me7h0dman

Just wondering if any of you own this tv and what you think of it.

Mantecore

I got the Panasonic 53 inch, 47 was just a bit to small and it wasn't that much of a difference, soundtrack is having thier up to 12% of sale and i got mine thier at a good price. You can get last years modle at $1799 and i think a 10% discount or the $1899(which i got) which is this years modle and i think it also had a 10% off discount. It is a great tv, i like it alot!

Icculus

I've had it for about a month and a half and it just keeps getting better . Out of the box it didn't look that bad (I heard last years looked pretty bad without calibration) and once I calibrated with Avia it looked incredible. I was a little worried about stretching 4:3 material at first but now, unless I'm watching CNN or something with text across the bottom, I don't even notice it.

me7h0dman

Thanks for the impressions guys. 47" is pushing it for me, so I don't think I'll go bigger. My apartment isn't too big and I don't have the cash anyway. (poor college student)

Just a couple other questions I have:

Have you guys hooked up any videogames to the tv? Is it best to stretch the picture every once and a while to avoid burn in?

Also, how much tweaking did you have to do out of the box? I'm pretty new at this, so besides Avia, I don't think there's much else I can do.

Icculus

I haven't done any tweaking other than Avia and it looks great, there are other things that can be done but it seems like this years models don't really need them. (Check www.panny.tv to see some tweaks.)

I have all three of this generations consoles hooked up with component cables. I play most PS2 games (the ones without a WS mode) stretched and they don't look all that bad. Xbox games have to be in either full mode or 4:3, you can't use the stretch mode (just) with a progressive signal - sometimes a few things will look short and fat but most games look pretty good (16:9 + 480p = ). The gamecube is the same as the Xbox, I've been playing a lot of Metroid Prime over the past week and the picture is amazing. The stretch really isn't that bad for games - your main focus is on the center of the screen and the center isn't stretched.

me7h0dman

Man, I can't wait to see MP when I get the Cube hooked up with component cables. I think I'll pass on the cables with the PS2 though since there are only a handful of games that support 16:9 + progressive scan.