I researched all the flatscreen TVs in the 37-40" size category due to cabinet space requirements. Bought a Sony 40" and had to return it because my wife wouldn't let me take the doors of the furniture... Looked at Vizio due to price, performance, cabinet size, and having owned one. Did not find a model that met all the criteria. Found the outgoing Panasonic 37" model that came before this new model but it was getting hard to find at the firesale prices. I saw that the new TC-L37E3 was being release soon and put it in my basket and waited for release.
I liked that it had an ISP (In-Plane Switching panel) and the reviews of the previous model were favorable. The cabinet width was perfect at 35.1 inches. The fact that it was wi-fi ready did not matter to me since I already had an Apple Airport Express for the entertainment system and could feed a CAT5 cable directly to the TV. Have watched Netflix, Amazon VOD, listened to Pandora, all works great. The picture colors, sharpness, contrast, blacks, and viewing angle are fantastic and my wife and college age daughters have given positive comments. I only had to tweak a couple settings to get it matched to the room lighting with windows/blinds to the rear. Since it was a new model the first week out in release, my Logitech Harmony One remote did not have the canned codes available. A little training and the fact that the channels and volume are usually changed through the Cable/DVR and the A/V receiver result in no impact. I also like the optical digital out for playing internet music out to the stereo.
I am getting used the the small delays in the HDMI handshaking going on between the Motorola DVR, NAD T747 Receiver, and the TC-L37E3. Bottom line is that now that they are all hooked and set-up, they are working fine together.
Very Happy with the purchase! Panasonic VIERA TC-L37E3 37-Inch 1080p LED HDTV
I have bought more than 20 flat screen tvs, from plasma to lcd to led over the past ten years. Every brand included. Just got this one because it fit perfectly into a 35 1/2" wide cabinet. I understand the frustration of the others with the misinformation about the wireless. So beware if you intend to stream wirelessly. However, this tv produces a beautiful picture. The preset calibrations (vivid, standard, etc.) are not of much use. Go with vivid, reduce all settings 10-15% except for hue, which you will want to increase into the green range (Apologies to the videofiles out there). Might want to change setting from cool to normal, but not big difference Picture excellent and as good as my LG 5500 led, Sony w4100 lcd, Samsung 630 lcd (model numbers not exact, recalling from memory). The reviewer reporting terrible picture likely either has it miscalibrated or has a bad input signal. I have LAN hard wired to my router, works great. Very happy with this purchase. Arrived in 3 days even with free budget shipping.
I purchased this television for our bedroom, and we're quite happy with it. I highly recommend using a calibration DVD (I used Avia) to set the picture settings, as the ones from the factory are indeed crap! (like almost all modern TVs. Why is that?) The "standard" setting is way too low contrast / washed out, and the "vivid" setting has contrast so high that the shadow details are completely lost. I found that the "Game" setting tuned to [Contrast +90] [Brightness +57] and [Color +40] was about perfect, now that I have it calibrated the picture is even better than I anticipated.
Pros:
Incredible picture!
Embedded Pandora & Netflix players work fine
Lots of HDMI inputs
It's SO LIGHT AND THIN!
So/so:
Sound - decent but not stellar. About what you'd expect from embedded speakers
Cons:
No embedded WiFi (works with external adapter, purchased separately)
As most of us do, I researched "wi-fi" ready TV's and chose this particular Panasonic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that it is advertised as "wi-fi" ready. I already have a Roku hooked up to another TV but didn't want to deal with yet another electronic box. Well, I found out what Panasonic means by "wi-fi ready" when I powered up the TV, did the initial set-up and clicked on the wi-fi option. The TV immediately displayed a message telling me that there was no wi-fi adapter in place and instructed me to BUY one in order to take advantage of the TV's wi-fi capability. Huh? So suddenly and unexpectedly my TV costs $90 more. Not a nice surprise. False advertising? Bait and switch? You decide. Anyhow, the adapter has been ordered; I'll update this review when it arrives and IF "wi-fi" is then truly ready and the TV works as promised.
One pro: A terrific, easy to use remote. I like it a lot with its many control options and appreciate that it connects to my Viera-capable Panasonic Blu-Ray DVD player.
Three cons: First: the picture quality doesn't begin to match my more than 2-year-old Sony Bravia 32" LCD TV, neither the color nor the sharpness. Second: I'm having a devil of a time coming up with a pleasing color/brightness balance, a challenge I never faced with my Sony. Three: at this point, the Panasonic codes don't work with my DirecTV remote. I spent an hour on the phone with a DirecTV technician without success.
So that's my story. I'm both disappointed and annoyed with Panasonic, a usually reliable and customer-friendly company. But I'll give the new TV a fair chance before I make a final decision. And thanks to Amazon for the very useful TV evaluation period.
I have been looking for a 37" TV to fit into a particular piece of furniture for over 2 years. Everything has been too tall by 1/2" or more. This is a newly announced TV that is packaged perfectly. It has great features and a great picture. If you are hooking it up to a wired internet connection and are using a hub in addition to the router, you cannot connect the TV to a hub port. It has to be on one of the router ports. It took a long time with Panasonic support to figure this out. That said, the support line was great and appeared to be US based.
My only real negative was that Amazon did not ship the set when they said they would. It was in stock but my order got screwed up twice. - 1080p Lcd - 37 Inch - 37 Inch Lcd - 1080p Lcd Hdtv'
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