Plasma TV Reviews Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Contrast Ratio’

LG 50PG30 50 Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Incorporating Single Layer technology, LG was able to completely eliminate the usual screen border, making the set appear to be an elegant, seamless sheet of glass. This window-like, screen-only TV is more than just looks, however. The PG60 boasts a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 – the industry’s highest – which enables better black levels than ever before, and which are further enhanced by its dual XD engine. The TV also has Full HD capabilities and Fluid Motion technology that displays images much faster than 180Hz. The PG60 similarly includes LG’s Invisible Speaker with upgraded sound quality and wider sweet spot.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Wow
First of all, the tv and picture is awesome. The only faults: the tv comes attached to the base, and the screws are not high quality and I almost stripped them getting them out to mount them on the wall. Other than that, great deal for a great tv. Also, it’s REAL heavy too.

5 Stars Perfect TV for me
Prior to this tv I had a 50″ LG 720P. The only reason I went 1080P was because my cost came down on it. I probably didn’t need it, but I thought, what the heck. I’ve got a PS3, XBox 360 with HD-DVD add-on, Wii, DirecTV HD, and hook up HD Camcorders and my HDMI capable laptop as well. Expert mode for adjusting individual color / tint / brightness, and much more. Great blacks and plenty of HDMI inputs. LOVE it…..

5 Stars Great Picture!
This is a great product. The setup is easy and straight forward. The picture is unbelievable. Would definitely recommend it to anyone.

5 Stars This is a great value!
I was really nervous about making such a large purchase so I did alot of research before I made my choice. I will go point by point here.

Resolution:

I chose the 1080p because it was clearer than the 760p. I’ve heard people say that you can tell unless you’re using BluRay and I disagree. I could definitely tell the difference, especially on text, and I am glad that I chose the 1080p.

This television has a 30:1 contrast ratio and that makes HUGE difference in viewing text and the color black. Televisions with a lower contrast ratio (including the LG 50PG20) looked grey and the colors sometimes bled.

The Glare:

I upgraded from a CRT television to this. This television has alot less glare than my old TV, so I don’t know what all of the fuss is about. When my four lamps are on and my huge picture window is uncurtained, there is STILL less glare than my old TV. If I have company over, I close the curtains and turn off the largest lamp and it looks great. No glare at all. I don’t know what all of the glare fuss is about.

Sound Quality:

The sound quality is adequate. It’s about the same as other televisions I’ve seen, even the more expensive ones. The general consensus is that people who buy flat-screens should also buy a home theater system, which I’m planning to do next year. When I have alot of background noise during the day (my kids playing, phones ringing, hubby on the computer, cars going by) I have to turn it to about 75. (Their volume scale is 1-100.) When the house is quieter, 25 suffices. It works well and is fine for now.

Size:

The size is awesome and terrific!!! The closest seats are about five feet away and the farthest seats are eleven feet away and it looks great from any of those distances, at whatever angles. I love, love, love the size. It’s like being at a movie theater without any crying kids. (Except my own.) Let me say it again. THE SIZE IS AWESOME!

Picture Quality:

I have cable and it looks fine. The HD channels look awesome. In both cases, (HD and digital channel) you can practically see the pores on the actors’ faces. I purchased an upconverting DVD players so almost all of my DVDs look awesome as well. I do have a few that don’t look so hot. I picked up Ghostbusters I and II for cheap at Wal-Mart and they both look grainy. However, I’m chalking that up to both films being produced in the early eighties and never having been remastered.

A note on this: You cannot just plug this is and let it go. I had to purchase a good HDMI cable (cost me about 100 bucks) to get the picture quality that I expect from a plasma. I originally had it hooked up with my old RCA cables and it looked okay. Once we got the HDMI hooked up, I was blown away and ecstatic, even with the picture on standard settings.

Price:

This television has an average price on it. There are televisions that cost less and ones that cost more. I really found this television to be the best value for my money, because it LOOKED like the expensive televisions without the higher price tag. It is a bit more than some of the lower-end versions, but I really feel like you get what you pay for, and this is awesome and totally worth it. However, the Amazon price on it now is about four hundred dollars more than I paid, so I would really price shop before I purchased.

The Remote:

I saw some bad reviews for the remote and I decided I didn’t care because I could always purchase a universal remote later. Some reviewers said it was confusing and so I expected it to be confusing, but it wasn’t.

It is a very straightforward remote. On top you have your sound and picture controls, then your arrow keys followed by your volume and channel keys (your favorites and mute button is in between the two) followed by your numbers. The volume and channel buttons are curved so your fingers can feel the difference between up and down without looking.

The addition of the sound and picture controls make it a LONG remote and I couldn’t reach all of the controls with my hand on the middle, My husband can but I can’t. However, it is very light and slim so moving my hand to different sections was not a problem and doesn’t even require looking at it.

Shipping:

This item was very well packed by LG and arrived without a scratch or a dead pixel. It was awesome. I had heard some horror stories so I was a bit worried. In the end, I was more than satisfied with the condition it arrived in.

The Verdict:

This television is the best value for the money and I am so glad that I purchased it. It impresses me every time I see it and I have had it for over a month. Yay!

UPDATE: I have now had it for more than four months and I am still ecstatic with it. The picture is still great and I am STILL impressed by it’s size.

Buy/More Info

Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC P50G10 50 Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

If you demand the best from your viewing experience, the G10 Series of Plasma HDTVs was created just for you. They boast cinema-quality movie reproduction, clear, smooth sports and gaming action – even Web entertainment. All made possible by the Neo PDP technology, which delivers sharp, detailed images, deep blacks and remarkable brightness, and all with lower power consumption.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Don’t buy it for the black levels!!
Overall, a great TV at a great price. I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of positives you’ve read a hundred times, so I’ll just leave you with one caveat. Panasonic’s plasmas have a little known reputation of degrading contrast ratio over time. This is caused by the “black levels” or “minimum luminescence levels” inexplicably increasing with hours of use. That is to say the “color black” is nice and deep when the TV is new, but it becomes increasingly gray once you attain a few hundred hours of use. As of now, no one knows why this happens, or if it’s effecting every single unit, but it seems to be affecting a fair number of users both with these ‘09 models and several from prior years. You can read about the problem here: [...] It has unfortunately affected my unit, and it’s pretty noticeable. The Contrast Ratio was cut in half at about 400 hours of use and the TV now looks like an average quality LCD in a dark room.

5 Stars Great Television, Great Value
I won’t say I have tried every feature of this television, but the picture controls, the VieraCast, and HDMI input via DirecTV and DVD players, I have.

The most useful feature of the VieraCast I have found is the weather – great for quick local forecasts and radar map. In general, the switching while in VieraCast is a bit slow, although some of that could be due to internet response. Setting it up was very easy – plug it into a router/switch that supports DHCP, and you are up and running. YouTube videos do okay, though searching for the ones you want to see is quite rudimentary compared to what you can do on a computer with a real keyboard.

The picture controls are not extensive, but good enough for me to get the colors accurate with DirecTV signal.

The picture on this TV is amazing – both the HD and the SD channels. The refresh rate of plasma really takes care of most problems with sweeping scenes that I have seen on some LCDs. I have had a number of people say they wish they had bought this TV after seeing mine, so I figure that is pretty telling. I’ve been using it for close to five months without a hitch. Purchase and delivery through Amazon was fast and painless. The delivery person helped me un-box it, set it up, and even offered to take the box away (though I kept it).

I have been very satisfied with this purchase!

5 Stars Fantastic TV
Back in June, I was looking at the Panasonic TC-P50G10 and several Samsung LCD’s. I was pretty sold on the Panasonic since I have an older 42″ Panny Plasma that I have been very happy with. However, I took a trip to the local American TV store and I have to say I was more impressed with several Sony LCD’s hanging next to the Panny Plasma. They looked brighter and more “crisp” showing KungFu Panda.

I had a hard time deciding, but after reading many rave reviews of the Panasonic and much advice not to judge a TV in the showroom (AND a much smaller price tag than the Samsung AND a free BluRay player), I decided I couldn’t pass it up and got the TC-P50G10 from Amazon.

The TV was delivered by Pilot Freight. There was only 1 older gentleman delivering it and I had to help him carry the TV in, but otherwise no issues. I was very happy with the TV and the picture was fantastic. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed 1 dead pixel and 24 of what I would call “misaligned” pixels that were black from certain angles. Amazon was very helpful and agreed to send me a replacement. The TV was out of stock and I had to wait a couple months for delivery, but since I had the old TV, I didn’t mind at all.

A few weeks ago, I had the new TV delivered by CEVA – still 1 guy and I had to help him bring it in, but hey – at least I know he didn’t drop it that way.

The new TV is perfect – no dead pixels and the picture is fantastic (seems even better than the old one – may be the newer build date or just my imagination). In any case I seriously find myself watching the picture thinking – wow – that looks absolutely fantastic! and I have to rewind to see the part of the show I missed while I was oggling the picture.

I can’t compare it to the Samsung LCDs since I didn’t try them in home, but I am very pleased with the Panny. A couple things I can comment on: Many say the THX mode is too dim. I don’t agree – in a very few, very dark shows / movies it may be a little dim, but for the vast majority of shows it looks great – even during the day. Once the TV is totally broken in I may switch over to Custom mode, but for now I’m fine with THX.

Also, there are some complaints of flickering in the 24p mode at 48hz. I do see a little flickering in bright scenes at the biginning of the movie, but after a minute or so I don’t even notice it any more and I don’t think it is any worse than I see in a movie theater – ymmv. I do have to say though that I don’t see much improvement over the 60hz mode any way since it already looks great.

Burn-in issues are in my opinion not an issue any more. I’ve never had any permanent problems with my 3 year old 42″ plasma, but when I do weekly upgrades of my DirecTv software, the logo is on the screen for several minutes and I do notice the logo for a few seconds after the screen changes before it disappears. The new 50G10 does not have this at all – I haven’t seen even the slightest hint of image retention even in situations where the old TV does show it. I think you would have to seriously abuse the TV to have any issues at all. That said, if you are a serious gamer (I’m not), you probably want to take it easy the first 100 – 200 hours and vary the games you play every hour or so.

The anti-glare coating seems to be better than my old 42″ plasma as well. The lights from the other room that would sometimes reflect on the old TV’s screen are not noticable on the G10. I have the screen angled away from the window, so even in daylight, I don’t see any reflection issues.

I can’t comment on the speakers since I use a surround sound system.

Basically for the price – this TV is fantastic. I highly recommend it. Also, if you are buying, I highly recommend buying from Amazon (and not an Amazon merchant) since you get free in home delivery and the 30 return policy.

5 Stars VIERA G15 TC-P50G15
After reading countless reviews on many other products and manufacturers that delayed my purchase for a good month, I actually settled on the G10 50-inch unit. However the day I ordered on Amazon I received an email from the supplier telling me that the unit was out of stock and would not be available for at least 7-10 days. This was unacceptable given I was moving into a new home and wanted everything installed before furniture arrived but no problem. I had already saved over $300.00 on the purchase from this supplier and then they offered to upgrade me to the G15 at no additional charge for another $400.00 in savings. This was my first plasma purchase/experience and I must say I am still having fun playing with all the tweeks. I added the Panasonic 7.1 Blu Ray surround sound system and together with the television I am in viewing heaven. Great quality picture, very easy to use and set up and great value. The on board TV sound is good and provides a nice alternative when you want to keep things quiet in the house. But the ease of use with the integration of the 7.1 and BOOM, you are good to go. Since we are still in the process of moving in I have not connected the internet piece yet but am anxious to do so in the coming days ahead. But even without it I am extremely pleased.

5 Stars Excellent T.V., Very Happy, Sound Could Be Better
This T.V. is awesome, especially with a Blu Ray playing–it looks pretty much like film; just awesome. Make sure you grab some HDMI cables to get full resolution…..the cheapies they sell here at amazon work just great & there are several postings here & on the net in general saying that its useless & a rip-off to pay for expensive brand name cables—I, for on, found this to be a very good $$$ saving tip. My T.V. & Blu Ray player connected with the cheapie cables I bought here for a couple bucks works great.

Sports & T.V. are Excellent provided that the broadcast/signal is in 1080….720 broadcast/signal & normal DVD’s look good, but anything under that is not too much fun. Not sure why the Fox network does not go up to 1080 like the other networks.

Be aware that plasma technology is slated to be phased out, but soon to be obsolete or not, I love this T.V. & think it is superior to the LCD’s & would buy again w/o hesitation.

Buy/More Info