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

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

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).

TV is perfect thus far. it took me 2 years to finally buy one and im glad i waited to get this one.

The picture quality is just jaw dropping. The blacks are awesome and even the explosions show texture in the bright yellow/orange hue. SD looks great too. Since these Plasmas were under R&D well before 1999 at their Osaka factory (which I visited) I think by now the design is well improved and stable.
I was torn between Samsung and Panasonic so I HAVE to compare them here. Samsung plasmas eat the dust because of the reflection issue which I seriously think Panasonic has taken care of in this model. The Samsung Plasma AND LCDs have that glossy "new product" lacquer finish - but what good is a TV if you get distracted by the reflections off its screen??. I find it inexcusable that Samsung product designers let it happen in all their products. Compare with the thin bezel Samsungs the Panasonics looks larger and more majestic. You can't go wrong with this one.

What can I say that others haven't already? I owned this tv for 5 days now and I am absolutely floored! I held off of buying a flat panel tv for over a year because I thought I needed to spend $2500-$3500. I finally broke down after finally accepting that I couldn't spend that much, and settled on the TH-50pz80u. I thought I might be disappointed by not buying the TH-50pz800u. Boy was I wrong! If (that's a big if), the TH-50pz800u looks better than this TH-50pz80u, then so be it because I am totally satisfied. I just want to tell everyone out there that this tv looks 10X better at home than I ever saw in any retail display. Once I plugged in my Comcast HD-DVR and the Panasonic DMP-BD30 Blu-Ray disc player I realized that despite how good all those displays looked in all of those stores, they paled in comparison to a clean, dedicated signal. This tv is perfect...I love it and I believe that you will too.