Panasonic TX-P50VT20 Review

A new era is upon us: the first 3D TV displays have started trickling into stores, and accordingly, into the hands of us here at HDTVTest. The Panasonic TX-P50VT20, which has been with us for analysis over the last week, sits at the top of the company’s VIERA TV product line and boasts 1920×1080 resolution, a plasma panel worthy of the name “Infinite Black Pro”, Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) calibration controls, dual Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners, and of course, 3D capability.

While some viewers will be drawn to the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 for its 3D thrills, another audience is paying even closer attention for an altogether different reason. Although they have gotten much closer this year, Panasonic’s displays haven’t quite managed the near-perfection that Pioneer’s departed KURO displays could achieve. However, as a result of Pioneer’s untimely departure from the flat-screen TV business, the burden of devising a suitable replacement has fallen into Panasonic’s hands. We don’t think it is stretching the truth when we say that enthusiasts are looking toward the VT20 line as being a possible heir to the KURO throne — the KUROs, of course, still holding onto their largely deserved reputation of being the best flat-panel TVs ever made. So, no pressure then(!)

Without further ado, let’s give the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 a look over.

Note: The specific review unit we tested was the Panasonic TX-P50VT20B (the extra character “B” appended to the end of the model number simply denotes the 3-pin-plug British version). The Panasonic TX-P50VT20B may also be sold by UK retailers as Panasonic TX-P50VT20, Panasonic TXP50VT20, Panasonic TXP50VT20B or Panasonic 50VT20… all referring to the same 3D TV.

Design

Panasonic TX-P50VT20 Front

Like all Panasonic products, the TX-P50VT20 is plainly styled. In most room environments, this 3D HDTV looks almost no different to any other gloss-black display on the market. However, under stronger light, it becomes apparent that the chassis actually has a subtle brown tinge to it. The Panasonic TX-P50VT20 is thin enough for any practical use, and comes packaged with a circular, gloss-black stand.

Panasonic TX-P50VT20 Shutter Glasses

As noted, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 3D HD TV comes with two sets of active shutter glasses (part number TY-EW3D10). It’s important to note that these are very different to the “throwaway” passive glasses that many 3D-equipped cinemas let moviegoers take home with them. For a start, they cost around £100 per pair, so we’re glad to see that the Panasonic TX-P50VT20B comes with two pairs. On the down-side, this does add to the cost of the TV if an entire family wants to watch together. Interestingly, Panasonic USA and Panasonic Japan only ship their equivalent models with one pair of 3D glasses, making this a refreshing change in terms of value-for-money in Europe.

In theory, active 3D glasses mean that manufacturers can deliver 3D with fewer changes made to the display itself: the only essential requirement for this kind of 3D TV is that the screen can refresh at double the normal rate, with the glasses doing much of the work (although Panasonic have made more improvements on the TV side beyond just upping the refresh rate, which we’ll clarify later). Panasonic packages these high-tech shades each with their own protective plastic case, and supplies them with two “nose-band” fittings to make sure that they sit as comfortably as possible on the viewer’s face.

The 3D glasses draw power from a small battery (the familiar CR2032 type) located beside one of the hinges. Panasonic supplies a small screwdriver for the purposes of changing the battery when it is depleted. At this early stage, we have no idea how long the battery will last, but the glasses are equipped with a small On/Off switch and also automatically shut off when line-of-sight with the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 is lost (or when the TV switches back into 2D mode).

Connections

Panasonic’s debut 3D TV, the TX-P50VT20, features enough connections to satisfy almost any need. There are 4 HDMI inputs (one of which is on the side of the TV), inputs to both the terrestrial and satellite tuners, an Ethernet jack, an SD card input, and of course provision for older analogue AV interfaces (Component, SCART, and Composite video). Just don’t expect to watch your old VHS home videos in 3D…

Panasonic bundles the TX-P50VT20B with a wireless USB adapter, so we imagine most people will choose to use this instead of the Ethernet port, taking the opportunity to minimise cabling (assuming they care about the networking functionality at all, that is). In any case, once connected, access is granted to the VIERA CAST online portal as well as to DNLA-compliant home networking devices.

Rear connections on Panasonic TX-P50VT20
Rear: 3 x HDMI, VGA, component, 2 x Scarts, aerial, Freesat, ethernet & audio outs
Side: SD Card, Common Interface slot, 2x USB, 1x HDMI, Composite video, Headphones

Operation

Despite the inclusion of 3D technology, there are no huge changes to the Panasonic TX-P50VT20’s menus when compared to the rest of the Panasonic 2010 range. The menus are the same familiar blue and yellow, and all of the picture controls which appear on the company’s higher-end 2010 displays are present.

[Picture] menu [Sound] menu
[Picture] menu [White Balance] menu

After un-hiding the “Professional” picture modes (by enabling [Advance(isfccc)] in the TV’s “Setup” menu), the user is given access to Greyscale calibration controls, a menu which allows one of six preset Gamma curves to be chosen, and a basic Colour Management System. We imagine that many people spending this much money on a cutting-edge display will be interested in calibrating it using these controls (or paying someone to do the job for them), but for everyone else, the THX picture mode offers a good compromise.

3D Settings on Panasonic TX-P50VT20
Above: 3D Settings on Panasonic TX-P50VT20

Naturally, there is now a “3D Settings” menu tucked away under “Setup”. This 3D Settings screen can also be conveniently accessed via the VIERA TOOLS remote control button, which will be handy for sources that require the 3D mode to be manually enabled (although we wonder why Panasonic did not include an even more convenient “3D ON/OFF” button on the remote).

Since this is the first time we’ve seen these controls, we think it’s appropriate to expand our description in as much detail as possible. [3D Picture Display] can be set to either “2D” or “3D” and, when set to “2D”, allows the user to “flatten” 3D material into 2D. This may be of use for packed living rooms that don’t have enough sets of glasses for everyone.

[3D Picture Format] has four options: “Auto”, “Side by Side”, “Top and Bottom”, and “Original”. The “Auto” setting is designed for use with Blu-ray 3D players outputting frame-sequential 3D images (also known as “frame packed”, although the marketing term is apparently going to be “Full HD 3D”, indicating that Full HD images are sent to each eye). BD 3D is unique in that it retains full resolution for both the Left and Right eye images, a feat made possible thanks to additional compression techniques (which exploit the close similarities between the Left and Right eye images) and the large capacity of BD-ROM discs.

On the other hand, the “Side by Side” and “Top and Bottom” formats are a compromise that both allow 3D material to be sent and received using existing 2D video encoders and decoding hardware. These signals contain the Left and Right eye images squashed into a single HD frame, sacrificing either horizontal or vertical resolution in exchange for the extra depth. In the UK, British Sky Broadcasting are using the Side by Side technique to literally squeeze 3D images into their existing 2D delivery system, to promote rapid adoption by existing Sky HD owners.

Finally, “Original” turns the 3D processing off and displays the video signal exactly as-is. Panasonic explain that this is essentially a troubleshooting option, which is to be used for identifying which mode (either Side/Side or Top/Bottom) needs to be selected.

Additionally, [3D Picture Sequence] swaps the order of the glasses’ shutters (it doesn’t appear to make any difference to the output of the Plasma display itself). Panasonic mention that you should reverse the sequence “if you feel that the sense of depth is unnatural”, suggesting that it is for content that is out of phase. Additionally, there is a mysterious [Edge Smoother], which applies a subtle blur to the picture. The manual is very unclear about its intended usage, but it seems that it is intended to reduce “rough edge” artefacts that can result from yet another method of squeezing 3D content into a 2D signal (called Quincunx encoding). Accordingly, it has no effect with frame-sequential material like Blu-ray 3D, which is inherently free of such artefacts.

Unlike one other manufacturer, Panasonic do not provide any 2D-to-3D conversion facility on their TVs. In fact, a representative from Panasonic USA has cited the poor (or at least unreliable) quality of such processes, indicating that they would rather not include such processing until there is a way for it to work well. We will be very interested to see if Samsung’s 3D TVs, which do include this feature, can create convincing 3D out of 2D material.

Finally, when a 3D BD player is sending 3D 24p film material, the [3D 24p Film Display] option appears in the TV’s [Setup] > [Other Settings] screen. This setting refreshes the Plasma display at a multiple of 24 times per second, avoiding motion judder. This is a very confusing menu option, because it appears in the exact same place as the [Intelligent Frame Creation] and [24p Smooth Film] options which show up with 2D material. Those two options are motion interpolating controls which give films the awkward “sped-up soap opera” look and have confused many users over the years. Conversely, [3D 24p Film Display] does nothing of the sort and unlike the aforementioned controls, we recommend turning it on, because it displays films without judder by changing the panel refresh rate, not by inventing motion which never existed in the first place.

2D Calibration

Note: Our Panasonic TX-P50VT20B review sample was calibrated using Calman Professional, the industry-leading video calibration software.

2D Mode Greyscale

After clocking approximately 100 hours of use on the brand new Panasonic TX-P50VT20 plasma TV to let it stabilise, we verified basic picture settings in the [THX] picture mode, and then ran a series of measurements using test patterns. It is important to let a Plasma display “break in” before performing calibration, as the Greyscale characteristics shift during the early stages of its life.

Pre-calibration CCT
Pre-calibration CCT in [THX] mode
Pre-calibration RGB Tracking
Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

The Greyscale tracking in the THX picture mode was fairly good, albeit imperfect. The image appeared somewhat green-ish, but we imagine that this result will be completely serviceable for users who do not want to calibrate the TV further.

Gamma curve in [THX] mode Gamma tracking in [THX] mode
Gamma curve in [THX] mode Corresponding gamma tracking

Gamma tracking was a little crooked, closely resembling the characteristics of the Panasonic S20 Plasma display which we reviewed last week. The Panasonic TX-P50VT20 does feature a Gamma control, which allows the user to select from one of several preset gamma curves — but in the THX picture mode, it does absolutely nothing! No loss, though: switching over to the “Professional1” mode, which is identical to the THX mode before any adjustments are made, gives full control. It also unlocks the Colour Management System, which will be of use later.

Panasonic have introduced user-accessible calibration controls for the first time on their 2010 models. This is the first time the company has done so, so it’s not too surprising that the menus are just a little bit less intuitive than those from manufacturers who have been providing them for a while. The menus will reappear and cover up the area of the screen that you’re trying to measure, only seconds after you’ve begun adjustments. This is unlike HDTVs from the likes of LG and Samsung, where the menus will get out of the calibrator’s way and not reappear until prompted. My workaround for this was to double-tap the OPTION button (located directly left of the remote’s directional pad) to clear all menus from the screen whilst taking the measurement. Fortunately, the menus remember what option you last had selected, so it’s possible to hit MENU then “OK” a few times to get back to exactly where you were before. In other words, this is no where near as annoying as it could have been, and being a video gamer, I did not view this button-mashing as being particularly inconvenient.

Post-calibration CCT in [Professional1] mode
Post-calibration CCT in [Professional1] mode
Post-calibration RGB Tracking in [Professional1] mode
Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Professional1] mode

After calibration, Greyscale tracking on the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 HDTV was brought up to a very high standard. It’s not quite as linear as the likes of the Pioneer displays or some high-end projectors we’ve seen, but none of the small errors are troubling. (It’s possible that these will actually straighten out even more with more use, as this result is more linear than what we measured when the TX-P50VT20B was brand new). From looking at the CCT chart (top), we noted that this display has the exact same “bump” downward at 30 IRE as other Panasonic PDPs we’ve seen lately. (The large error at 0 IRE you see on the bottom chart indicates the difficulty of measuring the RGB channels within the exceptionally dark blacks that the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 can produce, and does not equate to a visible problem with picture quality).

Gamma curve in [Professional1] mode Gamma tracking in [Professional1] mode
Gamma curve in [Professional1] mode Corresponding gamma tracking

We managed to straighten out Gamma tracking by selecting the 2.4 option in the dedicated Gamma sub-menu (and yes, in the “Professional” picture modes, the control actually does work!) This actually brought us closer to our target of 2.2, making the picture richer than the out-of-the-box state. Some trial and error during Greyscale calibration allowed us to refine Gamma tracking quality further, in exchange for subtly less accurate Greyscale tracking. Our final calibration result reflects the best balance of both.

2D Mode Colour

Colour performance on the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 was very good in the [THX] mode with no further adjustments made. However, red was slightly pushed towards yellow/orange, and green was mildly oversaturated. We also noted that Luminance levels were routinely too high, giving the colours unintended exaggeration on screen. Two clicks of the [Colour] control down from its default position remedied this.

The following measurements indicate the end result of our efforts to improve colour using both the basic [Colour] control, as well as the Hue and Saturation controls in the [Colour Management] submenu:

Post-calibration CIE chart in [Professional1] mode
Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709
Post-calibration Luminance levels in [Professional1] mode
Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

After calibration, colour performance was further improved. The final result was excellent, which is what we’ve come to expect from Panasonic’s 2010 displays: chromaticity is close to flawless, barring some very minor hue errors with secondary colours. Luminance levels (a.k.a. colour decoding) are not at the same level of perfection as calibrated Samsung displays, but they are close enough for us to not be concerned.

3D Measurements

It’s no secret that 3D glasses cause a noticeable change in image characteristics (most noticeably, they cause a loss of brightness), but unfortunately, there is currently very little consensus on how to properly set up 3D displays at this early stage. Indeed, when the 3D mode is enabled on the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 3D TV, the name “THX” disappears and is instead replaced with “True Cinema”, which we assume is the result of THX having no 3D certification procedure in place yet.

However, given that 3D material is being produced using mostly the same equipment, it arguably makes sense to calibrate with the same white point and chromaticity as 2D in mind, at least for the time being. For this review, we were able to gain the insight of the post production community, who have been dealing with the same problems — namely a lack of standardisation — for some time. We were advised to calibrate the display “bare”, but afterwards, we also took it upon ourselves to attach the 3D shutter glasses to the calibration probe, and attempt to calibrate “through” the glasses to also counter the skew they added.

This was not without its challenges. Beyond the obvious difficulty in affixing the 3D glasses to the meter (which we overcame using a high-tech process known as “sticky taping”), Plasma displays require windowed test patterns for measurements, and at the time of writing, there is no commercial test pattern source outputting windowed patterns in 3D. Furthermore, because the active glasses automatically power off when the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 is not fed with 3D content (which causes the TV to revert to 2D mode), I had to encode my own 3D test patterns before I could take measurements through the 3D glasses.

Irritatingly, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 does not store settings independently of the display mode (2D/3D). So, if you alter, for example, [Colour] in 3D mode, the change will remain even after you’ve put the glasses away and are watching 2D content. Fortunately, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 does include two “Professional” modes which were originally designed for separate Day and Night ISF calibration. We repurposed these as 2D and 3D modes respectively, but obviously still had to manually switch between the two when starting and finishing 3D viewing — something we hope will not be necessary on future 3D TVs.

3D Mode Greyscale

During the process of 3D greyscale calibration, we found out that much of the different “look” given to 3D material was actually more inherent to the display rather than being the fault of the glasses. That is to say, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 produced very uneven Greyscale tracking when we measured it running in 3D mode without the glasses (presumably because of the higher refresh rate), and uneven tracking — albeit differently so — with the glasses attached. The following measurements reflect the latter scenario:

3D Pre-calibration CCT
3D Pre-calibration CCT in [Professional2] mode
3D Pre-calibration RGB Tracking
3D Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

These non-linear Greyscale tracking results would not really impress us had they come from a 2D display, but given that we are in the brave new world of 3D, all we can really do is nod our heads and see how future products hold up. Fortunately, we managed to make a considerable improvement with some calibration work, and were relieved that we received consistent readings from our meter, despite the 3D shutter glasses being in front of the lens.

3D Post-calibration CCT in [Professional1] mode
3D Post-calibration CCT in [Professional2] mode
3D Post-calibration RGB Tracking in [Professional1] mode
3D Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Professional2] mode

Our thoughts on the resulting picture quality come later in this review.

3D Gamma curve in [Professional2] mode Gamma tracking in [Professional2] mode
3D Gamma curve in [Professional2] mode 3D Corresponding gamma tracking

3D Mode Colour

Ultimately, most of the corrections we made using the [Colour Management] menu in 2D mode had to be applied for 3D, too. The observations that we can make from the measurements, though, are that we can’t fully saturate blue with the 3D glasses in front of the measuring probe, and secondly, that magenta was deviated towards blue.

3D Post-calibration CIE chart in [Professional2] mode
3D Post-calibration CIE chart with reference to HD Rec.709
3D Post-calibration Luminance levels in [Professional2] mode
3D Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars = targets; black bars = measured values)

Benchmark Test Results

Dead pixels None
Screen uniformity Perfect
Overscanning on HDMI 0% with [16:9 Overscan] set to “Off
Blacker than black Passed
Calibrated black level 0.006 0.009 cd/m2
Black level retention Stable in [Professional] modes
Primary chromaticity Excellent
Scaling Excellent
Video mode deinterlacing Good: 2/3 bars smooth on HQV test
Film mode deinterlacing Failed 3:2/ 2:2 cadences in all resolutions
Viewing angle Excellent (> 150°)
Motion resolution 1080 lines at all times
Digital noise reduction [P-NR] is a spatial control, very little effect
Sharpness Defeatable edge enhancement
Luma/Chroma bandwidth Full Luma, Chroma slightly blurred in 2D mode
Image retention Virtually none in 2D, some in 3D
Posterization Mild, though worse with poor source
Phosphor trails Yes (reduced); severity depends on individual susceptibility
1080p/24 capability Accepts 1080p/24 video signal; no telecine judder
Input lag Only 17ms slower than a lag-free CRT
Full 4:4:4 reproduction No, 4:4:4 input subsampled

Power Consumption

Default [Normal] mode (2D) 137 watts*
Default [Normal] mode (3D) 171 watts*
Calibrated [Professional1] mode (2D) 187 watts
Calibrated [Professional2] mode (3D) 333 watts
Standby 1 watt

* The default factory settings in “Normal” [Viewing Mode] was unusually dim, which is the reason why the power consumption of our Panasonic TX-P50VT20 test sample was lower out-of-the-box than that after calibration. The measurements above reflect measurements taken with a 50% grey full screen, and could be as high as 424 watts with a full white screen (in 3D mode), although power consumption will rarely reach this height with actual programme content.

Picture Performance

3D Challenges

Earlier in the review, we mentioned that one of the benefits of companies using active shutter glasses for 3D is that only minimal changes to the display device itself are required. However, this is not the whole story. Because 3D requires the screen refresh rate to be doubled, Panasonic have had to develop a new panel drive mechanism to ensure that light output from the television itself is not sacrificed as a result. This is critically important when we remember that the shutter glasses themselves have a darkening effect.

Comparison of luminescence power and afterimage time, image (c) Panasonic

Additionally, Panasonic have reduced afterglow effects by developing new short persistence phosphors. Many people are familiar with the phenomenon of “phosphor trails”, that is, the green and yellow trails which can sometimes be seen following moving objects on most Plasma displays. Whilst this effect can be occasionally irritating with 2D content, Panasonic have realised that it has much more severe ramifications for 3D, where the Left and Right eye images are flashed up on the Plasma display in rapid succession. Any such after-images produced during 3D content mean that pieces of visual information intended for one eye can end up being sent to the other, producing a distracting ghosting effect known as “crosstalk”, which can seriously damage the sense of immersion that 3D is supposed to provide. If this much was necessary to make a Plasma display’s motion characteristics suitable for 3D, we imagine that producers of 3D LCD TVs will well and truly have their work cut out for them.

However, it is not only 3D which benefits from the new short persistence phosphors. Panasonic claim that the afterglow time has been shortened by about one one third, meaning that the “phosphor trails” will be significantly less visible when the screen is in 2D mode.

Black Level

Panasonic promotes the TX-P50VT20 as featuring “Infinite Black Pro”. It would appear that this is a marketing phrase which describes two key sub-features:

  • “High Contrast Filter Pro”, a screen coating designed to reject ambient light, thus increasing contrast performance even when the TV is in a bright environment,
  • and a new NeoPDP panel which on its own features a higher native contrast ratio.

The question on everyone’s minds, of course, will be whether or not the new NeoPDP panel can match or even exceed the deep blacks produced by the discontinued Pioneer KURO displays when viewed in an entirely dark environment. The answer to that is: very nearly. The Panasonic TX-P50VT20’s black level measured at an astonishingly deep 0.006 0.009 cd/m2, making it the deepest that Panasonic has ever produced, albeit minutely higher than Pioneer’s best (which we measured at 0.003 cd/m2). Only when placed side-by-side with the legendary KURO display would the incredibly small difference be apparent. Frankly, blacks this deep are more than adequate: while we would never say no to deeper blacks year-on-year, it really has got to the stage where there are better issues to worry about (something we wish we could say for the majority of LCD TVs).

To measure this value, we used our Klein Instruments K-10 colorimeter — a device that is already known for its accuracy with low light — and ran continuous measurements of a black video signal for one hour (resulting in almost 30,000 different readings). We then averaged the results to add another layer (or 30,000 layers, technically) of accuracy.

Update 23 May 2010: When we first published this review, the initial black level measurements from our Klein Instruments K-10 meter read 0.006 cd/m2. Unfortunately, despite us using a brand new and freshly calibrated meter under the instructions provided by the manufacturer, it turns out that the unit was in need of an extra initialisation step in order to bring its measurements in line with the exacting demands of such a capable Plasma display. The corrected black level measurement is 0.009 cd/m2, meaning that, just like before, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 produces an incredibly dark shade of black which is second only to the Pioneer KURO displays. Although the inaccuracy was not even half of a single nit of brightness, we apologise for this mistake which will not be repeated in the future. Only the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 review was affected, because no other recently tested display can produce such a deep shade of black.

Unfortunately, the phrase “black level” has been haunting Panasonic lately, with many owners reporting that their 2009-model NeoPDP displays only produced such a deep shade of black in the first few hundred hours of use, with black level quality decreasing visibly afterwards. At the time of writing, we have no idea how this new-generation NeoPDP panel is going to fare over a period of many years. Given that the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 is an expensive display and carries the “Infinite Black Pro” branding, we cannot imagine that any retailers (nor Panasonic) could reasonably expect buyers to tolerate a marked decrease in black level quality in any short space of time.

At least one additional point is certain: the issue of “floating blacks”, where the picture would occasionally appear to brighten very slightly during darker scenes, does not appear on the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 plasma television. This issue was mildly irritating on the cheaper Panasonic displays (although nowhere near the levels of LCD and LED LCD TVs which fluctuate their backlight brightness), so it’s great to see that it doesn’t make an appearance here. It would be a shame if this minor quirk affected the high-end 3D model.

Additionally, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 held up remarkably well even with ambient light in the room. The panel filter did an excellent job of diverting stray light and making sure that the image appeared rich and vibrant. This makes the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 suitable for day and night viewing, with the image quality looking excellent in both cases.

Motion Resolution

We were expecting the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 to follow its predecessors in resolving around 900 lines of resolution in our scrolling test chart. However, we were delighted to see that motion resolution has been increased to a full 1080 lines even with the [Intelligent Frame Creation] system turned off, with only pixel-thin purple and yellow streaks surrounding the black lines in the chart. This means that the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 has the clearest motion out of any TV being manufactured today. It also means that the [Intelligent Frame Creation] option serves little to no use, other than to introduce the so-called “soap-opera effect” into film content.

We also encoded new side-by-side 3D versions of our normal motion resolution test clips, and confirmed that real-world material looked fantastic when the panel was being driven in 3D mode (as well as 2D).

Not only does the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 wring out a few more lines of motion resolution, but thanks to the new short-persistence phosphors, trailing is considerably reduced. It’s still visible on certain fast moving video games (the desaturated world of Resident Evil 5 still being my favourite test for sniffing it out), but it now only appears during very fast camera movements. For what it’s worth, although I could clearly see it, I was never very disturbed by this effect on previous Panasonic TVs, so we will be interested in hearing other user feedback on this topic — especially from readers who have found the trails on previous Panasonic PDPs particularly objectionable.

3D Material

There is a 3D content gap at the moment, something which Blu-ray 3D will probably be the most successful at filling. While the BD format has been gaining steady momentum so far, Hollywood clearly hopes that adding 3D to the mix will help convince more consumers to jump on board and finally retire their DVD players.

Not surprisingly, it was a sample 3D Blu-ray disc (a specially prepared version of Dreamworks’ Monsters Versus Aliens) that really impressed. Personally, I’ve always been a little irritated by 3D in cinemas, due to the uncomfortable, sometimes dirty glasses, the severely hampered brightness, and on one occasion, incredibly skewed colours. But thankfully, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 3DTV allowed me to raise the display’s [Contrast] setting high enough to almost make the light loss from the glasses a non-issue. Of course, this is not good from a power consumption point of view, but I won’t feel guilty about the amount of juice the TV is consuming while 3D content makes up a very small percentage of viewing.

Although it’s one of the less visually appealing animated films to roll off of Jeffrey Katzenberg’s cartoon assembly line, I can’t deny that watching the Blu-ray 3D Disc of Monsters Versus Aliens on this display was the best 3D experience that I’ve ever had. (Interestingly, viewing the film in 3D made Dreamworks’ usual plastic-looking human character designs look much less freakish). The experience was comfortable and bright enough to the extent that my anti-3D barriers began to come down: gradually I was impressed, sometimes wowed, by the depth of the image. The only down-side was that occasionally, there was some crosstalk visible around white objects on black backgrounds, having the effect of producing a horizontal “ghost image” of the offending bright object.

We came up with a basic crosstalk detection test pattern which confirmed that the issue is present to some extent on this TV. We’ll be using this pattern to test 3D LCD displays (mostly LED-backlit) as they arrive, but obviously, we hope it can be alleviated as 3D technology matures.

Before going to the (virtual) press, Panasonic also managed to rush a copy of their own 3D BD demo disc to us. Some of the clips on this disc are 1080p/24, the remainder are 720p/60. The 1080p clips were much more impressive, the higher detail giving a satisfying sense of realism.

One other thing I cannot stress enough is the improvement made by calibration. Although 3D standardisation is still on the horizon, much of the same equipment is being used as in the 2D production process and calibrating to our usual standards, and compensating as best we could for the skew of the glasses, made a huge improvement to the image. Admittedly, the Greyscale tracking measurements that we took through the glasses suggest that there is work to be done in this area, but the improvement was undeniable nonetheless. What at first looked like washed out, salmon-coloured pictures burst into life. I am considerably more enthused by 3D TV in general after seeing it like this.

All in all, the experience of watching Blu-ray 3D on the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 was great — something I wasn’t expecting to write. The superiority of Blu-ray Disc over other delivery methods was already obvious in 2D, but it is completely blatant now in 3D, with the Full 1080p resolution per eye really paying off. After getting used to High Definition in 2D, I feel that the Side-by-Side and Top-to-Bottom methods involve too much of a resolution compromise to be fully enjoyable in the long term — although I’ll wait and see what Sky 3D do with this method before coming to any conclusion.

Standard Definition

BBC News on Panasonic TX-P50VT20

The Panasonic TX-P50VT20’s SD performance is as good as, but no better than the mid-range 2010 NeoPDP displays. In a nutshell, this means excellent, clear scaling, pretty good video deinterlacing, but also a total lack of any film cadence detection. This last point (a routine omission from Panasonic HDTVs) means that film content received by the TV in an Interlaced video signal will feature subtle jaggies where there would ideally be none.

France24 on Panasonic TX-P50VT20 Freesat

Adding these strengths and weaknesses to the plasma panel’s own characteristics (which we are largely delighted with) should give readers a good idea of what SD signals will look like on the Panasonic TX-P50VT20. Much of it is down to the source, and good SD material (good luck in finding some of that!) really shines on the TX-P50VT20.

High Definition

2D Blu-ray Disc movies looked absolutely sublime on the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 HDTV. It’s easy to get distracted with the novelty of new 3D material, but doing so would be a criminal oversight, because this display’s 2D image quality is one of the best we’ve ever seen. Ironically, the better the TV, the less there is to discuss in this area: the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 is faithful to the point where the look of what you’re watching is dictated only by the source itself, and almost never by the TV. Images had astonishing depth (yes, in 2D!), vibrancy, and realism due to the performance of the NeoPDP panel. The picture quality is simply outstanding.

Gangs of New York on Panasonic TX-P50VT20

Since we went into this review with one other outstanding display in mind, there is one point to make here about image detail which will be of special interest to Plasma TV owners. The Panasonic TX-P50VT20’s images are marginally (and we do mean marginally) more detailed than that of Pioneer’s PDP-LX5090 KURO TV. When fed with a high-frequency stipple pattern, the Pioneer TV would show blurring and disturbance on screen (except for when the TV was set to “PC” mode, but this produced poorer colour accuracy). In reality, this shortcoming of Pioneer’s display had very little effect on real world image content, but it is nevertheless the case that the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 produces a slightly more detailed HD picture. High frequencies are rock solid on this plasma television, meaning that there is a subtle difference with ultra-detailed BD titles (for example, Warner’s “How The West Was Won”, which contains an astonishing amount of detail) and also to the faithfulness of film grain on others. This is in addition to the fact that Panasonic’s display produces less dithering noise in the picture — although its tendency to show more posterization during movement is reportedly the associated trade-off for this. For most users, Panasonic’s newest display will be preferable, looking both cleaner and being marginally crisper. If that isn’t a ringing endorsement…

We are a little surprised to see that the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 does not reproduce full chroma resolution from a 4:4:4 input source. This means that the finest coloured nuances from 4:4:4 sources (PCs, games consoles, and Panasonic BD players which perform advanced chroma upsampling) are lost, as they are on almost all TVs. However, higher-end VIERA TVs have featured full 4:4:4 support in the past, and Panasonic tout advanced chroma upsampling as one of the key advantages of their own Blu-ray Disc players, so this was disappointing, albeit very subtle. Television-sized displays generally do not reveal the limitations of chroma down-sampling unless an observant user sits very close, but it still a little disappointing given that this is arguably Panasonic’s frontrunning 2010 model. (In fact, we have a slightly guilty feeling that the lower chroma resolution may be a side-effect of Panasonic adding a Colour Management system to its TVs).

HD TV broadcasts looked as good as could be expected. Frankly, they are pretty underwhelming on any TV after sampling the best unfiltered Blu-ray Discs. That isn’t the fault of the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 though, as it delivered all the resolution left in BBC HD‘s filtered 1440x1080i channel, and also from ITV HD‘s less-than-stellar efforts.

Console Gaming

Unsurprisingly, gaming was fantastic fun on the TX-P50VT20, as it has been on every Panasonic Plasma display for as long as we can remember. These TVs have never featured any input lag worth mentioning, and this top-end model is no different. We measured the input lag as being only 17ms in all modes, which is enough to make it effectively unnoticeable.

But what of input lag during 3D mode? Does the video processing required to take a side-by-side (or top-to-bottom) signal and convert it to frame-sequential 3D for display on the screen add to input lag? The answer is no: we measured the exact same 16-17ms figures in the 3D [Professional2] and [Game] modes.

Of course, there is not a lot of 3D gaming content yet, something which Sony Computer Entertainment in particular are promising to change. Until then, the tie-in movie game of Avatar on the Xbox 360 served as our 3D gaming test material. The immersive quality is impressive, but unfortunately, it is achieved with the resolution-compromised Side-by-Side method, meaning that the final resolution is effectively 640×720 (that’s a lower horizontal pixel count than Standard Definition games consoles — ouch). Additionally, this game in particular has a very low frame rate in parts, which completely ruins any immersive effect that the 3D might have added. Still, gaming is one area where 3D shows particular promise, so hopefully some better, faster 3D games appear soon. We also wonder if manufacturers’ plans regarding the lifespan of today’s games consoles may have to be revised if 3D takes off…

The Panasonic TX-P50VT20 3D TV was much more prone to temporary image retention when in 3D mode (even when with the [Contrast] setting lowered). We can only assume that this a side-effect of the higher panel refresh rate. In any case, the retention quickly cleared up after viewing.

Conclusion

It’s a little unusual that the first 3DTV we’ve had the chance to review here at HDTVTest is a Plasma. Panasonic (a heavy investor in both Plasma and 3D technologies) have been vocal in explaining the advantages of viewing 3D content on this display type, especially as far as 3D crosstalk is concerned — although we are sure that LCD/ LED LCD manufacturers will have their own performance claims to fight back with. One thing is becoming more apparent: the addition of 3D places new demands on the display device and will almost certainly re-ignite the Plasma vs LCD debate. In the future, we’d like to see comfier glasses (especially around the nose), less crosstalk, and less light loss. But for now, consider this skeptical writer’s opinion of 3D TV to have done a U-turn.

Attempting to put 3D aside for a moment, how is the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 as a standard HDTV? Absolutely wonderful. It produces the cleanest motion and the deepest, richest blacks out of any flat-screen HDTV currently on the market (although how those blacks will hold up over time is another matter). And, since the question is on the tip of your tongue, is it as good as the Pioneer KURO displays?

Yes — and no. Panasonic’s newest effort can boast of less panel-generated PWM noise in the image, and a very subtly more detailed picture due to the fact that it does not curtail the highest frequencies in the video. On the other hand, the last-generation Pioneer KURO displays have very marginally deeper blacks (although you would likely only notice with the two displays side by side in a pitch black room), effectively no visible posterization during movement, more linear Greyscale and Gamma tracking, and proven long-term black level quality. Both screens are just about equal in terms of colour. We think that the lure of 3D will convince a good number of Pioneer KURO owners to sacrifice a little bit of picture accuracy and a miniscule amount of black level quality, in exchange for some other benefits, and the new experiences that the third dimension brings.

All the same, we hope that the novelty and mystery surrounding 3D — something that this display seems to be very good at — hasn’t diverted anyone’s attention away from the fact that the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 is the best HDTV on sale today. It is for this reason that after a lot of discussion, we feel that the rating of “Reference Level” is appropriate. Although the Panasonic 50VT20 isn’t flawless (is anything?), it is, like the Pioneer PDP-LX5090 before it, the best HDTV that money can buy today — and it is visibly superior to others in the “Highly Recommended” category (Panasonic’s own G20 included). Almost every aspect of picture quality we can think of is either very good or excellent. The only down-side, which is a lack of film cadence detection (which hampers SD film material slightly), is becoming less and less relevant in the age of 1080p Blu-ray material. In any case, it can be compensated for by other components in an AV system.

We can’t really think of any audience or situation that would prevent us from unreservedly recommending the Panasonic TX-P50VT20. It does 2D brilliantly in dark and bright viewing environments, can produce an enveloping 3D experience (something which could effectively be regarded as a bonus), is absolutely fantastic to play video games on, and does just about as well as a TV could with broadcast material. All that remains to be seen (except for the fate of its black levels) is how competing 3D LCD/ LED LCD products hold up, and most importantly, how the public responds to this technology at large. Watch this space…

Reference Level

279 comments

  1. Hi David

    Great review I have bought the VT20 its great for the most part but I am having a bit of a problem illustrated by this Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INr6nQyLLjY&feature=player_embedded

    I noticed it first on The FA cup final & am so worried that my TV is faulty in some way.

    During the football the white pitch lines were manifesting as extra lines during panning shots across the pitch. I thought Plasma wasn’t supposed to get this?

    I now notice it during normal programs too.

    Is it possible for this TV to be faulty or does this sound normal.

    Thanks

    Andy

  2. Hi!

    How you explain that Croatian website, HD Televizija, measured black level of 0,0004cd/m2?
    http://hdtelevizija.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2306

  3. I havn’t seen this before and would be inclined to send it back. Can you see peripheral flicker generally or not?

  4. @Andy: that’s an interesting artefact. I didn’t notice anything like that during the review process, but I imagine they will all be like this, I doubt yours is unique.

    @Rasho: 0.0004 cd/m2 would mean that the VT20 is darker than the Pioneer KURO – which it is not (at least, the one we reviewed was not). This can be seen by eye – after the KURO “boots up” and gets past its initial brighter stage, it is still slightly darker than the VT20.

  5. @Rasho: While I respect the work HD Televizija do, the meter they use (X-rite Hubble) is just not accurate enough to measure such low luminance. Here are the specifications for X-rite Hubble:

    http://www.spectracal.com/hubble.html

    Its specified photometric range is only 0.034 to 1370 cd/m2, any measurements below 0.034 cd/m2 should not be trusted.

    Whereas these are the specs for the Klein K-10 meter we used to measure black level:

    http://www.kleininstruments.com/k10TechnicalSpecs.html

    The measuring range is 0.0002 to 10000 cd/m2, and we work very closely with Klein Instruments themselves to make sure we obtain the most accurate black level measurements.

    Warmest regards
    Vincent

  6. HI David,

    i was expecting this review, it’s a great review! I just wanted to know something: you’ve tried the console gaming with the “game mode” right? DO you suggest to use that mode for colour accuracy, or the colours are a bit oversaturrated? (i must admit i’ve never used game mode on other TV for this reason, so i want to understand, given the same input lag on all modes, if there’s some use for the “game” mode).

    Thanks!

  7. David Mackenzie

    Hey Torence – thanks! There’s actually no need to use the “Game” mode, because the input lag is just as low in the “Professional” modes. Because of that, I didn’t measure the colour accuracy of the Game mode, but I can measure it before our review TV goes back if you like.

  8. Hello,

    0,006 cd/m² seems a very low measurment, compared to what other calibrators measured. other reviews measured 0,016 cd/m², like many other professionell calibrators (D-nice & co.).
    Do you think they use bad equipment or could it be, that you did a mistake in your measurment. Could you measure the blacklevel again, only to be sure.

    greetings

  9. As manufacturers (and consumers) strive for deeper and deeper blacks on their flat-screen HDTVs, using the right meter to measure black-level luminance becomes all the more important.

    The Klein K-10 we used has a measuring range of 0.0002 to 10000 cd/m2. On the advice of Klein Instruments themselves, to improve accuracy we actually took 30,000 measurements dumped to an Excel spreadsheet, and averaged them out to give a final figure of 0.006 cd/m2.

    Also, variations between the North American and British/ European models might also account for the difference.

    Warmest regards
    Vincent

  10. Hi David & Vincent,

    what about the phosphor trail in this VT20?? I’m still sensible to this effect on my Kuro 428XD.
    I’ve heard on VT20 the effect is almost not appreciate. Could you confirm this? Thanks in advance!
    Greetings.

  11. David Mackenzie

    @Achtung, from the review:
    “Not only does the Panasonic TX-P50VT20 wring out a few more lines of motion resolution, but thanks to the new short-persistence phosphors, trailing is considerably reduced. It’s still visible on certain fast moving video games (the desaturated world of Resident Evil 4 still being my favourite test for sniffing it out), but it now only appears during very fast camera movements.”

    See also Panasonic’s own graphic, which we reproduced under the heading “3D Challenges”.

  12. Thank you very much David, you’re very kind!
    I’m very curious about it (for example, i noticed while playing Avatar, that “game mode” resulted in a more natural colour for the rocks texture, while “thx mode” was a bit yellowish in my opinion…but could be, like you said in your review, a 3D-mode related problem with the colour accuracy).

  13. Hi david, Im just wondering will you be posting the calibration settings you used for 2D as in in the past ive found them very helpfull from this site and sure many people would aprechiate them.

  14. @David:
    First of all: Great review, this was the one I was waiting for. Please excuse my bad english writing skills as I’m from germany.

    What I would really like to know is:
    A highly discussed theme around the web is flickering on the VT20.
    I can see flickering on all other 09/10 models in high contrast or uniform bright areas and it can be very disturbing. Some users, including some self called specialists, say that the VT20 suffers from a good amount of flickering. As far as I know these reviews were all made with the american VT25.

    I would really appreciate it if you could have a look at your test model again and test it with scenes which are prone to flickering (as for example the blue-rays PlanetEarth [the scenes with clouds on BD1] and public enemies or just a uniform white screen.

    Thanks a lot and keep the good work up!

  15. I agree with Chris, your settings would be very (!) helpfull, both for 2d and 3d.

  16. David Mackenzie

    @Torence: the whole 3D picture didn’t look too great in terms of overall colour balance, until I calibrated the TV through the glasses.

    @Chris: I will post the settings later, I’m sure you already know the usual warnings that they won’t be right for your individual TV. After a couple of hundred hours, the THX mode should be better, though. The THX mode is designed to give good compromise performance in the long term, for people who don’t want to calibrate.

    @Uli: thanks! The usual applies – your English is much better than my German. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of Planet Earth, but I can tell you that yes, I did occasionally see flickering – usually on Full Grey screens of about 30 IRE. This didn’t irritate me, but I did notice it.

  17. @David:
    Thanks a lot!
    As you reviewed the G20 earlier could you perhaps tell us how the VT20 compares to the G20 concerning the flickering? I have to admit that I already saw the VT20 in a local store, but it only displayed 3D (which was great). So I had no chance to test it concerning the flicker, but with the 09 models as well as the G20 this was a real problem for me (when watching PublicEnemies on my P50U10 the screen was “pumping” the brightness down and up with a high frequency in some scenes).

    That said, I could accept a little amount of flicker as all old CRTs flickered a little and it never disturbed me. ;)

  18. I noticed no flickering at all on the G20, but a little bit on the VT20.
    Like you say, CRTs flickered, and CRT was hardly a bad display technology!

  19. Hi,

    I’m french, so excuse my bad english ^^

    I must say that this test is by far the best I’ve seen! Very professional, with measures that look exact.

    I expect my 50VT20 with even more impatience ^^

  20. 5090H Kuro blacks are 0.0031 cd/m2
    500A Kuro blacks are 0.0019 cd/m2

    very close but the 500A is still by Blacks,
    color reproduction and skin tones the
    absolute reference level !!

  21. Thanks for the review. I have been wanting to ask you this for a long time, how come you guys never did the KRP reviews? These are better than the LX and will go deeper when it comesto blacks.

  22. Thanks for this great review! What was the contrast ratio scored with these settings? What pattern did you use to measure black levels?

  23. Thank you for all the reviews over the years. I have bought 2 panasonic plasmas in the last few years after reading your site and am overjoyed with them. I am moving one upstairs and my sons use one for gaming. I will probably get the V20 soon as I need another one downstairs as our main tv (large family). My sons are extreme gamers and love the plasmas.

  24. Great review David.

    Can you truthfully tell us your own opinion on 3d tech – do you think it is really going to catch on and be a viable technology for the masses (when in home suroundings) this year or not. Because to me it just seems like an attempt by the manufacturers and film studios to take some more of my Wonga Wonga … your views please!!

  25. With regards to the black level measurement (the comment involving D-Nice & co), do you really think the NA and EU model will have this vastly different readings?

    If anything the EU model seems far superior in terms of black level as the NA model is slightly better than EU G20.

    It’s just a touch bizarre. I think I will wait for a few more reviews of VT20/25.

    Also, I really liked what I read here. It was very thorough. I especially liked the portion covering phosphor lag and input lag.

  26. This is also interesting to me that the black level readings are so much different for the EU and NA models.

    If the NA model was getting that sort of black level reading across the board in the reviews. I’d definitely purchase this model.

    If you review the VT25, I’m wondering if there will be any other improvements further still, although this was alluded to in an AVforums interview with a EU Panny rep.

    Although for some reason, the 58″ and 65″ models have lower black level readings than the smaller panels. Not sure why this is either.

  27. @ David

    Thanks for the review.

    Could it be, that you took the black level measurement in fL?

    0.006 fL would be 0.02 cd/m².

  28. David Mackenzie

    @Warrior668: no. That is the figure in cd/m2 (yes, I checked).
    I’ll respond to the other questions when I get a chance!

  29. Hi David

    Could you possibly post us your settings for the calibration settings you finished on for your VT20?

    I reckon it might improve the image for me as I have busted my budget on this screen & cannot afford any form of paid for calibration.

    Contrary to what they always say on that other site it would be useful to have some settings that you, as a TV genius have settled on.

    Thanks

    Andy

  30. Hi David
    Please lokk @ this review:
    http://www.dday.it/prodotti/811/Panasonic-TXP42V20E.html#pagina-4

    they measured black level equal as HDTV test.
    From the review (translated by google) They said:

    “thanks to a rather low level of black screen when you view a checkerboard: 0.006 cd / sqm. We repeated the measurement several times always getting the same value. Curiously displaying a completely black screen, we measured a higher black level, 0,028 cd / sqm”

    i think black level measured deeper in complex scenes than on a completely black screen!!!
    Pleas tell me what do you think?

    sorry for my English

  31. I thought that when displaying a blank screen the screen turns off, what results in total black screen… Am I right ?

  32. David Mackenzie

    @George K: I will measure ANSI contrast and get back to you. For what it’s worth, we calibrated the screen to have a maximum light output of 114cd/m2. So, since black measured at 0.006 cd/m2, this results in a contrast ratio of 19000:1!

    @Zabir: That’s great to hear! I wouldn’t want to play games on a laggy LCD, either.

    @DavidCrofter: my truthful opinion is there in the review – I was surprised by how much I started to like 3D after seeing it with accurate-ish Greyscale. Will it catch on – that is a really good question. I do wonder if it’s asking a bit much to expect casual TV viewers to wear glasses. For gaming, I think it’s a sure thing. Video gaming requires the active user to interact with equipment already (a game pad) so asking gamers to slip a pair of glasses on isn’t really a big deal. I can’t really see casual channel surfers wearing glasses while they walk around between rooms and half-watch the TV though.

    @Ray: I would be surprised if the US model had inferior blacks. When TVs go this dark, measuring the exact value is difficult. But, we used a known accurate meter and averaged almost 30,000 results, so… Maybe we should just say this: the TV is VERY, VERY black!

    @Matt: I don’t think there is a VT25 destined for Europe? Although I could be wrong.

    @Alucard: that’s intersting. We measured black level on a totally black screen. I will look into that.

    @Hello: the panel doesn’t dim when the TV detects an all-black screen. It remains constant.

    @Andy Jackson:
    I might as well make these numbers up because they won’t be the same for your panel. They shifted a lot during run-in. You are better using the THX mode (for 2D):

    Everything at defaults except:
    Colour -2 clicks from default
    Sharpness at minimum

    2D White Balance:
    Gain (R,G,B): 0, +1, -1
    Cut (R,G,B): 0, 0, -1

    2D CMS:
    Hue (R,G,B): -1, 0, -2
    Sat (R,G,B): +2, -7, +5

    Gamma: 2.4

    ——
    3D Settings. Again, we are in the early days. This is a case of “try and see”. One thing is for sure, if other VT20s have the huge red bias in 3D mode that ours did, these settings may actually help. Of course, each pair of glasses is probably different too.

    Contrast: something high, but not full. We used 6 clicks down from full.
    Colour: +2
    Sharpness :0

    3D White Balance:
    Gain (R,G,B): -16, +1, -7
    Cut (R,G,B): -10, -7, +7

    2D CMS:
    Hue (R,G,B): -1, -2, 0
    Sat (R,G,B): 3, -3, 0

    Gamma: 2.2

  33. David you are a star.

    Thanks

  34. David Mackenzie

    Andy, I’d be especially interested to hear what those settings look like for you with 3D content.

  35. another question: can the set calibrated to be brighter than 114 cd/m² ? 114 seems a little bit dim for day viewing. Would you say that the VT looks brighter than the 5090 and that the whites looked dim on the Kuro compared to the Vt, because that what I noticed, when I compared both sets in shop. But it could be that the 5090 just wasnt calibrated properly.
    Would you buy the VT over the 5090, when you had to choose one of them ?

    thanks

  36. Hey ,

    Did anyone test out the mediaserver on the VT20? I have a problem with it. It won’t play all of my avi (divx)-files. The files under 10 minutes will play, sometimes the files unde 20 to, but it takes a while (very long) before they play. Files above 20 minutes won’t play at all. I’ve get a message: Can’t read file. But on the Viera’s V10 the files playes with no problem. Thanks

  37. @hello: Yes. It can go much brighter than that

  38. David,

    Thanks for a good review of this 3D Panasonic! I’m glad that you spend so much time testing the 2D capabilities of this telly.
    Although the viewing distance of 2D material is well documented, could you say anything about the viewing distance for 3D material on this telly?

    Regards, Ed

  39. Yes David

    As soon as i get a chance to see some 3d when the PS3 is updated I will let you know, also finding a 3d Blu ray seems like a big job in the UK.

    Thanks Andy

  40. 2d settings look great with your settings

    Thanks Andy.

  41. Tell me about it – right now for us the choice is the Panasonic test disc and Monsters vs Aliens.

    It reminds me of the early days of HDTV where there were no broadcasts in Europe (other than HD-1) and no Blu-ray or HD DVD. The only HD source material we had was Microsoft test clips :D

  42. David Mackenzie

    @ED: it’s early days with 3D yet. But the experience is better the closer you sit.

  43. Thanks for a great review!

    1. Do you have any plans to measure the black level at 100, 500 and 1000 hours?
    2. I know that you said that you didn’t see any floating blacks, Are you 100% sure? DDay.it claims that the V20 har floating blacks, but not as bad as the G20.
    3. Just for reference, could you measure the black level on the LX5090 with the Klein K-10? (You used a Macab when reviewing the LX5090).

    http://www.dday.it/redazione/1501/Panasonic-risponde-sul-nero-dei-plasma-2010.html

  44. David Mackenzie

    @Tilt:
    1. We’d love to do that, but we can’t keep the TV around. It has to go back!
    2. I didn’t see any during the test, and I played one of the same clips that made floating blacks appear on the S20.
    3. I will try to get access to a 5090 to do that.

  45. Thanks for response, Mr. Mackenzie. I do have one last question for you.

    Is the phosphor lag of VT20 better than the Pioneer’s last gen plasma (in NA, the 5020 and the 6020)?

  46. Thank you for your reply, David!

    A Swedish reviewer wrote that (translated by Google Translate…)

    “Experimented with measuring the darkness. VT20 is just beginning to Hubble and fluctuate the average of 0.012 to 0.018 cd/m2 on the G20. But this applies to the measurement of jet-black 0 IRE test pattern.

    I measure the ANSI checkerboard pattern, or APL, I was only just too high values (0.15 cd/m2 type) due to light from the white squares reaches hub beam optics. So I shielded the meter with a large hood and measured repeatedly.

    Then deep ink still clearly impaired and measuring stable at 0.045 cd/m2 – a fourfold decline.

    Either the filter and / or glass problems with light scattering or so, there is no traction control, which suppresses the picture in pitch black. It leans towards me pointing at the glass / filter because when I attach the small APL pattern (ACP HD 709 is really good) measure the Hubble around 0.02 cd/m2. Not quite the same amount of light but still IRE100 in the picture. Letter Box is also clearly brighter when it is a bright scene in the picture.”

  47. @Ray: I would say that the phosphor decay characteristics are as good as, but slightly different to the last Pioneers.

    @Tilt: does the “Hubble” in that translation refer to the X-Rite Hubble? If so, see Vincent’s early comments regarding that meter. Although it is a high end device, it is not suited to measuring black level.

  48. @David Mackenzie: I used to own a Pioneer KRP-500A and had to bring it back due to enormous phosphor lag problems. I don’t have these problems with the 50VT20. I also didn’t see it as badly on the older Panasonic and Samsung models. I’ve read on avsforum the VT20 it’s red and green phosphor decay in 3,3ms and 2,8ms with the Samsung C7000 and C8000 doing something like 3-4ms. It was also measured on the Pioneer Professional range (US version of the KRP) to be something like 12-14ms which would explain me seeing loads of phosphor lag.

    Which firmware was installed on the VT20, v2.100 or v2.103?

    Also does any of you know what Super resolution does

  49. David Mackenzie

    I think Super Resolution may be the name for what’s called “Resolution Enhancer” on the UK models. If so, it just adds a bit of edge enhancement.

  50. @David Mackenzie: Yes, I read Vincents comments. But the Swedish reviewer didn’t just measure a floating black, he says it was clearly visible:

    “Yes, I saw [that ] clearly the VT20 and G20. It was not necessary [to mask the tv] to see the phenomenon, but [a dark room] was enough to [see] that the letter box alternated in power and darkness becomes brighter when the APL increases. As [the] VT20 was D65-calibrated in professional mode, I would say that [this problem] is not possible to avoid.”

    You clearly state in the review that the VT20 hasn’t got this problem with floating blacks. I have the greatest respect for both HDTVtest and the swedish reviewer (somewhat of a “guru”), so now I don’t know what to believe. I guess I have to find a VT20 and look for myself… :)

  51. Regarding the large differences in measured black levels between HDTVtest and D-Nice:

    HDTVtest has used a Klein K-10, which can measure luminance down to 0.0002 cd/m2:
    http://www.kleininstruments.com/k10TechnicalSpecs.html

    D-Nice on AVSForum.com has used a Konica Minolta LS-100, which is an absolute reference grade luminance meter with a much larger range than Klein K-10.

    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=18282711

    However, it’s accuracy at low luminance levels is not as good as the Klein K-10.
    The specified range is 0.001 – 299 900 cd/m2 in fast mode, or 0.001 – 49 990 cd/m2 in slow mode.

    http://www.konicaminolta.com/instruments/products/light/luminance-meter/ls100-ls110/specifications.html

    In other words, I would trust the measurements here more than those from D-Nice when it comes to black level.

  52. Hi, thanks for the excellent review as always, I assume the non 3D v20 will have the same excellent black level? Also what was the sound from the built in speakers like because that’s quite important for me.
    Thanks again,

  53. David when you test & calibrate TV’s do you do it in total dark or with normal room lighting?

    When you watch a movie at home are you a fan of total dark or do you use soft lighting?

    Thanks Andy

  54. David top marks for the best review on the net for this TV. Really was the nail in the coffin for my list of possible alternatives for this TV.

    The black levels reported are what i had thought seeing some screen grabs on forums. The test equipment (and methodology) used is the best out there and hence people should look at your values as the most accurate. Again like you suggested it should not be the be all and end all and certainly with the low levels this TV gets, really other things should now be considered. Thankfully you review made it clear that all the other attributes required for a great picture are there.

    Now all that’s left for me is to see one in person (when they get here in Oz) to see if i’m sensitive to flicker (never seen it on any 09 model so i’m guessing and hoping not).

    Thanks again for a terrifically detailed review and for posting the settings!!

  55. I have a question about the THX mode. On the V10 there were a lot of talk on the forums about the yellow cast on THX. It later came an update that fixed the problem. You also mentioned it and i wonder if that was something you were able to reduce with calibration or do you think that an update is required? I am thankfull for any help in this matter.
    Ola.

  56. Hi!

    You put these settings

    You are better using the THX mode (for 2D):

    Everything at defaults except:
    Colour -2 clicks from default
    Sharpness at minimum

    2D White Balance:
    Gain (R,G,B): 0, +1, -1
    Cut (R,G,B): 0, 0, -1

    2D CMS:
    Hue (R,G,B): -1, 0, -2
    Sat (R,G,B): +2, -7, +5

    Gamma: 2.4

    Are you sure that is in THX mode? Because in THX mode we can’t modify Hue and Sat !! Maybe you wanted to say “Pro mode”?

    Are these settings yours final settings post calibration?

    Thanks

  57. Hi David and Vincent,

    I wanted to congratulate you for the constantly high quality of your reviews. There is no better source out there to trust.
    I bought my last plasma based on your tests and I was eagerly waiting for your test of the Panny VT20. I’m curious to see what you think of the latest Samsung LED 3D model as Samsung have significantly improved the quality of their displays over the last few years. I do think that the Panny plasma will have the edge over the Samsung LED (and not just for 3D rendering) but I’m not the expert here, you are, so I’ll just wait a bit longer. Any idea when we can expect to that review (virtually) published?

    Thanks again and keep up the great work!

    Nominon

  58. Do the Panasonics still have that picture Menu System where the sliding bars don’t actually have numerical readings but you just alter them to the left or to the right from default?

    I would have hoped by now they would have changed it to make it easier on the user.

  59. Yes it do

  60. David did you ever get to see or test a KRP Pio?

  61. I have a problem with the VT20 and my PS3 Slim. I can’t get my blacks right. When I use both YCBCR or RGB limited the blacks are too grey but when I use RGB full range the blacks are good but then I have a lot of black crush. Have anyone got any tips to fix this?

    @David Mackenzie: Could you also measure both LX5090 and KRP-500A/M using the same lightmeter?

  62. David Mackenzie

    @Portnoy:
    I should have been clearer there. Yes, you should use the Pro modes.
    Those are the final settings that we used on our review sample.

    @Nominon: as always, thank you! Hang in there just a little longer for some Samsung info.

    @Giddyup: they do, in the UK at least. I think the continental European versions have numbers in the menus.

    @Atomis: Only briefly. I didn’t get to do measurements on one. It looked like a very nice display.

    @Jurgen: The best way to set this up is to get a test disc, do you have anything like THX Optimizer, Getgray, DVE, AVSHD disc for example?

    Can’t promise I can measure those screens – they’re not easy to find!

  63. David

    Great work as always. Quick calibration q – can you set the Brightness for the Pro Mode(s) using the sub brt in the SM?

  64. David Mackenzie

    I imagine so, but would you have any reason to visit the Service Menu anymore, now that Panasonic have user controls?

  65. Sadly i have floating blacks on my 50VT20E..At the beginning of Matrix black bars lighten.
    Similarly, in Uncharted 2 and Dead Space I noticed that moving the camera, some dark areas with black became clearer…

    It Is there a firmwire that fixes it?

  66. Quote from David – “I imagine so, but would you have any reason to visit the Service Menu anymore, now that Panasonic have user controls?”

    I wont bother for WB but there’s a much finer (256 bit) control in the SM for Brightness, as I’m sure you know, plus I’m anal :-)

  67. David Mackenzie

    You know what – I am going to have to try that next time. Good thinking!

  68. I think I fixed my black level problems by forcing RGB full range in all my devices and turning up brightness +8. This fixes the black crush, gives me good (better than before) shadow detail and keeps the black level nice and low. For anyone interested my full settings are:
    THX mode (you get more picture than the professional modes or any other)
    38 contrast
    +8 brightness
    28 colour
    0 sharpness
    Vivid colours on

  69. Having bought this television yesterday, I am extremely impressed with it. The review here certainly influenced my decision to purchase – thanks to all involved.

    I’m experiencing one minor problem when using my PS3 with it. When playing FIFA 2010, I notice a smudging (forgive my technical ignorance in using this term) effect of the ball when viewing replays. Does anyone know how I can get rid of this?

  70. Congratulation for this very complete review (like ever)…and for the comments you take the time to put here !

    I have a simple question : I actually have a Pioneer PDP-505 and I have 3 options :
    1) to buy a Kuro 500A (one of my friend is selling one)
    2) to buy this VT20
    3) … just to wait for a better one because I still love mine even if it’s just “HD ready” :-)

    Thanks in advance for your reponse…. (and sorry for my german’s english :-))

  71. @ Mark yes I have the VT20 & there are motion issues especially light objects in fast panning situations.

    Football on HD has been shocking with tripling of the pitch marking’s & ready brek ghosting around players..

    I am seeking an exchange with my retailer, but I have heard a few people who see these issues too so presumably it is this models main flaw.

  72. “think I fixed my black level problems by forcing RGB full range”

    As far as I know the Pannies never supported Full RGB at all,
    which will result in a black crush and loosing detail, no matter
    how much you raise the Brightness. Better to leave it to RGB
    Limited if that´s the case.
    Anyone know for certain if the new Pannys support RGB 0-255?

  73. Thanks for the reply Andy. I watched some football on Eurosport HD without experiencing those problems. However, I am very wary of the issue now. I had hoped that a simple tweak would fix it. If someone manages to find a means of addressing it, please let me know.

  74. For the smudging and ghosting around players watching football or in fact, if you have these issues watching any programs, do you have the Intelligent Frame Creation setting switched on?

    I was watching England play Mexico the other day and the football would jerk around when moving past faced. I turned off this setting and hey presto, as smooth as can be. I did worry that I’d spent all this money and couldn’t happily watch the beautiful game but it was one of the Panny settings that is supposed to help but in facty, was actually causing the issue.

    You may already know this but thought I would offer some assistance in case you didn’t.

  75. Hi Steve, thanks very much for that suggestion. As far as I can remember, I had that feature switched on; I will try turning it off – hopefully that will fix the problem. Do you know of any major drawbacks in having it switched off?

  76. David Mackenzie

    Mark, if you take a look at the Motion Resolution section of the review, there’s more info there. Basically, on older Panasonic PDPs, enabling I.F.C. would get you very slightly clearer motion in exchange for some other drawbacks (we left it off before). On the VT20, you get the clear motion anyway, so there’s no need to have I.F.C. on at all and it’ll likely just create problems.

  77. David Mackenzie

    @Jurgen: THX mode disables overscan, yes. You can disable overscan in the TV’s Setup menu for all the other modes too, though.

    @Estebann: very tough choice. Which is the cheapest?

  78. @David Mackenzie: I know THX disables overscan standard but even with 1:1 pixel mapping on the other picture modes THX still has more screen which is problably fault of my firmware (v2.100 TX-P50VT20E)

  79. Hi Mark
    Honestly, keep it switched off, it makes no difference whatsoever to the picture, it’s supposed to make films look like TV (where if the camera pans around quickly, it doesn’t jerk at all). It actually has the opposite effect, makes the TV picture jerk if it is switched on and if you’re watching films, there is no need to have it on anyway as the TV is so bloody good at handling motion.
    Try it and it definitely resolve your issue.
    So glad I could help :-)
    Steve

  80. I deeply appreciate the feedback – thanks to David and Steve I’ve now resolved the issue.

    This might well be a more subjective question than the one for visuals, but I would like to know what audio settings other people are choosing. I am using the HDMI connections with all of my devices. I’ll probably invest in a surround-sound system in the near future anyway, but in the meantime I’d like to get the most out of this TV.

    I’ve yet to view the 3D capacities of this TV – I plan to wait for Sony to make the PS3 capable of playing such content. Is there anything I can do in the meantime (short of buying a 3D player) to get some use out of the glasses?

  81. Hi Mark

    As far as I know, if you don’t have a 3D Bluray player, then your only other options are a 3D source (i.e. Sky 3D or PS3 with 3D content) that connects to the TV and you would use Side-by-side mode to view this content.

    I bought the DMP-BDT300 (the 3d bluray player) at the same time as the TV and it is absolutely amazing … the clarity and depth to the images is amazing but I only have the 3D demo disc so I have to watch this in repeat!! lol.

    Unfortunately the old 3D Blurays don’t work as I did test them on the off-chance (the ones that require the cardboard glasses).

    I’m sorry I can’t help you with the sound as I have mine output to an amp through the optical cable … this in itself seems to causes an issue with Freeview HD broadcasts as they only come through my amp in 2.0 stereo and not 5.1. I’m aware that only certain progs are broadcast in 5.1 format but I believe these are output in HE-AAC format and not Dolby Digitla 5.1 which is annoying. Maybe a firmware update to transcode to DD5.1 would be nice at some point …. oh, and some more 3D Blurays to be released!!!!!

    Cheers

    Steve

  82. Hi Steve,

    Thanks once again for replying to my queries. I will probably wait for a 3D Blu-Ray player that has surround-sound built in. I’ve seen a few of these already, but this is the one that I’ve mainly read about: Samsung HT-C6930W.

    Cheers,
    Mark

  83. Hi Mark

    that looks like a decent option and only one of few that are currently available. if it can also decode AAC or HE-AAC then you will be able to view Freeview HD in 5.1 too … some modern amps do do this so it might be worth checking :-)

    Good luck and any other questions, please ask.

    Steve

  84. Cheers Steve – you’ve been a great help.

  85. Hi mark

    If your blur problem was fixed by disabling IFC then my TV is definitely faulty as mine is slightly better when I enable IFC but not by much at all.

    I love this TV otherwise & look forward to getting my replacement.

    Thanks

    Andy

  86. I’m sorry to hear that Andy. My problem was completely fixed with the PS3 issue that I originally mentioned, but I probably won’t rest easy until I watch a full match in HD. Let us know how the replacement fares.

  87. Hello David,

    I am going to buy this TV, but would like the 54in version and not with 3D. Would the 54in non-3D set be just as great as the 50in 3D enabled set? Do you expect any negative differences?

    Thanks
    Ralph

  88. Wow I tried the calibration settings from avforums and got awesome results. My settings in Professional mode:
    Contrast, brightness, colour and yes even sharpness at default (36, 0, 30 and 5).
    Eco mode and P-NR turned off.
    Whitebalance RGB-gain (-14, -11, -2) and RGB-cutoff (-6, -5, 0).
    Colour management RGB-hue (0, 0, 0) and RGB-saturation (0, 0, +1).
    24p smooth film/IFC and super resolution turned off.

  89. You measure black levels to be almost perfect and almost as deep as the KURO.

    What I don’t understand is that other review sites says it’s not much deeper than on the G20 and I have seen a lot fo shots taken in a dark room that clearly shows that VT20 is not completely black.

    Why is that?

    Here’s one of the other black measurements: http://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.php?subaction=showfull&id=1274347515

  90. @David : there are both (Kuro 500A & VT20) at the same price…

    Actualy, I’m thinking of choosing option 3 => wait for the next VT generation (VT30 ?) next year or later (black level & 3D should be improved again)…
    My main problem is that I will probably never find again a Kuro like this one… So it’s probably a bet on future :-)

    What do you think about that ?

    Thats for your reply

  91. Patrick that site you linked have the v20 at 0.03 and the Kuro at 0.02cd/m2 so in actual fact it is placing the vt20 much closer to the kuro. They also state that their unit can only read as low as 0.02 cd/m2. So again you have to read it in relation with the equipment they use. The meters used in this review are more sensitive.
    But i’m no expert..

  92. Great review, I had a 5090 and decided to entertain 3d as lover of technology I just had to. Out of the box I found the picture quality from sky HD to have I guess a bit of ghosting. By ghosting I mean lux hd is a great channel for testing performance I find myself seeing screen performance not even close to the pioneer. Motion sticking etc on images that the pioneer would just move on with. Now I would have the pioneer set to 1 to 1 pixels for hd sources so I am putting this down to a new screen and will reserve judgement until at I have over 100hrs of use.
    I have a spyder 3 pro for calibration so I know its not the best but I used in on the pionner to great effect. Also I found on the pioneer that for the best performance I turned of all the screen enhancements and got better performance so I still need to do the same with the panasonic. Lets see ….

  93. Hi Madferret

    I am getting my VT20 exchanged on Friday as motion & panning shots are not too good, very disappointing in fact.

    I noticed it first on The FA cup final on ITV HD.

    During the football the white pitch lines were manifesting as extra lines during panning shots also around players there is a halo . I thought Plasma wasn’t supposed to get this?

    I now notice it during normal programs too.

    I have made a video which demonstrates the affect.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INr6nQyLLjY&feature=player_embedded

    Thanks

    Andy

  94. @Andy Jackson
    Hi is this a faulty system then? I take it you mean you are getting it exchanged with another VT20?
    Cheers

  95. @Madferret

    Yes I am having an exchange for another VT20.

    Fingers crossed it is better I will let you know.

  96. @Andy Jackson

    It is difficult to tell for sure but I think the issue you describe is systematic to plasmas. I haven’t had mine for long but when I play 360 games that run @ 30 fps when one does a quick pan of the image I experience a double image effect that looks similar to what I think you were trying to show.

    The issue is, as far as I can tell, non-existent in games that run @ 60 fps.

  97. Note in the previous comment

    “when one does a quick pan of the image”

    should have said

    “when one does a quick pan of the camera”

    Here is a link to a thread that discusses the issue I am talking about
    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1029808

  98. @andy

    Is this for SD television, if it is have u tried enabling IFC? im not sure but itsnt normal SD interlaced meaning when it is converted to progressing its half the frame rate it use to be which in case is 25hz for UK teles?

    Ive never any problems with it at 60 or 50hz in progessive format. noticied judder at 24hz with blu rays but its know prob with my plasma the g10 panasonic.

  99. This issue is happening on HD channels during football.

    The white pitch markings as the camera pans are being drawn but with extra lines that are not solid. They are like fuzzy red green blue lines that merge into the white lines when the camera movement settles.

    I will admit I have a feeling that it is a plasma display issue that I am not used to having LCD’s before, but I went for this TV as I hoped these common plasma issues would be fixed in such an expensive top end model.

    I cant believe that for all the extra power it uses against an LCD/LED that motion would be worse.

    Fingers crossed for the replacement.

  100. @Andy Jackson: You’re having issue with phosphor lag (phosphor trailing) this is inherent in PDP technology. A replacement won’t fix that.

  101. Andy Jackson you 1 of the few unlucky people that can notice this, maybe a lcd will be better for you but also they have motion blur in fast pans, not hdtv is perfect unfortunetely :(

  102. My biggest problem with this TV is PQ during daylight hours. During daylight hours this TV can’t even touch my 5 year old LCD. I’m not talking about direct sunlight but a slightly darkend room with some natural light slipping in the room.

  103. @Jurgen I agree about the light issue LCD is definitley better during daylight as the VT20 screen shows up a gray green hue in lighter than dark conditions.

    My replacement has just arrived & it is plagued by image retention from a 3d Blu ray sampler disc. Obviously I have been given a display unit by my dealer which has been in demo mode.

    Not happy with that.

  104. David Mackenzie

    I’m not too surprised, given how scarce these units are at the moment. To be honest though – unless the unit has physical damage – it’s really a good thing because it’s already been partly “run in” anyway. The retention should clear very quickly…

  105. Thanks for your advice David.

  106. Hi David,

    I own a 2009 Panasonic P50V10. I was really happy at the beginning, but it seems, that the black level gets worse and worse. I really wanted a TV with deep blacks, so I decided for the V10.

    Do you know any statements from Panasonic regarding the black level decrease?

    What do you think. Is it worth to sell the V10 and buy a new VT20?

    Thanks and best regards
    Martin

  107. David Mackenzie

    Martin: I wouldn’t sell the V10 and buy a VT20 – I would demand you either get your money back or ask to be cut a deal on a VT20.

  108. Have watch a couple of films on blu ray and some football i found using THX mode which turns off all image correction technology and turning off IFC the best so far. This is some judder during football and I still get the weird motion where is looks like a moving object moves twice as quick. IE someone walks into a room it looks sped up. I will give my final verdict once I have ran it for at least 100 hrs and finished understanding which config is the best….

    As for 3d thats a wait an see situation.

  109. Thanks David!

    I contacted panasonic but there is still no answer. Do you have heard how panasonic reacts regarding these problems?

    Best regards
    Martin

  110. Do you keep 16.9 overscan off for games too?i have notice that if you put overscan on in games the image seems to fill more the screen!?thanks

  111. Great review!
    As a calibrator with the Klein i’m wondering what you did with your K10 to get different results – did you do a Black calibration with the Klein-SW ?

    Thanks for clarification,
    Toni

  112. The Professional 1/Professional 2 mode will change to ISF Day and ISF Night if the proper ISF procedure (including the European unlock code) is used. The American counterpart, the VT25 can only be accessed via RS232 Ports and special software.

  113. The THX settings out of the box are equal to the professional 1 and 2 modes but wend i move from THX to Professional modes i get a brighter image on THX l compared to Professional modes 1 and 2?What the hell is happen?Because the settings are equal on the menu!

  114. This happens to my VT20 and also happens on my V20!Its really weird,Cinema,THX,and Professional modes have the same out of the box settings but the image is brighter on THX ! You can see the luminous of the panel getting brighter wend changing for Professional and Cinema to THX!And i really enjoy more the Professional modes out of the box than the THX due to this!

  115. A simple question to anybody with more experience with Panasonic:

    Is the V20 the very same as VT20 without the 3D or are there more differences between them?

    Thanks!

  116. Hello i have the same problem as Andy Jackson above.Sadly to see an expensive set like this to have issues.

  117. I’ve finally got to test the 3D capacities of this TV via games demos on PSN (Wipeout and Motorstorm).

    To be honest, I’m rather underwhelmed by what I’ve seen so far – this is not necessarily a criticism of the TV, but I’ve noticed a considerable darkening effect when using the glasses to such an extent that on-screen detail seems lost.

    Has anyone else experienced the same issue?

  118. This TV I have had 2 sets so far & all suffer with poor motion on panning objects like football following ball trajectory all players & pitch markings blur.

    I thought this was supposed to 1080 lines of motion resolution without IFC enabled? What speed does this motion allow for? Is it harder for this TV to do white objects moving fast against a dark background like dark green.

    I’m fed up tried all settings the only thing that stops it is enabling IFC but that brings it’s own problems.

    ManUtd7 Have you talked to your retailer about it?

  119. yes and im confused what to do…get a replacement of the same model or a different.i wish if we get a firmware update soon that solves the motion issues.

  120. I’m sorry to hear you’re still having those problems Andy. Having watched a few World Cup matches, it seems my TV is free from them. However, I recently played a Tennis Game which certainly has ball trajectory issues (a sort of comet’s tail effect).

  121. fantastic , in depth review , brilliant ..

    its refreshing to see that some reviewers remain unbiased , that was a very fair review , brilliant job …

  122. Thanks for your support Mark. I have a new VT20 coming to me on Monday 21st June so fingers crossed.

    I will post the outcome here.

    All the best

    Andy

  123. @Andy Jackson

    I can see the extra lines you mention when the horizontal line is sweeping across the screen during BBC HD’s test screens.

    I can also see the awful blurring and extra lines appearing when the camera pans during BBC HD footie matches, very easy to see this on the half-way line when the goalie’s kicking the ball across the stadium after an out and the camera zooms out for a horizontal pan. This is very obvious in THX mode but almost non-existent in Normal mode. I cannot figure out what’s causing this discrepancy, so I’m keeping it in Normal mode for the time being, even though THX mode gives more accurate colour. Oh and IFC is disabled in all cases.

    I’ve switched from a Kuro LX-5090 and so far, have mixed feelings about doing so. I can’t remember if my Kuro exhibited similar extra lines when panning but judging by the fact that I don’t remember seeing any in over 18 months of watching one, probably not to the same extent. There was also no flicker on my Kuro, but there is on the VT20, which is puzzling me. Why spend so much R&D on a high end product and fail to get the simplest basics right? Playing 3D games on my PS3 was surprisingly awesome though, so it’s not like the VT20 doesn’t have its own advantages.

  124. Good luck with the new one Andy.

  125. IF I had the choice again I would have kept my 5090.

  126. Will the 2D-only version of this TV will be as good as the 3D version?

    Thanks

  127. @Ralph: In regards to phosphor lag no but in everything else yes.

  128. thanks Jurgen … any idea if Panasonic is going to come out with a 54in version?

  129. Last night while watching the World Cup I noticed a small vertical line near the bottom right-hand corner of my screen. Thankfully it’s barely noticeable, but given how recent my purchase of this TV is (and that I’ve used it for no more than two hours per day), it is annoying to think the line might be here to stay.

    Has anyone else experienced this issue?

  130. Here is the Email I just sent Panasonic.

    Dear Panasonic Customer care

    I have recently bought the 50″ VT20 Plasma 3d TV Serial Number FA-0250496.

    As it is the world cup I have been watching lots of football & there seems to be an issue with the motion on fast camera pan’s following players or the ball .

    It’s more than a simple blurring its a an artefact of the lines and the players when the camera pans, happens for a half a second or so and looks nasty.
    Switching IFC on eliminates this but I’m not happy that I have to do so as IFC can introduce other minor artefacts & the TV is advertised for sport without needing the IFC function enabled.

    I have had 1 set swapped over by my retailer already & the replacement set shows the problem too.

    I am now waiting for my 3rd set if this is no better I am considering a refund as it is false advertising to say its good for fast sport when it seems it isn’t, my wife & family have seen the issue too.

    Please can you have a look at this issue for me I am viewing Freesat HD BBC HD or ITV HD.

    Maybe a firmware update could be written as it seems to be an easy fix once you have detected it(hopefully) & maybe its just a broadcast issue & the way the VT20 is currently working.

    Many Thanks

    Mr A Jackson

  131. The 3rd Replacement VT20 has arrived.

    I am watching the current match in THX mode the same issues are present with motion.:mad:

    I have just changed to the cinema setting the symptoms are still there but not as bad, with IFC disabled it is almost watch-able/bearable.

    I think it’s best to set the best picture settings for each material rather than sticking to THX mode for everything. I have a feeling THX mode is not optimised for very fast movement of the camera as in football.

    For all fellow VT20 football fans try cinema mode it maybe a big improvement over THX, just make sure you disable IFC as you don’t want egg shaped footballs & other picture glitches.

    Maybe our correspondence to Panasonic will give us an updated firmware so we can use THX mode for football as we want.

    It’s nice to get a replacement minus the screen burn/retention of the last set so I hope to be happy now.

    Thanks Andy

  132. @Andy: The motion/pan problems are only there on THX, Pro1 and Pro2 modes. This is processing related and is fault with the software not the hardware otherwise the problems would be there on other modes aswell. Panasonic needs the make a firmware upgrade quick. In order to get this done us “we” the owners need to make Panasonic aware. Perhaps the editors of HDTV test and AV forums can help us with this.

  133. I’ve also emailed Panasonic customer support but they weren’t helpful and I didn’t get the feeling they would take the issue seriously and escalate it to their Engineering group. My dealer sent some technicians who were able to see the motion-related problems described above, and I’m fighting to get a refund authorised. There’s blatant flicker in Wimbledon coverage as well, when the camera zooms in for a slo-mo close-up. This model is just no good for watching fast moving sports. These artefacts are serious enough that, I really don’t understand how this TV was given a Reference Level rating in this review here. Can you really not see these problems, David? Any HD football match on any channel from any source showed them up if you look at the half-way line when the camera pans during a goal-kick…

  134. Qutoe from your article
    “But the main reason why videophiles are interested in the Panasonic TX-P42V20B/ TX-P50V20B is because the Panasonic V20 plasma is purportedly identical to the VT20 minus the 3D technology and faster phosphors. Given that the Panasonic VT20 has recently been rated as “Reference Level” in our review, the Panasonic V20 should appeal to buyers who are not yet willing to dip their toes in 3D TV waters (although until we get a set in for review, we cannot verify if the 2D picture quality on the Panasonic TX-P42V20 is equal to that on the VT20).”

    Will you still be reviewing the V20 I am not intrerested in 3D at all(stereoblind) but want to know that the V20 is as good as the VT20 in terms of PQ.
    Thanks
    Mel

  135. David is reviewing the Panasonic TX-P42V20B at the moment… hopefully will be completed by the end of the week.

    Warmest regards
    Vincent

  136. Vincent can you please ask David to check out the motion on the HD Soccer broadcasts.

    We are having an issue with fast pans during the match causing ghosting of players & pitch markings in THX / professional mode.

    This is on the VT20 but the v20 range should be similar.

    Thanks Andy

  137. Hi
    Do you guys know if someone will perform long-term black level testing? And when we will see those results?

    Thanks!

  138. Hi,

    As a VT20 owner myself, I did too notice motion blur in this TV (without ifc enabled) and very dissapointed, as one of the key deciding points for me to go to a plasma instead of an LCD was the superior clarity of plasmas in motion without extra image process.

    It is very interesting that David missed this issue as it is one of the first things I noticed after buying the TV and the after images in motion is clearly visible and it causes motion blur.

    Apart from Andy, I did notice this in normal mode not just THX or Professional 1-2. The only way to get rid of it as I see is to enable IFC.

    However there is one question in my mind about the cause of this problem to be source related as i did not notice blur in fast paced console or pc games(but not too sure).

    @David & @Vincent

    I am looking forward for a response from you guys about this, as most of the users following this site, but dispite the number of days passed there is not a response even in one sentence which is dissapponiting.

    Still looking forward to an explanation for this motion blur problem.

  139. we have a forum in Italy that is plenty of people angry for the bad-looking of VT20 World Cup HD matches.

    Is there a Panasonic e-mail to which we all can address our complaints?

  140. customer.care@panasonic.co.uk

    Not sure the right email for Italy though.

    Good luck

  141. David Mackenzie

    @Adacay: I don’t have the VT20 here anymore, but will check out the V20.

  142. @David

    Thanks for the reply,

    I really want to know what causes this problem and if there can be any remedy to it. Also wondering why it doesn’t present itself in motion resolution test patterns.

  143. Hi David,

    Great review and great discussion!

    I am really keen to hear the V20 review. I’m not that desperate for a 3D TV at the moment and would prefer a 54inch – more appropriate for my size room.

    Admittingly I was blown away with the performance of the VT20 and think it is well priced for it is so at the moment I am leaning towards the VT20 as I am thinking that there may be some extra tweaking of specs to support the 3D format.

    just wondering, how does the VT20 compare to the panasonic full def commercial range such as the TH 50 PF11WK?

  144. Hi,
    I used to have a G10 Panny and was so annoyed with lack of control over settings I went to Samsung. However I soon realised how much I missed the quality/build and performance of Panny so I have just got the VT20 and it is def affected by source input etc. My humax box looked better with IFC on in prof 1 mode during fast sports like footie etc. However turn it off and the lines break up on fast panning shots.
    Normal viewing I switched IFC off or went to THX mode with it off.
    My virgin box also varied on different outputs from 720p to 1080i. Have the patience to play around a little and you end up with awesome results. My sports look sweet in fast motion, my xbox 360 and Ps3 look sexy as hell with no issues and my panasonic 3d blu ray player is jaw dropping through it. Overall this TV dumps over my Samsung I just sold.
    My friend just bought the C750 and even he is trying to get it exchanged for a VT20. Best money I ever spent.

  145. Hi everyone,

    I own my VT20 for 15 days now and I want to give feedback to those who consider to buy this TV or just curious about it.

    Pros:

    1-Really good contrast and black levels in dark or dimmed rooms (Compared to my old Samsung LE40A656)
    2-Colors are accurate and punchy
    3-Wide viewing angles is also a big plus compared to LCD’s.
    4-Fine details are well preserved
    5-Chroma blur is far less pronounced then it did on Samsung LE40A656
    6-3D content has less crosstalk compared to Samsung and LG LED 3D’s(based on what I witnessed in showrooms)
    7-Motion resolution without and with IFC is better than Samsung LE40A656’s 100hz disables and enabled modes respectively.
    8-Hd tv tuner is a good plus
    9-Sound especially basses are really over the head of Samsung LE40A656’s bad bass production.
    10-firmware updates via Viera Cast is handy.

    Cons:
    1-Motion resolution without IFC enabled can not be 1080 as hdtv mentioned, since there seems clear trails in panning camera situations.

    As a matter of fact it is not better than Samsung LE40A656 with 100 hz turned on which has a motion resolution of 600.

    So it seems that without ifc enabled motion resolution seems to be around 500-600.

    2-Screen content with bright large areas shows obvious Flickering.

    3-Black levels shift obviously in professional 1 and professional 2 modes that can be observed in dark film scenes(referred to as floating blacks I assume).

    However it is not noticable with default THX mode(if you decrease contrast considerably 36->25 for example, you can see it clearly also on THX)

    4-Poor performance under florescent light. Black looks greenish gray(clearly worse than my Samsung). Suprisingly this is not so obvious with moderate sunlight.

    5-Sadly input lag is not on par with hdtvtest’s results. It is in 40-45 ms range.

    6- Image noise may bother some, and noise reduction is not very effective.

    7- Little phospor trails may be observed instantaneuosly.

    8- Slight buzzing with bright contents.

    9- Considerably more power consuming than an lcd of same size and brightness.

  146. @adacay

    Spot on your observations match mine exactly.

  147. Andy jackson:-

    I am still not convinced that the faults (mostly ghosting on panning shots) I am seeing are related to motion resolution hence the reason why reviewers seem to be missing the problem. I think it is related to processing specifically a bug in the sub field drive when IFC is set to off.

    I have seen the problem mentioned in forums in Italy and Germany also, particularly referencing the World Cup games. I think because the lines are so obvious on a football pitch that this makes it the easiest test for the problem.

    If it isn’t a 50Hz issue then I suspect that when the US Winter Sports start again then Panasonic will finally recognise the problem.

  148. ISSUE RESOLUTION: Dear Mr Jackson,

    Thank you for your further e-mail regarding your plasma panel.

    In response to your enquiries, I would further explain that this product is indeed new and innovative and aims to offer the highest possible quality of picture performance in both 2D and 3D formats.

    To produce a high quality picture in 3D viewing, to minimise perceived picture flicker and visual crosstalk between the left and right eyes, the refresh rate must be higher, at 60Hz.

    As a consequence, when receiving an off air broadcast, with a refresh rate of 50Hz, optimum picture performance can only be achieved through a conversion from 50Hz to 60Hz.

    On source material such as Blu-ray or DVD disc, the content is produced using 60Hz or 24p. As a result, the picture performance is unhindered.

    If you seek a refund, I would suggest that you contact your retailer as your contract of sale is with them.

    I trust that the above will help to further clarify your enquiry. However, of course, if you should have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0844 844 3852 or email us using the following email address:

    customer.care@panasonic.co.uk

    Kind Regards,

    Customer Communications Advisor
    Panasonic UK Ltd
    PUK (Registered Number 01069148 England) Registered Office: Panasonic UK Ltd, Willoughby Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 8FP

  149. So I am in the market for a new TV.. I currently have a 65′ Mitsubishi DLP that the color is moving in and out of seperation at times.. i think the covergence chip is going bad… I had it replaced a year and half ago…. and i really do not think its worth another 300 to get it replaced…

    I am looking for 65″ Flat TV… was looking at plasma for the depth of color.. cost and the room where it will be placed in is dim.

    Mainly the TV would be used for general shows.. movies… sports.. ( baseball , American Football etc ) some gaming like xbox and wII though i may move the gaming elsewhere

    I am really struggling with what to Get… LCD.. LED plasma…. was looking at the VT25 65…

    Would you all buy this again? would you recommend this TV.

    any insight would be most helpful

  150. @RJC

    As of now, I cannot see a better alternative for 3d viewing and 2d contrast,black level and colors than the VT20. So my choice would be VT20 again if I was to buy a TV now.

    But you should decide for yourself since expectations change from person to person with regards to which TV set to buy. So looking at reviews and may be the advantage-disadvantage list I posted above will be more helpful.

  151. VT20 disappointed

    Motion Blur is horrible i waste my money with VT20! Only hope is a firmware fix for IFC (less arifact and less soap opera effect)+
    IFC OFF is good to see photo :(

  152. great, great review as usual!!!!!

    it would be a good abitude to post your final calibrated settings in every review!!!

  153. Well mine is still doing fine no issues! I am sure this is source and connection dependant. I love this tv. Andy Jackson did you keep your third one in the end?

  154. I love this TV too, best thing I’ve ever bought!!

    I did a firmware update 2 days ago and it picked up 2.1.4.1 or something like that … does anybody know where to go to find out what issues have been fixed with the firmware update?

    When doing the update it doesn’t say a thing, just says go to http://www.panasonic.co.uk/support for more details … I’ve been there and there is absolutely nothing about firmware versions!!

    Thank you.

    Steve

  155. Panasonic support is woeful. Yes I still have my 3rd set it’s working as it should be according to them.

    Looks like I’m stuck with it.

  156. It’s def source! I just played a fast replay through the xbox at warp speed in 60hz and not one bit out of place! I think the tv broadcast at 50hz are being substitued with a few extra frames which can cause issues. If you have a 360 or ps3 put it on 60hz and play something that scrolls very fast like trials hd’ you can see how clear the background moves even when you pan it on a replay. Same with fast sports or racing games. My humax looks loads better than my virgin box too which is odd. Then again virgin are hardly high tech. Mine def doesn’t have most of the issues people are on about. Serial starts 35 so possibly the newer batch!!!??

  157. Hi David,

    Thanks for your great review. We are waiting for your calibrated settings!!!

  158. David,

    thanks a lot for the review. this was incredibly helpful! I just purchased the txp50v20, and i feel that on the THX picture setting the picture is a bit dim (for me the dynamic picture mode seems to work best, but i notice that you recommend the THX mode). Any idea how I can make the picture in the THX mode more livelier / brigher, as its quite dim at the moment (similar to the normal mode).

    Thanks
    Amyn

  159. Hi David,

    Best reviews from the internet and I’ve been looking for this kind of reviews for a very long time.

    I’ve got a Pioneer PDP 428XD and I loved this test as well.

    So please David, do your best to find a Pioneer KRP 500 or 600 A and write a test. It’s the only one ultimate test missing on this website.

    Congrats for your wonderful job.

    Erwan.

  160. Hi,

    I was wondering if anyone knew whether this TV (VT20) can accept when the PS3 is set to RGB Full, or does it only accept RGB Limited?

    Cheers,

    Ramy

  161. Personally I wouldn’t buy another Panasonic plasma! mine has failed twice once a power module and now half the screen has gone..

    And then there is the service from Panasonic, I’m 99% sure I know it is the logic board that has failed! But even if I swap this out myself they won’t either allow me to buy the part from them or exchange the faulty board. Yes it’s after 12 months but my 5 year guarantee is no longer valid because empire direct has gone into liquidation what choice do I have, their registered service centers charge £50 just for the call out which is the cost of the replacement part!

    Disappointed :(

  162. ISSUE RESOLUTION: Dear Mr Jackson,

    Thank you for your e-mail enquiry.

    In response, the V-Real processor makes intelligent estimations at where movement will occur from frame to frame. Due to video being captured at 25 frames per second in the UK this means that each frame is exposed for 4/100ths of a second or 40ms. Sometimes this is not fast enough to capture the motion on screen without causing a small amount of blur. To put this in perspective – a Formula One car travels 20cms in the same time frame. So if the car has moved 20cms before the camera can capture the next frame, this would show as blur on the screen.

    The role of intelligent Frame Creation (IFC) is to try to calculate what direction the movement will occur in that 40ms space and it has to do this 2.1 million times to reproduce every detail in every pixel on the screen. As the camera is usually panning or moving at the time of movement, poor encoding of the broadcast signal and any picture noise that is in the signal can mean that small amounts of motion blur or errors are seen. In addition to that, each of the frames captured are split into interlaced fields, transmitted separately and then recombined by the TV to display as a progressive image and so there inevitably will be instances where the processing causes strange effects or artefacts.

    However, IFC actually does a very good job of recreating detail in moving objects which has been seen in the motion resolution tests, which are carried out to ensure the best picture performance on the Viera televisions.

    The choice for the consumer under some circumstances will be – IFC ON = high motion resolution but with a risk of artefacts or IFC OFF = lower motion resolution (blurriness) but less risk of artefacts.

    24p smooth film uses the same processor, but is a little bit different. 24 frames per second material cannot be displayed at that frame rate as picture flicker may be witnessed. Therefore, all displays multiply the 24 frames (either by 2, 3 or 4 times). Viewing the material this way, maintains the “filmic” look of the footage and gives an image of preferable quality for many Viera customers.

    However, research in this are found that some viewers are not happy to view film material in this way. For that reason, the Viera televisions offer “smoothing” of the picture by calculating the movement and adding additional new frames.

    Unfortunately, as previously stated I am unable to assist with a refund.

    We trust that the above information will be of assistance to you. However, of course, if you should have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0844 844 3852 or email us using the following email address:

    customer.care@panasonic.co.uk

    Kind Regards,

    Customer Communications Advisor
    Panasonic UK Ltd
    PUK (Registered Number 01069148 England) Registered Office: Panasonic UK Ltd, Willoughby Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 8FP

  163. Thank you for these excellent reviews and an excellent web site.

    I have benn contemplating between the panasonic VT20 at plus £2200 and the cheeper samsung c750 at a resonable £1000.

    These review have helped immensly as a current exclusive Panasonic owner i have alway tended to drift to the VT20.

    However due to the early stage in development of the 3D technology i have to ask myself do i want to pay any amount for a TV which may become obsolete by the years end.

    Additionally do i want to be without this new tech for 12-18mths (no!)

    Therefore do i spend the £2200 on the VT20 and maybe live in regret or spend the £1000 on the C75o with the knowlege that it can be relegated to the bedroom when Panasonic bring out the next generation

    Again briliant site i used to trail the reviews on-line but will now add you to my favourites.

    Cheers

  164. @Scot:
    You’re right, I imagine there will be improvements to the 3D capabilities quite quickly (as is the case with any new technology). The Samsung C750 is also a nice TV with some different shortcomings.

    Do you need 3D at this time? You might be better served by the Panasonic V20 Plasmas, which have a lot of the same good points as the VT20 but are cheaper and 2D only.

  165. Hi, Mr. David!

    Tell me, do you gonna review the Samsung PSC7000?

  166. Yeah…. You need to get your hands on the PSC7000 – I’m looking forward to that review :)

    – Kim

  167. Maybe the best deal on the 50VT is here?

  168. I really want to check out the new Samsung Plasmas, but Samsung don’t really seem too bothered about promoting them, it’s really difficult to get a review sample of one!

  169. Its official I have broken two pairs of glasses just by putting them on my head, one pair snapped on the forehead rim, the other has a stress fracture in exactly the same place. Apparently you only have a 28day warranty on glasses.
    RUBBISH QUALITY FRAMES!!

  170. Just got my second VT50, first one had dead green pixel ….very irritating. But had no probs get replacement, thank you comet :)

    Having owned a samsung 46C8000 for a couple of weeks (returned due to faulty screen lol) this TV blows it out of the water for picture quality.

    I agree about the motion blur as mentioned above on few occasions but with IMC on there is huge improvement if you can live with the occasional artifacts when ball is moving very fast.

    Awesome review David, I should have read it before buying the C8000, just count myself lucky it was faulty lol

    Overall this TV, 2D or 3D (BD or SKY 3D) is a sight to behold!!!! Buy buy buy!!!

  171. Quote from Which? Test of the P50VT20 tv

    2D Performance: this is disappointing. Even the array of features … can’t hide the fact that the picture does not measure up to high end best buys from Sony and samsung. Sound lacks energy and the bass is weak…
    I suppose they do still recommend you use the “cool” colour setting for TVs…

  172. Overall score was 61%

  173. Having owned a samsung 46 C8000 for couple of weeks and returned it back for being faulty (vertical banding down screen) and I count myself lucky as the 50VT20 (after getting off to bad start, my first 50VT20 got replaced due to 1 dead green pixel) is by far superior in every way to the Samsung.
    That which test is a joke lol.

  174. Think that report is harsh, when I provide a full 1080p source the TV is excellent and picture quality is as good as the pioneer I had. The film I used for testing was the dark knight. Watching this on the samsung gave far to much flicker and motion problems. For me this TV will now great when you you it a low quality source but that not the reason you will buy this TV. Does struggle will football though.

  175. Looks like that most problems mentioned here are caused by the scource of the signal. Here in the Netherlands Panasonic showcases this tv with a few min of a fast paced soccer match and i didnt see anything unusual as mentioned in above posts. Obviously this is playing from a dvd or blue ray so maybe a good tip to buy or rent a soccer match on dvd or whatever and see if you have the same problem. Ofc this wont solve the problem but @least you can find the source of the problem.

    Im intrested in buying this TV but some posts make me to think twice about it, before i spend that much money.

    Athough i like the fact that this tv supports 3d i rather spend less money to get a tv without 3d but i cant find the model for the vt20 but then without 3d and if it performs the same regarding PQ ect. anyone got the awnser there?

    Thnx!

  176. @Person264
    I would be very interested to read that review, I’m very surprised they would give it a score as low as 61%, especially compared to LCD TVs. For what its worth, I seem to remember they also gave the Pioneer Kuro TVs a similarly low score.

  177. It was part of their shootout of the latest 3DTVs, so it was only a short review but I haven’t checked the internet for the full review if there is one. They did say it had a superb 3D picture, if a bit dark due to the glasses. The Samsung UE55C8000 scored highest with 75%. I bought my tv (tx32lxd700) on the strength of their review but now I realise they aren’t really the best source (you are). On their review of the pioneers I think I remember them saying they didn’t like the menus because they were too complicated…

  178. They did have a point with the Pioneer menus – making the user go in to switch between different drive modes manually was silly, and having some modes which would display obvious stuttering with 50hz material is asking for confusion. Then again, all TVs have settings to avoid, so I’m not sure why they were so harsh on those specifically or why it resulted in such a low rating.

    Thank you very much, BTW!

  179. Happy to help, it seems a shame to me that such good tvs aren’t given the score they deserve. They don’t really seem to care about properly calibrating the tvs to any sort of standard but then again they do test a lot of products so don’t have as much time as you. I think you could still give them a few tips on how to properly test a tv! It may just be my memory playing tricks but as I remember they weren’t even that impressed by the poineers black level. Oh and they thought the Panasonic was a bit green

  180. I would just post their review on here but that’s probably illegal and would be a bit long

  181. @Person264

    I own a VT20 and under florescent light black looks greenish. It does not look greenish with sun light or no light.

  182. That could just be something to do with the filter they use (I don’t know, I’m no expert). On the review here it says that the picture was a bit green to start with but that’s not what you’re saying. If it puts you off and you can’t live with it I’d very gladly take it off your hands for a small fee :)

  183. I have just replaced my 42 V10 with a 50 VT20 and I must say, I am soooooo happy with this TV. I though my V10 was immense but this takes things even further. forget the 3D for a minute. what a 2D tv.. I had doubts at first after having a look at the Samsung C8000 and the Sony HX903 but i had a chance to see them all side by side and the VT20 easily is the best TV at the moment. The Sony is full of picture noise and halo’s and the samsung just suffers from too much clouding and dimming. the Samsung i thought was very very good but 3D gave me a headache. If you’re thinking of buying the TV you must go and see it set up indipendantly with Blue ray and Sky HD connnected via HDMI. (if possible). 3D gaming for the first time tonight after downloading a couple from Playstation store. was very sceptical at first but OMG!!! fantastic experience. the glasses are a bit awkward on but if you use the head strap to hold them in place they are fine. 3D gaming i think is going to be huge. Well done Panasonic. Another fantastic TV!! Lots of posts on other forums sights about motion blur and other bits and pieces. not seen any of that. Had my V10 for over a year and had no issues with motion blur. This set seems to be even better!! Standard definition is the best i’ve seen on any TV. having said that, you dont get a true representation when they are linked up to 20 other tv’s in a store. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!! Oh, and its £1000 cheaper than the samsung 55″ and £1500 cheaper than the Sony….one more thing, the Kuro may have super black levels, but this TV in my opinion beats it in every other way. once you’ve spent a while setting it up and tweaking the settings to suit your environment (thank you panasonic finally for adding more settings) you get a beautiful viewing experience.

  184. @Person264

    It is the best tv for my criterias for now. Surely there are areas that needs improvement, but overall i am not unhappy. :)

  185. I was very pleased with my VT20B, but recently noticed something that no one has mentioned at all which i am baffled by. It is regarding 3D only, i have played with all the settings and made many adjustments and found for 3d viewing Dynamic and full contrast on were by far the best………. but the trouble with that is you get masses of snow effect and sparkles on dark scenes, virtually unwatchable, so i went to my local comet and bout the Monster 1200EX cable at £79.99 and it made no difference at all, so i brought the cable back for a refund. When i had a closer look at the VT20B on display i noticed the snowy picture on dark scenes was present also. Now the problem is i can get rid of this snow affect, but what you are left with is a dim washout picture and a bigger concern is it appears to be on all VT20B’s so i don’t think it is a faulty TV. Anyone else notice this?

  186. To James McHugh

    Your TV isnt faulty mine does the same if contrast is too high, DONT use dymamic for anything…..especially 3D, use normal for 3D & push your contrast up to about 7-8 clicks from max, my vt20 looks excellent in 3D at that setting.
    The snow your seeing is the phosphor’s firing i assume.

    Hope that helps.

  187. Also it seems that the whole white lines on football pitches fiasco is down to the signal the vt20 is recieving……it only appears in 50hz….which isn’t great since that is the signal the powers that be in UK broadcasting have gone for. Ive watched Football on a sony demo disc on my VT20 & 3D blu ray player in 3D @ 24hz
    & no artifacts present at all, and that is what i was looking for because i had noticed it during World Cup.

    Come on Sky switch to 60hz you plonkers!!

    Cant recommend this TV enough, it is excellent, albiet not perfect……but NOTHING is!!

    My only concern is the if the black levels are going to rise, i guess we’ll just have to wait & see…..600hrs so far & counting………..

  188. @James McHugh:
    the reason you get a lot of noise in dark areas is because the Plasma display is being driven at a much higher refresh rate. The Dynamic mode will make it much worse, I recommend selecting one of the Professional (or THX) modes and turning Contrast up high (but not totally full). Personally I found that after this, and with the glasses on, the extra noise wasn’t too noticeable.

    A new cable will make no difference as you say, since the cause of the noise is the panel, not the video source.

    @Nigel Ross:
    The black level situation is looking good, thankfully.

    As for 50/60hz: when it was decided that Europe was going to carry on using 50hz for HD, I wasn’t happy. There were some good reasons for it, but to me it just seemed like a wasted opportunity to simplify development and get the entire world running one scan-rate. Now viewers in the countries that pioneered HD get 24p movies and 60 fields/sec video material, whereas in Europe we get sped-up movies and slower-rate video. And as you point out, we have little issues like this.

    It’s not as easy as Sky just switching to 60hz – that’d be a pretty major industry shift and I don’t even think their current hardware supports it.

  189. Hi David,

    Thanks for the black level info, i know its still early days but thats nice to know.

    As for the 50/60 hz & Sky thing, what i know about that tech (or tv’s really )you could write on the back of a postage stamp.
    I was just saying that i had noticed those football pitchline artifacts on my VT20 & it was annoying me slighty, then realised that it only seemed to happen in 50hz so it doesn’t bother me much now.
    I do know it would cost Sky alot of money to change over & im not expecting them too either……i was just giving off.

    Great tv & great review.

  190. Having now had my VT20 for a week or so i’ve had some time to compare it against my V10 that i purchased last year. One think i have noticed (with IFC on) that a golf ball in the air infront of trees is very jerky and not smooth at all. My V10 is perect. However, if I turn IFC off, the problem goes away and the acton is very smooth indeed. same with tennis and football. If i turn IFC off on my V10 the same things happen as my VT20 with it turned on. Almost like they have reversed it. Having said that, when I watch a film or doc the panning and scrolling of picture and text is better with IFC turned on. I’m confused as IFC is supposed to make fast action smoother like my V10, but VT20 is very bad with this on for sport. Has anyone had the same issue? other than that i think the VT20 is outstanding!!

  191. I have just purchased a Panasonic TX-P50VT20B today and when the screen is black at the top of the screen I can see a message which says ‘ Press (icon with arrows) to enjoy 3d Video’ – This message looks like it could be burnt into the screen. Has anyone else experienced this?,I am wondering if this will fade in time??

  192. Thankyou for the info, but i am aware of taking it out of dynamic eliminates the problem, but really the picture is too wish washy. It kind of defeats the object of the dynamic setting at least for 3D. If you watch a 3d movie in dynamic and again in THX/Professional with contrast quite high there is no competition, dynamic wins hands down except for the snow showers on dark area’s. If only we could have our cake and eat it. Thanks again for all your input

  193. @Darren:
    Image retention is more of an issue in 3D mode. The message should clear with time.

  194. I bought one of these last month (made in Czech republic), very happy with picture quality etc..

    Input lag has become a real problem for me, seem to be getting figures between 27ms and 45ms, how did you get your figures so low?

    All the image processing features are turned off (as far as I can tell), is it worth connecting my games console to the VGA port (would that make a difference)?

  195. 45ms? Something is wrong there. Can you feel a big delay? What screen are you comparing to?

  196. Hi, thanks for the response. I can really feel the delay somewhat when playing MW2 or one of the Guitar/DJ Hero games

    I’m using a Sony GM-FW900 24″ CRT screen for the comparision.

    Basically the setup i’m using is:

    Desktop PC using an NVIDIA NVS 290 gfx card
    Sony CRT monitor connected via DVI/VGA Converter
    Plasma Panel is connected using DVI -> HDMI Lead
    Cloned display
    Using the tft.vanity.dk website flash counter
    Canon EOS 20D -> sports mode (1/3200th shutter speed, ISO 1600 etc..)

    Interestingly enough with the lag timings, i get the same figure regardless if IFC is on or off, in 2D/3D… the only one that seems to make a big difference is if I turn on the power saving mode.

    Was just wondering if there is a setting that I’m missing or whether I’ve got a “duff” panel.

  197. @Dave B

    Hi Dave, I own a VT20 and measured lag about 40 ms as i mentioned above in this page: “Sadly input lag is not on par with hdtvtest’s results. It is in 40-45 ms range. ”

    IFC and 2d/3d modes dont change the input lag in my case too, but i didn’t try to measure it in power saving mode.

    Will give it a try.

  198. Great review

  199. omg!! Anybody else watched the champions league final on sky 3d? The picture and 3d effect is just awesome! Oh and the motion blur is non-exsistant it’s crystal clear lol panasonic I salute you, what a TV
    ps the golf in 3d takes your breath away
    pps on a negative note the glasses ergonomics are shocking but after some home diy with a roll of black bodge tape I got them sorted :)

  200. David, as a newcomer to HDTVtest, just wanted to say thanks for a comprehensive and really great review. i only luckily came to the site purposefully as a result of another review on ideal gaming sets through avforums, and having read this posting of yours, am glad to say it’s really left me thinking again.

    I had completely excluded plasma from my list of possible sets, but with your Reference recommendation, i’m going to have to head back into london to hunt one of these down.

    Being so close to the Samsung UE55 as a purchase just prior to this, it’s really great to read such a detailed review on a plasma television that’s ticked all the boxes insofar as it sounds like a piece of kit that i, as someone who would just like to find a telly with outstanding picture quality, could quite happily splash out on.

    Thanks again!

  201. Tried to measure the input lag in power save mode and still no difference.

    To anyone planning to use vt20 for extended hours of gaming, image retention is a serious issue.

  202. @Adacay: what resolution are you sending to the TV? My measurements were taken with 1080p/60 input. Perhaps scaling adds a lot to it?

    @Simon: glad this helped. Not everyone is happy with the Panasonic VT20, but I do think that it’s the best TV on sale today.

  203. @David

    I am sending the same 1080p/60hz from my pc. No scaling.

  204. Hello David and Adacay!!

    I haven´t done the test for input lag, but I percive and notice a lot of lag when I play videogames even in game mode (gaming Bayonetta, for example). My tv is 42 vt20
    E.
    Im Spanish, sorry by my english :)

  205. Hi David,

    After poring over this review again and again, i’m currently fighting the urge to rush out for one of these sets. The only fly in the ointment is that I’ve been led to believe the P50v20 represents the same hardware but without 3d capabilities. Not being up for the VT20’s abilities with 3D (migraine-inducing, unfortunately!), I’d love to look at purchasing the v20, but just cannot confirm whether this set uses the same hardware only excluding 3D capabilities. Do you by any chance know if the v20 does represent same outstanding build but without this feature? I’ve seen the v20 operating down in selfridges, and although to my untrained eye it does appear really fantastic, I’m terrified that this set isn’t quite the powerhouse that Panasonic have created in the vt20…

  206. I am thourghly disappointed with my new VT20. The picture is pretty good not as good as my Pioneer LX508 I had when I was in Australia. My biggest gripe is the very obvious input lag I have. I noticed lip sync out, games unplayable so I compared my LCD monitor with my VT20 using my Vaio laptop and the vanity couter app. With Vaio running at 1080p 60hz the 100 pound LG LCD monitor came in at -10 to 0 ms (obviously some lag from the laptop) and the VT20 came in at a gobsmackingly awful 100ms lag in game mode. I experimented with various settings and cables but could not reduce the lag to less than 80ms (possibly 90ms if the laptop was lagging!!). This unacceptable. It’s makes games unplayable and i’m maxing out the lip sync correction on my blu-ray player! Surely this is a fault with the TV? I’m now resigned to playing games in the backroom on my 21″ monitor when I just dropped 2 grand on a new TV! I wish Pioneer still made TVs

  207. Hello, David.

    I have been in a desperate hunt for a TV that has low input lag and accepts 1080p from DVI (->HDMI) without subsampling the 4:4:4 color. Although this model fails, you mentioned that some past models handled 4:4:4 successfully. Do you recall which? And are there any this year? Ideal range is 40-46″, LCD preferred (because of IR issues). There is STRIKINGLY little information on this.

  208. Yes, its very difficult to find a TV review that tests 4:4:4 reproduction abilities. TV broadcasts are downsampled way below that so the TV does not really need to be able to display 4:4:4 for TV or video playback. But since more and more people are using their TV as a computer/console display it should really be tested together with display lag and the ability to switch between HDMI ranges.

    The TV you want seems to be the LG xxSL8000 series according to this review.
    http://www.avforums.com/review/LG-42SL8000-LCD-HDTV-Review.html

  209. BTW, IIRC LG plasmas can show 4:4:4, samsung and panasonics can not. But I am not sure that applies to all LG plasmas.

  210. Thank you for the information. I have actually accumulated a somewhat exhaustive amount of information regarding various manufacturers and their input lag, 1080p24 support, PC support, chroma resolution, etc. I had actually given up on LG quite early in my quest, because when I took a look at LG’s screens, I noted (more like confirmed what I had read) that the image is laughably vulnerable to the perils of viewing even a little off-axis – which I would unavoidably be doing if viewing from a few feet away, as with use as a PC monitor. It’s my fault for failing to qualify an absence of deal-breaking faults. I’m usually good about that.

    Samsung LCDs are able to show 4:4:4 color, according to one of the very people who write up the detailed reviews here. Unfortunately, the Samsungs fail the input lag test, unilaterally. If I felt like buying three year old technology, I could try to find somebody selling a 2008 model, in which case I might enjoy input lag on the order of 30ms. But online, those models are pricier used than 2010 units, new.

    Every single 1080p Panasonic TV manual I have read (close to all of them) lists identical specifications. So if SOME of them support 4:4:4 color, the ONLY way this is going to be revealed is from the handful of people who have discovered it, such as the author of the above review.

    You’d better believe I would love to get this dream Panny.

  211. LG does not have IPS panels in all their TVs. They have a kind of panel lottery where you can get panels from 4-5 different manufacturers in the same TV model. It sounds like you watched an LG with a xVA panel.

    The more budgetoriented LG IPS panels have less good viewing angles considering their panel type as well. I am not totally certain but I believe the panasonic LCD TVs have 4:4:4 chroma. I havent seen any review of them that notes that its missing but it seems not everyone is checking for it.

    If you have an A/V barn close to you you can go there with a laptop and a test image and check for yourself. I cant believe the review guys spend all this trouble on color and gamma calibration but do not spend 5 seconds to check if the TV has full chroma reproduction. :/

    If you look at the macro shot of the 32″ panasonic L32U22 and the inch LG LD450 in this thread : http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1131464&page=66
    Then you see that the letter e does not appear to have the blur associated with a non 4:4:4 display. There are no intermediate subpixels that indicate interpolation. I would like to make a check myself with a test image to be totally sure but this is a positive indication.

  212. That is an excellent find. However, I could not trust that image to tell me about chroma resolution because the pixels themselves are pure black and white. (It’s also a shame they used one of the ONLY models which does not offer a game mode, as that caused me to temporarily dismiss Panasonic when I saw that post a while ago.)

    For what it’s worth, I took the time to visit the local A/V barn with a laptop, as you suggested. The results were not conclusive. You can find my discussion about it on AVS Forum. The answer to the question with regard to my target TV (L42U25, which has a game mode) is actually “yes and no”, until I can get somebody to offer a better-educated analysis of my findings.

  213. @ David
    I have retried all input lag tests with an SLR I borrowed from my friend. At very best the input lag is 41ms but it is so variable that I clocked 80-90ms at certain points, all with 1080p 60hz feeds in game mode. I even tried with with D-sub VGA input but that only resulted in 100ms+ results as the TV doesn’t support VGA beyond 1366×768 at 60hz. I am extremely dismayed as I purchased the TV based upon HDTVtests review and it’s low input lag (i don’t hold you responsible it’s Panasonics fault) but over the last few weeks I have been seeing more and more people complaining of the same issue. Since manufacturers don’t quote lag figures is there any come back against such poor results?

  214. This is really worrying, have Panasonic changed the hardware or something?
    Can you tell me when your VT20 was manufactured and what the firmware version is? And to clarify, this is the UK (or European?) model?

  215. Hi David

    My TV (Model No. TX-P50VT20B) was assembled in the Czech republic

    Firmware version is 2505-10300

    Serial number starts with: FA-04210xx

    How can I obtain the manufactured date (no longer have the box)?

  216. Thanks for the response David,

    My version is the UK TX-P50VT20B
    software version 2505-10300
    my serial no. starts FA-05205xx
    I have the box but I cannot find where the manufacturing date would be.

    I hope it’s a resolvable problem

  217. PS mine was assembled in the Czech Republic also

  218. Do the Panasonics have “super resolution” but the Samung’s don’t? This is a NEC sharpening chip that doesn’t ring as much as other sharpening effects. Used on Epson projectors, pretty sweet for material with little noise.

  219. Just to close out my comments on this thread, I’ve now sent back my VT20. The motion handling problems (double lines during camera pans and ghosting around bright objects), the terrible flicker, significant input lag and the posterisation problems on the VT20 were too distracting to put up with and Panasonic refused to acknowledge these issues, however they agreed to give me a refund. I seriously cannot classify the VT20 as anywhere near reference level at all because my previous TV was an ISF-calibrated Kuro and this doesn’t come anywhere near it in terms of PQ. If you can live with its faults, fair enough; but at its price range (which puts it squarely in the flagship category), there are better alternatives from other manufacturers.

  220. Panasonic refused to acknowledge your issues because there are no issues
    1. Motion handling probs are due to 50hz input, not much you can do about that.
    2. Terrible flicker? hmmm cant say I noticed any flicker to be honest.
    3. Input lag and posteriation probs well I didnt buy my vt20 to play games on if these probs do exsist.
    And as for better alternatives from other manufacturers well good luck trying to find better because there are no better TV’s on the market in the same price range. And dont bother going anywhere near the Samsung C8000 because I can tell you from experiance having owned one for 2 weeks that its not in the same league as the vt20 (the dimming and screen uniformity is terrible)

  221. Unfortunately, the issues are real and they are reported by several owners in various AV forums on the Internet. They include banding (posterisation), ghosting around bright or fast moving objects in THX mode and blatant flicker similar to a CRT running a low refresh rate. If you have Sky HD, Luxe TV is a very good channel for showing these processing errors up and most football matches will show the problem with “ready brek” style ghosting around players when the camera’s panning horizontally during a goalkick. It’s good to hear you don’t notice these issues, however that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

    I saved and bookmarked problematic footage on my Sky+ HD box and pointed out the problems to the two technicians my dealer sent round and they both agreed it didn’t looked right, so I sent my VT20 back for a full refund. I then bought a Sony HX903 and it does not exhibit the same problems with the same footage, proving that the faults did not lie with the source signal. You do realise UK broadcast signals are 50Hz, so a TV which can’t handle them properly is not fit for purpose in the UK.

    Can’t comment on Samsung screens since I’ve never used one, but my new Sony HX903 has significantly better motion handling and overall PQ than the VT20, although it costs more.

    As always, it’s wise to not take what reviews say as gospel, and audition each set for yourself to decide which is best for you. It’s also a good idea to browse the owner threads for each set on the various AV forums on the Internet to see what real world users are saying.

  222. @Jack
    ”2. Terrible flicker? hmmm cant say I noticed any flicker to be honest.”

    It isn’t obvious at all times.
    For me the flickering (like some have mentioned above) is only irritating on brighter ares of an images and also more so on a still image. When the image moves quickly enough the eyes get distracted by that and the flicker isn’t much of a problem.

    A good way to test if one is disturbed by the flickering or not is by viewing photos on the plasma. For me it is quite a pain as it’s not a calm picture that is displayed (as it would be on a LCD), but more of a ”shaking” one (because of the flicker). Again, this is more easily seen on brighter areas of an image, such as the sky.

    I’m baffled that on each test of the Panasonic plasmas this flickering issue is never mentioned. But I guess people are different and some isn’t bothered.

    My wish would be to get a plasma with a refresh rate of something like 100 Hz instead of the 60 Hz (or whatever it is now). I remember the 100 Hz CRT TVs. No problem with flicker there.

  223. Kotan
    “I then bought a Sony HX903 and it does not exhibit the same problems with the same footage, proving that the faults did not lie with the source signal. You do realise UK broadcast signals are 50Hz”

    yes I’m well aware that the uk is 50hz, I just dont think the footy is that much of an issue, I think lcd and plasma’s have positive’s and negatives.
    I bought the vt20 for its 3d powers which are awesome, because I believe the crosstalk on lcd’s (inc. Sony HX903) especially when watching sky side by side is un-watchable headache inducing. And until they release the OLED tv’s the contrast ratio on a LCD will not touch the self iluminating pixels of the vt20 plasma.

    Overall as David has stated I believe the vt20 is the best tv on the market at the mo

  224. I’m not debating that it’s probably the best TV on the market at the moment but that’s like being the most handsome man in the burns unit. There is zero high-end competition in the plasma market

  225. 3D TV face-off: Panasonic VT20 vs Samsung C8000 vs Sony HX903

    Read more: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/televisions/3d-tv-face-off-panasonic-vt20-vs-samsung-c8000-vs-sony-hx903-50000177/#ixzz12pU6AKe0

    and the winner is…………. VT20 :-) no surprises there

  226. Apples and Oranges. Plasma is always going to out perform Edge-lit LED LCD in black levels and definately in cross-talk (in 3D).
    I owned a Pioneer LX508A when I lived in Aus for 3 years and my issue with my VT 20 is that it is out matched by a TV more than 2.5 years it’s predecessor.
    The motion is not as smooth, large areas of colour tend to block and look stand-out from the picture. 2.35:1 aspect films (which pretty much have to be zoomed up with in the first 100hrs) looked great on my LX508 but the VT20 makes them look fuzzy and increases both the lip sync/image lag and the image artifacts. Blu-ray content doesn’t look quite as eye-poppingly stand out from DVD content and it’s NOT because the upscaling is so impressive.
    I not even going to get started again on the input lag in game mode which makes gaming impossibly fustrating.
    I have to say the novelty of the VT20, the 3D, is it’s most redeeming feature. The picture is punchy, sharp and thoroughly impressive. Now if only I could find more than 1 disc with 3D content I actually want to watch!
    PS panasonic are completely crap at replying to emails

  227. @Jack, high end LED TVs have higher contrast ratios than plasmas if you’re measuring the ratio between darkest blacks and brightest whites. This is because most LCDs can produce eye-meltingly bright whites and quite decent blacks these days, but this is all irrelevant if you’re looking to get an accurate picture, because the spec doesn’t call for extremely high contrast ratios so most modern sets can be calibrated to provide the necessary range.

    Look, this is not a theoretical debate about strengths and weaknesses of plasma vs LCD technology, I’m well aware of those. Regardless of the inherent advantages of plasma, if a plasma TV doesn’t implement its processing algorithms correctly, you’re not going to end up with a good result. VT20 displayed flicker, posterisation, banding and ghost images with various HD sources in my home theatre. These were not present with my previous TVs, so I felt something was wrong. I’ve owned plasma TVs for the last 8 years (starting with early Pioneers, then going through various Kuro generations up to and including 9G and most recently Panasonic VT20) and have been happy with each, but the fact is ever since Pioneer pulled out of the market, I’ve been looking around for a replacement in the same ball park around the same price range and had some trouble finding anything worth purchasing. I finally bought the VT20 with high hopes after reading the reviews, but detected a lot of problems with its 2D PQ processing which Panasonic CS weren’t willing to solve, so it went back. Doesn’t matter what any review says, ultimately our eyes give the final verdict and I would hope any informed enthusiast would agree.

    Bear in mind, I don’t overwhelmingly care about 3D PQ since 99% of my TV viewing is still 2D content and this will not change in the short term. I’m glad you’re happy with your VT20, but I wasn’t happy with mine, it’s as simple as that.

    Potential buyers should browse the various AV forums for reviews posted by professional calibrators and users of these sets to get a more unbiased picture than review sites. An interesting exercise will be to look at the owners’ threads for each set and compare how much negative feedback there is for the VT20 versus the HX903 – that’s how I ultimately decided to shortlist it as a potential replacement to my VT20.

    @Superkennio, edge-lit LED LCD sets do not compare to full array autodimming backlight LED models – the latter provide superior picture quality because of impressive blacks and amazing contrast, but generally sell at higher price points, and there aren’t that many models to pick from.

  228. @Superkennio: Sure the VT20 has the 50Hz motion issue but in no way does it have more input lag than a LX508. The Kuros all have quite a bit of input lag, no exceptions. The VT20 only has about 10-20ms input lag. Also the Kuro 9G might have better black levels (just) but the Kuro 8G doesn’t. The VT20 also has a brighter image. So there’s no way the LX508 has a better contrast. This sounds like a pure user error issue.

  229. @ onslaught

    I NEVER said anything about contrast or brightness. Since you can’t read simple text I’m sure you’re NOT the man I want to ask for an optical assessment. Neither of these are an issue but the colour blocking is an issue even in 24hz (all be it much less so). Large areas of solid colour appear to block and slide across the moving image (and no, I don’t have any processing effects on).
    As I have stated before input lag is NOT 10-20ms, not by a long shot. If you read up earlier I have measured the input lag against a LG W2261VP 22″ 1080P LCD monitor. The monitor against the laptop achieved 0-10 ms lag the VT20 produced a minimum of 50ms lag in game mode and even that was inconsistant (up to 90ms lag) in any other mode, lag was upwards of 100ms. If you want proof I can send you pictures. The LX508A was at worst 30ms but sat around the 17ms mark. I have to set my amp to 139ms delay to sync the audio with the VT20.

    Yes the Panasonic has newer technology but it’s a cheaper build. At this price this should be the 10G we all wanted Pioneer to make. Instead it’s a good TV in a competitionless Plasma market that can be bested in some fairly crutial areas by a TV made 2.5 years ago because of lazy implementation.

    I’m sick of hearing comments from people who either don’t own one or are trying to justify their two thousand spend.I wasn’t asking for your opinion.
    I own the TV. I can see the problems myself and I know how to set up my set. I don’t need you to re-quote me the review, it’s at the top of the page, see for yourself.
    I have seen no actual evidence to contradict me only evidence of in support and even if there was, my particular set is evidence enough.

    I am simply trying to A) find a solution to the issues and B) inform people like myself that if are looking to purchase a VT20, be aware that there are some issues that may be deal breakers for you.
    If you wanna play games on your TV don’t get a VT20. The input issues are very very real and I’m not the only one experiencing them.
    That’s what this thread is for isn’t it? Or have I stumbled upon the “regurgitate an opinion I read” thread?

    Maybe it’s a hardware fault with my set but i’d never know because Panasonic are terrible at customer service and I’m still awaiting a reply of any form.

  230. My TX-50VT20E only has 10-20ms input lag compared to my old Ilyama CRT monitor which has absolutely no input lag. That’s tested with Cinema, THX, Professional 1 and 2 mode. My previous LX-508 had about 50ms input lag on average and my KRP-500A even had about 60ms input lag on average.

  231. Lag seems to drop significantly when in 3d mode strangely

  232. doesn’t benefit anything in 2d though

  233. Watch out for issues with the IR broadcast from the set to operate the glasses, it can corrupt IR data for other remote controlled equipment in the room that effectively stops the IR remotes from working, Panasonic are aware of the problem.

    It is a bad design in that the TV sends pulses of IR at every frame change, typically every 8ms, this is totally unnecessary and a sledge hammer approach as it means that a typical RC5 IR command (as might be used by an audio system) that takes 30ms can potentially be corrupted 4 times and rendered useless.

    The intelligent approach would be to send sync pulses at much longer intervals, certainly they should have allowed gaps long enough to accomodate industry standard IR codes.

    It might also have been a good idea to use a different carrier frequency to the rest of the consumer electronics industry!

  234. For those of you who use a PS3 with this TV, do you have to alter any settings to get the best out of the 3D function? I tried Black Ops 3D with it. I see very little in the way of 3D effects (actually, as a result of the darkening of the screen with the glasses on, I see far less overall).

  235. Sony NX810 HDTV calibrated

    DDAY LAB

    contrast ANSI di 8931:1
    black level 0.015 CD/m2

    http://www.avmagazine.it/forum/showpost.php?p=2805225&postcount=566

  236. @ David McKenzie
    Eventually got a response from Panasonic by email (took 4 weeks) stating that they thought 100ms was a reasonable reponse time. They stated that if I had any further questions I should contact their helpline. After 10 attempts to get though (9 of which told me that the lines were too busy and hung up) I spoke to a very rude lady who knew nothing about what she was talking about I spoke to a very rude engineer who told me that I must be wrong but that 100ms was nothing anyway and that it’s not a PC monitor so what do I expect. I pointed out that I using a PC, I was using an Xbox 360 and a PS3 and that the ‘game mode’ is obviously misrepresented if I am not intended to play games on it. He told me that no-one else has ever compained about the input lag and that he would only deal with my dealer and not me.
    He also stated that using a CRT or LCD monitor with a pc in dual mode as a comparison was not a legitimate test due to the way the image is drawn. I tried too explain to him that no matter how the image is drawn there is a difference in the time it takes for the image to be displayed. This IS lag.
    I am now writing a complaint to Panasonic both in regards to their TV and in regards to their customer service.

  237. They also denied that there is a problem with the montion handling in 50 HZ mode as stated that there have been no complaints made about it ever!

  238. Well it has been confirmed by D-Nice that the Samsung C7x00 series are the better TVs. The only thing the Panasonic had going for itself were the black levels but after the black level rise the blacks will be worse on the V20 and VT20 series. After the rise both the V20 and VT20 will do 0,01fl or higher whereas the C7x00 will only do 0,008fl on the 50″ and 0,006 on the 63″. Besides better black levels the Samsungs have lower phosphor lag, no motion issues, 1080 lines of motion no matter the source (24Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz), much better video processing (no 3:2 and 2:2 candances errors), best scaling and de-interlacing, best 2D to 3D support, full calibration controlls, much better 3D glasses, much thinner display, much better customer support (how could it possibly be any worse?) and most important of all it’s much cheaper.

    So simply put don’t buy the Panasonic but buy the much better and cheaper Samsung instead.

  239. @SuperKennio:
    I’m not surprised you had a bad support experience – I don’t think any CE companies do too well here. 100ms for me would be basically unplayable for fast paced games.

    @Onslaught:
    now I REALLY want to get one of those onto the test bench. Samsung’s 2009 PDPs were excellent all things considered, except for a 50hz motion flaw (which is worse than anything Panasonic have ever had). Obivously, our US friends don’t have to worry about that.

    It sounds like Samsung are doing themselves a major disservice by not getting more of their Plasmas out for review.

  240. Hi All, I’ve just sent up my new T20B today and I’m loving the 3D and getting there in terms of my favourite picture setting but the one major issue I have at the moment is the sounds, I just can’t seem to get it right and I just can get enough bass without drowning out the speech.

    Can any one suggest the best settings for sound

    Cheers

  241. Hi, just to add to the flicker discussion. I don’t own a plasma and was looking for one. Noticed flicker on both the TX-P50VT20 and TX-P50V20. Especially with bright images.

  242. I finally got a response from Panasonic. They offered no explaination for my issues nor any solution other than a refund. It’s funny, if there are, apparently, no known issues (according to Panasonic) with the 50VT20 then why not offer a replacement panel and go straight for a refund?
    I feel fairly stuck. I don’t know that I can get find a TV that will suit both my Movie and Gaming needs. I thought the VT20 would be it but it let me down big time

  243. Im looking for a tv thats good for gaming and movie needs too. the VT20 seemed great from the review, especially the input lag, but im getting too many mixed reviews from people who have owned the tv. its only £1600 at Costco now. what to do?

  244. @Antony
    Do not use internal speakers!

  245. @Onslaught: Can you please tell me a) which firmware revision did you use and b) which mode and other settings did you enable/disable. Thanks!

    locutus

  246. @Superkennio and Dave B:

    My model is a VT20E with firmware 2.505 and I measure ~50ms input lag in all modes (including game mode), except in 3D, where it’s a bit less (around 20-30 ms). I measure against a lag-free CRT.

  247. Bought 50 inch VT20 at Costco yesterday for £1398 inc 5 year warranty. Must be a great buy at this price?

  248. need a bit of help, love the tele, just getting used to trying different settings as per various bits of advice provided in this discussion.

    My problem, with normal no HD signal from sky i have two blue lines either side of my picture about an inch wide each. probably something stupid but can someone help?

    thanks
    Jeff

  249. @Jeff: Maybe turn on 16:9 Overscan oder use aspect controls to accomodate…

  250. Why Panasonic TX-P42VT20 got “RECOMMENDET” and TX-P50VT20 “REFERENCE LEVEL”? Are there differences in image processing. Regards. Also P50VT20 received much more positive opinions.Sebastan from Poland

  251. @Sebastian: the 42VT20 has poorer responsiveness (Input lag) and slight jagginess with 3D. The 50VT20 has neither (at least, it didn’t when we reviewed it – we’ve heard from some readers that some units have lag). Its 3D image is incredibly clean compared to the competition – something that I didn’t quite appreciate given that it was the first 3D TV I reviewed.

  252. Thank you David! Is the tx-p46vt20 closer to 42 or 50? What do you think-if Sony 46HX803 is much worse than the Panasonic SD sygnle tx-p50vt20? Regards. Sebastian

  253. Guys

    I have bought this set today, worringly not coming across these comments before. I bought it to watch football, golf and movies primarily with a bit of SD content as well.

    Alas, the shop had 3D and HD as its sources which were stunning, not football, which in hindsight was a bit stupid by me.

    I have got a 5yr warranty but does the warranty cover the 50HZ issue? What do I do if it is present?

  254. @David Mackenzie
    Do you still have access to the Panasonic 50VT20? I have found that the best setting for handling 50Hz motion is the Game mode. Could you confirm this with your test patterns? Also if Game mode is the best mode for handling 50Hz motion (which it appears to be with my testing so far on Sky HD) could you provide any calibration settings on that picture mode to use as a guide? So far I have it set at Contrast and brightness both at the default (halfway?) point. Colour two clicks down, sharpness at minimum, colour balance at warm. All enhancements set to off. Under advance settings I have gamma at 2.2 and the RGB gain and cutoff values at default.

    Many thanks

    Dan

  255. Ok, now you’ve done it ! I was all set to go out and buy this tv this week, but the input lag was my main reason for doing so – along with the lowest crosstalk.
    Some have said the input lag on their models is 80ms, this to me would be unacceptable. I also looked at the samsung 50″ C7000 plasma model, however haven’t been able to see this in the flesh so to speak. Which is the lowest input lag tv with least amount of crosstalk ? I do a LOT of gaming COD black ops at the moment, I had the samsung ue55c8000 LED tv, in game mode it was only just playable, and out of game mode was just unforgivable.
    Really need a good recommendation here please ?

  256. 80ms would be completely unacceptable to me too. 20-25ms is what I consider OK. I would begrudgingly accept 30ms. Anything higher than that for me is out. I was also not very happy with the gaming performance of the C8000.

    @Daniel: from what I can tell, Game mode simply applies a different default Gamma curve to the video, which can change the look of any motion artefacts.

  257. @Trevor
    Call of Duty Black Ops has lots of crosstalk I’m afraid. I have the PS3 version and it is very poor. Didn’t notice it at first but playing zombies on “five” it is full of crosstalk. Thought it was because I had recently incorporated an HDMI splitter into my setup. Removed that and connected directly and crosstalk still visible. Having searched the internet it is a poor add on the 3d on black ops with the ps3 version (as usual) being the worst.

    @David MacKenzie
    What would your recommendation for best picture quality be? I watch a lot of sports especially football, though half of it is probably in 3D now which isn’t a problem. I have noticed the 50 Hz issue on other programs though with any panning shot. I have found game mode to reduce this issue somewhat. 100hz also does on THX mode but that introduces other problems. Does professional calibration alter this at all by applying correct colour, greyscale and gamma?

  258. Professional calibration might cure the issue somewhat, but it would be a side-effect and not the main cause. Plasma displays can be quite unpredictable in this way. It’s very difficult for me to say without having a 50VT20 here along with the exact same material you see the improvement on.

  259. Hi!

    Does anyone know anything more specific about the high input lag reported by some users? I’m seriously considering buying this TV but a +30ms input lag would definitely be a dealbreaker for me. Could this be a firmware issue, or TV’s built after a certain date including the 2D->3D conversion option that smaller models have? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

  260. I must admit, black ops in 3D isn’t a deal breaker for me – 3 hours of 3D fps would probably drive me mental ^^ the real dealbreaker is the high input lag reported by some purchasers. Did anyone establish if this input lag is on all the later production models, or is it a small percentage ? Is it a firmware issue ? I don’t know now whether to get this or the samsung ps50c7000, as I believe this is 20ms in game mode.

  261. Hi guys,

    i’am about to buy the panasonics p50vt20 plasma.
    Mostly looking DVD and HD-Movies. I;am using an Vantage HD Satelite receiver for TV-Watching. Iám planning to do some gaming (not a hard core gamer)

    Is there at this moment any 50″ Plasma TV which can match this One?
    I own at this moment the 42″ pioneer XD427 and believe the p50vt20 is an improvement.
    I Asume you all are harecore Plasma fans who see plasma as a way better then LCD/LED.

    regards John

  262. Hi New to this site.

    I have a question regarding 50hz motion blur that has been mentioned regarding the V20.

    Is this only apparent on SD freeview and how can it be described? I think my set has it but I am not sure what to be looking for.

    If your playing an HD film thru HDMI and it says P24 will you still get it?

    Also the Floating blacks I have only noticed it twice, at the beginning of Dark Knight and in another film, will these get worse or stay constant?

    I also have the buzz but it does not bother me that much, seems like all plasmas do it.

    This is the first time I purchased a Plasma and I do think the picture is better than LCD, the blacks and viewing angle is great.

    Should I return this set due to these problems and get another or a refund and buy a different set?

    The only thing is I have done allot of research and this year it seems there is not a set out there without a major fault, have they fixed these issues on V20BA, I phoned Panasonic and they said the BA is a second half of the year production model.

    I also purchased a Samsung LED 7000, series this suffered from bleeding and clouding so I sent it back even though the pic was quite good but the bleeding bothered me allot in dark films.

    If there is anything out there anybody would recommend, what does David Mackenzie have for his main home tv?

    Thanks

  263. Hi Spencer

    There have been complaints of posterisation, especially when 50hz signals are input to the TV. My own testing seems to suggest this is not limited to 50hz, but the issue is more noticeable there. If you really want to look for it, look for coloured “ridges” appear during fast camera movements.

    It’s down to how the panel is driven; and yes, I’ve seen it during 24p material from Blu-ray, but it’s much less frequent.

    Good question about the floating blacks. It’s impossible to say – I’d hope they stay as-is (or go away? Wishful thinking?)

    I don’t suggest you return the 50VT20. As per the “Reference” rating I gave it, I do not feel there is a better HDTV on the market.

    As for my own TV: I have a Panasonic TX-P42G20 for watching TV and playing games on, and a projector (JVC DLA-HD750) for films.

  264. I am very pleased with this tv.

    Picture is far better than any “led” tv out there.

  265. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the annoying flashing adverting when you bring up the tv guid. I feel that the free advertising that Panasonic are using is totaly wrong I should be able to choose what,if any adverts I want to see.
    My biggest concern are that they are FLASHING(anyone considered the Epileptic part of the population?

    Yours very angry ( I wont be investing in Panasonic again and wont advocate to anyone to buy one)

  266. Correct me if I am wrong but after doing some research on plasma technology the 600Hz sub field drive technology is divided by number of frames which gives the number of fields per frame. Therefore with 60Hz output there are 10 fields driving each frame? With 50Hz output the TV uses double scan therefore displaying 100Hz which is 6 fields per frame. Is there any way to disable the double scan so the TV displays just 50Hz rather than 100Hz. That way with native 50Hz it would be 12 fields per frame and those motion problems will probably go away. Is there a reason why 50Hz must be displayed at 100Hz on a plasma?

  267. Reading all these comments, it almost feels like the review set Panasonic gave HDTVTest was some sort of superior manufacture. It’s distressing to say the least. I own a Pioneer 428XD currently and have been itching to get a new set, if only for more screen real estate and deeper blacks.

    But the wait is painful. It almost seems like nothing has topped the LX5090 or KRP-500 yet, and that is a sorry state of affairs. is my best bet just to buy a second hand Pioneer 9G set? Sounds almost ridiculous…

    I was really looking forward to buying a VT20 this week, but after reading these comments, I think I’ll give it a miss. Too many issues, and ghosting is one that I definitely cannot put up with. Haven’t really noticed any such issues with my 428XD, though I could do with deeper blacks.

  268. Had my VT20 for 8 weeks now and the floating blacks are just shocking !
    This is not a night of watching TV that that i dont see it now
    Gutted !!!
    The last Panasonic TV i ever buy . Flag ship my ass

  269. David Anderson

    Dear David,

    Thanks for your review, it’s made my mind up on purchasing this TV and I’m delighted with it. I too noticed the huge red push in 3D mode, and your settings have most definitely helped.

    I have two questions I’d really appreciate your help with.

    – In 2D mode you mention that there’s a little bit of a lack of blue in the WB, (your posted image shows this) and you notice a slight green cast to the picture. In your WB settings you mentioned, you’ve taken blue gain and cut to a lower amount. This has confused me. Wouldn’t you want to add more blue? Sorry if I’m being daft there.

    – In 3D mode, with your settings, there’s a touch too much green in the WB as skin tones look a touch pale and don’t show their natural warmth, but don’t get me wrong, as it’s MUCH better than on the stock setting! I was just wondering if you could give me a basic hint on how I might be able to get the skin tones a little more natural looking.

    Many thanks and kind regards,

    David.

  270. David Mackenzie

    @David Anderson

    The lack of blue will be specific to our review sample – I’d be surprised if your TV had the exact same thing due to manufacturing tolerances.

    The controls don’t always behave exactly as you would expect them to. In other words, you go with whatever options give you the flattest greyscale. If I had calibrated the TV recently I could probably give you a better answer, but with the number of calibrations we do, it’s hard to remember the exact method we used to trick a TV into giving us what we want!

    The 3D mode will never look perfect. Plasma displays have a really tough time maintaining linear Greyscale tracking in 3D, so if skin tones look a touch pale, count yourself lucky. I’m glad that it improved on the stock “red” setting though.

    To get the best results, you can’t copy settings from our review TV. You need to have a technician calibrate the display using software and a measuring device, like we do. Nobody (or almost nobody) is doing this for the 3D mode, at present. Hopefully that’ll change this year.

  271. David Anderson

    Dear David,

    Thanks for your quick reply, I’m grateful.

    Over the past couple of years I’ve had two of my TV’s calibrated by Gordon @ Convergent AV, who’s done a wonderful job. Unfortunately for me, from a calibration point of view, I’m now living in Dubai and I don’t think there’s any calibrators out here! I suppose I was grasping at straws with your results, as I do know that you can’t just expect results to work on other sets.

    Thanks for your time, and all the best.

    David.

  272. Hi

    Got fix for floating blacks

    I read about a guy putting an L.E.D light in front of the CATS censor on his GT20
    So i thought i would give it a go !

    And it work like a charm !

    Go figure that , the cats censor is still affecting the picture even when switched off .

  273. Hi I haven’t posted here before. I would like to ask you how the “Black Level” works please. So for instance is 0.009cd/m2 blacker than say the Samsung C9000. Or would 0.006cd/m2 be blacker. WHich way is blacker as the number goes up or down. Thanks in any response to my question. :)

  274. David Mackenzie

    The lower the number, the lower the light output, so a lower number = better blacks.

  275. I was looking at a TX-P50VT20on Saturday and while it’s impressive it is a “First gen” Panasonic 3D-TV.

    Does anyone know if Panasonic plan to replace the TX-P50VT20 with a new model in 2011 and would it be worth waiting for?

    After reading the review of the 46″ version I was surprised to see it producing poorer results than the TX-P50VT20 despite being a newer TV.

    I’m in the old school “Don’t buy V1 of anything” camp!

  276. VT30 is replacement fro VT20 , out next month

    The VT20 50″ has pioneer black box technology in , the 46″ does not .

  277. Hi,
    I am thinking of buying a 42 inch panasonic plasma. Is it wise to buy this generation plasma, or better to wait for next gen? My options are as follows:
    G20:700 euros
    V20:950 euros
    vt20: 1130 euros
    Any tips?

  278. Chris McGivern

    Hi, I love your site you are a true enthusiast.

    I’ve been toying with buying the new Samsung UE55D800. but like the thought of a plasma.

    Is there much difference between thisTV and the TX-P50GT30B If i’m buying a TV in this price range I would like the extra inchs, but want the best TV I can buy also.

    HELP! :)

  279. Given that this model has confirmed problems handling 50Hz signals (sadly, the prevalent input standard in the UK) and terrible flicker which is only visible to some people but nevertheless isn’t ever seen with other brands, isn’t it time to update this review and revise your verdict? To call this television “reference level” is an insult to all the previously reviewed TVs on your site which actually deserved that verdict.

    After all, you didn’t give more recent Panasonic VT models the reference level verdict and they have decidedly fewer image quality problems than the VT20, so it doesn’t make sense to keep this review’s result as is, because it may mislead people into thinking the VT20 is better than the newer VT50, for example.

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