Panasonic VIERA TC-P50S1

Purchased this TV about a week ago, and I finally got to tweak it yesterday. I must say for a budget minded consumer in a LCD, LED heavy world, that is looking for a great inexpensive HDTV, look no further. Burn in for Plasma TV is a thing of the past, which is great for gamers, and people that watch the news, however the manual will tell you that the break in period is between 100-200 hours before you can finally unleash the fury and put it to the test. Unfortunately, out here in Yokota AB. Japan living with overly expensive TV's (off base), and LCD TV's hanging on to their ridiculous price point, people here grab the first thing they see, which if you are a military member/spouse/DOD civilian, have heard of the products AVOL and HCT. I see troop after troop walk in and buy these pieces of crap without doing any research, and getting the fist in the butt after a year of dealing with sub-par technology that is doing nothing but using numbers to sell their cheap crud. I was not shaken by the $1000 dollar price point of a 50" AVOL LCD w/ 120hz technology, even those have severe ghosting, and pixelization that made me cringe in disgust, but I digress.

This model was sitting right next to its predecessor the TH-50PZ80U, which was 300 dollars more, and the TC-P50S1 colors were intentionally dumbed down to sell the more vibrant predecessor next to it. I can tell you that this is crap because I requested the remotes from the sales rep (which all aafes sales reps are completely clueless when it comes to the tech they sell, google is your friend) and I matched the colors of the two to the T, I went through every setting and matched it all. The S1 model had a slight, albeit noticeable edge, while it lacked a few unecessary features that were on my like to have list, I decided to save the extra green and put the money to the side for a Blu-ray Player down the line. Even the stats between the two were different, for the PZ80U, it was showing a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (30,000:1 native), 900 lines or more moving picture res., 480hz sub-field drive, no 24p playback, more power consumption, about 5-7 lbs heavier, however it brags THX mode, and I have read numerous reviews that its either not worth it, turns the screen a green hue when activated, and is either not used or not worth the extra coin. But the screen half-life is equal, both models touting 100,000 hours, or 42 years of the national avg of 6.5 hrs a day.

So in choosing the S1 model, I lost THX, gained a 600hz sub-field drive, 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ration (40,000:1 native), 1080 lines constant moving picture resolution, 24p playback, which the slim shortfalls I suffered by choosing the S1, more than made up for what I gained out of it. VIERAcast may be good stuff, but in Japan, I wouldn't be able to use it, and I am here for 3 and a half more years, so who cares. I chose this over a Sony LCD touting 240hz refresh rate, my initial plan was to go all Sony, I have a Sony receiver, and a PS3. But in the end, having the Braviasync was not as important to me as getting great, inexpensive quality.

I hope I helped your decision in your future purchase, and happy hunting.

P.S. - Pay no attention to the obviously ticked person that put "1080P is grainy", he is wrong, I have run a PS3 to it, and a 500 Series Sony BD player, it looks amazing.  Either they did not know how to properly configure their system/TV, or truly was not running HD content and is just a moron.  Oh, and if you really want Vieracast, most Panasonic Blu-ray players have it.