LG INFINIA 55LE8500

I had my 55LE8500 delivered last Wednesday and after spending some time with it I know I made the right choice for a new television. The picture is really stunning when displaying HD programming. Bluray titles even more so. I am also extremely happy with the quality of standard def programming, ie non hd cable channels and avi files.

The black level performance is amazing. This tv has full array LED backlighting with local dimming and does not suffer from clouding or flashlighting problems that are present in other products.

The glass front is both an image improver lending a crystal clear look to the picture, but it is also very reflective so you will need to be able to control light sources in your viewing room. For me this was not difficult, however, if you have a room with many large windows and also lamps it could be a challenge.

You may also enjoy the internet features available after connecting the television to your network. You can update the firmware when available, there are movie choices from Vudu and Netflix and many more options.

This product is an expensive item, but the build quality shows and the display technology is among the best out there this year. My first choice had been a Panasonic 54VT25 plasma; its screen is not so reflective, but I am worried about image retention and burnin so I went with the LCD.

If you want one of the best HD displays and can control the light sources in your viewing room, you won’t regret owning the LG LE8500.

Reviewed by : Wade Hathaway “mrwarde6″ : June 26, 2010

Panasonic TC-P42S2

I got this TV because it looked like the perfect fit for a price / performance ratio. Overall I’m pleased with my purchase, although there are a few things that Panasonic can improve on. I have seen and had lots of experience with the 2009 S1 model, as well as the 2009 G10. The 2010 S2 is better than the S1 but doesn’t quite have the picture quality to match the G10. Its close though. So if you can find a G10 at the same price you may want to go with the G10. The reason I didn’t go with the G10 is because Panasonic has had problems with some of their TV’s losing a significant amount of their black levels in previous year’s models. They said that they have addressed these issues in the 2010 model lineup. So to get a few more years out of my plasma, and sacrifice a slight loss in picture quality I decided to go for the S2.

Picture Quality

As far as black levels go, I have no quarrels with this TV. It has excellent black levels, and honestly I think this feature is a little over hyped in the industry. I do appreciate black levels but when TV’s are this black, I much prefer color accuracy, which is where this TV has a few problems. Most colors look great and the red’s specifically pop very well. Skin tones are also very accurate for the most part. But the greens don’t look as good as other high end models and you can tell in a side by side comparison. Some of the HD sources I used to distinguish the picture quality of the TV are: Planet Earth, The Dark Knight (which is the best HD source that I’ve ever seen).Food Network (to accurately judge color), about a dozen video games, and a few other Blu-Ray movies. The fluid motion of action scenes is very good, and I couldn’t really see any flaws as far as motion quality goes. The detail of the content that I viewed is pretty good, but you may notice a few flaws if you sit really close. Another complaint that I have about the picture quality is that sometimes the video processor doesn’t handle older HD sources and doesn’t do SD sources very well at all. SD sources, at times, look downright terrible, and the TV doesn’t seem to clean up HD sources that were made four or five years ago as well as higher end models. This TV also seems to handle video games very well. There were only a few occurrences where I saw a difference in picture quality and they were minute. Overall, very good picture quality.

Sound

No one is going to mistake this for a good home theater setup, but to sound is pretty good for a TV. If you’re serious about your audio, then you’ll definitely want to get a home theater system to compliment this TV.

Features / Menus

It would have been nice to have an Ethernet port to get firmware updates, and have a few internet applications, but these apps are usually slow and I much prefer to use a set top box or gaming console. The Ethernet port is the feature that is any concern for me. As far as the menu goes, Panasonic has almost gotten it right. You’ll have to go into the settings, and change a few things because the default settings are a little strange. They’re also missing a few things like gamma, and an option to just turn up the brightness of the panel (not the picture). Mostly everyone will turn it on Vivid which may be a little to bright for some, but the alternative, Standard, is much to dim. It would have been nice to fine tune everything the way you like. The menus do a descent job of explaining what each setting does, which is a welcomed addition. They have also disabled some of the settings which is also a little strange. The remote is nothing special. They could have moved around a few buttons to make it easier to navigate but, I`ve seen much worse. The Viera Link feature (for me) is completely useless, and I can’t imagine anyone using it very much. There is also a slot where you can put an SD card and show off photos. This is useful, but it is very slow going from image to image. It’s also worth mentioning that this TV does have the ability to heat up a room.

Overall

This TV does what I want it to do. It has solid picture quality, and enough features to keep me satisfied. The fact is that technology changes so fast that it doesn’t make sense to spend top dollar on hardware when that hardware will be trailing edge in a year or two. So, while I would love a higher end model, I am very satisfied with my purchase. With proper calibration it’s hard to see the difference between this TV and higher end models unless you sit really close, so I do recommend this TV.

Reviewed by : Carl M. Coleman JR,   April 29, 2010

Mitsubishi WD-73738

I’d like to make two points clear at the onset. One, I have always been a bit suspicious of glowing reviews I’ve read out here, suspecting somehow they had been written by people associated with the company producing the product being reviewed. And two, although I have purchased other less expensive items online, I have always had a great fear of buying large ticket items, such as this television set, online.

I had resisted buying an HDTV mainly because I wasn’t comfortable with the drawbacks inherent in each type of set, e.g. burn-in for plasma sets and dropped pixels for LCD sets, plus the fact that the picture on most of these sets gradually deteriorated as each day went by. My current set had been a 45 inch Mitsubishi DLP television, whose picture was still as sharp and clear as the first day I turned it on back in 2001. Plus, I had never had to replace even one lamp during this almost ten year period. So I was definitely a Mitsubishi fan, despite some of the problems I’d read about with certain of their earlier DLP high definition models.

But the thing which really motivated me to finally purchase a Hi-Def set was the day I watched my first 3D demonstration at a Best Buy store. It was amazing and all I could think of after that was watching my favorite sports teams in 3D. So I began a long and very arduous research process, mainly online. It finally brought me to this particular Mitsubishi 3D ready set, despite the negative reviews given to certain earlier Mitsubishi models. (Whose warranties Mitsubishi did extend for two additional years) And, it seems as though many people bought Misubishi sets without ever being aware that, under varying circumstances, they may have to replace their lamps from time to time.

At any rate, I eventually took the giant leap of faith and ordered my new Mitsu 73 inch HDTV from Amazon,com. Mainly because I had made other smaller buys from Amazon.com with no problems and I have to admit I liked the idea of free shipping and no state taxes on a large ticket item like this, which saved me around $260.00. Anyway, the big day arrived and while I had had many earlier concerns over how the delivery would be handled, I was delighted to find how smoothly the actual delivery process went. At the time of purchase, the delivery was scheduled for 7/22/10 between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM. They actually arrived at 10:15 AM on 7/22/10. As I was extremely relieved to find, the two men handling the delivery actually brought the stand and set inside my apartment, in that order, and carefully unboxed each item. They then gave me plenty of time to carefully inspect each item for any exterior damage. They then carefully placed the set on the stand and even turned on the set to make sure the initial blue screen appeared. So, it turned out all my delivery fears were absolutely unfounded. The delivery could not have gone better.

After they left, I waited for a bit and then began hooking things up. After plugging everything into my new surge protector and making the required connections, I turned the set on and went through the required set-up routine, making all the picture settings which had been recommended on several Hi-Def forums for the earlier version of this model. These seemed to give me a very nice initial picture, even though I feel I may have a bit more tweaking to do to suit my individual preferences. But after briefly watching some college football and professional golf, as well as an episode of The Sopranos, I believe all my research has been well rewarded and that I have purchased the perfect set for me. There have been a few who told me they would never have anything to do with Mitsubishi sets, but as I told them, I will remain a huge fan until such time as my set proves otherwise. In addition, I will mention that I did purchase a SquareTrade extended warranty for this set, as I would have done for any item costing this much money. The cost was little enough to provide peace of mind for four years. And, as I later learned, my Visa card automatically extends the warranty for a fifth year.

So I suppose this review is exactly the type that would have inspired me to believe it was written by a Mitsubishi employee. Nothing could be further from the truth. I just feel I did my homework and bought this item from a reliable E-tailer and hopefully, I will be enjoying my new Mitsubishi 3D HDTV for many years to come.

Reviewed by : Honest Abe,   July 23, 2010

VIZIO M220VA

I recently purchased the new VIZIO M220VA 22-inch LED TV, and so far it seems to be a solid performer. Of course, I feel that it is my obligation to point out that this model is NOT meant to be a high-end set. If you purchase this with such an expectation, you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a good, affordable LED LCD TV with great picture quality, you would have a difficult time finding a better bang for your buck than this.

Let me start by expressing how very annoyed I get when I read reviews that get so caught up in only pointing out superficial flaws and never even touch upon the most important aspects – picture and sound quality. Yes, this TV does have it’s quirks: the remote is a little stiff and can be a little fickle sometimes. The stand is difficult to put on and literally took me a good 15 minutes to figure it out. However, despite these flaws, this television does deliver where it matters.

Picture quality is quite good, especially for a TV in its price range. Standard definition content looks sub-optimal, but this is due to the nature of how SD video is scaled by HDTVs in general, and nothing to do with this model specifically. High-definition content looks excellent, and I have had good experiences watching 720p/1080p movies from my laptop (through the VGA output). The picture is bright, crisp, and contrast is great. Blacks are rich and solid, without losing the subtle detail in the content. Keep in mind, though, that in order to get the most mileage, you will need to spend some time to calibrate the settings to give you an optimal picture quality. Games look great and there is no ghosting with the TV’s fast 5ms response time.

The screen has a matte finish, which is great if your environment has lots of lighting, as the matte surface will suffer far less from glare than a glossy screen would. There is a never-ending debate over whether one type of screen surface is better than the other, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Sound quality on the other hand is nothing to write home about. The speakers are a bit weak, but this is easily solved by using a set of external speakers. I am currently using an old set of computer speakers hooked up via the headphone jack on the TV, and they sound infinitely better than the TV speakers after turning off the “SRS TruSurround” option (some sort of faux-surround sound simulator).

The VIZIO has a decent number of inputs in the back, with 1x Composite, 1x Component, 2x HDMI, 1x VGA w/ Audio, 1x USB (for photos), and an optical input for a home theater sound system. It is worth noting that HDMI and component inputs are located directly on the back of the model (composite inputs are on the side), so if you are planning on wall-mounting it, it may be difficult to plug in the necessary connections if you don’t leave enough room between the wall and the TV.

Also, it is worth noting that the previous reviewer stated that there is no way to remove unwanted channels individually. This is FALSE. Under the “Master Channels” menu, you have the options to “Mark All”, and “Unmark All” channels. Hitting right on the controller allows you to move up and down on the list to select individual channels to add/remove.

All in all, this is a good TV. It is certainly not perfect, and if you have more money to spend I would encourage you to shoot for a higher-end model. But for what it’s worth, the VIZIO M220VA is a tough beast to beat in its division.

Reviewed by : Jonathan C. Huang,   May 6, 2010

LG 42PJ350

Let me start by saying that I am not a videophile, but when it comes to purchasing a television I can be very picky. I went through the whole LCD vs. Plasma dilemma 3 years ago when I bought my Samsung 5084 (one of the best non-Pioneer plasmas at the time). That said, I was ready to supplement that unit this year with a ‘smaller’ LCD for the bedroom (didn’t want to sweat IR, horizontal line bleed, etc). Needless to say, LCD options in the ‘budget’ range lack features that alleviate some of their drawbacks, forcing you to suffer through motion blur, clouding, and terrible black levels if you choose a set for ~$800).

Enter the 42″ plasmas. For the sake of comparison, I decided to investigate the plasma alternative once again. This essentially brought me to the Samsung C450 due to my positive experience with the 5084 and glowing reviews for the C450. Unfortunately, users reported an audible buzzing noise from the Samsung (a noise I know full well from the 5084 and did not want to deal with on a bedroom set).

Enter the PJ350. I only became aware of this set after seeing it next to the Samsung at the store. From a design perspective, it tops the Samsung with an ultra thin bezel, very thin chassis, and no ‘touch of red’. Furthermore, I heard no buzzing from the LG floor model, while the Samsung sounded like someone was digging honey out of a beehive. Since it is a brand new model I had no reviews to rely on, but I took the plunge.

Picture quality from this unit is superb for any sub-$1k TV, much less one at this price point. This 720p set rivals my 1080p plasma in most respects, most notably black levels. I have only had it for a few days now, but setting the TV on ‘cinema’ mode at 70 contrast and 50 brightness is really impressive (I recommend switching those two numbers for several weeks to break in the unit). If you place your head behind the unit, you can hear the typical plasma ‘buzz’, but this is completely inaudible at any reasonable viewing distance. While this goes without saying, all the benefits of plasma are apparent with this TV: cinematic quality motion (none of that chincy 120hz movement), 24p bluray playback, consistent backlighting, etc. I have noticed a tiny amount of false contouring, but less than my Samsung – hardly an annoyance. OTA video quality is, of course, superb. The reviewer who stated that colors are not as vivid clearly didn’t recognize that picture settings are independently adjustable for each input. This TV does offer a settings wizard to help set the picture based on your unit and environment, but I prefer manual adjustment to suit my personal tastes.

If you’re worried about not having 1080p, don’t be. At this size, you will not detect a difference anywhere outside 4′ from the unit. The screen is quite reflective, but if glare is your primary concern then you surely can settle for the inferior picture quality of a cheap LCD. While I have limited experience with my LG, I can honestly say that I am very pleased thus far.

Reviewed by : StevenJ,   Apirl 7, 2010

Samsung LN40C630

The picture is impressive with 1080i television and 1080p movies/xbox. I’m sure it can be better, but you will never notice unless you have a (…) tv in the next room. The sound quality isn’t bad at all in my opinion, although it isn’t very impressive either.

A cool feature is the easy use of an external HDD. All you have to do is connect an external drive into the usb port and you are able to play your favorite movies/media, which surprisingly works with all of my video file-types including avi and mkv(in 1080p). There’s no need to connect to a network/pc as long as you have a usb device that can hold enough of your media.

At (…), this was an absolutely great buy! Samsung is a brand you can trust when it comes to TV’s, at least as much as you can trust any large corporation.

I would give it the 5 stars, but the few cons that it has make it a “great” tv, not perfect.

Cons:

-no “internet apps” for this model, (as far as I can tell). I was assuming that the apps would be standard, considering how new this model is, but samsung makes no attempt to let the consumer know about it’s internet limitations, maybe that’s why it’s so cheap.

-you need to buy a wireless adapter to get a wireless connection, which is just another way for samsung to get an extra (…) from you. Also, right now I don’t really see the point of connecting to the internet, seeing as how there arn’t any apps like netflix, pandora, or whatever else.

-remote isn’t great, although most people can just use their cable remote anyways 
Reviewed by : D. Harris,   Apr 4, 2010

Samsung UN55C8000

First off I want to be clear about the kind of review this is intended to be. I am not a profession TV rater. I am not a videophile. I am a regular Joe and I am reviewing this for the regular Joe who is thinking about spending more than usual on a good quality television. During the next few months, I’m sure you can find a more professional review from the usual places… But for now, this is my impressions.

CORNER LIGHT: After reading many reviews on last years B8000 and this year’s C7000, I was worried about the light that emits from the corners. I’ve seen displays of last year’s B8000 and this year’s C7000 and have VERY easily seen what people are talking about. I took a big gamble in purchasing this TV before I read if people were having issues with this C8000. So let me say… After watching this TV for about 5 hours per day for 3 days… I have NOT seen the light coming from the edges as seen on other sets. And believe me I’ve been looking. I tried to find it watching the HD feed on Time Warner Cable, Blu-ray’s from the PS3, Blu-Ray’s from the Samsung 3D Blu-Ray player, watching at night, during the day… Nothing. I just do not see it!

LOOKS: This TV looks just amazing. It has a VERY dark black screen. It looks as beautiful turned off as it does on. I was nervous about the brush metal look, but it actually looks very nice and compliments the new chromed four-legged stand.

PICTURE: The picture clarity looks incredible. It’s as if I’m discovering HD for the first time. This set replaces a Samsung DLP set, so of course this is a vast improvement. Having said that, I have a newer plasma in the bedroom and this set looks much better than that. As with all new LED sets with 240 Hz, there is a bit of the Spanish Soap Opera/Home Video look to it. Some people really like this, some people don’t. I really like it. For those of you that don’t, you can always turn this feature down or off. To me this makes the picture look very clear and it makes it stand out from the other sets.

3D: Along with this TV I purchased the Samsung 3D Bluray player so I can get the 3D startup kit for free. Turning the 3D feature on and connecting the glasses was easy. The intro to Monsters v. Aliens was very cool. The opening scene in outer space looked incredible. The ball tied to a paddle part was funny and kinda made me jump a little. I haven’t spent too much time with 3D but I did notice that there were some scenes in the movie that had a double image while wearing the glasses. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it is noticeable. You can see this right away during the church scene at the beginning of the movie. It was a little annoying. I’m hoping that this is the kind of stuff that gets ironed out with a firmwear update, or as more content is released, they learn to fix it.

OnlineTV: This is also a very new area for me. I never understood the need for me to want apps on my TV… But its actually kina cool. I’ve tried a few apps but my favorite by far is the Pandora app. I’m a big fan of Pandora and this app I actually like better on my TV than online or the iPhone. The only thing I hate is that Samsung did not have Wifi built in. I think pricing this set at the $3000+ mark should be enough to include it with the set and not require me to drop another $80 for the USB adapter. I just hardwired it, but that’s another wire I don’t like dealing with.

USB: I wanted to mention that this set allows you to connect a USB external hard drive and play music, photo’s and movies directly from the HDD. I have a Western Digital 320GB Passport filled with movies and music, and I was able to navigate the files structure in the drive using the remote quite easily. And it played all the files formats I threw at it.

Pros:
No corner light!!!
Very dark screen.
Very clear picture
Pandora Samsung App
3D was surprisingly fun
USB external HDD capable
and… NO CORNER LIGHT!

Cons:
Slight double images on 3D.
Wifi requires an $80 USB adaptor.

Overall I am very satisfied with the UN55C8000. Even with the few CONS, this set to this average Joe is a definite 5 star! As I spend more time with the set, I’ll be sure to update this review if I find something worth mentioning.

Please feel free to ask me questions and I’ll try my best to answer them. I know how nerve wrecking buying a big ticket item such as this is… So I would be glad to help as much as I can.

Reviewed by : F. Fernandez “BrokenFern”,   Apr 5, 2010

Samsung UN46C8000

This TV is absolutely stunning. I was actually waiting for the C9000 to come out, but that TV’s price is way over the limit. I found out that this TV which is the next step down and actually has the exact same technology as the C9000 minus the touchscreen remote (which can be bought seperately) and the slim profile, not a big deal considering the TV already looks beautiful and is half the price or less then a C9000!

In all honesty, I think this TV has one of the nicest pictures I’ve ever seen. One example is the pin-point dimming, which has garnered a lot of criticsm and skeptisism. I have seen the production TV model live and I must tell you, I think it’s better then local-dimming and I’ll tell you why… Unless there is a new panel that is made to fix the local-dimming “halo affect”, this is currently the only way to get outradgeous contrast levels without that problem. The pin-point dimming on this TV dramatically lowers the dark spots on the screen in certain area’s without a halo affect and actually goes completely pitch black when watching movies with dark screens just like a local-dimming TV. I think this TV actually excels at the dimming part over a local-dimming TV because it creates supurb black levels without any halo affects. That’s a huge deal for me. Next is the color accuracy of this panel, I think the whites and colors on this TV are probably better then I’ve ever seen. Sure Plasma’s can sometimes have better color temperatures, but they will not pop out of the screen with ambience like this TV shows. This TV is sharp looking and beautiful and it displays wonderful 3D and High-definition like never before.

Last, but not least… this tv is LOADED with features, easily making it one of the most feature rich TV’s there is on the market. It’s completely wireless, has 4-hdmi conenctions, has internet applications and streaming capabilities and best yet, it does it well! I have done a lot of research and have compared this TV with it’s newest competitors and this one is it. Don’t just take my word for it, go see it for yourselves and you’ll just see what I am talking about.

Reviewed by : Corey Fisher,   Mar 30, 2010

Samsung PN50C550

I had tried to buy the previous “B” model at close-out prices, but I missed the boat. Thought I might be outta luck until the “C” version started showing up a day or so afterward and it turned out to be basically the same TV, just about 25lbs lighter – only 2 people needed to wall mount – I was down with that and $1,100 bucks still didn’t seem too bad. I had already researched for some time and Plasma was it for me. The Panny G-10 had a similarly good picture too, and although it offers much to consider, I liked the Sammy’s picture just a bit more, but you may want to check it out as well. I received the set with zero problems or issues: no dead pixels or any buzzing, whines or anything amiss at all. Outta the box the picture was quite good, and showed me good resolution performance even with SD cable with no video noise issues (although initially I did find it necessary to use the 3 supplied ferrite, choke magnets that snap onto the power cord. These not only eliminated the several horizontal noise bands in the picture, but cleaned up the resolution on the overall picture with no downside – an easy fix that totally nixed the problem for me).

But, tweaking the picture a bit is where this set shines the most. When researching, I came across a site that offered a list of picture control settings for the “B” version. Since this is really the same panel, I factored it into my buying decision accordingly. Especially since the settings were said to be obtained with a Sencore color analyzer (about a $10,000 pro device for calibrating video displays and is the sort of thing used by the Imaging Science Foundation – ISF. They at least did pioneer and continue to legitimize the video calibration practice, but more to the point, it WASN’T done by any of the more lame imitators that have since cropped up (like Geek Squad, Spyder and others) whom, I feel, exist to separate you from your money (at about $300 a calibration) while hardly giving you a better picture adjustment than you can get on your own with a $25 calibration DVD).

What this means to us is that the results of, what I’m taking to be the equivalent of a $300 (legit) picture calibration, for this particular set anyway, have already been posted on the web for free – not an inconsequential consideration, for anyone interested. I’m posting those numbers here, for those who are:

White Balance Settings:
Red-Offset: 22
Green-Offset: 25
Blue-Offset: 12

Red-Gain: 33
Green-Gain: 25
Blue-Gain: 33

Picture Settings:
Picture Mode: Movie
Color Temp: Warm 2
Brightness: 56
Contrast: 90
Color: 53
Tint: G35/R65
Sharpness: 10
Black Tone: Off
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Gamma: 0
Colorspace: Auto
Flesh Tone: Off
Edge Enhancement: Off
Digital NR: Auto
HDMI Black Level: Low
Film Mode: Auto

When I tried these settings I noticed a very organic, natural-looking picture, one that offered me a few surprizes. This set happens to be inherently capable of showing a more-than-generous amount of color saturation without problem. I personally prefer a picture that’s just slightly undersaturated, if anything (but, I expect this set will accomodate anyone’s taste on that score, if yours are different than mine). With all this, what I found was that even when slightly undersaturated and I felt the picture was indeed realistic-looking, whenever an unusually colorful object was displayed (like a particularly vivid piece of clothing, or a brightly flourescent color – like some NASCAR colors, for example), this TV displayed BOTH the less intense colors of the more mundane objects, and the most decidedly vivid ones, equally well in the same scene AT THE SAME TIME – never subduing the most vivid colors even when the overall color level looked ‘properly’ undersaturated to me on the more everyday objects. Nor was it unnaturally emphasizing them, for that matter. The result was a TV that, on any good, HiDef, cable feed, regularly showed me a surprisingly wide (yet natural-looking) “dynamic range” of color intensity in the images. I could just about feel as if the TV itself were getting out of the way and showing me clearly (and more truthfully than I’ve seen in my home before) just what the camera saw. Very nice and, as I say, surprizingly convincing (and this with simply 1080i and 720p cable feeds – a Blu-ray player is definitely next!). This set, after my preferred adjustments, didn’t make all the colors look too subdued, like some plasmas I’ve seen have ended up doing, nor all the colors too vivid, like some LCD’s. I felt like it walked the line beautifully – not merely a good compromise, but it seemed truly the best of both in this regard. Black levels were great and with excellent detail – no complaints.

In the end, I did opt to deviate from the settings above, but only with respect to overall contrast/brightness and color level settings, everything else was the same. This gave me an appreciable gain in contrast that suits me and my family’s tastes in our well lighted, daytime living room. Plasma is usually not as vivid in the contrast department as most LCD’s or LED’s, but in the mid-price range ($1,000-$1,500 retail) it’s a small price for me to pay for a picture that I feel (with adjustment) is otherwise decidedly sharper, clearer, more life-like and dimensional than anything else for the money. I haven’t felt that any comparative lack of overall contrast has resulted in any buyer’s remorse for me at all, as no such notion has yet remotely entered my head anytime I’ve watched it.

I’ll add that in my experience with LCD’s vs. Plasmas, Plasmas kill LCD’s and LED’s when it comes to motion – at least in the sets in this price range. Up over about $2,000 and differences between the panel types start to get quite a bit smaller to me. But, just before I settled on this Sammy, I went to Wally World and dragged home a Vierra LCD, mainly to see if ‘taming down’ an LCD picture to suit my tastes could possibly be better than trying to ‘pump up’ a Plasma. In this case, a huge waste of time! What I saw was a 120-Hz LCD on sale at just under a 1,000 bucks that just couldn’t do motion very well at ALL. I popped in a SD DVD of Lawrence of Arabia and it looked like it was shot “live-to-video”, perfectly goofy. I also found out just how bad a 5-ms response time can look on a 47″ set. The 120Hz feature DID work as advertised and made fast motion MUCH better than without, but any slow-speed pan or movement caused a nearly instantaneous defocusing of the area of motion, until the motion stopped and the blurred area was able to snap back into focus. When watching a head shot of someone speaking, for example, their face would perceptably blur in the areas of facial movement while the face of another person in the scene next to them (not talking) remained in sharp focus – too disconcerting. And too much of a disconnect to the experience to NOT want to look at a person while they were talking(!). Plasma (600Hz or no) inherently has no such motion problems that require the consumer to spend money on to overcome. If that wasn’t enough (and, believe me, for me it was) the somewhat artificial vividness to the picture proved, at least on this LCD, to be something I could never quite tame, no matter what the settings.

For me, to pass muster, a flat panel must make no major blunders in the 4 most important performance areas of color, contrast, resolution and motion. To me this Sammy does all of that and at a very nice price – I don’t know how I can do much better than that, especially without another free video calibration. In fact, the only Plasma that I’m confident could beat it hands down is the discontinued-but-still-available Pioneer Kuro 50″ plasma. But then, it should, it retailed for a mere $4,500 when new. But, a few months ago it could be had on the web for only 1,600 bucks. It’s just that at the time, I didn’t have the scratch. Now, the remaining ones, if you can find ‘em, were, the last time I looked, hovering around $3,000. Oh well, I’ll tell you one thing, though; this machine at this price, has certainly eased my pain…;) I know this isn’t 3D, or more colors than RGB or anything, but I’m more than content now to wait all that out. Til the next round, this will do me just fine!

Reviewed by : jartwo “jartwo”,   Mar 22, 2010

Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25

My wife and I bought bought this TV two weeks ago and we have been very happy with it so far. This was our first big-screen/HDTV and we were glad we chose this TV. We were able to find it for $1000 on sale at Nebraska Furniture Mart.

I have been most impressed with the color quality with the TV. The depth of colors, especially the blacks, make me happy we chose a plasma over an LCD. Plus, the 600 Hz refresh rate blows away even the “state of the art” 240 Hz on LCD/LED. There are no awkward looking movements on this TV like you see in the LCD/LED TVs in the stores.

The sound quality on this TV is fine; I have read a lot of reviews that say that similiar Panasonic models have horrible sound quality. Unless you are expecting Bose-quality sound coming from the TV, the sound is fine and in fact better than our previous CRT TV. It’s not a big deal to me if the sound isn’t Bose-quality; I’d rather pay less for the TV than have to pay more for a built-in speaker upgrade.

I really don’t think the THX certification is that big of a deal. The THX picture mode is nice, but I prefer the custom picture settings that I have self-calibrated to my preferences on the TV. All the THX cerfitication really means to me is that the TV your are buying is one of the manufacturer’s higher-end models.

We did have a problem with a couple of the pixels going completely white during one of the first nights we had the TV. We were worried at first, but it’s been over a week and we haven’t had any problems. I’ve heard that plasma TVs may require some time to get running at full capacity (or something to that extent) so we weren’t too concerned.

The only other thing I notice about the TV is that it does make a faint buzzing sound while running. I have read this is standard with all plasma TVs. It’s not really that noticable unless you are really close to the TV and have the sound way down. It’s quite minor if you ask me and I wouldn’t let it change your mind between buying a plasma and buying a LCD/LED TV.

Reviewed by : jjbjhawk,   Mar 24, 2010