Monday, April 19, 2010

TV Review: LG 50PS80 50-Inch 1080p Plasma Broadband HDTV

LG 50PS80 50-Inch 1080p Plasma Broadband HDTV

Manufacturer: LG
Customer Rating:
List Price: $1,699.95
Sale Price: $1,159.00
Availibility: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Description
Additional Details
Customer Reviews

THX Display Certification delivers exceptional video images and true sounds
600Hz sub-field driving refresh rate technology for realistic movement in sports and movie actions
1080p Full HD resolution 1920 x 1080p with 3x HDMI v 1.3 digital inputs with swivel stand
Mega contrast ratio of 2 million to 1 provides sharper image quality

Great TV for the Price

Review Date: January 7, 2010

Reviewer: MRB, East Hartford, CT USA

I purchased this TV during the pre-christmas sales in early November 2009 for a great price ($899). I was originally going to the store to purchase the Panasonic P50G15. However, the Sales Associate convinced me to buy the LG - it was the best TV for the price (the P50G15 was $1199 which included a blu ray player vs. $899 for the 50PS80). With Pioneer out of the market the Panasonic Plasma's are considered the best picture quality available. However, comparing the LG P580 vs. the Panasonic G15 is comparing LG's top of the line model against a high end Panny, but not their best (V10 series). The following features gave the LG a slight edge for the price:

1. The LG PS80 utilizes a single pane of glass (The Panasonic G15 is two panes... the Panasonic V10 is also one pane). This reduces the glare in a bright room. My set is in a room with a huge Bay window. The glare is not that noticible. On particulary bright days I close the blinds. I also have a big ceiling light that hangs down directly behind the viewer. If the light is on the fullest setting, you know its there... but if you dim the light you don't notice it. Another trick I learned is to swivel the tv so you aren't perpindicular to the screen. THe light behind the screen no longer is reflected back at the viewer. With the plasma the viewing angle is superb... so with a slight viewing angle the picture is perfect and there is no glare.

2. The tv stand swivels. If you are buying a wall mount or a entertainment center that has a mount that swivels this doesn't matter. However, if you are just putting the tv with its default stand on an entertainment center the swivels is very useful. Especially for when I use a nintendo wii.... I can turn the screen so its facing away from my coffee table and I can play active games on the wii. As mentioned above... sometimes I swivel the set slightly to eliminate any glare from behind the viewer.

3. The LG PS80 supports 24P Cinematic Playback. I'm not 100% educated in this feature... theoretically this means that vidoes filmed at 24 frames per second will play smoother on the LG PS80 than sets that don't have 24P capable (I don't believe the P50G15 does, though the V10 definitely does). The CNET reviews say that the LG software isn't as consistent as the top-of-the-line competitors (like the Panasonic V10), but thusfar every movie i have watched looks amazing... and is smooth without any noticible artifacts / ghosting / etc.

4. The I/O ports are slightly different... there is 1 more HDMI on the LG. There is not an S-Video on the LG. Though with all of the HDMI and Component Video options I have no need to ever use S-Video... I would rather have the 4 HDMI's. The I/0 on the side of the set is also very useful.

The reviews from sites like CNET knock the picture quality of the PS80 because of the black levels. My father owns the last generation of the Pioneer Elite Kuro's, which are known to have some of the best black levels ever... and I can honestly say that once you calibrate the picture settings on the LG... the Picture Quality (PQ) is stunning... and comparible to the older Pioneer. The black levels of the LG are significantly better than most if not all of the LCD's on the market... my friend brought one of the top of the line Samsung LCD's during Christmas 2008 ($2000 vs. $899) and this LG blows the picture quality away.

The bells and whistles that the NetCast provides are pretty cool, though not necessary. The NetFlix feature is great and very convenient (G15 has ethernet but not Netflix). One push of the button on the remote brings you to the NetFlix menu... you scroll through your movies... and make a selection. Works great... with pretty good picture quality (supposedly its 720P). If you have an XBOX 360 (like I do) or other NetFlix enabled devices this isn't necessary in the TV... however it is convenient to have it in one push of the button... saves time. The Yahoo widgets I find fairly useless. I do use the Weather one frequently... which is pretty cool. Its useful to know the temperature forcast and whether or not you will have a storm... though its frustrating that you can't tell how much snow you will get (i.e. 4" to 6" of snow). The sports scores are pretty useful as well... but easier to do on a laptop... and I notice that some of them don't update too often.

One knock on the LG PS80 is that I have notice some level of temporary image retention (i.e. burn-in) especially during the first few weeks of using it (break-in period). Menu systems (especially ones like selecting a movie with the VUDU widget) would leave a light images on the screen of the menu when the screen displays something dark or goes black. However, with a little bit of time they always go away. The tv also has "ISM" methods that you can use to "wash" the screen... completely removing the retention in a few seconds. Now that my tv is "broken-in" it rarely happens anymore. I have used my XBOX 360 and Nintendo Wii a lot and have had no issues.

If you have a 50" tv you most likely have a receiver with surround sound... so speaker quality probably won't matter too much to most people. However, it should be pointed out that the sound quality of the LG 50PS80 speakers is suprisingly good. Great depth of sound... good amplification... and the sound is sharp and clear. It also has an optional "ClearVoice" mode which amplifies the sound of human voices so you can pick them out better from the sound effects / background noise. I played with this setting... thought it was neat... but leave it turned off. If you are hard of hearing it may be beneficial.

This review is getting long winded... so I won't write much more. The big thing I would recommend is calibrating the picture settings... this is true of any TV you buy. The default settings (Vivid Mode) look like crap at home. The tv has a simple calibration mode built into the menu system... this will get you started. Take time to learn how to set the ISF Expert modes. I bought a calibration disk which worked pretty well. Another option is to try the settings recommended by CNET. I started with those... and the difference in picture quality is night & day. Every tv will vary slightly so their recommended settings won't give you a perfect calibration... but its a great starting point. I've provided the CNET recommendations below:

Picture menu:
Aspect ratio: Just Size
Energy Saving: Off
Picture Mode: Expert 2
Contrast: 77
Brightness: 52
H Sharpness: 50
V Sharpness: 50
Color: 50
Tint: 0

--Expert control menu
Dynamic contrast: Off
Noise reduction: Off
Gamma: High
Black level: Low
Film Mode: On
Color Standard: HD [grayed out]
Color Gamut: Standard
Edge Enhancer: Off
xvYCC: Auto [grayed out]
Expert Pattern: Off [grayed out]
Color Filter: Off

White balance: Warm
Method: 2 Points [see review for details]
Pattern: Outer
Red Contrast: -21
Green Contrast: 2
Blue Contrast: 0
Red Brightness: -16
Green Brightness: -12
Blue Brightness: 15

Color management system
Red color: 0
Red tint: -9
Green color: -7
Green tint: -6
Blue color: 0
Blue tint: 0
Yellow color: -11
Yellow tint: 13
Cyan color: -15
Cyan tint: 4
Magenta color: -1
Magenta tint: 0

Great Plasma buy

Review Date: March 28, 2010

Reviewer: Andres Dehais, Buford, GA

I was looking for a top of the line plasma tv formay leaving roomand after looking for more that 3 monthsI had two finalists; the panasonic Viera p15 and this LG. Althought they were virtualy the same in everything. But there was one final deal breaker... the design. This one flat front glass screen did it for me. It makes this TV look sleek and sophisticate. I am very please the way it looks mounted over my fire place. A great buy.

Wonderful TV

Review Date: April 11, 2010

Reviewer: D. Spradling, MO, USA

This TV is everything it says it is. It's a perfect television for the tech guys like me who want to share their PC media on their home entertainment system. Great buy!

Great New TV For The Price

Review Date: November 1, 2009

Reviewer: David Pitts, washington, dc United States

I've had the LG 50PS80 for three days now. I really like the TV and believe it is well worth the price. In addition to a great design and noticeably good picture, this HDTV features NETCAST, which you can access with a high speed internet connection. This gives you entree to Netflix movies (with a subscription), and also the VUDU movie service -- without the need to buy and attach the boxes for those two services. Netflix in particular is a bargain because for less than $10 a month, you can stream all the movies you want from their instant queue (which has about 10,000). In addition, Netcast features Yahoo Widgets for quick access to weather and headline news. And there is also a feature for showing photographs and playing your music on the television.

The Netcast feature on the television also gives you access to YouTube, which was a big selling point for me. Unfortunately, YouTube on this TV is not nearly as flexible as YouTube on a computer. You cannot create playlists nor can you play a continuous loop of videos. Instead, you have to interact with the remote control to access each video from a list of favorites. Perhaps this will be rectified with a software update at a later time. In addition, there were a few glitches with the YouTube feature. If I scrolled through a list of videos too fast, it had a tendency to disconnect and return to the broadcast picture. This seems to have lessened over time. The television has all the usual inputs that you would expect from a high-end LG set, including 4 HDMI inputs. However, it has only one antenna input and it does not have a slot for a cable card. I'm not sure how many competing televisions have this shortcoming.

The sound system is very good on the television although likely not as good as that in the far more expensive Mitsubishi UNISEN sets. Still, I doubt that many people would be unhappy with the sound that emanates from this HDTV, among the best you can receive without attaching a home theater system. And the picture on some movies -- even some that were not in HD -- was out of this world. It provides a real cinematic experience. All in all the LG 50PS80 is a bargain for the price in my view.

NetCast is cool but too expensive

Review Date: September 24, 2009

Reviewer: Amazoned, California

I was debating to get this model with NetCast, or model 50PS60 without NetCast. 50PS60 has a lot of strong reviews for its value and I was set on it over other brands. Because I have two kids that always wanted to watch some kids videos on YouTube, I figure I'll get this higher end model and try out the NetCast feature.

I won't review the stuff that is pretty much the same as 50PS60. Let just say I'm happy with the picture and the look. Sound is better than most similar flat panels. I do like the speakers hidden but still end it up getting a Bose Cinemate for my small entertainment room.

Because built-in access to YouTube is what I was looking forward to primarily, I tried that first. Typing in search phrase via on-screen keyboard is slow and as inconvenient as with PS3, Wii, XBox, et. al. without a keyboard. But you can sign-in to your YouTube account, and it will allow you to choose from your favorites. That's better as I can pre-add the videos that my boys want to watch repeatedly. Unfortunately, it doesn't support playlist yet so I can't have too many videos in my favorites or scrolling will be equally painful to typing. Others such as playing popular videos were not interested to me. Streaming is reasonable with my DSL. Most of time there is initial delay after playing for few seconds but never after. On few bad nights where probably my DSL isn't as fast the videos would repeatedly halt while loading/buffering.

Netflix is great option as well, as you can sign-up on the web. I haven't view my first movie yet, but it appears I have to select few movies from the web and put them in "instant queue" so that the TV can pickup and play. Streamable titles on Netflix website seemed to be very limited to some OLD movies!! Didn't see any new ones ... Certainly great for watching some TV series such as Heros or Boston Legal...

There is another instant HD movie streaming service call Vudu. You can either rent or own movies. Menu choices are all in HD, but rental/purchase both have different prices for SD or HD versions. Very nice user interface on screen menu choices, as oppose to Netflix that have pretty much none.

Yahoo Widget has customizable weather forecast by location, finance, news, video, and flickr if you use for pictures. Not much third party widgets yet. There is Twitter that is note worthy. If you are die hard Yahoo user and wouldn't mind see the snippets on a bar on the bottom of your TV screen, then it can be of real value to you.

As for playing personal media, you can play from USB storage device or over the network via shared folder on Windows. I hook up an external USB hard drive full of videos, music, and pictures. The TV can play them and combine music and picture. It certainly can play more video formats than PlayStation 3... Also it will let you navigate folders, which is much better than PS3 that can't go two levels deep. It's network supports Common Internet File System so you can share folders. But it won't recognize media servers that PS3 use including TVersity, etc.

All in all, NetCast is nice feature if you don't have more room for another media player (like Roku), a BD player with Netflix, game consoles, or computer hooked up. If you have room, then it may be worthwhile to buy the 50PS60 and spend the $300 - $350 on a PS3 or XBox or $100 on a Roku player. For me, it's worth it if the price difference for this feature is only $100 extra, unless you have kids that hog your computer all the time for YouTubing...