Panasonic Viera TC-P54VT25 user reviews

Pros I bought this TV about a month ago as the 2011 models were being introduced. It appeared to have all of the features I was looking for and is generally a great tv, but for one thing. If you don't care about Internet capabilities, then you will probably

Cons Panasonic has switched from VieraCast to VieraConnect and is not offering any backward compatibility even for last year's models. My VieraCast interface looks identical (from what I can tell) to the newer VieraConnect, but apparently no new offerings wil

Summary I just do not see how a company can essentially make a product practically obsolete in one year. Granted, I knew I was buying last year's model, but if we are talking app compatibility, to say that they essentially refuse to make things compatible basically says that my supposedly Internet capable TV is now essentially worthless for that purpose. I can understand hardware issues, but the way this was presented to me is that they simply are not going to make their apps compatible with VieraCast. I simply would not have bought this TV had I known that the Internet capability would be obsolete as soon as I bought it. If that is Panasonic's philosophy, I would not trust them to offer updatable technology in the future.

Updated on Jul 1, 2011

Research VieraCast vs. VieraConnect. If you care about Internet capabilities, this TV is now basically obsolete.

Pros Beautiful picture, with deep rich colors. Reasonably intelligent setup. Very realistic 3D. Acceptable sound.

Cons Have never been able to connect to WiFi, with absolutely horrible customer support. It's plasma, you still have to be careful with burn-in. Very, very heavy set compared with LED units.

Summary We purchased this set in early December, 2010. We have not been able to connect this to our network, even though it finds not only my network, but that of my next door neighbor.

Multiple calls to tech support did not resolve the issue. After a lot of "it must be your network", I finally got them off that theme as I have connected nine different devices to that same network with zero issues. I even took my wife's new electronic book reader and connected to our network while standing two inches from my TV. Finally, I wrote a letter to head office asking them to either fix or replace the TV, or provide a Wi-Fi bridge that I could use to connect the TV to our network. Their written reply was that they would not do that.

During my last session with tech support, they suggested swapping out the Panasonic dongle with a unit of Panasonic support in Texas. I said it was not likely the problem because the dongle "saw" my network, it just could not connect to it. They said try it anyway. I sent the exchange group the dongle but they refused to do the swap because the dongle was now "out of warranty." The fact that another unit of Panasonic sent me to them was irrelevant to them. They wanted $170 to exchange the dongle with a refurbished unit even though they can be purchased new for $90, or even less.

Long story short, my TV still does not work and I have purchased my last Panasonic product EVER.

Updated on May 17, 2011

In spite of the fact that I had a relatively new high-speed modem/router that had been connected to all kinds of different devices, the TV would never connect to it. I just bought a new state-of-the-art modem/router that has the push button security feature. The TV connected to it in 2 minutes. Thus, I would raise my product rating to 4-stars. I would not rate it at 5-stars because the VieraLink features can be a little flaky at times requiring a reset. But this is a good TV, just not very forgiving.

I would rate the Texas based product-swap support group at one-star. They were not at all helpful.

Pros Best color I have ever seen on a tv. Sharp and natural. Almost brought tears to my eyes when i watched it in 3D on Blue Ray.

Cons Adjustment period to get use to darker levels of viewing. No way to shut off ARC with HDMI cabling. Lack of Image retention information for using the built in swipe program. Very limited streaming content on Vera Cast.

Summary Bottom line. Never use a gaming system with this TV or any plasma TV..period. Owned if for forty days..operated a Xbox 360 on and off through that periold and there is was ...."Burn In" ..omg.. $2500.00 dollars later, a six hour road trip from Hartford CT to J& R Electronics in Manhattan NY to get my dream home theater TV and now I'm left feeling taken. The sales people told us Image retention was no longer an issues. The manual is deceptive. Second page, bottom left, in a large font the word "NOTES" under it in fine print it says " do not leave a still image on your tv for a long period of time". My question is ..what is a long period of time (no one could answer that), and why not the word CAUTION or IMPORTANT..my thinking is to mimimize warrantie issues. 5 weeks we have delt with J&R Electronics and Panasonic. J&R ran us around ..promising they would make it right. 6 representives later and additional 100.00 dollars out of pocket to have a panasonic authorized service rep come out to look at it, which they said was step one to get it resolved, ended with ..."we cant do anything for you". Panasonic...they only go by first names..Bob, Steve, ect with no phone extentions to call back too. They promised reps would come and look at it and on and on and on.....the wear down game..which they won in the end. So please think twice before buying this TV or any plasma if you wont to do any gaming at all on it or watch the same station a lot with logos. I believe image retention can happen over short and long periods of time just by normal user habits. And lastly, make sure the retailer you purchase from cares about you and doesnt promise you everything.. watiing untill you will just go away...or in my case the product is replaced by a newer model.

Pros Amazing 3d I found myself actually ducking to avoid blood splatter when watching Resident Evil in 3d. The 2d is sharp and smooth as well. I am still exploring the network and other included features, and each one is better than the next.

Cons Bass sound resonates.

Summary This is the tv I have dreamed about from the day I saw Avatar 3d in the theater. I love movies and this turned our living room into a theater. Sports are also amazing. There are no artifacts or blurs, and the overall picture is crisp and vibrant. The downside is that I want one in every room now!