Product Information :  Panasonic Viera TX-P42ST30B

A digital TV tuner built into a HD Ready TV is not necessarily able to receive and decode HD signals. The tuner itself needs to be HDTV labeled and it is recommended to contact the retailer or manufacturer to be certain what type of tuner the TV has.

The year in which the TV manufacturer has released the product into the market. Usually the same year as its available in stores.

What technology is the TV based on?

Plasma tvs are thin and lightweight and capable of being mounted on a wall like a painting. Their main advantage toward LCD is that they are capable of showing a more intense black.

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Displays. It is a flat panel technology which uses liquid crystals sandwiched between two glass plates. These TVs can be even thinner than plasma screens and they normally use less energy. LCD-technology is the most common technique today.

LED-tvs are newer versions of LCD-tvs that use light-emitting diodes as backlight. This allows them to show black and dark colors more intensively.

Projection-TV use three picture tubes instead of one. A red, a blue and a green cathode ray tube. The advantage is that you can easily project to a large surface area without too much loss of quality. One disadvantage is that it is still very expensive to buy.

Picture size is measured in inches.
An inch is 2.54 cm. The size of the screen is measured diagonally from corner to corner.

An abbreviation referring to video content with resolution, displayed at a frame rate of 24 frames-per-second. This is the standard frame rate for film-based content; the vast majority of Blu-ray movies are encoded in 1080p/24. Most HDTVs display images at 50 or 60 fps so only TVs capable of displaying frames in multiples of 24 (such as 100 Hz or 200 Hz HDTVs) can display 1080p/24.

The scanning frequency.
50 Hz - The picture is updated 50 times per second.
100 Hz - The picture is updated 100 times per second, giving a sharper picture with less obvious "flicker".

4:3 Standard Displays

Code Width Height Ratio
QVGA 320 x 240 4:3
HVGA 640 x 240 8:3
VGA 640 x 480 4:3
SVGA 800 x 600 4:3
XGA 1024 x 768 4:3
XGA+ 1152 x 768 3:2
1152 x 864 4:3
SXGA 1280 x 1024 5:4
SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 4:3
UXGA 1600 x 1200 4:3
QXGA 2048 x 1536 4:3
16:9 and 16:10 Widescreen Displays

WXGA 1280 x 768 5:3
1280 x 800 16:10
1366 x 768 ~16:9
WXGA+ 1280 x 854 ~3:2
1440 x 900 16:10
1440 x 960 3:2
WSXGA 1600 x 900 16:9
1600 x 1024 16:10
WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 16:10
WUXGA 1920 x 1200 16:10
WQXGA 2560 x 1600 16:10
WQUXGA 3840 x 2400 16:10

Type of sound
Mono - the sound comes through a single channel, even if the TV has two speakers.
Stereo - The sound comes through two channels and creates a more realistic, richer sound experience.
Virtual Surround - Thanks to modern techniques you can experience audio effects similar to genuine surround sound through only two speakers.
Dolby Surround - One of the most advanced and thrilling sound systems on the market. This is close as you can get to a real cinematic audio experience, with the sound coming from all directions, transferred through multiple channels.

Indicates the sound effect.
For example, 2x10W means that the model has two sound channels with a power of 10 Watts each. Watt - in short, the measure of the amplifier's power.

720p HD-Ready
The TV can accept, process and display High Definition 720p and 1080i signals. To enjoy HDTV broadcasts it will need an internal or external tuner that can receive and decode the signals.

1080p Full-HD
The TV can accept, process and display High Definition 720p 1080i and 1080p signals. To enjoy HDTV broadcasts it will need an internal or external tuner that can receive and decode the signals.

The three-jack (RCA/Phono) component video connection splits the video signal into three parts (one brightness and two color signals). Component video has increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding. A growing number of TVs include component video jacks to provide the best possible picture quality (better than S-video or composite video) when connected to a compatible DVD player. Special wide-bandwidth component video connections are capable of carrying wider bandwidth video signals, like progressive-scan DVD and High-Definition digital television. All HDTV-ready TVs include at least one set of wide-bandwidth connections for connecting a separate HDTV tuner (or progressive-scan DVD player). A component video connection can carry high bandwidth signals such as 1080i and 720p.

The number of optical digital audio outputs (Toslink) and coaxial digital audio outputs, respectively. If you have a home theater receiver, check to see which of these two digital audio connections are supported.

High Definition Media Interface. A type of connection for connecting Digital Video and Audio.

(Universal Serial Bus) A widely used hardware interface for attaching peripheral devices. USB ports began to appear on PCs in 1997, and Windows 98 was the first Windows to support it natively. Within a few years, USB became popular for connecting nearly every external peripheral device. Replacing the serial and parallel ports on a PC, at least four USB ports are standard on every computer.Hot SwappableUSB devices can be connected to without turning the computer off, enabling removable devices to be plugged and unplugged as needed. This feature, combined with easy-reach ports on the front of the computer case, gave rise to the ubiquitous USB drive.USB 1.0 and USB 2.0USB has a maximum bandwidth of 12 Mbps for USB 1.0 and 1.1 and 480 Mbps for Hi-Speed USB 2.0. Up to 127 peripheral devices can be attached to the bus, and USB 1.1 devices can plug into USB 2.0 ports. Fast devices can use the full bandwidth, while low-speed ones can use a 1.5 Mbps sub channel.USB HubsA USB hub provides additional ports for the user. Like any other USB device, the hub plugs into a USB port on the computer and provides four or more USB ports for peripherals. The peripherals themselves may also contain hubs. For example, a monitor may have a built-in USB hub in order to provide a convenient desktop location for plugging in other devices.Type A and B, Mini-A and BThe USB ports on computers and hubs have a rectangular Type A socket, and peripheral devices have a cable with a Type A plug. Peripherals that do not have an attached cable have a square Type B socket on the device and a separate cable with a Type A and Type B plug.The Mini-A and Mini-B connectors are used on small portable devices such as PDAs, music players, digital cameras and cell phones. Hubs may use Mini-B instead of Type B for the computer connection.