Editorial Review:

Product Description:
PRODUCT FEATURES:50' class (49.9 ' diagonal) widescreen VIERA Plasma 1080p HDTV with increased native contrast ratioPC inputAnti-reflective filter, deep color technologyGame modeBuilt-in SD card slotGalleryPlayer ready to view3 HDMI inputs and VIERA Link HDAVI control

Amazon.com Product Description--March 10, 2008:
With its 2008 Panasonic Viera Plasmas, Panasonic brings an astonishing 1,000,000:1 contrast ration to the table. advanced pixel resolution and image-processing technology with the plasma TV's natural ability to beautifully reproduce fast moving images, so every detail is rendered with amazing clarity, and all the action is delivered with a high degree of fluidity.

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What's New This Year?

• Super Contrast--native contrast ratios on the PZ85, PZ800 and PX 850 series are 30,000:1, double last year's 15,000:1.
  
• Dynamic contrast ratios are up to 1,000,000:1.
• new anti-reflective filter; lead-free 'Tough Under Force' panel is resistant to impacts and scratches
  
• Built-in SD card slot with Photo Viewer/Gallery Player software
• x.v. Color and Deep Color (HDMI 1.3 features)
• 24p native reproduction
• Game Mode auto-adjusts image quality suitable to games and includes anti-image retention
• Viera Link is now compatible with Onkyo and Yamaha home theater systems
  
• At least 3 HDMI inputs on all models (4 on PZ800 and PZ850 series)
• THX Certification on PZ800 and PZ850 series

Which Viera is Right For You?

Click here to see a comparison of step up features on each Viera series.

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One Sheet of Glass Design

Beautiful, elegant, and functional -- a single pane of glass covers the entire front of the television, including the bezel. This design reduces or eliminates the 'halo' effect that can occur around lettering and logos with traditional 3-pane designs

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Amazing color reproduction The incredible black reproduction of a Panasonic High-Definition Plasma TV results in impressive contrast and beautiful, natural colors. So you'll get warm, accurate skin tones, gorgeous greens, breathtaking blues and vivid reds. For color that's as rich and bold as life itself, look to a Panasonic Plasma TV.

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Consistent brightness from any angle A Panasonic Plasma combines anti-glare and anti-reflection technology with the natural light-emitting properties of plasma, to give you a super-wide viewing range with a crisp, beautiful image from almost any angle.

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Smooth, graceful motion When you're watching sports or movies with fast-motion graphics, you want a TV that can keep up with the action. With over 900 lines of moving picture, self-illuminating plasma displays eliminate afterimages in fast-action scenes. So whether you're watching a sporting event or an action-packed movie, you'll always get the most impressive viewing experience possible.

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24p native reproduction Movies are shot at 24 frames per second. Unfortunately, TVs operating at 60Hz can only refresh 20 times per second, which means they must drop every fifth frame. With its 2008 Viera PZ85, PZ800, and PZ850 models, Panasonic introduces 24p native resolution, which means 24 frame per second movie content is reproduced frame for frame exactly, making for true-to-source smoothness of motion.

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1,000,000:1 Contrast The Panasonic's Real Black system (a pre-discharge suppression system) and improved panel production processes combine to reproduce outstanding blacks with superb contrast. Each image is richly expressive, from bright scense, like scorching desert landscapes, to dark cave scenes. Compare the image produced by conventional HDTV on the left to the Real Black image produced on the right

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More Colors Viera HDTVs support the xvYCC color profile (Extended YCC Colorimetry for Video Applications), or 'x.v. color' for short. Standard RGB color space allows the display of a portion of the colors that are viewable to the human eye. The next generation 'xvYCC' color space actually offers  an available range of colors that exceeds what human eyes can recognize. Next-generation 'xvYCC' color space supports 1.8 times as many colors as existing HDTV signals Lets HDTVs display colors more accurately Enables displays with more natural and vivid colors

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Deep Color Where x.v. color expands the available range of colors your HDTV can display, Deep Color increases the number of colors your HDTV can display within that range, for smoother transitions from color to color. Lets HDTVs and other displays go from millions of colors to billions of colors Eliminates on-screen color banding, for smooth tonal transitions and subtle gradations between colors Enables increased contrast ratio Can represent many times more shades of gray between black and white.

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Connectivity

Viera flat panel HDTVs interact with an array of high-definition devices and services, making it easy for consumers to access and enjoy content as never before. As of 2008, Viera Link is compatible with Onkyo and Yamaha home theater systems.

Videos and stills recorded on SD cards can easily be viewed via the SD slots on Panasonic Blu-Ray Disc players and Viera HDTVs.	Viera Link means easy connectivity via HDMI cables. Finally, consumers can easily operate their Blu-Ray Disc players, DVD recorders and home theater systems with a single remote control device.
Equipped with an RGB input terminal, VIERA can connect with your PC and serve as a large-screen monitor.	4 HDMI inputs to connect all of your devices directly to your television.

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Long Life Panasonic plasma panels are rated to last 100,000 hours, which is about 30 years of regular or 11 years of non-stop usage before the brightness of the display is halved.

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Get Full HD with Blu-Ray Disc Players A Panasonic 1080p plasma television is able to render 1920x1080 pixels, but standard DVDs have a resolution of just 720x480. Blu-ray discs output true 1080p High-Definition resolution and have a storage capacity ten times greater than standard DVDs, so no pixel gos to waste.

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Which is the Right Viera for You?

	Screen Size Measured Diagonally	1080p Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels	Native Contrast Ratio	PC Input	THX Cert	24p	Speakers	HDMI Inputs	One Sheet of Glass Design	Swivel Base	Shades of Gradation	H.264 Codec	Digital Cinema Color	Studio Reference Mode	Pro Setting Menu	Serial Port	Standard Features
TH-42PX80U	42 inches		15,000:1				2	3			4,096						480 Hz Sub-field Drive Technology Anti-Reflective Filter Viera Link HDAVI Control Built-in SD Card Slot w/Photo Viewer Deep Color Technology x.v. Color 3D Color Mangement Sub-Pixel Controller Motion Pattern Noise Reduction Anti-Image Retention Mode Game Mode Scratch and Impact Rsistant Panel 100,000 Hours to Panel Half-Brightness (>30 years @ 8 hours/day) Lead-free Panel
TH-50PX80U	50 inches		15,000:1				2	3			4,096
TH-42PZ80U	42 inches		20,000:1				2	3			4,096
TH-46PZ80U	46 inches		20,000:1				2	3			4,096
TH-50PZ80U	50 inches		20,000:1				2	3			4,096
TH-42PZ85U	42 inches		30,000:1				2	3			4,096
TH-46PZ85U	46 inches		30,000:1				2	3			4,096
TH-50PZ85U	50 inches		30,000:1				2	3			4,096
TH-42PZ800U	42 inches		30,000:1				4	4			4,096
TH-46PZ800U	46 inches		30,000:1				4	4			4,096
TH-50PZ800U	50 inches		30,000:1				4	4			4,096
TH-58PZ800U	58 inches		30,000:1				4	4			4,096
TH-46PZ850U	46 inches		30,000:1				4	4			5,120
TH-50PZ850U	50 inches		30,000:1				4	4			5,120
TH-58PZ850U	58 inches		30,000:1				4	4			5,120
TH-65PZ850U	65 inches		30,000:1				4	4			5,120

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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Rating: - Best Purchase I've Made In A Long Time...
I've had this TV for about 6 weeks now. Purchased it in early July and paid less than $1,600 through Amazon. Haven't seen it at this price since. I researched getting a new HD TV for over 7 months. Finally stopped looking at DLPs and focused on 52" LCDs and 50" plasmas. I then narrowed down to plasma only because of research and figuring out what qualities were important to me. There are pros and cons to each, but to me, LCDs are always trying to get to the PQ of a plasma. I read a lot about the 120hz LCDs, some good, some bad. But to me the 120hz option shouts "the technology still needs work, but here's our way of trying to patch it." Good plasmas simply have fantastic pictures w/ no motion issues. As I viewed both types over and over I also think LCDs have a somewhat "mechanical" or "artificial" sense of movement, while plasmas move much more natural and fluid. Again, just my opinion.

With this new generation Panasonic, the excellent brightness, long display life, improved contrast and superior viewing angle make it a great pick.

I eventually came down to this set and the Samsung PN50A650. The Samsung seems excellent as well(and has 4HDMIs to the Panny's 3). My decision came down to Panasonic's reputation for quality and service over Samsung, and this is Panny's 11th generation set where I believe the Sammy's is their 7th gen. Panasonic has a lot of experience w/ plasma technology.

My main use was to be for watching sports, movies, and video games. I have hooked up to the set a cable box, Xbox 360, PS3 (which I bought as a BRay player), and Onkyo 505 receiver. Run it all w/ the Logitech Harmony 550 remote which I highly recommend. Couldn't be happier w/ the picture. The size seems perfect for my application as well. You never know for sure until the set is in the room, but I really wouldn't want it bigger or any smaller. We sit 8-10 from the TV and this seems perfect. Much closer than 8' for this size TV is too close IMO. Video games POP on this thing. COD 4, SCalibur 4, even Geometry Wars 2 is amazing. Blu-Ray is great and I'm always surprised at how well standard DVDs look since the PS3 upscales them.

If you're considering this TV, buy it and you won't regret it, especially for the price.

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Rating: - Better than LCD-my opinion
Better than LCD in my opinion. Maybe just me but motion and color is very nice. Since hanging on my wall months ago I have seen new sets at friends and family. I always come back very satisfied with set. The Pioneers are better, but cost more and not a world of difference unless you ELITE. Overall good set for price. I like the basic remote too. Plenty of inputs since 1 IN for a HDMI receiver is really the main source. Not calibrated by pro but my own tinkering has it fairly dialed. I'll get a pro in eventually.
Good looking TV when turned off too. I like the location of inputs, SD card slot, and the BEST LOCATED POWER BUTTON. Funny what you really like about a TV. No burn in issues at all playing movies, video games, and TV.

No real cons yet. Good set. We sit 16' away and won't go smaller than 50. 54 would have been perfect. 60 a bit much. Glare has not been an issue with one side wall mostly windows. I even forgot that I was concerned about glare, don't be unless your windows are on opposite wall.

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Rating: - Absolutely Awesome, best value and stunning picture.
The battle wages on between LCD and Plasma, but I know I chose correctly when I picked up this television. I have had it now for over a month and I still am as mezmerized as I was on day one. The colors and picture quality are absolutely brilliant. I have a friend that has a 1080p LCD TV and it does not hold a candle to the overall picture quality of this plasma. Again, the one drawback to a plasma screen TV is that it has a glass front, so if you are planning on having this in a room with lots of light and window, reflections will be a problem, and you might choose an LCD. But if you have a TV area like mine, hands down this is the best value and quality. 3 HDMI inputs (2 back, 1 front), 2 component inputs (1 back, 1 front) and your regular cable and composite hook ups available on back as well. The menues are easy to navagate, and the remote is user friendly. This also has an SD card slot that can handle the SDHC cards up to 16gb so you can display your digital photos. The only thing I wish the TV did was on the picture slideshow it allowed you to play music (mp3 files) during the display like some photo frames. Oh well, my pictures look excellent. Finally, my blu-ray movies and my HD-DVD movies are spectacular on this TV. Look around, but you will come back to see that this TV is a best value hands down.

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Rating: - fantastic tv
This is a great tv with a fantastic picture. The tv arrived just as advertised in a well packed carton. Set up was easy with the well detailed instructions. the price was app. $4oo under the price at most box stores. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a large screen TV.

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Rating: - Great TV
Not sure why the previous owner had such bad experience with the TV, but I'm guessing his was a one-off case. I got the TV last week and its been absolutely fantastic. PQ is awesome, and sound as well. Even normal analog channels look better than the CRT TV I had earlier. I'm not a real PQ expert, but for all practical experiences, the black levels are deep, and the colors are very vibrant. I'd highly recommend this TV