The Panasonic TC-37LZ85 is a 37-inch LCD HDTV is a reasonably priced television for its size and features, available for as little as $900. The HDTV does have some higher-end features like a memory card slot for viewing photos and a full 1080p resolution, but it lacks the high refresh rate that more expensive HDTVs have. The Panasonic TC-37LZ85 is smartly sytled with a simple glossy finish that should look good in any home theatre setup.

The Panasonic TC-37LZ85 ports are located on the back of the HDTV except for a small subset that sit on the right side. Both sets of ports are easily accessible. The HDTV has a good selection of input/output ports including three HDMI ports, Optical Audio Out and support for digital broadcasts over cable and antenna. What it lacks are DVI and VGA ports.

With a full 1080p resolution the Panasonic TC-37LZ85 is capable of playing back the highest quality HD content, which is usually only found on Blu-Ray discs. In addition you can play back photos from SD or SDHC cards using the built-in memory card reader on the right side, although we found the photo interface was sluggish.

The Panasonic TC-37LZ85’s remote is small with big buttons and very easy to use. We fond it balanced well in our hand, but wish it could be programmed to control other devices in your home theatre. Audio quality from the built-in speakers is above average, but if you want a surround sound experience we recommend you invest in an actual surround sound speaker system rather than the built-in “simulated” surround sound. The menu system is simple to use, but lacks the pleasant styling we’ve seen from other HDTV menus.

Performance (Read the full lab performance results at Televisioninfo.com)
The Panasonic TC-37LZ85 did a very good job producing bright whites, but was unimpressive in its ability to produce deep blacks. We were happy at how well the blacks and whites held up when just a small percentage of the display was used. We did note some problems with making small adjustments between dark greys, this can lead to lost detail when you have a scene with a lot of dark colors.

Color reproduction was just average, and we noted some loss of detail in reds. The biggest problem with colors was a significantly inaccurate color gamut, so colors on the display may not always appear as they were intended by producers of the content.

We were unimpressed by the Panasonic TC-37LZ85’s ability to handle motion, noting some significant blurring and jitteriness. We were very happy with the Panasonic TC-37LZ85’s impressive viewing angle of 136 degrees. This is well above average for an LCD HDTV, and makes the Panasonic TC-37LZ85 a good choice for a large room where people will be viewing the display from a wide range of angles.

Conclusion
The Panasonic TC-37LZ85 is reasonably priced for an HDTV in its size range, however the performance is not particularly impressive. If you’re willing to spend a few hundred more you can pick up something like the Vizio SV470XVT, which has a significantly larger display and does a much better job with fast motion. You can also step down to something like the Samsung LN32A450, which is smaller but also performed better in our testing.