Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic TH-50PX75U 50-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

Excellent TV with superior picture quality and modern design. Good value relative to comparable brands. The only downside is that AV inputs can be difficult to reach on the back (no front or side AV input). This can be mitigated by installing a couple of idle AV cables before hanging on a wall or by connecting to other AV equipment with extra inputs that are easy to access.

I have had this TV for over a month now and I love it. It replaced a dead Mitsubishi 52" DLP that was only 2.5 years old that cost twice as much. After my last mistake, I did much research before buying.

What I found in all my reading is simply this.
1. Unless you just have to keep up with the Jones, all you really need is 720P. Use your money to go bigger. Blueray is the only source that truly takes advantage of 1080P. Add in the cost of the moves, it is not worth it.
2. No matter what make and model you read about, someone, somewhere has written a bad review of it. You will go crazy looking for a TV that everyone agrees is a good buy.

With that said; I finally came to my senses and went to Consumer Reports.com for good advice. The Panasonic TH-50PX75U received the CR Best Buy award. I've had good luck with other Panasonic products so the answer was clear.

I couldn't be happier with the decision. The picture is absolutely beautiful even if watching non-HD programming. The sound is excellent. Most importantly the price was very easy on the wallet. Throw in no taxes and free shipping, what a deal! Oh, but wait, with the 30 day price guarantee, I saved even more.

Stop thinking about it and just do it. This is the best TV on the market for the price.

First of all, for anyone who owns a 2004 Prius, this baby will fit in the back just fine. I had researched the box size online before I bought, and researched the cargo space dimensions of my wife's Prius. When I saw the box at the store, my faith in my research wavered. My wife and the guy helping use were very skeptical. The box slipped right into the cargo bay, and the rear hatch closed with no trouble at all. Math and research trump gut feelings.

Getting the box into the house and installing was a snap. My son installed the pylons on the mounting base, and he got them backwards. It is possible. He's one of those who refuses to read instructions. It would be handy if Panasonic designed the mounts to prevent reverse installation, but in reality, I cannot blame Panasonic. Once my son installed the pylons correctly, the panel mounted on the base perfectly.

I connected the Component Video cables and a pair of plain old RCA type audio cables from my DVD. Connected the Cable TV connector to the DVD Recorder, and powered on my new TV.

I was watching poor quality cable immediately after going through initial setup of the TV. We get the most basic analog cable package. Then I popped in LOTR:Fellowship of the Rings for my first real test. My DVD is standard def, but the image was excellent, and audio was good. I'll hook up my wife's Onkyo surround sound system this weekend, then we'll be having some really good sound.

The only minor fly in the ointment is our Infrared headphones. We keep them around for my Dad who does not hear so well. The TV must be putting out some serious infrared noise. The headphones are completely useless. When I take the headphones around to the side of the TV, the sound is fine. Anywhere you can actually see the television picture, the headphones are washed out with some sort of static. It could be that the Panasonic syncs with other devices via infrared, or it could be the plasma display pumps out noise in the IR range. A quick Google will settle that in a few minutes.

So far I will give this TV a high rating. I can't fault Panasonic because I cannot use IR headphones. Looks like I head out and pick up some 900Mhz cans for my Dad.

This product is every bit as good as Pioneer, Sony or any other brand. Most impressive is the Blacks and Blues. No wonder Consumer reports rates them so high. The nice new shiny black cabinet instead of the mat finish is nice but not as nice as Pioneer but you don't watch the cabinet so who cares?

After months of research I finally settled on this Panasonic TV and I can't say that I regretted my decision for one minute since.
I ordered it directly from Amazon, and saving nearly six hundred dollars compared to the "sale" price my local "big box" stores (Best Buy and Circuit City). The order arrived at my home via Amazon's shippers (Eagle USA), and the delivery men were courteous and helpful, removing the tv from the box and taking packaging away.
Setting up the tv with HDMI cables was a snap, (tip: buy the "Cables To Go" high velocity cables from Amazon, they were a fraction of the price and the quality is superb), the instructions were clear and concise and my jaw was appropriately dropping within about twenty minutes of starting to make the connections.
The picture quality and clarity is breath taking particularly after playing with the colour settings which is by and large very easy to do, the remote is somewhat basic, but does the job and the on screen menu is easy to navigate, to make the settings your own. I didn't bother with the sound, so I can't vouch how good or otherwise it is, as I connected it to a Home theater system.
In short, for the price I paid (a little over $1400), this tv is everything I wanted and more. If it is within your budget buy a home theater system with an upconverting DVD player and surround sound, to not do so would be like buying a turbo charged car, and not bothering connecting the turbo charge, something would be missing.
I would throughly recommend this product.