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  • Introduction

  • Front

  • Back

  • Sides

  • Stand/Mount

  • Aesthetics

  • Display Size & Technology

  • Formats & Resolution

  • Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio

  • Color

  • Motion & Refresh Rate

  • Viewing Angle

  • 3D Glasses

  • 3D Effect

  • Audio & Video Ports

  • Internet & Other Media

  • Placement

  • Remote

  • Controls

  • Menu

  • Conclusion

  • Series Comparision

  • Specs

  • Introduction
  • Front
  • Back
  • Sides
  • Stand/Mount
  • Aesthetics
  • Display Size & Technology
  • Formats & Resolution
  • Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio
  • Color
  • Motion & Refresh Rate
  • Viewing Angle
  • 3D Glasses
  • 3D Effect
  • Audio & Video Ports
  • Internet & Other Media
  • Placement
  • Remote
  • Controls
  • Menu
  • Conclusion
  • Series Comparision
  • Specs

Introduction

Front

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The front of the Panasonic TC-L37DT30 is covered by a uniform piece of glass from edge to edge – there's no bezel to break the visual line. Of course, the actual LCD display doesn't extend to the edge, but it looks nice enough. There's a shiny metallic rim around the sides that hangs like a lip over the facade. Along the bottom is the Panasonic logo, power button, and indicator lights.

Back

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The back of the Panasonic TC-L37DT30, like the back of most TVs, is flat, black, and uninteresting. The ports are gathered in a lower corner, facing the back and sides.

Sides

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 is quite thin, thanks to an LED backlighting that doesn't take up much room. Last year's Panasonic LED LCDs were not terribly thick, but we believe they've shed even more weight this year, making for a very attractive profile.

Stand/Mount

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 has a short, squat, mean little stand for such an elegant panel (if this is indeed the final design). It does not appear that the stand allows the panel to swivel.

Aesthetics

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 has a smooth glass facade from edge to edge, a huge improvement over the fat bezels of previous Panasonics. It was made clear to us that they saw the competitive advantage Samsung had gained by focusing on attractive design. We're glad to see Panasonic stepping up.

Display Size & Technology

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 is a TV built for gamers, and they tried to pull out all the stops. It has a full 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080), with a 240Hz refresh rate. We're still a little skeptical that the average TV owner will see a difference between 120Hz and 240Hz, especially if you're sourcing the video from cable or satellite. Higher quality feeds from a PC, however, could indeed look better. As with most TVs, there's a "Game" mode that disables all the unnecessary processes that create lag time. For optimal color and contrast performance, there's an ISF Pro setting. We're not clear, at this point, if that's a one-touch mode or a grouping of presets that you can change as necessary.

The TV also displays 3D using the active shutter system. Yes, the glasses are still expensive, but Panasonic is at least claiming that they've tackled some the crosstalk issues we saw in the 2010 models.

For at least the second year in a row, Panasonic's top LED LCD series uses an IPS-type panel that allows for a wider viewing angle. We found that in last year's models, those TVs with IPS did offer a wider viewing angle than many LCDs, but still nowhere near as wide as a plasma. Fortunately, viewing angle is probably not a top criterion for 1-2 person game players.

Formats & Resolution

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The native resolution of the Panasonic TC-L37DT30 is 1080p (1920 x 1080), but it can handle all standard NTSC formats. If you're plugging in a PC for gaming, be sure to set the output resolution to 1920 x 1080 at 60p for the best performance.

Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 makes no mention of its contrast ratio, nor did reps on the CES show floor have final specs. No matter, as the specs would surely be fabulously enlarged.

Color

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Again, the final specs have not been announced and we can't judge the color performance of a TV based on the terrible lighting conditions at CES. However, we have high hopes for the Panasonic TC-L37DT30 considering the inclusion of the ISF Pro setting mode.

Motion & Refresh Rate

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 has a 240Hz refresh rate when using Picture Motion Pro 4 (or perhaps 5, as there's some discrepancies in the online documentation).

Viewing Angle

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 has an ISP Alpha LED panel, which increases viewing angle compared to older types of LED panels. We reviewed the TC-L37D2 last year, which had a better viewing angle than many LCDs. It still fell well short of the average plasma TV, though.

3D Glasses

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This year, Panasonic has taken some strides to reduce the discomfort of active shutter 3D, but they're still not as light or simple as passive 3D glasses. There are no glasses included with purchase of the Panasonic TC-L37DT30, so be prepared to fork over about $150 per pair.

There's no getting around the fact that 3D glasses make you look ridiculous (and possibly feel ridiculous too).

The power button makes the glasses usable for viewing 3D by turning on the active shutter feature.

3D Effect

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The 3D samples that we saw on the CES show floor were no more or less impressive than last year's Panasonic 3D plasmas. It's difficult to compare under these conditions, uncalibrated as they are. There was still noticeable cross-talk.

Audio & Video Ports

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 has lots of ports for newer devices and multimedia, but older devices come up a bit short. On the back and sides, you'll see 4 HDMIs, 1 composite AV input, 1 component AV input, VGA, and cable/antenna. There are also 3 USB inputs and an SD/SDHC card slot.

The LAN port on the back connects you to all the streaming content features. The TV is WiFi-ready, but requires a separately purchased USB dongle. The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 also supports DLNA for home networking.

Internet & Other Media

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 features the newly expanded Viera Connect (previously branded as Viera Cast). The big change here is that Panasonic has opened an API for app development, rather than the "walled garden" approach of last year. It's clear they realize that the next big marketing battle for TVs, besides 3D, is to make the TV a multimedia entertainment hub rather than just a display device.

Some of these new features were available in time for CES, including several games, Skype, health applications, along with the usual suspects like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and others. It will be interesting to see where this new approach goes, but with competing services – and associated APIs – from Sony, Samsung, Vizio, and LG, pulling developers in every direction is likely going to result in a lot of bad apps.

Placement

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The ports are placed on the back and sides, like most TVs. We don't think the panel will be able to swivel on its base, but a 32 and 37-inch TV should be light enough to simply lift and turn yourself to gain access to the back.

Remote

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The remote control for the Panasonic TC-L37DT30 was not available on the CES show floor. We're not expecting anything special, though. It will likely be a minor update on last year's remotes.

Controls

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 hides its onboard controls behind the right side of the frame. The power button, however, is on the TV's facade.

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We were not permitted to play around with the menus on the Panasonic TC-L37DT30 to any real extent. We don't expect them to look too different from previous years. The real development has been in the Viera Connect connection of streaming content, games, and apps. It's a subsection of the menu, but has its own look and feel separate from the GUI for everything else.

Conclusion

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The Panasonic TC-L37DT30 is being marketed as a "gamer's" TV, a description that's pretty wide open to interpretation. They did seem to hit the mark here, but so do a lot of high-end TVs. With 240Hz refresh, a bright and fast LED, and the option for active shutter 3D, gamers are not going to be disappointed. But no one is likely to disappointed with this TV, unless they want something bigger than the 32 and 37-inch screen sizes in this DT30 series. Overall, it gets our early seal of approval, but want to get it into the lab before we pass final judgment.

Series Comparision

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The Panasonic DT30 series has just two models, a 32-inch and a 37-inch. It's unusual to find performance-driven TVs limited to such a small size, but the DT30s are being marketed to gamers rather than cinephiles. We think it would please cinephiles just as well, provided they don't need a huge screen size.

Specs

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Meet the tester

David Kender

David Kender

Editor in Chief

@davekender

David Kender oversees content at Reviewed as the Editor in Chief. He served as managing editor and editor in chief of Reviewed's ancestor, CamcorderInfo.com, helping to grow the company from a tiny staff to one of the most influential online review resources. In his time at Reviewed, David has helped to launch over 100 product categories and written too many articles to count.

See all of David Kender's reviews

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