The proliferation of HDTVs in electronics stores today is telling that the digital switchover is coming and it is inescapable. In the Philippines, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will be terminating the analog television transmission on December 31, 2015. More or less, that is six years from now. Although such a timeframe is fairly long enough so many of us could prepare, at the moment, we’re already on the brink of change. In fact, as early as last year, ABS-CBN has been getting ready to bring digital TV to our homes. Other broadcasting networks are expected to go with the flow as well. Additionally, another driving force to consider is the increasing number of content in Blu-ray format which points towards the growing popularity of Blu-ray players.

In response to the approaching shift, Panasonic, as one of the world’s top HDTV manufacturers, has been conditioning the Philippine market by means of introducing offerings that are reasonably priced. Of course, we’re not talking about their 150-inch plasma TV as that is reserved for the filthy rich. While Panasonic assigns the LZ series to denote some of its budget-friendly LUMIX cameras, the company also uses the same designation to represent some of its affordable VIERA LCD TVs. A model of the VIERA LZ series is the full HD (1920 x 1080p) TX-42LZ80MR which was sent to us for a quick preview and a review.