With Panasonic being so keen on plasma TVs, we're always thrilled to get our hands on its LCDs, which generally offer a nice alternative to plasma at smaller screen sizes.
The Panasonic Viera TX-37LZD80 offers all of the key features you should be looking out for, such as 1080p, 24p playback and x.v.Colour. For around £750, will it be a good alternative to the company's own 37-inch plasma TVs?
Design
The LZD80 is easy on the eyes. An average-depth bezel surrounds the LCD panel, finished in piano black with a grey hat along the top. This is essentially the standard issue case for most new TVs. It also has a permanent pout, with a bottom lip sticking out of the underside and housing speakers and of course, attitude.
There's an off button and power LED on the left of the screen, and to the right-hand side of the screen are some rubberised control keys. You'll also find composite and S-Video inputs here for hooking up camcorders and the like. It's also the location of the third HDMI socket. At the rear of the set, you get the usual assortment of connections: VGA, two Scarts, two HDMIs and component video-in. You'll also find an optical digital audio output, for connecting the TV to an AV receiver.
The remote control that comes with the TV is the standard Panasonic affair. It's sturdy and the buttons are in the right place. We really like the Panny remotes; they have a feeling of quality about them, and the TV's menus respond quickly to button presses.
Features
The Panasonic offers a full-range of support for pretty much every type of signal you can throw at it. Obviously, it's happy with every HD variant, including 24p playback from Blu-ray. This is great, but something we'd expect on a 1080p TV.
To help sound on its way, you also get BBE ViVA HD3D Sound, a processing system designed to provide a sort of virtual surround sound. Of course, this technique is never going to produce realistic effects behind you -- as a full 5.1 system would -- but we found it did improve the clarity of speech and increased the stereo separation.
As you would expect, the LZD80 has a built-in Freeview tuner, and with it an eight-day EPG, so you can look through the upcoming programmes and decide what you want to watch. You can also schedule timers to remind you when a programme is about to start -- handy if you're forgetful.
You also get an SD card reader for looking at digital photos, as long as your camera stores photos on SD. It goes without saying that Panasonic's digital cameras do.
Performance
In our Blu-ray testing, Casino Royale was full of all its usual charm. We ran some tests using the HQV benchmarking Blu-ray and were satisfied that the TV managed to perform pretty well on most tests.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse also looked good: details appeared in the early scenes before everything goes dark. We even noticed a squirrel that had escaped our attention in previous viewings. The colour was bright and vivid and we generally found the picture quite pleasing.
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User reviews3
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David Lisney 1 November 2010
Good: Simple to set up and use, plus I bought this legally from a friend for £150 including Blu-ray player
Bad: Very little wrong with it, though EPG seems to want to update station list every time I switch it on, agravated by me being switched on mainly just at weekends.
Comment: Set produces a very sharp picture particularly from a 1080p source, contrast range seems better than many other LCD tvs, ie action in dark areas of the screen is still visible.
cmdelee 4 July 2009
Good: Great TV with plenty of functionality
Bad: No Freesat
Comment: I Bought this tv a while ago and have found it to be excellent, easy to set up with plenty of HDMI slots for DVD players and SKY or anything you can find to plug in, The HD system is excellent quality (from Virgin Plus) however now i use SKY since i moved via Scart Lead and i find the picture quality is still excellent. i also use the DIGI DVD Recorder Via HDMI and with the exception of cartoons (family guy the lines can seem a little out of focus but more likely to be from the upscalling or possibly just cause im too close to it) the quality is again excellent. i havent used the freeview except for on the initial setup so i am unable to coment much on it however when i set up the TV the picture seemed fine but that was only for a couple of min. I would definatley recomend this TV to anyone after a decent sized tv as either there main tv or one for there bedroom as mine currently is. the price is excellent and the picture quality is more than adequate the cardreader is also handy for turning it into a giant digital photo frame should you wish and is easy to use as well. Also while i remember about the sound as i havent really commented, my hearing isnt what it used to be however i find it clear and the BBE VIva is good
ontheqt 25 December 2008
Good: HD picture and sound are pretty good
Bad: Freeview image not the best
Comment: The inbuilt free view on this TV is awful. The free view looks cartoon like and soft. Standard definition signal via a scart lead using a source such as a Sky box is better, but via a Sky HD box using a certified 1080p HDMI cable the image is excellent and so is the sound. HD content is also pretty amazing and the difference between this set and a 100mhz set is negligible DVD's via a scart are also pretty good, the TV upscales the images well. Blueray HD images are awesome and improve standard definition DVD's via HDMI more so than via scart lead on a standard DVD player. All in all this TV is a good buy, but don't buy it if you intend to use the in built free view, you will have wasted your money. At around £550 online this TV is an absolute steal. Make sure you review this TV 6.6 rating by CNET is a touch insulting for such a good set.
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