(First, my apologies: I'm suffering a little from "reviewer fatigue" so this ain't one of my better reports and I'm just too tired at the moment to make it better. But, hey, you get whatcha pay for...)
Well, I finally got a chance to haul my HD-DVD player both to the Pioneer Pro-FHD1 50" 1080p plasma, and the Panasonic TH65PX600U 65" 1080p plasma. Yesterday I viewed the Pioneer plasma at my friend's house (he has it in for review, along with a prototype Pioneer Blu Ray player, with demo material). Then today the good folks at TruTone let me hook up my HD-DVD player to the Panasonic 65"er. (I recommend the store: they have great inventory and are quite helpful).
Boy it was fun. First, this is just one guy's opinion, heavily seasoned with my own preferences, so take it for what it's worth. Other people may come to different conclusions than I have. I'll try and be quick here:
Pioneer Pro-FHD1 50" 1080p plasma:
My friend (who had already finished his review...he loves the plasma, so do I) first had the Blu Ray player hooked up, outputting 1080p demo material. This consisted of a japanese dancer, inter-cut with a violinist both against a black background, dissolving to various eye-candy nature images. It looked superb - pretty much flawless in terms of lack of noise, clarity, color richness. We watched almost all the material in the dark. The only thing I immediately noticed, as I remarked to my friend, was the black levels were clearly higher than what I'm used to at home. I should say that for quite a while we watched on my friend's image settings, tweaking a little bit, and then also tried D-Nice's (ISF-quality) settings as well...with a bit of tweaking/experimentation here and there. So this issue with the higher black levels remains consistent with every other time I've viewed this plasma under controlled conditions.
Still, bright scenes were just gorgeous, super sharp, super colorful, with excellent subtlety...deserts, sweeping african plains, vegetation etc. How can you go wrong?
Next, and for me as a movie lover this is where the fun begins, we watched a variety of HD movie content - that is HD movies recorded from broadcast. They included Sin City, Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith, another couple I'm forgetting and ...hooray...King Kong in hi-def!
Again...just amazing. The first film my pal put on starred Ed Harris - don't know what the heck it was, but just the close up of Harris talking to a woman was mesmerizing in it's sheer detail, clarity and the palpability of his face on screen. His skin color was rich, but not quite "overdone." Both Ed and the woman he was talking to just hung there in space, beautifully dimensional in this lights-out environment. Sin City also just looked gorgeous in combining a noiseless black and white image, super-sharpness, excellent shadow detail and brilliant colors (we watched a scene wherein the car was the only colorized object - a brilliant red). While the black levels weren't super deep, they were pretty satisfying on Sin City, which has lots of dark night scenes. I didn't get an "I'm watching a CRT" feeling so much as an "This looks a lot like film-theater black levels" and it was overall quite film-like (with the exception the bright areas were pumping out more vivid light than any movie theater).
Revenge of the Sith: Great again, among the best I've seen it in terms of detail/color. King Kong: riveting in it's detail. Kong's face was almost photo-realistic. In the scene in which Kong rampages through Times Square at night, I was struck by the sharpness and detail of all the signs, buildings and little people running around. The combination of the HD source and the Pioneer 1080p plasma resolution definitely bumped that scene to a level I'd never seen before.
Next up was HD-DVD: John Wayne in The Searchers, which has been delivered with a superlative restoration. This was really something on the Pro-FHD1, the plasma bringing out every last bit of color richness and detail, with razor-sharp clarity, maintaining the texture in someone's shirt all the way to the sharply defined rock formations in the distance, which themselves displayed a level of texture that just wasn't available until HD-DVD/Blu-Ray (and, ok, D-Theater). It looked film like, and real at the same time.
Mission Impossible 3 on HD-DVD was also stunning. Just about as sharp as you could want an image. Black levels were not bad, but could still be better, with my being aware of the letter-box bars at night scenes, making some of the images loose some contrast. But the amazing night scene in which Tom Cruise stands atop a building overlooking the city, and jumps off, was super vivid - those Pioneer light levels blasting the city lights through the darkness, every light finely resolved.
So it was great. My only nit-picks were these: I kept wanting to get closer and closer. This seems true of most 1080p displays I've viewed, with good source material. The 50" size still strikes me as a bit small to easily realize the benefits of
1080p resolution in terms of viewing distance. At least I know I wouldn't end up in a set-up getting me close enough to that display. I really want bigger...but that's me.
And while I'm sure a lot of people would have happy with the black levels of this plasma (and clearly, quite a number are), I
find it wanting in this area. To me the overall feel of the image is a bit "light," not quite as complete and rich as I'd hope for, due to the higher black levels than I"m used to. (Watching the same scenes at home on my Panasonic clearly show darker letter-boxed bars and a more solid, richer image contrast-wise).
One thing to throw into the mix here: One thing I realized in watching the FHD-1 was both the glory and limitations of 1080p resolution. The glory was clearly the ultra-smooth, ultra-fine delivery of all the detail on HD sources. The limitation
isn't in 1080p itself, but in choosing between greater contrast (in this case for instance a display with deeper black levels) and lower res, vs the higher resolution. I've only seen the Pioneer 5070 60" plasma (1365 x 768 res) with HD loops, and some movie selections on those loops. It ain't 1080p, but it does strike me as having definitely deeper, richer black levels than the Pro-FHD1, with at least as rich color detail. I have little doubt the 5070 looks anything less than spectacular with HD-DVD as well. And it's my hunch that, in a choice between the more expensive 1080p model at 50" and higher black levels, vs 60" of slightly lower res HD but richer contrast...I'm thinkin' I most likely go with the bigger Pioneer. I just think it will probably provide the over-all more compelling viewing experiences. Although I have not done a side-by side.
But all that said, the Pro-FHD1 is, as most people who have seen it agree, a killer display and one of the best you can buy.
(And I'll envy my friend if he ends up with one).
On to...
Panasonic TH65PX600U 65" 1080p Plasma:
Well, I feel like I've used up all my reviewing energy on the Pioneer model. But...
I was able to see this model in a perfectly light controlled room. I turned the lights off. First, it was playing some broadcast HD images - some interviews with a rap star. The image was super-sharp - sharper than I've ever seen broadcast HD on this display. This display certainly can deliver the goods with a big HD picture, giving you a big image without softening it.
Next I hooked up the HD-DVD player...something I've been dying to see, ever since I heard about this Panasonic 1080p model was introduced. And...
Oh My Goodness! I had to keep brushing my jaw off the floor for the next 2 hours!
I'd started off in the "cinema" mode, like last time I viewed this display. First I spun The Searchers. Now, the first scene which starts in pitch black, then a door opens to the gorgeous western scenery, my first thought was "Well, the black levels definitely seem better than the Pioneer plasma, although they aren't super deep either." But this first torture test showed them as pretty satisfying.
Initially the Searchers looked wonderful - very film-like and exceedingly sharp. But I'd say the Pioneer tended to render the image with a bit more beautiful color than what I saw on the Panasonic. Just a little more dazzle.
I began to tweak both the cinema setting, for a bit higher contrast, as well as switching back and forth to the "Standard" setting which I also tweaked for a smooth, but punchier image. Now the Searchers was starting to really "pop" and it was hard to tear my eyes away from the amazing clarity and film-like smoothness of the image. Although the Pioneer 1080p model still, I think, rendered slightly better color - and the Panny color was gorgeous and nothing to sneeze at itself - the viewing experience of seeing an epic film like this at 65" of plasma glory just trumped the Pioneer viewing experience. It was like I could walk into the scenes and hop on one of the horses.
But once I started putting on some of the newer releases - that's when things got crazy. The first scene of Chronicles Of Riddick - an amazing HD-DVD transfer full of baroque sci-fi ships and set-design - just blew my head off. I couldn't believe it. Here was 65" of the sharpest imagery I've ever seen - seemingly at least as sharp as the images I watched on the Pioneer model - with virtually no artifacts, creamy smooth, and reach-in-and-touch it richness and detail. I mean, I had imagined that a 1080i HD-DVD source and this 1080p Panasonic plasma should, in theory look quite good. But I didn't quite dare to hope it would look this good! It surpassed even my hopeful expectations. Scene after scene of just walk-into-it dimensionality, jaw-dropping razor-sharpness and detail...right out to the back ground...and thrilling realism. Ever iota of dirt, grit and scratches were visible on all the warrior's armor. Faces looked clean yet textured, like you could reach in and pinch the skin.
This continued with Mission Impossible 3. I just couldn't believe how clear this film looked. If the camera was focused, the image was as sharp as any display of any size I've ever seen. Yet I could easily see even the slightest variations in depth of field, in which the camera was clearly focused just a little more on one eye of an actor, leaving his other eye and that side of his head just outside the focus plain.
And there is a scene in a beautiful, ultra-swanky bathroom at a big hall party that looked really sharp, alive, glowing and colorful on the Pioneer model. It looked just as sharp on the Panasonic (which was, repeatedly, something I just couldn't get over), but the sheer size of the image brought out details I just didn't notice on the Pioneer, such as the subtle mottling of pastel colors on the tiny bricks on the wall. Just amazing.
And Cruise's leap from that tall building at night was among the best images I've ever seen. It felt like I was up there with him, and the lights and details of all those city buildings in the shots were as clear as life.
By this time I had found the black levels over-all quite good on the Panasonic, and almost always satisfying. To my eyes, it made for a somewhat richer, over-all more convincing image vs the Pioneer. I rarely found myself noticing a lack of richness in the image, even throughout the night scenes.
In Terminator 3, HD-DVD, an early scene starts on John Conner sitting on the edge of a bridge over water. It almost caused vertigo just looking at that image from too close. Once the scene dissolves to the future war, with the machines invading, the camera flys up for a panoramic view of the battle as various robot ships cruise over the landscape. The ships were...well...how many ways can I keep saying "razor sharp?"....as were all the details seemingly no matter how far away from the camera. There just looked like there couldn't be a thing I was missing in the HD source material. And then the silver-titanium terminator skeletons march through the screen, it just felt so "alive." And when the final terminator skeleton marches into a tight close-up, looks around and then stares right at the camera, at the viewer....it was so amazing, so much like this thing was sitting in front of me, looking at me, I can't think of a more convincing movie image I've ever seen on any display to this point.
And then there was Phantom Of The Opera, which looked virtually flawless, and far better than on any other display I've seen playing this HD-DVD (I didn't see it on the Pioneer plasma, though). Aside from asking for even more contrast/black levels, it was hard to imagine an image getting better.
Ok, so that's the end of my drooling over the HD-DVD images. Finally, I've never seen my Toshiba HD-DVD player's up-converting abilities, because my ED plasma doesn't have a usable digital input (and the HD-DVD player won't up-convert over my component cables). So I started viewing some of my SD DVDs - Spiderman 2, King Kong. Holy cow! Was I amazed even at this! They looked even better than the last time I viewed this plasma. The image was almost sharp enough to fool me it was HD! (In fact, when I imagined HD on this Panny, I sort of imagined it looking like SD did today).
And it was smooth, rich and very low in image noise. I thought that on a panel like this, once I'd seen HD-DVD I wouldn't want to be watching SD-DVDs anymore. But the combination of the Tosh HD-DVD player with this excellent display made even regular DVDs eye-popping, and a pleasure to watch. How great that I wouldn't feel like tossing all my SD DVDs in disappointment!
To sum things up, both the Pioneer and Panasonic are to my eyes at the top of the food chain in terms of image quality for HD sources especially. (I also think very highly of some of the projectors and RPTVs).
For me, as nice as the Pioneer plasma is, the total viewing experience of the Panasonic easily trumped the smaller plasma. It was essentially the same type of qualities, only much bigger, more cinematic, and it made all that amazing HD detail all the easier to observe. Even with the 65" Panny I kept wanting to get closer and closer, probably ending up even under 8 feet sometimes 7 at this viewing.
For my tastes, the Panasonic provided the most amazing images I've yet seen for movie watching. I saw some proprietary 1080p content on the Pioneer Pro-FHD1 at one point - very bright colorful tropical scenery, vacationers, ocean, animals - that may or may not still be the most intensely realistic I've seen. But I'd love to see that same material on the Panasonic too.
As for my own choice, I'd be plenty thrilled to own the Panasonic, but I'm still figuring out if I can make a 65" screen work in my new room, or if I need to go projection. And by the time I've figured it out, they'll probably have announced the next gen Panasonics. Yeesh. Let it end....
Over 'n out.
Well, I finally got a chance to haul my HD-DVD player both to the Pioneer Pro-FHD1 50" 1080p plasma, and the Panasonic TH65PX600U 65" 1080p plasma. Yesterday I viewed the Pioneer plasma at my friend's house (he has it in for review, along with a prototype Pioneer Blu Ray player, with demo material). Then today the good folks at TruTone let me hook up my HD-DVD player to the Panasonic 65"er. (I recommend the store: they have great inventory and are quite helpful).
Boy it was fun. First, this is just one guy's opinion, heavily seasoned with my own preferences, so take it for what it's worth. Other people may come to different conclusions than I have. I'll try and be quick here:
Pioneer Pro-FHD1 50" 1080p plasma:
My friend (who had already finished his review...he loves the plasma, so do I) first had the Blu Ray player hooked up, outputting 1080p demo material. This consisted of a japanese dancer, inter-cut with a violinist both against a black background, dissolving to various eye-candy nature images. It looked superb - pretty much flawless in terms of lack of noise, clarity, color richness. We watched almost all the material in the dark. The only thing I immediately noticed, as I remarked to my friend, was the black levels were clearly higher than what I'm used to at home. I should say that for quite a while we watched on my friend's image settings, tweaking a little bit, and then also tried D-Nice's (ISF-quality) settings as well...with a bit of tweaking/experimentation here and there. So this issue with the higher black levels remains consistent with every other time I've viewed this plasma under controlled conditions.
Still, bright scenes were just gorgeous, super sharp, super colorful, with excellent subtlety...deserts, sweeping african plains, vegetation etc. How can you go wrong?
Next, and for me as a movie lover this is where the fun begins, we watched a variety of HD movie content - that is HD movies recorded from broadcast. They included Sin City, Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith, another couple I'm forgetting and ...hooray...King Kong in hi-def!
Again...just amazing. The first film my pal put on starred Ed Harris - don't know what the heck it was, but just the close up of Harris talking to a woman was mesmerizing in it's sheer detail, clarity and the palpability of his face on screen. His skin color was rich, but not quite "overdone." Both Ed and the woman he was talking to just hung there in space, beautifully dimensional in this lights-out environment. Sin City also just looked gorgeous in combining a noiseless black and white image, super-sharpness, excellent shadow detail and brilliant colors (we watched a scene wherein the car was the only colorized object - a brilliant red). While the black levels weren't super deep, they were pretty satisfying on Sin City, which has lots of dark night scenes. I didn't get an "I'm watching a CRT" feeling so much as an "This looks a lot like film-theater black levels" and it was overall quite film-like (with the exception the bright areas were pumping out more vivid light than any movie theater).
Revenge of the Sith: Great again, among the best I've seen it in terms of detail/color. King Kong: riveting in it's detail. Kong's face was almost photo-realistic. In the scene in which Kong rampages through Times Square at night, I was struck by the sharpness and detail of all the signs, buildings and little people running around. The combination of the HD source and the Pioneer 1080p plasma resolution definitely bumped that scene to a level I'd never seen before.
Next up was HD-DVD: John Wayne in The Searchers, which has been delivered with a superlative restoration. This was really something on the Pro-FHD1, the plasma bringing out every last bit of color richness and detail, with razor-sharp clarity, maintaining the texture in someone's shirt all the way to the sharply defined rock formations in the distance, which themselves displayed a level of texture that just wasn't available until HD-DVD/Blu-Ray (and, ok, D-Theater). It looked film like, and real at the same time.
Mission Impossible 3 on HD-DVD was also stunning. Just about as sharp as you could want an image. Black levels were not bad, but could still be better, with my being aware of the letter-box bars at night scenes, making some of the images loose some contrast. But the amazing night scene in which Tom Cruise stands atop a building overlooking the city, and jumps off, was super vivid - those Pioneer light levels blasting the city lights through the darkness, every light finely resolved.
So it was great. My only nit-picks were these: I kept wanting to get closer and closer. This seems true of most 1080p displays I've viewed, with good source material. The 50" size still strikes me as a bit small to easily realize the benefits of
1080p resolution in terms of viewing distance. At least I know I wouldn't end up in a set-up getting me close enough to that display. I really want bigger...but that's me.
And while I'm sure a lot of people would have happy with the black levels of this plasma (and clearly, quite a number are), I
find it wanting in this area. To me the overall feel of the image is a bit "light," not quite as complete and rich as I'd hope for, due to the higher black levels than I"m used to. (Watching the same scenes at home on my Panasonic clearly show darker letter-boxed bars and a more solid, richer image contrast-wise).
One thing to throw into the mix here: One thing I realized in watching the FHD-1 was both the glory and limitations of 1080p resolution. The glory was clearly the ultra-smooth, ultra-fine delivery of all the detail on HD sources. The limitation
isn't in 1080p itself, but in choosing between greater contrast (in this case for instance a display with deeper black levels) and lower res, vs the higher resolution. I've only seen the Pioneer 5070 60" plasma (1365 x 768 res) with HD loops, and some movie selections on those loops. It ain't 1080p, but it does strike me as having definitely deeper, richer black levels than the Pro-FHD1, with at least as rich color detail. I have little doubt the 5070 looks anything less than spectacular with HD-DVD as well. And it's my hunch that, in a choice between the more expensive 1080p model at 50" and higher black levels, vs 60" of slightly lower res HD but richer contrast...I'm thinkin' I most likely go with the bigger Pioneer. I just think it will probably provide the over-all more compelling viewing experiences. Although I have not done a side-by side.
But all that said, the Pro-FHD1 is, as most people who have seen it agree, a killer display and one of the best you can buy.
(And I'll envy my friend if he ends up with one).
On to...
Panasonic TH65PX600U 65" 1080p Plasma:
Well, I feel like I've used up all my reviewing energy on the Pioneer model. But...
I was able to see this model in a perfectly light controlled room. I turned the lights off. First, it was playing some broadcast HD images - some interviews with a rap star. The image was super-sharp - sharper than I've ever seen broadcast HD on this display. This display certainly can deliver the goods with a big HD picture, giving you a big image without softening it.
Next I hooked up the HD-DVD player...something I've been dying to see, ever since I heard about this Panasonic 1080p model was introduced. And...
Oh My Goodness! I had to keep brushing my jaw off the floor for the next 2 hours!
I'd started off in the "cinema" mode, like last time I viewed this display. First I spun The Searchers. Now, the first scene which starts in pitch black, then a door opens to the gorgeous western scenery, my first thought was "Well, the black levels definitely seem better than the Pioneer plasma, although they aren't super deep either." But this first torture test showed them as pretty satisfying.
Initially the Searchers looked wonderful - very film-like and exceedingly sharp. But I'd say the Pioneer tended to render the image with a bit more beautiful color than what I saw on the Panasonic. Just a little more dazzle.
I began to tweak both the cinema setting, for a bit higher contrast, as well as switching back and forth to the "Standard" setting which I also tweaked for a smooth, but punchier image. Now the Searchers was starting to really "pop" and it was hard to tear my eyes away from the amazing clarity and film-like smoothness of the image. Although the Pioneer 1080p model still, I think, rendered slightly better color - and the Panny color was gorgeous and nothing to sneeze at itself - the viewing experience of seeing an epic film like this at 65" of plasma glory just trumped the Pioneer viewing experience. It was like I could walk into the scenes and hop on one of the horses.
But once I started putting on some of the newer releases - that's when things got crazy. The first scene of Chronicles Of Riddick - an amazing HD-DVD transfer full of baroque sci-fi ships and set-design - just blew my head off. I couldn't believe it. Here was 65" of the sharpest imagery I've ever seen - seemingly at least as sharp as the images I watched on the Pioneer model - with virtually no artifacts, creamy smooth, and reach-in-and-touch it richness and detail. I mean, I had imagined that a 1080i HD-DVD source and this 1080p Panasonic plasma should, in theory look quite good. But I didn't quite dare to hope it would look this good! It surpassed even my hopeful expectations. Scene after scene of just walk-into-it dimensionality, jaw-dropping razor-sharpness and detail...right out to the back ground...and thrilling realism. Ever iota of dirt, grit and scratches were visible on all the warrior's armor. Faces looked clean yet textured, like you could reach in and pinch the skin.
This continued with Mission Impossible 3. I just couldn't believe how clear this film looked. If the camera was focused, the image was as sharp as any display of any size I've ever seen. Yet I could easily see even the slightest variations in depth of field, in which the camera was clearly focused just a little more on one eye of an actor, leaving his other eye and that side of his head just outside the focus plain.
And there is a scene in a beautiful, ultra-swanky bathroom at a big hall party that looked really sharp, alive, glowing and colorful on the Pioneer model. It looked just as sharp on the Panasonic (which was, repeatedly, something I just couldn't get over), but the sheer size of the image brought out details I just didn't notice on the Pioneer, such as the subtle mottling of pastel colors on the tiny bricks on the wall. Just amazing.
And Cruise's leap from that tall building at night was among the best images I've ever seen. It felt like I was up there with him, and the lights and details of all those city buildings in the shots were as clear as life.
By this time I had found the black levels over-all quite good on the Panasonic, and almost always satisfying. To my eyes, it made for a somewhat richer, over-all more convincing image vs the Pioneer. I rarely found myself noticing a lack of richness in the image, even throughout the night scenes.
In Terminator 3, HD-DVD, an early scene starts on John Conner sitting on the edge of a bridge over water. It almost caused vertigo just looking at that image from too close. Once the scene dissolves to the future war, with the machines invading, the camera flys up for a panoramic view of the battle as various robot ships cruise over the landscape. The ships were...well...how many ways can I keep saying "razor sharp?"....as were all the details seemingly no matter how far away from the camera. There just looked like there couldn't be a thing I was missing in the HD source material. And then the silver-titanium terminator skeletons march through the screen, it just felt so "alive." And when the final terminator skeleton marches into a tight close-up, looks around and then stares right at the camera, at the viewer....it was so amazing, so much like this thing was sitting in front of me, looking at me, I can't think of a more convincing movie image I've ever seen on any display to this point.
And then there was Phantom Of The Opera, which looked virtually flawless, and far better than on any other display I've seen playing this HD-DVD (I didn't see it on the Pioneer plasma, though). Aside from asking for even more contrast/black levels, it was hard to imagine an image getting better.
Ok, so that's the end of my drooling over the HD-DVD images. Finally, I've never seen my Toshiba HD-DVD player's up-converting abilities, because my ED plasma doesn't have a usable digital input (and the HD-DVD player won't up-convert over my component cables). So I started viewing some of my SD DVDs - Spiderman 2, King Kong. Holy cow! Was I amazed even at this! They looked even better than the last time I viewed this plasma. The image was almost sharp enough to fool me it was HD! (In fact, when I imagined HD on this Panny, I sort of imagined it looking like SD did today).
And it was smooth, rich and very low in image noise. I thought that on a panel like this, once I'd seen HD-DVD I wouldn't want to be watching SD-DVDs anymore. But the combination of the Tosh HD-DVD player with this excellent display made even regular DVDs eye-popping, and a pleasure to watch. How great that I wouldn't feel like tossing all my SD DVDs in disappointment!
To sum things up, both the Pioneer and Panasonic are to my eyes at the top of the food chain in terms of image quality for HD sources especially. (I also think very highly of some of the projectors and RPTVs).
For me, as nice as the Pioneer plasma is, the total viewing experience of the Panasonic easily trumped the smaller plasma. It was essentially the same type of qualities, only much bigger, more cinematic, and it made all that amazing HD detail all the easier to observe. Even with the 65" Panny I kept wanting to get closer and closer, probably ending up even under 8 feet sometimes 7 at this viewing.
For my tastes, the Panasonic provided the most amazing images I've yet seen for movie watching. I saw some proprietary 1080p content on the Pioneer Pro-FHD1 at one point - very bright colorful tropical scenery, vacationers, ocean, animals - that may or may not still be the most intensely realistic I've seen. But I'd love to see that same material on the Panasonic too.
As for my own choice, I'd be plenty thrilled to own the Panasonic, but I'm still figuring out if I can make a 65" screen work in my new room, or if I need to go projection. And by the time I've figured it out, they'll probably have announced the next gen Panasonics. Yeesh. Let it end....
Over 'n out.
