Well it's been a while since I either posted or made a thread so I thought i'd come and notify people of the latest spaffworthy non-event to happen in my life, 
Basically i've just moved apartments and the last month has been spent in upheaval as I struggled to get everything sorted, got my useless internet provider to connect me, and desperately searched for a new TV to fill my empty wall. I knew I wanted a plasma rather than an LCD because my old man had a PZ81 which was amazing, and because as we all know... plasmas are better picture quality than LCD's, right chaps?
Anyway I spent 2 weeks going to my local AV shop called Media Markt, (which by the way makes anything in the UK look like a pound shop, it's literally MASSIVE and has everything PC and electronic-wise you can imagine, for around UK online prices) as well as a couple of others, just literally spending hours staring at all the TV's and having a good fiddle. At first I was looking at the Panny's with a critical eye next to the Samsung 50B650... the Sammy looked much better in the light shop even after tweaking... and I had to force myself to remember that a) the lighting conditions in the shop were nowhere near realistic and that b) Samsung plasmas have some major problems (AVforums is full of sets going back). The Pannys also have a slight "blur" to them sometimes, which is accentuated in shop conditions, and this further left me "uhmming and ahhing" for a bit.
Originally i'd ended up looking at 42" as I thought anything bigger would be overkill sitting 6.5ft away, so after looking at the the (EU-specific model of the G10) TX-PGW42G10 for a while in Media Markt I went to another shop and stumbled accross a slightly different model... the TX-P50G10E. Now despite not having a "W" in the model name it was unbelievably... £350 cheaper than the 50" version of the GW10. I checked the specs, the menus , everything else about a gazillion times and yup... wtf... EXACT same TV... very weird.
The picture looked better than in Media Markt as the shop was smaller and darker, and so after weighing up the pro's and cons, and realising that for a smidgeon more than a 42" I could get the 50" for a smidgeon more... I pushed the button and went for it! Now after having it for a few days I should never have worried about the size and the distance away because... it is simply mind-blowing.
Here is a completely subjective mini-review of the screen based on my week with it, maybe they'll be of interest to someone who's been looking at new TV's and wondering what to get... so without further ado lets take an overview of the various aspects that for me make this TV a stonking purchase...
Official Panasonic page for the G10: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_...asma+TV/TX-P50G10/Overview/2121399/index.html
Oodles of professional reviews: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pa...ent-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB261GB261&aq=t
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Looks & Connectivity:
First of all the thing is huge, like having a mini cinema screen in your living room, however at the same time it isn't overbearing... after a day or so it looks like it's always been there, and while I was initially worried about it looking a bit fugly, it actually looks great when setup. The black and silver bezel go well together and the unit really is surprisingly thin... I was considering the G15 for the discreet bezel but I shouldn't have worried... it's really not thick at all. To use a metaphor, it's like the girl you see in the office all day who doesn't look like much, but then you see her at an office party and all of a sudden you realise that she scrubs up well.
Connectivity is the industrry standard, nothing more nothing less, with 3x HDMI's, an SDHC card slot, VGA port and the usual gubbins. An extra HDMI would have been nice but hey, it's not the end of the world, and I have one free for my Pio AV reciever when I get it out to Switzerland. Not bad, really.
Looks/connectivity: 7.5/10
-------------------------------------------------
General screen comments (not rated):
Upon powering on to a black screen, uniformity is as always with plasmas, excellent, with no hint of patchiness or bleed prevalent on the majority of LCD's out there. No clouding is evident on any images I saw either, with the images remaining clean and consistent throughout. Viewing angles are superb with no dropoff from either side even at the most extreme angles I tested, so matter where you sit you are guaranteed a good picture. Flickering for me is not an issue with this set, despite having sensitive eyes, and i'm happy to report that long periods of viewing are very comfortable even at close range.
-------------------------------------------------
OSD Menus & Interface
ANyone familiar with Panasonic TV's knows that they are a big fan of presenting you with functional, yet rather drab and uninspiring interfaces. The usual "Picture", "Sound" and "System" options are there, each allowing various controls over their respective areas. Picture settings are, as usual for Panasonics, rather lacking in all but the most essential features. You get control over the viewing modes, brightness, contrast, colour and sharpness, as well as the various processing modes, which I disabled almost immediately.
However one VERY interesting thing is that on the EU models Panasonic have decided to add a completely new set of "Advanced options" to the Picture menu over that of the UK models... giving you good control over the greyscales and gamma settings! This, while a most welcome feature for getting a good picture, is in my opinion a bizzarre choice for Panasonic, and is surely a slap in the face of the large population of savvy Panasonic customers that we have here in old blighty. Why they took the strange decision to shaft their UK userbase I will never know, but it's obviously nothing that couldn't have been included in the first place, and likely nothing that can't potentially be updated via firmware. Whether they will do this in the interests of fairness remain to be seen, however I personally think it's a very poor on Panasonics part to have this discrepancy over the UK and EU models, and leaves a bad taste in ones mouth. However enough complaining... I have them on mine and you people don't, so nerr.
For the rest of it, the usual Sound tweaking options are there, providing access to bass and couple of modes etc, and the System menu provides acces to info such as firmware versions (including the ability to update it over the air), and the usual things like being able to restore factory defaults etc. Standard stuff really, certainly nothing flashy like Samsungs implementation of their OSD.
OSD Menus & Interface: 6.5/10
-------------------------------------------------
Picture (SD):
SD is what I was worried about when I bought this thing... 50" is a large area for a bog-standard SD feed to be blown up to, and Pannys are known for being behind the Kuro in this regard. However, i'm glad to report, with no hint of "buyers blinkers", that it's not actually bad at all. Yes, some of the poor quality feeds look a bit ropey, but the vast majority of SD feeds on my cable connection look absolutely fine (BBC etc), sometimes spectacular (cinema/sports channels), and I genuinely mean that. After a few hours your brain gets used to the imperfections on-screen, and even my uber-picky girlfriend things it's the bees knees, and that's possibly the biggest accolade I can give it! I will go into the colours and blacks in the next section, because SD is SD, and while it looks great, it's not the best way to give an impression on real PQ due to the variable bit-rates you get.
SD: 7.5/10
-------------------------------------------------
Picture (HD):
As part of my Dreambox-powered (heh) HD package I also get BBC HD, Eurosport HD, National Geographic HD along with a couple of others and all I can say in a rather understated fashion is ... er... wow. This TV lives for HD, and the pictures it produces are nothing short of a revelation. From even only 6-7 feet away the definition is sublime, with no graininess or pixellation... it produces clean images that are like cool water on the eyes. BBC HD looks pin sharp, and a drastic improvement over regular BBC. However it's on the wildlife HD feeds that you really get the whole experience, a dizzying array of colours are realistic and faithfully reproduced as far as I can go without an ISF calibration, and due to the NeoPDP panel the blacks really are truly inky and bring the whole picture to life and give it a depth that is exceeded only by the Kuros that i've seen. The overall experince is magnificent. I have yet to try a Blu-Ray title even though I have a drive and a copy of AvsP 2, because I can't get the damn Power DVD software that came with it to work and it just exits to desktopwhen the Blu Ray loads. Grrr...
HD: 9/10
-------------------------------------------------
PC connection & Movies:
Now THIS is the important bit, right chaps? A PC is in my opinion the cornerstone of ANY geeks home media setup... it's what we store our movies on, all of our TV series, and all th other media we hoard like electronic dragons. It's of vital importance that a PC plays nicely with whatever display you buy, and for me it IS a deal maker or breaker. So... does it work?
Yes it works, and very very well at that. I connected it using a DVI > HDMI adapter and instantly the image was up there and staring me in the face, scaled perfectly after disabling "Overscan" in the TV menu options. In 5 seconds I was ready to go and staring at a desktop extension about 5x bigger than my PC monitor... just begging me to play stuff... and play stuff I did!
My first test was the excellent 1080p version of Star Wars Ep III (yes, they exist) and after firing it up I was literally staring at it slack-jawed like some kind of country bumpkin as I was privy to what is easily the most mind-blowing home cinema experience I have ever witnessed in my life thus far. Colours were reproduced with mind-boggling clarity against the inky backdrop of space, requiring a black-level which the Panny handles without kipping a beat, and the image is razor sharp. Motion is handled with CRT-like finesse with no sign of blurring or smearing during intensive scenes, and watching the opening dogfight with the droid army really is something that has to be seen to be appreciated! All in all the picture and overall impression was mouth-watering. I fired up my 1080p versions of LOTS and despite being of lower quality even those were fantastic... the detail in the dark scenes is astounding, and the whole experience is nothing short of epic. Even non-HD DVD rips look fantastic on a screen this size, and this TV really is the perfect companion for any PC-related usage, it's like having your own private cinema screen. I forsee a couple of BIG movie sessions coming up over the next few weeks.
PC connectivity: 9/10
-------------------------------------------------
Sound:
Sound is... ok. I'm not a big fan of TV speakers at the best of times and at home have a Pioneer VXSLX70 reciever and Quad Lite 5.1's, but as they are in the Uk and I am in Switzerland I have no choice but to use the TV "as is". Well... it's ok, not great, but certainly not bad for your average TV especially compared to the likes of Samsung. It has what's called a "V-surround" option and a couple of other things that TV manufacturers include to run the futile task of making you think like you're getting something other than 2.1 sound from a pair of stereo speakers but hey... at least the bass is decent and it doesn't harm my cinema viewing too much, which is about the biggest compliment I can give it.
Sound: 7.5/10
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Gaming:
Yeah I know that for the first 200 hours I need to be a bit "careful" (even though Panny are known for being highly resistant to IR) but there's no harm in a bif of testing (whistles innocently), so I dutifully fired up a game (COD4) and sat there grinning stupidly as I stared at the perfect 1080p playback of my favourite FPS. The picture made my awesome NEC 20GX2 look like the monitorial (I made that word up, but it works) equivalent of a 2" penis... and with 4x AA on ran like a dram on my 1GB HD 4870. Panning and running around revealed the clear motion advantage that plasmas enjoy over their large LCD TV brethren, and no input lag was noticeable while I was popping off shots at the evil American scum. Oh sorry, I meant Taliban obviously.
Next on my list to try is Race Driver Grid (once I find the DVD) as that is blatantly going to be the most fap-worth experience I can imagine. Watch this space for an update on other games as I pay them... but the initial impression was supremely positive, and this screen begs to be gamed on. I of course experienced no IR in the brief time I played, and to be honest cant't imagine getting it unless I sat there with it on pause for 8 hours, it's really nothing to worry about imo. Whether it be PC or console, gaming on this TV will be nothing short of sublime... just exercise a bit of aution in the first 200 hours or so just to be safe.
Gaming: 9/10
-------------------------------------------------
Conclusion:
So yeah... I think you may have gathered that I am somewhat impressed by this TV. What's important to remember is that I am pretty objective as far as things go, and will never enthuse over anythng that I don't deem worth enthusing over, and would have been crushingly dissappinted if this TV had been anything other than fantastic. I'm happy to report that despite I do not regret for a second purchasing it, the 50" size is ideal and i'm SO glad I didn't get the 42" or 46" instead. To anyone worried about size or that the missus is going to moan about it "being too big" without actually giving it a chance, I say man up and take control, because in a short space of time she will be saying how glad she is that you didn't get anything smaller, trust me.
SD quality is fair to good, and HD quality is exceptional, and for the money I don't think anything can touch it. This is of course aided by the fantastic black levels second only to ther Kuro, and the good colour reproduction after tweaking, which really brings films to life, giving them a real sense of clarity and depth. The sound, while to my ears nothing special, is no worse than on other TV's i've heard, so certainly nothing to get upset about.
Compared to the Samsung B650 I think this TV has a lot going for it if not in looks, then in terms of picture quality and reliability, which are key. After viewing the Panasonic V10 I really don't think it's worth paying £600+ extra just for the THX mode... it was good, but not that much better than the G10 considering the price difference, and I don't think in regular viewing you'd notice anything to be honest.
Overall, I think that despite some incredibly minor, almost petty shortcomings, that this TV with all its strengths represents the best value for money at the moment. For not much over a grand you are getting a 50" monster that will form the most crucial element of your home AV setup for some time to come, able to play whatever you throw at it and make it look like eye-sex. If you're in the market for a new TV without breaking the bank, and have the sense to realise that a good plasma blows everythng else out of the water, then I recommend you get a Panasonic G10 as soon as humanly possible, you won't regret it.
Overall: 9/10
Basically i've just moved apartments and the last month has been spent in upheaval as I struggled to get everything sorted, got my useless internet provider to connect me, and desperately searched for a new TV to fill my empty wall. I knew I wanted a plasma rather than an LCD because my old man had a PZ81 which was amazing, and because as we all know... plasmas are better picture quality than LCD's, right chaps?
Anyway I spent 2 weeks going to my local AV shop called Media Markt, (which by the way makes anything in the UK look like a pound shop, it's literally MASSIVE and has everything PC and electronic-wise you can imagine, for around UK online prices) as well as a couple of others, just literally spending hours staring at all the TV's and having a good fiddle. At first I was looking at the Panny's with a critical eye next to the Samsung 50B650... the Sammy looked much better in the light shop even after tweaking... and I had to force myself to remember that a) the lighting conditions in the shop were nowhere near realistic and that b) Samsung plasmas have some major problems (AVforums is full of sets going back). The Pannys also have a slight "blur" to them sometimes, which is accentuated in shop conditions, and this further left me "uhmming and ahhing" for a bit.
Originally i'd ended up looking at 42" as I thought anything bigger would be overkill sitting 6.5ft away, so after looking at the the (EU-specific model of the G10) TX-PGW42G10 for a while in Media Markt I went to another shop and stumbled accross a slightly different model... the TX-P50G10E. Now despite not having a "W" in the model name it was unbelievably... £350 cheaper than the 50" version of the GW10. I checked the specs, the menus , everything else about a gazillion times and yup... wtf... EXACT same TV... very weird.
The picture looked better than in Media Markt as the shop was smaller and darker, and so after weighing up the pro's and cons, and realising that for a smidgeon more than a 42" I could get the 50" for a smidgeon more... I pushed the button and went for it! Now after having it for a few days I should never have worried about the size and the distance away because... it is simply mind-blowing. Here is a completely subjective mini-review of the screen based on my week with it, maybe they'll be of interest to someone who's been looking at new TV's and wondering what to get... so without further ado lets take an overview of the various aspects that for me make this TV a stonking purchase...
Official Panasonic page for the G10: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_...asma+TV/TX-P50G10/Overview/2121399/index.html
Oodles of professional reviews: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pa...ent-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB261GB261&aq=t
-------------------------------------------------
Looks & Connectivity:
First of all the thing is huge, like having a mini cinema screen in your living room, however at the same time it isn't overbearing... after a day or so it looks like it's always been there, and while I was initially worried about it looking a bit fugly, it actually looks great when setup. The black and silver bezel go well together and the unit really is surprisingly thin... I was considering the G15 for the discreet bezel but I shouldn't have worried... it's really not thick at all. To use a metaphor, it's like the girl you see in the office all day who doesn't look like much, but then you see her at an office party and all of a sudden you realise that she scrubs up well.
Connectivity is the industrry standard, nothing more nothing less, with 3x HDMI's, an SDHC card slot, VGA port and the usual gubbins. An extra HDMI would have been nice but hey, it's not the end of the world, and I have one free for my Pio AV reciever when I get it out to Switzerland. Not bad, really.
Looks/connectivity: 7.5/10
-------------------------------------------------
General screen comments (not rated):
Upon powering on to a black screen, uniformity is as always with plasmas, excellent, with no hint of patchiness or bleed prevalent on the majority of LCD's out there. No clouding is evident on any images I saw either, with the images remaining clean and consistent throughout. Viewing angles are superb with no dropoff from either side even at the most extreme angles I tested, so matter where you sit you are guaranteed a good picture. Flickering for me is not an issue with this set, despite having sensitive eyes, and i'm happy to report that long periods of viewing are very comfortable even at close range.
-------------------------------------------------
OSD Menus & Interface
ANyone familiar with Panasonic TV's knows that they are a big fan of presenting you with functional, yet rather drab and uninspiring interfaces. The usual "Picture", "Sound" and "System" options are there, each allowing various controls over their respective areas. Picture settings are, as usual for Panasonics, rather lacking in all but the most essential features. You get control over the viewing modes, brightness, contrast, colour and sharpness, as well as the various processing modes, which I disabled almost immediately.
However one VERY interesting thing is that on the EU models Panasonic have decided to add a completely new set of "Advanced options" to the Picture menu over that of the UK models... giving you good control over the greyscales and gamma settings! This, while a most welcome feature for getting a good picture, is in my opinion a bizzarre choice for Panasonic, and is surely a slap in the face of the large population of savvy Panasonic customers that we have here in old blighty. Why they took the strange decision to shaft their UK userbase I will never know, but it's obviously nothing that couldn't have been included in the first place, and likely nothing that can't potentially be updated via firmware. Whether they will do this in the interests of fairness remain to be seen, however I personally think it's a very poor on Panasonics part to have this discrepancy over the UK and EU models, and leaves a bad taste in ones mouth. However enough complaining... I have them on mine and you people don't, so nerr.
For the rest of it, the usual Sound tweaking options are there, providing access to bass and couple of modes etc, and the System menu provides acces to info such as firmware versions (including the ability to update it over the air), and the usual things like being able to restore factory defaults etc. Standard stuff really, certainly nothing flashy like Samsungs implementation of their OSD.
OSD Menus & Interface: 6.5/10
-------------------------------------------------
Picture (SD):
SD is what I was worried about when I bought this thing... 50" is a large area for a bog-standard SD feed to be blown up to, and Pannys are known for being behind the Kuro in this regard. However, i'm glad to report, with no hint of "buyers blinkers", that it's not actually bad at all. Yes, some of the poor quality feeds look a bit ropey, but the vast majority of SD feeds on my cable connection look absolutely fine (BBC etc), sometimes spectacular (cinema/sports channels), and I genuinely mean that. After a few hours your brain gets used to the imperfections on-screen, and even my uber-picky girlfriend things it's the bees knees, and that's possibly the biggest accolade I can give it! I will go into the colours and blacks in the next section, because SD is SD, and while it looks great, it's not the best way to give an impression on real PQ due to the variable bit-rates you get.
SD: 7.5/10
-------------------------------------------------
Picture (HD):
As part of my Dreambox-powered (heh) HD package I also get BBC HD, Eurosport HD, National Geographic HD along with a couple of others and all I can say in a rather understated fashion is ... er... wow. This TV lives for HD, and the pictures it produces are nothing short of a revelation. From even only 6-7 feet away the definition is sublime, with no graininess or pixellation... it produces clean images that are like cool water on the eyes. BBC HD looks pin sharp, and a drastic improvement over regular BBC. However it's on the wildlife HD feeds that you really get the whole experience, a dizzying array of colours are realistic and faithfully reproduced as far as I can go without an ISF calibration, and due to the NeoPDP panel the blacks really are truly inky and bring the whole picture to life and give it a depth that is exceeded only by the Kuros that i've seen. The overall experince is magnificent. I have yet to try a Blu-Ray title even though I have a drive and a copy of AvsP 2, because I can't get the damn Power DVD software that came with it to work and it just exits to desktopwhen the Blu Ray loads. Grrr...
HD: 9/10
-------------------------------------------------
PC connection & Movies:
Now THIS is the important bit, right chaps? A PC is in my opinion the cornerstone of ANY geeks home media setup... it's what we store our movies on, all of our TV series, and all th other media we hoard like electronic dragons. It's of vital importance that a PC plays nicely with whatever display you buy, and for me it IS a deal maker or breaker. So... does it work?
Yes it works, and very very well at that. I connected it using a DVI > HDMI adapter and instantly the image was up there and staring me in the face, scaled perfectly after disabling "Overscan" in the TV menu options. In 5 seconds I was ready to go and staring at a desktop extension about 5x bigger than my PC monitor... just begging me to play stuff... and play stuff I did!
My first test was the excellent 1080p version of Star Wars Ep III (yes, they exist) and after firing it up I was literally staring at it slack-jawed like some kind of country bumpkin as I was privy to what is easily the most mind-blowing home cinema experience I have ever witnessed in my life thus far. Colours were reproduced with mind-boggling clarity against the inky backdrop of space, requiring a black-level which the Panny handles without kipping a beat, and the image is razor sharp. Motion is handled with CRT-like finesse with no sign of blurring or smearing during intensive scenes, and watching the opening dogfight with the droid army really is something that has to be seen to be appreciated! All in all the picture and overall impression was mouth-watering. I fired up my 1080p versions of LOTS and despite being of lower quality even those were fantastic... the detail in the dark scenes is astounding, and the whole experience is nothing short of epic. Even non-HD DVD rips look fantastic on a screen this size, and this TV really is the perfect companion for any PC-related usage, it's like having your own private cinema screen. I forsee a couple of BIG movie sessions coming up over the next few weeks.
PC connectivity: 9/10
-------------------------------------------------
Sound:
Sound is... ok. I'm not a big fan of TV speakers at the best of times and at home have a Pioneer VXSLX70 reciever and Quad Lite 5.1's, but as they are in the Uk and I am in Switzerland I have no choice but to use the TV "as is". Well... it's ok, not great, but certainly not bad for your average TV especially compared to the likes of Samsung. It has what's called a "V-surround" option and a couple of other things that TV manufacturers include to run the futile task of making you think like you're getting something other than 2.1 sound from a pair of stereo speakers but hey... at least the bass is decent and it doesn't harm my cinema viewing too much, which is about the biggest compliment I can give it.
Sound: 7.5/10
-------------------------------------------------
Gaming:
Yeah I know that for the first 200 hours I need to be a bit "careful" (even though Panny are known for being highly resistant to IR) but there's no harm in a bif of testing (whistles innocently), so I dutifully fired up a game (COD4) and sat there grinning stupidly as I stared at the perfect 1080p playback of my favourite FPS. The picture made my awesome NEC 20GX2 look like the monitorial (I made that word up, but it works) equivalent of a 2" penis... and with 4x AA on ran like a dram on my 1GB HD 4870. Panning and running around revealed the clear motion advantage that plasmas enjoy over their large LCD TV brethren, and no input lag was noticeable while I was popping off shots at the evil American scum. Oh sorry, I meant Taliban obviously.
Next on my list to try is Race Driver Grid (once I find the DVD) as that is blatantly going to be the most fap-worth experience I can imagine. Watch this space for an update on other games as I pay them... but the initial impression was supremely positive, and this screen begs to be gamed on. I of course experienced no IR in the brief time I played, and to be honest cant't imagine getting it unless I sat there with it on pause for 8 hours, it's really nothing to worry about imo. Whether it be PC or console, gaming on this TV will be nothing short of sublime... just exercise a bit of aution in the first 200 hours or so just to be safe.
Gaming: 9/10
-------------------------------------------------
Conclusion:
So yeah... I think you may have gathered that I am somewhat impressed by this TV. What's important to remember is that I am pretty objective as far as things go, and will never enthuse over anythng that I don't deem worth enthusing over, and would have been crushingly dissappinted if this TV had been anything other than fantastic. I'm happy to report that despite I do not regret for a second purchasing it, the 50" size is ideal and i'm SO glad I didn't get the 42" or 46" instead. To anyone worried about size or that the missus is going to moan about it "being too big" without actually giving it a chance, I say man up and take control, because in a short space of time she will be saying how glad she is that you didn't get anything smaller, trust me.
SD quality is fair to good, and HD quality is exceptional, and for the money I don't think anything can touch it. This is of course aided by the fantastic black levels second only to ther Kuro, and the good colour reproduction after tweaking, which really brings films to life, giving them a real sense of clarity and depth. The sound, while to my ears nothing special, is no worse than on other TV's i've heard, so certainly nothing to get upset about.
Compared to the Samsung B650 I think this TV has a lot going for it if not in looks, then in terms of picture quality and reliability, which are key. After viewing the Panasonic V10 I really don't think it's worth paying £600+ extra just for the THX mode... it was good, but not that much better than the G10 considering the price difference, and I don't think in regular viewing you'd notice anything to be honest.
Overall, I think that despite some incredibly minor, almost petty shortcomings, that this TV with all its strengths represents the best value for money at the moment. For not much over a grand you are getting a 50" monster that will form the most crucial element of your home AV setup for some time to come, able to play whatever you throw at it and make it look like eye-sex. If you're in the market for a new TV without breaking the bank, and have the sense to realise that a good plasma blows everythng else out of the water, then I recommend you get a Panasonic G10 as soon as humanly possible, you won't regret it.
Overall: 9/10
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