Panasonic Plasma Review

Panasonic Plasma TH-50PX75U Overview

In the 50 inch and larger category of plasma flat panel HDTV displays, you will begin to see pricy models appear. Many of the producers of plasma displays make specialty or professional level sets in sizes of 50 inch and up. Panasonic, considered a leader in plasma HDTV displays is no exception to this rule. Panasonic makes seven plasma displays in the 50 inch category. These displays range in price from $1999.95 on up to $3499.95. The differences amongst the offerings by Panasonic are subtle, but it is important to make the distinctions amongst the different displays. This overview will focus on the Panasonic Plasma HDTV with the model number of TH-50PX75U.

Model numbers play an important role in determining many aspects about a given plasma display. This model number of TH-50PX75U helps determine many things about this plasma display by Panasonic. The first two letters of TH are used on all Panasonic plasma HDTV displays and therefore have no significant meaning. The next two numbers of 5 and 0 describe the size of this plasma display of 50 inches. The next two letters of P and X indicates that this is a 720p HDTV display. Finally, the 75U indicates that this is Panasonic's lowest offering overall in the 50 inch size. The 75U does not come with many of the options that the 700U class offers such as more HDMI connections, more speakers with more power, the availability of more on screen adjustments, and other various features over the lesser sets that do not end with the 0U designation.

Now we will move on to pricing. As this particular model is considered to be Panasonic's lowest model line 50 inch plasma model, it is priced accordingly. The manufacturer's suggested retail price of this model is listed as $1999.95. This price makes it the lowest priced 50 inch plasma HDTV display offered by Panasonic.

This particular set is a 720p HDTV display. This means that this display has the ability to display the full resolution of a 720 p signal, but cannot display the higher resolution format of 1080. Though a 1080p set will be more expensive than an identical 720p, it will usually offer better picture quality and is capable of higher resolutions. There is a trade off between picture quality and price when deciding between a 720p set or a 1080p set.

The contrast ratio of this particular display is listed at 10, 000 to 1. The contrast ratio determines the sets ability to show true black and crisp, clean whites on the screen at the same time. A higher contrast ratio translates to better picture quality. When comparing contrast ratio among plasma and LCD displays, you must compare the contrast ratio of the plasma display to the on screen contrast ratio of the LCD display. In order to make an accurate comparison, you should not look at the dynamic contrast that is listed for most LCD display.

This model utilizes Panasonic's G10 Progressive HD Plasma Panel. Though a direct comparison of panels cannot be made, it is worthwhile to note which Panasonic displays use the same panel. The same panel should give the same or similar picture quality.

This brief overview is intended for comparison purposes. If interested in comparing this set to another plasma or LCD set then please refer to my overviews listed for each specific model. Overviews are available for or will soon be available for major models from Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Pioneer, and Toshiba.

Though portions of this article have been reused from my other Panasonic plasma reviews, model specific information is changed and pertinent only to the model listed.