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geekmummy

Tales of geeky parenting

Living with the Panasonic Smart VIERA TV (Review)

February 13, 2014 by geekmummy 4 Comments

Panasonic Smart VIERA TV home screenI have mentioned previously that the geek family are working with Panasonic this year to share our thoughts on their Audio Visual systems as part of the Panasonic Brit Bloggers programme. Shortly before Christmas we received a very exciting delivery – a Panasonic Smart VIERA LED TV for us to test out for one month. I must confess to having mixed feelings about this – we have a very geeky TV setup which has been finely honed over a number of years, and I wasn’t sure the Smart TV would do everything we needed it to do. But I’ll always give things a try, so we got the thing set up and set about putting it through its paces.

More accurately, the geekdaddy and the kids set it up, as I was working like a mad woman in the run up to Christmas with crazy work deadlines, so I had to just leave them to it. There was very little assembly required – it was simply a question of mounting the screen on the base, and apparently that was simple enough for the kids to do:

Panasonic Smart VIERA TV as delivered

This is how the TV arrived

Kids assembling the Panasonic Smart VIERA TV

The geekdaughter gets stuck in with a screwdriver whilst the geekson watches

There are a good selection of connectors on the back of the Smart VIERA TV, and we managed to connect our geeky home system to one of the HDMI ports with no problem. It’s also got wired ethernet connection as well as WiFi, and it has a USB slot so you can play content that is stored on USB memory sticks. You’ll see there’s an aerial connection – this TV has a built-in FreeView decoder as well, although we weren’t able to try that out as there are an inconvenient line of trees between our house and our nearest transmitter so we can’t actually receive a signal through our aerial.

Panasonic smart VIERA TV rear connectors

Connectors on the back of the Panasonic Smart VIERA TV

We used the TV for a month. We used it just as we use our normal TV – we streamed Netflix and iPlayer to it, we shared content from our phones using our Chromecast, and we played quite a lot of Disney Infinity on the Wii U. And we concluded that it was a very nice TV indeed, with a lovely, sharp HD picture.

And alongside of this we started delving into the apps and other features of the TV. Yes, everything has apps these days, and the Smart VIERA TV is no exception. You can install apps onto the TV to access online content, like iPlayer or Netflix, without needing your own media centre. You can even set up your own “home screen” which gives you quick and easy access to all your different viewing options.

Panasonic Smart VIERA TV home screen

my home screen

Plus the TV will also act as a DNLA server (like a chromecast or AppleTV) so you can “beam” video directly from your smart phone or tablet to display on the TV. This is really great for slightly-less-geeky families that are still trying to find the best way to access iPlayer or YouTube content in their lounges.

Panasonic VIERA Smart TV acting like a chromecast

Yes, you too can stream My Little Pony: Equestria Girls endlessly from your tablet or smartphone to the TV

And whilst I’m talking about apps I should also mention the iOS and Android app for the Panasonic TV which allows you to not only control the TV from your device, but also allows you to watch the TV on it too (handy if you want to pop to the kitchen and make yourself a cup of tea without missing a second of the match!).

Overall the Panasonic Smart VIERA TV didn’t give us anything more than we already have in our TV setup. But it did it in a tidier, much less complex and easier to set up kind of a way. It’s not something we would buy for ourselves, but I think we’re more geeky than the average consumer. I think this TV would be perfect for someone who’s looking to add some online streaming (Netflix, iPlayer, YouTube etc) to their lounge setup but don’t want to add any complexity, or extra boxes and trailing wires. In fact we discovered after Christmas that my father has just bought one (without knowing we were reviewing one) and he’s absolutely delighted with it.

The Panasonic Smart VIERA 39 inc LED TV retails at £549.99, although I recommend shopping around because prices do vary between suppliers.

The geekdaddy and I also discussed our impressions of this TV over on our Podcast – you can listen to this on Parental Geekery Episode 34.

Disclosure: We were loaned a Panasonic Smart VIERA TV for one month, for review purposes. All words, pictures and opinions are my own.

Posts you might also enjoy:

  • I’m a Panasonic Brit Blogger!I’m a Panasonic Brit Blogger!
  • Review: Panasonic Viera TX-50CX802B Smart TV #VieraVIPReview: Panasonic Viera TX-50CX802B Smart TV #VieraVIP
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Filed Under: Review Tagged With: dnla, panasonic, review, smart TV, TX-L39E6B, viera

Comments

  1. CKD says

    September 5, 2016 at 3:19 pm

    Panasonic’s interface is intuitive and easy to use. The range of features on our Smart TV isn’t as great as on others that I’ve seen, but Panasonic seem to have opted for the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach: they’ve included the essentials, but nothing else. I love their easy-to-use catchup guide – couldn’t be easier.

    Only con I’ve found so far: no page up or down button on the remote, which makes navigating large menus something of a pain. Oh well, nothing’s perfect, I suppose.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Family Tech Review: Panasonic HTB20 Sound Bar Home Cinema System says:
    March 13, 2014 at 11:27 am

    […] Christmas we were loaned a Panasonic Smart TV, which you can read my review of here. At the same time we were also provided with a Panasonic HTB20 Sound Bar home cinema system, which […]

    Reply
  2. I've joined the Panasonic #VieraVIPClub - geekmummy says:
    August 6, 2015 at 9:34 am

    […] “clunky” user interface, which was very intuitive for non-geeky users. When we reviewed a Viera Smart television last year we didn’t struggle with the home screen set up, but I can imagine how many users would […]

    Reply
  3. Review: Panasonic Viera TX-50CX802B Smart TV #VieraVIP - geekmummy says:
    January 22, 2016 at 12:46 pm

    […] got to put it through its paces and see what we thought of it.Having previously tested one of the 2013 Viera models I was keen to see how the range had developed with a brand new 2015 […]

    Reply

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Ruth is a tech-loving, geeky mother of two trying to juggle work and life! Read More...

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