Review: Panasonic VIERA TH-P50ST60D - The Last Of The Plasmas Can Still Hold Its Own

Panasonic VIERA TH-P50ST60D

MRP: Rs 1,25,000 (market price starting at Rs 1,00,000)

Television technology has come a long way with LED-backlit TVs currently being the TV technology of popular choice. However, Plasma TV technology continues to hold its own purely because of its inherently superior image quality. Panasonic has been one of the main proponents of this ageing technology and is still one of the largest Plasma TV makers in the market. The company has got the VIERA TH-P50ST60D belonging to the ST60 series, which is its 2013 mid-range offering. However, the performance surprised me. Read on.

Bundle

Remote control with 2xAA batteries
Pedestal stand
2x 3D Eyewear
Power cable

The list of bundled accessories demonstrate a much stripped down product with only the very basic accessories to get the TV working. However, it wouldn't have cost the company much to include basic AV cables and it would have been a really great value add for the customer.

3D Eyewear And Remote

Panasonic provides only two pairs of 3D eyewear with this TV. If you want to watch 3D movies with the entire family, you will have to buy extra. The eyewear looks sleek and is considerably light-weight at just 27 g, making it easy to wear for long duration. It is powered by a replaceable button cell that lasts for several hours. A small button with a backlit red LED indicator on top lets you switch it on and pair with the TV, when 3D content is being displayed. It automatically switches off when it detects that 3D viewing is not being displayed for around 10 minutes. Bespectacled users need not worry because you can easily wear these over your prescription glasses.

Remote Control

The remote control is powered by two AA batteries and is quite long, which is understandable because it has to accommodate all the function buttons necessary to completely control the television. Unlike the higher-end models, this remote control does not feature illuminated buttons. Being a smart TV, there is a dedicated Apps button to directly launch apps on the TV. Additionally, it has the VIERA Tools and VIERA Link function buttons. Extra buttons are present to control media devices connected to the TV and supporting VIERA Link. All the buttons are neatly labelled and it is easy to find what you are looking for on this remote.

Features

The Panasonic VIERA TH-P50ST60D boasts of a 50" diagonal screen size, thus allowing you to view life-size images. The NeoPlasma panel has pixel dimensions of 1920x1080. This TV can display 1080p content in 3D using active 3D technology. Its 2500 Hz panel drive claims to deliver a smoother, flicker-free image even in fast motion.

The TV is rather large and suitable if you have a room big enough to install it. The first thing you need to know is whether you can really place such a big TV in your room.

Before you decide to purchase it, you should know its dimensions to decide how and where to install it. Its height without the stand is 69.7 cm, width is 117 cm, while the thickness is 4.9 cm, which is surprisingly thin for a plasma TV and is definitely a lot thinner than its predecessor. I think that it is best to install it on a wall, but if you wish to use the pedestal stand, then you must keep in mind that this stand has a thickness of 29.5 cm, while the total height of the TV with the stand comes to around 75.1 cm. Also, if you decide to place it on a platform, you have to keep in mind that it is quite heavy, weighing 25.5 kg with the pedestal stand, and 22.5 kg without.

A single chrome strip running all around the length and breadth of the bezel makes an otherwise ordinary looking all-black TV set appear more elegant.

The total thickness of the bezel surrounding the screen is 2.7 cm, which is quite narrow for a Plasma TV. This still doesn't appear to be thin probably because I am now accustomed to televisions with thin bezels. The glass screen has a glossy finish, which makes it difficult to view when placed opposite a bright source of light such as a window during day. The Infinite Black Pro filter in the panel does a good job in reducing the reflections in such bright ambience, though, thus making it more comfortable to watch the TV. Also, it easily catches fingerprint smudges, so hands off the panel. Fans are present inside the body of the TV at the back near the top to vent out hot air produced inside. The rectangular pedestal stand with a glossy aluminium finish, allows swivel movement of 15° in left and right directions.

Control buttons are almost completely absent at the front. These are placed on the right side, just behind the bezel. Source, Volume level, TV channels Up/Down, and Power buttons are present here. Long press of the Source button brings up the on-screen menu, if remote control is not handy.

Connectivity

Most necessary connectors are present on the left side of the TV at the back of the bezel to provide easy access even after it is wall-mounted. These include three HDMI connectors to let you connect a HD set-top box, a gaming console, a PC, and a HD media player, although only three of them simultaneously. It would have been a good idea to provide at least one AV connector in this region for easy accessibility, because most SD set-top boxes or media players support only such connectivity options. An optical digital audio output connector is present as well, in case you want to connect it to a Hi-Fi surround system with such an input.

Panasonic has also provided two USB ports and an SD card slot to view movies, pictures, or listen to music placed on these media types. These support NTFS file system as well as a host of media formats including playback of up to 1080p video in DivX, AVCHD (MTS), MKV, MPEG-1 \ 2, MP4, WMV, MOV, and many other formats. USB hard drives are also supported.

There are many down-facing connectors at the rear, which are very difficult to access once the TV is wall-mounted. These include the co-axial connector for cable TV signal, AV connectors, and composite connectors. In case you do not have a Hi-Fi system to get audio out via the aforementioned optical port, worry not, because HDMI audio is also available via the AV ports, albeit in stereophonic mode. An RJ-45 port is also present in this group to connect and make use of DLNA and internet features of the TV.

TV UI

The TV main screen interface is just like other VIERA 2013 models. There are multiple home screen options, allowing users to customise according to their choice. A home screen can be customised to have a choice of apps and the cable TV screen.

The settings allow fine tuning all the different parameters pertaining to image quality in order to calibrate the screen according to the ambient conditions.

The TV also supports touch input via an Electronic Touch Pen, which can be bought separately. However, the unit I received didn't come with one, so I cannot say any more about this feature without testing.

Panasonic VIERA Remote2 App for iOS/Android

This TV can also be remote controlled via the VIERA Remote2 smartphone app available for iOS and Android devices. This app allows almost full functionality of the physical remote control through the smartphone on the same home network as the TV. It provides a very convenient way to use some of the Smart TV functions where you need to enter text such as URLs and search terms, as this is really cumbersome to do via the remote control. An App Launcher allows you to easily and directly launch any of the installed apps.

Smart TV

The TH-P50ST60D is a Smart TV with in-built Wi-Fi as well as an RJ45 port for wired connectivity. It comes with several apps pre-installed and more can be installed via the VIERA Market. Apps can be accessed via the Apps button on the remote control. There is also an internet browser to browse web pages. While there is a good variety of apps, the interface is sluggish at best and can be frustrating. Unlike the previous versions of VIERA TVs, the internet browser in this TV doesn't support Adobe Flash, so websites making use of this video streaming technology do not work.

The TV supports DLNA, thus allowing you to watch streaming audio, video, and photos from a server on the home network. The Double USB Sharing feature allows you to share data stored on a connected USB drive to another. You can even make Skype video calls by connecting the Skype Camera TY-CC20W, which has to be bought separately.

Other Features

Just like other Panasonic TVs with USB ports, this one also has a media player built inside and it supports virtually every video format out there in addition to music and image formats. Subtitles are supported as well. The built-in media player works well, but the interface could have been a little better. The listing of files can lead to confusion and navigation can be a problem because the directory structure is not clearly visible. Playback navigation is really good with Play, Pause, Forward (three speeds), Rewind (three speeds), and Stop. Panasonic could have assigned the playback controls for externally connected devices, already present on the remote control, to control this internal media player.

Performance

I connected the TV to the Amkette FlashTV HD media player using a HDMI cable to view HD movies, and to a PC with a GeForce GTX 460 using an HDMI v1.4 cable to view 3D content using Cyberlink PowerDVD 13 software. Blu-ray content was played using a Sony PlayStation 3. A Tata Sky+ HD connection was used to find out the quality of standard television programming and a few HD channels being offered.

HD HQV Benchmark

The VIERA scored high marks as far as the colour range is concerned with smooth gradations. The black levels for which plasmas are so famed, are evident in the test, especially in all viewing modes. A few issues while running the Video Resolution Loss test were noticed with some flicker. Noise reduction was also found to be good.

2D Picture Quality

Watching HD movies is a treat on the TV, thanks to the rich colours, wide contrasts, amazing brightness, and the larger than life images. The colour reproduction is natural with no noticeable saturation. Fast motion is remarkably blur-free and the 24p Smooth Film playback really works to please your eyes. HD channels from the set top box look amazing on this TV set. Switching to SD channels was found to be surprisingly good too, although you can't help but notice some blurriness due to the SD content being blown up to such a large size screen. Also, you end up with vertical bars on the left and right when watching at the correct aspect ratio, because the display is 16:9 widescreen, while the current SD channels offer only 4:3. Of course, you can always switch to a widescreen aspect ratio to get rid of the black bars, but at the expense of losing the real aspect ratio. Since the quality of normal Cable TV is generally worse, I recommend against using it with this TV. Audio is surprisingly good for a TV, thanks to a 2.1 audio system with the two satellites on either side just behind the bezel with openings at the bottom, while a sub-woofer hidden inside the body at the centre.

3D Performance

This TV plays 3D content using 120 Hz active 3D technology, which allows it to display 3D images at Full HD resolution. In order to be able to view 3D content, you must connect this TV to either a PC capable of producing 3D video output, or a 3D Blu-ray player such as the PS3. Using a PC will let you view a variety of 3D content including computer games. In our case, the TV was connected to a PC equipped with NVIDIA 3DTV Play and a 3D Blu-ray drive.

Space Station, Avatar, and Gravity Blu-ray 3D discs was used to gauge the 3D performance in movies. I also tried 3D gaming using NVIDIA 3DTV Play by hooking up a PC equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460. Additionally, I used the TV's 2D to 3D conversion facility to convert some 2D movies into 3D. This TV really immerses you into the 3D world it recreates around you delivering an overall experience rivalling that of a movie theatre. The 3D experience is good enough to even convert sceptics into fans. Watching for long hours does not cause any headaches, and there were absolutely no flickering or crosstalk\ghosting issues, which are the common complaints about 3D. Viewing angles are good even while watching 3D. You can turn your head or even move around the TV and get the same 3D experience. The brightness reduces when a switch is made to 3D, but the TV switches offsets this drop by switching ON the dynamic contrast viewing mode. The 2D to 3D conversion works well with some content, while it may not work as well with others. This is understandable because it is just an algorithm, trying to approximate the 3D video from a 2D source with no real 3D information.

This TV also supports playback of 3D content through its own media player. However, the content has to conform to certain standards such as Frame Sequential, Side by Side, and Top and Bottom. Some people may find it uncomfortable to watch in this way because there is no facility to adjust the inter-ocular distance (distance between the eyes) in the TV. While this distance is generally assumed to be 6.5 cm, a little more or less can cause discomfort. Thankfully, there is an option to switch left and right eye visuals if the source has them in a wrong sequence.

Power Consumption

Power consumption has long been one of the negatives quoted by opponents of Plasma TV technology, and it is not without a reason. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Panasonic has really done a good job at drastically curtailing the power consumption in this model. Despite its 50" screen size, the power consumption was found to be lingering between 120 W and 140 W in the Normal viewing mode. In darker scenes, it goes down to as low as 80 W! The TV does draw more power when the Dynamic Contrast is enabled, when the power consumption suddenly jumps to around 350 W, which again, is still lower than previous generation models.

Along with power consumption, the unit also generates some amount of heat, which is noticeably higher than an LED-backlit LCD TV. However, it is still a lot lower than previous generation Plasma TV models, which could actually replace heater units in the winter season.

In both the above cases, let's face it: if you have the money to invest in such an expensive television, you are most definitely going to be able to pay the higher electricity bills for the TV as well as the AC unit that should cool the TV room.

My Verdict

I would be lying if I didn't state that the Panasonic VIERA TH-P50ST60D left an indelible impact on me. The image quality is superlative and true to what is known of Plasma TVs. The colour reproduction is excellent and the famed blacks of Plasma TVs are really there to see. Unlike previous generation products, Panasonic seems to have worked hard to almost eliminate flicker while using the 3D glasses, and this finally allowed me to watch full length movies without suffering from any of the bad effects that have been blamed upon 3D technology in general. Panasonic has managed to slim down the Plasma TV to almost LED TV-like levels, which adds to its aesthetics.

I will go on record to state that company has done its magic to drastically reduce the power consumption gap between this model and LED-backlit LCD TV. Suddenly, it will not be so expensive to use a Plasma TV as it used to be. There are still a few qualms because of the lack of accessories, a lack of VIERA Touch Pad controller, and sluggish Smart TV performance. However, these do not take away from what the VIERA TH-P50ST60D has to offer in terms of pure television performance. The MRP of Rs 1,25,000 (market price starting at Rs 1,00,000) is not asking for too much if you consider the high quality of the product.

I must mention here that Panasonic has stopped production of Plasma TVs, effective the end of December 2013 due to losses and lack of demand, thus making this the last of its species, as the company plans to continue with newer TV technologies instead. This effectively means that this will be your last chance to purchase a TV with such superlative performance.

Pros: Excellent image quality with faithful colour reproduction and inky blacks, Smooth and blur-free fast motion performance, Almost flicker-free 3D performance, Numerous ports, Decent media player supporting most file formats, Wi-Fi, DLNA, Not so expensive.

Cons: Looks could have been more refined, Poor Smart TV navigation and performance, Sometimes non-responsive remote control, Does not come with smart remote control.

Features: 4/5
Performance: 5/5
Ease Of Use: 4/5
Value For Money: 3.5/5

Overall Rating: 4/5