Panasonic AS640 Series

Starting to experience problems. Don’t purchase – Was a great tv for first 2 and half years but now a few errors definitely creeping in. I can’t even change channels or volume at all now with remote or on TV itself. Can no longer enter any apps at all. It’s stuck on channel 7.Less than 3 years old. I have my 10 year old Viera plasma still working and no problems at all. Very disappointed and will never go Panasonic smart tv again.  Show details

Panasonic TV started not working properly and then broke – This was a great TV to use. We purchased in March 2015 and found it easy to use it had a great design for apps and picture quality was great. Starting have a few problems with sound six months ago, and then the TV stopped working two weeks ago. Liked the TV a lot so went to try and get repaired. Turns out Panasonic have not kept any parts for this… Read more

TV so it cannot be repaired. Very concerning as it is less than 3 years old. Asked Panasonic for a replacement TV and they flat out told me I had no consumer rights and that was it. Very disappointed I thought Panasonic was a reputable brand. Have had their products before in fact our old VHS bought in 2001 is still working. Have lodged a claim with the office of fair trading and hope Panasonic can do the right thing.

Update March 2018: I had the Office of Fair Trade NSW, negotiate with Panasonic on my behalf. The result is that Panasonic decided they would refund me some money for the broken TV, which was good. But the time and effort involved was large and I still ended up being largely out of pocket. I had to spend over $1,400 (net out of pocket) on a new TV (obviously not a Panasonic TV) which was not budgeted for at Xmas time. I believe it is very hard to trust buying a Panasonic product going forward, particularly as it may be redundant after only a few years.

Good picture and good sound quality – This is a good television set with an impressive energy rating of 5.5 stars out of 6, with an energy consuption of 236 kWh per year - Wow thats impressive power saving for a 50 inch screen. The appearance of this tv set is appealing accentuated with a hint of a brushed stainless steel strip at the bottom. The HD picture is clear and sharp while… Read more

the tv settings offer ample adjustments for you to play with. One particular setting which is of particular benefit is the Backlight setting and adjustment. This offers even greater control of the picture brightness improving the picture quality and clarity. Other features are the Vierra which link your tv external components to power up and connect automatically.

The sound is also good and this tv set allows you to make adjustments using various mode presettings as well as separate Bass and treble adjument and Bass Boost. For those of you who are avid listeners with your sound receiver amplifier and surround sound this tv set has a dedicated ARC (Audio Return Channel) for HDMI connection to your sound receiver. The tv set also has a toslink/optic cable port too. You also have the option of selecting the output sound SPDIF in AUTO or PCM (I chose PCM for improved sound clarity).

This Tv set also offers Voice guidance settings and audio description for visually impaired users. Other good features include the recording to an external HDD Hard drive disk (DOS-FAT32). You will need to connect your own external HDD using the decicated USB 2 port of this tv set. Your own HDD needs to be at least 160 GB to 2TB of memory formatted in DOS-FAT32 for it to record on with a timer. The recording mode on this tv is simple to use and you can record and rewind tv broadcast at the same time but this may not work so well on some HDD brands. I used a 160GB HDD to record on and am happy with the results. (NB. Recording of tv stations will only record digital stations only. This tv encodes the external hard drive disk with its own unique code to link and record, this means that you will not be able to access the recorded material of the external HDD using a computer or any other device).

Other good features include the smart tv as it has wireless internet. This was very easy to set up using my existing internet account. With ADSL 2 I am able to watch seamless internet programs while using the Apps. I can watch Youtube, SBS on Demand, ABC iview and others. This tv set has its onscreen keyboard which is tedious to use, i do wish Panasonic will bring out a separate compatible hand held keyboard so I can input and type the data into the tv's web browser or other fields with much ease.

And lastly, i do like a separate power button (located at rear right hand side) so I can switch off the tv set as I do not need it to be on standby overnight. This tv has eHelp which explains all the tv functions in detail which are built-in operating instructions. At this point I also wish that Panasonic do print and provide a hardcopy of this eHelp operating instructions to their customers or users because it is helpful and does explain technical information in detail. I want to be able to hold and read it in my hand while adjusting the tv, not be online searching endlessly on a eHel p.pdf (188 pages) to find the suitable page while trying to sort out the settings of this tv set.

But apart from that its a good tv set and is one of the 2 highend brands on the domestic appliance market.