Panasonic VIERA TX-P50VT65B review

IMAGE QUALITY

Panasonic’s plasma TVs are renowned for their image quality, and the VT65 is fantastic. It appears to use the same panel as the ZT65, only with a different screen coating that means the VT65 can’t quite match the ZT65 for deep blacks, but in our eyes there’s such a minor difference between the two that it will only matter to the most eagle-eyed film fans.

Throughout our testing, dark scenes had a gorgeous amount of depth and detail, making some of Star Trek’s space battles look fantastic in a dark room. It’s not quite at the same level as the ZT65, but it comes incredibly close.

Colour accuracy is also superb, even before you enable the professional-grade ISF calibration settings from the menu. There’s a small amount of room for improvement out of the box, but it’s very minor and you would need to pay a professional installer to improve the white balance, gamma and colour management significantly.

Even standard definition TV managed to impress thanks to excellent image processing, although it still can’t rescue the lowest bit rate Freeview channels such as Dave or BBC News; these still suffer from compression artefacts. Multi-strength frame creation smoothes playback, and you can choose between slightly smoother TV and soap opera-style video. The standard brightness, contrast, sharpness and colour sliders, choice of colour temperatures and colour gamut modes are all present and correct.

We could still spot some dithering onscreen, which is an unavoidable side effect of plasma technology, but from the average viewing distance it’s unlikely to prove distracting.

As for 3D playback, Panasonic’s active shutter glasses did a great job producing convincing depth effects in Avatar and there was little crosstalk. The screen is more than bright enough when using the THX 3D setting, but you’ll get the best results with the curtains drawn. Two pairs of active shutter glasses are included in the box but you can buy more (TY-ER3D4ME, £44 from John Lewis) if you need more for family viewing.

CONCLUSION

If you’re shopping for a specific screen size then Panasonic hasn’t given you any choice, with the ZT and VT ranges sold at different sizes; but if any of the VT sizes suit you then it provides far better value for money. The Panasonic Viera TX-P50VT65B might not have all the online features of its rivals, but picture quality is outstanding for films and games.