How To Be The Best Cook Around | Cooking Tips and Tricks

There are lots of methods and techniques to learn when cooking. Recipes can range from easy to especially difficult. Regardless of you current cooking aptitude, you may find the following tips helpful for improving your cooking skills.

Keep your herbs in a place that is both dark and cool. If they are exposed to light, moisture, or heat, they will lose much of their flavor. Generally, ground spices and herbs keep most of their flavor for a year. If spices are kept whole, they could stay fresh for up to five years. Proper storage will enhance the flavoring for a longer time.

TIP! When you are going to be cooking for someone important, whether it?s a boss or a potential love interest, make certain you are cooking something you are familiar with. Refrain from enthusiastically whipping up a new dish or using untested ingredients.

Get a cookbook with easy recipes or a specific theme you find interesting to get you started. Try looking online or to your local library or bookstore. Experiment with a few, and be patient; remember, you?re learning new skills.

When adding seasonings to meat, test a small amount before seasoning the whole batch. Foods like meatballs, hamburger and even meatloaf may require careful seasoning. After seasoning the meat, do not cook all of it. First, make a little patty out of it and cook that first. You can adjust the seasoning if you don?t like it.

To maintain a vegetable?s quality, cook it quickly. Using a slow cooking method is sometimes suggested, but the results are less nutritious and don?t taste as good. In addition to these beneficial results, the overall effect is also serving vegetables that are healthy and more nutritious. Learning to cook them for the minimum necessary time is the key to better vegetables.

TIP! Many individuals enjoy cooking with apples when it is cooler outside, but if stored improperly, they will no longer be usable. Apples need to be kept loosely in plastic bags while in your refrigerator or basement because they rot in dry, warm air.

Ice cube trays are fabulous for freezing and storing leftover sauce. Then, at a later date, it is a simple process to reheat the cubes on your stove top in a pan. And don?t worry, your sauce will still taste great even after freezing.

Burger patties often stick to the frying pan or grill during cooking and fall apart when you try to flip them. To prevent this, brush the grill with a bit of vegetable oil to keep your foods from sticking.

Chicken Stock

TIP! You can sprinkle it on many other foods besides meat. Blended seasonings add a delicious flavor to any food, from pumpkin seeds to scrambled eggs.

You should think big when preparing chicken stock. Make a giant pot and store what you don?t use in your freezer. Good homemade chicken stock is a wonderful base in soups, stews, casseroles and more. To preserve your stock for future use, just simply make sure that it is stored in heavy duty freezer bags and frozen solid. This way the stock should keep for several months or so.

Place salad dressing off to the side of a salad, instead of on top of it, when serving salad to guests. There are many people who prefer little to no dressing on a salad. If you allow everyone to apply their dressings on their own it will allow them to have the amount they like. Give them a choice of salad dressings.

Don?t mix unfamiliar wine into your food. Using a type of wine you find unpalatable will negatively impact the flavor of your food. There is wine available that was made specifically for cooking.

Cooking Supplies

It is necessary for all cooks to organize their cooking supplies. If you refuse to organize your cooking supplies, you?ll take longer to find the utensils you need. Try keeping similar items in one area. For example, you want to organize your spices such as parsley and basil in one cabinet.

If you have bought fruit that is not ripe, put it in a plastic bag with holes.
Ethylene gas is produced as a by-product of the ripening process. With holes fitted in the bag, the gas is allowed to escape. The air will circulate, and the gas will not harm the fruit?s natural taste.

TIP! After you make sauce, pour the leftovers into ice cube trays and place them in the freezer. When you do this, making a quick meal can be accomplished by simply reheating by using a saute pan.

Stay healthy by making sure your utensils do not have leftover scraps or any sort of dirt before you use them. If old, leftover food is stuck on your cooking utensils, it could ruin the meal you are making. This can also spread harmful bacteria.

A lot of fine meals have been ruined due to over-complicated directions in recipes. Stick with simple recipes and you can have a delicious and healthy meal. By making use of this article?s advice, you may be able to broaden your cooking understanding a bit and bring better meals within your grasp.

Source: http://cooking-tips-and-tricks.bwsgroup2.com/cooking-2/how-to-be-the-best-cook-around/

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Syrian rebels reeling from loss of Qusair

FILE - In this Saturday, June 8, 2013 file photo, members of the Lebanese Red Cross carry a Syrian man who was wounded in Qusair, during battles between the rebels and Syrian government forces, is rushed to a hospital in the Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut, Lebanon. Syrian rebels? defeat in Qusair cost them more than a strategic location, it has also left a battered spirit and deep frustration. Over the course of a year, rebels holding the town had heavily fortified it with tunnels, mine fields, and booby traps and when the regime assault came they fought back ferociously. But in the end they were outgunned and outnumbered, and were forced into a harrowing, crushing flight from the town. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, June 8, 2013 file photo, members of the Lebanese Red Cross carry a Syrian man who was wounded in Qusair, during battles between the rebels and Syrian government forces, is rushed to a hospital in the Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut, Lebanon. Syrian rebels? defeat in Qusair cost them more than a strategic location, it has also left a battered spirit and deep frustration. Over the course of a year, rebels holding the town had heavily fortified it with tunnels, mine fields, and booby traps and when the regime assault came they fought back ferociously. But in the end they were outgunned and outnumbered, and were forced into a harrowing, crushing flight from the town. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, June 8, 2013 file photo, members from the Lebanese Red Cross help a Syrian man who was wounded in Qusair, Syria, during battles between the rebels and the Syrian government forces, at a hospital in the Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut, Lebanon. Syrian rebels? defeat in Qusair cost them more than a strategic location, it has also left a battered spirit and deep frustration. Over the course of a year, rebels holding the town had heavily fortified it with tunnels, mine fields, and booby traps and when the regime assault came they fought back ferociously. But in the end they were outgunned and outnumbered, and were forced into a harrowing, crushing flight from the town. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - This Sunday, May 19, 2013 file photo citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels preparing to repel a coordinated attack by government forces in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, in Homs province, Syria. Syrian rebels? defeat in Qusair cost them more than a strategic location, it has also left a battered spirit and deep frustration. Over the course of a year, rebels holding the town had heavily fortified it with tunnels, mine fields, and booby traps and when the regime assault came they fought back ferociously. But in the end they were outgunned and outnumbered, and were forced into a harrowing, crushing flight from the town. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens, File)

FILE - This Tuesday, May 21, 2013 file photo citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens inspecting the rubble of damaged buildings due to a Syrian forces air strike in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, Homs province, Syria. Syrian rebels? defeat in Qusair cost them more than a strategic location, it has also left a battered spirit and deep frustration. Over the course of a year, rebels holding the town had heavily fortified it with tunnels, mine fields, and booby traps and when the regime assault came they fought back ferociously. But in the end they were outgunned and outnumbered, and were forced into a harrowing, crushing flight from the town. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens, File)

FILE - This Wednesday, June 5, 2013 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a damaged building in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, in Homs province, Syria. Syrian rebels? defeat in Qusair cost them more than a strategic location, it has also left a battered spirit and deep frustration. Over the course of a year, rebels holding the town had heavily fortified it with tunnels, mine fields, and booby traps and when the regime assault came they fought back ferociously. But in the end they were outgunned and outnumbered, and were forced into a harrowing, crushing flight from the town. (AP Photo/SANA, File)

BEIRUT (AP) ? The Syrian rebels' defeat in Qusair cost them more than a strategic stronghold. It has left them with a battered spirit and deep frustration.

Their lesson from the fight: No matter how hard they try, they run into a major wall ? their weapons are no match for the regime's. Desperate for successes, some in the opposition are calling for changes in tactics, away from trying to hold untenable territory toward more radical operations, such as attacks on military bases to seize weapons or even increased suicide bombings against regime strongholds.

The loss of Qusair, a town near the Lebanese border, was particularly stinging. Over the course of a year, rebels holding the town had heavily fortified it with tunnels, mine fields, and booby traps. When the regime assault came last month, with Syrian troops backed by elite Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, they fought back ferociously.

But in the end they were outgunned and outnumbered, and were forced into a harrowing flight when the town fell last Wednesday.

Only now emerging from hiding after their escape, several activists and a doctor who had been in the town described fleeing with thousands of residents and fighters, with the wounded hobbling on crutches or being carried for miles across the countryside. They came under repeated attack in the fields as regime forces chased them from village to village in a four-day pursuit, killing more than 100 rebels and civilians, they told The Associated Press.

"We can't feel our feet after the long march," said Hadi Abdullah, an activist who had been in Qusair coordinating with the rebels. In the group he fled with, there were 800 people who had been wounded during the three-week siege of the town. The first fled in vehicles, but then had to abandon them to go off road, trying to escape attention. "We walked for a long distance on foot. We had doctors and nurses but no supplies."

"For sure, the regime outdid us in this battle, but this doesn't mean we will surrender," he said.

Building on its triumph in Qusair, a key crossroads town of supply lines between Damascus and western and northern Syria, President Bashar Assad's military is now pressing ahead with an offensive against rebel-held areas in two major cities further north, Homs and Aleppo.

Prompted by the regime's advances, the Obama administration began discussing Monday whether to arm Syria's rebels. U.S. officials said a decision could come later this week. The U.S. and its European allies have been reluctant to provide more sophisticated weapons, fearing they would fall into the hands of extremists among rebel ranks.

For the rebels, Qusair's loss marks a new phase in the grinding civil war, now in its third year with more than 80,000 killed. Now, they face a more confident Syrian military, backed by Shiite fighters from Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

After the fall of Qusair, for example, rebel advances in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb southeast of Damascus, came to a halt, said the spokesman for the rebels' Military Council of the Damascus Suburbs, who identified himself by his first name, Mosab, for security reasons.

"It had a morale impact definitely. Some battalions were distraught, but others rose up to avenge Qusair," he said. "Of course the regime is on the offensive, aided by outside forces ... The only way for us to tip the balance is to be steadfast."

Speaking Monday by Skype, he said the rebels will always be at a disadvantage compared to Assad's forces, so they must shift tactics. Rather than trying to hold more vulnerable areas while hoping for the international community to provide weapons, he said fighters should focus more on hitting large military bases to seize arms. "That would tip the balance."

An activist in Homs who coordinates with fighters in its old city called for a greater use of suicide bombings in regime strongholds. He pointed to a suicide bomber who detonated his vehicle three days after the fall of Qusair in a Homs neighborhood inhabited largely by supporters of Assad from his Alawite sect. Seven civilians were killed.

"We should take the battles to the heart of Alawite neighborhoods," said the activist, who spoke on condition he be identified by his nom de guerre, Abu Bilal al-Homsi, for fear of retaliation.

On Tuesday, two suicide bombers set off blasts in a central square of Damascus, the first in Assad's seat of power since Qusair's fall, killing at least 14 people.

The Islamic militant Jabhat al-Nusra, made up largely of foreign jihadis fighting alongside the rebels, has carried out suicide attacks in the past, and it was not clear if Tuesday's blasts mark a new trend. The mainstream rebel leadership has so far shunned the tactic, fearing it would turn world opinion against them.

But the rebel camp is profoundly fragmented, and more could be drawn to suicide operations if Assad's forces continue their momentum.

"I warn that if the international community continues to fail us, the area will be on fire. If Jabhat el-Nusra and al-Qaida offer us help we will take it," warned Abdullah, the Qusair activist.

For the rebels, losing Qusair was particularly painful because fighters controlling the town ? around 3,000 at their height, according to locals, including foreign fighters ? had prepared for more than a year in anticipation for a regime attack, with trenches, tunnels and boobytraps. Dozens of Hezbollah fighters were killed in the fierce resistance to the siege.

"They booby-trapped everything," from doors to refrigerators, said Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese army general who closely follows Syria's war and heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Political Research in Beirut. "They would lure Hezbollah fighters to mine fields."

But regime firepower was eventually overwhelming. The attackers adopted a new technique of leveling "row after row of buildings" to deny rebels cover and advance into the town, said Rifaei Tammas, a Qusair activist whose brother was among the fighters.

By the 17th day of fighting ? the day the regime finally captured the town ? the rebels' numbers were down to the hundreds. Tammas described frenzied discussions between rebels on what to do next as the regime opened multiple fronts. They decided to move north, the only crack in the siege, he said.

Emerging this week after days on the run, Tammas wrote on his Twitter account that his brother was killed in the chase and shelling hit civilians as they fled on the road out. "I still cannot believe I survived honestly," he wrote.

Jaber, the analyst, said the regime forces left the north open to more easily take on the rebels as they fled through open fields.

Abdullah said he fled in a group of several thousand fighters and civilians, including 800 wounded, some carried on stretchers. They first took refuge in the nearby village of Dabaa, then fled again after that came under attack, walking for miles to fields around other nearby villages, while being bombarded.

"Some people ate tree leaves," he said. "Some young ones found a potato field and ate them raw." He said he documented 110 from his group who were killed, including 40 women and children and 20 rebel fighters.

Kasem Alzein, a doctor who escaped with Abdullah and is now in Lebanon, told AP that their fleeing group came under assault in the fields by tanks and artillery, sending people scattering, some dropping the wounded, while rebels with them fought back.

Along the way, he made a pleading video, pointing to bloodied wounded lying under trees.

"This guy will die only because we have nothing for him," the gray-haired doctor said, choking on tears. "It is a simple injury that would require a simple surgery."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-11-Syria-Losing%20Qusair/id-595bae0bf086407f91e5a2b75fe3de09

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Roche gets Swiss approval for skin cancer drug

Remember the wave of pundit insanity over the death of Trayvon Martin two Februaries ago? Well, get ready for round two. The trial of George Zimmerman, who stands accused of second degree murder, began today in Sanford, Florida, and immediately inspired one of the most baffling comments ever uttered by a talking head about Martin's late-night confrontation with Zimmerman, even for a story already so loaded with race, death, lawyers, Florida, and inevitably Nancy Grace. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/roche-gets-swiss-approval-skin-cancer-drug-052433712.html

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The mystery of Merion starts to unfold at US Open

Tiger Woods hits out of a bunker on the 17th hole during practice for the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Tiger Woods hits out of a bunker on the 17th hole during practice for the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Rory McIlroy, left, of Northern Ireland, and Tiger Woods shake hands on the 18th green during practice for the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Ian Poulter, of England, walks past wicker baskets during practice for the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Hiroyuki Fujita, of Japan, hits out of a bunker on the 17th hole during practice for the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Graeme McDowell, of Northern Ireland, hits out of a bunker on the 17th hole during practice for the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) ? The affection was genuine. Even better was beating Jack Nicklaus in a playoff. So when Lee Trevino got his hands on that U.S. Open trophy in 1971, the guy who never lacked for one-liners gushed, "I love Merion, and I don't even know her last name."

For this generation of stars, Merion is more like a blind date.

No other course with four U.S. Opens had to wait such a long time ? 32 years ? for another chance to test the world's best players. Even with Tiger Woods back to No. 1 and winning at a ridiculous rate, so much of the talk at this major championship has been about Merion.

For years, it was considered too small to handle such a big tournament and the big hitters with their modern equipment. And with soft greens from more than 6 inches of rain in the last week, the question is whether the course will yield the kind of scores rarely seen at the toughest test in golf.

On Thursday, the mystery of Merion will start to unfold.

"It's been how long, 32 years? And with all the technology since then?" Steve Stricker said as he headed to the first tee Wednesday for one last practice round. "Someone asked me the other day about someone shooting a 62. And what I wanted to say was, 'You're crazy.' But you just don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. And in a way, that's kind of cool."

Not so cool was the weather expected for the opening round.

Merion already took a beating last Friday when more than 3 inches of rain sent water over the edges of some bunkers and left small streams on fairways and greens. More rain on Monday caused the course to be closed three times.

The forecast called for increasing clouds, gusts and showers Thursday morning, with stronger storms likely to arrive around noon.

"Sure, we want it firm and fast," USGA vice president Thomas O'Toole said Wednesday. "We happen to play a sport that's played outdoors. We received significant rain over the last week, and some tell us that we'll have even more significant rain tomorrow. So it's not a perfect world. It's not a perfect game. But we take what we're dealt with."

Whether a golf course is big or small, soft greens typically are a recipe for low scores. Then again, Merion is not a typical golf course.

It measures 6,996 yards on the scorecard ? the shortest of any major championship in nine years ? and has a stretch of seven holes in the middle that are short even by yesterday's standards. Compare those holes with the scorecard from when Ben Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion, and four of those holes were actually longer by a few yards in Hogan's day.

Players typically reach for the wedge to chip out of the rough around the greens at the U.S. Open. At Merion, they could be hitting wedge into the green for their second shot on at least six holes. That's what has caused all the clamor about low scores.

And with the rain, it's reminiscent of how Congressional was vulnerable two years ago, when Rory McIlroy shattered U.S. Open scoring records at 16-under 268.

"I've been reading about how many scoring records are going to be broken," Nick Watney said. "I've been around here once. And I think that's insane. It's funny to me. People look at the yardage and think it's going to be easy. Even if it's soft, the greens are sloped. The rough is thick. OK, we'll have wedges into some of the greens, but that doesn't mean you make birdie on all those holes. There's enough tough holes to counteract that."

Even so, the winning score has gone down in each of the four previous U.S. Opens at Merion, from Olin Dutra at 13-over par in 1934 to David Graham winning at 7-under in 1981, the last time this major championship was here.

"Where did David Graham shoot 7-under? From there?" Nick Watney asked as he pointed the end of his driver to a spot some 30 yards from where he was standing. "Because he didn't do it from here."

Watney was standing in the middle of the putting green. He took three steps to his right and was standing on the 14th tee. As an example of longer holes being made more difficult, a new tee on the 464-yard hole is where members practice putting.

The biggest fear with rain on the horizon is what will happen the rest of the week. The forecast is reasonable after Thursday, but in soft conditions, balls start to pick up clumps of mud as the sun starts to dry the course. And while players often are allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairway in muddy conditions on the PGA Tour, they don't do that at the U.S. Open.

Remember, the USGA famously referred to the local rule as "lift, clean and cheat."

"We wouldn't be adopting that rule this week," O'Toole said.

It all begins with Cliff Kresge hitting the opening shot of the 113th U.S. Open at 6:45 a.m. Thursday ? weather permitting, of course.

Woods, McIlroy and Masters champion Adam Scott play Thursday afternoon in the power grouping of Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the world. Sergio Garcia plays on the opposite side of the draw, teeing off Thursday morning. So does Phil Mickelson, who left Philadelphia on Monday when the weather was bad to practice in San Diego. He planned on being home, anyway, so he could watch his oldest daughter graduate from the eighth-grade. Mickelson was scheduled to arrive about 4:15 a.m. Thursday, just three hours before his tee time.

Stricker called Merion the "longest short course I've ever played." Graeme McDowell is another guy who isn't buying into the fear over low scoring.

"Everyone is saying that it's going to be 62s and 63s on this golf course, which I kind of disagree with at the minute," McDowell said. "I think 10 or 11 of these golf holes are as tough as any U.S. Open I've seen."

The lowest score in major championship history is 63, and it has happened only four times in the U.S. Open ? Johnny Miller at Oakmont in 1973 on a soggy course, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf on the same day at Baltusrol in 1980 during a wet week, and Vijay Singh on a rain-softened course at Olympia Fields in 2003.

"You've got more birdie opportunities than ever," Ernie Els said. "I'm playing my 21st U.S. Open, so I've seen a lot of trouble out there. But this is one where you can get on a run. You can make some 3s. That's not a number that's really familiar in the U.S. Open. But as I say, you start missing shots, the rough is as bad as I've ever seen it."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-12-GLF-US-Open/id-c5e121b22fb34dec979dab6bc304785c

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Kinect on the Xbox One Is Just a Part of the Controller

Gamers who consider their core hard have always thought of Kinect as just some gimmick Wii-successor that they'd never use because true gamers use analog sticks or fight pads or morse code or something. And maybe the first Kinect was like that. The Kinect 2 on Xbox One? Completely different. It's truly an extension of the controller without the constraints of a controller.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/sY0vR3qYVHY/kinect-on-the-xbox-one-is-just-a-part-of-the-controller-512772774

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AWS Adds Free Usage Tier For Red Hat Linux, Drops Prices For Relational Database Service

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has added a free tier for Red Hat Enterprise Linux?(RHEL). ?The company also announced last night that it is dropping prices for its relational database service. AWS has offered?Red Hat Enterprise Linux?since 2007. In 2010, AWS began offering a free usage tier. With today’s news, the two are combining to offer 750 hours of RHEL to the customers eligible for the free usage tier. The news follows last night’s posting on the AWS blog that it is dropping the price on?Amazon RDS?(Relational Database Service) database instances, both for its “On-Demand” and “Reserved,” varieties. A reserved instance is bought in advance at a set price. An on-demand instance lets the customer pay as needed with no long-term commitment. AWS states that its on-demand prices have been reduced as much as 18% for MySQL and Oracle BYOL (Bring Your Own License) and 28% for SQL Server BYOL. All of a customer’s on-demand usage will automatically be charged at the new and lower rates effective June 1. For reserved instances, prices have been reduced as much as 27% for MySQL and Oracle BYOL. The new prices apply to Reserved Instance purchases made as of today. Here’s an interesting catch: AWS will provide the new pricing to reserved instances bought within the last 30 days. Reserved instances are normally non-refundable. This applies to one-year reserved instances purchased in the last 30 days and three-year reserved instances purchased in the last 90 days. The exchange is for a limited period of time. Customers will receive a pro-rata refund of the upfront fees paid at the time of purchase. More for less is ?a common theme that AWS presents. Is it a price war? Undoubtedly. But it is also a reflection of the shift that the enterprise is going through. There is just more business. Companies don’t need to manage their own databases if they choose not to. They can turn to AWS for that. With that new volume, AWS can drop prices and still come out ahead.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Fzp7bjVSfnA/

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Panasonic TC-L55DT60

Joining the ET60 and E60 series of recently announced Panasonic LED-backlit Viera HDTVs, the DT60 series offers good performance, stylish looks, and lots of features, including four sets of 3D glasses, Wi-Fi, and a 120Hz refresh rate. The TC-L55DT60 ($2,199.99 list) I tested features a 55-inch IPS panel that delivers good color quality and dark blacks along with great viewing angles. Its passive 3D has good depth and makes for comfortable viewing, but some crosstalk is apparent from time to time. The TC-L55DT60 is a solid choice for a big screen HDTV, but at $2,200 it's a bit overpriced.??

Design and Features
Like our current Editors' Choice for big-screen mid-range HDTVs, the Panasonic TC-L55ET60, the TC-L55DT60 is beautifully designed. With its slender 1.4-inch cabinet, thin silver bezels, and matching stand, it will add style to any entertainment center. A thin strip of clear acrylic attached to the bottom bezel holds remote and ambient light sensors and a power LED, and the swiveling stand uses a shiny chrome V-shaped mounting mechanism to support the cabinet.

As with most Panasonic HDTVs, the DT60 only has three HDMI ports. They are positioned on the left side of the cabinet along with three USB ports, a digital audio output, and an SD card slot. The right side of the cabinet is home to Power, Channel Up/Down, Volume Up/Down, and Input buttons, and the back panel holds the remaining ports, including Ethernet and antenna jacks and a set of shared component/composite AV ports.

There's also a small 10-watt subwoofer at the back of the cabinet that compliments the two 4-watt, down-firing speakers. Together they deliver loud, well rounded audio output and a fairly decent faux-surround sound effect.

The remote has a brushed metal finish that matches the base and bezels. It is 9 inches long and has nice, big buttons with red backlighting. In addition to the number pad, direction buttons, playback controls, and color-coded buttons, it has dedicated Netflix, E-Help, 3D, and Apps buttons. The Home button takes you to the My Home screen, which you can customize with favorite channels, apps, music, and video.

The DT60 offers wired and wireless Ethernet connectivity and a solid catalog of Web apps. Streaming apps include Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, CinemaNow, YouTube, and MLB.TV services, along with Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Panasonic's Viera Connect Shopping service, a Web browser, and a handful of games.

Performance
The DT60 turned in an impressive black level of 0.020 cd/m² and a peak brightness of 257.81 cd/m², as measured with a Klein K10-A colorimeter, SpectraCal's CalMAN 5 software, and DisplayMate test patterns. The resulting 12,762:1 contrast ratio (measured) provided good highlight and shadow detail while watching Black Swan on Blu-ray disc, which is a relatively dark movie. Overall, picture quality was sharp and bright, but the less expensive Editors' Choice Panasonic TC-L55ET60 has a slightly brighter panel at 304.34 cd/m² for a slightly better contrast ratio at 13,118:1.

Color accuracy was generally good. As shown in the chromaticity chart above, reds, greens, and blues were all very close to their respective CIE coordinates (the inside of each box represents the ideal coordinates as determined by the International Commission On Illumination).

Color quality was well balanced and skin tones appeared natural looking with no signs of tinting. The DT60's IPS panel delivered excellent off-axis viewing with no color shifting and very little loss of luminance when viewed from an extreme side angle. Motion handling was flawless, thanks to the panel's 120Hz technology. There was no obvious smearing or ghosting while watching a Yankee game and panning shots from the movie 2012 appeared smooth and fluid.

The DT60 uses passive (polarized) 3D technology and comes with four sets of glasses. The 3D action had good depth and the picture remained bright and detailed, but crosstalk (image doubling) was apparent from time to time when viewed from an angle of around 60 degrees (from dead center). This is a common characteristic of passive technology and is not what I would consider a deal breaker. The glasses are lightweight and comfortable to wear.

The DT60 used 107 watts of power during testing while operating in standard mode, which is about average for a 55-inch LED backlit panel. However, when operating in ECO mode that number dropped to an efficient 60 watts, besting the LG 55LM6700 (67 watts).

Conclusion
If you're looking for a big-screen HDTV that offers solid performance, stylish looks, and a healthy feature set, the Panasonic TC-L55DT60 has it all, but it is a bit pricey. This LED backlit model delivers a bright, highly detailed picture in both 2D and 3D modes, and it doesn't require much power. A few extra video ports would be nice, though. If you can live with two extra sets of 3D glasses, our Editors' Choice for big screen mid-range HDTVs, the Panasonic TC-L55ET60, is a much better deal, offering great performance and similar features for a lower price. If you're really on a budget, the Vizio E601I-A3 offers a non-3D, feature-packed 60-inch screen for just $1,000.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/3llBvYXoIcg/0,2817,2420114,00.asp

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