Panasonic Viera TX-P55VT30B (TXP55VT30B) 55 Inch Full 3D 600Hz Plasma TV-Infinite Black Pro, Freeview HD,Freesat HD,Wifi/DLNA,ISF/THX

They also contain Panasonic’s Infinite Black System. On this particular range the contrast levels are in excess of 5 million : 1. The contrast levels are that high they are almost immeasurable. That determines how good the black level is on the screen: the inkier that black level, the more natural colour palette you achieve, the better the depth of field, and the more detail you get in the darker areas of the screen as well.

This particular VT30 range is also 3D ready – the 3D technology is built into the TV. They also come with two sets of active glasses in the box – so you receive two sets of these glasses in the box with the Panasonic TXP55VT30B TV.

The TV set range are also Wi-Fi ready, so across the range, from the TX-P42VT30 to the TX-P65VT30 65 inch they are all Wi-Fi ready and come with a wireless dongle in the box which you can just plug into the USB port on the back of the TV and you can access Internet services wirelessly through this TV. Or you can hardwire – you have also got an Ethernet port on the rear of this particular range.

You have also got ISF calibration on this particular range of TV sets. They are THX-specified – and we are going to go through the ISFs in a few moments for you in the menu, where you can really tweak up this picture to the enth degree, to exactly the way that you want the picture to look.

They will also do 2D to 3D conversion for you, so if you are just watching a standard 2D broadcast, you can alter that image from the standard 2D to 3D as well, just using the glasses and the menu system onscreen – which yet again we will take a look at in a few moments.

Going to the sound stage on this particular range, they have a sound output of 26 watts. They contain speakers in the TV and also a subwoofer as well.

Now, before we go through the menu system on the Panasonic TX-P55VT30 TV, we will just have a look at some of the sockets on the rear of the set for you. What we have here is basically you have got your Freesat connection and your aerial coaxial connection just underneath here. Your Ethernet port is tucked away underneath here as well. You have also got then your video input, or RGB. These use connectors which you get with the TV – you have got a Scart adapter here. I am going to show you the rest of the connections onscreen in just a moment.

But running along from there, where you have got your adapter for the Scart on the TXP55VT30, you have also got adapter sockets for Component, for Composite Video In, and for Digital Optical Out as well. You have got your headphone socket just tucked away underneath here as well. All these sockets are recessed so it lends itself very well for wall mounting and it is an extremely slim panel as well.

You have then got your common interface slot just at the side here. Just up here as well, before we leave the back of the TV, you have got two USB inputs – so you have then got your SD card reader for snapshots or video footage, which is just underneath, just here; you have got a third USB which you can plug into, say, an external hard drive so if you want to record any TV footage you can do so via the USB. You have then got another HDMI port on the side here – so you have got 1, 2, 3, 4 HDMIs all in a row. So, 4 HDMIs, 3 USB, SD card reader. And the rest of your sockets on here are on adapters – which we will show you now.

So onscreen now you can see you have got a 3.5 mini jack to optical adapter. You have then got the 3.5 mini jack to audio. The audio runs in conjunction with Component, which is the red/green/blue, or the Composite Video, which is the yellow and white. So, games consoles use Component and they also use Composite – you have got those two adapters. And then you have also got your Scart adapter in there as well. So that concludes your range of adapters that you get in the box for the TV. The way they do this enables the TV to be extremely slim.

So let’s take a look at the menus now onscreen. So, on the remote control you have a Menu button. When you press the Menu, it puts the Panasonic menu up on the screen. Now, the actual screen itself on this particular TV runs right up to the edge of the panel; it is a frameless design, a beautiful design to the set itself.

It comes on a swivel base as well. The base is in a sort of black to slate grey finish. On the menu system, when you do press Menu, you have got options of Picture, Sound, Time and Setup. So if we go into the Picture Menu, we have got various viewing modes. So we have got there at the moment Normal. If we just press Enter, which is the OK button just on here, it takes us through Normal, Dynamic, Cinema, or THX. As I said, this is a THX-rated panel – you have got full ISF calibration on the screen as well. Now, what does that mean? Well, basically what you have, there are very few panels out there which are THX-rated. If you are watching a movie on DVD, some movies are recorded in THX – which basically means if you set the THX mode on here it will set all the parameters up on the TV set so you can set it to exactly the way the filmmaker wanted you to view that movie.

If we go into the various settings on here, you have got Contrast, Brightness, Colour, Sharpness, Control and so on coming down there. You have also got Advanced Settings which gives us other options.

But if we come out of that menu just for a moment before we talk in a little bit more detail on that, if we go through the standard settings first of all for you. So if we look at, say, the viewing mode Normal, in that mode there you have got the standard adjustments for Contrast, Brightness, Colour, Sharpness, and you have also got Panasonic’s CATS system which is an automated adjustment. So down here basically you have got a photocell at the bottom of the TV here which constantly measures the ambient light of the room. If you have this switched on, it will always keep your picture at optimum performance for you. If you go into that menu – so you have got On or Off – and you will probably see the picture changing there as we switch that sensor off or on .So we will leave that on for the moment.

Now if we come further down that menu, you have got things like Picture in Picture where if we have, say, a satellite source or something else plugged into here now, we could have it down here in the corner as well. So you could have dual images; you can even do things like split screen as well.

If we come out of that for a moment, come further down that menu, you have got 3D settings – so as I said, it is a 3D TV you do get the glasses in the set with the TV, you get two sets of these glasses in the box. They are also rechargeable – they will recharge off the USB socket on the TV. And, as I said before, you have got this Advanced Settings. Now, in the advanced settings menu you have got things like Resolution Enhancer where if you are on a non-high definition programme, because this has got an HD tuner built into it, but if you are watching standard definition, if you switch the resolution enhancer On, to Mid or Max, it will increase the resolution of that programme you are watching to give like a pseudo high-def image as well.

If we come further into that menu – so if we go down to Setup and if we scroll through this particular menu, you will find you have got Advanced ISF Calibration Settings. Now I have got this switched off. If we switch those On and go back into that menu for Picture, you will find then you have got advanced settings listed so you can access those settings. And you can really tweak up the image now for things like White Balance which wasn’t there before – so you can alter the red, green and blue gain, red, green and blue cut-off – so you can tweak each primary colour onscreen. So you just highlight the colour you want to adjust and adjust accordingly, using Right or Left on the keypad.

If you do make a mess of it you can just go Reset to Default and just reset it to the manufacturer’s specification for you. But you can also alter things like the gamma – at the moment they come preset to 2.2 but you have got various settings in there as well. You can see the brightness of the image probably changing as we switch through those settings as well.

Yet again, these are all adjustments that you can make yourself to the picture. It has got one of the most advanced settings you can get on any TV set for making picture adjustments. But if you don’t want to get into that, as I said, you have got a preset mode from the manufacturer where you just basically select one of the preset modes for, say, Normal, select the CATS system, and it will adjust itself and do it all for you anyway.

If we come out of that menu for a moment and go down to the sound menu – it has got an extremely good sound system, this is one of the best sound systems on this TV you will get on any TV that is out there at the moment. As I said, it has got internal subwoofers built into the TV as well to give you that added depth to the sound. You have got adjustments for things like bass or treble. But if you go into the user menu then you have got a graphic equaliser which will give you further adjustments for bass at the bottom down there, and you have also got adjustments for mid-tone adjustments as well as the high frequencies for the treble at the top end here as well. So you have got a little bit more flexibility over the overall tone of the sound.

You have also got adjustments for Surround Off and you have got different options in here for things like V-audio which will throw it out at a wider angle for you, and you have got various sort of surround sound modes as well that you can get from the TV.

You also need to set up the Speaker distance to wall setting as well, so if you are having this wall-mounted or mounted on its pedestal stand, you need to set this up whether it is over 30 cm or up to 30 cm away from the wall, to get the correct sound delivered to you.

As you come further down that menu you have got timer settings where you have got built-in timers on the TV to ask it to run for a certain time and then switch itself off. You have also got your general setup guide which then you can get into the advanced settings on here. And you have got other menus and other settings that you can get into as well where you have got your USB menus and so on for charging in there as well.

If we come out of those now, you have also got full Wi-Fi facilities through this TV. As I said, it does come with a wireless dongle which will plug into the USB to access your web services at home. You can also hardwire this as well – you have got the Ethernet port on the back of the TV as well.

On the remote control you have got a button that says Cast. If we press the Cast button it will now start to load up and access the Internet services through the TV. We will enter that now and it will start to load up. On the first page here you have got things like Facebook, Skype… You can get a Skype camera from Panasonic, put it into the TV to make Skype/Skype phone calls to friends and family – and those calls are free of charge as well. There it has BBC iPlayer. If we go down to More it will click us onto even more pages of information where we have got things like Twitter, Euronews, Cine Trailers on there as well, just loading up. And you get, again, even more information coming on there. So there are several pages that you can get into.

If you want to access any of these particular sites – if we want to get into, say, BBC iPlayer, we would just come along and highlight that in blue, press OK and it will start to load onto that particular page for us for BBC iPlayer. It just takes a few seconds to do that.

So you are looking at a TV here which has one of the best black levels you will get on any TV set. It has got one of the fastest scanning ratios. It is 3D ready as well. It has got one of the best sound systems. You have also got Internet services through the TV. I can honestly say that there is probably not a better TV that is out there at the moment. It is an absolutely stunning picture and fantastic sound quality.

It is loading up BBC iPlayer now – so yet again, you will just select the programme, just highlight it on there, press OK and then it will go to that particular programme for you as well. It is very much like having an additional channel on your TV and it is a free service through BBC iPlayer for you as well.

So, a stunning TV – as I said, 3D ready, every conceivable feature that you would want on a TV is on this particular range, on the VT30 series. They are in display in our retail stores, both in Bolton and Leeds, so pop in for a demonstration or 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 hundreds more video clips on there, on a vast range of TVs, amplifiers and speaker systems. So have a look at our website which is www.soundandvision.co.uk for more information or please give me a call on 01204 861 861.

Thank you.