Advice please! 60" Panny ST50 or LG 60PA6500 or LG 60PM6700

Hands down ST50 imo, better than the ST30 you already have

Oops misread your post, I prefer Pannys over LG's just my preferance. Wish could help you out tho. Samsung E6500 ?

If you can get a 60" ST50 for $1500 or less, that should easily be the best choice of the 3 you list.

We recently moved from a 60" ST30 - which was actually a Very Nice set, excepting the GROWING PINK TINT ours had - to a 60" ST50: I don't know if I would characterize the ST50 as being as "far above" the ST30 as appears to be the general opinion, but it (ST50) IS an Excellent HDTV, and does appear to have a couple of PQ advantages over the "30." (Although its MAIN advantage for us, of course, is NO PINK TINT.... at least thus far!)

Before we ended up with the ST50, I thought the LG PA6500 was a nice looking Bargain Panel - although the PA6550 (From CostCo) seemed even more attractive, given a Lower Price Point AND a 2-year Warranty.

Have seen the LGs in several stores, and they appear nicely designed, with Bright, good-looking colors. They also have more End User Picture Controls than the Panasonics.
However, they are very reflective, and, even with all of Panasonics troubles over the past several years, still have more confidence in Pan's long-term reliability than any of the other current Plasma options. (Of course, we won't KNOW whether that holds true until a few years down the road!)

Apparently, there is also a LG PA5500 that is a "store exclusive" for one of the bigger chains, and it also carries a very low price tag.

The LG9700 seems likely to exceed your $1500 price target, but it might be worth looking at IF you are placing it into a Very Bright Room, AND will do a lot of Daytime viewing: apparently it has a nice Matte Finish on the panel.

Another Option that might be worth looking at is the Panasonic UT50: It has received an Excellent Review from CNet, and the samples we've seen locally look to have a Bright screen & good colors. At this point in the year, would personally select the UT50 over the LG PA6500 - and probably the PM6700 as well - as a pretty remarkable "bargain panel," although I doubt you would go FAR Wrong with any of these sets!

Happy Hunting!

I have the 6700 hanging on my wall as I type this. I also own an older Panasonic 720p plasma. I have been going back and forth and although I am pro Panasonic, the prices this year are not that great. I ended up with the LG because the bang for the buck is phenomenal. I love the picture, no IR issues like previous years. I'm pretty impressed with it actually. LG gives one year on parts/labor and 2 years on the panel.

This is my first LG and I must say that I was a little hesitant at first. I just got done shopping for TVs again yesterday just to make sure that I made the right choice. I looked at 3 different stores, every LED and plasma that they carried. I decided to stick with the LG.

That being said, I am currently waiting on the 9700 to show up. My dealer must've gotten a bad batch of panels as I got 2 in a row with a few pixels out. They made me a very generous deal on the 9700 since I went through 2 of them. All of the display models had perfect panels. Like I said, must have been a bad batch. It happens.

I wanted the most performance and features for my money this year and to me LG was it. If money were no object I would have gotten a Panny GT or VT. But I am very happy with the LG.

I did get 3d glasses but they probably will not work with others. This year uses Bluetooth. The lady at one of the stores I was in said last years Panasonic glasses don't work with this years either.

This years LGs have all new panels from what I am told. Supposedly better black levels. The 9700 has the black filter so that is one advantage of it. I believe there is more to a good set than black levels so differences between the models in that regard is not a huge concern to me.

My dealer may have gotten a bad batch of 6700s with a small (1 or 2 pixel) defect. Most people wouldn't have noticed. I am picky. I've looked at a couple 6700s on display and all of the panels were fine. It was just my dumb luck. To make up for my trouble they are offering me the 9700 for only $50 more instead of $500. I would be stupid to pass that up. For the price I am getting the 9700 for, there isn't another model from 2012 that come close. I can't get a 60 inch UT for what I'm getting the LG flagship for (actually the UT would be a couple hundred more).

I like the design. The picture is great. Black levels seem good although I have no way of measuring or plans to calibrate. 3d works fairly well. Menus are nice. THX certified. Wifi. I like the trumotion when set manually to 1 or 2. Media sharing recognizes and streams dvr shows from my directv box. Media from computer uses Plex media server which is amazing. Streamed 720p bluray rip of MI4 with no issues. I'm impressed with it. There may be others out there with better specs, black levels, etc but they cost much more.

Like I said, I'm happy bang for the buck wise. I'm hesitant, though but was told LG is upping their game this year. Guess we shall see.

I went ahead and got the extended service from my dealer just in case. They offered 2yrs parts and labor with pick up and loaner set thru them without dealing with LG for $70. I'd I have issues beyond that, I'll scrap it and go back to Panasonic. Their features and price point this year was just too good for me not to try it.

For less than $50, would certainly opt for the ST50 over the UT50.

Sorry, have NOT seen a 9700 in person - only the lower models, and thus could only GUESS about PQ on the high-end LG....


The matte screen on the 9700 should be useful in a Bright room. But without knowing how its other PQ factors measure up, it is hard to say whether it beats the ST50.

Our ST50 does a nice job of maintaining its PQ in a "well-lit-but-no-sunshine" setting (it sits in a finished area of our basement: lots of lamps & overheads, but only indirect sun light - and that only during the morning hours!)


Have you checked out potential problems with Local Electrical Current - and possibly TV Reception - assuming you are planning to take your new TV overseas with you?

Frankly, would be worried sick about trying to ship a large panel HDTV overseas!
Again, if that IS your plan, hope you buy Excellent Insurance coverage!

Does the plex media server work with the new pm6700? This sounds like a really good idea!

On this, I don't think that there should be exceptions. If you are using a set top box, it will decode the NTSC, PAL, or whatever encryption and send it out to the TV over HDMI in a standard format regardless of service provider. There aren't that many manufacturers of set top boxes (most are Motorola), so any set top box should work with any TV regardless of whether the TV supports the original encryption format or not.

Before you decide, take a look at the 55VT50 on Amazon. I know you want a 60" but it's worth considering a 55" to get this tv and at this price. I just exchanged the 60GT50 for the 55VT and I'm not sorry. Also, the older tv was 51" and the 55" is a good bit bigger. I think the thinner bezel is the reason.

mysq: What set did you end up with? I'm looking at the ST50 and the 60PM6700 as well. My thread is here if you have advice to offer. Thanks.

I bought 60PM6700. Great size and pricing. The only main down side I felt was reflections in the TV set. I feel if you can afford 65ST50 you can buy that, I saved that $1000 to put in something else. I just swivel my lg to avoid reflections and ordered $60 of counter lighting so that I can turn off kitchen over heads as it was interfering with my viewing. 60ST50 was still $400-500 difference. I feel the TV needs some good calibration. Between Onkyo S9400 and this TV there are too many settings that need to be perfected, I am just experimenting.

I shifted from LCD to Plasma, and I am glad in a way. Reason: I had watched the movie Rio two times on 46" and 32" lcds before and I always thought the color of male parrot and female were same (forgot their names) and this weekend when I saw it on my plasma I noticed all the subtle difference in their color, they were not same, blue for male and cyanish for female.