Panasonic TH-50PZ77U 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

built-in QAM cable TV tuner receives unscrambled programs without a set-top box (cable service required) * 1920 x 1080 pixels * 5000:1 contrast ratio * 2 HDMI v1.3 (accepts signals up to 1080p) *

I jumped to get mine during a one day sale for a rediculously lower price than here. No dead pixels. Very bright picture. Video reproduction on this plasma is SO much better than most LCDs I've seen. Using the HDMI ports from a BluRay player and a HD-DVD player I fine tuned mine to the following settings: Picture Mode: Standard Picture: -6 Bright: +15 Color: -6 Tint: -3 Sharp: +5 Color Temp: Normal Color Management: Off All Filters: Off Those settings are for when 1080 is filling up the whole picture; but I have to lower the Picture and raise the Brightness for 4:3 or video with black bars at the top & bottom. Blacks are better on Standard-Def tube monitors; but black on Plasma's are much much better than the LCD's I've seen. I've attempted to help a few friends set up their LCD's for best black, but resolution deteriorates on most LCD's when blacks look good. On the other hand the Picture and Brightness tuning on this plasma behaves very similar to a Tube monitor. Blacks are still a bit too milky for my taste, but I guess I'll have to raise the room lighting to trick out my eyes. I like this plasma for the price I paid for it.

I was going to get an LCD. They were the new thing. Plasma had burn-in, dead pixels, etc. After doing a bit of digging, it turns out that most of the Plasma problems were 1st and 2nd generation issues. And according to Consumer Reports (plug!), this was one of the best. This was reinforced by talking to friends who had bought LCD and Plasma displays. The display has deep, rich colors, very good viewing angles, and detail in the blacks that an LCD can't touch. All in all, if you're going to spend nearly $2,000 for a TV, this is hard to beat.

A little disappointed a newer model came out at the same price a couple weeks after I bought it, but I guess this is the way things go in the electronics world. I love the picture when I have HD signal. SD channels are blah...they looked better on my old tube tv. I was a little surprised by the heat the plasma puts off, but I guess its normal for plasmas. The remote that comes with the tv is great. Had to push one button and it syncs all my other players to it (dvd, cable box, vcr, etc).

I lobbied long and hard for a new flat-panel TV and this was the choice in the end. This set balances value, performance, and asthetics. This television has the most beautiful picture I've ever seen first hand in a home. It got the full one hundred hours brea-in and then I used settings found at tweaktv.com. Trust me, broadcast HD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD look absolutely stunning and I could not be happier. Amazon's white gloves delivery was as expected and I could not be happier with the overall experience. If you are willing to do the online and on-foot research, Amazon is the best place to buy a television.

Within a month of purchase screen would get very light after about 10 minutes of the TV being on. After about 5 more minutes the unit would power off entirely and the power LED would just blink seven times. Would have to unplug the TV from the wall to get it to power back on. After doing some google searching for power issues this appears to be an issue with many Panasonic TV's (didn't see this while researching the product pre-purchase). The Panasonic help line was friendly and helpful and tech was out within 4 business days to repair so I give them some credit for that. Tech has to replace one of the system boards to fix. Talking to the repair guy he confirmed this to be a common issue he has seen with Panasonic brand plasmas (appears to not just be this particular model). Luckily mine was under warranty. Beware this product.