brett_day's Full Review: Panasonic TH-50PZ80U 50 in. HDTV TV
The center piece of any home theater is the TV! I have been on a quest to build a good home theater and set aside a large chunk of my budget for the TV itself! I purchased the Panasonic PZ5080U and here is my review!
Now with two competing technologies in regards to TV's how do you choose. I say two, really there are 3 if you include DLP but they are a dying breed! The two i am talking about are LCD and Plasma. What's the difference? Why is one better than the other? Well both are great technologies! It is hard to say one is better than the other because that really comes down to personal preference.
I ha\ve owned two LCD sets previously a 37" Westinghouse in which the panel died, then onto a 40" Samsung 4066F LCD, which had a great picture, until the panel died. When the Samsung died, 120 Hz LCD TV's had surfaced, so really we are looking at 120 Hz LCD Vs plasma. So why did I choose to go Plasma? There are various reasons really; LCD sets are great for use in bright rooms with lots of lighting! If you like vivid colors that are not really natural then go LCD. LCD black levels while good are not great and even with 120hz and motion flow technology, there is still motion blur and to me the motion flow looks un-natural.
Plasmas offer unbeatable Black levels, natural color tones and zero motion blur! They are good in well lit rooms and amazing in darker rooms. When I watch TV I usually watch in a dimmed room, which is why I chose Plasma.
In the store the Panasonic 80u looked good, but not great but that's okay! If there is one thing EVERYBODY should know it is that you cannot judge a TV by the way it looks in the showroom! The TV's are not properly calibrated and usually share a feed with multiple other TV's. The absolute best way to see how a TV will look is to make your choice and get it home into your environment, with no large showroom lights. When taking this TV home, make sure you have a large enough vehicle. I have a 2006 town and country and had a hard time getting this sucker in there. Also take a friend! The TV is incredibly heavy, coming in at 100lbs with all of the packaging!
Un packing the TV was exciting! It is well packaged and protected with plenty of foam! After a thorough inspection to make sure the screen was not damaged in anyway shape or form, it was time to put together the included stand. Building the stand is easy, take the base, insert to pegs, use supplied bolts and it is done. The hardest part is putting the TV on the stand which I tried to do by myself and almost gave myself a hernia! Again this TV is heavy! 92lbs with the stand! Make sure you have room for the TV! This is a big TV and will take up ample space at 49" in width, 31.1" in height it is a beast! The great thing about flat panels is just that! This TV is just 3.7" deep!
Is the TV easy on the eye? Yes it sure is! While this TV has a glossy bezel, it is not overly glossy, just about right. There is a very classy strip of chrome that runs along the bottom of the TV; it adds a very nice touch to an otherwise plain TV. There is a panel on the front casing as well that hides away the built in controls on the TV as well as a couple of front inputs. The inputs you will find on the front of the set are
1 HDMI input 1 S video input 1 set of component inputs an SD card reader Input
I thought it was a little strange to have an HDMI connection on the front of the TV but these days with Hi Def Camcorders becoming more prevalent it makes perfect sense. Around the back of the TV you will find a few more connections available to you
2 HDMI inputs 1 S Video input 1 set of composite inputs 1 set of RCA inputs
once you get the TV hooked up you are ready to go! Now at this point I would like to dispel some myths about Plasma technology! Firstly, you will not instantly get burn in on plasma sets! Burn in is something that used to be prevalent on older plasma TV's, but the technology has improved dramatically over the years! In fact in order to get burn in on plasma nowadays you would have to leave a static image on the screen for roughly 15 hours or so. There are also features built right into the set to combat this as well! The Panasonics use some thing called a Pixel Orbiter. The TV actually rotates the pixels so that there is never actually a static image on the screen, and all this is done in a why that is not perceivable to the human eye! It does not affect picture quality one bit!
One thing you might hear about though is IR or image retention. This is actually true but it is not burn in. Because of the way that the technology works, some images can be held temporarily buy the phosphors themselves. For instance if you are watching ESPN for a while, when you change channels the ticker that ran across the bottom of the set on ESPN may still be visible for a few seconds on the channel you just switched to. This is normal nothing to worry all, and in fact it does not always happen and there are ways you can prevent this. When you first get your plasma set i would recommend you do a break in period of about 100 hours. During that 100 hours try to avoid watching anything that is letter boxed or pillar boxed (black bars on sides or on top or bottom) just set the TV on zoom! Also turn the contrast and picture settings 50 and just leave them for 100 hours. This will ensure that the phosphors get an even burn at the beginning of their lives! I can honestly say that now with 5000 hours on my set i have never had image retention!
You do not have to follow the break in period, it is perfectly safe to just turn it on and watch it from the box, i am cautious though and after having spent so much money on the TV i wanted to be careful and really, what's 100 hours? It will go buy very fast indeed! After the break in period you are free to calibrate the tv however you want! There are various presets on the tv that you can use. Vivid, standard, cinema, game and custom. I would say never use vivid mode, it introduces so much digital noise to the picture you will not be getting the best picture possible.
In terms of color reproduction and blacks Cinema mode is the most accurate. If you are used to a bright picture, cinema mode will take a while to get used to but after a couple of days your jaw will hit the floor everytime you turn the TV on! I used the blu ray version of DVE HD Basics on my blu ray player to help calibrate my tv, only on the cinema setting was i able to get an almost exact match on the red, green and Blue scale, i would say it is 98% accurate
Cinema mode along with the warm setting provides the most accurate gamma readings, color tones and blacks. The picture when hooked up to you cable box or blu ray player via HDMI is absolutely breath taking! I would tell you my settings but feel that this is an area that is very subjectional and it is all about what is pleasing to everyone's own eyes, but i can honestly say i have never seen a tv look so amazingly beautiful! Blacks are black not grayish like on some LCD sets, the 20000:1 contrast ratio is more than plentiful and provides deep, deep blacks without crushing them. Color tones are amazingly accurate with a little calibration, i will be honest before i calibrated i did not a slight red push and flesh tones looked a little off but it was fixed very easily thanks to the TV's very user friendly menu.
The menu is laid out very well and is very easy to navigate. the 80u is Panasonics entry level plasma being so the amount of controls that are available to you are somewhat limited compared to their higher end sets but they have left enough control so that you can get the picture just right! You will find your usual, contrast, brightness, sharpness controls along with color tint and darkness levels. You can also choose whether or not to turn on the dynamic contrast ratio as well if you so desire, plenty of options to tweak this TV! I have seen many TV and have calibrated many TV's but they have never produced a picture that is as stunning as the one that the 80u does. Watching HD content is an absolute joy to behold! Watching the big game on the 50" screen in full HD glory is stunning! I am a huge movie buff and love watching blu rays and, oh my gosh! The picture clarity at full 1080p is mind blowing! It quite seriously is like watching everything again for the first time!
This TV also has built in QAM tuners so that you can attach an HD antenna and you can pick up your local stations in HD glory for free! The other feature i like about this TV is the SD card port. If you have a device that uses and SD card like a digital camera, you can pop the card right out of the camera and straight into the TV! You can then choose to look at each picture individually or watch them as a slide show! Also if you have any other Panasonic devices this TV will connect to them with viera link. The TV and the other Panasonic devices that have viera link will be able to communicate together to provide a seamless experience!
The only two gripes i have about this TV. The remote and the speakers. The two areas that every manufacturer skimp on. The sound that comes from the built in speakers is at best a 1 out 5. very metallic sounding and you have to crank the volume up to almost the top if you want to hear anything. The remote, is cheaply made and looks cheaply made, although the buttons are well laid out it just does not feel nice! I cannot wait for the day when manufacturers spend just a little more on these two things!
Overall the Panasonic 5080U is an amazing TV for the price! I paid just $1499 for it which is an absolute steal! The picture is drop dead gorgeous, the color reproduction is magnificent and the black levels are amazing! If you have been looking for plasma tv then this will be an excellent choice! Panasonic TV are some of the very best made today and the 5080u is an absolute stunner
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