW 30, and I still got screen burn after only 8 months. Thinking about buying a Panasonic HDTV? DON'T!!!!!!

Strengths:
low price
nothing else!!!!

Weaknesses:
Poor warranty
Panasonic will not cover screen burn
Screen burn is inevitable
Most tubes will only last 1-2 years
Parts & labor are expensive
Very high maintenance TV.
Expect poor customer service from Panasonic.
Only 3 veiwing modes compared to others that have up to 5 or 6 veiwing modes.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba 51" rear projection 4:3

Price Paid:  $1960.00 from circuit city

Summary:
This is a follow up review after reading about screen burn in probs others are having
I've used this set for 13 months now in
4:3, streach,and various other modes for extended periods and so far have no burn in
A lot of this comes from using the factory preset mode which jacks the contrast all the way up. Any set that has the contrast boosted like this will have problems, especially rptvs'
enthusiasts like myself have long had a prob with manufacturers doing this mess,
a lot of people think that the "normal" picture setting is the way to go and screen burn in is the result
I run my set at 25 for brightness and contrast and 30 for dvds and dont have any burn in at all, despite computer and 4:3 use. If anything the picture is even better now thatb the set has broken in
watching DVDs with the picture setting
at HD color is a delight. Color is rich,
detailed and is miles ahead of a regular set. My only gripe is that you can now get a 53" for what I paid for my 47". But I still love this set

Strengths:
champaing on a beer budget

Weaknesses:
cabinet, green convergence off a tad

Similar Products Used:
first HDTV

Price Paid:  $1680.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
Unbeleivable TV (& DVD). Spiderman never looked so good. I don't know if I'll ever go back to the movies.

Strengths:
You gotta see the picture!

Weaknesses:
None yet. I got a burn from leaving it on for 4 wks, but that was my fault. Will keep you posted on the cost of repair and Panasonic's service. They were good on the phone.

Similar Products Used:
Matching Panasonic progressive scan DVD.

Price Paid:  $1749.00 from Half.com

Summary:
Panasonic 47WX49 Projection offers a 4x3 viewing mode for watching regular TV broadcast programs. However, there is a BIG design drawback. Because of the strong white background projection when using 4x3 mode, the side-panel display pixels will be burned much faster than the center 4x3-area pixels. After a while, you will clearly see a distinct side-panel burning area when you use other modes such as full or adjust mode. The side-panel burn still happens when you try not to continously watch TV in 4x3 mode, for example, switching to full or adjust modes for 2 hours after watching 4x3 mode for 2 hours. It ONLY depends on what is the total time you use 4x3 mode. This means the side-panel burn problem will eventually happen if you use 4x3 mode long enough. I bought a Panasonic 47WX49 in Match 2002. I never used the game player or computer on it but just normal TV viewing. Sure enough, after only 6 month, I start to see two grey stripes showing on the side panels when I use the full or adjust mode. And worst of all, it is NOT covered by the warranty at all. If you carefully read the owner's manual, you can see the following words, "WARNING: the marking or retainined image on the picture tube resulting from viewing fixed image is not an operating defect and as such is not covered by Warranty. The projection television is designed to display constant moving images on the screen. Continuous viewing of stationary images such as letterbox pictures on standard screen TVs (with top/bottom bars), non-expanded stardard (4:3) pictures on wide screen TVs (with side bars shown on each side of an image), stock market report bars (ticker running at the bottom of the screen), video game patterns, fixed scoreboards, bright station logos, on-line (internet) or repetititve computer style patterns should be limited". So, it mentioned continously viewing, however, it does not (or dares not) mention that it is actually the total watching time causing the problem. As I know, other Panasonic Projection TV models have similar problems. So, be aware of this side-panel burn problem when you make the purchase decision, which in some sense they would rather not let you know when you make such a decision.

Strengths:
Not for this article.

Weaknesses:
A mentioned in the summary