I had a Panasonic PT-60lcx63 that uses lamp TY-LA1000 which costs close to $400 a pop(no pun intended). I had my tv for 1 year and a half and went through three lamps. Fortunately I had Panasonic's 1 year warranty and amex additional 1 year warranty. I even had Panasonic come out and change the ballast and test other things that may have caused the lamps to have short lives. Even that did not help.
So I did my own research and it seems this is not a very reliable lamp. I read a lot of complaints on this board but I also found an online petition where one customer was so upset, he created a website for people with this lamp to sign a petition. He intended to ultimately use the petition to force Panasonic hands or start a class action law suit against them. OF course I signed the petition with no reservations.
Earlier this week I was hunting again for a replacement TVs and decided to check the new Pansonic LCDs. Guess what they use the same lamp. To make matters worse, their warranty now has been reduced for the lamps. When I bought my tv, the lamp also came with a 1 year warranty with the TV. NOw the warranty clearly says, 1 year parts and labor on every thing EXCEPT the lamp which is now ONLY 90 days. NOw that to me is solid reason to believe something is going on with this lamp and I aint having any of it.
Another thing that caught my attention, I looked at the DLP models from panasonic and warranty on the lamps in those TV's are 18 months which is even longer than the regular warranty for tv. That is a year and a half.
IN either case, my point for this thread is to warn you potential buyers to research the manufacturers warranty on the lamps before you buy. Secondly to be very careful when buying Panasonic's lcd which uses that above mentioned lamp.
Having said that the color and picture on the tv otherwise was spectacular. My only other complaint about this model was the tuner which was extremely slow but from what I have read that is a problem with most digital tuners.