Home Theatre/TV: Panasonic TH-50PV600AZ 50-inch Plasma TV – 50

I’m not the plasma zealot I once was. LCD has made some definitive strides in the past few years and, in my opinion, looks set to eclipse plasma and take over the marketplace.

You can imagine how humiliating it was to sit in front of Panasonic’s 50-incher and endure a special inner monologue moment – “Ooops! Shut up now”. Why? Because this television isn’t just the best I’ve seen in this size, or even in this type of technology. Quite simply, this is the best TV I have ever seen.

The design is nicely understated and clean, without being too showy and ostentatious. It is thin enough to be built into any wall at a mere 95mm (the pay-off being a weight of 43kg). Panasonic also gets an extra tick for having two HDMI inputs (and about time too).

Hooking this puppy up to our reference system and calibrating the screen took a bit longer than expected (the TV’s ‘standard’ setting looked a bit rough), the menus look positively 1986 (read: blocky and naff) and surprisingly the panel was only 1366 x 768, but the menus were easy to navigate and detailed enough to customise to suit.

As is becoming standard, the TV includes an SD card slot for watching MPEG4 movies from your camera and running image slideshows for the whanau. But, in a first (as far as I’ve seen), this TV will actually record TV to the SD card. It also features the usual PIP and freeze screen options.

I’m not sure what kind of technological skulduggery is going on in Panasonic’s headquarters, but this TV is powerful. I played Gladiator: Extended Edition upscaled to 1080i (through the DVD player) and the fast paced mayhem of the colosseum’s various battles moved as swiftly as anything at 576i. Outside of CRT circles, this TV has the swiftest and smoothest image I’ve seen – even the cinematic slow pans were stutter free. But the fun had only just begun.

Edge definition and image detail are unparalleled. The image is completely grain free and smooth (which did lead to some glare problems). This is not a minor step above the competition, but a huge leap. Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith, as well as moving like melted butter, was fantastically detailed – particularly the background and detailed CGI textures. Beards, hair and wrinkles were all astonishing.

Alien: Special Edition has always sorted the plonkers from the champions and while the TH-50PV600AZ’s blacks aren’t superior to CRT quality, they are among the elite. The contrast and detail within the darker end of the spectrum was staggering; the shadow detail was better than anything else I’ve seen, hands-down. Again, I couldn’t stop staring at the actors’ beards – the detail is that good.

Whacking Terry Gilliam’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (Criterion Collection Remaster) into the drive, I felt it was time to see how it handled the film’s wild and gaudy colour scheme. And I must say, being my favourite film, it just felt right. Panasonic have nailed the balance between naturalistic colouring (skin tones, lighting, desert scenery, etc), without sacrificing a vivid, dynamic colour scheme. It is a beautiful thing.

I really hate myself for gushing like this and sounding like a PR stooge, but I felt that watching films on this TV was almost like watching their HD versions. I suggest anyone purchasing this TV picks up a decent DVD player to do it justice. I wanted to bring my entire DVD collection in to see these movies as they should be – the image was that sharp.

And just $6999? I’d pay double for this quality. This is the TV of the year so far.

Details

Panasonic TH-50PV600AZ 50-inch Plasma TV $6999

Contact: panasonic.co.nz

SPECIFICATIONS

- 50-inch Viera Generation 9 Plasma TV
- 16:9 Widescreen
- Resolution: 1366 x 768
- Progressive Scan
- HDTV compliant
- Contrast Ratio: 10000:1
- SRS TruSurround XT
- SD card Compatibility:Photoview (including zoom and rotate functions), MPEG4 video playback, record to SD-card (non-copyright material) up to 21 hours on a 1GB card.
- HDAVI control – control all compatible systems hooked up to the TV on the one remote.
- PIP and multiview options

Audio Output: 30W
Size: 1266 x 802 x 95mm
Weight: 43kg
Power Consumption: 448W
Inputs:
4 x RCA
2 x S-video
2 x Component
2 x HDMI
1 x PC
1 x SD card slot

PROS

Flawless execution

CONS

A higher resolution panel, if it was nitpicking.
Menus look absolutely rubbish.

VERDICT

This plasma reminds me why I love my job

Aesthetics

: 93%

Performance: 98%
Features: 96%
Functionality: 94%
Price Value: 98%

OVERALL: 96%

by Allan Swann