Plasma TV Review

"According to my research, the Panasonic G10 probably has the best picture quality among all TVs in mass production as of the time of this review (May, 2009). Most importantly it has pitch dark black level, scorching brightness, high color accuracy, and good motion processing.

I chose the Panasonic plasma over Sony and Samsung LCD for a few reasons. (1) Compared to 120Hz LCDs, Panasonic is significantly cheaper than Sony and Samsung. (2) I think the G10 is better in handling motion than the 120HZ LCDs. (3) The colors on the plasma are more appealing to me than those on the LCDs. (4) It has superior viewing angle. It looks perfect from any angle you will actually watch the TV without washing out the color, prserving the quality of the color.

The third point on color appeal is subjective and calls for description of subjective experience. There are lots of technical comparison of the colors on different displays on the internet, but my perceptual experience is that the colors on the panasonic plasma is very vibrant, punchy, tantalizing, and mesmerizing. The colors look like things in real life, but they are more intense than real life. A friend said "it's prettier than real, but not distorted. It is just like an enhanced colorful world." If you prefer high fedelity to real life colors, you can use the THX mode to tune it down to be very faithful to studio color measures. LCD in comparison is also very vibrant, but it doesn't look as realistic. It's more like computer graphics and less like colors of living things. Technically, this may have to do with the deeper black level on the plasma than the LCD.

What else do I like about the TV? It is very bright for a Plasam TV. According to tech specs and online reviews, it is the bightest plasma ever made. In Custom Mode, it is more than bright enough to watch in my room with direct sun light (sun light in the room not on the TV). In Vivid Mode, "you should prepare to put on your ski googles". In fact, it's too bright and overly constrasty and saturated for regular viewing. However, it is quite useful in displaying low resolution and low quality online video such as YouTube or Netflix Instant Watch. The extra boost in brightness, contrast, and saturation make the low quality online video look much more appealing and lively."

"After the price dropped on this T.V. I decided to buy.
Wary of plasmas I still loved the high contrast ratio that this one delivered. I had the choice between this and a similar samsung and definately could see that this Lg model gave the better picture. 720p? they could have fooled me because the crispness of picture quality is terrific, one thing I was wary of with this being a 42" model.
The Darks are dark, the whites are white, and the colors are vibrant.
I keep mine set on cinema style settings and love it.
The sound is better than most flat panels and the speakers are hidden.
I like the high gloss finish, makes it look sleek.
Ghosting is minimal on this model and if you do experience some ghosting they supply different ISM methods to basically prevent or actually one called white wash which basically resets your picture. I play a lot of Xbox 360 so I was worried about the ghosting but it is not really a problem. I recently paired this with LG's LHT854 home theatre system (about $220) and am enjoying a high quality home theatre setup for a decent price.
So everyone considering picking up this T.V. I say Enjoy!"

"After over a year of researching, I finally pulled the trigger and got this TV and I am extremely happy with it!

The picture on this TV looks amazing. Blacks are really black and not bright grey/black like you see on LCDs. Since the TV is a 42 inch, there really is no reason to go with a 1080p. 1080p is not noticeable with TVs 50 inches or less. Some people say they can notice the difference, but if you look at side by side comparisons (CNET did one) with 720p and 1080p on TVs this size the clarity difference is virtually non-existent.

When I compared this side by side with similar sized LCDs, the difference was night and day. Shadows look realistic and not washed out. Blu-ray looks ultra crisp and the images pop out at you. Also the advantage plasmas have with regard to viewing angle is a huge plus (meaning if you look at the TV from any angle other than straight on, plasmas still look great whereas LCDs become bright and almost unwatchable)."

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