Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P50G10
I was concerned with a few things when buying a big screen tv.
1. Do I have to change my cable service – no you don’t. I kept my basic cable and got a number of channels in 1080i and 720p. You just have to run the normal set up of letting the tv search for channels which took about 10- to 15 minutes or longer if I remember.
2. I hate the complexity of using some set ups with cable boxes and complex remotes etc. I ran the cable right into the tv and it’s so easy to use my wife has no problem at all even with the viera cast and renting movies etc.
I have a blu ray player and an older dvd and vcr combo hooked up. We record shows on the vcr and they’re watchable. We also have everything hooked up to a monster
home theatre surge protector which works great and even cleans up the signal.
3. was worried about standard definition tv and if it would be watchable – no problem the 50g does a great job with sd tv channels
4. I have a small room and wanted to use the sound on the tv – for us it works great. If we had a big room we may have considered a surround speaker system but the sound on this is decent.
5. what size tv to get. we sit 8-9 feet away and though a 50 might be too big – no way, if anything could have gone a bit larger. If you’re watching blu ray or HD tv then you could go up to 65 but with sd tv 50 is a good size for 8-9 feet away.
What I like about this set is the naturalness of the picture. It is crystal clear and looks and feels as though you are there. I never really thought of Panasonic for a TV but this may be the best on the market. No motion blur at all even with THX mode. I’ve seen so many lcd tv’s at friends and they pop with color and contrast but they just don’t look natural and after awhile are a bit hard to watch. They also still have problems with motion blur.
I find no need to have this set professionally calibrated as a few tweaks to suit your taste and the picture is as Panasonic describes – STUNNING! Don’t forget, it depends on the source of your video. If watching a SD tv stations then it’s ok. If watching a 1080i station it’s incredible, blu ray – unbelievable. If you press ‘info’
on the remote you can see the type of resolution you’re watching.
We’ve rented a number of movies with amazon and very easy. Sometimes the picture just stops which is a pain and you should expect that if renting over the internet. I wish they would get netflix on the viera cast.
The weather on viera cast is helpful and you can put 5 or 6 different locations in to see what’s happening at friends and family far away.
I have the bd60 blu ray player by panasonic and it is outstanding. Regular dvd look great and blu ray is just out of this world. clarity, detail, naturalness of picture is stunning.
We’ve had the set about 2 months and I wanted to wait to write a review. We did the break in period and kept the color, contrast, sharpness and brightness at around 20 to 30 and varied it a bit. you’re suppose to do this for about 200 hours of use.
I found the best time to buy a tv on amazon is about 2 to 3 months before thanksgiving for some reason.
I think the g series is outstanding in every way. I checked with consumer reports and they were helpful and stated which sets had good sound. Sound can very with different sizes in the same series. These sets were rated as very good.
Don’t hesitate to buy this tv – don’t know how much better the picture can get. We have no problem with brightness at all and the colors are just spot on. If the sun is shining directly on the screen it effects the picture, and we have to shut the curtain, but we don’t seem to have any problems with glare other than that. While watching some blu rays, you feel like you’re in the picture or actually there on scene. If you want to wait till the new models come out, keep you’re eye on panasonic and read the reviews in cnet and consumer reports. I’d be happy to answer any questions if I can – just put them in comments.