We wanted a new flat screen as we had never had one in the past and have found this to be a very good set for our living room
937351
Not being an electronic expert I purchased this set because of its rating in Consumer Reports.  We wanted a new flat screen as we had never had one in the past and have found this to be a very good set for our living room.  The only problem I have had is not being able to understand some of the settings and I wish It had come with a book of written instructions.  You can get some instructions on the TV it self but it is a pain in the neck (to be polite).  The picture is good and we are enjoying it.
99055
I bought this for our tiny apartment. Since we just don't have the space to sacrifice for a big entertainment system this was the right choice. The picture and sound is very good. We have the TV angled away from the couch but the picture is still good even when you think the glare might compromise it. Most of our TV watching has been done on a laptop, but I might start plugging the HDMI cable into this little TV to get the good picture and sound on there instead. For the price you won't find much better.
1797126
We have had our Sony for a couple of weeks now and have enjoyed it very much. This is our first flat screen TV and after a lot of Internet research and multiple visits to our local brick and mortar stores we chose the 40XBR7 as the TV that best fit our needs. We decided early on that we would rather spend more money on picture quality rather than a larger screen size. We do not have cable or dish, only broadcast TV and the quality of the picture is excellent. There is no jitter or jagged edges on fast action sports, skin tones and overall color is excellent on TV dramas. The sound quality is more than acceptable with DVD movies and broadcast TV.

If you want to have the largest screen size you can afford then a 40" TV is going to be too small... but if you need to have one of the best LCD pictures available, good sound quality and Sony reliability then the 40XBR7 is a tough TV to take your eyes off of.
3394529
We bought this TV via Amazon in 2004 and have been very pleased overall. At the time it was one of the cheapest 42" plasmas available at around $2800, and now it can be had new for closer to $1500 thanks to the rapid developments in plasmas. If, like us, you don't have HDTV service or immediate plans to upgrade, it's a good choice. DVDs look excellent and standard channels (we use DirecTV and Tivo) look as good as they possibly could.

Keep in mind, though, that this isn't a top of the line and will have some trade-offs. Most notably, the resolution is not true HD even though the TV can accept all HDTV formats and will display them at its own maximum resolution. Also, there are no built in speakers or HDTV tuner, but this isn't an issue when most people will use the unit with a surround system and cable box/satellite receiver. We route all our video sources (DirecTV, DVD, VCR, video game) through a $300 Sony surround system that routes the video into a single cable to the TV and the audio to 6 satellite speakers. If you have HDTV service the set does support the DVI connector but not HDMI, so you may need an adapter.

She set emits an audible buzz that's loudest when the unit first turns on, but never goes away fully. It does not have a noisy internal cooling fan, though, as some early plasmas did. The set also radiates a lot of heat and draws a large amount of power -- more than 350 watts according to the specifications.

Many people mistakenly fault plasmas like this one for premature burn-in when what they're noticing is only temporary. If you see the shadow of a previous image on the TV you need only watch something else for a few minutes and it's gone.

Picture quality will be astounding for those upgrading from a standard CRT TV like us, but it's not perfect. Darks lack clarity and night scenes are often hard to make out. Bright scenes look excellent. We watch standard TV in the "Panorama" mode, which gradually stretches the square image to fit the rectangular screen. We prefer this to watching with gray (not black) bars on the sides of the image, but that mode is available too. DVDs will display in full 16x9 widescreen mode and look beautiful.
3576443
We bought this TV about 6 months ago. It's the first flat screen I'd ever purchased and we've been very happy with it so far. I love the amount of apps it comes with (Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc.) We use it for gaming quite often and the picture is great. The sound is a little quiet by itself, but our surround sound more than takes care of that. We also love that we can plug an Ethernet cable into it and use our internet with it.

I'm only giving it 4 stars because the customer service isn't very helpful. The screen was cracked during our recent move and it is not usable. We had purchased the extended warranty for it, but it didn't kick in until the manufacturer's warranty expired so it is useless to us. However, we were so pleased with the TV that we're ordering the same thing as a replacement. The TV itself deserves 5 stars, Panasonic customer services doesn't though. I recommend this product to anyone who is looking for a TV with a few extra things such as internet and apps, but isn't looking for something super fancy.

One thing to note is that it doesn't have the regular red, yellow, and white cable hookups for sound like most other tvs, it's all digital. We had to buy a special adapter for our sounds system, and we're going to have to get one for our Wii since this TV only does HDMI inputs. But other than that, it's been great and I can't wait for our second one to arrive in the mail!
859255
I confess, this TV was my first flat screen TV at home. I wasn't even aware that Polaroid made televisions, and was absolutely shocked at how clear the picture was, the quality of the sound, and the crispness of the picture. With very limited cable in our area, we get all of our television broadcasts from an aerial antenna .

I work in media, so we have several large, flat screen TVs in the control room. The quality of this television is right in there with what we rely on for broadcast for the local community college. At home, we watch a lot of PBS (Masterpiece, CreateTV, documentaries etc). You can see fine details with intense crispness and the HD quality. We just got our power bill and with the LED technology and it has the Energy Star label. It was a relief to see the proof that there was no marked increase on that bill with the larger set.

My spouse and my son are avid gamers so we tried some of the games from both XBox 360 and XBox One. **Please note that we do not game online at all. Internet services are just too expensive where we live to spend any of our bandwidth on gaming.**

For the 360, we tested with Assassins Creed II - which isn't the latest game, but we were trying to get a good range on what we could expect on this TV. Again, there was good rendering, no lag time, and lots of detail that you just don't get on a smaller screen monitor or television set.

For the XBox One, we tied out Grand Theft Auto Five. Again there was great detail, great color and rendering when you are playing locally and offline. For Grand Theft Auto 5, with online games, however, there was a bit of latency, the picture was a bit jumpy, especially on races, the maps at the bottom of the screen that shows you where you are in the race and the course were a bit slow on re-remdering. So if you are considering this TV for gaming only, you probably aren't going to like it. Other gamers have complained that it isn't the best for what they need, but for us, its ok, just not as responsive as it could be. Make sure you have an HDMI cable for gaming. A VGA cable is not going to work as well. There are three HDMI ports on the TV for your various devices. That was just enough for us.

Out of the box, the instructions, as others have noted in reviews, they are just not the best. You need to invert the TV to attach the base. You have an extra one of the three different types of screws The stand is very basic. There is no swivel or adjustment capabilities for it. The widest part of the glass goes toward the front of the TV. It may seem a little confusing at first, just take your time. I researched at the Polaroid website and found there what was missing from the instructions.

The only real con, for us is that the remote is stiff and not very responsive at times. You have to point it directly at the red light on the lower right of the screen and sometimes hit it more than once to get it to do what you want. The layout on the remote is logical, and you don't need a manual to operate it. Thats great for family members who are not so tech-savvy. and it does take some getting used to. I really am not too crazy about the fact that the keys n the remote are not backlit, so I will probably eventually switch to a universal remote with keys that have backlighting. Those types of remotes are really very inexpensive these days and so the problem is easily remedied.

Overall, I am very impressed with this set and we are really happily surprised with the overall quality.
2778476
With lots of reviews on this television already, I will just touch briefly on some specifics important to me and hope this review will help someone in a similar position.

This is a great second television, but not big enough for our living room. In bed, my head is about eight feet away from the screen, so it is perfect for our bedroom.

The LCD screen provides a sharp, beautiful picture. In our bedroom, the sound is simply awesome.

The Picture In Picture feature is confusing to me and I could not get it to work. With some minimal research I found this set's PIP is for use with a PC connected. Not useful in our case, but not a big deal.

There are two HDMI ports for our signal box and DVD player. It would be nice to have a third available in the event I wanted to connect a third appliance via HDMI, but again, for us, it is no big deal.

We are loyal to Sony because of having had one of their televisions fail. Even though it was out of warranty by a few months, Sony picked up 100% of the cost for repair and parts. They even paid for in-home service.

That was years ago and every Sony we have had since has worked perfectly. I do not know how accomadating they are these days, but the experience I had has kept me choosing only Sony when purchasing subsequent televisions.

Overall, for the price, I really love this television and think you will too.
4354506
This is my first flat screen TV buying experience. I'm very pleased with this product. I was a little nervous about buying a LCD flat screen online without seeing it first because the picture qualities vary so greatly between brands. I received the TV today and the picture is excellent, as is the audio. It is also very light, around 10 lbs. Setup was fairly simple. I say fairly because I am not completely sure the TV is correctly on it's stand, but it is fully functional.. lol. The component (dish, dvd) connections were easily completed, but there is only one AV jack. The audio and visual settings are a little complex. I wandered through it somewhat easily. I felt as though the detailing of the product's visual setup in the product description was a little misleading. I thought from what I read that during the picture set up the user would be guided through a series of screens split in two with different settings on either side, and then the user would choose between the two until the setup process was complete. The actual setup requires the adjusting of levels of sharpness, color, etc. It's not a deal breaker. The TV is awesome.
2416186
We have a good quality HD TV that is not a smartTV.  This was a great alternative to the expenditure of replacing the set.  it was extremely easy to get set up and running.
234468
I'm very happy with this purchase.  I'll rate based on individual attributes:

-Picture

It's excellent, and looks amazing when connected to an HD receiver as long as the program is in High Definition.  Standard signals look okay, although obvioulsy not as good as on a standard tv.

-Sound

The sound is very good, and I was actually surprised by the quality of the speakers.

- Overall connectivity/Remote/Other

The remote is huge, but has tiny buttons (not very good design).  The diversity of inputs is very good, although to be honest, their placement is not perfect.  Trying to connect an s-video input can be troublesome.  Connecting a game console always yields great results, and some of the games look amazing on this set.

Overall, after looking at the price of comparable Sony and Samsung sets, I'm very happy with this LCD TV.
1257505
This was a very affordable and feature-rich TV with LOTS of connectors for our new and old games.  Regular VGA, composite video, many HDMI slots, USB, networking.  Very impressive package.

The webcast feature works pretty well - no problems configuring the network or anything.  We used it watch Netflix and YouTube a lot.  They do not upgrade the software very often, however, and to use Skype you'll need a very expensive webcam that only LG sells.  In the end, we hooked up our old computer next to it and have a home theater now, so do not use the webcast very often.

Plenty big for ordinary watching and games.  The resolution is just amazing, and there are lots of adjustments for the sound and video to match different sources.  We have hooked up many laptops, old and new, PC and Mac; even the occasional iPod into just the audio channel.

The USB port turns out to be a really nifty feature that lets us play slide shows, divX movies, MP3 music, etc. from a memory stick.

We even tried streaming content straight to the TV from the network and it worked too.

Sound is a little weak, though there are settings to help make music or dialogue more distinct.  Only downside: no audio out, so cannot hook up to stereo amp.  Seems an odd thing to leave out, but many TVs do, so I can't see deducting a star for that.
2925345
The 37" size flat screen TV is getting to be very hard to find.  I've always been impressed with Samsung's picture quality when comparing brands.  They proivide as much or more television for the money at each price point.  I'm restricted in my choices to a 37" model because it is housed in a bedroom television armoire which has a 36" interior opening space.  Therefore a 37" set (diagonal measurement) is the largest set I can fit inside that opening.  This solid mahogany furniture is too expensive for me to discard in order to get a larger TV.  I am pleased with the 37" Samsung LED overall.  It has a characteristic crisp bright LED backlit picture, and is very light weight for it's frame size.  I particularly like the slim profile which makes it easy to place into a confined space. I disagree with some reviewers who criticize this particular model for it's lack of sound quality.  I am an audiophile and have not at all been disappointed with the sound quality of this set.  Don't let any naysayers deter you based upon sound quality.  My only reason not to give this TV five stars is that at it's price point I would have expected it to have a higher refresh rate than just 60Hz.  I would have been much happier with 120Hz for a smoother frame rate for fast moving scenes.  That being said, I've watched football games on it and have never been distracted by any noticeable blur.  If I had the luxury of picking any size TV for my bedroom, I'd get a newer model that included the built in apps for receiving online content and one with a faster refresh rate.  However, this set is a quantum improvement over the 720P LCD flatscreen Vizio that it replaced.
25386
I purchased this set for my daughter's dorm room. The unit was unpacked and setup last night, and we are both very pleased. We are running the cable directly into the tv without any kind of decoder. Samsung's tuner works pretty good. During setup we used "search STD" for analog and digital. This thing found all the analog, digital, and to my suprise, many HD channels. The 1080i channels are very impressive. The sound is pretty good, but we hooked up a spare set of sony computer speakers. This is a good combination.
We used one of the HDMI connectors for her laptop. Dvd's look good. She is not a big video gamer, so this wil more than suffice.
10860
This was my first flat screen purchase so I did a lot of research.  It paid off because this is a really nice looking set with a beautiful, crisp picture.  Haven't gotten a blu-ray player yet but I'm still stunned by the crispness of the picture  at 720p.  Previous reviewers claimed I would not be able to tell the difference on a 50" set between 720 and 1080 and I have to agree.  So the roughly $600 savings i gained on purchasing this set gives me a cushion for the next generation, 3d set I'll probably buy in 3 yrs or so.  By the way, the sound is very good as well.  If you don't need the full surround sound theater effect with a booming sub woofer, this electronically sophisticated sound system should make you happy.

An update at one and a half years later  12/2012.  A strange line of red color has developed down the middle of the screen. On line forums say this is a common problem caused by a part failure.  No longer under warranty so it will require an expensive repair making this not such a great value as originally thought.  Shame on Samsung for not stepping up.  The product should work worry free for more than 2 years.
3360790
After a good 16 year run with our old tube TV, it finally died and pushed us into the flat screen market.  Being new to flat screens, I did a ton of research and went back and forth between the pros and cons of LED/LCD and plasma.

Before doing my research, I assumed LED/LCDs were better. Most people we knew were absolutely on the LCD band wagon. In the stores, the LCDs were usually brighter, so they stood out more. Just before our TV died, a family member who purchased an LCD TV 4 years ago had their TV die. For that kind of money, a TV should last more than 4 years. This made me dig more deeply into the options available.

Early on, it seemed that a plasma TV would be better for us. The cons of the LCDs (on top of my relative's experience) related to the viewing angle, and backlight washout, plasma seemed to keep winning out based on our viewing habits (mostly movie watching, some sports, not really video game players). Our concerns with the plasma were primarily image retention and glare - although many of the LCD/LED TVs have shiny screens now too.

Once we decided on plasma, we were going between the Panasonic and the LG - the 50 inch screen size was decided on given the size of our room. Samsung also had a really nice model as well. After reading about the buzzing on the Panasonic and some other issues with the picture as well as buzzing on the Samsung, we went and saw the TVs at a local store - initials are BB ;-). After talking with one of the guys there, he had wrestled with the same issues and decided to go with the LG and was very happy with it. What I wasn't happy with was that store's price. After seeing all the TVs in person, it made the decision a bit easier since the LG had a nice modern look without the cheap plastic frame. Picture quality and features on all the models seemed equal in the store. Also, we knew we didn't want 3D and wouldn't really use it - not worth the extra cost.

Amazon had a price $400 cheaper than my local store. However I was worried about purchasing something of that size on line and the potential shipping damage. I've had items left on my doorstep that looked like they were delivered by Ace Ventura, so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't be stuck with paying return shipping on something that was wrecked.  Since the Amazon order was being fulfilled by One Call, I went to their website where they had a video that described the shipping process. I found it very helpful and it sold me on saving $400 over the local store, so I gulped and pressed the "submit order" button.

There was a bit of a delay in getting the delivery, but it was due to the local delivery people, not One Call, and the TV arrived very well packaged with no damage. The driver used a dolly to bring the package to our garage door and my husband and brother in law carried it in and unpackaged it with no issues. Within several minutes, we had it installed onto the base - since there were three of us, we didn't have to lay the TV down to install it in the base. In another few minutes, we had the cable and internet hooked up and we were ready to go.

We adjusted the settings to the cnet recommendations and the picture is amazing. We have not seen any issues with image retention (we have the orbital on). The glare is not really different from the tube set. Even with lights on opposite the TV, it's hard to notice it and I have to go out of my way to see it.  Other reviewers have complained about the sound on this TV, but we never need to turn the TV up louder than 7 or 8 - usually 5 is fine (it goes past 30, we haven't had it that loud). Also, there is no buzzing - even with the TV muted. We like the sound equalizing feature that evens out the sound so you don't get blasted by commercials.

After owning the TV for several weeks now, we are happy with our choice and believe this is one of the better TVs out there if you don't want 3D.
1913671
My husband and I had an EXTREMELY old TV and I finally convinced him to replace it.  After doing alot of research, we felt this would be a great TV.  We have not been disappointed at all.  It has very simple, easy to use controls.  A wonderful picture.  We basically plugged it in and were good to go.  No complaints what so ever.  Great side view for a flat screen.  I say it is an excellent TV.
9401
We got this unit for the bedroom.... it replaced our old SONY TV. Since it is a smart TV, we plan to try some of the features. I did sign up for Netflix (free for one year)...if we do go with that, we will renew.

The picture is great, and when watching movies (DVD)... you get good quality (In blue ray or standard).

The size is not overwhelming (42 inch) and we have a small bedroom. It is great for any type of viewing.

It was an easy set up,right out of the box -