Panasonic TX32LXD700 Review

[Vincent]

Please discuss Lyris' Panasonic TX32LXD700 review article in this thread.

[realj42]

Excellent review, very analytic and incisive.  Thanks for the heads up about the motion artefacts introduced by 100 hz processing - you wouldn't notice these in a shop just watching 'Neighbours' or whatever .  Does this tip the balance in favour of the Sony32D3000, where you can turn off the 100Hz processing? 

The latest edition of What Hi? Sound and Vision rated the Panasonic LXD700 as winner against the Sony 32D3000 in it's usual trite manner. As you now reviewed both, any chance of you guys picking a winner between these two?  Also would you consider the better sound, nicer look of the LXD700 worth the extra £150+ over the Panasonic 32LXD70?  I assume the picture capabilities of these two are identical?  It's down to these three for my next purchase now.

Cheers
Hywel 

[Jimboli1]

Excellent review as always but why no calibration details? personally Im interested in the picture quality pre and post calibration and am even thinking of purchasing a Spyder 2  The point about 100Mhz picture processing was interesting and I hope that future tv's that have this feature allow it to be turned on/off depending on the viewing source.

Regards,

Jimboli1

[Jumpman]

Good review Lyris, but not quite upto the very high standards which Vincent has been spoiling us with!!!  Hope you don't take the comment the wrong way, but I guess Vincent's reviews have raised the bar considerably, compared to other reviews found in your stand AV mags such as wh*t H*F*? etc, that it is always going to be a hard act to follow!!!

Few points:

1.  I agree with the above post.  Why no pre & post calibration data & charts? and closeness to D65 etc - I think these are some of the key things which readers love about Vincent's reviews.

2.  How does this panel compare to its sibling, the Panny TX-32LXD70 which vincent tested previously? - As they apparently share the same panel.  Any difference in picture quality? or are we just paying more for the glossy look, better sound and extra HDMI?

3.  Also a key question which has been debated by forum members over the past few months - Which is better: the Sony KDL-32D3000 or Panny TX-32LXD700?

Keep up the good work.  All the best.

[Vincent]

Hi

Lyris does not currently own any calibration equipment, hence the lack of data and charts. In any case no white balance controls are present in the user menu anyway, and we don't have the code to access the service menu to adjust greyscale.

Lyris hasn't seen the LXD70, and I haven't seen the LXD700, but given that they are of the same size and I see no difference in the user menu/ features implementation except for the ones you mentioned, I'm pretty sure there's minimal difference in picture quality. In which case I'll take the KDL32D3000 over the TX32LXD700 because the Sony offers the following picture quality advantages:

• better blacks with full backlight control
• can turn 100Hz MCFI off
• better video processing

Warmest regards
Vincent

P.S. I can't review all the TVs myself, or I'll suffer from burnout pretty quickly. I'm considering setting up a dedicated donation button to contribute towards the cost for Lyris to buy a colorimeter to obtain calibration data for future HDTV reviews... any thoughts?

[Person264]

To get to the service menu press -/v on the tv andhold in then press 0
0 o and then press green 3 or 4 times to get to the backlight then follow on screen instructions.
^^-I haven't tried this and I probably wont as I have a 5 year warranty, but it should help the black levels.
Maybe there is an option to turn off 100Hz stuff as well

[Trat]

Maybe there is an option to turn off 100Hz stuff as well

If there is one, than its hidden pretty well.

I also found these settings on AVS forum:

If the RED PUSH and varying skin tones bother you, here is a setting in the SERVICE MENU that fixes that for the CINEMA WARM setting-WRITE DOWN ORIGINAL SETTINGS:

Service Menu is self explanatory everything is labeled according to what it adjusts, how to adjust and save settings- Most settings are Numeric and Alpha Numeric DONT WORRY but change in ascending and descending order according to direction of adjustment ie A1, A2... AA, AB... B1. B2...BA, BB, BC etc. PLEASE MAKE THESE SETTINGS ON A VIDEO, COMPONENT OR HDMI INPUT FOR NOW. If changing for TV INPUT certain settings mentioned below will have to be changed for each individual channel because they are saved per channel, Need help ASK.

GO INTO SERVICE MENU
ONLY ADJUST THESE:-

TINT=02 (CAN BE SET INDIVIDUAL PER CHANNEL), THIS SETTING CAN LOCK ON ONE DIRECTION,
DONT WORRY PROCEED WITH ALTERNATE DIRECTION IT WILL ROUND BACK UP.
COLOR=46
B-Y-G=38 (CAN BE SET INDIVIDUAL PER CHANNEL), works like tint HIGHER adds Yellow tinge, LOWER add Red to skin tones.
R-Y-A=00 (CAN BE SET INDIVIDUAL PER CHANNEL), HIGHER makes skin tones look more natural-love this one.

R-GAIN=F3 (original setting is maxed-out at FF-hence the red push)
G-GAIN=E5
B-GAIN=E0

When done adjusting just turn tv OFF

Each VIDEO MODE setting is different in the SERVICE MENU ie VIVID, STANDARD, CINEMA or CUSTOM including its corresponding color temperature WARM, COOL and NORMAL-I have all settings

NB:
Preference- Set all settings in USER MENU to MID except BACKLIGHT +15, CONTRAST +15 and BRIGHTNESS -3 0R -4. DARK LEVEL to LIGHT and ALL PICTURE to ON.

I did not need to change BACKLIGHT and BRIGHTNESS settings in SERVICE MENU they are spot on. Just turn ALL PICTURE on in ADVANCED (OTHER) settings menu, turn BRIGHTNESS to -3 OR -4 and it does the rest beautifuly. Jeez forget 3D on this tv, sometimes i just find myself laughing to how clear, clean and natural colors PUNCH on this tv its almost like a joke and thats with the SHARPNESS turned to -30. Only other set that comes close is Toshiba 32HLV67U should also have IPS-Pro panel.

These are for a US model. I changed all settings except for 2: I've been looking real hard but those B-Y-G= and the R-Y-A= settings aren't on my EU model. I have B-cent and G-cent etc. stuff but not those in this topic. Maybe someone knows how these could be called on a EU system? Also, what does Dark Level and Picture to All, translate to from US --> EU? US machines have more options, both in the user menu as in the service menu, I guess.

[Person264]

So does accessing the service menu definitely destroy the warranty? Oh and I have my TV set to "Normal" picture setting, which is like Cinema PQ and dips the backlight in very dark scenes. Also, I have the Colour setting as Cool, I think this looks normal but is it not very realistic?
What does the service menu look like? Is it "Vierad" or is it more bland? And if it has all the helpful stuff telling you whats what, why not just put some of the stuff in the normal menu?

Is there more definition in 16:9 576i or letterbox 2.35:9 on 720p?

[Person264]

Anyone know the r/g/b-cent defaults for warm?