Customer Reviews

Panasonic VIERA TC-P50VT25 50-inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV, Black

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I did not think it would be as good as the movies we have went to see. It is better! My kids say it is better! My Grandkids say it is better! We have Directv so I can watch 3D any time of the day. There still is limited shows but I am hoping for more. I love this TV!! I bought it for the 1080p not the 3D. but the wife said get a HDTV with 3D it is the way to go. She reads Consumer Reports, so I checked all the reviews and this Panasonic was listed as top line! Something about Panasonic is the only 3D to use 1080p in both eyes? Directv also listed it as one of their advised 3D TV's to buy, it was the first on their list BTW! Now I am no techie, but my daughter told me after watching for 5 minutes that this 3D was so good I could sell seats in my house! LOL. I wish 2 sets of glasses came with the TV but hey if you can afford this set you can afford the glasses. I just hated giving them back and forth to the whole family all night. I bought my Pana here on AMAZON @ World Wide Stereo and they used CEVA to ship the TV the truckers came with the TV early (3days) and helped me get the box off too. Very nice delivery men BTW! The whole process from order to turning this TV was 5 Star for me. This is my second Panasonic HDTV the first is a 720p in our bedroom that I have had over a year and we are very happy with. I have watched how many ESPN 3D football games? How many 3D shows? People came in on Halloween and sat down and would not leave! they just wanted to see 3D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its better and better...

Originally I was looking at a LG 3d LED. I had two disasterous experiences at two different Best Buys and ended up going to the local TV/video store (Video Only, if you happen to be in an area with one). They really know their stuff, and pointed me to this beauty.
It's not as sleek as some of the 0.5" thick LED's (it's about 3.5-4"). It doesn't have built in WIFI. The internet applications leave something to be desired. But the picture quality can't be beat. Hands down, the best picture I have seen from a TV. I was skeptical of a plasma, but the quality, reliability and durability of the plasmas today outweigh the benefits of a LED tv. You can look up and compare the numbers, but the fact is that this tv "just looks better".
One thing to note is that LED's generally offer a "crisper" image (at least according to the guy at the store), but their color quality diminishes greatly when viewing from an angle. But let me say I haven't had any complaints about the quality. It is sharp and looks great.
The 3D capabilities of this look stellar. I played through Call of Duty: Black Ops single player campaign in 3D and was completely blown away by the quality and the effects this TV is capable of displaying.
Overall, this is a great TV. My only real complaint is that it's a bit pricey. I was able to score this set with a Panasonic 3D starter kit (2 3d movies and 2 extra pairs of glasses), a 3d blu ray player and another set of glasses (in addition to the set included with the tv and the two in the starter kit) included in the price. Awesome deal.

Everytime I turn this tv on, it brings a smile to my face. The picture quality is the best I have ever seen, especially the THX mode. Blu-ray discs become a must. The black levels are so good you may find yourself picking out blu-ray movies that feature dark scenes just to see how well they look. Dark games like Fallout 3 or Arkham Asylum look simply incredible. 3d Works well, I have tested it with the Killzone 3 demo on PS3 and you feel totally immersed. I did not see any "ghosting" affects. One complaint is I wish it had a wireless capability. It requires a wired connection or you need to purchase a separate adapter for wireless. Viera Cast stuff is good. Netflix is included as well as YouTube, Pandora, Amazon etc. Youtube for some reason has a pared down interface and I wasn't able to select HD resolution like I can from PC. But they could fix this in a firmware update and it can be done from PC so no big deal. I don't think there is any better TV you can buy at any price point, unless you are just getting a bigger size. The new vt30's will probably best this tv but they will cost a lot more. Recommend!

Edit: 3/17/2011. Unfortunately, the TV has burn in issues. We were very diligent during the first 100 hours, but then we started playing games thinking it was safe. My wife had been playing Fallout 3 the last month or so and the HUD from the game is now burned into the screen. Unbelievable that Panasonic isn't warning customers about this possibility. Instead, the warnings are focused on only the first 100 hours. We play in THX mode, contrast and brightness set to 70. I was led to believe that burn in was no longer a problem on these sets after the first 100 hours. Unfortunately, this is NOT the case. Lowered my rating of the set to 3 stars. It is great picture, but susceptible to burn in. Now our tv is apparently permanently compromised.

Update: 4/8/2011 The burn in is still there after running the tv's own anti-image retention tool and also running third party tools designed to remove it for many days on end. This TV is severely flawed and I don't recommend that anyone buy it with these kind of problems unless you plan to baby sit your tv all the time. If you search online for vt25 burn in you will find many cases of what I'm talking about. Don't watch anything that has a static image on the screen with this tv, and heaven forbid you forget and leave something on the screen for a couple hours -the tv could be permanently damaged if you do.

Update: 4/16/2011 We played Bioshock for about 2 hours, then watched a movie. Afterwards it took a full night to remove the image retention from Bioshock HUD using slides and the tv's own anti image retention scrolling bar feature. The next day we played 2 hours again followed by other content. It has taken over 2 days to remove the retained image. Unless we have a lemon, this tv is completely unfit for gamers. If I could I would return it and I will probably never again buy a Panasonic or any other plasma tv unless they stop excluding IR issues from their warranties.

Update: 06/20/2011 The burn in is still there and does not appear to be diminishing. We no longer play any games on the tv, only on my 23" work monitor. Also, standard definition content creates black sections on the sides. We run the scrolling bar and full color slides every time after watching standard definition content.

This TV is awesome. You don't have to be blown away by the 3D feature when the 2D looks this good. It's so clear with near perfect color that the 2D looks almost 3D. I ran a video test of the calibration of it and it didn't need any adjustment. This was a first for me. No red push. The only thing I can find fault with is only one pair of 3D glasses comes with it. Also, if you want to hang it on an already purchased wall mount it does not come with the screws that fit the four holes in the back. Other than that, WOW!

This Panasonic is the first incorporating Pioneer's KURO technology. This tech was sold to Panasonic when Pioneer decided to get out of the flat panel business after 2009. Pioneer made only plasmas but they were, and are still regarded as the best TV period! That is a fact and a depressing one for some (including me <:-/ because a Pioneer TV generally cost approximately $5,000-$8,000, give or take 1K and where it was sold - you get what you pay for is an often repeated line by those who own them or just simply viewed them. Now, Panasonic in its first year with KURO technology (they incorporated only SOME of that tech in their 2010 plasma line) made a TV that while wasn't quite in the same league as Pioneer, sure raised a few eyebrows among HDTV consumers and videophiles alike.

Now to get to my point. As nice as the TC-PxxVT20/25 is out of the box, which is impressive, I would firmly, firmly suggest you have yours calibrated. You've already spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,800. Now have it calibrated by an ISF-certified Pro (~$300, and AVOID having it done by a big box store). After having this particular TV calibrated, your black levels will have better detail, your colors will appear spot-on accurate and have great contrast, the life of your panel will be considerably extended and many save on energy costs. The difference is startling. It's really that good. For that matter, I recommend a calibration for any display system, even valued older CRT models). Once you have this TV properly calibrated it still won't look like a Pioneer KURO but it will be much, much closer. It will look so good you will just marvel at the picture - 2D or 3D.

Calibrations are recommended for plasmas after 100-150 hrs of use. This is referred to as the break-in period. In the mean time watch your TV using it's standard or theater type settings. Don't use the torch-like settings because phosphor lifespan is accelerated during the first hundred hours or so. You can have it calibrated at any time in its life after that point and it only needs to be done once.

Why don't TV manufacturers ship their TVs calibrated? Simple. When people shop for a TV they go to a store and look at all different models to narrow down their selection of which to buy. Which TVs appear to be best are the ones that have bright, exaggerated colors and contrast all in an effort to get your attention. LCDs are more popular simply because they produce the brightest and most vivid colors. Especially in a brightly lit room where plasmas perform their poorest.

But you don't have to listen to me, do a google or better yet go to AVS Forums.com

If you do or don't what matters most is your happiness. I'm just passing on some info that will get your set to give you the most of that. Good Luck!

Had this 3D plasma given to us as a gift. We watched a 3D movie after I spent hours switching it out with my old TV, hooking up the blu-ray, sound system, etc. It looked fantastic. Very impressive 3D, although the overall picture quality and black levels are inferior to my Pioneer plasma. The next day, the new 3D TV stopped working. A red light flashes four times on the front, indicating a hardware fault and power failure. It's very common, from what I've discovered on-line. I contacted Panasonic (who couldn't care less), and they wanted me to have a local repair place take the TV to their shop and try to fix it (under warranty). I've instead decided to return the TV to Amazon, since I luckily kept the original packaging. Now the fun of disconnecting it all, and will now repackage and eventually ship back to the seller. After Amazon receives the TV, they will issue me a credit so that I can buy a new one. That will take at least a couple weeks. So with a new broken TV and shoddy customer service, I'm not thrilled. Hopefully the next tv will work.

Basically, if you are in the market for the best TV for the price, quality, 3d without crosstalk/ghosting this is the TV you get for now until the 2011s start getting released within a month or two. Although those will be priced higher, quite a bit higher, so.. you'd have to consider the cost benefit analysis. I absolutely love the picture quality and price for this TV, as the picture quality is excellent! There is a slight buzz that comes from the tv, but as far as I have read on forums, plasmas do have a slight buzz/hiss (frequency). It really doesn't bother me too much as I just wanted the TV with the best picture and this set besides the Samsung Plasma were a close #1 and #2, but I guess I went with what David Katz on cnet chose as the best tv of 2010.

The minor flaw for me is that the Viera cast/connect (forgot the exact name) wasn't great to use and the design of the set isn't quite up to some of the Samsung sets and the set is a bit on the heavy side, but like I have repeatedly stated "Picture Quality" won out for me.

The major flaw that happened to me was that the TV broke down after thirty five days after my Amazon 30 return policy was up. I also had the 10 led flashes where it signals that a certain board got fried and needed a replacement. Panasonic customer service was quite helpful and scheduled an appointment and had a tech sent out within a few days. The tech came and told me that I needed to update the firmware and once the firmware was updated I wouldn't have this problem. He informed me that i would have known this if I had registered the tv. Apparently, I got one of the first produced models of the vt25 as notated by my "early serial number" as retailers tend to purchase in bulk and mine was probably in storage for a while. The tech ordered the part, but the part is on backorder so I'd have to wait a week or so until it gets in to reschedule.

So I'm currently in limbo waiting on my repair. It is just the luck of the draw I guess. Hope I could shed some light on the pros and cons of the tv.

I've had this TV for over a week now and I am very pleased with it. The picture quality for HD material is probably the best I've seen. There is great depth and dimensionality to HD viewing - likely from the excellent black levels and detail. I found the THX setting to work well for both TV and Blu Ray viewing.

I was just a little disappointed with the sound quality. It's not bad, I just expected it to be a little more powerful and have better surround sound effects - as this is their flagship model. (I'm using this in my bedroom so I was hoping I would not need any additional surround gear.) The remote for this TV works fine, but it's pretty vanilla for a flagship model. To be clear - there are no faults here, I just had higher expectations.

I've tested the 3D functions (purchased the Avatar movie/glasses kit and Blu Ray with the unit) and I agree with other folks that 3D on this TV is better than at the movie theater. My only gripe is that the Panasonic 3D glasses do not seem to be large enough. I found that the glasses did not cover my entire field of view and I needed to keep my head down, which became uncomfortable) to watch the movie. I haven't experimented with changing the nose piece so that could resolve this one.

I would recommend this TV to anyone. It's got a great picture, a pretty good feature set and very competitive pricing.
No regrets here.

I bought this TV to jump into 3D, mostly for 'Avatar', although I now own several other 3D titles. This TV replaced a 50" Hitachi I've had for about 4 years.

The picture quality is just amazing. It is much brighter and crisper with more detail and contrast than the TV it replaced, even though it is the same screen size and resolution. Setup/installation was very easy- it fit on my existing wall mount with no problems, and it weights about half as much as the older Hitachi. It is about 1.5" thinner than the old Hitachi too. If you don't want to wall-mount it, it also comes with a nice swivel stand.

It has all of the inputs I think anyone would want from an HDTV, including 4 HDMI inputs that are ALL 3D enabled. The styling looks great in the stand or on the wall. It has a glare filter on the screen that cuts window and glare from room lights way down. On my wall, watching movies in a dimmed room, the dark gray bezel disappears. My last TV had a silver bezel that just stood out all the time.

3D performance is wonderful. What little ghosting I can find (and that's looking for it) is actually about the same as I've noticed in 3D cinemas. I looked at demos of all the major brands' 3D offerings at a retail store, and the Panny just blew them away. "Full HD" 3D is full 1080P 3D. Many others reduce the 3D resolution because they can't drive enough pixels fast enough. This is especially true with the LCDs. Plasma is just MADE for content like this, and I feel LCDs will always be playing catch-up. One of my favorite things to do when I have friends over is hit Pause in a really good 3D scene. You can walk right up to the TV and the scene seems to move with you- it looks like a hologram. The "wow" factor (elements seem to jump off the screen) is also superb. A good movie for this is actually 'Despicable Me'.

It has a THX certified mode, and uses RealD 3D technology (although not the same passive RealD used in cinemas. It also has VieraCast (Internet-enabled TV) if you have an available wired network connection.

I only have two issues, and I didn't feel they were worth dropping the star rating for:

Like all plasma sets- this one has a noticeable buzzing noise. I've either gotten so used to it that it doesn't bother me anymore, or it has slowly gone away as the TV breaks-in. I don't notice it now unless I put my ear right up to it.

The set I bought came with 1 set of 3D glasses. I also bought the Avatar 3D combo-pack which came with two more. They are two different styles (1st and 2nd generation), and I find both of them very uncomfortable. My friends don't think they are at-all, so it is probably just me. I'm experimenting with some universal glasses and the Panny glasses actually come in different sizes too- so I may also try that.

All-in-all: I love this TV and recommend it to everyone.

A few bits of 3D advice if you are just looking into this:

If you are buying this for 3D- you need to buy a "High Speed" rated HDMI cable. This is the ONLY rating you need to look for. You have to use a high speed cable because a standard cable can't transfer data fast enough for Full-HD 3D.

While it is a good idea to buy the same brand if you want to take advantage of remote control features (VierraLink), you do not HAVE to buy the same brand BD player as the TV. Any 3D BD player will work with this TV. I'd make sure it is 3D "out of the box" and it doesn't just say "3D Capable".

If you have a HT receiver- make sure it does "3D Passthrough" (check with manufacturer) and be sure to use high speed HDMI cables to and from the receiver. If you don't- just run a high speed HDMI cable from your BD player to the TV, and run an optical cable from BD to receiver.

If you want top on the line, you go with the vt25. I have the 50 inch and it is the sweet spot for all you viewing needs. The picture is hands down the best around and nobody is going keep this tv down. Plus you get one free pair of 3d glasses. The internet apps are somewhat lacking compared to other tvs but, let's face it, that's why you have a computer to surf the web. I'll finish by saying agian, that if you what the cream of the crop you go with the vt25.





P.S. If you want the lowest price on the vt25 go to shopbroadline.com