S. Olson

Review by S. Olson for Panasonic TC 50PS14 – 49.9″ VIERA plasma TV – widescreen – 1080p (FullHD) – HDTV
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Recently picked up a 50S14 from Best Buy, at the time I was under the impression it was the same as a S1 but with a VGA input (no speaker input though so what’s the point of the VGA?). This apparently was not the case as this S14 is actually a slight downgrade from the S1. Panasonic specs claim the 50S14 does not have the Neo Panel and the accompanying extra 1,000 or so shades of degradation and does not have a Game Mode (which is supposed to brighten up the screen and eliminate any lag- lag is not an issue to begin with and you can probably brighten up the screen yourself). The other difference which may be a big deal for some is that the 50S14 claims to only have 900 or more lines of moving resolution while the S1 and better models are capable of the full 1080 lines of moving resolution. This may not be a big deal as most people probably couldn’t tell the difference anyways. In all, the specs on this tv would have made it pretty darn spiffy back in ’08 but by 2010 standards it’s getting obsolete. If you are willing to spend a little more locally or take the chance of ordering a tv online you can definitely get a better set for a similar or lesser price. If I would have known all this at the time I probably would have just settled on a 42S1 for the Neo panel, 1080 lines of moving resolution and game mode but I do really love having a 50″ set from a local store with a very good return policy.

As for gaming, plasma beats LCD any day of the week. I have owned a few LCD’s lately (all were returned) ranging from the ho-hum 60hz 8ms to 120hz 6ms and both had about a half second lag that I never even noticed until I gamed on the plasma with 600hz .0001 ms. It was like night and day. I swear the plasma knows what button I’m going to hit before I hit it, it is that responsive (perhaps LCD with lower ms would help here). I have not seen any motion blur or pixelation with the plasma, things I commonly saw on both the 60 and 120hz LCDs (again, LCd with lower ms would help here for the pixelation).

My main gripe about all plasmas in general is that they are much dimmer than any LCD (apparently LCDs are unnaturally bright, but for sports I think this gives it a superior picture quality, I love those crips, white uniforms and an overly sharp image)

In all, I do love my new plasma even if its not the best thing out there. If you can find a deal on one of these S14′s I recommend it but make sure to shop around a little bit first, many places are dealing on their 2009 plasma models right now since the 2010 models are coming out.

  Who Cares?

Review by Who Cares? for Panasonic TC 50PS14 – 49.9″ VIERA plasma TV – widescreen – 1080p (FullHD) – HDTV
Rating:
I got this recently from Best Buy after much research and I must say that it is spectacular. I went from a 42in Sony LCD Bravia to this and the difference is night and day. Blu-Ray’s are clearer, PS3 games are much better and the overall quality of the images produced through this television are clearer, crisper and ore colorful on a Plasma. Since Plasma’s are considered ‘old’ technology, I figured I’d take a chance. What a difference. I’m running the sound through my Denon AVR-790 with all HDMI from my DirecTv tuner, PS3 and Blu-Ray players. The only thing that we’re using the actual speakers of the TV are for the Wii. I could care less weather the sound quality is that great considering that I’m not being a cheap a$$ and am running my sound through a good receiver and speakers (5.1). Anyway, it’s a sexy set, produces great picture and I’m in no way disappointed with my purchase. It’s plasma’s from her on out for me! I’d recommend this to anyone. Panasonic is not even in the LCD market so you know that all their focus is on Plasma’s now which makes this an even better brand than Samsung or other brands who focus their R&D on both technologies.