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Panasonic TH50PX70 Review |
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Reviewed: 23 April 2007
Design
The Panasonic TH50PX70 like its predecessor comes either on a pedestal, with wall-mounting brackets, or on a Panasonic cabinet. Depending on where you shop, the cabinet version will cost another £200 or so and the wall mounted version around £50 more than the pedestal version. The narrow dimensions of the TH50PX70's frame give this panel as sleek an appearance as any 50in screen out there. The panel itself is stylish Panasonic minimalist glossy black finish which will add a touch of class to any living space. For real impact and presence go for the Panasonic cabinet which is perfectly matched to the panel.
Features
2 HDMI and 2 Scarts along with a PC/vga input and component input form a standard rather than a dazzling connectivity set. There are no multimedia, s-video or usb connections, but there is an integrated Freeview tuner.
Screen size & shape: 50in 16:9 Tuner: Digital Sound system: Stereo Resolution: 1366 x 768 HD Ready: Yes Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1 Brightness: 450cd/m2 OTHER FEATURES: V-real picture processing, Integrated Freeview. SOCKETS: 1 HDMI, 2 Scart, component video, PC input.
The TH50PX70 is Panasonic's 10th generation plasma and as such has a completely new panel, the G10.
The TH50PX70 forms part of the base range of new plasmas from Panasonic and as such does not have the full HD 1080p capability that higher spec models, which are due out later in the year, come equipped with.
Improvements in the performance of this latest plasma offering from Panasonic will be due in the main to the introduction of this new panel. There are no major advances to the V-Real Picture Processing Engine although it has been tweaked in a number of ways, and now sports a 16-bit processor.
Another feature of the TH50PX70, Viera Link, uses high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connections to automatically switch between different devices, put them in standby and take control of them with full menu access using a single remote.
Performance
Recently, the 'Black-level' performance of large LCD TVs has been nibbling away at Plasma's dominance. The TH50PX70 goes some way to redress this balance being incredibly accomplished in this area. Blacks have never looked blacker, and in addition, the gradation from darker to lighter scenes is incredibly subtle and realistic.
The TH50PX70 generally excels when it comes to picture performance. To get the negative out of the way quickly, the TH50PX70 suffers like all plasma and LCDs in that the technology was just not built for SD sources. Once you get to 40in+ screen sizes the problems in displaying SD seem to be accentuated. The TH50PX70 is never less than competent, but there is a noticeable degree of softness in pictures, and fine detail in many situation is often blurry. SD sources such as Sky also suffer slightly by having to downscale from their native 1080i resolution to fit the TH50PX70's 1366 x 768 screen size.
Switch to High Definition (HD) however and prepare to be impressed. The level of detail and picture sharpness is simply astounding. Colours in general on the TH50PX70 are good, showing great subtlety with areas such as skin tones, and a general consistency across a number of different sources. With HD, the vibrancy and depth of colours is nothing short of class leading.
Also worthy of mention is the way that the Panasonic TH50PX70 handles action sequences. With fast sporting action or movie scenes there is almost a complete absence of 'motion blur' which admittedly is much more of a problem on LCD TVs, but a notable achievement for a large Plasma screen nonetheless.
Built in speakers on the TH50PX70 are adequate rather than outstanding. Panasonic assume rightly or wrongly that screens of this size will invariably form the heart of a home cinema system with consumers adding their own sonic upgrades.
Conclusion
The Panasonic TH50PX70 is an outstanding performer in any company, but when you consider that it can be bought for as little as £1,300, it is in our opinion quite simply the best value 50in Plasma out there.
