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.
Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25