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Panasonic on
12 13th, 2009 |
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50″ Plasma, 1080p, NEO PDP Panel which is brighter, Full-time 1080p TV lines of moving picture resolution, 3 HDMI, Native contrast ratio 40,000:1, Dynamic contrast infinite black 2,000,000:1, Game Mode, Anti Reflective Filter, 600 Hz Subfield Drive
- 50-inch plasma HDTV with full 1080p HD resolution and three HDMI inputs
- Neo PDP screen provides brighter panel, Full-Time 1080 TV Lines Moving Picture Resolution, and Contrast Ratio of 40,000:1
- VIERA Image Viewer lets you share your digital photos with friends and family directly from SD cards
- VIERA Link lets you control your compatible Panasonic DVD, Blu-ray Disc player, home theater sound system and HD camcorder, with a single remote
- 600Hz Sub-field Drive produces crisp, focused images for sports, dramatic action, and all other fast-moving scenes
Price:Too low to display
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I bought the TC-P50S1 and will definitely be returning it. I thought I would love this TV. I have always recommended Panasonic plasmas to my friends and family, because of all the good reviews Panny’s get online, but this purchase was a real wake up call. My biggest beef with this panel is, ironically, the poor picture quality. I thought Panny’s were known for their great picture quality, but not the case here. Specifically, the picture on this TV is GRAINY, FUZZY, DULL, and lacking proper COLOR.
Is the picture Completely grainy? No, but it’s noticeably grainy. More than it should be.
Is the picture Completely fuzzy? No, but it’s noticeably fuzzy. More than it should be.
Is the picture Completely dull? Ya, it’s pretty dull. Color’s don’t pop.
Is the picture Completely lacking proper color? Well, it does show colors, but they are mostly all lacking. It’s especially hard to get a good true blue. The color spectrum is hazed over in a pale green and reds are not true to life. It struggles noticeably with the full Red, Green, Blue spectrum.
I watched a couple blu-ray movies on it. Transformers, Star Trek, GI Joe. The movies looked good, but this had more to do with the movies themselves, not the TV. Yes the resolution was high and the special effects/cinematography looked awesome, but the TV hurt the overall experience more than it helped. I’m sure there are other plasmas out there that have even greater shortcomings than this Panasonic, but being relatively not so bad doesn’t make this TV great.
Like J.C. “researcher” I am disappointed with this Panny because I have had better. If you have never owned a good plasma before, then you might be thrilled with this TV because you don’t know any better. Remember 8 years ago when 60-inch rear-projection TV’s were the cool thing because of how big and “awesome” they were? Yet hype aside, their picture was actually pretty bad–stretched out and pixally. But we embraced these TV’s because they were the best big screens we knew of, at the time; but that still didn’t make their picture good. If you buy this Panny and think it’s awesome because it’s the best thing you’ve seen to date, realize that there is much better out there.
I own a 42″ HP Pavilion EDTV(480p) plasma, bought 4 years ago, and it is So much nicer than this Panny. It cost me $2000 at the time, but today i’m sure it would price much lower if sold. I believe the display panel in this HP was made by Panasonic, which is one reason why I have always thought highly of Panasonic’s panels, because I LOVE my TV. The picture is crisp and the colors really pop. All material, standard TV, HD TV, DVD’s, Blu-Ray look great on it. Often, material looks better on this TV than it should. The TV gets rid of static and graininess, smooths pixalation and makes a really clean picture. Even on older source material that normally looks rough, when I play it on my EDTV it somehow looks almost magically better than on regular TVs.
I noticed graininess on Panasonic’s 1080p panels even in last year’s model. I remember looking at a 1080p Panasonic plasma in 2008 at Best Buy hooked up to a Blu-ray movie as one of their featured setups. I remember mentally gearing myself to say “wow, isn’t the 1080p awesome!”…but then objectively noticing that the picture was noticeably grainy. I just kind of said to myself “hmm, weird…not quite the picture I expected.”
When I went to Sears, Costco, and Best Buy to check out this S1 model in their showrooms, I noticed especially that with Standard material the picture was pretty rough and dull. I marked it up to “oh, must be a bad feed”. I said to my girlfriend, with me at the store, that based on what I saw I didn’t think the TV looked that good, but expected that once I got it home and hooked it up to a good feed it would look much better. Sorry, nope. It’s just not a high quality panel. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt when I turned it on and the picture was immediately off-putting that I could fix it with the color settings, but alas, no set of adjustments can overcome it’s inherent weaknesses. I thought well maybe I need to get the G10 model with the THX setting, but apparently other discerning plasma lovers have observed the same 4 problems of grainy, fuzzy, dull, and lacking accurate color in it as well.
CNET actually said this in their summary about this TV: “THE BAD: Less accurate primary colors and color temperature; skimpy picture controls.” I just didn’t think it would be such an issue, but for me it is. The $897 I paid for it at Best Buy doesn’t warrant it as a good TV, justified by value/price. At any price I don’t want this TV because it just isn’t good enough.
Here is a similar review to mine for the G10:
We don’t understand the hype… very disappointed!, November 7, 2009
by dcf977 “Dan”
I have had the TC-P50G10 in the house for a few days now. My wife and I are thoroughly disappointed.
I have been buying Panasonic TVs for many years, all the way back to the pana-black square CRT days. They have always been my favorite. I have a Panasonic plasma in another room of the house which is a few years old and have been very pleased with it. I was very confident when I purchased the TC-P50G10 from amazon based on the rave reviews from all the blogs (cnet, HDGURU, etc..). Everyone seems to love it. However, this 1080p plasma tends to be blurry, fuzzy or hazy. There is a dullness to the picture as opposed to the crystal clear dynamism that I expect from a top notch 1080p plasma. I notice it most when watching sports. When there are graphics on the screen, such as on Fox during the World Series when they display the box with a batters statistics, its blurry and muted. The text is fuzzy. Actually, any text displayed on the set is fuzzy. My wife noticed it first and I didn’t want to accept it, but she is right. We have difficulty focusing on the thing. And don’t tell me its the picture settings. I have tried every combination of THX, Custom, Standard… while moving the other settings all over the place. Same thing, dull and muted. We thought that perhaps ours was defective, but we went to BB today and as we walked up to the same model TC-P50G10 on display, we saw it right away. When sitting next to the other flat panels, the Panasonic plasmas from the 2009 line-up all have a grayish, muted effect to them. Oh, and the color is a bit off too. The green isn’t right. I could deal with the color issue on its own, but this sucker is headed back to amazon. Don’t believe the hype. I see the potential for greatness, but the 2009 lineup of Panasonic plasmas are a resounding dud.
Rating: 2 / 5
Purchased for OTA use using a rotor to point the antenna to various channels.
This TV can only do auto programming of digital channels.
Moving the antenna from channel to channel wont work since the auto programming resets all previously found channels and manual programming of a single channel is not possible
Rating: 2 / 5
This TV is AMAZING!! i have been researching for the past 6 months for the perfect tv and this is it! I know that and i haven’t even bought it yet! I already choose this one on amazon and went to best buy too see if they had it. Sure enough they had it on display with two recliner chairs. So i sat myself down and i viewed all of it’s sweet, HD glory. They played a blu-ray version of the new king kong and i happend to walk in during a fight scene in the movie. IT WAS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN! I had to stand there for 10 minutes before i realized that i looked like a freak. This is one of the best 1080p sets i have ever seen and i totally recommend it. And i haven’t even bought it yet!
Rating: 5 / 5
Very nice colors and deep true picture. for the price this is a great television.
Rating: 4 / 5
I have had a plasma since before it became so affordable, my first TV was a Pioneer Elite, which is now 3 years old. I bought the 50″ Panny as a basement TV, I am satisfied with it, and unless there is a way to tweak the colors on it satisfied is about all I will ever be with it. It’s not as great as a 5 star review would have you believe. The TV has virutually no adjustability of the picture, no gamma, no greyscale which stinks because the factory settings aren’t natural looking, too green and too red. I have literally A/B’d this TV next two my 3 year old 720P capable Pioneer Elite Plasma technology and there is no comparison, NONE. I would have thought the newer technology would look better. But alas even the 3 year old Pioneer (with much lower refresh rates) looks much better, way more natural, flesh tones are the best example. Even my wife clearly notices it.
I would say this about this TV, and this is coming from someone who has quite a few years with Plasma technology. This is a good mid-range Plasma TV at best with appropriate features, and represents a decent value. It is by NO means even in the same ball park as the higher end Plasmas that it is being compared to today or as I discovered the plasmas of yesteryear, the picture tweakability leaves ALOT to be desired and the sound from the downfiring speakers is not very good.
For me it serves the purpose it should, a second TV, to me this is not worthy of being the centerpiece.
Rating: 3 / 5