Customer Reviews

Panasonic TC-L42D2 42-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV with iPod Dock, Black

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this TV 4 weeks ago and wanted to wait to write a review. The picture quality is excellent if you adjust the settings. No blooming with the back lit led either. The non-HD picture is acceptable but really varies by the channel. It is in a relatively bright room and the glare in negligible. The speakers are a bit hollow sounding at higher levels, but fine for every day use and not really that big of a deal if you have a home theater set up. No TV's today have that great of sound in all truth. Ask yourself, "Are you buying the TV for the picture or sound?" I have the setting on "Custom" at Back light 75, Contrast 95, Brightness 80, Color 61, Tint +2, Sharpness 95, Color Temp Warm, A.I. Picture On, Motion Picture Pro Strong, Black Level Dark. The iPod feature is pretty cool too. The person who posted with 1 star obviously doesn't know that all LED TV's are LCD with LED lighting as a compliment. Reading the manufacturer's web site will clearly explain the technology.

Bought this tv a couple weeks ago from amazon. It arrived before the eta and was packaged nicely. The picture quality is amazing. Took some tweaking to get the settings right but once I did it was perfect. The hd channels are so crisp and colors so bright it's ridiculous. Got a LG blu ray player and could not be happier with the picture quality even from standard definition television shows. And the DVD upconversion is nice but I think the tv is doing a lot of the job. My only complaint is no analog audio out. Only digital audio out so I had to order a digital to analog audio convertor so I can plug my new tv into my old RCA speaker setup. Would be 5 stars but had to get the audio convertor. Based on picture alone though 5 stars easy.

I've had mine for a couple of days and have tested it with cable hi-def, Blu-Ray, standard DVD, WII, Digital still and video cams, computer, etc. I would rate it high in every respect. The iPod dock is a nice touch, but only have an iPad so can't use the dock. One of the first things I look for is the viewing angle and found the picture to be perfectly visible from an extreme side angle. For the price I don't think this Panasonic can be beat. (That's after comparing with similarly priced Sony and Samsung.) I heartily recommend this TV.

I've owned a Panasonic 58" plasma for two years. I love it. It is also a kiln in terms of generating heat.

When upgrading our recently graduated daughter's set, I looked very carefully for that elusive picture quality/power consumption ratio.

I'm pretty sure I found it in this new generation set. First off, she loves the FULL iPod integration. Nice touch, and very handy for the portable music generation people. Then, the image quality is very, very good. I am not prepared to say it is as good as the best plasma in terms of "feel" and naturalness. But, I am completely prepared to say it is a perfectly acceptable alternative given how LITTLE power this thing uses. After two hours of "set up and fiddling", there was almost NO noticeable heat being emitted from the device. At some point it may be like admitting you don't need a V8 anymore, even though it'll get to 60 faster than a V6.

OK, off the soap box. This is well constructed set. The screen swivels - nice touch. Even though this one has a much wider viewing angle than many LCDs I've seen, it still fades just a touch off axis too much. With the swivel that issue is moot.

The backlighting is very even - much more than the other LCDs I auditioned. I presume this is the hybrid LED-LCD stuff in action. But no hot spots under normal viewing and that's a nice change

I wish they had made the speakers front facing. As it is they (I think) point down. They're fine, but can sound muffled if you put stuff in front of the set or boomy if you don't.

I think i set it up properly, in terms of the myriad color, etc settings. Better than average black levels, nice punch, seems to have fast pixels. Handles Blue Ray beautifully.

And, did I mention, the sucker uses around 70 watts of power and that is, for a long term purchase, not a fact to ignore.

UPDATE: I added the ZVOX Audio Z-Base 550HSD to eliminate the stupid downward-facing built-in speakers. Connected them using an optical cable - this unit is now completely awesome.

This Panasonic 42" LED TV is awesome. It has a beautiful picture and makes watching football games almost like being there. We have had other Panasonic products and have found them to be extremely reliable and this TV is no different. Out of the box everything was easy to set up and understand from the remote controller to the plug ins in the back of the set. There were few adjustments to be made and the set up menu was a breeze to complete. I did kind of want an ethernet plug in the back of the TV and this one doesn't have it but the same access can be gained through a bluray DVD player. We are delighted with our purchase and would highly recommend this TV for others. We have not used the ipod dock yet but that is an interesting added feature. One negative would be that this set only has 3 HDMI plugs in back/side and other TV's have 4. The more HDMI plugs you have the better off you are when it comes to putting the set together with multiple components. One problem we have found in having a Panasonic TV, bluray DVD and regular DVD player all on the same TV stand is that the one remote turns everything off together and some of the other functions on the remote also are applied to all three components. That was annoying and we had to unplug one of the DVD's so we wouldn't go crazy. That's the only negative we can find.

The Panasonic brand has long been associated with quality electronics and the L42D2 upholds their tradition of excellence. The picture doesn't disappoint, especially for watching dvds, crystal clear in High Resolution Mode. I am picky about the picture quaility and customize whenever necessary, and am satisfied with the control this feature affords. My only minor complaint is losing data on the edge of screen, when watching sports in Zoom format, which is how you will want to do that. Otherwise, line-doubling in the 120hz works fine for sports, concerts and action films. I saw nothing annoying that interfered with my entertainment experience. The sound is more than satisfactory, outside of connecting to an AV receiver, which I use for playing dvds. Done this way the experience is pretty awesome. Also, the L42D2 is Energy Star, and you are going to enjoy those savings for years to come, and feel good doing it. This set is a real steal for the price.

This is a great TV. I've had it for one month. The picture quality is incredible. The setup was fairly easy. My only complaint was a known problem with audio distortion when connecting a cable box via the first HDMI plug. You can get the firmware update from Panasonic's support website, but you'll need an SD card and SD media reader on your computer.

I researched a long time before deciding on the Panasonic Viera LCD/LED Panasonic 42". I was concerned the TV may be a bit too small...but it is perfect for our 14 x 14 Den. It looked so small in the store...let this be a warning to those considering the 50+ inch in a smaller sized den. Even using a cardboard replica for sizing was deceiving. Once the picture fills the screen it gives the illusion of a much bigger TV. This was/is by far the best value 1080p 120 Hz LED Technology TV available. The picture does NOT disappoint. It was easy to set up and the control has large contrasting numbers and letters. For HDTV newbees....remember that you will need a BluRay and a HD Cable. These are a must for you to get what you want out of viewing... and they are rarely included in a HDTV purchase. Couldn't be happier!

I am really happy with this TV, especially after comparing it to similar products by Samsung, which tend to get the higher reviews (and have higher prices).
I have owned this product since June and I still love it. Remote is cool, with only one tiny, little con: The Veira button is located slightly above the up arrow and is also shaped similar to it as well. SO when I am trying to hit the up arrow I usually hit the Veira button by accident. Certainly not a deal breaker by any means, but I thought I would mention it. I don't own an Ipod so I really can't say anything about the dock. I've used the speakers sparingly, and they seem decent for a TV speaker (Most everything goes through my home theatre system though). I think the fact that I still recommend this TV after 6 months, is a good sign for perspective buyers out there.

After doing a lot of research and holding out for a deal I ended up purchasing the TC-L42D2 a few weeks ago from a non-Amazon site during a Super Bowl sale. I was drawn to this model mostly because I knew I was going to get an IPS panel (Samsung and LG send different panels types-> panel lottery). I was also looking at the Sony LED models but a lot of reviewers preferred the Sony LCD over the LED models and the Sony models are thicker than I desired.

The L42D2's speakers are OK. They do lack lows but what do you expect from small speakers. The standard definition picture quality from my Motorola cable box was better than expected, not as good as the tube TV it replaced but still decent. HD picture quality is excellent with better blacks than most LCD TVs. The viewing angle is not the greatest but I knew that going in.

The bottom part of the TV sticks out a bit making the total thickness a bit more than I wanted but turns out its going to work out with my mount as I can get a smaller VESA 200x200 mount that doesn't go down far enough to hit the thicker bottom part of the TV. Overall I'm very satisfied with the L42D2 and I'm glad I did the research and held out for a sale.