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Date: 2008-12-22 Simply marvelous. Santa brought me a 50PZ800U this year, and I have been very impressed so far. I bought this unit after months of research and basically sight-unseen based on a glowing cnet review. True to form, the black levels are excellent, the color accuracy is very good right out of the box, and the set itself is gorgeous. I love the single-sheet-of-glass design and do not find too much fault with the strip of plastic (metal?) that runs around the edge of the set. I ordered through Amazon and was very pleased with the experience from them (the best price, period) and the shipping company Pilot (got it a few days early, in perfect condition, and the guys were nice). I have the set picking up over-the-air (OTA) signals from an attic antenna, and have a Panasonic '35K Blu-Ray player and Apple TV running through a Yamaha 'V663 receiver via HDMI. What would I liked to have known that I didn't really see while shopping around? 1. The anti-reflective screen really isn't. Before sunset, the set picks up reflections off anything in the room that catches the slightest bit of daylight. Prepare to dodge glare while watching during the day, or to do some mitigation at the windows. 2. I'm using the pedestal base, which is nice enough and swivels a bit, but it is a real dust magnet. It's like it is permanently statically charged. 3. So far I have not been able to find a program guide for OTA DTV stations like my $40 set-top-box has. Not a big deal, and maybe I just haven't found it, but it seems like a silly omission. And maybe I'm the silly one for running a 50" plasma basically on "rabbit ears," but the OTA signals are wonderful and I do not see the need to pay for more programming. If you have satellite or cable, the lack of a program guide is probably a non-issue. 4. Yes, there is noise emitted from the set (a buzzing much like a fluorescent light ballast) but on my particular unit, I haven't found it to be noticeable at all unless I am standing at the unit, looking behind it. If you lived in a rural area, on a still night, where absolutely no other noise was generated in the room, I guess you would be able to hear the set during silent passages in a movie. Not a big deal at all in my opinion. 5. If you sit any closer than ten feet from the set, the 50-inch size may be too big for you. I'm about at 10' and I am right on the edge of feeling like I'm too close to it. All in all, this is a wonderful TV for the money, and the Amazon experience has been great. Date: 2008-12-21 Awesome This television is simply awesome. The THX mode is fantastic. You will love it! Date: 2008-12-20 Awesome Plasma This TV is spectacular. The colors are very rich and the contrast is awesome. I signed up for HD cable and it looks as good as blu ray content to my eyes. I didnt know closed captioning doesnt work if you are not connected directly to the cable set to box, I have it connected through HDMI cables through my receiver. Also the submenu doesnt work if your input is other than TV, which I heard is not a bug. I am not sure what is THX mode though. I know there are predefined color, brightness, contract settings called "THX" and I use those factory settings. I had heard that in THX "mode" the picture is not that clean, but if the above setting is what is THX mode, I didnt find any problems with it. I watched Hancock, Hell Boy 2, Dark knight and many other fantastic movies and the results are AWEEESOMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE !! Date: 2008-12-19 GREAT TV!! I purchased this 50 inch Plasma TV and it did not disappoint. I conducted much research and feel this is the Best Value on the market. The picture quality is superb, especially through the 1080p of my blue ray player. Date: 2008-12-16 Wow. Just... Wow So I've had my new Panasonic TH-50PZ800U TV for a week, having bought it Black Friday here on Amazon for a great discounted price (29% off list). Delivery was very quick with Pilot delivery service, and they did a great job of bringing in the set, assembling it onto the included base, and setting it onto the Bell'O stand I'd purchased. They even made sure I knew not to turn on the set for an hour or two so it could warm up and not be damaged (it was about 30º when they delivered it). The TV has gotten a fair bit of use with both HD television broadcasts and regular DVD watching (both TV shows and movies). Here's the current setup: - Panasonic TH-50PZ800U - Sony 5-disc DVD player, purchased in 2001, connected directly to the TV by Monster Video III Component cables* - Scientific Atlanta 8300HD hi-def digital cable box & PVR, connected to the TV by Monster 600 THX-certified component cables** - Onkyo TX-DS595 receiver, purchased in 2001, handling all audio duties. Receiver has no component inputs / outputs, never mind HDMI, which is why the DVD player and cable box are direct-connected to the TV *Those Monster cables were purchased back in 2001 when I bought the DVD player, and when I was unaware of places like Monoprice **The THX-certified Monster cables were on clearance at Radio Shack for $44, while the "ordinary" component cables were $40. They may make only marginal improvement, but for four extra bucks it was too good an opportunity to pass up, especially since the set is also THX-certified. And I figured component rather than HDMI since the best I could hope for was 1080i video from the cable box. APPEARANCE The set is gorgeous, with a piano black high-gloss finish on the bezel and stand that goes really nicely with the Bell'O TV stand I'd purchased. The stand's plastic scratches unbelievably easily. There were some fingerprint smudges on it after it was assembled, and before I found the lint-free cloth included with the set I had taken a damp paper towel to it to wipe them off. The stand now has a load of hairline scratches from where I wiped the paper towel on it. Lesson learned!! Only use the included cloth or a chamois!! The glass front is fairly reflective, even with the claimed anti-glare coating, and this set definitely has to be used in a room where the ambient light levels are under really good control. The set is located in my finished basement, which has 6 floods on a dimmer switch and a small window on the wall opposite the TV. If the TV is off, the window is very visible on the screen and bezel, and the whole room is visible if the lights are turned up or it's daytime. If the TV is on, the reflections are pretty much gone from the screen, even when watching video with darker scenes, but they're still plenty visible on the bezel and are a definite distraction. CONNECTIONS More than enough for my needs. Both component video inputs are in use right now, and none of the four HDMI slots. When I eventually switch from DVD to Blu-Ray I'll also use an HDMI cable so I get the full 1080p resolution, freeing up that component input for the Nintendo Wii we'll also be getting down the road. You do need long video cables, though. I've got my DVD player on the lower shelf of the TV stand with a 6-foot component cable, while the HD cable box is on the middle shelf with a 4-foot cable. Both cables reach, and there's moderate slack, but if the set was any larger or the jack pack any higher up it'd be a close thing. VIDEO QUALITY This is the Big Thing, of course. When you first turn the set on you're asked if you're in a home or a store. Selecting "Home" defaults all video inputs to "Standard" mode, which is decent. But I changed both component inputs to "THX" right away. I tried using the additional picture settings applied by CNET in their review of this set, but I honestly couldn't see any noticeable change, even with the lights completely dimmed, and in the end reset everything back to the stock THX values. THX is definitely worth it and I recommend using it for every input except one used for a video game system. ---- TV SHOWS ---- Note: Unless otherwise noted, all shows were seen on an HD channel of my cable box and were broadcast in 1080i format. The first thing I saw on this set was a re-run of "Lost" (Season 3) on Sci-Fi HD. The dark interior scenes had really great detail, and all the actors looked "right" (skin tones looked accurate, no color shift that I could pick up as "off" from what I'd expect). Then the scene changed to the jungle outside, and for a brief moment I had that "looking through a window" feeling. The plants looked amazing and totally natural, no day-glow or over-saturated colors, and when Sawyer's hand showed up, groping around for a rock, I really thought I could reach into the set and grab his hand. That is a natural-looking picture, folks! Next things I saw were the tail-end of an episode of "Chuck", followed by "Heroes". "Chuck" was good because it had plants and buildings in strong daylight. The plants still looked totally natural. You could see the pores on the actors' faces and really get an idea of how old or young each one was (and if they had too much make-up on! ;-D). "Heroes" was also really good, and a good test of the set's black-level abilities as there were a number of night shots along with daylight scenes. I'll definitely say this: If there's an HD-equivalent channel for whatever station you're on, use it. My kids still watch Disney Channel and Noggin, neither of which are in HD, and the picture quality is so visibly poor compared to the HD signal it isn't funny. Not the set's fault; if anything, I'd say the set is just showing how poor the incoming signal is, since anything in HD is so much better / clearer / sharper / cleaner. My wife and I also watched "Gray's Anatomy" (season 4, disc 4) on DVD. The set does a good job of upscaling the video signal with such an old DVD player, and I think they did the transfer from the HD broadcast version of the show to get as much detail as they could, but it's definitely no HD program. Loads better than standard-def TV, but not quite as good as the 1080i HD channels. It just didn't have the same "pop". ---- MOVIES ---- Over the week I saw The Polar Express (during the day), Anne of Green Gables (which was clearly an older film / lower-quality transfer), and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (extended edition). Polar Express and LOTR were fantastic. Very good transfers and very good video quality. Still not the same "pop" as the HD program material, but very very good nevertheless. Polar Express was perfectly watchable with the daylight coming in and the only annoying reflection was off the bezel, as noted above. All of the animation was sharp and you could see how much attention the animators paid to the details of the characters and sets. I was amazed at all the details I could see in LOTR that I hadn't noticed even when I saw it in the movie theater. Things like the fact that Aragorn was really wearing Arwen's pendant the whole time; you could actually see it gleam and shimmer as it moved under his travel clothes. Or the detail / etching in the Balrog's flaming sword. I definitely can't wait to watch The Two Towers and The Return of the King! Anne of Green Gables showed itself as an older film with lower-quality transfer. There was visible "snow" and excessive grain in the picture that wasn't visible in the other films (unless it was because the film used in this movie actually did have more grain to it). I had to turn on the noise reduction feature of the set for this movie, which improved the picture noticeably. FINAL COMMENTS This is a phenomenal TV set, and if you have a room that can handle the lighting requirements, you should definitely get it. If you can find it for the same kind of deep-discounted price I got mine for, don't hesitate and snap it up, quick!
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