- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 33 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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6 out of 7 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Good TV With Some Flaws"
Pros: Vibrant colors, resolution, input options
Cons: Backlight, viewing angle, black levels, white/black decoding differences for progressive and interlaced sources
Summary: I owned the Dell W3706MC for two months before returning it and purchasing a Panasonic TH-37PHD8UK. The Dell is at its best when displaying bright HD sources. It's ability to display vibrant colors and a crystal clear image really shine through. The large number of inputs also means you should never have a connectivity issue.
That is not to say this display is not without its problems. The biggest issues come out when displaying darker scenes in a darkend display area. Then it becomes apparent that the backlight is uneven, with more light bleeding through in the corners. Black levels are not very good, coming out as deep grays in the best situations. Despite advertising 160 degree viewing angles, watching at any more than a 30 degree offset results in a washed out image. Finally, the television decodes white and black levels differently for interlaced and progressive scan sources; after being properly setup from an interlaced input, a progessive signal will be displayed with white levels too low and black levels too high, resulting in a noticably grayer image. This will be an issue for viewers switching from a 1080i HDTV signal to a progessive scan DVD source (note that this flaw went unnoticed by the CNET reviewers).
All in all the Panasonic TH-37PHD8UK provides a better display in the same size and price range. True, it has a lower resolution (1024 x 720 compared to the Dell's 1366 x 768) but at this screen size that is practically unnoticable. In my estimation, the Panasonic more than makes up for the slightly lower resolution with superior black levels, accurate decoding between progessive and interlaced sources, and large range of viewing angles.
