The TH-50PZ800U VIERA Plasma 50″ Class (49.9″ diagonal) TV from Panasonic can be the cornerstone of your home theater. This stylish screen features full 1080p resolution with an enhanced native contrast ratio of 30,000:1 for crisp, detailed imagery. With its 4 HDMI ports, this plasma screen is ready for all your HD gear with one-cable pure digital connections. The SD slot will allow for instant slideshows in widescreen of your favorite JPEGs.

The TH-50PZ800U also features VIERA link HDAVI control of your other “HDAVI Control” equipped components when connected via HDMI. The anti-reflective filter allows for viewing in rooms with abundant ambient light. A special game mode is available for when using this plasma screen with your gaming system. Watch movies in 24 frames per second just like in the movie theater with the 24p Cinematic Playback plus THX Mode for high performance image quality.

Features
Screen size: This plasma television has a 50” screen, measured diagonally from corner to corner. This screen size is perfect for viewing from 6.3’ to 12.5’ away.

Resolution: A 1080p resolution means that this television has 1080 rows of pixels vertically. The more pixels a TV has, the clearer the images it can produce. The p stands for progressive scan, which means the TV refreshes every row of pixels during each cycle to produce smoother motion and sharper picture than interlaced scan.

NTSC tuner: A built-in NTSC tuner allows you to view standard analog television broadcasts through your television without a separate cable box.

ATSC tuner: The ATSC tuner means that you can enjoy over-the-air digital channels and theater quality audio (with a separate HD antenna) without the need for a digital antenna.

Aspect ratio: A width to height pixel ratio of 16:9 means this TV has a widescreen aspect ratio, which accurately recreates the dimensions in which HD programming and many feature films are shot.

Contrast ratio: Contrast ratio describes the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites a television is capable of producing. Since there is no industry standard for how contrast ratio is measured, it is only significant within a brand, not between brands. This television has a contrast ratio of 30,000:1.

Inputs: Using the 4 available HDMI inputs, you can experience high definition audio and video up to 1080p, the highest possible resolution available. The 2 component video inputs can be used for video resolution up to 1080i. Also available are 2 S-video inputs, 2 composite video inputs, and 1 RF input.
480Hz sub-field drive: 480Hz sub-field drive ensures that even fast action retains the highest possible resolution with no motion blur.

Review By Hometheaterreview

This 50-inch, 1080p HDTV is part of Panasonic’s 800 Series, the only series in Panasonic’s large plasma lineup to earn THX certification for its video quality (the 800 Series also includes 42- and 46-inch models). Obviously, THX certification places the 800 Series near the top of Panasonic’s 2008 lineup, just below the 850 Series, and lands it in a slightly higher price bracket. The connection panel includes four HDMI, two component video, and one PC input, plus an RF input to access the internal ATSC, NTSC, and Clear-QAM tuners.

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Review By Reviews.cnet

The stand looks identical to the sloped number common to lower-end 2008 Panasonic plasmas such as the TH-46PZ85U and the TH-42PX80U, but unlike those stands, this one swivels, courtesy of a lazy-Susan-like base hidden underneath. Including stand, the TH-50PZ800U measures 49.9 inches wide by 33.4 inches tall by 15.3 inches deep and weighs 92.6 pounds. Divested of stand, its size shrinks to 49.9 inches wide by 31.2 inches tall by 4.1 inches deep and its weight shrinks to 81.6 pounds.

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Review By Howstuffworks

The Panasonic TH-50PZ800U is a full HD 1080p set, and can thus can handle 1080i and 1080p content and fill every pixel accordingly, while 720p HD content is upscaled accordingly. For this reason, we think that this set is ideal for HDTV content from satellite and cable set top boxes as well as from Blu-ray players. We were pleased with the reasonably deep black levels that this set provided–while Pioneer still has the deepest blacks we’ve seen to date this year, the Panasonic line-up is a very close second.

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Review By Amazon

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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Review By Crutchfield

THX’s strict requirements are based on tests that measure each TV’s display quality (resolution, brightness level, color accuracy) and video processing (scaling, deinterlacing). To earn a passing grade, the TH-50PZ800U had to meet performance benchmarks for both standard- and high-definition video, ensuring that all your sources will look their best. Movie fans will love THX Movie Mode, a picture preset that optimizes settings for watching movies on DVD, Blu-ray, and broadcast TV.

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Review By Soundandvisionmag

The THX picture preset is a fantastic new feature that makes it easy to set up the Panasonic TV. You simply select this mode, and the picture settings are instantly optimized for movie watching. Other TVs offer similar presets, usually with names like Movie, Cinema, or Pro. But the Panasonic’s THX mode really delivers the goods, with natural-looking color, strong contrast, accurate gamma, and no edge enhancement. As with the TV’s four other presets, each of the THX mode’s picture settings can be adjusted. Its Custom preset can also be tweaked separately for each input, with the TV recalling your settings as you switch between sources.

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Review By Vanns

Panasonic’s 24p Playback (2:3) and 24p Cinematic Playback achieve exceptionally faithful movie reproduction through a sophisticated analog-to-digital conversion. Movies on film are converted to NTSC interlaced video (480i) for television by a process known as telecine conversion, in which the 24 frame-per-second film is converted to video at 60 fields per second. The fields are then paired to create 30-frame-per-second 480i video. Some of the frames will contain dissimilar pairs of fields derived from two different frames of the original film, which causes artifacts. 24p Playback converts 480i video to 480p while restoring the original frames of the film for a more authentic movie reproduction. This widescreen TV features a width-to-height ratio similar to movie theater screens, providing a theater-like experience at home.

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Review By Hemagazine

The 50PZ800 can reproduce every pixel in a 1080p signal, with no edge enhancement and commendably little noise. In fact, it had some of the lowest noise levels I’ve seen in a plasma.
It can de-interlace 1080i correctly, but sadly can’t pick up the 3:2 sequence from 1080i material. Scaling is good, but not amazing. There are some jagged edges on diagonal lines. This shows the other limitation of THX. The performance is better than other Panasonic plasmas I’ve reviewed, though still not quite as good as some of their competitors. There is a limit to how much tweaking THX can do to video processors undoubtedly picked a year earlier more for their cost than their outright performance. If you have a decent scaling DVD player (or BD player), you’ll probably never notice this.

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