Written by I was into HD fairly early. My first set was an LG Plasma. When I first switched it on I couldn’t believe the difference over the older style TV sets. Colors were so much brighter, the picture so much crisper and the contrasts were amazing. However, it is now well documented that early Plasma TVs suffered from a few inherent problems.
The major problem was, of course, screen burn. When I switch on that old LG now, I can clearly see the frames for the sports news channel burned into the screen. It makes me smile! Light reflection was another issue and it did always just slightly annoy me that I could, when my eyes caught it, see the rear window reflected in the screen.
I was chatting to my brother-in-law before our recent festive trip to Vancouver and I was hugely surprised when he revealed he’d gone out and brought a 54 Inch Panasonic Viera Plasma! I couldn’t wait to see what it was like!
I just couldn’t understand why he had gone Plasma with the price of LEDs dropping all the time. LED performance is accepted as the best and I was all too aware of the inherent Plasma problems. And, there isn’t the 3D option with Plasma. I was also a little worried that he’d gone too big on screen given the size of his viewing area.
We arrived late in the evening so only got to actually see the monster on our first night rather than view…it looked big! But I needn’t have worried once we fired it up the the next evening. We watched Inception via Blu-Ray and the TCP54G25 put in a stunning performance (I’m pleased to say). Inception is a great movie for highlighting the best points of an HD TV anyway. But, I have to say, I was very impressed at how the set handled the movie in all aspects.
This set incorporates Panasonic’s new “NeoPDP” technology, and the sales puff will tell you this is what is responsible for the amazing clarity, definition and contrast. It also says that the “600Hz resolution sub drive” offers great high motion clarity. This is true and full 1080p HD definitely helps as well. And, having now watched the TCP54G25 in action, I reckon it’s the best non-LED HD picture I’ve seen, and that is saying something!
I was also a bit worried that I’d notice a degree of picture degradation watching so close to such a big screen. However the set performed superbly well with a crisp and clear picture, even when the action was break-neck followed by stills (Inception has a few scenes like this). And the colors were bright with deep contrast.
Panasonic also tell you that this set has one of the longest Plasma screen lives. I think they quote 100,000 hours of viewing at 8 hours a day before the panel brightness has decreased by half. On my estimation that’s 30 years of viewing before you need to replace. To be fair my first Plasma is now in the spare room and at five years old is starting to show the strain. But it has had a lot of use.
On hearing those figures I did a bit of research and found out that Panasonic recently brought Pioneer’s advanced Plasma technology. That new technology is in this model. Certainly the tech boasts are backed up by the performance I saw, only time will tell on screen life.
The TV itself is feature rich boasting features you normally see on much more expensive sets. It has the ability to play online content via a direct ethernet link. As with most HD sets if you want wi-fi you need to buy a separate adapter. This has become a bit of a bug bear of mine as I really think an HD set should include integral wi-fi!
However you do get the advanced picture technology, the infinite black technology, THX mode, Viera Link (which allows you to interlink attached devices) and an outstanding game mode. The nephews are BIG gamers (they have every console) and I have to say watching their latest addiction (one of the Halo games) it boasts one of the best game modes I have seen. They were also playing a hilarious skateboard game and it really was stomach churning watching some of more outrageous moves.
The connectivity on this set is basic, indeed there are only 3 HDMI ports, when 4 seems to be the norm on most sets today. Panasonic argue that Viera Link ensures 3 is all you need!
During our stay in Vancouver Graham’s new Panasonic 54 Inch Plasma provided us with plenty of great entertainment. After all those winter nights up there are so dark and wet! Coupled with some nice red wine (so very expensive in BC) my preconceived prejudices were blown away.
I really wouldn’t have thought of going out and buying a big screen plasma until I saw this one in action. But, watching the TCP54G25 it has definitely made me think again on this, especially so given the mid range price. If you can afford to go LED all well and good, but for the price you pay for a Plasma such as this, the price v performance gap is definitely much more marginal nowadays.
Click this link for more information and a great deal on the Panasonic TCP54G25 54 Inch Plasma TV. For more great Plasma TV Deals click here.
Related posts:
