Review/Pics - 50" Panny Plasma

[RoadRunner6]

My original thread, " Pulled The Trigger ... 50" Plasma", has become so infested with political haranguing and Pizio plasma trash talk that I thought I should begin anew with my findings on the Panny 50" 768p TH-C50HD18 plasma (Costco model).

Setup: My 42" JVC 480p plasma is setup in the living room and I used it for some comparison on broadcast SDTV and also tried it with the newBlu Ray player via component. The new Panny is next to it and connected to an old Panny DVD player with component cables. I just bought a new Panny Blu-Ray player, DMP-BD30, that is also hooked up with HDMI to the new Panny. My receiver is elderly and does not have HDMI. Unfortunately, the BD30 does not have in player decoding and I'll have to return it to Costco after my testing. I will look to the new Panny DMP-BD55 or the new OPPO BDP-83 when they are out. I have Comcast expanded cable with no cable box and no premium channels. It does have ESPN, History, A&E, etc. The Panny's QAM tuner allows me to receive non-scrambled HD channels. I did not test any audio (except for the Panny built-in speakers) as I know that is a given and I was mainly interested in the video performance of the 768p Panny. I broke in this set with 125 hours of full screen program material with the Panny set at "cinema" and at below average settings. Before my evaluations I set it to custom or cinema with normal settings.

Disclaimer: Understand that this is a $999 entry level model, same as the Panny TH-50PX80U with a couple minor differences. The regular model has 3 HDMI inputs versus 2 HDMI inputs on the Costco model. The regular model has a shiny black frame and the Costco model has a satin black non-gloss frame. Otherwise they are identical. Costco inlcudes their 2 year warranty and 90 day return.

More disclaimers: This entry level model has the basic picture controls but not the extra bells and whistles as the higher Panny models. I did not calbirate it except with my own eyes. Later I will calibrate it with my Avia and/or THX discs. My main interest was to evaluate the resolution of the 768p model. From my reading of many, many pro and user online posts I know the picture is considered excellent with owner or pro calibration. I will handle that later. I did not get into minute detail as to whether there were artifacts in the 5th chapter, 2nd scene on the left side of the screen where the camera had panned the purple picket fence, etc.

My main concerns were as follows:

Built-in Speaker Quality My wife likes to watch most of her TV progams on the TV's speakers and not use the surround system (this is one reason she did not like our former Panny pro model without speakers and tuner). I do the same late at night and also for talk shows, etc. I found the speakers on this Panny to be plenty adequate for this purpose with adequate volume and clarity.

PQ on SD Broadcasts The picture quality on standard definition broadcasts was good to excellent, depending on the source. On obvious programs broadcast for HD with high quality signals such as NFL sports and live news casts it was impressive. Proof that the source is as important as the native resolution of the set. This new Panny was actually better than the JVC (I tested them side by side and even switched the cable leads). This surpirsed me since the JVC had very good PQ on SDTV. I am very pleased with the performance of this new Panny on SD. As you might know, many budget sets look very good on HD sources but rather disappointing on SD sources. I found big differences as I changed cable leads and had to be very careful to get equal signal quality. I wll definitely buy some new high quality cable connectors for both of my sets.

Set Appearance My wife has no problem with my HT purchases as long as the product is attractive in our living room. We did not like the silver sets or the ones with piano black frames. Who wants reflections from the frame while you are viewing. This Costco model has a satin, non-gloss black frame. It is very subdued, makes the picture pop and is very nice looking according to my wife. A thin classy looking decorative strip across the lower front is reflective but is tilted up and does not reflect to the viewers. The plastic stand is not an exact color match but is not obtrusive once installed. Overall we are extremely pleased with the beautiful appearance of this set.

PQ On HD Broadcast PQ on HD broadcasts was very good to excellent, but was slightly soft and a little below what I would have liked to see. After a lot of viewing I realized this lack of perfection was due more to the source than the set IMO. Other users have reported great HD broadcast PQ, so either I have not the best cable signals or this set is less than tops on HDTV (I'm being pretty picky here). I have seen OTA HD broadcasts on my JVC plasma that were amazingly good. The dealer had a store top antenna. I watched a 720p NFL broadcast that was very impressive on the 480p. The HD channels that I am receiving are obvioulsy not that impressive. Too bad we sit here and can't get top quality HD signals while the cable companies try to squeeze every buck they can out of us. The HD broadcasts in Japan are 5 years ahead of us and of higher quality.

Blu Ray Playback I rented two discs each of two movies, one regular DVD and one Blu Ray. Both Nim's Island and Dead Man's Chest were rated as 5 stars on video quality for the BD. I played them back simultaneously, hooked up to the new Panny, switching back between the BD (via) HDMI and SD DVD (via component on the older Panny player). The difference was very obvious and the new Panny really shined here. Later I set the Panny Blu Ray player to 1080/24p and it seemed to be even slightly sharper and have a bit more depth to the picture. I would judge the PQ on BD as excellent to superb. However, as good as it was I see room for improvement. No looking thru a window here (maybe at 1620p or 2430p) . Even without calibration the Panny set was very impressive. Very natural color, excellent contrast and brightness, very good blacks and sharp resolution clarity. There was a black setting in the menu with choices of "light" or "dark." I thought both were a little too strong and somewhere in the middle would have been perfect. I was also impressed how great the Blu Ray playback looked on the JVC It was somewhat difficult to see the difference between 480p and 768p with the BD. Anyone who still has a quality 480p will be truly amazed at the PQ with Blu Ray on their EDTV! The only glitch seemd to be that the sharpness contol did not work. The manual said it might not have any effect depending on the source. So I hooked up the old Panny DVD player to the new Panny with only a single composite cable and regular SD DVD. Finally I could see a slight change in the sharpness. What simply amazed me was the high quality of the playback on the Panny with the lowly DVD and compostie cable.

768p Versus 1080p When I bought the 768p Panny the 1080p Panny was $600 more. Now the difference Is $400. When I went back to buy the Blu Ray player I saw that they had the two Panny sets side by side. I had my remote so that I could test the sharpness control. It was not busy and I spent about two hours comparing the two sets. I used the remote to get them as close to the exact same picture as possible. My Costco uses an in house HD program. Whether standing back as far as I could, about 10 feet, or up close, about 4 feet, I could not tell any difference. If anything the 7680p might have been slightly clearer. This could have been due to cables, etc. I asked a number of customers, none who could see any difference or also very slightly clearer on the 768p. Next to the 1080p was a $2500 Pioneer Kuro PDP 5010FD (my mother used to pour Kuro syrup on our pancakes...actually my wife says "kuro" means black in Japanese). It had been set apparently on a cinema setting (not super bright as most the other sets) and it looked very close to the way I had the two Panny's set. The PQ on the Panny seem equal to the Kuro set but then I did not have access to the remote.

Miscellaneous Findings This set is actually 5 lbs lighter than my 42" set. There are two handles on the rear (I used to date a gal that had a couple of handles on her rear also...think someone had turned on her stretch mode) that help in lifting. The Panny 768p display/Panny Blu Ray player gave impressive PQ on SD DVD's. This Panny has no fan and runs extremely cool and also quiet. You can barely hear an electronic buzz if you get your ear right against the rear ventilation holes. The screen is non-reflective and was no problem at all in our room. We have east facing windows with a tall forested hill and only indirect outside light. Not a trace of burn-in or IR (image retention).

So the big qustion: is the 1080p a visable improvement over the 768p? With HD broadcast from our cable provider, I doubt it. Perhaps the HD digital package would bring a better signal. Short of comparing them side by side with a Blu Ray source, I can't really make a definitive choice. However, my inner voice says maybe I would see a small improvement. Is that worth buying and dragging the 1080p here and doing a side by side comparison? Well, if the price on the 1080p gets down $200 more I might be very tempted (or just take it back and exchange them). Stay tuned.

In the meantime I'll post some photos below or in a second post below. I'm not exactly sure how to post multiple photos but I'll try. Sorry, it is impossible to get accurate photos this way, but you'll get the idea and Rich insisted on pics.

RR6

Remote Control A number of revews I have read complained about the lack of backlighting and the fact that this remote wouldn't control everything on the planet including Panasonic lawn mowers (no wait a minute.....oh, that's Honda). Well, that is exactly why I really like this remote a lot. After some time I'll enter the info onto my Home Theater MX-500 and not use this much. Meanwhile, it is plain black with very clear buttons. The Ch + Vol are right in the middle, large and easy to see. The other frequently used buttons, like the format (aspect), TV/Video, Menu and Return are easy to remember and locate even in a dark room once you've used it several times. When I was breaking it in I cycled the power on and off frequently. My wife said that her Panasonic rice cooker was also going on and off.....a so!.

Viewing Distance During 90% of my testing I was either 7-8 feet or 3-4 feet away from the display. Yes, I actually sat about 3-4 feet away when trying to check the smallest items for picture clarity. When the TV is in the permanent postion the sofa wilI be about 10 feet. I also checked from my computer desk, 16 feet and the kitchen (where my wife spends a great deal of time cooking while watching TV), 24-27 feet (yes, the volume was fine and the sound clear at this distance). I would even want to go for a 58" if we had a little more room in our condo living room. Bigger is definitely better with Blu Ray. On the other hand the thought of watching Rachel Ray at 8 feet on a 58" TV is simply revolting!