Gadgetory

David Katz Meyer from CNET and this is a product spotlight and what is our favorite TV of the year this is the Panasonic ST 50 series I'm sitting next to the 55 inch version this series also comes in a 50 a 60 and a 65 inch version so if you're looking for a small TV this isn't it but if you're in that great sweet spot for the living room or larger then this is a quite an excellent choice the SD 50 is a plasma TV we consider plasma a better choice for picture quality in general than LED or LCD TVs we'll get to some of the picture quality bits in a little bit but first let's start off with the styling here this set for plasma is a pretty slim bezel around the edge of the screen there's also this sort of acrylic border oxy through the stand swivels the base is also a silver color to offset the black around the edge all told the styling is pretty slick on this set Panasonic's smart TV includes Netflix Amazon video on-demand and Hulu Plus it also has Rhapsody for subscription music and Pandora for people who just want the free radio action of course plenty of other apps are available on the smart tv suite we also like the organization of Smart TV it's got great big tiles that you can move around and adjust to your liking what we didn't like is the prevalent advertising within Smart TV you can actually disable some of the pop-up ads but some of them you can't get rid of and that's kind of a downside of Panasonic's system other features include 3d but Panasonic doesn't throw in any 3d glasses you'll have to purchase active 3d glasses on the upside this TV is compatible with Samsung's glasses which are as inexpensive as $20 of course the main reason we really like this set is its picture quality to price ratio this TV scored a nine and our picture quality evaluations which is right up there with the very best TVs of the year and better than any LED we've reviewed this year the sets deep black levels and extremely accurate color as well as its excellent screen uniformity is something that LED TVs cannot boast our rut helped put it over the top it also has a very good bright room performance which puts it a little bit above Panasonic step down less expensive model so again the picture is universally better in a lot of lighting conditions of course if it's a very bright room that you might want to go with LED but on the flip side this TV will outperform pretty much any LED on the market the SD 50 also has plenty of connectivity including three HDMI inputs a pair of USB ports and a SD card slot which really sets the SD 50 apart however it performance compared to the other excellent tvs that cost a lot more it's a lot less expensive than Panasonic's flagship models it's also a little bit less than the equivalent Samsung TVs although those TVs also perform extremely well the SD 50 is our overall value champ it's scored a 10 in that category so you do get such great picture quality for a relatively inexpensive price that's a quick look at Panasonic's TCPS t 50 series our editor's choice and favorite TV of the year on David Katz my receipt