Dave Liquorice wrote:
What maybe an issue is any RFI generated in the TV getting out on an
unscreened cable. Our panny set came with a couple of large ferrite
cores to put around the ethernet cable.

Speculating wildly, I wonder if the set is just about on its permitted RFI
limits, and specifying STP enables them to creep under the threshold. They
know that nobody's going to use STP, but they put it in the manual to tick
the regulatory box. Same reason that your set came with ferrite cores... as
a quick'n'dirty fix.

Theo