Yes, the picture is beautiful. However, my t.v. lost its picture after less than one year of use - and this was a replacement for the first one I bought, which lost its picture after 2 weeks. I will not repair it because that would cost me more than the t.v. did, but I am never again buying another Panasonic t.v. Panasonic and Best Buy had the same thing to say: "You should have bought the extended warranty." "So sorry." I think it's outrageous that this $500 t.v. should last less than one year. It comforts me that I am not alone. Please read the reviews and don't buy this piece of garbage.

Just like a previous reviewer, my TV lost its picture about five months after I bought it. The parts are covered, but I'm having to shell out big bucks for labor at a TV repair shop. I guess I should have have done some more research, but the low price for an HDTV attracted me. I just checked the Better Business Bureau website to file a complaint against Panasonic, only to find out they already have an UNSATISFACTORY rating!!! Unbelievable. Sony and Samsung have good ratings. I should have paid a little more and bought one of their models. Don't make the same mistake I did! Stay away from this TV!

I looked at several TV sets and settled on this one. Viewing it side by side other brands in the same price range allowed me to see for myself why this was the set for me.

This set has a great picture and terrific sound. Even with a rabbit ear antenna I'm getting great reception. When I get an HDTV receiver I expect to have an even better display.

When I watch a DVD it's like having my own little movie theatre at home...except I have to make my own popcorn.

For me to take the step from an old 13" screen to a 27" screen and having a limited income you better believe I researched and shopped very carefully.

I bought this model in late June of 2004 at Best Buy in Seattle for around $600.00 - It's now January and the TV is broken....just doesn't have a picture. The "parts" are covered under warranty but it does NOT cover labor and every TV repair place is charging me $100 bucks an hour to fix. I'm going to end up paying at least a 1,000 for this. I've called Panasonic, I've called Best Buy and I pretty much get a "too bad" attitude. Plus, from the consumer websites, I've been on...I"m not the only one. Consider this a warning!!!

For those looking for a 27" HD ready television with very good to excellent PQ (picture quality), this TV can not be beat. I have a 57" large screen Hitachi (57XWX20) and needed a replacement for a 27" in our bedroom. Wanting to stay in the 27" range because of space constraints, we were limited in choices. But, we also wanted to be "HD ready" for the upcoming future.
I would like to point out at this time that,I (the author of this rather wordy diatribe), have been into TV and electronics since I was 16 working at a small TV repair shop in 1965. So I have seen TV's come a long way! I have always been almost addicted to what the latest technology had to offer.... within price vs. value limitations. I had my first home theater set up in 1983 with an RCA front projection TV and a Pioneer laser disk player with "matrixed" surround sound. Suffice it to say, I would like to let the reader know I'm pretty well versed and knowlegable in these matters. :) That being said, this TV has a great presentation.
Out of the box the CT27HL14 did need a little tweaking to get a little better display. I know some reviewers indicated the picture was a little on the dark side. I have brightness set at about 52 and contrast at 23 on most program material. The "normal" setting for color temperature seems the most accurate. Being a technician, I also went into the service menu and corrected color balance for a bit better gray scale tracking. For the layperson, I adjusted a few things to get black and white pictures closer to true black and white. These adjustments were minor and probably not an issue for the casual viewer. During and after the few tweaks, I viewed the first 6 minutes of "Sea Biscuit". I can not overstate how great this movie is for PQ adjustments on a TV. It has , of course, the black and white stills in the beginning. (Great for blacklevel (brightness) and white level (contrast) adjustments.
While viewing this movie on DVD connected to a Samsung DVD-P341 player, detail in the darker shadows was VERY visible on this set. Small specs in the antique car photos in the beginning were visble from apparent dust on the negative of an otherwise very clear picture of a man in an antique car. Some of this detail is only slightly visible as such on my top of the line Hitachi large screen HDTV.
Later, in a scene with a red and green street car, color level could be adjusted to a satifactory level to tone down oversaturated reds and greens, and still give a nice natural flesh tone to Jeff Bridges face a few moments later. In a scene with Chris Cooper on horseback, detail on his face in slight shadow and the fuzz on his gray wool jacket was very clear.
I also have the set connected to an SD regular satelite receiver and the picture quality is very clean and pleasing for movies, sports, and live coverage. The satelite is connected via the standard NTSC AV cable inputs. The DVD is a newer progressive scan Samsung DVD-P341 connected through the component inputs. Here is where things get a little particular.
I tried several DVD players with this TV. While they all worked, as some readers also may have noticed, some TVs perform better with certain DVD players or vice versa. This seems especially true with HD TVs that I have audtioned. The first DVD player I tried was a Philips DVD-Q50 that is connected to the afore mentioned Hitachi.
This DVD player is a top of the line unit with Farouda deinterlacing, 3:2 pull-down, etc. It performs marvelously on my Hitachi.
For some reason, the DVD-Q50 caused the Pansonic TV to "get nervous" on horizontal lines especially in the begining of Sea Biscuit where the boxy antique autos horizontal egdes danced and wavered as the camera moved verticaly up or down. I tried setting the DVD player to it's 480i ( non progressive ) scan mode. This was actualy somewhat better, indicationg that maybe the Panasonic was happier doing it's own conversion. I also tried a Philips DVD-642 which is also progressive scan and offers 3:2 pulldown. Again, the Panasonic was happier with progressive scan turned off. Wanting a separate DVD player for use with the Pansonic HDTV, I now tried a Samsung DVD-P341 player.
The Samsung DVD-P341 is an entry level, but high quality DVD player with progressive scan, 3:2 pulldown, and a neat feature called "EZview" which is particularly useful with this TV. EZview allows you to slightly enlarge the picture and fill almost the entire 27" screen while playing a widesreen 16:9 DVD if desired. Very handy for those of us not quite used to those wide black bands above and below a widesreen presentation.
This player also worked best in "regular" 480i mode and letting the TV do it's work. With the DVD player set up in 16:9 mode and using component inputs, the picture is very clear, smooth, with little or no artifacts and minimal horizontal edge waviness. All for the low price of around $70. I would imagine any of the Samsung models such as the DVD-P731 or even the DVD-P4600/4800 combo DVD VCR would also work fine. As an added feature besides the great picture quality with this DVD player, it provides a memory card access through a small door on its front panel so digital camera photos can be viewed directly without addtional camera cable or hookups. It supports all standard memory card formats (SD, xSD, Compact Flash, SmartMedia, etc).
All in all, the Panasonic CT27HL14 HD ready TV is a great solution for people, with limited space or an older home entertainment cabinet, to enter the realm of HDTV. Providing pleasing picture quality and also being high definition ready with the addition of a separate HD tuner or HD cable/satelite input.