Panasonic TC-P55VT50: Best Plasma HDTV

Technology Zones - The VT50 series is the Full HD 3D Plasma flagship series. This top-of-the-line HDTV offers a revolutionary level of picture quality (Full HD 3D; 1080p Full HD resolution) and features the Infinite Black Ultra Panel (VT series only). Other unique features include ISFCCC Calibration Mode with Advanced Calibration, 2500 Focused Field Drive, and a VIERA Touch Pad controller (VT/WT series only). VIERA Connect IPTV - More Fun Comes Via a Cloud Service VIERA Connect is a cloud service that provides apps in categories like video and music, social networking, games, news and lifestyle, sports, health and fitness.

In a year when the first two big-screen OLED TVs are hitting the market and the best LCD to date will likely have an even better successor, Panasonic's VT50 plasma still has the best flat-panel picture you can buy -- for now. Even if one of those contenders manages to unseat it atop the picture-quality heap, videophiles who invested in Panasonic's flagship can reassure themselves that OLED and Elite owners are getting ripped off. The VT50 itself is not cheap by any means, but it's sure to cost much, much less than those others.

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Panasonic VIERA TC-P55VT50 55-Inch 1080p Full HD 3D Plasma TV 
Panasonic VIERA TC-P65VT50 65-Inch 1080p Full HD 3D Plasma TV 
Panasonic VIERA TC-P65VT30 65-inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV, Black

By "not cheap" I mean "$1,000 more than an ST50" as of press time. And while the VT50's picture is amazing enough to drop even the most jaded of jaws, the ST50's isn't much worse. It's certainly not a Cleveland worse, at least to most viewers. If you, however, count yourself among the few who might actually consider spending that much extra to get the best TV since the Kuro, the Panasonic VT50 is a tempting target for a big chunk of living-room wall. If you count yourself value-conscious, the ST50 is a pretty good way to settle.

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Design
For the last couple of years Panasonic has fronted its best "V" series plasmas with a single sheet of glass that visually merges the picture and the frame into a single plane. On the VT50 the effect is beautiful, enhanced by the thinner bezel around the screen and the slim edge of silvery metal. I think this is Panasonic's best-looking plasma ever even when it's turned off, and one finally able to compete with the flagship designs of LG and Samsung. In fact, I like the VT50 best among the three.

The VT50 comes with two remotes: the standard clicker found on models like the ST50 and a little puck with a thumb touch pad just like a laptop computer's. Unlike the touch remote included with Samsung's high-end TVs, this one's actually as responsive as I'd expect from a modern touch pad, making it fun to use in many circumstances. It was at its best zooming through groups of thumbnails on the Netflix and Vudu apps; for browsing the Web, while better overall than the standard remote, it has its issues (see below). It's also Bluetooth instead of infrared, so it doesn't need a line of sight to operate.

Panasonic also tried to jazz up its standard remote this year, but the newly glossy face serves mostly to show fingerprints. We like the rest of the changes, though, from the nicely differentiated button sizes and groups to the extensive backlighting to the new dedicated Help button.

Panasonic's menus remain unchanged: an all-business yellow-on-blue that still seems a bit dated compared with Samsung's or Sony's UI, but gets the job done. One great addition is the Help section with an onscreen user manual, which isn't as complete as the included print version but still covers most of what new users will want to know.

Features
Panasonic's best plasma for 2012 gets a few extra features over the less-expensive GT50 series. There's an Infinite Black Ultra Panel with a new predischarge spark intended to help achieve even deeper black levels, and an improved louvre filter for keeping black areas of the picture darker under bright overhead lighting. Panasonic also reserves its 96Hz refresh rate, designed to better handle 1080p/24 sources, for the VT50 alone.

Both the VT50 and the GT50 offer THX certification, which the step-down ST50 series doesn't. Both also get a couple of more esoteric picture-quality-related extras, namely double the "shades of gradation," a 24p smooth mode (not to be confused with a higher refresh rate), "facial retouch," and "pure image creation."

Beyond features aimed at picture-quality snobs, the VT50's flagship cred is established primarily by the touch-pad remote. Like the GT50 it also has a dual-core processor and more connectivity than the ST50.

I was disappointed that, despite its high price, the VT50 does not include any 3D glasses; Samsung's flagship PNE8000 plasma, for example, comes with four pairs. Like all 2012 Panasonic active-3D TVs, the VT50 complies with the Full HD 3D standard, so in addition to Panasonic's own 2012 specs it also plays well with others, including the $20 Samsungs. 

Smart TV
Last year I ranked Panasonic's Smart TV interface, called Viera Cast, highest for its simple layout and ease of use. The company didn't change much about Viera Cast for 2012. I like that you can easily shuffle the services you want most, like Netflix, into prominent positions, and navigation was faster than on the ST50 -- likely thanks to the dual-core processor. The VT50 also gets multitasking; when I hit the tools key a virtual page flips up to reveal the most recently used apps, providing quick access.

Panasonic's content selection is top-notch since it added Vudu, although I'd like to see a dedicated 3D app like the ones LG and Samsung offer. There's a new-ish Social Networking app that can combine live TV, Twitter, and Facebook on the same page. Audio gets relatively short shrift, with just Pandora, Shoutcast, and a karaoke app as of press time.

The Viera Market has a solid selection of apps, although I didn't appreciate having to sign in to an account to download even the free ones. There's also a real shopping section with overpriced Panasonic gear and other sundry hardware like keyboards (which help if you're the one guy who really enjoys tweeting on your TV).

The company says it will add new apps soon, including a partnership with MySpace touted at CES and an exclusive with Disney digital books. It also offers a remote-control app for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.

The Web browser is almost as good as the ones on Samsung and LG TVs as long as you use the touch-pad remote, but that's not saying much since no TV browser can hold a candle to any phone, tablet, or laptop browser. Clicking over to CNET.com, I found I couldn't navigate down the page until it finished loading, which took forever (about a minute). I tried to scroll down by moving the cursor to the bottom of the page but it wouldn't respond. Instead I had to use the scroll bar on the far right.

Entering text via the onscreen keyboard, a painful necessity, was actually much easier via the standard remote since the touch clicker has a tendency to overshoot, and the lack of autofill is incredibly annoying. Load times were hit or miss, and while I actually did get a video at comedycentral.com to load eventually (after an even longer forever), about a minute in the audio dropped out and then the video quickly followed. At Hulu.com an ad loaded after about 20 seconds but my clip didn't arrive at all.

Finally it's worth noting that, like many TV makers, Panasonic now reserves a spot on smart TV home page for an ad (currently Shutterfly on my VT50 sample). For the first time I've seen, however, the TV also shows you a banner ad when you first power up. It popped up and lasted about 3 seconds, but it was still annoying. 

Picture settings
The VT50 offers more picture settings than any other TV I've tested in its Custom mode, but its THX modes are also quite good by default. I really appreciated that both THX Cinema and THX Bright Room offer basic adjustments -- an improvement over LG's nonadjustable THX. Unfortunately both are capped for light output on the 65-incher I tested, so there's no way to get either one any brighter.

The Custom mode houses the 2- and 10-point grayscale, a full color management system, and even a 10-point gamma adjustment. The advanced controls didn't work as well for me as Samsung's, but they outdid LG's.

Connectivity
Plenty of inputs, including four HDMI and a PC input (step-ups over the ST50), grace the VT50's back.

Picture quality
The VT50 is the best-performing plasma I've tested since 2008, beating out the Samsung PNE8000 and Panasonic's own ST50 and GT50. I don't expect any other 2012 plasma to beat it. Its black-level performance, shadow detail, color accuracy, and bright-room picture quality outdo the Samsung's handily, and while the ST50 puts up a stronger fight than the Samsung, it also ultimately falls short of the VT50's picture quality, if not value. I haven't fully reviewed the GT50 yet but it's a closer match to the ST50 than to the VT50 from what I've seen so far.

The only TVs that can compete with the Panasonic VT50 are the Sharp Elite and, yes, that hoary veteran the Pioneer Kuro (circa 2008). Ignoring size differences (the Kuro maxed out at 60 inches) and the fact that you can't get one anymore, I actually would still rather watch the Kuro than this Panasonic -- but it's very close. The VT50 is a better TV overall than the Sharp Elite, however, despite the latter's arguably superior black-level performance. My vote goes to the Panasonic for its more accurate color and perfect screen uniformity.

Of course if you sit anywhere but the sweet spot in front of the middle of the screen, the Panasonic's advantages increase. The only reason I'd recommend the Sharp Elite instead is if you need the Elite's better light output to combat ambient light in the room, you really value 3D performance, or you really want the 70-inch Elite's larger screen.

As you can probably guess by now, the VT50 earned a "10" in this category. Its only flaws are minor crosstalk in 3D and some wonkiness during my calibration, but neither of those can keep it from taking the 2012 TV picture-quality crown -- and serving as my new reference TV. It's clearly Panasonic's best plasma ever, and creates some stiff competition for the OLEDs arriving later this year.

Black level
Blacks on the VT50 had an inky quality visibly superior to what I saw on any other TV in the lineup aside from the two Elites. The letterbox bars and numerous black and shadowy areas from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" looked and measured a notch lighter on the Panasonic ST50 and GT50, the Samsung, and the Sony in most scenes, and the darker the scene, the more superior the VT50 looked than those four. Its true 0 percent measurement of 0.0024 is the lowest we've ever recorded for a non-Kuro plasma.

In brighter scenes and mixed content the advantage was much less noticeable, but in our lineup the VT50 still won against the non-Elites. Its advantage in light output compared with the PNE8000 was also readily apparent, and contributed to its better overall punch and impression of contrast.

In a few extremely dark scenes, such as the gathering of Voldemort's host on the hilltop (45:52), the superior black levels of the two Elites were discernible. The VT50 couldn't quite approach their depths of black, but the gap between the VT50 and the Elites was much narrower than between the VT50 and the others in our side-by-side comparison.

Compared with the LEDs, the dimmer image produced by the VT50 and the other plasmas in very bright scenes, like the all-white world of Harry's vision of the foetal Voldemort in chapter 22 (1:31:48), could be seen as a disadvantage. In my experience however the light-output limitations of plasmas in such scenes are only visible in side-by-side comparisons, and don't detract at all from critical viewing in dim and dark rooms.

Details in the shadows, such as the snake carvings in the watery cave (52:25), were essentially perfect, distinct and perfectly visible yet not too bright. The VT50 was probably the best in the room in this regard, although the Sharp Elite was extremely close. I didn't notice any instances of floating black or other anomalies in my viewing sessions.

Color accuracy
The VT50 was subjectively the best TV in the room overall in this area, despite its imperfect charts (see my notes on picture settings above). It trounced the cyan-poor Sharp Elite and also outdid the Kuro as well as the other Panasonics. Its closest non-Kuro color competition was provided by the Samsung PNE8000, although I'd give the nod to the VT50 for its less bluish cast.

Harry's vision in chapter 19 (1:15:48) showed the VT50's colors to good effect, from the grass to the blue sky (it looked more purplish on the Sharp) to the delicate skin tone of the young redhead. The bright scene dripped with saturation and lushness, another advantage of the deep black levels.

I looked hard for evidence of the slightly redder cast of the low grayscale, fluctuation in grayscale in the midtones, improper primary color balance, and a greenish cast to cyan -- all of which I measured during calibration -- but found these issues impossible to spot. Colors on the VT50 looked rich and yet accurate across the board, with the exception of a greenish-reddish tinge in the very brightest white areas like Harry's chapter 22 vision. Dark areas and shadows looked more neutral than on any other TV in the room.

Video processing
Both the 60Hz and the 96Hz mode handled 1080p/24 sources properly in my test, and this year I didn't notice any extra false-contouring artifacts when setting the TV in 96Hz mode. I did detect slight flicker in 96Hz in bright areas, for example the clouds over Brooklyn in "I Am Legend" (24:49).

I did notice some artifacts from 1080p/24 sources in 60Hz mode. On the "Digital Video Essentials" test Blu-ray we noticed shifting lines and minor instability in the downtown Philadelphia buildings during an upward-facing pan. I didn't see any similar issues during other program material, but assume they might crop up. In any case I still prefer the flicker-free 60Hz mode.

As usual, the results of engaging Motion Smoother dejudder processing were objectionable to my eyes, although some viewers might actually want its soap-opera effect. If you like smooth images you may find another reason to like the VT50: its Weak setting (the least objectionable) showed fewer artifacts -- tearing and unnatural motion -- than the same setting on the GT50 and ST50 when I watched the pan over the aircraft carrier in "I Am Legend." The Medium and High settings looked basically the same on the three Panasonics.

Panasonic makes a big deal out of the improved motion-handling capabilities of its new plasmas, and the VT50 is supposedly the best. It may well be, but personally I couldn't detect any difference between the way the VT50 and the ST50 handled my motion-resolution test or fast motion in program material. During program material blurring was, as usual, extremely difficult to discern on any of the TVs in my lineup.

I also didn't see any benefit in program material to the VT50's extra shades of gradation, which should help with false contouring in transitions. Looking at grayscale ramp patterns, for what it's worth, the three Panasonics looked essentially identical, a bit better than the Samsung but not as clean as either LCD.

The VT50 passed our 1080i deinterlacing test with 3:2 pull-down set to On, but not when we used the default Auto (and, despite what the menu explanation says, this setting does affect HDMI sources).

I did not test the 1080p Pure Direct function since the content it requires to realize any benefit (4:4:4 uncompressed component video) is rare.

Bright lighting
Under the lights the VT50 is simply the best non-matte TV I've ever tested. While it can't match the light output of LCD or the antireflective properties of a matte screen, it still manages to mute reflections better than any glossy LED I've seen. Next to the Sharp Elite, for example, my face appeared quite a bit dimmer and less noticeable when the screen went black.

The VT50's bigger strength is its ability to preserve black-level performance under the lights, lending its picture pop and contrast to spare. The Samsung plasma looked dull by comparison, due to its combination of more washed-out blacks under the light and dimmer highlights (despite being smaller than the 65-inch Panasonic I tested, the 60-inch Samsung is more limited in its light output unless you choose an inferior picture mode like Relax or Dynamic). The VT50 was also better than either the GT50 or the ST50 at preserving blacks; only the Sony and Sharp Elite LCDs outdid it in this department.

Panasonic's louvre filter acts like Venetian blinds to reject light coming from above. Compared with last year's sets the VT50's filter did dim the image a bit more when seen from high off-angle vertically. In practice, this difference is only visible from angles that are roughly equivalent to placing the TV on the floor or standing directly above it. As usual for a plasma, horizontal off-angle viewing, which is far more important than vertical in typical living-room situations, looked essentially perfect, in marked contrast to both LCDs.

3D
When I first tested the VT50's 3D picture quality I called out its mediocre showing in what I consider the most important performance characteristic for an active 3D TV: reduction of crosstalk. But after the review was published I was alerted by readers that changing the TV's 24p setting (under the Advanced Picture submenu) from the THX 3D Cinema default of 60Hz to 48Hz would help. I got the chance to test that change today and can confirm that, yes, it works, turning the VT50 into a very good 3D performer.

Watching "Hugo," my current favorite 3D torture test, the ghostly double image of crosstalk was clearly visible at 60Hz in many scenes, especially with objects in difficult sequences, like Hugo's hand as it reaches for the mouse (5:01), the tuning pegs on the guitar (7:49), and the face of the dog as it watches the inspector slide by (9:24). When I changed to 48Hz, however, the crosstalk became much dimmer and less noticeable.

Comparing the VT50 in 48Hz mode and the Samsung PNE8000, I saw about the same amount of crosstalk in these scenes. The VT50 still showed more crosstalk than the Elite or the Samsung UN55D8000, and more than any passive 3D TV I've tested. It's also worth noting that 48Hz mode is also available on the GT50 and ST50 in 3D, and provided the same substantial improvements on those TVs as well. I also tried Samsung's SSG-4100BG glasses on the Panasonic TVs and they showed the same improvement in 48Hz.

The 48Hz mode did introduce very minor flicker in the brightest sections of the image, but in my opinion that's a small price to pay for greatly reduced crosstalk. That flicker was quite a bit more subtle than what I saw in 2D using the 96Hz and 48Hz modes, and in 3D it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film much at all.

The THX mode's 3D picture quality in other areas was also very good. Black levels appeared deeper than on the ST50 and color looked more accurate and well-saturated. I chalk this advantage up to the settings, not necessarily any inherent difference in the TVs, mainly because the GT50's image in THX Cinema looked almost identical, albeit slightly brighter, than the VT50's.

Color and shadow detail were superior to what you get in the default Movie mode of the Samsung E8000. The Samsung also seemed to be doing some edge enhancement. I assume all of these issues can be improved by calibration, however, and even if they can't I still  liked the Samsung's 3D image, with its much-less-obvious crosstalk, better than the VT50's.

Panasonic's standard 3D glasses for my review fit better than the Samsungs and provided marginally better performance since they enclosed my eyes better. Check out my comparison and reviews for more.

Power consumption
As a 65-inch plasma, the VT50 is destined to be the least efficient TV I test this year. In its favor it uses about $16 less per year than the 65-inch VT25 from 2010, but compared with smaller plasmas and especially LEDs of any size, it's a power hog.

This year, due to the hard cap of 108 watts for any size of TV imposed by Energy Star's latest 5.3 specification, all 55-inch and larger Panasonic plasmas fail to earn the blue sticker.