Panasonic CT-27HL14 27" TAU Series HDTV-Ready TV
Panasonic CT27HL14 HDTV plus DVD players
For those looking for a 27\\" HD ready television with very good to excellent PQ (picture quality), this TV can not be beat. I have a 57\\" large screen Hitachi (57XWX20) and needed a replacement for a 27\\" in our bedroom. Wanting to stay in the 27\\" range because of space constraints, we were limited in choices. But, we also wanted to be \\"HD ready\\" for the upcoming future.  <br /> I would like to point out at this time that,I (the author of this rather wordy diatribe), have been into TV and electronics since I was 16 working at a small TV repair shop in 1965. So I have seen TV's come a long way! I have always been almost addicted to what the latest technology had to offer.... within price vs. value limitations. I had my first home theater set up in 1983 with an RCA front projection TV and a Pioneer laser disk player with \\"matrixed\\" surround sound. Suffice it to say, I would like to let the reader know I'm pretty well versed and knowlegable in these matters. :) That being said, this TV has a great  presentation. <br /> Out of the box the CT27HL14 did need a little tweaking to get a little better display. I know some reviewers indicated the picture was a little on the dark side. I have brightness set at about 52 and contrast at 23 on most program material. The \\"normal\\" setting for color temperature seems the most accurate. Being a technician, I also went into the service menu and corrected color balance for a bit better gray scale tracking. For the layperson, I adjusted a few things to get black and white pictures closer to true black and white. These adjustments were minor and probably not an issue for the casual viewer. During and after the few tweaks, I viewed the first 6 minutes of \\"Sea Biscuit\\". I can not overstate how great this movie is for PQ adjustments on a TV. It has , of course, the black and white stills in the beginning. (Great for blacklevel (brightness) and white level (contrast) adjustments.  <br /> While viewing this movie on DVD connected to a Samsung DVD-P341 player, detail in the darker shadows was VERY visible on this set. Small specs in the antique car photos in the beginning were visble from apparent dust on the negative of an otherwise very clear picture of a man in an antique car. Some of this detail is only slightly visible as such on my top of the line Hitachi large screen HDTV. <br /> Later, in a scene with a red and green street car, color level could be adjusted to a satifactory level to tone down oversaturated reds and greens, and still give a nice natural flesh tone to Jeff Bridges face a few moments later. In a scene with Chris Cooper on horseback, detail on his face in slight shadow and the fuzz on his gray wool jacket was very clear.  <br /> I also have the set connected to an SD regular satelite receiver and the picture quality is very clean and pleasing for movies, sports, and live coverage. The satelite is connected via the standard NTSC AV cable inputs. The DVD is a newer progressive scan Samsung DVD-P341 connected through the component inputs. Here is where things get a little particular. <br /> I tried several DVD players with this TV. While they all worked, as some readers also may have noticed, some TVs perform better with certain DVD players or vice versa. This seems especially true with HD TVs that I have audtioned. The first DVD player I tried was a Philips DVD-Q50 that is connected to the afore mentioned Hitachi. <br />This DVD player is a top of the line unit with Farouda deinterlacing, 3:2 pull-down, etc. It performs marvelously on my Hitachi. <br /> For some reason, the DVD-Q50 caused the Pansonic TV to \\"get nervous\\" on horizontal lines especially in the begining of Sea Biscuit where the boxy antique autos horizontal egdes danced and wavered as the camera moved verticaly up or down. I tried setting the DVD player to it's 480i ( non progressive ) scan mode. This was actualy somewhat better, indicationg that maybe the Panasonic was happier doing it's own conversion. I also tried a Philips DVD-642 which is also progressive scan and offers 3:2 pulldown. Again, the Panasonic was happier with progressive scan turned off. Wanting a separate DVD player for use with the Pansonic HDTV, I now tried a Samsung DVD-P341 player. <br /> The Samsung DVD-P341 is an entry level, but high quality DVD player with progressive scan, 3:2 pulldown, and a neat feature called \\"EZview\\" which is particularly useful with this TV. EZview allows you to slightly enlarge the picture and fill almost the entire 27\\" screen while playing a widesreen 16:9 DVD if desired. Very handy for those of us not quite used to those wide black bands above and below a widesreen presentation.  <br /> This player also worked best in \\"regular\\" 480i mode and letting the TV do it's work. With the DVD player set up in 16:9 mode and using component inputs, the picture is very clear, smooth, with little or no artifacts and minimal horizontal edge waviness. All for the low price of around $70. I would imagine any of the Samsung models such as the DVD-P731 or even the DVD-P4600/4800 combo DVD VCR would also work fine. As an added feature besides the great picture quality with this DVD player, it provides a memory card access through a small door on its front panel so digital camera photos can be viewed directly without addtional camera cable or hookups. It supports all standard memory card formats (SD, xSD, Compact Flash, SmartMedia, etc). <br /> All in all, the Panasonic CT27HL14 HD ready TV is a great solution for people, with limited space or an older home entertainment cabinet, to enter the realm of HDTV. Providing pleasing picture quality and also being high definition ready with the addition of a separate HD tuner or HD cable/satelite input. <br />