Frequntly Asked Questions

Questions and answers - TX-26LXD7 HDTV

Question and answer session

When we are asked questions about Panasonic Viera models, we often think, yes, that is just the sort of information people want, so here is a selection of questions from users of this website and our responses, and we'll throw in one or two things we know which haven't been asked yet, but would make good questions anyway.


Where does the name Panasonic come from?

The brand name Panasonic came along in 1955, when Matsushita were expanding into international markets. They discovered the brand name National was already in use so they chose the name Panasonic, initially for their operations in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

How the name came about is charmingly simple. They were selling radios, and put together the words Pan meaning all, and sonic for sound, so Panasonic simply means all sound.

When you think of the modern terms such as surround sound and the like, the early adoption of all sound as a name was pretty good, really.


Who are Matsushita?

Matsushita are Panasonic's Japanese parent company. It was founded by Konosuke Matsushita in 1918


Where can I download an instruction manual for the Panasonic TX-26LXD7?

You can download an instruction manual for the TX026LXD7 from
Download Instruction Manual for TX-26LXD7


What is the difference between the LMD and LXD models of the Pansonic Viera?

LMD and LXD refer to LCD models, not plasmas. The difference between LMD models and LXD models is in the direction of the ultra wide viewing angle.

This is horizontal in the case of the LMD and both horizontal and vertical on the LXD models.

Whether this is important depends on the situation of the set in relation to the viewers. In a normal living room situation you may notice little difference, but in some circumstances it could be beneficial to have the higher specification LXD, at higher price.


Why do models have 7, 70 or 700 in the model number?

The difference is in the sound processing quality, and this is indicated by the number at the end, with the 7 models being the basic sound quality, 70 better, and 700 the top quality.

If you see any 6, 60, 600 models, they are last years, all new 2007 models have 7, 70 or 700.


What is HDMI?

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface.

HDMI is an industry standard developed for use in connecting different types of digital video and audio components.

Equipment with HDMI terminals can be connected to each other with a single cable, letting you enjoy superior digital picture and sound quality without a lot of cables cluttering the area.

Equipped with two of these next-generation terminals, VIERA is ready to be part of an expanding home AV system. (Depending on the cable used, HDAVI Control function may not be possible. We strongly recommend you use Panasonic HDMI cables with your Panasonic Viera television.)


Which is better, LCD or Plasma, and does size matter?

Size matters when choosing between LCD and plasma screens.

It is generally considered that LCD is at its optimum performance up to and including 32", whilst plasma offers optimum performance at 37" and above.

Panasonic Viera Plasma TV is currently the UK's Number 1 best-selling large screen TV.


Which is more energy efficient, Plasma or LCD?

The energy consumption of both is actually about the same in normal operating conditions.

An LCD screen consumption is constant whereas with Plasma it fluctuates according to the brightness of a scene, eg when a scene is predominantly dark , a Plasma will use less energy.

All in all the energy efficiency evens out for Plasma and LCD.


Do Flat Panel TV screens need re-gasing?

No, plasma gases are inert and sealed within tiny cells that are sandwiched between glass plates. There is never any need to re-charge or refill the plasma.


Which technology has the longer life span, plasma or LCD?

The life span for both is dependent on viewing habits, but if both are watched for the same duration, the life span is likely to be about the same.

The expected life of either an LCD or a plasma screen is 60,000 hours, roughly twice the life span of older CRT technology.


Are there any calculations I can make to help me choose which screen size is best for me?

If you intend to watch as many high definition (HD) sources as possible, you should definitely consider a larger screen to get the full benefit from HD’s extra resolution.

First consider how much space you have and the distance you sit from the TV.

As a rule of thumb, watching from a distance about five or six times the height of your TV works well for standard definition NTSC and PAL pictures (normal, non-HDTV). So, if your sofa is ten to twelve feet from your TV screen, the best screen height for you would be 24 inches.

Remember this is screen height, not the diagonal, which is the screen size usually quoted.

For HDTV watching from a distance of three to four times the height of your TV is fine, because of HD's greater clarity. So, for the ten to twelve feet viewing distance, you need a screen height of 36 inches for optimum viewing enjoyment.

If you measure your viewing distance you can use this to work out the sort of TV size you should be looking at.

As a general rule, larger screen sizes are preferred for sports viewing and movies. Probably more people trade up to bigger sizes than down to smaller sizes, so buying a slightly bigger size than you may think you need could save you money in the longer term, although buying a huge set which is far too big for the room is not a good idea!


Just when I thought I could choose, now I have heard there are new PDP screens, what is PDP?

Relax, PDP means Plasma Panel Display, so all the Panasonic Viera Plasma models have the new PDP screens. Plasma models start with TH, LCD models with TX


How do Plasma Display Panels (PDP) work?

In a plasma display panel (PDP), a discharge space consisting of a phosphor layer sealed between two glass plates is filled with gas. When voltage is applied, it induces a plasma discharge, generating ultraviolet light.

When the ultraviolet light strikes the three primary color RGB (red, green and blue) phosphors, the phosphors emit light in the three colors.

In other words, a PDP displays images by making many tiny arrays of light-emitting "fluorescent lamps" flash at high speed in different colors (RGB).

The gas is sealed in the discharge space between two glass plates and induces a plasma discharge towards the display electrodes, thus causing the arrays of phosphorous pixels in the discharge space to emit light.

In a PDP, each pixel is made up of red, green and blue discharge tubes. The light emitted from each discharge tube due to the discharge plasma phenomenon is controlled to form an image on the screen.


How do Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens work?

In a liquid crystal display (LCD), a liquid crystal molecule layer sandwiched by two glass plates contains crystal molecules that are in an intermediate state between solid and liquid phases, and a light source (backlight) illuminates the display from behind.

The polarizing characteristic (a property that transmits light oscillating only in a certain direction) of the liquid crystals changes when voltage is applied.

This characteristic is used to block or transmit light in order to display an image. While the PDP is a self-emitting flat panel display, the LCD is a light-receiving (non-self-emitting) flat panel display.

The backlight illuminates the liquid crystal layer between two glass plates from behind. The liquid crystals change their polarizing direction when voltage is applied. This characteristic is used to block or transmit light from the backlight in order to form an image on the screen.

When voltage is applied, the liquid crystal elements twist, thus allowing light from the backlight to pass through.

When no voltage is applied, the liquid crystal elements align in a straight line, thus blocking light to make the screen appear black.

The LCD displays images by controlling the voltage applied to the liquid crystal elements.


What is a Pixel?

A pixel is a tiny dot that forms the smallest basic unit of a displayed image.

Digital images are composed of pixels, with all of the text and images displayed on the screen consisting of Dots. Digital images are usually rendered by square pixels arranged vertically and horizontally in an orderly manner.


Is the Number of pixels important?

The number of pixels indicates the resolution of the Image.

The number of pixels of a digital image is expressed by the product of the number of pixels (dots) in the horizontal direction and the number of pixels (dots) in the vertical direction.

The higher the number of pixels, the better the image quality. For plasma TVs and LCD TVs, the number of pixels is sometimes expressed by the following equation: number of pixels in horizontal direction x number of pixels in vertical direction x 3 (R, G, B).


What is the Processor?

The processor is the central component, or the "brain," of a computer. It serves to process data.

Processors are found not only in personal computers but alsoin most modern electronic products, ranging from AV equipment, such as TVs, DVD recorders, digital cameras and mobile phones, to home appliances, such as microwave ovens, rice cookers and air conditioners.

In a TV, the processor quickly processes a huge amount of data, such as high definition image data, for displaying images on-screen.


What is a Driver?

A driver is a drive circuit that displays images on a plasma or LCD panel based on the video signal processed by the processor.


What is a Plasma panel?

A key component of the plasma display. A plasma panel is a collection of millions of tiny fluorescent lights. By firing these lights on and off at a rapid rate, the plasma panel produces images.


What is Transmissivity?

Transmissivity is the difference between the amount of visible light from the light source entering a panel and the amount of light exiting from the panel.

High transmissivity produces bright, clear images. Low transmissivity reduces glare, but darkens the screen and makes images difficult to see.


What is Predischarge?

A plasma display reproduces images by causing electrical discharges between the + and - electrodes. To do so, it requires a "pilot burner" to trigger electrical discharges. The predischarge serves as the pilot burner for the plasma display. Reducing the amount of discharge increases the contrast.


Is Luminous efficiency important?

The luminous efficiency is expressed by the amount of light per watt produced by the light source. The higher the luminous efficiency, the brighter the displayed images.


How is Contrast relevant?

Contrast is the difference in light intensity between the brightest white and the darkest black that the device can produce.

The wider the range of this difference, the smoother the tonal gradation from white to black and the more natural the colours.


Is Brightness an important factor?

Brightness is the maximum amount of light that can be emitted per unit area, and it is expressed with the unit cd/m2.

For display devices, a high brightness level means brighter displayed images.


What is a Bit?

A bit is the smallest unit of information handled by a computer. To process information, the computerconverts information into either "0" or "1" (OFF or ON in terms of electrical flow).

The higher the number of bits, the larger the amount of information that can be processed at one time. To process a huge amount of data, such as high-definition image data, the TV processor should be able to handle a large number of bits.


What is Gradation?

Gradation refers to the smoothness of colour expression.


Do I need to know about Gamma?

Ideally, the surface brightness of the display should change in direct proportion to the amount of input voltage (in such a case, the gamma value is "1").

In reality, however, it varies functionally. Gamma correction is a process to bring the gamma value as close to "1" as possible.


What is Colour reproduction?

This is the capability of a TV to correct the video data to reproduce colour as faithfully as the original colour.


How is Resolution defined?

Resolution is a combination of values that express the quality of displayed images.

A display's resolution is indicated by the number of dots in the horizontal and vertical directions of the screen, such as 1024 x 768 dots.

Higher values indicate clearer, sharper image reproduction. The larger the screen size, the higher the required resolution.


What is Horizontal resolution?

The number of dots in the horizontal direction of the screen.


What is Vertical resolution?

The number of dots in the vertical direction of the screen.


Do I need to worry about Dynamic false contour?

In conventional plasma displays, a stripe pattern called a false contour sometimes appears in image areas where there is a gradual change in brightness or colour, and considerable effort has been spent on eliminating this problem.


What is Afterimage?

When frames switch on an LCD TV, the image of the previous frame tends to remain even after the image of the new frame is shown.

As a result, when the objects on the screen move rapidly, like in a soccer game or when on-screen text travels quickly across the screen, the previous, residual image becomes noticeable. This is called an afterimage.


What is an SD (standard-definition) panel?

The SD panel has a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and an aspect ratio of 4:3. It is designed for use with conventional TV broadcasting systems.


What is an HD (high-definition) panel?

The HD panel has a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:9. It is designed for displaying the beautiful images of digital, high-definition broadcasts.


What is a Full-HD panel?

The term "full-HD panel" refers to 1,920 x 1,080-pixel panels that display progressive images of full-specification HDTV signals without the use of upsampling.


What is SRS Surround?

SRS Surround is a surround sound system developed by SRS Labs, Inc.

It is a virtual surround sound system that uses only two front speakers to create an effect that makes the listener feel as if rear speakers were also connected.


What is a Woofer?

A woofer is a speaker unit that reproduces only low-frequency sounds.


What is Surround sound?

Surround soundia s sound system that uses right and left front speakers and right and left rear speakers to provide sound from all directions.

Most movie theatres are equipped with a surround sound system. For home use, a surround sound system generally contains five speaker units — left front speaker, centre speaker, right front speaker, left rear speaker and right rear speaker — and a subwoofer to deliver 5.1-channel surround sound.(Because the subwoofer reproduces only non-directional, ultra-bass sound, it is considered to be a "0.1 channel.")


What is a Bass reflex speaker system?

A bass reflex speaker system has a special port (an opening) in the speaker cabinet that allows it to produce enhanced bass sounds from a relatively small speaker cabinet.


What does HDMI stand for?

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface.

It transmits video, audio and control signals in digital form through a single cable.

HDMI is used for connecting a VIERA TV to a DIGA recorder and home theatre system.


What is an SD slot?

An SD slot is a slot for inserting an SD Memory Card.


What is a PC card slot?

A PC card slot is a slot for inserting a PCMCI card, which is commonly used by personal computers.


What is Composite video input?

This terminal type receives analogue video signals, and is also commonly called an RCA terminal.

In an analogue video signal, the luminance signal (Y), chrominance signal (C) and synchronizing signal are combined into one signal for transmission.

Since different signals are combined, there is a greater tendency for cross-colour and dot interference to occur.


What is Component video input?

This terminal type receives analogue video signals.

Here, the chrominance signal (C) is separated into a B-Y colour difference signal Cb (Pb) and an R-Y colour difference signal Cr (Pr) for transmission. Generally, three terminals — Y, Pb (Cb) and Pr (Cr) — are used.


What is S-Video input?

S-Video stands for Separate Video.This terminal receives analogue video signals.

In this signal type, the luminance signal (Y) and chrominance signal (C) are transmitted separately, thus reducing the possibility of dot interference and cross-colour that tend to occur in composite video signals.


What is a 21-pin input/output (PC input)?

This terminal receives RGB video signals. It is used to connect to a personal computer.

RGB stands for red, green and blue. These three colours are combined to render a full range of colours.


What is the Progressive broadcasting system?

The progressive system displays all of the scan lines at the same time. It eliminates flickering in screen images and provides beautiful pictures.


What is Interlace?

The interlace system switches the display between the odd-number scan lines and the even-number scan lines every 1/60th of a second.

Conventional broadcasting uses the interlace system.


What is HD broadcasting?

Stands for high-definition broadcasting. It uses 1,080 scan lines.


What is Analogue broadcasting?

This is the broadcasting system commonly used today. It transmits analogue video signals.


What are Scan lines?

In CRT (cathode-ray-tube) and other TVs, scan lines refer to the paths of the light beams irradiated (scanned) by electron guns, starting from the upper left corner and ending at the lower right corner of the screen. The higher the number of scan lines, the more detailed the displayed image.

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