What Hi Fi Sound and Vision
23 JUL 2008
Panasonic TH-50PZ81B
Make no mistake this is a top-notch TV in its own right, but the inclusion of the Freesat HD tuner is the all-important icing on this cake
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Panasonic has stolen a march on its rivals in the last few months by becoming the first and – at the time of writing – only manufacturer to bring TVs with integrated Freesat HD tuners to market.
The inclusion of this tuner means you just need to pay a one-off installation fee for a satellite dish – or simply hook this set up to your existing Sky dish – and you can receive free-to-air HD broadcasts from the BBC and ITV, with more to come.
This plasma screen looks to build on the success of the ‘700 series that we looked at back in February of this year. Panasonic is on its 11th generation of plasma now and has boosted its claimed contrast ratio to 30,000:1. It’s a 1080p, Full HD resolution panel and sports three HDMI inputs with one tucked on to the front of the unit and 100 Hz picture processing, and there’s a memory card slot, too.
One thing the TH-50PZ81 gives away to other models in the range is audio quality. The speakers here are less powerful and simply sound much more like your bog-standard TV than those in the more impressive siblings from Panasonic.
An impressive Freesat HD tuner
Nevertheless, once we’ve built the plinth stand – no swivel here – and admired the uniform, gloss black finish, it’s down to business with some TV watching. First, that Freesat HD tuner, and as with the 42in model we’re impressed with what we see.
The standard definition pictures are solid, stable and punchy, and when we switch to BBC HD – connecting via our Sky dish – the content looks every bit the real deal, high definition experience. Oh, and there are decent digital Freeview and analogue tuners on board, too.
Switch to 1080p/24fps video with the Blu-ray Disc of Ghost Rider and this TV shows off some seriously dynamic, colourful, punchy images. Black levels, as we would hope from a competent plasma TV, are impressive too.
It may lack the out and out sharpness of the best in its class, but in isolation this remains a strong performer. It’s a similar story with DVD, solid contrast levels allowing for a vibrant, rich but not over-cooked picture with smooth motion.
Given the strength of the competition we're not sure we’d choose the Panasonic on video performance alone, highly adept though it is. But the inclusion of that integrated Freesat HD tuner makes for a wholly different product, its unique facilities helping ensure five stars.