CNET has done a great little preview Panasonic TH50PZ800u review and posted it up to youtube for people to view. They do a quick hands on preview around the TH-50PZ800u flat panel plasma hdtv and go over some of its strengths and weaknesses of the unit and compare it vs. some of the other televisions in this size and price range and call it one of the very best they have ever tested. There is also some recommended TH-50PZ800u calibration settings for get the best possible picture settings.
Pros of the Panasonic TH50PZ800u Plasma:
Some of the best black level reproduction in the industry, a key component making for the best picture possible. Excellent uniformity with amazingly low false contouring, THX mode obviates in-depth calibration for easily getting the most realistic and best picture for your environment. Beautiful and attractive design. Great connectivity features with 4x HDMI and many others. Many other strengths found on this television.
Cons of the Panasonic TH-50PZ800u HDTV:
Expensive, but competitively priced with television of similar caliber. Black level reproduction and thus overall picture quality still not as impressive as the $3000+ plasmas. Fewer preset and adjustable picture controls than most recent plasma televisions.
Verdict on Panasonic Viera TH50PZ800u
With awesome accuracy in its THX mode and some of the strongest if not the strongest black level and picture quality performance at its price range on 40-52” plasmas, it’s one of the best bangs for your buck around if you want a high performing plasma.
This was the cheapest 50″ 1080p plasma I could find from a reputable brand and store. 6Ave delivered it to my house at no cost (although they could only deliver on a Saturday, which was inconvenient), and set it up on the stand and tested it before leaving.
I have been very happy with my purchase. The picture is as vibrant and crisp as all the commercials claim. Watching movies is now a true joy. I’m definitely glad I opted for 1080p. 720p movies look great, but 1080p movies will blow you away. Onboard speakers are very decent, although a home theater will definitely need more audio.
Energy-conscious people look elsewhere. This bad boy eats almost 700 Watts and has three cooling fans which exude warmth caused by its entrancing glow.
My only problem thus far is that sometimes it won’t turn on, the LED on the front will just blink. I live in an older house, and have found that by turning off the electronics and lights around it, I can start it up again after a few minutes of being unplugged, then have to turn everything else back on. The TV carries a 1 year warranty, so if this issue persists or progresses I will have it taken care of. I talked to customer service about it, and they were very helpful (Panasonic has a separate ‘Plasma concierge’ customer service center).
Thanks to another poster here, I discovered the “bundle deal” – 58″ Panasonic w/ the BD35 Blu-ray player. All did not go smoothly at first. I tried to buy the bundle which was a no-brainer – Buy the BD35 for $232 and get a $300 credit on the combo (w/ free freight). After entering both items (which were both listed as in-stock), the $300 credit never appeared on the last screen before hitting the “purchase” button. So I cancelled the transaction and cleared by cache and tried again. This time I used “option 2″ which was a small link to the deal. After everything looked ok I hit the purchase button and when I printed it out, it said that the TV would ship between Dec 30 & Jan 20! – Needless to say I freaked. I called Amazon Customer Service immediately and they explained that the “deal” was only through Amazon – if I didn’t want the free freight and $300 credit I could’ve purchased it through their partner and received it in a week or so.
The order was placed on Tues, Nov 18 at 9pm (I kept the Amazon deal). The Blu-ray player arrived on Thursday, Nov 20 (w/ the free freight option). On Sunday, Nov 23, the TV still had a ship date of Dec 30 – Jan 20. On Monday I rec’d an email stating that it should arrive around Dec 12 (awesome compared to the original estimate). Guess what – The TV arrived via CEVA on Wed, Nov 26! The whole deal took one week w/ free freight and arrived in perfect condition and the guys even carried it upstairs to my home theater room. I tried to tip them and they said they weren’t allowed – I felt bad cause they looked like they were gonna die after navigating my stairway.
By the way – I mounted it w/ a Sanus LT-25 tilting wall mount which I bought through Amazon for $107. It was $219 plus tax at BB. Picture is awesome w/o even tweaking the controls yet. Flesh tones are spot-on. Love the way it looks so much more natural than an LCD.
I got this TV b/c cnet seemed to rave about it. I had a TH-50PX600U and that was a nice TV and I’m a big panasonic fan, but this TV I can definitely notice an improvement in quality from my cable HD channels, even though both are from the same 720p signal. In addition, watching Blu-Ray from this is beautiful (I’m using a PS3). I’m really happy with the purchase. One recommendation for anyone owning this TV is to use custom settings and not use the settings that are default.
The rest of the review is copy/pasted from “daarrid” over at avsforum.com
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1056962
However lets remember that the THX mode can be adjusted!!!! Panasonic’s default settings for THX are just wrong. The CNET reviewer, using a completely dark room, adjusted the THX settings considerably upward from their default settings. Just for the sake of example – CNET increased the picture setting from 50 to 100 for their review.
I’d suggest that anyone owning this set start with CNET’s THX settings:
CNET’s THX settings (completely dark room):
Picture: 100
Brightness: 55
Color: 56
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Warm
Cats: Off
Color Man.: Off
MPEG NR: Off
HD Size: Size 2
Black Level: Light
Or try My THX Settings (for a dimly lite room):
THX MODE:
Picture: 95
Brightness: 62
Color: 50
Tint: -8
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Normal
Cats: Off
Color Man.: On
MPEG NR: Off
HD Size: Size 2
Black Level: Light
While I use my Custom settings occassionally – tweaking the THX settings are much more important for everyday use. I use THX 90% of the time. The Custom Mode I created, I generally use ONLY for broadcasts made for TV. Remember THX is a movie standard and does not technically apply to TV shows (although some of these TV shows may also look better in THX).
Here are my custom mode settings again (already posted). Use these settings for TV shows and/or movies shown in a bright room:
CUSTOM MODE:
Picture: 85
Brightness: 50
Color: 34
Tint: -7
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Normal
Cats: Off
Color Man.: On
MPEG NR: Off
HD Size: Size 2
Black Level: Light
I recently purchased the panasonic th58pz800u from amazon for $3019, which I feel is very reasonable (The price has indeed fluctuated between $2899 and $3799 on amazon during the time I was shopping for it). Once ordered, the television was delivered in 3 business days (I’m in CA). Although the amazon website said it would be delivered “white glove”, the delivery persons did not have that information. However, when we let them know that’s what we were expecting, they willingly obliged by unpacking the t.v., placing it on it’s stand, turned it on and left with all the packing materials. Pretty nice! Before purchasing this t.v. which I waited for a while before it was even available, I was considering the Pioneer pdp6020fd, which in my mind is the only other comparable plasma set, image quality and features wise. I opted for a plasma because I felt that it had the superior picture (contrast, colors, sharpness) over all the nicer lcd screens available (120hz sony xbr, samsung, toshiba) particularly when viewing lots of full-range motion (sports and movies), the panasonic and pioneer plasmas handled the edging the most smoothly. I found the Panasonic set to be very close in image quality with the pioneer but for $1000-$1500 less. I didn’t care for the samsung sets because they generated so much heat. The panasonic and pioneer sets both don’t noticeably change the temperature of a room.
I setup my panasonic with all my sources being piped through my Denon avr2808ci, which upconverts all sources through it’s hdmi out. I have a hd cable box (connected via hdmi), a dvd player (connected via component) and a sony ps3 (connected via hdmi) hooked-up through the denon. The 1080i from the hd cable box looks amazing! The 1080p from the ps3 bluray is flawless and the 480p upconverted from dvd looks surprisingly great as well. In each case, the colors are vibrant and the blacks are so black that the blacks in an image are consistent with the black of the screen when it is turned-off. All in all, I am extremely pleased with my purchase of the panasonic and find it to be the finest television I have owned (The t.v. I replaced was a hd-capable 57″ sony xbr rear projection whose blacks were actually dark gray…I bought this t.v. for $1500 more than the panasonic set 7 years ago).
In my particular setup, I had to make sure that all my hdmi cables were hdmi v1.3 cables otherwise the denon throughput no signal to the television. Monoprice.com had excellent hdmi v1.3 cables for about $13 each. I was able to get a great bdi stand for it from dynamichomedecor.com which I also found to be an excellent resource.
I highly recommend the purchase from amazon.com primarily because of the included “white glove” delivery, just make sure at the time of purchase that it is stated. I know that vanns.com and other reputable places may have slightly lower prices, but for me the “white glove” delivery really made the whole process much easier and sweeter.
Went to BB to originally buy a 1080P 50 in Samsung Plasma or a 1080P 120Hz LG. Talked to the BB rep and they told me, “I would rather get a Panasonic 720P than a Samsung 1080Por LG 120HZ!” WHAT I THOUGHT!! Then she explained to me that the Panasonic has a 480Hz subfield drive, whereas the LCD’s I was looking at were only 120Hz. She explained to me Plasmas have come along way and there’s no issues with BURN INS and GHOSTS like the first gen Plasmas. Panny has an automatic orbiter and anti-image rention options set up to combat these issues!!!She showed me a calibrated Panasonic 720P and it BLEW the Samsung and LG AWAY!! But I was not set on buying 720P. I wanted the 1080P.
Left BB and came straight to Amazon.com (Amazon was almost 500 cheaper than BB, plus you pay no tax!!), however when I bought my TV they we didn’t offer free shipping. I ended up buying [...] in August (best price I found on the internet)(EASY TRANSACTION, plus free shipping, no tax). NOw I see the Tv’s alittle under 1500, but Football season was coming up and I wanted to see the new season in HD!!!
I still haven’t gotten my plasma calibrated, waiting for a buddy from BB to do it for free (its been 2 months and I’m still waiting!! haha what a friend). TWO drawback ARE 1) I’m realizing I wish it had 4 HDMI inputs and 2 the sound is LACKING (I guess cause its only 20W’s), i’ve decided to buy myself the Panasominc 960 HTIB for Christmas!!!
I have no issue with HEAT!!! I have no issue with GLARE!!! I have no issue with Ghosting or burning!!!
BUY IT especially since it has the 480Hz subfield drive and you can’t beat the price at under [...]!!! It came out 8 months ago retailing for nearly a grand more!!!
Well, I have been a CRT guy for a long time. I always thought that I would not really care to have HD over normal TV. I mean, yeah, the picture would be better but once engrossed in a show, well, would I really care if it is HD? And the answer is – as I expected – not really. However, that is just me.
As far as this TV goes, its fantastic! Great picture, great features – comes with a VGA type plug so you can run your computer into it easily if you don’t want to go HDMI for some reason. Sound is okay – not anything noteworthy. But really, it is an excellent TV.
Also – there is no noticeable glare that people are always concerned about. I have windows behind me so when the TV is off, I can clearly see them. When on – I don’t notice them at all so don’t worry about the glare.
The bad: Note that the bad is about all Plasma – not this TV. First – I bought this to be a computer monitor more than a TV (I am using it right now as a matter of fact – from my couch – very nice). I did not do my research though – very bad. Plasmas are known to have pixel memory. Although better than it was in past years, when you are on the internet for hours at a time – some parts of your screen never change – X in top right corner, window frame all around. For that reason, I wish I had gotten an LCD and would recommend the same to people looking to use this thing as a humungo sized monitor. I am guessing that I will screw it up being a software guy. Also – it is a power hog of course – also par for Plasmas. I don’t have to run the furnace in my house anymore jk
That said, as a TV, this thing is great – but I always expect that from Panasonic.
First things first. Open the box and make sure the screen isn’t cracked before you let the shipper leave and before you sign anything (shine a flashlight on it and any cracks will show up immediately). I learned that the hard way the first time I purchased this set (from another vendor). Also, I believe Amazon requires the shipper to unpack the TV, plug it in and verify that it is working before they leave although in my case the guy wanted to leave without doing this and I went ahead and let him.
There’s not much to say about the set itself except that it looks fantastic. I’m watching movies and playing games in a completely dark room and the black level is excellent. You should do at least a basic calibration of the brightness and picture (contrast) settings using a calibration disk for optimal quality (there is a free one you can find on the AVSforum, or you can buy one).
As with all Plasmas, you have to watch out for image retention, but I haven’t found that to be an issue at all. The instructions offer extremely conservative advice on breaking in the screen to avoid image retention (100 hours of full-screen viewing content with no black bars, sports or stock tickers or video games with fixed elements of any kinds, then another 900 hours of limited viewing of such content). Personally, I ran a break in program for 75 hours, started using the set for video games and movies (with black bars) and I just run the break-in program all night after any bad content. I’m now up to 200+ hours now and haven’t seen a speck of image retention or burn in.
It was easy to set up, even though I am just using it as a monitor it has a great picture plus it looks great in our room. We used the SD slot and software to show a group of our family pictures from our vacation. i am using the SD slot to have a screensaver of my choice.
My television arrived on schedule and the delivery service (yellow truck) was courteous and helpful.
Excellent price/delivery from Vanns/Yellow freight. Great TV, games and movies via PS3 amazing, sound is so good that I won’t be buying a theater system anytime soon. Standard TV is ok too, better then I expected eventhough I’m less then 8ft away. Glare is somewhat of an issue during the day and night viewing with lights on, but it’s ok and I will get used to it. Viera cast is easy to setup and have been using it to check the weather and look at u-tube videos. All in all perfect so far.
I also want to comment on Vanns excellent customer service. I placed the order on 09/02/08 and it was delivered on the 8th. During that time Vanns dropped the price a couple of times, a quick email to them and they promptly credited my amazon CC. I thought that was pretty classy.
Some of the best black level reproduction in the industry, a key component making for the best picture possible. Excellent uniformity with amazingly low false contouring, THX mode obviates in-depth calibration for easily getting the most realistic and best picture for your environment. Beautiful and attractive design. Great connectivity features with 4x HDMI and many others. Many other strengths found on this television.
jk
