| The horror!..Panasonic 28"Pl1
First off, I'm not normally one to complain and have been very forgiving of 'nagging' flaws in the past. My previous Philips TV had slight geometry issues and was prone to the pincushion effect. I learnt to live with those negligible concerns because I appreciated the terrific RGB pictures and the set was pretty versatile (good for both analogue/digital images and especially DVD playback).
So I'd hoped that buying a Panny TX28PL1 would give me all of the above good points but without the irritating problems. Sadly, this isn't the case though. As proper reviews for the set are pretty scarce (and some of you may be considering buying one), I'll provide as much detail as possible:-
After the channels were all auto-tuned, I was left with a weak ITV (stored as channel 1) and no BBC1. Obviously this was rectified manually and everything was set properly within 10 mins (and I entered my name/password for security reasons). I flicked through the channels and adjusted the contrast etc (the factory settings were ludicrously high) and I was initially overjoyed by the sets geometry. My video's performance looked better than ever (through Scart 2) and I was generally pleased with the picture and the remote was certainly a joy to use.
THEN (and this is where it gets ugly), I tried to play a DVD using an RGB connection. I used the R2 6th Day first (as the quality was amazing on my previous set) and I was expecting to be absolutely bowled over by the results and to begin with, I was-- The colours and overall picture were terrific and the flesh tones seemed okay. I wasn't pleased by the over-stressing of edges though (occasionally causing jagged lines) and the set was obviously boosting blacks and whites artificially (something you can't switch off). I bought a 50Hz TV to AVOID fake-looking images so this was bit of worry. Although that's nothing compared to the horrible flaw I discovered next......
If you look closely (and I noticed it within 2mins of the film) mesh-like shapes intermittently appear over faces/shapes etc. It's most noticeable when someone is talking and they're briefly obscured by a thinly visible 'grate' (you can see it clearly because you're focusing on their face), this effect can appear anywhere though and it's understandably a real pain. Obviously I tried several other discs and two different high quality leads aswell, but it made absolutely no difference. I also tried every combination of options possible (AI/NR on and off), but I gave up on it in the end. Basically, RGB isn't an option with these sets (or my set at least).
S-Video performance was (and is) fine, although that's no real consolation. I've kind of got used to the sharp edges (Beverly Hills Cop looks sensational) but I'm deeply disappointed overall. The geometry isn't as good as I first thought either as there's a noticeable dip on 2.35:1 material (the top right hangs down a touch) and scrolling text isn't dead-straight. So it looks like I'm another casualty of the 'New TVs are rubbish' syndrome.
I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about this, but I'd be grateful for any kind of feedback.
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