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Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ80U 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ80U 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV
Brand: Panasonic
Category: CE

Buy New: See price in cart



Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars 31 reviews
Sales Rank: 2667

Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Batteries: 2
Batteries Included: Yes
Display Size: 50
Shipping Weight (lbs): 88.2
Dimensions (in): 49 x 3.7 x 33.2
nv:Display Area: 50"
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Contrast Ratio: 20000:1
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Signal Compatibility: 1080p
Input Video Signal: ATSC
Input Video Signal: NTSC
Speakers: Yes
Inputs: S-Video
Inputs: Audio
Inputs: Component Video
Inputs: HDMI In
Inputs: SD Memory Card Slot
Inputs: Composite Video In
Inputs: Analog Audio Input
Outputs: Composite Video
Outputs: Analog Audio
Outputs: Digital Audio Out
Power Source: 120VAC, 50/60Hz
Unit Dimensions (WxHxD): 49" x 31.1" x 3.7"

MPN: TH-50PZ80U
Model: TH-50PZ80U
UPC: 037988241958
EAN: 0037988241958
ASIN: B00142OHAC

Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Features:
  • 1920 x 1080 Resolution
  • 1000000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio for the Brightest whites and darkest blacks
  • 4096 Shades of Gradation for spectacular Color Reproduction
  • Viera LinK™ HDAVI Control lets you operate all of your home theater components by pressing a single button on your TV's remote control
  • GalleryPlayer allows you to enjoy the world's finest high definition art and photography on your Panasonic HD plasma TV

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
PRODUCT FEATURES:50" Class (49.9" diagonal) Widescreen Viera Plasma 1080p HDTV with Anti-Reflective FilterDeep color technologyGame modeBuilt-in SD card slot / GalleryPlayer 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

deep color eliminates visible color banding

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.

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.
SD Cards Viera Link


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.
network with PCs Easy connectivity with HDMI ports

long life

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.

Blu-Ray disc player

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.


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 check 20,000:1



2
3


4,096




TH-46PZ80U
46 inches check 20,000:1


2
3


4,096




TH-50PZ80U
50 inches check 20,000:1


2
3


4,096




TH-42PZ85U
42 inches check 30,000:1 check

2
3


4,096




TH-46PZ85U
46 inches check 30,000:1
check

2
3


4,096




TH-50PZ85U
50 inches check 30,000:1 check

2
3


4,096




TH-42PZ800U
42 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 4,096




TH-46PZ800U 46 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 4,096




TH-50PZ800U 50 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 4,096




TH-58PZ800U 58 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 4,096




TH-46PZ850U 46 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 5,120 check check check check check
TH-50PZ850U 50 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 5,120 check check check check check
TH-58PZ850U 58 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 5,120 check check check check check
TH-65PZ850U 65 inches check 30,000:1 check check check 4
4
check check 5,120 check check check check check



Customer Reviews:   Read 26 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars I love this TV   October 7, 2008
Mark A. Mills (Richmond Hill, GA)
Panasonic TH-50PZ80U TV

Overall, I love this TV. It is fantastic. A few comments:

1. The speakers are great, as far as TV speakers go. Anyone who complains about them are just surround-sound speaker snobs. That's like complaining that your Ferrari won't float in the lake. That's what your boat is for, dummy. Let's compare apples to apples. A TV is not a surround sound system.

2. Most movies are not 16:9 ratio, as all widescreen TVs are. They are 1.33:1, which means you will still have black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, just like you did with your old tube TV. But the bars are much thinner, at least.

3. Regular analog cable TV looks okay, not great, not bad. I think when you get a TV of this size, since there are limitations on the quality of regular cable, a 50" TV will magnify them, simply because it's so big. However, regular DVDs look fantastic. So if you are getting a digital signal, you shouldn't have any problems.

4. I've had no issues as far as burn-in goes. I've had a movie paused for 20 minutes with no ghosting. I've also had the black bars on the top and bottom for 3 hours watching a movie, and light gray bars on the sides watching regular TV for hours, as well, with no problems. It also has a manual burn-in prevention selection, where you can run a white vertical bar slowly across a black screen as a prevention measure. I do that every once a while on my own, just to give myself a warm and fuzzy feeling. When you watch programs made for the old 4:3 tube TV ratio, it shows light gray bars on the sides of the screen. You can change these to black, but the TV likes them to be light gray to help prevent burn in, although it will default to black bars on the top and bottom when playing a DVD.

5. Reflection, the other concern about Plasmas besides burn-in, is no big deal. It's glass on the front of the TV, so it won't reflect any more than your old TV, or the family portrait on the wall. You might have to turn off a lamp, or close the drapes to remove some glare, but even if you didn't, it's not a deal breaker. LCDs don't have glare problems, but then you have to deal with some blurriness on fast movement, so Plasma seems a better choice to me, especially since burn-in seems non-existent.

6. The box says to keep the TV upright, and the manual said that some internal circuitry could be messed up if it was set on it's side, and I've heard from other people that you need to have the TV upright for 24 hours before you turn it on, but after doing research, the true concern is the huge, expensive piece of glass on the front of your TV. Remember when you see glass trucks rolling down the street, and all the glass is vertical on the side of the truck? That's because it's stronger on it's edge, and being horizontal in the back of a bouncing truck could crack it. I think that the TV is firm enough to keep the glass from cracking or the internal circuitry messing up if you drove slowly and cautiously. Besides, you kind of have to put it on it's side just to get it out of the huge box. I drove it in my van on it's side for 30 miles (that's how the store put it in there), and have had no problems.

7. The box was so big, I initially thought that the TV might be too big for my living room. No such thing. The bigger, the better.

8. The black setting was set to off, which keep the blacks from being as black as they could be. I switched it to on, which made everything a little darker, but I like it better. It's not the brightness setting, as this option was "off" or "on". I think this is a default setting they had for display purposes, to try to make the TV seem brighter for display.

9. One last minor issue, there isn't a separate button for closed captioning on the remote control. I know most people never use closed captioning, but sometimes I can't understand what someone says, and I want to quickly read what they are saying, then turn it back off.

Overall, this is a fantastic TV. I am extremely happy with it.

As an aside, don't pay a ton for an HDMI cable. "Category 2" is as high quality as hdmi.org recognizes, and RadioShack sells them for $40. I have found that Mediabridge cables online for $4 are just as good, as well.



5 out of 5 stars Great set for the money   October 4, 2008
E. Haney (Ewing ,IL USA)
Should I buy online or from a store? I had all the fears of stepping out on the edge. I have never ordered from amazon and have heard all the debates on lcd vs plasma. I did the online and instore research for a month. My wife finally said just buy the dang thing so I went for it and man was I ever satisfied. From start to finish I had first class service and as for the Plasma let me tell you I am amazed at the quality. the HD is fantastic and the bluray is out of this world. This is a great plasma. This set in the stores was any were from 200.00 to 600.00 more and I would have had to go get it. Amazon brought not only to my door but also brought it in and and turned it on for a test run. I looked at buying a more expensive set ya know you get what you pay for but I myself read alot of customer reviews on this plasma and took the chance. I tell you take the money you save on this set and buy a bluray, HD receiver, Bluray discs, and a new Plasma hutch. you won't be sorry.


4 out of 5 stars Defective upon arrival, but great now   September 30, 2008
J. Humble
We own a 42" version of this TV which we love, and decided to add a 50" downstairs. The TV arrived with a defect -- a two-inch vertical line on the left side of the screen which never went away. Everything else was working ok. After many attempts to get through to Panasonic customer support, they arranged in-home service for the TV. The technician replaced one board and it now works perfectly. We love it now. The technician commented that he purchased the 720P version of this TV because Panasonics have fewer problems than the other brands they work on, including Samsung.


5 out of 5 stars panasonic 1080p television   September 25, 2008
P. Long (springfield mo)
Great television. Crystal clear picture. Some reviews mentioned buzzing in the speakers and also heat but I do not have either. Perhaps improvements have been made. Even my best friend mentioned how it emittedless heat than the 32 inch lcd monitor that I replaced. I am hooked up to satellite high definition and use a digital antenna through the satellite to catch the local signals and they look fantastic. If I freeze a picture I do get some screen ghosting but it is gone in a perhaps 30 seconds. Far and away the best bang for the buck that I could find. Plenty of hookups for all my equipment. Zero regrets


5 out of 5 stars Great Performance, Great Value   September 17, 2008
Alex B
This was the cheapest 50" 1080p plasma I could find from a reputable brand and store. 6Ave delivered it to my house at no cost (although they could only deliver on a Saturday, which was inconvenient), and set it up on the stand and tested it before leaving.

I have been very happy with my purchase. The picture is as vibrant and crisp as all the commercials claim. Watching movies is now a true joy. I'm definitely glad I opted for 1080p. 720p movies look great, but 1080p movies will blow you away. Onboard speakers are very decent, although a home theater will definitely need more audio.

Energy-conscious people look elsewhere. This bad boy eats almost 700 Watts and has three cooling fans which exude warmth caused by its entrancing glow.

My only problem thus far is that sometimes it won't turn on, the LED on the front will just blink. I live in an older house, and have found that by turning off the electronics and lights around it, I can start it up again after a few minutes of being unplugged, then have to turn everything else back on. The TV carries a 1 year warranty, so if this issue persists or progresses I will have it taken care of. I talked to customer service about it, and they were very helpful (Panasonic has a separate 'Plasma concierge' customer service center).