I first ordered this set in early August and I really wanted to like this television. It is easy to set up, it has a good remote, and the built-in speakers are acceptable. At first glance, the picture is very good (once taken out of "torch mode" and the "soap opera effect" has been minimized by turning off (or minimizing) the Auto Motion Plus feature. The backlit remote is nice, but not *all* of the buttons are lit. I'm not sure why, and there were times when I needed the unlit ones. And, being unfamiliar with the remote, had to turn on/up the room lights to see what I was doing. But, the main problem I encountered with this set was the color uniformity.
After having watched for a week and having some time to get past my initial awe at how good this set seemed to be, I noticed a flaw in the left side of the picture. When panning a football field, I saw that the left 6" or so of the screen was lighter than the rest. And when viewing scenes that had a lot of red in them, the left 6" of the screen was significantly lighter than the rest of the screen. Note that I was sitting about 8' away, dead center -- off-axis viewing was not the issue.
I tried to ignore it, but finally created some solid color slides and viewed them using the television's built-in slide-show feature. What I found was that the left side was significantly lighter than the rest of the screen. It wasn't very noticeable on blue slides, but was very prominent on red and green slides, though bright reds & greens were less of an issue. I kept the TV second week, trying to get past it, but the problem was distracting when watching football. And, when watching interviews with "America's Got Talent" judges, their skin tone and the red backdrop was frequently discolored (interviews were usually framed with the face on the left side of the screen).
I asked Amazon for a replacement, which they sent without a problem and at their expense (as was the return shipping). The replacement set I received was better. But, again about a week after having the set, I noticed the same problem (though not as pronounced). Again, I tried to get past it -- not only did I not want to deal with a return, but didn't want to deal with researching a replacement make and model.
Just when I thought I could live with it, I noticed a 2" (approx.) vertical stripe on the left side of the screen. The stripe was a section of panel that was brighter than the rest of the panel. It had hard edges, indicating to me that it was a panel problem. During most shows I didn't notice it; but, it was very prominent during a few dark scenes of Up, Star Trek, and a few others.
Again, I loaded the color slides I had made, which revealed light leakage (or clouding, whatever it's called), similar to the first set. It also revealed the stripe in quite a few of the slides. Considering the price of this television, I called Amazon and asked to return it. I was offered a replacement, which I considered, but ultimately decided to return it and get something else (Panasonic TC-P46G25).
For those wondering, labels on both sets (and the boxes they came in) indicated an AA02 panel.
Summary:
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PROS:
- adequate sound quality from built-in speakers
- decent remote
- picture mode button on remote (Vivid, movie, etc)
- Sleep button on remote
- backlit remote
- back of television has a kensington lock slot
- non-glare screen is very good in rooms with a lot of windows & ambient light
CONS:
- not all buttons on remote are backlit
- default Auto Motion Plus (AMP) setting results in a horrible "soap opera" effect
- color/picture uniformity
Notes about the "Amazon experience":
- I had no problems with the local delivery company, which was CEVA for me
- Amazon paid all shipping costs, both ways
- Amazon did not give me any hassle at any time