Plasma TV in the 50 inch screen size

The 50 inch plasma TV category will soon surpass the popular selling 42 in screen size. The three flat panel monitors chosen here are considered to be the finest in this screen size.

FEATURES Plasma TV

TV Type Panasonic TH-50PHD7UY

Built-In Tuner NTSC, PAL, SECAM

Resolution 1366 x 768

Aspect Ratio 16:9

Comb Filter 3DYC / 3D Digital

Adjustable Color Temp Yes

Customizable Display Settings Yes

S-Video inputs Yes

Component input Yes

Digital Video Input Yes

A/V Inputs No (buy card)

Audio Outputs Yes

PIP Yes

Pull down 3:2

Miscellaneous Input 15 pin VGA-style

Miscellaneous Output composite

Panasonic TH-50PHD7UY measures 48 H by 29 W by 3.7 D inches and weighs 95 pounds.

The Panasonic TH-50PHD7UY is a non-consumer (industrial) 50-inch flat panel monitor.

It's missing some consumer features, but its considered one of the best 50-inch plasma panels available. The "industrial" label is a misnomer. While it's true that the TH-50PHD7UY is pretty much just a monitor ( it's a dark-gray-finished panel with some function buttons located on the left side), these non-consumer panels can easily be used for in-home use. Although the Panny TH-50PHD7UY plasma TV has a no-frills design, and lacks some key features like......

cable
over-the-air digital/HDTV tuners
digital inputs
speakers (you can buy good sounding, side mounting speakers from Panasonic)

......these are not deal breakers.

Optional speakers, additional inputs and an HDTV receiver can be bought separately. It will still cost less than most other 50-inch panels on the market. The clincher for this Panasonic is that its resolution is 1,366x768 which means it can fully resolve a 720p HD source and qualifies it as a true HDTV display.

In addition to the features highlighted in the table the Panasonic has:

a variety of screensaver modes designed to prevent burn-in, which can occur if very bright static images are left onscreen for long periods of time
POP (picture-out-of-picture) good for sports fans wanting to keep track of two games at one time
4X digital zoom, which allows you to divide the screen into zones and magnify the image

Like all plasma and LCD TVs it can be hung on the wall with optional brackets from Panasonic. Although the remote is well laid out it is small and ineffective because the plasma is missing many consumer features I.E. no numeric keypad for changing channels. The on-screen menu system is intuitive.

The picture quality of the TH-50PHD7UY is more accurate straight out of the box than most consumer plasma TVs but like all plasmas the PQ can be improved by professional calibration.

The all important black-level performance on the Panasonic TH-50PHD7UY is simply the best of any flat panel monitor on the market today. There are no artifacts when the black level (brightness) is set properly.