vieracast

For some people, a 50-inch HDTV just isn't big enough. Panasonic created its new 54-inch screen size, represented here by the TC-P54G10, for just those kinds of people. This set competes directly against the new 55-inch LCD size for your big-screen consideration, and occupies a nice middle ground between merely large 50-inch plasmas and truly gigantic 58- and 60-inchers.

In our testing, the TC-P54G10 proved every bit the equal of its smaller brothers in the company's G10 series, which remains one of the best value propositions on the market for shoppers who prize picture quality.

Read the full review of the Panasonic TC-P54G10.… Read more

Panasonic announced this morning that Amazon Video On Demand streaming has been added to the company's Blu-ray players, including the DMP-BD60K, DMP-BD80K, DMP-B15, DMP-BD70V, and home theater systems with integrated Blu-ray, such as the SC-BT200 and SC-BT300. Amazon streaming is integrated into Panasonic's online media portal, VieraCast, that already includes content from YouTube, Picasa, weather, and Bloomberg stock quotes.

We have the SC-BT200 on hand, and we took the Amazon streaming service for quick spin. The experience is essentially identical to what we experienced when reviewing the TC-PV10 series of Panasonic plasmas. The pay-per-view movie and TV service … Read more

A new study by the Consumer Electronics Association, the industry group representing electronics manufacturers, finds that nearly half of prospective TV buyers say they want to buy an Internet-connected TV.

The study, conducted in December 2008, asked respondents to say how they'd use their connected sets, and the most popular answers included accessing information about current TV shows or identifying a song played on a show (48 percent) and finding out more about the actors (44 percent). Asked whether they currently surf the Web while watching TV, 30 percent of "online adults" responded "always or usually" while 32 percent answered "sometimes."

Activities likely to be moved from the PC to the living room TV include watching online video (62 percent), getting weather updates (59 percent), and playing online games (57 percent).… Read more

Ever since we called the Pioneer Elite Kuro PRO-111FD the "best flat-panel HDTV ever," we've been comparing the most expensive challengers on the market directly against it, looking to see if any could topple the champ. When Panasonic announced the TC-PG10 series at CES, we immediately knew it would go up against the Kuro in our lab. What we didn't know is that Pioneer would stop producing HDTVs, leaving the hill wide open for anybody to claim the king's throne.

The Panasonic G10 series is the new king. No, it's not as good overall … Read more

At the end of last year, Panasonic's DMP-BD35 earned the first Editors' Choice award given to a standalone Blu-ray player, because of its excellent feature set and reliable playback. The DMP-BD60 is the follow-up to the DMP-BD35, offering nearly the same feature set plus access to VieraCast, Panasonic's proprietary video content portal. So it may be surprising to see that the DMP-BD60 scores significantly lower than the DMP-BD35 did when it was first released--but that's just how fast the Blu-ray market is moving. While competitors are adding Netflix streaming, Wi-Fi connectivity, and onboard memory, the DMP-BD60 is … Read more