Panasonic CT-30WX54 30" Widescreen Pure Flat HDTV-Ready TV
Too Soon To Tell if it's Fantastic...
Panasonic Widescreen: Take 2.    Our 16:9 Panasonic CT-30WX52 bit the dust after 2 years, and was replaced under warranty with this new CT-30WX54 in December 2004. Instantly my wife and I noticed a huge difference with the colour quality, richness and clarity. However, the new TV is larger, heavier, and much uglier than our beautifully designed 30WX52, and, we also did find problems with the TV on the very first day.    Problem #1.  The ZOOM setting did not function as it was designed to. When we watch widescreen shows such as \\"ER\\", \\"Enterprise\\" and \\"Everybody Loves Raymond\\", we use the ZOOM setting to achieve widescreen. But the picture was being compressed vertically (stretched horizontally). The TV was immediately sent back to the store and after 8 long, agonizing weeks, it was returned to us, still not fixed. Emails to Panasonic customer service failed to resolve the problem and the technician from the store had to come directly to our house to try and fix the problem. After a very complex procedure on our own remote (I watched him do it), he was able to access a secret factory menu and adjust the screen setting. We are now pleased that the picture is accurate in ZOOM mode. If you own this TV, and notice stretched images (people look unnaturally fat) it is likely your TV was not set up properly at the factory as well.    Problem #2.  This is not so much a problem as it is a lack of a feature that the old CT-30WX52 had, and I miss. This new model does not have a Degauss feature, which is surprising because it does still have the geomagnetic correction, which is very useful.    So, due to the very inconvenient incorrect ZOOM set-up, and the lack of the Degauss feature, I can only rate this TV 4 stars for now, and only time will tell if it deserves that fifth star, or if the picture tube fails on this one, just like our last one.    Because of our past experiences, I am not confident in Panasonic's ability to create reliable electronics, but so far this TV is faring well.