With all the features in the set, a decent remote and menu system is a must and Panasonic has made a pretty reasonable stab at things. There’s still Freesat’s annoying genre screen before you enter the EPG, but at least you can create a favourites selection.
Panasonic's all-in-one vision
The keys are, by and large, well labelled. Navigating around is simple and some features can be accessed in several ways. For example, DLNA playback can be activated by pressing Viera Tools and then Media Server – the tools popup remembers the last thing you used, saving time. Alternatively, select Media Server as an AV input for DLNA playback. There’s a dedicated button for SD card access, as well as options on the Viera Tools menu, and a pop-up when a card is inserted.
Press menu when viewing, and you can access sound or picture settings, and as you tweak one option, the others disappear off the screen. The option button calls up other sound settings, including the relative level and soundtrack choices. Other, less used settings, like over scanning and intelligent frame creation are buried a couple of levels down. It’s not always the most logical, but day-to-day operation is pretty straightforward.
Verdict
If you’re looking for a Freesat TV with a great picture, or just a decent set for watching movies, the TX-L37V10 is a sound choice. It’ll also replace a media player, as long as you’re happy with standard definition DivX files. Indeed, for many casual users, it really does have everything they need, albeit at a price. ®
More HD TV Reviews...
Toshiba Regza 37AV615DB |
Pioneer Kuro KRL-37V |
Sony Bravia KDL-37S5500 |
LG 42LF7700 Freesat TV |
Panasonic TX-L37V10 LCD HD TV
COMMENTS
NOES
Integrated Freeview receivers will be a bit of a burden next year, as more of the general public will start wanting to do DVB-T2, as Freeview HD becomes available in more than the pilot transmitter areas.
Hopefully, by then, the Humax and Topfield PVR offerings will be reasonably mature- early commercial availability of consumer T2 receivers ramping up slowly in the second half of this year and all.
Paris, because.. well, why not?
PVR?
I looked very closely at this machine before deciding that time shift capacity is crucial. I eventually bought a fairly basic Freeview TV (Toshiba) and an HDsat enabled PVR (Topfield). It's not as elegant as the TV that can do (nearly) everything, but it does mean that I can watch what I want when I want. Will trade up when Panasonic adds a hard disk to the already impressive spec.
Still missing one thing...
My LG TV has a built-in hard disk recorder, so I can do all those PVR tricks without needing a separate box.
Now that, combined with a twin freesat tuner and twin DVB tuner and all those other input modes would be pretty much complete
@ Tony Smith, David Paul Morgan
Yep, entirely correct, it's done on a 'red button' basis where HD content is available.
I think, but am not certain, that the Freesat EPG includes an icon to indicate that this is the case for a particular program, but I can't currently check as I am at work!
@David Paul Morgan
IIRC, ITV HD content is broadcast on an as-and-when basis rather than as a separate channel.
Push the red button to activate it when a programme says there's an HD version.
