Like everyone else interested in making the big screen purchase, I spent hours every night reading reviews, shopping around, comparing specs and prices, and trying to decide whether I should go lcd or plasma. Ultimately, I ended up just going to the local BB and seeing which one looked and felt right to me. I purchased this beautiful 55in plasma and I couldn't be happier about it. I've had it for over two weeks now and I don't have a single complaint. The picture is great and the sound is just fine for my living space(apartment). The 2D-3D conversion is alright but you should not expect much from any television's conversion. The 3D Blu-Ray is a different story - The Ultimate Wave Tahiti is AMAZING (I had to watch it twice because I didn't follow a word because I was so blown away by the picture) and Resident Evil Afterlife was fun to watch (the 3D at least).
I realized that all the hours I spent reading super detailed reviews was somewhat a waste of time because when it comes down to it, I don't really care about or even notice the subtle differences that so many people compare. I just wanted a solid tv with great picture at an affordable price and this was it.
The setup was beyond easy. The remote and on-screen menus are very user-friendly.
The widgets all work just fine. Watching youtube videos on a 55in can be entertaining.
My roommate and I are traveling surfers and licensed skydivers so we have plenty of GoPro HD videos that we watch on this tv using the SD card slot(we also watch them through the youtube widget)and they look phenomenal.
BOTTOM LINE: If you want a solid big screen with great picture at the right price then this is it. Highly recommend. If you have any questions then just leave a comment. Panasonic VIERA TC-P55ST30 55-Inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV
Let me start off by saying I am a pretty critical viewer. In the last month I have demoed, previewed and tested the following models almost to the point where my wife was thinking I was a little crazy.
1. pn50c7000 - Black levels were not anywhere close to what I would expect for a current Plasma but very clean image with accurate colors. This TV buzzed quite a bit as well
2. p50gt25 - This TV buzzed, had great black levels which apparently rise over the life of the panel. Good colors but had a ton of noise in any HD format that was compressed such as cable or satellite. The noise filter on this set to me, appeared to be inferior to the Samsung.
I had ordered the pn51d7000 (2011 model) thinking it would have great black levels and the clear picture only to find that it's black levels are being measured higher than last years pn50c7000.
So, needless to say, I was getting very frustrated. I could not find a set that met my needs. I recently acquired the p55st30 and the minute I turned it on I was amazed. The image noise was completely gone, the black levels were deep and revealing, it did not buzz and had great color saturation and had the POP you would normally associate with an HD signal.
My wife who is just a normal TV watcher commented about the clarity of this panel. "It is almost like looking through a window," "It is like the actor is here in the room with us"
I also game a lot and I have not noticed ANY image retention whatsoever, smooth motion, 0 lag. The other two models I tested above had obvious bouts with image retention which is to be expected on a new plasma. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the st30 handled that.
The internet features work great (not something I would be using a lot) So far I have not found one thing to not like about this TV. The image quality is vastly superior to the other two TVs I returned. I don't see how anyone could go wrong with the st30. I am extremely picky about image quality and this TV has surpassed my expectations. GO GET THIS TV. The fact I have taken the time to write this review goes a long way to show how impressed I am with the st30.
I also wanted to thank Amazon for being so understanding though my ordering and return process. They are THE BEST ONLINE retailer I have ever worked with. After selling and ordering thousands of dollars of items via Amazon, and not having a single complaint, it goes without saying how great Amazon is a a company.
As with most guys buying a new expensive electronic toy I did weeks worth of research on TV's. My previous TV was a 2007 Samsung plasma (720p) and I really loved it for the time that I had it but I was intrigued by the new LED line of TV's. Before doing research I thought that this was the future and that plasmas were going to be phased out but I soon found out this is not the case. In fact LED TV's are no more than LCD TV's with LED backlighting while true LED's (OLED) being thousands of dollars for 42" models and scarce availability.
Regardless I went out and bought what I felt was a bargain, a 60" Sharp Aquos Quattron 60LE832U from BJ's for $1,799. It was thin, had wireless connectivity built in, 60", and cheap for what you got. The picture was good but I soon noticed a lot of artifacts in the picture. The color from the factory was overly bright and oversaturated. I am usually one who likes a slightly less realistic picture in favor of slightly more saturated and vivid images too but this was over the top. No matter what I could not get the picture quality right and there were definitely motion issues even with the claimed 240Hz aquamotion. Turns out it isn't truly 240Hz and it suffers from the same motion issues that all LCD's are plagued with. Frustrated I looked over to the plasma side but was apprehensive because in the store plasmas always look horrible. Their pictures are dull and over-brightened to where the blacks look gray and they are always next to shiny LED/LCD's that look so good. I had enough in my account to grab a second TV thankfully to see what it looked like next to the Sharp and figured I would take back the one that looked worse. In this case I was losing 5" in picture and was worried that the ambient light in my living room would drown out the plasma picture because this had always been a problem with plasma.
The second I hooked up this TV I was blown away! The color even out of the box was breathtaking and the blacks were spot on. There was a golf tournament on and I felt like I was there looking through a window. The Sharp had good resolution but it felt fake since the picture was so bright (even when turned down) and the motion unrealistic. I immediately packed up the Sharp and took it back. I am telling you if you are thinking of LED/LCD don't do it, plasma is where it's at and you cannot beat the picture on this TV for the price, it is unbelievable!!! LED/LCD just hasn't been perfected enough which is why there are so many different types such as edge-lit, full array, etc.
I do want to mention for those of you looking to get this TV that I highly recommend you break the TV in for the first 100 hours by not displaying any static images such as logos or game HUD's. I also recommend running the slides that can be found here:[...] for the first 100 hours of the TV to age the phosphors in the TV evenly. The best way to do this is to put these slides on an SD card and run them through media player making sure to run the slideshow on loop mode and continuously. This allows each pixel to age at the exact same rate so that after the 100 hours each pixel has the same color saturation. Early on phosphors are soft and get hotter than normal, making them more susceptible to burn in and image retention but as they age they harden and their colors become more normalized. After this time burn in is less of an issue and your TV will calibrate much better as each pixel has a normalized color to the one next to it. The best settings for the TV can be found here: [...]Issues-Thread but must not be used until AFTER the 100 hour break in time! Remember not to use vivid mode for the first 100 hours either as this can increase chance of image retention although on newer TV's it isn't as much of an issue anymore.
Now on to the actual review:
Pros:
1) Picture quality - Absolutely stunning, the picture is as realistic as it comes with good saturation and the brightness is perfect. I have put this TV next to everything out there include the GT30 and VT30 and there is absolutely no different from what my eyes can see. All you get is THX mode and 1 HDMI and USB port on the other models and anyone who tells you the PQ is better on those is just being overly critical and properly a complete calibration nut because I just can't see it nor can most people.
2) Black levels - Any deeper of a black and it would look fake, even when the brightness is turned up they stay completely black, it isn't not a stupid balancing act like it is with LED/LCD where you have to tradeoff black levels for other things like brightness.
3) Internet apps/connectivity/networking - Comes with a wireless dongle to allow connection to your network and it is much more useful than I thought. DLNA works 1000x better than the Sharp which was clunky, slow, and didn't play all media types. The ST30 even previews your video files on your network as you are scrolling through them, it is a very cool feature and is very responsive. The apps are great too with pretty much everything you would be looking for such as Pandora and Youtube.
4) Price - As I mentioned before you cannot beat this PQ for the price. $1499 at most places and it can even be found a tad cheaper. The Vizio 4SV 55" model is almost $2000 and is large, ugly, and has a myriad of problems such as randomly turning off. This is a documented problem that you can search for and Vizio is apprehensive to fix it for anyone.
5) 3D - I'll admit I wasn't really big on this and the Sharp I bought didn't even have it because I could care less about it but this one did (and was cheaper, go figure). I am really glad now that it does have it as the 3D is simply breathtaking and there is little to no crosstalk at all! All the other makers (except maybe Sony) had a lot of crosstalk, especially Samsung. The Sony I viewed had great 3D but it was also running on a demo in the store hooked to a bluray which is a bit deceiving compared to watching it on DirecTV or something. Also be aware that Vizio TV's are not listed (right now) as a supported 3DTV with DirecTV!
Cons:
1) Only con I can think of is that the 60" model is almost $600 more, which is a bit ridiculous. I was hoping it was more like $300 more as I probably would have jumped on it if so.
2) Nothing else, this TV absolutely rocks!
Bottom line:
If you are on the fence with which TV to get or you are debating plasma vs. LED/LCD please take this review seriously and try the plasma, I am almost going to guarantee that for this price that you are going to like it more. The new Samsung 55" LED/LCD is $2650, while this amazing 2011 plasma is $1499, no need to spend $1200 more! - 3d - Deal - High Definition - 240hz'
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