Unlimited long distance $24.99/mo
We typically go on and on about calibration but with the TH-50PZ800U we didn't have to do much beyond increasing its contrast control a bit to approach our 40 footlambert baseline light output. Compared with other picture modes and to the company's own TH-46PZ85U, THX on the PZ800U delivered superior color temperature and especially primary color accuracy, and despite the fact that THX mode didn't pass blacker-than-black parts of the video signal (while the Custom mode did), we left brightness alone for optimal performance. Check out our full picture settings for details.
After a brief setup, we were ready for our comparison, which this time around included Panasonic's own TH-46PZ85U and Pioneer's PDP-5080HD from the plasma camp, and Samsung's LN52A650 and Sony's KDL-46XBR4 from LCD land. We popped the trusty No Country for Old Men Blu-ray disc into the PlayStation 3 and moved through our standard image quality tests.
Black level: As we've come to expect from Panasonic plasmas at every price point, the TH-50PZ800U reproduced deep blacks. It matched the PZ85U's black levels to our eye, and while it still wasn't quite as dark as the Pioneer Kuro, the difference was hard to discern even in side-by-side comparisons of the darkest scenes. When Llewelyn returns to the getting place in the middle of the night, for example, the silhouette of the hills appeared extremely dark along with the frame of his truck, and the depth of the shadows looked equally impressive in our completely dark room.
Shadow detail also looked as good as the Kuro, and better than any other set in the room. The Panasonic doesn't have a Gamma setting but, according to our eyes and measurements, gamma was excellent (averaging right around 2.2 if you're curious). As a result we saw all of the detail in dark areas, such as the dawn-lit hillsides when Llewelyn makes his escape, and they didn't look too bright, as we complained about on the TH-46PZ85U.
Color accuracy: The TH-50PZ800U outclassed both of the other plasmas in our comparison in this department, and just about equaled the color accuracy of the Samsung LN52A650 LCD and PN50A550 plasma (the latter according to our measurements, since we didn't have it on-hand to compare directly). The key was in the Panasonic's fine primary color palette, which rendered accurate greens in the desert shrubs, reds in Llewelyn's toolbox and especially the cyan in skies and water, for example. Grayscale accuracy, while a bit red according to our measurements, was still well within our tolerance, so skin tones like Sheriff Tom Bell's scraggy, ruddy mug and the baby-faced deputy looked natural and not too reddish (the Pioneer) or bluish/washed out (the PZ85U).
Finally, the deep black levels of the PZ800U allowed even better color saturation than we saw on the Samsung PN50A550 plasma; brightly lit scenes had plenty of punch and vibrancy, and colors stayed true regardless of brightness levels. All told, the TH-50PZ800U exhibited the best color of any plasma we've tested.
Video processing: As expected from any modern 1080p HDTV, the TH-50PZ800U resolved every line of 1080i and 1080p sources. It failed to properly deinterlace film-based 1080i material, according to our HQV test, although as usual that failure was difficult to spot in program material.
Speaking of program material and resolution, it again bears mentioning that we really couldn't discern any difference in detail between the 1080p Panasonic and the 1366x768 Pioneer when watching the Blu-ray, or any other normal material. From a our seating distance of about 8 feet, fine details such as the fabric of a car seat, strands of hair, and shrubs on the distant prairie looked equally sharp on both displays.
During the TH-46PZ85U review we mentioned ineffective noise reduction, but for whatever reason the image on the TH-50PZ800U appeared a good deal less noisy in THX mode, even with noise reduction turned "off." (Custom mode, for its part, again evinced the same level of noise we saw on the PZ85U). Engaging NR on the PZ800U cleaned up the image further, although with high-quality Blu-ray sources we preferred to leave it turned off.
We tested the Panasonic's "24p direct in" mode by setting it to 48Hz and switching our PS3 to 1080p/24 mode. After doing so, the first thing we noticed was significant flicker, which was most obvious in brighter areas of the picture, such as the overcast sky or sun-scorched desert hardpan, but was present throughout. The flicker made the image basically unwatchable, and we much preferred the look of standard 60Hz mode. If it weren't for the flicker, however, the 24p mode would be great, because it did make movement appear more natural, removing the hitching in motion associated with 60Hz's necessary 2:3 pull-down process. We feel most viewers will notice and object to the flicker enough to abandon the 48Hz setting, however.
Uniformity: As with nearly all plasmas we've tested, the TH-50PZ800U's image remained perfectly uniform across the screen, and viewing angles were superb, with none of the drop-off in contrast or color accuracy typical of LCD.
We also noticed that the TH-50PZ800U introduced even less false contouring than the superb Pioneer or even the PZ85U. In one scene where the Mexicans' pickup crests a hill near the getting place, for example, its headlights caused faint contours or step-like gradations on the latter two sets, which were most visible along the extreme edge of the light as it transitioned into darkness; the PZ800U, on the other hand, showed no such contours (and to be fair, neither of the LCDs did either).
Bright lighting: Compared with the Pioneer, which has the best antireflective screen of any plasma we've tested, the Panasonic didn't do as good a job of attenuating glare. Watching dark scenes with the lights turned on and the windows open, reflected objects in the room, such as a white shirt and the silver edge of our laptop, were a bit brighter and more distracting in the Panasonic's screen than on the Pioneer. The PZ800U's screen appeared identical in antireflection performance as the one on the PZ85U, which in that review we declared better than the screen on the Samsung PN50A550.
Standard-definition: With lower-quality sources the TH-50PZ800U performed about average in THX mode. It didn't quite resolve every detail of the DVD format, according to the resolution chart on the HQV DVD, and as a result details in the bridge and grass from that disc looked a bit softer than the other displays in our test. On the other hand, the Panasonic did a fine job of removing jaggies from diagonal lines and a waving American flag, and its 2:3 pull-down detection kicked in effectively, if not quite as quickly as some sets we've tested. Its noise reduction performed well with low-quality material too, cleaning up the motes in skies and sunsets as well as the Pioneer, albeit not quite as well as the LCDs in our comparison.
PC: With our test PC connected to one of the HDMI inputs, the TH-50PZ800U performed perfectly (as expected from any 1080p flat-panel) in THX mode, resolving every detail of a 1,920x1,080 source with no trace of edge enhancement or shifted pixels, and text looked sharp and natural. When we tried the VGA input, however, we were only able to get a maximum of 1366x760 resolution (as the manual says), which of course resulted in softer looking text and an overall less-impressive image.
| TEST | RESULT | SCORE |
| Before color temp (20/80) | 6156/6562 | Good |
| After color temp | N/A | |
| Before grayscale variation | +/- 209 | Good |
| After grayscale variation | N/A | |
| Color of red (x/y) | 0.63/0.338 | Average |
| Color of green | 0.297/0.615 | Good |
| Color of blue | 0.149/0.061 | Good |
| Overscan | 0.0 percent | Good |
| Black-level retention | All patterns stable | Good |
| Defeatable edge enhancement | Yes | Good |
| 480i 2:3 pull-down, 24 fps | Yes | Good |
| 1080i video resolution | Pass | Good |
| 1080i film resolution | Fail | Poor |
| Panasonic TH-50PZ800U | Picture settings | ||
| Default | Calibrated | Power Save | |
| Picture on (watts) | 191.44 | 286.25 | N/A |
| Picture on (watts/sq. inch) | 0.18 | 0.27 | N/A |
| Standby (watts) | 0.18 | 0.18 | N/A |
| Cost per year | $59.77 | $89.11 | N/A |
 | |||
| Score (considering size) | Good | ||
| Score (overall) | Good | ||
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