My aging 42″ Panasonic 720p HD Monitor, which is a 2001 model I purchased in 2003, was getting a little long in the tooth. It’s been a great TV, but lack of HDMI, 1080p, and a dimming screen was making it a little tough to live with. It was time to send it to the bedroom and get a new TV.

I sat on this purchase for a while, waiting for 1080p prices to come down. I was rewarded for this patience with the release of the Panasonic VIERA G10.

The Panasonic VIERA G10 had everything I was looking for – 50″ screen, 1080p, great connectivity, and a great price. What I wasn’t expecting was that it is also THX-certified, which is a qualitative spec on the best HDTVs.

Ordering from Amazon was easy, and the next day the delivery guys called to schedule delivery just a couple days out. When the driver came, he not only brought the box into my house by himself, but unpacked it, assembled the pedestal base, put it in my living room, waited for me to test it, and then took away all the packaging. A+

On the back, I plugged my PlayStation 3 and TiVo HD DVR into the HDMI ports, which officially made it the simplest hookup in the history of my life as a television owner. One big issue for me is noisy switching – this isnt an issue at all with this TV – switching inputs is silent and quick.

The speakers sounded fine, but I used the optical digital audio out to pass-through to an Onkyo TX-SR606 Receiver. As far as picture goes, I couldn’t be more pleased – DVDs look great, Blu-Rays look fantastic, and PlayStation 3 games look simply amazing.

The anti-reflective properties of the set are probably the best I have seen. This was important to me, along with the brightness level, as my TV room can get pretty bright during the day. While watching in the daytime I cannot perceive any reflection at all unless the screen is black – and even then, the reflections are very muted and indistinct.

The set also features some built-in internet features known as VieraCast. This requires you to connect your internet router to the ethernet jack on the back of the TV (there is no WiFi option – I tested it via the Netgear MCAB1001 MoCa Coax Ethernet Bridge, which I highly recommend for entertainment systems).

After you have it connected to the Internet, just click the ‘VieraCast’ button on the remote, and the VieraCast display will appear. Among the features are some really rudimentary weather and stock displays, plus YouTube, Amazon Video On Demand, and Picasa browsers.

The interface is just a *little* slow, but its totally usable. The YouTube and Amazon Video On Demand features are great for people who don’t have an HD TiVo, although there doesn’t seem to be an ‘HQ’ option for YouTube, which you really want, because, you know, its a 50″ 1080p TV and YouTube default video isnt so hot.

The Picasa browser is also cool. I am a Flickr user, but am considering switching to Picasa because of the cost of Flickr Pro plus this feature.

Sadly, one of the content slots on VieraCast is labeled ‘Coming Soon’, which is sad, because they really should have come up with *something* to round out the interface before launch.

Another nice feature of VieraCast is that your main program just becomes a PIP window, so you don’t need to stop watching to use it. If you leave it on, it will turn into a screensaver to protect your screen.

But enough about VieraCast – lets talk about VieraLink, which is one of my favorite features.

Put an SD card in the slot on the side of the TV, and VieraLink starts up instantly, offering to let you browse through the photos on the card. But even better, if you have an AVCHD camcorder, such as the Canon VIXIA HFS10 , you can also playback HD video from the card as well.

Although the video from an Canon VIXIA HFS10 played back flawlessly on the set, AVCHD from an older Canon HG10 did not, so you might want to ask around before assuming your video files will be compatible.

This is such a great feature, since you do not have to hook your camcorder up to the HDMI, hope it has enough power or connect it to the wall, and find the camcorder remote in order to watch your HD movies. Its very satisfying to be able to instantly browse your 1080 HD video in native resolution from the original files.

Finally, there is the VieraLink Network Camera feature, which will allow you to watch your internet-connected security camera on the TV – again, a great feature. Unfortunately, the special Panasonic cameras which work with this feature are not yet available.

The Panasonic VIERA G10 is a fantastic television with some really unique and useful features at a great price. I heartily recommend this set to anyone looking to upgrade to a new HD set.