I first met Brad at the CEDIA exhibition in London where he's worked as consultant salesman in the Audio Visual industry for many years. He's just got himself a new Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV, so he knew I did these reviews, so he kindly sent me one of his new TV.
Here's what Brad had to say about his new Panasonic Viera 50 Inch Plasma, you'll have to excuse the English :>).
I 'm a huge football fan (that's soccer to us) and love my Sunday afternoon or Wednesday evening game on the T.V. I'm a big Chelsea fan, indeed I used to have a season ticket, but it's too expensive these days, so being such a sports fan as soon as I could afford it I decided to upgrade to HD.
To be fair, working in the audio visual industry gave me a great advantage when it came to do my research, so I hope what I found out can help you too. As I knew many resellers around the country I was able to access to pretty much any model I wanted. Indeed, I was quite shocked to find a plasma come out on top, especially when it was the the Panasonic Viera G25 that ticked all of my boxes. I had it in my mind that LCD was the way to go, but my advantageous research (and the complimentary viewings afforded me) pointed firmly to the Panasonic Viera TC-P50G25 Plasma.
What surprised me most was that a friend of mine had an early LG Plasma and he definitely has a screen burn problem, this really turned me off the idea of a plasma initially. In fact, most professional reviews will tell you this is an on-going problem on plasma sets. These so called "expert" reviews will also tell you vieiwng a Plasma in a bright room is another "problem". They are certianly issues I made sure I covered fully as I completed my research and viewings.
To be fair the Panasonic manual warns about screen burn and advises not to leave an image on the screen for long time or to watch 4:3 for extended timespans. However, Panasonic have added some neat features to help overcome this problem.
Firstly there is "orbiting pixel technology" which is extremely clever in that is moves the pixels about but ever so slightly. So slightly in fact that it is completely undetectable to the eye - amazing! especially as it doens'ty impact the quality of the picture. Secondly they have added a "scrolling bar" which can be run across the screen to help cleanse it. Added togethyer these two unique pieces of technology massively reduce the chances of screen burn - so far no issues!
So, what about the Panasonic Viera TC-P50G25 TV itself?
The swivel stand comes as standard as does the back lit remote (with batteries), I really like the back lit controller! There is also a detailed instruction manual and a quick start guide (which I used vry successfully to get me up and running).
To be honest, set up was a breeze. Panasonic have also made the box easy to open, that's got to be a first! There are some plastic clips integrated with the box that flip off allowing you to remove the entire lid with ease!
Getting the screen on to the swivel stand was easier than I thought as well. You need two people, but the set isn't heavy and it does slip on to the stand with ease. So far so good.
The room I've got Panasonic Viera TC-P50G25 Plasma set up in is big - vry big in fact. And...it's bright, very bright, even on our usual cloudy days here in the U.K!
To make absolutely sure on these "plasma issues", once I'd whittled my list down to three TV sets...I called in a few favours (favors - Ed). I chatted up some of the AV Buddies and got some home demos arranged. Of course I undterstand that most people can't do this, but...this was a big purchase for me and I needed to watch my Chelsea games with exactly the right colour (color - Ed) and brightness. My most important facets were to have a bright, clear, crisp picture with deep contrast. And I was worried about thyese issues so as I had the ability to make sure...that's what I did!
In all honesty I needn't have worried, but better safe than sorry - that old English reserve maybe?
The picture was amazing especially for watching my beloved Chelsea and other sport.
Football (sorry - Ed) is a colourful, (ah, I give up, excuse the English - Ed) spectacular sport. In fact it was
watching much of the colour and amazing action of the World Cup that finally decided me it was time to upgrade to HD.Having watched many of the games in HD. So, I was amazed at how bright and vibrant the picture was even when the sun came out! The action was crisp and crystal clear, almost like being there - I was sold.
And, with the new Panasonic anti-glare screen, the glasses natural reflective characteristics are down to virtually none.
You can tone down the brightnes if you want by watching in the TV's THX mode. This will give you a less bright display than the G25's "Standard" or "Vivid" mode and is probably about comparable with some of the lower end LCDs I looked at. Personally I like it as bright and vivid as you can get it, but...there are numerous controls and settings to get your picture just as you want it.
There is only one downside I have found so far. When a transmission is not in HD, the picture will tend to blur and pixelate on an HD set. And the bigger your screen the more pronounced the effect. I noticed a daramtic effect when watching non HD football (yawn - Ed) particularly on ITV (one of the U.K's mainstream free to air channels - Ed).
I was also also attracted to the Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25A because of the price, which was an important factor for me (sadly). The Panasonic came up a few hundred quid (that's English money - Ed) cheaper than comparable LCDs.
The bottom line was that the price versus performance equation was compelling with the Panasonic Viera TC-P50G25. Indeed a few LCD models that I looked at were close to double the price.
Finally, the Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25 has an excellent connectivity package with some very advanced features. Most of the features on the TV and the remote are pretty intuitive and the menu offers good explanations of each setting. The remote itself is thoughtfully and naturally laid out and generally easy to navigate. I like things that are easy to understand and use!
There are four HDMI ports, RCA and component connections as well as a coax input. There is also a PC port next to two USB ports. There is no S-Video though. This shouldn't be an issue unless your DVD player that bit older. But a quick cable upgrade is a simple, effective and cheap solution.
There are other connectivity ports such as Ethernet cable or wireless adapter. However the TV only works with Panasonic's own wi-fi adapter and it's expensive, which is disappointing. A common wifi adapter would have been good as the TV didn't recognise any of the other adapters I tried. But if you do network you can plug directly into some great features such as Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, Pandora, Flickr and Twitter plus lots more.
Overall, this television has astounding picture quality along with a realistic reproduction which I found to be better than any LCD I checked out in or around this price range. I did check out some LED models and they were oustanding.
However, LEDs are still very much on the expensive side, and the incremental performance is not worth the extra money (in my opinion) at this stage.
For the price, you cannot go wrong or find a better HD TV than the Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25.
For more great Plasma TV Reviews and Plasma TV Deals visit Planet Plasma TV
The plasm television are superior when it comes to picture quality. The contrast ratio of the these TVs are better than what is offered on other televisions. This makes the dark colours richer and the bright colours brighter. Thanks a lot.
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