Panasonic TX-L42E30B (TXL42E30B) 42 Inch Full HD 1080p Edge Lit Viera LED TV 200Hz,Freeview HD,USB HDD Recording,Skype,Wi-fi Ready

The set itself - completely new design, a new finish to this product range; they are finished in a high-gloss black finish to the top and the sides of the TV.  And then you have got this sort of brushed aluminium almost like a gunmetal grey sort of finish to the front of the TV, which starts off in a darker grey then off to a lighter shade to the centre of the TV.  I don’t know whether you can actually pick that up on the video clip you are looking at here but it is a beautiful finish to the TV.  The actual base of the TV as well is also finished in sort of like a light steel grey finish s well.

The specification on these models - they are all full HD, so it will cope with 720p, 1080i and the 1080p resolution.  They have also got the latest Freeview HD tuners built into them so you will get BBC, ITV and Channel Four in high definition. We are actually looking at the moment here at BBC Freeview.  If we come down from there we have then got I think ITV on there as well - yes, ITV HD, BBC1 HD, and up from there it was Channel Four HD.  So you have got your three HD channels built into this TV.  So just from your normal TV aerial you are going to get BBC, ITV and Channel Four in high definition.

They are also 200Hz backlight blinking.  Now, what does that mean?  Well, basically that they are 100Hz scanning but the backlights on this, which are LED, flash to take up to 200Hz - so extremely fast motion control; you are going to get no delay or drag in the image.  So if you are watching sport - anything with any fast movement in there - they are going to control that motion extremely well for you.

With them being LED products - these are edge-LED - you get an extremely good contrast ratio.  The contrast level on this is in excess of 2 million : 1.  So you are getting a really good black level on the TV; because of that you get a really good natural colour palette, good depth of field and really good detail in the darker areas of the panel as well.

They actually use an IPS panel on this range and so, unlike a lot of LCD/LED TVs, you can view it at any angle with no drop-off in picture quality either.  So you can view it at any angle at all and there is no drop-off in that picture performance.

The sound on this set as well - it is 2 x 10 watts.  You have got options in the menu for Stereo, Wider Surround and V-Audio Surround which will throw the sound out and around you.  But we will go into the menus in just a moment - it is a brand-new menu system on this TV range as well.

Before we get into the menus and have a look at the TV in a bit more depth, what we will do is just spin the TV round and we will have a look at some of the sockets on the rear of the TV.

Okay, so here we have a rear and side view of the TV.  First of all, we will deal with the sockets on the rear of the set.  We have here an Ethernet port; this TV has got Panasonic’s VIERA Cast System built in so you can get onto various websites through the TV.  We will go through those in just a moment when we go through the menus. 

You have then got your aerial socket just here which, as I said, has got a digital HD tuner built into this TV so you can get free HD channels.  You have also got your HDMI sockets running down here, so you have got HDMI 1, 2 and 3 in a line just coming down there.  HDMI 2 is also wired for ARC, so you can feed the audio back through HDMI back into an external amp if you want to do so.

You have also got a separate VGA PC input.  Coming down from there you have then got the traditional Optical socket so you can feed the sound digitally out through that socket, through an external amplifier.  You have then got, just underneath here, the red/green/blue connection which is Component - a lot of games consoles use Component - so you have got Component on there as well.  That is the audio feed for the Component.  And you have also got Audio Out so you can feed the sound out of this TV via the Optical, or via the Analogue Audio, or you can feed the sound out through the HDMI as well, into an external amplifier.

You have then got two USBs on the back of the TV.  And then coming down from there you have got one single SCART socket.  SCART now is becoming fewer and fewer on most TVs.  If you buy a modern DVD player, a satellite box, DVD recorders, cable boxes - they all now have HDMI on then, so SCART is becoming a socket which you are going to see on fewer pieces of equipment coming forward. 

On the side of the TV you have got Composite Video - yet again games consoles use Composite Video - you have got that as well.  You have also got a headphone socket just underneath here as well.  You have then got, coming down from there, SD card reader - so if you have got a digital still camera, pop your card in there and you can look at footage either in standard or high definition for video footage; and if you have got your photographs as well, you can view them on the TV.

You have got a fourth HDMI just here and you have also got a third USB - so you have got three USBs in total.

That completes the whole array of the sockets on both the back and side of the TV.  The fixing mounts on here for the 32 inch are 200 mm x 200 mm.

Okay, so let’s go through some of the menus in a little bit more depth on the TV for you.  First of all, on the remote control you have a button here which says Menu. Press the Menu button and it puts you into a brand-new menu on the Panasonics - they have changed from the previous ranges that they have had. You have got Picture, Sound, Time and Setup.

In the Picture menu, highlighted in yellow, you have then got Up, Down, Right and Left and OK in the centre.  If I just click to the right on there, we can go into any of those menus.  At the moment we are highlighting Viewing Mode which is on Dynamic.  Yet again, if I just click to the right, it gives us different options on here.  We have got Dynamic, Normal, Cinema and True Cinema.  As I click through these, these are just preset modes from the manufacturer to determine sort of brightness, contrast and colour levels. 

So if I just click through those now - and you may see the picture changing on the screen there as we click through those predetermined levels.  However, you can go into any one of those - and if we come down from there we can alter, yet again, the contrast, highlighted in yellow; click over to the right, and then if I press to the left we can alter that contrast and bring it down from there.  And you can go into each of those adjustments and alter accordingly: once you are on it, click to the right and then adjust to how you want to have the sharpness, colour, contrast or brightness settings.

If we come further down that scale, we have got Panasonic’s CATS system, which is an automated adjustment; you have got a photocell on the front of the TV which, if you have this switched on, it will constantly measure the ambient light of the room and always keep the TV at sort of optimum picture performance for you.

If we come further down there, you have then got various other settings - advance settings such as Intelligent Frame Creation where it actually fills in extra frames of information to control sort of any motion delay or drag better for you.  And you have also got things like Resolution Enhancer where if you are just watching standing BBC, ITV or any channel that is not in high definition, using the enhancer on here which you can go into there and have on Mid or Max, you can actually increase the resolution of the standard picture to give you a more sort of high definition image even just from a standard definition broadcast.

If we come out of that menu and come down from there, you have then got the Sound Menu.  In the Sound Menu you have got first of all User Mode, Speech or Music.  When you are in sort of the Music or Speech mode, it just gives you options for bass or treble that you can adjust on there.  However, if you go into the other one, which is User, it then gives us access to a graphic equalizer - so it gives you a little bit more variation over the tone of the sound.  So if we access that, at that scale there you have got the bass adjustments; as you come further along then you have got more of the mid-tone adjustments on there as well.  So if you want to bring out vocals more, you would adjust around sort of the 2 to 4K to bring out the vocals more. And then you get to the high frequencies at the top end of the scale up here as well.  So you have got full adjustments over bass, mid-range and treble on there as well.

As you come down from there you have also got separate adjustments for volume level, and you have got Surround Sound as well, where you have got V-Audio which will throw it out at a wider angle for you, and you have got V-Audio Surround which will attempt to throw the sound out and around you.

Now, depending where you have the TV located - whether you have got it just free-standing on its own stand or whether you have it wall-mounted - you do need to adjust the correct distance, either Over 30 cm or Up to 30 cm.  It is important to do that because it will adjust to sound to give you more depth if it is being wall-mounted.

So there you have a quick rundown on the picture and sound settings.  As you come down from there, you have got Timer where you can actually tell the TV to come on and off at certain times.  And then once you enter Setup, you have got the setup adjustments there for getting into things like the Network and the tuning menus and so on.

When it gives you the tuning menu on here, the beauty about the Panasonic TV range is that when you do get them, you just put your aerial into the back of the TV; there is an On/Off switch on the side just here - switch it on and the TV will say Please Wait.  It will tune itself in and set itself up.  So just put the aerial in, switch it on and just leave it - it will set itself up for you.  So very simple to do.

But if you do go into the Setup menu, and if you do move regions - it has already been set up - you can go into the Tuning menu and retune again.

Regarding the Network Setup, what we will do, we will have a look at that now for you.  Before, when we had a look at the rear of the TV, there was an Ethernet connection.  If you press the button the remote control that says Cast which is VIERA Cast, which is just here, it will then start searching for various websites.  These are predetermined - they are actually built into the TV network itself.

So on here now it is loading up - you have got things like YouTube, Eurosport, Daily Motion and so on, on there.  You have got Skype on here as well so if you put a camera into the TV you can make Skype-to-Skype phone calls which are free of charge.  You then come down to sort of More, click OK, and there are even more websites on there that you can get into.  Click More again, and so on.

So there are quite a few websites that you can gain access to.  And if we go back from there, once you have highlighted - if we go into, say, YouTube - you highlight it with a blue square, just press OK and it will now start loading into the YouTube website.  It will just take a moment to do that.  Once it is loaded up, it will put the site up on the screen for you - it is coming up now.  Now, you have got options on there for Most Viewed, Top-Rated, or you can actually search, where if you go down to there, just press OK - then on the remote control you have got the full alphabet on here; you can then start searching for your own particular search that you want on there as well.  So, as I said, you have got full YouTube web search facility built into the TV.

So the TV itself, as I said, has got a very good sound system, excellent picture quality - when you look at sort of the specification on this panel, being an IPS, panel, which means you can view it from any angle with no picture fade; contrast in excess of 2 million : 1; really good fast scanning so it is going to control motion extremely well.  It is an excellent set to look for, both for picture and sound quality.

If you would like any more details on this set, please give me a call - my name is Chris - on 01204 861 861, or go through to our website which is www.soundandvision.co.uk.  You will find a lot more video clips on there - not just on TVs but on amplifiers and speakers as well.  This particular range of TVs is on display both in our Bolton and our Leeds store.  If you are watching this from a video clip, yet again, there should be some link on there which will throw you through to our website, where you will find hundreds more video clips.

Thank you for watching.