Panasonic TX28PL10

yes, very energy efficient, apparently on the back it states that it consumes a maximum of 90W. Now i'm pretty sure for a CRT display that this is very efficient, i have both a lcd monitor (17) and tv (22) which have a maximum consumption of 35W and 120W; respectively.

Though the image quality is absolutely great, as you can expect from a CRT, 50hz sure is a buzz-kill tho, not perceptible by the majority but it sure does require your vision to adjust. Although for a CRT, it is a very nice screen regardless.

Sound, is pretty good, I think they implemented a sort SRS WOW feature into the TV set, this can be turned off which is what I prefer to do, as it hurts my ears.

Features, well other features are there? 2SCarts and composite entry in the front etc. NO HD!!!

Value, it is 2010 as of writing this "review", CRT's are now being continuously and perhaps unnecessarily disposed of, under the intention that they are; very big and energy inefficient (this one's 90W).

Though because of this dumping of tube TV's, I was able to snap this one up for £30. YES! Thats correct, so little for something that was sought after 5-6 years ago, and also, a very good bargain.

It also speaks volumes that a set like this could last so very long without much degradation to it, unlike its LCD counterparts which have shorter lifespans on average.

and remember that it is energy efficient, so you won't end up with a giant bill, at the end of the day.....

Outstanding value - you can pick them up dead cheap now and my

Panasonic TX28PL10 has been ultra-reliable.

Picture and sound quality are excellent. I've had my set for 7years and it still performs the same. It's had a fair bit of abuse from my twin daughters but has never let me down.

Great picture quality, Panasonic are a cut above the rest in this field.

This Panasonic TX-28PL10 was a fantastic Widescreen TV for the first 11 months of it's life and I would have recommended it to anybody. But all of a sudden the picture has gone green and all you can see is a faint outline of people in the picture. The problem is present in AV mode too so I can't even watch DVDs at the moment :-(. Up until today I would have given this TV 10/10 but now I'm not so sure - 11 months is a short lifetime for any kind of TV. Hopefully I can get it repaired or replaced under the warranty.

Nothing to be said here that has'nt been said before about the Panasonic TX-28PL10, except that i'd like to know if the above problems are indemnic of all pl10 sets or not? If yes then this is surely a case for trading standards and panasonic need a kick up the backside!

I must say this is the best tv i have ever had, and since it being flatscreen it looks much , much better than a standard widescreen.

As for the 100hz i could not live without it, no flicking on the sky now and next banner, and sharp picture when playing games. strangly the tv features a hold button , you can freeze at any time an image on the screen (like pause on dvd's).

Its a shame there is only one RGB scart connection, but no worry i am using a 3 port scart adapter on it.

Sound - it is good but only Stereo , i use a pro logic amp / Dolby digital amp (Philips FR984). it matches the tv well.

I would recommend this tv instantly.

Whilst the picture and sound quality are generally good there is a serious flaw with this television. Lines that should be vertical, such as buildings, window frames, rugby posts etc, are often distorted with a curve or kink. If viewing in 4:3 mode, or viewing a format that does not fill the screen (such as BBC News 24) the edges of the picture are often distored and bent. The brighter the picture the worse the distotion.

A service engineer told me that nothing can be done, he had seen it on many 100 Hz TVs. After a lenghthy exchange of e-mails with Panasonic's Customer Services Depatment Panasonic themselves admitted that, quote "..this electronic picture memory system, as with all electronic processes, can add artefacts to the resultant picture. Even with additional processing to reduce these artefacts cannot eradicate the solarisation, line paring or ragged verticals which may be apparent dependent on the media being watched.

This is I regret a limitation of 100Hz processing at this time. There is no resolution, repair or upgrade available and only remedial action such as reducing brightness, contrast and other electronic enhancements used can alleviate the symptoms." unquote.

Beware, if distorted verticals will annoy you do not buy this, or any other 100 Hz TV until the technology improves. And don't expect any sympathy from Panasonic.

Some of the previous Panasonic Quintrix tubes did not have a great deal of fine detail response, but this is clearly not the case for the new Quintrix tube in the PL10.

PICTURE QUALITY

The colours are immaculately contained and benefit from an impressive contrast performance, which produces full blacks and pure whites, geometry is also excellent and there is no significant curvature whatsoever. The 100Hz digital scan is execellent too it produces no unwanted digital artefacting and the picture lines are perfectly straight with no visible blurs.

Noise is generally very hard to spot, only really materialising in the (common to 99 per cent of all TVs) form of dottiness around small patches of bright colour on composite feeds.

SOUND QUALITY

The PL10's audio is quite satisfying with a good level of volume for only 7 WATTs per side. It doesn't do anything wrong, there's no distortion or cabinet rattle, and there's a decent balance to the general tone. Its not exactly amazing but what more can you expect from NICAM, for many people reading this, the PL10 would just be a picture monitor to be run with a full surround sound system.

FEATURES

One of the picture features included is P-NR (Picture noise reduction) which is excellent if u recieve a 'grainy' picture, it does reduce the detail but if you have an excellent picture you won't need it.

The AI is excellent panasonic feature which adjusts the contrast, colour etc to stop colour bleeding. Also note that the AI feature perfectly adjusts the contrast and brightness to meet the THX optimiser standard on the Star Wars E2 DVD.

One of the best features of this TV is the zoom adjustment facility, most TVs have preset ratios (4:3, 14:9, 16:9, Auto and Zoom) the panasonic has the same but the zoom mode lets adjust the vertical positioning and size, just like on a PC monitor which is great as some TVs namely Philips, either don't fill the screen or lose the top and bottom of the picture.

CONNECTIVITY

The connections are a bit of a disappointment however. You get just two Scarts one of which can take RGB. Their is pair of stereo outs on the rear so you can send the TV's audio to a stereo/pro-logic amp, and on the front there's inputs for S-video, composite video, and stereo audio.

VALUE FOR MONEY

As for value for money I bought one on a PART-TIME wage! so its easily affordable, on that note the nearest equivalent Sony (KV28LS60) is £250 (roughly $347) more expensive than the Panasonic nuff' said.

As for the review i read on the Panasonic TX-32PL10 (of which is identical in every respect to the TX-28PL10 apart from the screen size) all it shows is the guy recieved two faulty sets. I have had this TV for more than five months now and none of the problems he describes have arisen. This is one of the reasons i wrote this review as to dismiss a great a TV just because one person had a faulty one misses a great opportunity to buy a excellent TV and save some cash.

To give a TV just an overall score is not very benifcial to someone who is quick reading this review so i have also given scores in more specific areas.

Picture Quality - 10/10

Sound - 8/10

Features - 9/10

Connectivity - 7/10

Value for money - 11!/10