Panasonic TH37PX80 Plasma Tv

I''ve got my Panasonic TH37PX80 2 weeks now and would like to share my initial mpressions. I guess all reviews are relative so for me this means a comparison to our previous Panasonic Plasma (a TH37PE50) and my inlaws LCD TX37LZD70 . Out of the box it''s lighter than previous generation plasmas. It''s also quieter: in terms of screen hum or fizz. The wall mounting points are in the same place as previously: so it was a straight swap onto the wall mount. The included pedastal mount seems pretty light. I didnt use it. Connectivity is well catered for : scarts, component, pc and hdmi. Initial setup was soooo easy. Plug in the ariel, turn it on and follow the instructions. I "calibrated" the screen with the THX setup from "The Incredibles" DVD (little adjustment was needed) then settled into some viewing. It''s really is hard to describe just how good this picture is! First impressions were with Freeview. While daytime tv tends to look good on all screens, it''s more contrasty or dark scenes that hightlight the differences. This screen just excels at producing real black, nearly real black, really dark, slighly less dark, and so on. It just has so many smooth graduations of luminosity just like good old fashioned CRT all the way up to the brightest whites. Colour is also super natural looking for skin tones etc. You can of course crank up the saturation but you shouldnt need to. The TH37PE50 exhibited typical digital aritfacts in dark scenes:especially posterisation and random noise. But not this one. I''d say its perfect in this respect. In comparison to a TX37LZD70 the difference is that the LCD screen seems to have a light on behind the image all the time stopping it producing real black. Also - I dont know why, SD images (especially freeview) are more artificial looking on the LCD. Switching to a HD DVD I''d have to say wow at the detail. Then I sat back down on the sofa and at 3 meters away I really couldn''t tell the difference with standard DVD for the same movie! Playing Call of Duty 4 on the xbox is fantastic. The snag is I wanted to sit nearer the screen than normal to get the full effect. I guess you need a really big screen to get the benefit of HD, never mind full HD. Hooking up my laptop was a real surprise: this is truly a brilliant monitor. Text and icons were clear enough at 1024 x 768 pixels at 3 meters to be able to browse the web etc from the sofa using a wireless mouse. So where''s the catch: well it''s the sound quality. It''s truly poor. Like what you''d get from a really cheap stereo. Female voice come out fine, but anything that''s got any bass at all sounds rubbish. No amount of tweaking the settings for bass, treble, surround mode etc makes a difference. In direct comparion to the TH37PE50 it''s unbelievable that Panasonic have take such a step backwards. It doesn''t make a hugh difference to be: I always use a surround sound amp anyway. Other things: the remote is fine. The on screen guide includes advertising! Cheeky Panansonic. The menu idea for AV selection is great: rather than swapping through each AV til you get to the one you want. The front mounted connections for s-video, composite, sd etc are great for connecting cameras etc. So there you have it: a truly fantastic picture for around £600. Kicks LCD''s ass big time. But - and this may be a big BUT for you- the sound quality doesnt match the image quality.