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  • Introduction

  • Design

  • Smart TV Features

  • Picture Quality

  • Conclusion

  • Science Introduction

  • Contrast

  • Other Tests

  • Introduction
  • Design
  • Smart TV Features
  • Picture Quality
  • Conclusion
  • Science Introduction
  • Contrast
  • Other Tests

Introduction

Design

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Can you call it design when it looks the same as everything else?

Panasonic doesn’t take any risky adventures into television design with this model. No color, no special texture, no super slim profile, and no leggy stand are hallmarks of the TC-L32C3. It’s every boring TV you’ve seen before with no surprises at all.

Panasonic doesn't take any risky adventures into television design with this model.

Its handful of ports can be found on the back left-side. You really do not get much back there: two HDMI ports, one component and composite input each, a VGA port, and no 3.5mm audio input. There’s a spot for a cable or antenna to plug in, a digital optical output for connections to sound systems, and a curve ball—an SD card living alone on the left side of the display.

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Smart TV Features

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The menus are too basic to be difficult in any way.

With few advanced features, the menus on the Panasonic Viera TC-L32C3 are elementary. Pressing menu brings up a left side-bar with options for picture settings, audio settings, sleep timer, channel locking, closed captioning, and system settings for time, date, and other malarkey.

The SD card slot is the only extra feature on the Panasonic Viera TC-L32C3. The interface is easy to understand and it works well for individual photos. The picture slide shows are painfully slow. Hitting “Next” on the remote takes a full eight seconds before the next photo pops up. To put that in perspective, if you can stay on a bucking bronco for as long as it takes the TC-L32C3 to load a new photo, you could be the next rodeo champion.

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Picture Quality

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This is Panasonic's entry-level LCD and it really shows in certain performance areas.

"Entry-level" is a pretty loaded word in the television world. While it generally means "inexpensive," it also typically denotes a television with lackluster performance. As such, there are a lot of flaws we could discuss when pinpointing the C3's problems with display, but at $400 they're easier to overlook. Still, there are some serious issues, and by far its biggest drawback comes in the form of a tiny overall contrast ratio.

This display's dim output is a very good reason to pass on it entirely.

The television uses "In-Plane Switching" (IPS) to achieve a great, wide viewing angle, but that choice causes serious issues in all other performance categories. The display does not offer a great black level, though we wouldn't expect that from an LCD. It is, however, much dimmer than we were expecting, which is really the worst of both worlds. Check out the science section if you want more detail on the contrast ratio, but know that this display's dim output is a very good reason to pass on it entirely.

Conclusion

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We are certain that if you went to the store with $400, you could find a more suitable television.

The Panasonic Viera TC-L32C3 ($399 MSRP) is Panasonic’s lowest-end television for the year 2011. With an in-plane switching display—designed for optimized viewing angles and a speedy pixel response time—this Panasonic would seem to be a great secondary television, especially for watching sports. Many people can watch at the same time and motion will be displayed crisply.

Unfortunately, we cannot recommend the L32C3 for anyone as a primary television. We always try to think of the niche consumer that would find a certain feature useful or a price point to match highlights of quality, but the Panasonic Viera TC-L32C3 managed to defeat all of our theoretical buyers because of its poor color performance and awful contrast. You can find a better TV for the money.

Science Introduction

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In short, the L32C3's performance ranged from underwhelming to staggeringly bad. While some of its performance parameters are acceptable—an optimist might even say some of them are good—the C3's super-narrow contrast ratio is so disheartening that it immediately cast a splotchy grey shadow over any hope that this Panasonic might prove to be worth its asking price.

Contrast

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Dim peak brightness doomed this LCD television from the start.

The Panasonic Viera TC-L32C3 tested with a peak brightness of 118.03 cd/m 2 —that's very, very dim for an LED backlit TV. Put this thing in a room with windows and you'll have a hard time seeing the image during the day. The problem here stems from the panel itself, which uses in-plane switching to aid in its viewing angle, motion, and response time. While these are all good things in the world of TVs, the problem arises from the resulting reduction in luminosity.

The C3's peak brightness is barely enough to outshine basic ambient lighting in a living or dining room and it doesn't help that the TV features a wide viewing angle—you can't make out what it's displaying simply because it's a sunny day outside. The resulting drawback in contrast performance means everything is going to be harder to see or read. This is a huge misstep on Panasonic's part, as most people likely aren't going to buy a low-end, 32-inch LCD TV to watch in a dedicated cinema room.

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Other Tests

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Performance results range from average to disappointing

The use of an IPS display in the LG TC-L32C3 certainly helped in several of our tests. The biggest improvement likely came in the viewing angle department, where we found you could move 43 degrees off of center before contrast performance dipped below 50%. Of course, when you have a terrible contrast ratio to begin with, that isn't all that impressive. Even 100% of contrast performance here isn't as good as 50% contrast performance on some nicer displays, so you're taking a lot of bad for not a lot of good.

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Meet the tester

Christian Sherden

Christian Sherden

Staff Writer

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Christian Sherden is a valued contributor to the Reviewed.com family of sites.

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