New Panny 53wx53 arrived yesterday!!!!!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Jon_Gregory]

Well After what seemed like an eternity, my Panny finally arrived yesterday afternoon. I got it for $1497 shipped to my door from Onecall. Got it in the house and unpacked it, and WOW, this thing is huge. This is my first big screen and I do not have that big of a living room (14' x 16'). I turned it on, let it warm up and did all of the little user adjustments to it. Popped in a DVD and started enjoying it. The picture is as good as I expected out of the box, but it could be better. I do not have a progressive scan DVD player yet and still have SD cable, so I was not expecting it to be a crystal clear picture yet. This is just the first of many upgrades to come (have to start somewhere). I love the size of it though and I am glad that I did not go with the 47 inch. I have a old RCA DVD player that has been chugging along with no problems and I have just not had a reason to upgrade it on my old direct view tv. But now the upgrade bug is bitting hard. Hopefully everything will go good and I will have no problems that I have to call panasonic about.

To rate the TV out of the box, I have to say that with just the little user adjustments and with SD cable, I am very happy with my first day of viewing this TV. Of course the size of the TV compared to my other 25" may be obscuring my perception, because I love the big size of it.

I love it

 

[Andy Goldstein]

enjoy it! we got ours a few months ago, and its wonderful!!! wish i had a dedicated HT room, but the living room will do quite well.

ag.

 

[nick_rh]

Good for you...I just got the 47" model a little less than a month ago. Would be nice to have the 53", but even the smaller one is pretty much overwhelming my little living room.

I don't think you really need a progressive scan DVD player; the Panasonic line-doubler has been doing a fine job as far as I'm concerned. Unless I really, really hunt for them, I can't ever find any interlacing artifacts. That said, what you DO need is a source for HDTV broadcasts. During a commercial break on "24" last night (come on, Fox, if ever a show was DYING to be broadcast in high-def...), I flipped on "According to Jim" on ABC and my god, I never thought I'd be blown away visually by a sitcom.

Anyway, good luck and enjoy the set!

 

[Lewis Collins]

I've been drooling over the 53" Panny for awhile now (and as recently as yesterday at CC)as well as a couple of 51" Hitachis. Substantial price difference between the Hitachis and the Panny. I'm pondering whether or not the PQ of the Hitachis over the Panny is really worth the price difference. Plus I'll be stepping up from a 32" TV to a 53" which is also a big jump. In addition, should I decide to get an extended warranty for it, there is a substantial difference in price between them.

Right now the 53" Panny is looking like the better bang for the buck. The room this will be in is 12'X12'. I know this seems like overkill, but I'm afraid I'll have regrets and be wishing I went bigger if I go with the 47" Panny. I'll be using it mostly for viewing DVDs (progressive-scan JVC player). Any thoughts or opinions?

 

[Andy Goldstein]

get the 53! my room is 12 feet wide, with the couch about 8-9 feet from the screen. it looks great.

ag.

 

[James Sarno]

Jon,
My brother just got purchased that set as well and it looks amazing...gotta get the HD...It's stunning

DVD's look so sharp on this set.

Its a good TV at a good price, enjoy it to the fullest.

 

[Jon_Gregory]

A little update since I got this TV. The picture quality seems to be getting better by the hour. Every time that I turn the set on, it seems like the picture just keeps getting better and better as it gets broke in. I adjust the convergence everyday and as soon as I get some more hours on it, I will do some service menu convergence etc... But, I could not be happier with the panny. Lewis, I too was considering the Hitachi's, but read all of the good things about the panny and decided to go with it. I got DVE last night and will be setting it up with this tonight. For anyone caught between getting the 47" vs. 53", go with the 53". It was well worth getting the larger one and I do not regret it. It is taking some getting use to because I went from a 25 incher to the 53", but it did not take me long to adjust .

Loving every minute of it so far

 

[JoeRiley]

Congrats man. I'm pretty happy with mine as well.

I'd like the convergence to be a little tighter, but other then that, it kicks ass.

 

[nick_rh]

Same here. The 9-point convergence isn't precise enough, and my brain pretty much shut down when I tried to do the service menu convergence. Most times I don't notice it, but every so often there'll be a silhouette that's a little off, or white text with a tiny bit of red seeping out, and I kind of wince. Eventually I think I'm going to have to go the calibration route.

 

[Robert_eb]

Does anyone know how to get into the service menu on the 47"?

 

[JoeRiley]

Service Menu...

Go into the regular menu... make sure the tv is set to "Cable". Set the sleep timer to 30. Exit the menu. Go to ch. 124. Make sure volume is turned down all the way. Walk up to the tv, and hit the 'vol down' button on the set. That'll bring up "CHK" in red letters on the screen.

Hit the power button on the remote to bring up the options of the service menu.

Hey Nick,

I went back into that fine convergence area and messed around. I finally figured out how to get the cursor to switch positions (hit the mute button) and was able to get the convergence to line up very well. No more painfully obvious blue/red lines prodruding from objects anywhere.... and it does make a solid improvement on the overall look of the picture. So it's worth the hour of labor, even though your right, your eyes and brain start to swim after looking at those grids for extended periods of time.

Don't forget to save when you make good progress by hitting the '7' key.

Quick question for everybody...

I've been getting a bright blue line down the left side of my screen once in awhile...at the very edge. I can get it to disapear by changing the tv channel (the actual set's channel - or by cycling through inputs)a few times. I have an extended warranty, I'd just like some good advice to what could be causing it, so I don't get BS'd when I get the 'tech to come out.

 

[nick_rh]

I've had something similar to this, but with kind of a white glow protruding from the left side. I mainly see this on DVDs and HD. I figured it might be the convergence, but you seem to have that under control. I'm stumped too. I hope it's fixable. I'm taking another stab at the service menu this weekend, so we'll see...

 

[Robert_eb]

Thanks Joe. I reached the service manual but I have no clue as what to do or how to use it. Is there any info available to the novice on how to interrupt the service menu?

 

[nick_rh]

http://www.panny.tv

They have all the info. However, it is specific to older Panasonic models, so I've found some of the instructions aren't exactly the same; you kind of have to improvise.