Panasonic TC-P65VT50 user reviews

Pros Awesome Picture

Cons Completely dead after 7 days
Lack of available parts for repair

Summary Looked hard and long to replace my 50" Sony which worked flawlessly for 9 years, but it was time for an upgrade. After all the reviews and visits to stores for comparisons, the salespeople at Pauls TV, who were extremly knowlegable, convinced me that Plasma was the way to go for the best picture, I then decided that I might as well go for the best and seeing this Panasonic in the store just blew away everything else. The TV arrived just in time for the NFL divisional playoff games and it was awesome. watching regular TV the rest of the week was also great and we were extrremly pleased with our purchase. Looking foward to the NFl games, we invited people over to see our new TV, everyone was impressed until... two plays into the AFC championship game POOF! the TV went black and makes this clicking noise like its trying to on and off. Nothing worked to get it back on, called Pauls TV, they said to call Panasonic, earliest appointment is Friday!!!! If that wasn't bad enough, Fridays appointment is delayed due to lack of parts. My rating may drop lower soon.

Pros Amazing almost scary accurate color and picture reproduction! The picture quality on this TV is Face Melting and you need to experience it for yourself. Don't let the LED fanboys say otherwise, they are just mad because their LED is inferior.

Cons This TV is basically perfect. Since it the superior technology (Plasma) it doesn't have the horrible banding and screen uniformity issues of a LED. the VT50 has perfect uniformity. 3D is just as good if not better than Samsung's 3D sets.

Summary The VT50 is truly something special. Finally a TV that can put up a fight with the Legendary Pioneer Kuro! They are so close you would have to have a professional trained eye to tell them apart. The kuro has slightly better blacks but the VT50 has better color accuracy, so to me its a wash. By far better than any Edge lit LED by millions of miles and also trumps any full array LED as well. when they say its the best TV on the market they mean it! this set will not disappoint!

-Cheers!

Pros Nice 2D image

Cons 3D images have major crosstalk issues!
No warranty support!

Summary I can't believe CNET rates this TV so high. Remember Motor Trend calling the 1976 Plymouth Volare the car of the year? Both are duds.

It took 2 months of calling Panasonic and finally getting outside help before I could even get them to try to fix the TV. They replaced the mainboard and bluetooth module, and it still has 3D crosstalk issues. They now say this is acceptable on their top of the line TV.

Bottom line, DON'T BUY IT! You will be disappointed.

Updated on Sep 19, 2012

As the CNET review correctly points out, changing to 48Hz mode does reduce the crosstalk, while introducing flicker. You still need to make sure you view real content (not demo content) and know what to expect from this (or any other) 3D TV before buying. The flicker trade-off may be as intolerable as the crosstalk.