First of all, as people have mentioned, this TV weighs a ton. It took three guys to bring it up to the second floor and set it on the TV stand.

The TV quality is very good. I have a Hughes E86 HD DirecTV receiver and off-the-air HD singal and you can instantly see the improvement on HD movies/shows. It was a treat watching the superbowl in HD especially the half time show. :)

I have to say though that this TV does not seem to handle non-HD programming too well. Sometimes, it looks worse than the 25" TV it replaced. However, I have not yet calibrated the TV so that could be a big part of it. The PIP is a cool feature and very easy to control including resizing, moving, freez framing, etc...

The number of AV connections are plentiful with 2 component videos, 1 digital, 4 composites. All of them with audio inputs. I used to feed all my AV signals into my Yamaha receivers but with all the connections available on the TV, I now have them all connected directly to the TV.

The remote is pretty awesome and can control pretty much all of my components. The one thing I could not get it to work was the ASPECT button. I have to navigate through the menu. I have a call in to Panasonic support. Also, the TV does not seem to remember the ASPECT ration setting. The component selection always seem to default to 16:9 even if I set it to 4:3. This may be an oversight on my part but if there is a way to keep the setting, its not very obvious.

Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the audio since I have all the audio fed into my 6.1 receiver.

Overall, its an excellent TV and certainly worth the $ especially since its few hundred $ cheaper than the equivalent Sony. The only reason for a 4 star is the issue with the screen ASPECT as mentioned.

BTW, I hear some people recommending a 16:9 HD TV over a 4:3. After having this TV for about a month now, I'm glad I got this TV. If you watch local HD channels, you'll get a good mix of HD and non-HD programming. I think for this type of viewing, 4:3 actually works out better. Of course for DVDs and HD movies, I usually change the setting to 16:9.

The sound coming out of the TV is quite good for built-in speakers. Also the VIVA BBE 3D sound processing mode does add a ton of depth to the output. I normally turn it off, since I'm a purist and it tends to drown out speech, but for action movies and such it does punch it up a bit.

Overall, this TV made me very happy. However, I do have a few issues that I'll outline below point by point.

HORIZONTAL "WOBBLE"
If you look closely you'll notice that the horizonatal scan lines on this TV tend to shift from left to right in a non-uniform manor. I'd best describe it as a nervous jitter, and makes the image swim. Initially I thought something was wrong with my unit, but a later inspection of the floor model revealed the same artifact.

To be honest the effect is not noticeable under normal usage. I first saw it when I was doing calibration with some THX test patterns. It's also noticeable in menus with high contrast edges. For example, the TV menu itself, or some game menus. And again, only when you're close up.

NON-PROGRESSIVE SIGNALS
I was somewhat surprised with the line doubler in this unit, as interlacing was readily apparent in 480i signals. I'm not sure how it stacks up to other built-in doublers, since I don't watch TV, but I figured it would look better.

BAD UNIT
Initially I wasn't going to mention this in my review, but the first unit I received was no good. The tube was arcing and would pop/flash every now and again. After getting a tech to look at it, my store replaced the unit no charge.

Normally something like this I'd chalk up to delivery, or mishandling from the store I purchased the TV from, but the other reviewer seemed to have similar problems. Maybe that's the case for both of us, but you never know.

Two-tuner picture-in-picture with split-screen display lets you view two programs at once by dividing the screen in half down the middle. Each program is shown at full height, with one program on the left side and the other on the right. High-quality, 8-bit P-I-P Image Processing provides 256 levels of gray from black to white in the inset picture for finer image detail.

Progressive Cinema Scan (3/2 pulldown) provides faithful reproduction of film-based materials. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24-frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; Progressive Cinema Scan digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

A motion-adaptive 3D Y/C digital comb filter displays bright colors and action scenes with incredible clarity by minimizing the "color rainbow effect" in closely spaced patterns, compensating for the motion that occurs between fields. Included 10-bit, 60 MHz analog-to-digital image processing boosts conventional grayscale from 256 to 1024, to deliver four times as many shades of black and white.

Digital velocity-modulated scanning is advanced circuitry along the neck of the CRT that senses transitions from black to white in the video signal. The black-and-white portions of the signal are sped up and slowed down, respectively, resulting in sharp black-to-white transitions. For a more filmlike picture when watching movies, you may want to selectively turn off this circuitry.

Other picture enhancements include a wideband video amplifier, horizontal and vertical edge correction, video noise reduction, Artificial Intelligence Picture settings, and a Progressive Scan Doubler function that upconverts 480i signals to seamless 480p resolution.

The set's ample connections also include four composite-video, three S-video inputs (including one each on the set's front panel for easy camcorder or game console hookup), and two sets of high-resolution component-video inputs.

The set uses three speakers: a stereo pair plus a built-in passive subwoofer for extra bass heft. The speakers get 15 watts per channel (x 2), and the set also offers fixed- and variable-level audio outputs, Artificial Intelligence Sound Control (to prevent unwanted variances in sound level), BBE High-Definition Sound (improves speech intelligibility and restores musical dynamic range), and BBE ViVA HD3D simulated stereo sound (which works with both stereo and monaural programs).

Other features include video-input and channel labeling, 16-preset favorite channels, a lighted-disk universal remote control (which can be programmed to control many current video and audio devices), and a headphone jack (for private listening or late-night viewing).

What's in the Box
TV, remote control, remote batteries, and a user's manual.