Introduction

Tour & Design

Front

---

The front of the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is nearly all screen, which is what you really want to see when you look at a TV, not bunch of fancy plastic framing the screen. The parts of the bezel you do see are shiny, black plastic, and prone to picking up fingerprints. Along the bottom is a power button and an indicator light.

Back

 

---

The back of the Panasonic TC-P50G10 houses most of the ports. It's a good thing they're all collected on one side, because the TV's base does not swivel, making it difficult to reach much of the huge expanse of metal on the back. For information about the ports on the back of the Panasonic TC-P50G10 see our Connectivity section.

Sides

---

On the right side of the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is a panel with all the onboard controls: channel, volume, menu, and input. On the left side are a series of easier to reach ports: an HDMI, composite AV, PC-input, and SD/SDHC card slot.

For information about the ports on the side of the Panasonic TC-P50G10 see our Connectivity section.

Stand/Mount

---

The stand for this 50-inch TV is surprisingly small, relatively speaking. The only real fault here is that the base does not swivel, making it hard to access the ports on the back. There are a few benefits, however, that mitigate this problem. First, the rear ports are all clustered to one side, making them easier to reach. Secondly, plasma TVs have a much wider viewing angle than LCDs, which means you won't have to swivel the screen around much.

 

Controls

---

The onboard controls are channel up/down, volume up/down, input select, and menu. These, combined with the power button on the front, are pretty much all you should need if the remote goes missing temporarily.

 

Remote Control

---

The remote control for the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is okay, but not great. It's very easy to reach the channel up/down and volume controls, but things like the Menu button should be easier to find in the dark. At least it didn't squeak, like other Panasonic remotes. 

 

In The Box*(7.0)*

---

Included in the box with the Panasonic TC-P50G10 are the stand, a remote control and two batteries, an instruction manual, and a cleaning cloth. There are no HDMI or other types of video cables. 

 

Aesthetics*(7.0)*

---

The design of the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is good, in so much as the fact that you don't see much besides the screen itself. TVs that draw attention to themselves, like the red Samsung 'Touch of Color' models, are likely to look terribly dated in a few years in the same way that your matte grey PC suddenly seemed out of place when shiny, plastic laptops came into vogue. s

 

Blacks & Whites

Black Level*(9.51)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 is a plasma TV, which typically excels at producing deep black levels. But this is a very good performance even amongst its peers, managing 0.05 cd/m2. True, it's a smidgen brighter than the Panasonic TC-P50U1, but it clearly outperforms the Samsung PN50B430. The Vizio is an LCD television, which can never achieve the deep blacks of plasma TVs, due to its backlights.

That said, the TC-P50G10's black level is not always the same. Jump down to the Tunnel Contrast test below to see how poorly the TV manages to keep those black levels steady under varying conditions.

 

Peak Brightness*(2.98)*

---

Ah yes, the occasional downside of plasma TVs. Sure, we love their deep black levels, but plasma TVs frequently fall short on producing a bright white. The Panasonic TC-P50G10 produced a peak brightness of only 64.49 cd/m2. Sure, it did better than its cousin, the Panasonic TC-P50U1, but this was a bad score even for a plasma. Look at the Samsung PN50B430, which did significantly better. Then there's the Vizio SV471XVT, an LCD TV that slaughtered the competition.

 

Contrast*(6.44)*

---

The contrast ratio measures how wide the span is between a TV's deepest black and its brightest white. The number itself, however, doesn't tell you what those black points and white points are, which is why we made this handy graph below. You can see that all four TV's have roughly similar contrast ratios, but the Panasonics have a much deeper black, but not nearly the brightness of the Samsung and Vizio. The Panasonic TC-P50G10 did manage the best contrast ratio of the bunch, at 1290:1.

 

Tunnel Contrast*(9.45)*

---

The tunnel contrast test measures how evenly a TV can keep its black level, regardless of how much bright white is being produced in other parts of the screen. LCD televisions almost never have a problem with this, but plasmas are susceptible to black levels getting brighter as the amount of black space decreases on the screen. In short, it means that more black will produce better black. It's not a pleasant side effect of plasma technology, but it's one we have to live with right now.

As you can see from the graph below, as the black square decreased in size (from 90% of the screen to just 5% of the screen), it got nearly 10 times brighter. That's pretty bad. Even the similar model, the Panasonic TC-P50G10, didn't have a problem like this. However, the TV did manage to keep black level steady through most of the test, and only failed at the very end.

 

White Falloff*(9.53)*

---

The white falloff test is the opposite of the tunnel contrast test. It measures how well a TV can maintain even brightness, despite how much black is elsewhere on the screen. Unlike the tunnel contrast test, however, the Panasonic TC-P50G10 did not show any problems here. The TV appears perfectly capable of maintaining its whites.

 

Uniformity*(6.75)*

---

The uniformity describes how evenly all-black and all-white screens appear on the TV. Frequently, we'll see uneven illumination, including hotspots or shadows in the corners, or blotches on the screen. In general, we found the Panasonic TC-P50G10to have an evenly illuminated screen without any obvious problems.

 

Greyscale Gamma*(7.99)*

---

The greyscale gamma can be hard for non-techies to understand, but basically, it describes how smoothly a TV transitions from shadows to highlights. The number describes the slope of the curve, and the shape of the curve illustrates where the transitions might experience some 'hiccups.' For instance, in the graph below showing the Panasonic TC-P50G10's performance, the line has one major bump towards the bottom left (the shadows), as well as some smaller bumps in the middle. This means you can expect to see some banding in those points.

The slope of the curve, 2.54, is pretty good. An ideal slope measures somewhere between 2.1 and 2.2. The TC-P50G10's slope is a little steep.

 

Resolution Scaling*(5.2)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 is a 1080p TV, but a lot of the content that you'll be feeding it is of a lower resolution. The TV is required to process that data, which is called upscaling. It's no mean feat upscaling video that comes rushing in at 30 or 60 frames per second, and a lot of TVs do it more poorly that you might expect.

We tested the TC-P50G10 by throwing different types of content and evaluating the performance. Overall, it was quite poor. Read below for the play by play.

480p

Looking at 480p content, we noticed that the screen lost 2% of the sides and 2% of the top and bottom due to overscan. We saw a little bit of legibility issues, but 480p upscaling was actually the best of the bunch.

720p

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 definitely had trouble upconverting 720p footage. When presented with high frequency patterns (similar to tight checker patterned ties or tweed suits) the TV created a lot of Moire patterns and false coloration. The legibility of fine text was also poor. Overall, bad.

1080i

Upscaling 1080i content was also, sadly quite poor. This is particularly problematic, as most cable TV is broadcast in 1080i. As with 720p upconversion, we saw a lot of Moire patterns and false colors, as well as fine text legibility problems. As luck would have it, there's another problem associated with cable TV that might actually mitigate some of the upscaling problems. MPEG artifacting, which is innate to cable TV and no fault of the TV's, can actually muddle up some of the really high frequency patterns, which in turn does not create the Moires and false coloring problems on the TC-P50G10.

 

Color Accuracy

Color Temperature*(10.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 managed to produce a nearly perfectly even color temperature, regardless of signal intensity. As you can see from the chart below, the variances never entered into the range of human perceptibility.

 

RGB Curves*(7.71)*

---

The RGB curve test sends a signal with every single possible color in each of the red, green, and blue channels (each channel ranges from an intensity of 0 to 255). The TV is sampled with a colorimeter to determine how well it can reproduce that signal. The result is the three color curves shown below. Ideally, a TV can produce perfectly smooth curves with a steady ramp-up from shadows to highlights.

The Panasonic TC-P50G10, however, is not ideal, nor is any TV. As you can see below, the curves are quite bumpy. This indicates that when the TV has to make smooth transitions – like a blue sky or the variations on a green leaf – you may notice some color banding. Compared to the competition, however, the TC-P50G10 curves look pretty good.

The color strips below are a digital recreation of what the color curves would look like of you saw them as a continuous gradation from brightest to darkest.

 

 

 

 

Color Gamut*(6.32)*

---

The color gamut test measures how well the Panasonic TC-P50G10 matches up to the rec. 709 color standard. What you want to look at in the chart below is the relationship between the three corners of the triangles, as well as the circle in the center, which is the white point. All in all, the TC-P50G10 did quite well.

The table below is for the hardcore techies, and gives the numbers about the visualized chart above.

 

 

Motion

Motion Smoothness*(6.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 produced relatively smooth motion to people or objects in moving around the screen. Frequently, we'll see stuttering or flashing trails, which are the result of bad processing. We saw none of that. However, results were not so positive when it came to artifacting, which we discuss next.

 

Motion Artifacting*(3.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 produced a lot of artifacting to object in motion, more so than we've seen in a while, and certainly more than we've seen on a TV at this price point. The issue is that those objects seem to have their color information compressed, results in noticeable chunks of color banding. It happened with every shade of color, but was most obvious in the greens, blues, and grey areas. Once the object stopped moving, the color banding would disappear.

This is, of course, problematic, as televisions tend to show objects in motion more frequently than objects at rest. To be fair, these problems were most obvious when we really pushed the TV in our most difficult tests. In casual cable TV viewing, the issues were less noticeable. This is because it's rare that large, unbroken swaths of color appear in a shot. More often, it's broken up into dozens of objects of different shades, textures, and focus. Even so, we base our scores on how well the TV does when challenged, not when things are easy.

 

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps*(8.5)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 did not have any problems displaying native 24p content or performing 3:2 pulldown.

 

Viewing Effects

Viewing Angle*(8.56)*

---

The viewing angle on plasma TVs is generally very good, and the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is no exception. We found that the TV maintained at least 50% of its contrast ratio as far as 64 degrees from center (or 128 degrees of total viewing angle).

From the chart below, you can see that it's not the best plasma TV we've tested, but it's still better than even a very good Vizio LCD TV.

 

Reflectance*(4.0)*

---

In our experience, plasma TVs are more reflective than LCDs because of the glass panel in the front. In our tests, we shine a concentrated light at the TV from different angles, as well as shining the light on the audience. When the Panasonic TC-P50G10's screen is all-white, you can still see the exterior light pretty clearly. But when coming in at an extreme angle, or shining on the audience, it's not very distracting. However, when we switch to an all-black screen, the TV might as well be a mirror. You can see everything. Low scores all around.

 

Video Processing*(5.0)*

---

The video processing features on the Panasonic TC-P50G10 are modest. You won't find any special motion processing like 120Hz or 'Smooth Motion,' which tend to ruin the picture anyway. Rather, this TV's processing tends to focus on noise reduction. Each feature is explained below.

 

 

Calibration

Calibration

---

[

](http://www.displaymate.com/)The calibration process for the Panasonic TC-P50G10 started with the putting the TV in its THX mode, which is meant to give 'reproduce the image quality that the movie makers intended in order to provide the ultimate cinematic experience at home,' at least according to the manual. It corresponds to the Movie mode we see on most TVs. From there, we make our own calibrations based on DisplayMate software and measurements we take with a colorimeter.

 

Video Modes

---

There are five basic modes that the Panasonic TC-P50G10 offers for adjusting all the fine settings. You can also start off in on of these presets and make your own fine tunings afterwards.

 

Remote Control

Ergonomics & Durability*(5.0)*

---

The remote control that ships with the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is functional and lightweight, but not great. The hard edges on the bottom just don't have that ergonomic charm of a Samsung remote. The was one improvement over previous Panasonic remotes we've seen, which is that the buttons don't squeak. That drove us crazy with the Panasonic TC-P50U1.

 

Button Layout & Use*(5.1)*

---

The button layout is mediocre, at best. You can find the volume and channel up/down buttons with no problem. In fact, you can even choose to backlight those buttons. But the rest of the elements on the 44-button remote are a little confusing. It's difficult to find the Menu button in a bright room, let alone a darkened room. We like the silver d-pad in the center – that's clear enough. But what about the R, G, B, and Y buttons underneath? They so rarely come into play that Panasonic could have just scrapped them to simplify the whole design.

 

Programming & Flexibility*(1.0)*

---

The remote control can be programmed to work with other Panasonic home devices, but not with other brands.

Connectivity

Input Ports*(7.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 has all the ports you'll need for a run-of-the-mill home theater system. In total, the input ports include: 3 HDMI, 2 component video, 2 composite video, 1 S-Video, 4 analog audio inputs, 1 VGA, 1 SD/SDHC card slot, 1 cable/antenna, and 1 LAN internet port.

Most of these are on the back, and fairly easy to reach despite the lack of a swivel base.

The side ports are few, and just there so you can have better access to them for more frequent switches. They include: the SD/SDHC card slot, one of the HDMI ports, the VGA port, and one of the composite AV ports.

 

Output Ports*(2.0)*

---

There are just two output ports on the Panasonic TC-P50G10: an analog audio out and a digital audio input. This is pretty standard for HDTVs, though some of the competition includes other ports that help sync up your home theater system. 

 

Other Connections*(3.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 has a LAN jack for internet, but don't go thinking you can just crack open the whole world wide web on your TV. No, there aren't any TVs right now that offer full, built-in browsers. Instead, you have to content yourself with whatever content providers the TV manufacturer managed to align themselves with. In this case, those features are modest but acceptable, with movies and TV shows available through Amazon Video on Demand. For the full account of the 'Viera Cast' suite of internet features, jump ahead to the Formats & Media section of the review.

 

Media*(2.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 has a card slot that supports SD/SDHC cards. It can play back stills and very select video files, including MPEG-2 and Panasonic camcorder-branded AVCHD, but not any other AVCHD camcorder footage, and not AVIs or MOV files. Also, the TV doesn't play back music files.

 

Placement*(5.0)*

---

The port placement on the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is fine, but could be better. To access the ports on the back, it's always best to have a base that can swivel.

Audio & Menus

Audio Quality*(6.5)*

---

The audio quality of most Panasonic TVs is good. As a company, it seem to put more emphasis on its speakers, though it has yet to successfully market this fact. The performance on the Panasonic TC-P50G10 was very good. Of course, televisions can never match the bass response from a dedicated speaker system, but it was more than satisfactory. What's more, the mock surround sound mode was actually convincing. True, it seemed to flatten some of the mids and bass, but the effect worked.

 

Menu Interface*(7.0)*

---

The menu interface on the Panasonic TC-50G10 is sufficient. It's easy to get around from one submenu to the next, and difficult to get lost. The only real problem with the whole menu experience is our trouble with being able to quickly locate the Menu button on the remote. Also, the menus could have used a little more pep, but they weren't as slow as the lethargic TC-P50U1.

 

 

Manual*(4.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 manual lacks an index in the back, which is pretty much the worst thing you can do to someone who just bought a complicated, expensive product with tons of features. Panasonic, fix this. 

Yes, of course, a lot of these features are explained somewhere else in the manual, but good luck finding them. If you do, you'll get a semi-satisfactory explanation. Mostly, though, you'll just want to experiment with all the special features yourself and see what they do. You can find the Panasonic TC-P50G10's manual online here.

 

 

Formats & Media

Formats*(10.5)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 is a native 1080p television, which is the highest possible resolution today in standard content delivery formats. Of course, the TV can upconvert 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and any other resolution you throw at it. Sadly, however, we found that the TC-P50G10's upconversion processing created a lot of artifacting. 

 

Photo Playback*(5.0)*

---

The photo playback is very basic. When you put a card into the slot on the TV and hit the SDHC button on the remote, you're presented with two choices: Photos and Videos. No, you can't even look at both file types at the same time. You also aren't allowed to see any files or filenames that the TV can't immediately recognize and thumbnail. There's no way to sift through folders the way you can on your computer.

It's easy to create simple slideshows, but you cannot add music.

 

Music & Video Playback*(4.0)*

---

The card slot on the Panasonic TC-P50G10 is rather picky about its playback preferences. First of all, it does not support music playback at all, which is ridiculous. If it can do photos and video, it should just round out the set and play back music, as well.

Secondly, the the video playback is limited in a very biased way. The TV recognizes standard definition MPEG-2 files from your old school camcorders, as well as AVCHD footage. Now, AVCHD is a notoriously difficult format for consumers to wrangle with, so any device that allows for simple playback with headache is pretty good. But here's the kicker: the TV only appears to play back AVCHD footage from Panasonic camcorders. We tried Sony and JVC footage and neither were even acknowledged by the TV. Unfortunately, there's no 'folder view' when you're in video playback mode, so you can't go digging around in the folder/file structure on the memory card. The TV either finds a video clip or it doesn't. Also, the TV does not support AVI or MOV files, which makes up a good portion of video clips on people's computers.

 

Streaming Playback*(7.0)*

---

The suite of streaming playback features on Panasonic TVs is called 'Viera Cast.' First off, you should be warned that having a television with a LAN port is a far cry from your previous experiences with the world wide web. You only have access to the parts of the web that Panasonic has partnered with. Specifically, this currently means YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg financial news, the weather, and Amazon Video on Demand. This last feature is really the only one of note, because it's a television, and you didn't pay for a a 50-inch plasma screen to check the weather.

The Viera cast homepage is broken up into a series of windows gathered around the screen, with the currently selected video source (cable, DVD, etc.) in the center. This means you can glance at weather and stocks without missing the movie or game you happen to be watching. That's a plus. Also, switching around from widget to widget is fast – much faster than the lethargic internet features on the Samsung UN46B8500. That's another plus. There's also a window in the lower left corner labeled 'Coming Soon,' which is either enticing or disappointing, because Panasonic could not or did not find another content provider at the time of the TV's release.

Overall, this is a very good suite of internet widgets. It towers over what Samsung has right now. But Panasonic is still trailing the Sony, the undisputed leader in multimedia internet TV right now. Sure, Panasonic has Amazon on Demand, but Sony offers content through Netflix, Yahoo, Amazon, Blip,tv, Fear.net, Daily Motion, CBS, Crackle, Concierge, Sony premium content, and several other partners.

 

Other Media*(0.0)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 does not support any other types of media. 

 

Power Consumption

Power Consumption*(8.23)*

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 is a plasma TV, which tends to be more power hungry than LCD TVs. Also, LCDs allow you to lower the backlight, directly altering the power consumption, which plasmas have no such ability. But for its class, the TC-P50G10's consumption costs are not too high. You can see from the bar chart below, the Samsung PN50B430 is much more costly than either Panasonic.

 

Vs Panasonic TC-P50U1

Value Comparison Summary

---

After completing all our lab testing, we found that the performance differences between these two Panasonic TVs was not so different. The TC-P50PU1 could achieve deeper blacks and had less motion artifacting, but the gap was not so large as to make a huge difference in everyday viewing.

The biggest difference between these models is the addition of the LAN internet port on the TC-P50G10. Chances are, you already know if internet features are important to your buying decision. Fortunately, if you opt for the TC-P50G10, the Viera Cast suite of internet widgets is pretty good. It's a lot faster than the laggy, incomplete set of widgets we saw on the Samsung UN46B8500, but it lacks the stunningly large group of content providers Sony has secured for its Bravia TVs.

Blacks & Whites

---

The two Panasonics did not perform so differently, but don't think that all TVs from a single manufacturer are basically the same. The processing and parts are frequently completely different, which is why we test so many TVs every year rather than make assumptions. In regards to blacks and whites, the TC-P50G10 could not get quite as dark, but managed to get a lot brighter. For that reason, the contrast ratio expanded out compared to the TC-P50U1.

 

Color Accuracy

---

Both Panasonics produced excellent, stable color temperatures through all levels of signal intensity. The RGB curves, which track how well a TV can transition from dark to light across the red, green, and blue channels (tested individually), were about equal as well. Both TVs are good. The only variance in this section was color accuracy, in which the TC-P50G10 more closely matched the rec. 709 color standard. 

 

 

 

Motion

---

The Panasonic TC-P50G10 had motion artifacts that we did not see with the recently reviewed Panasonic TC-P50U1, which was disappointing, but points to the fact that it's hard to make assumptions about a TV's processing without actually watching/testing it. 

 

Viewing Effects

---

There is little difference in the viewing angle between the two Panasonics. They're both plasma TVs, and both very good.

 

Connectivity

---

The big difference here is the LAN internet port on the Panasonic TC-P50G10. Overall, we liked Panasonic's online content interface, modest though it was in its diversity.

 

Vs Samsung PN50B430

Value Comparison Summary

---

The price gap between the Panasonic TC-P50G10 and the Samsung PN50B430 is sizable, if we're to go by MSRPs. That gap is explained pretty simply by the features that the Panasonic boasts over the Samsung: an extra (3rd) HDMI port, an SD/SDHC card slot for multimedia playback, and a LAN port for internet connectivity. If you can live without these things, the Samsung is a good deal. The video performance on both TVs was good, and frankly, the extra HDMI port on the Panasonic is the only crucial addition. Most people get along fine without viewing their photos on a TV. As for the internet content, streaming Amazon is good, but there are plenty of cheap devices that can do it just as well.

Blacks & Whites

---

The Samsung simply could not reach the deep black levels that we saw on the Panasonic. However, the peak brights were much, much brighter. As a result, the contrast ratios came out similar. You have to ask yourself, would you rather have blacker blacks or whiter whites? We'd vote for deep blacks.

 

Color Accuracy

---

The Samsung PN50B430 and Panasonic TC-P50G10 both have very good color performance. The Panasonic showed a small lead in the RGB response curves, which means you might expect slightly smoother color gradations. But beyond that, we liked them both.

 

 

 

Motion

---

The Samsung PN50B430 offers better motion performance than the Panasonic, despite both of them having issues with motion artifacting.

Viewing Effects

---

The viewing angle on both these plasma TVs is very good, and shouldn't be a problem no matter how wide your room is.

Connectivity

---

The Samsung has fewer ports all around, and lacks the LAN port and media card slot on the Panasonic that makes the latter a better 'multimedia' hub.

 

Vs Vizio SV471XVT

Value Comparison Summary

---

The price gap is surprisingly small between these two TVs, especially considering that the Panasonic has a larger screen, a LAN internet port, and is a plasma TV, which frequently carries more cache than LCD. The Panasonic has much better black levels and a better viewing angle, while the Vizio offers smoother motion with less artifacting. It's a tough call as to which is better. Our vote goes for the Panasonic, if the price gap remains only $100 more. Of course, out in the wilds of the internet, you may be able to find the Vizio in a bargain.

Blacks & Whites

---

The Vizio is an LCD television, with its own strengths and weaknesses. One of those weak points is black level. The Panasonic, as a plasma TV, just kills the Vizio on black level performance. Sure, the Vizio is much better at producing peak white levels, but you're going to wish more often that you had deeper blacks that whiter whites.

 

Color Accuracy

---

The Panasonic was better able to maintain a consistent color temperature, but the difference is insignificant. There was no difference between the RGB color curve performance, at least in terms of scoring. Overall, they're both good in this category.

 

 

 

Motion

---

The Vizio definitely showed a better, smoother motion performance and far less artifacting. Yes, it may surprise people that an LCD offers smoother motion than a plasma TV, but there it is.

 

Viewing Effects

---

The Vizio has a good viewing angle for an LCD, but it can't match plasma TVs.

 

Connectivity

---

The Vizio SV471XVT has a lot of great ports, including one additional HDMI and a USB port rather than SD/SDHC card slot, which is arguably more universal. It lacks Panasonic's LAN internet port, however. We didn't think that Panasonic's internet features were all that great, so you're not missing much. 

 

Conclusion

 

 

 

Series Comparison

Panasonic TC-PxxG10 Series

---

The TC-PxxG10 series has four plasma TV models ranging from 42 inches to 50 inches. They seem to be positioned as modest-to-good performers (neither bottom-end or head of the class) with one big feature: internet. All have three HDMI ports and a LAN jack with the Viera Cast suite of internet widgets. Because the online feature lacks a true browser, you're limited to the types of content you can access.

Ratings & Specs

{{manufacturer_specs_table}}{{raw_scores_table}}