Panasonic TH-50PX600U Review

 

The Panasonic TH-50PX600U

An even older item in the Panasonic arsenal is the two-year old TH-50PX600U. This set still has fans despite its age, as it is an excellent HDTV even in today’s standards. Besides solid performance, adding to the attractiveness of the TH-50PX600U is the relatively low price which makes it possible for buyers with limited budgets to own a good quality plasma.

Design

This Viera plasma sports a two-tone chassis: the outer frame, cabinet and pedestal are in silver while an inner frame surrounding the panel is in glossy black. Quite bulky compared to the new generation of HDTVs, the TH-50PX600U has its speakers mounted below the screen with the grilles cleverly concealed. Overall, this TV is neither outstanding nor insipid in the looks department – it’s just somewhere in-between.

The remote for this Viera HDTV is easy to use and logically arranged, with the large numerical keys particularly delightful. It has no backlighting, though it can be used to control other Panasonic devices attached to the TV. The new menu system is also logically arranged and intuitive, making navigation to the different sub-menus easy and hassle-free.

Screen/picture clarity

The Viera TH-50PX600U delivers commendably rich blacks and shadows, although there are false-contouring – noticeable gradations in bright to dark areas that appear as subtle lines – but these artefacts aren’t too distracting. Colour accuracy of this set is fairly good, with just the green colour having a bluish tinge and some colour-shifts on greyscale. The high contrast ratio delivers sharp and vivid images – due largely to the deep black levels produced by this HDTV – and excellent colour saturation.

Being an older model, the TH-50PX600U is categorized as HD-ready and has a native resolution of 1366 x 768. Thus, higher-def sources are scaled to fit the lower resolution, though this TV doesn’t scale HD resolutions in 4:3 modes like other HDTVs – it simply stretches the images and puts grey bars on the sides. This plasma has three viewing modes with preset values: Vivid, Standard, and Cinema, and three colour temperatures to tweak.

Features

The TH-50PX600U features three built-in tuners: standard (NTSC) signals, HDTV (ATSC) signals, and unencrypted digital cable (QAM) signals. With its BBE ViVA HD3D virtual surround sound system, the integrated woofers and tweeters provide clear and authentic sounds. It has an SD card slot which can be used to view digital photos, and a adequate connectivity options, including two HDMI ports.  However, this Viera has no picture-in-picture support and dedicated PC port.

For people who want to taste high-definition TV without hurting the pocketbook, the TH-50PX600U is the perfect deal. It may not be a new model and it doesn’t have the fancy features that are now standard fares in HDTVs, but this model surely makes your entrée into the HDTV world a rewarding experience.

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