Anyone have experience with the Panasonic 53TW53? It can be had for around $1100 or $1200, and at that price I'm very tempted. I just have a Philips 32" at the moment.



The only negatives I've seen are it doesn't go up to 720p and is VERY heavy (220lbs).

Any help would be appreciated.

VERY heavy? My 53" is over 300 pounds.

You're talking about your television right? Otherwise, move to Mature Forum >>>>>>>>>



Out of curiousity, have you had to move it up or down any stairs? How did that go?

A female friend and I brought it down a flight of stairs (or rather, slid it) when it was in its shipping box. I had rigged up a rope system to help ease it down so I wouldn't get crushed.

The stairs, the set, and I escaped unharmed. It was probably harder getting it unpacked.

I just bought a slightly different Panasonic 53" from SAMS CLUB, and am very happy with my purchase. Great picture, great sound. As for 220 lbs, thats not heavy at all for a RP HDTV.

But like me, you should do some extensive research about the TV to make sure it has everything you're looking for.

Where is it you are finding it for $1100?

Circuit City has it for $1299.99 after $250 rebate, and there's a $100 merchandise card that comes with it.

Click here

What do you mean that "The only negatives I've seen are it doesn't go up to 720p"? It doesn't display 720p natively but neither do any other CRT based RPTVs. Also the STB you use will take any 720p signal and convert it to 1080i that the TV will display. For things like Xbox games in 720p it will most likely accept that signal and convert it to 1080i internally.

Oh yeah and my thoughts on the TV is that once calibrated the panny line looks very good but OOB they're not so good at all. But hey for that price what do you expect.

I really doubt it will do that...

no 720p is common across the board for tv's in this price range. I just bought a 47inch panasonic hdtv for $1000 and I couldn't be happier with it. Its an excellent tv for the price.

Why do you doubt it? Many HDTVs will accept a 720p signal and upconvert to 1080i. The problem is that there are no or very few RP HDTVs that will display both 720p and 1080i and those that do are very high priced. I went to the Panny site and looked up this model and it looks like they list 480p/1080i capability but then note that some models they make might upconvert 480p to 540p and that some will also accept 720p but they aren't specific about how this model handles it.

I own the 3 year old 47" version of the Panny and I've been very pleased. My folks own last years 53" version and have also been pleased.

Doesn't the STB do the coverting, not the TV unless it has a built in HD tuner that can do it. When 720p comes from ABC my STB converts it to 1080i and feeds it to my Panny since my Panny won't accept 720p. I also thought 720p XBOX games are downcoverted to 480p if your TV can't display native 720p. I may be wrong, but I don't think the XBOX will convert 720p to 1080i.

I have never seen a HDTV that upconverts 720p that didn't brag about it. And this being a very inexpensive set i highly doubt it will do it.

Yes the STB does the conversion for broadcast signals but for RF signals like the Xbox the TV will or should do the conversion. The Xbox doesn't do any conversion but when the 720p signal is sent to a TV that can accept it the TV will in most cases convert to 1080i. Of course if you own a plasma, LCD or DLP that can display 720p natively no conversion is needed. There are many HDTVs that take any signal being fed to it and convert everything to 1080i for display. Currently almost all HDTV brands will accept 720p even if they don't display it natively. The main hold out is Mitsubishi which only accepts 480i/p and 1080i.

That statement applies to every HDTV out there. I don't know of anyone who would buy an HDTV without also buying the Avia or Digital Video Essentials DVD and calibrating their set. (Or, if they're really serious, hiring a professional to calibrate it for them.)

Most sets require the kind of calibration you really can't do yourself with those discs. While you can do color/contrast/brightness/sharpness with calibration discs they don't really help you with greyscale, geometry, focus, etc.

I tend to call what you can do with Avia or VE "adjusted" instead of calibrated.

While I agree with you that everyone who buys an HDTV should at least set the user controls with Avia or DVE not everyone is inclined to do it. There are many people who just want to unpack it, plug it in and wonder why they need to pay extra for a calibrator or a disc to tell them how the picture should look. For these people the panny line is not for them.

As much as I dislike the PQ style of Sony's RPTVs they have very good OOB images as far as overscan amount, focus and greyscale tracking. Pioneer is another brand with a very good rep for OOB PQ. Panny, Tosh, Hitachi and even my Mits have poor OOB PQ when it comes to things like overscan, greyscale, red or green push or diminish and focus. Even after setting the user controls correctly these things are not addressed without a proper calibration that involves entering the service menu and let's face it the average person isn't going to risk that even if they knew how. Now once these things are done they all will look pretty much the same. I always tell people that if they're going to do most of the calibration themselves to buy based on features, past reliability and how easy they calibrate.

Back to the Panny. I doubt they've corrected their geometry problems on the new models and to really correct it requires entering the service menu. IMO on sets I've looked at their greyscale skews towards green which is the worst color to lean towards.

I have the PT47WX54 (costco version of PT47WX53) and its a no-go at 720p over the dvi port (480p/1080i over dvi no problem). I don't have a way to test it over the component.

True, although the discs do have test patterns for these other adjustments. And a little exploring will uncover lots of info on how to DIY for these. Esp. for some brands like Mitsu's, which are covered well on some sites like HT SPot. On my set, I didn't bother with grayscale or focus (both were OK), but I did adjust the geometry and overscan so the gridlines are nice and straight, and 4% OS all around.

I *might* fiddle with the focus a bit someday, if I'm feeling adventurous. Although the pic is very sharp all over when watching HDTV and even DVDs.