Gadgetory

hello I'm David Katz Meyer with CNET I'm sitting next to the Panasonic TCP VT 50 series this is a 65 inch plasma this series is also available in a 55 inch size this review will apply to both sizes this is Panasonic's best television for 2012 and in my opinion the best plasma TV the company has ever made and the second best ever after the legendary pioneer Kuro that's long discontinued TVs picture quality is its real strength we'll get to that in a little bit but let's take a look first at its design this is a nicest looking Panasonic Plasma when seen from the outside with a picture turned off - it's got the company's signature full pane of glass that fronts both the bezel and the screen for a really smooth integrated look there's also a relatively thin bezel on this TV and the seen from the side it's about 2 inches deep even if it's 65 inch size so it's a thin TV overall all told one of the nicer looking plasma TVs I've ever seen and that's saying something it's a little bit better than the LG and Samsung designs from this year the one downside of the design is this two-tone stand here that fades from a silver to a black but just gives you another excuse to wall mount the television as Panasonic's flagship the set includes all the bells and whistles you'd expect it as a 2 thx modes a 96 Hertz setting for 1080p 24 and a bunch of other things to adjust picture quality improvements TV also has a little bit better screen filter than it stepped down linemates we'll get to that one of the more visible step ups is this remote control it's actually a little touch pad designed for use with a thumb it's actually a little bit better than the touch pad found on Samsung's TVs it's a lot more responsive and you can whizz through at things like Netflix and Vudu thumbnails really easily of course TV has a built-in web browser the remote is designed to work with that too but we really didn't find the web browser all that compelling one of the downsides of this remote of course is that if you have a universal remote you have to add the second one your coffee table if you want to use it Panasonic VIERA CAST online features have plenty of content including Vudu and a whole bunch of other video streaming services not quite as much audio but again it's pretty darn good this VT 50 also has a dual core processor so things are a little bit snappier when you move around the internet services there's also a little multitasking going on here you can flip a button and pop up to see the last few used apps that you have I also like the fact that you can customize the app home screens with the app you want and not the ones that the manufacturer wants you to look at one downside is TVs app suite has built in advertising so there is a little banner that pops up when you first turn on the TV however you can disable that so I'd recommend you do so around back the set has plenty of inputs including four HDMI USB and a component video input if you have a breakout cable there's also a SD card slot so you can look at photos really quickly from digital cameras one downside of the feature set is Panasonic doesn't include 3d glasses with this TV you're going to have to buy them they're about 65 bucks apiece you can however opt for the Samsung glasses there are $20 and third-party glasses coming out in the future we'll probably even be lower priced the VT 50 also has the ability to adjust the picture more ways than I've seen on any other TV there's a two point and a ten point grayscale full color management system as well as a full gamma control system these controls didn't work quite as well as we've seen on some Samsung and LG TVs however that's really not that big of a deal though because the thx modes are excellent out of the box you get a bright room and a cinema setting that according to our measures performed extremely well speak and performance the V 250 is the best looking plasma TV I've tested this year and I don't expect any other plasma perform better it's going to be right up there with the OLED and the elite sharp tv coming out a little bit later in this year but both of those LED and the sharp are going to be a lot more expensive than this set so this is a very high-end TV but the picture quality is superb the butene 50 also has a brand new screen filter for this year which means that it rejects ambient light better than any other plasma TV I've seen it keeps those black levels regardless of how bright the overhead lighting is which is a real plus anyway that's a quick look at Panasonic's tcp VT 50 series again the best performing plasma TV I've seen this year I'm David Katz Meijer