Pros: Finest black levels of any TV, Internet streaming, Good picture quality, 3D features work well
Cons: Getting color perfect can be a challenge, Picture best in darkened room, Costly, Not as energy-efficient as an LCD TV
Outstanding all-around picture quality, anchored by the deepest plasma black levels of the year, makes the Panasonic TC-PVT30 series the best-performing TV in 2011.
In just about every way the VT30 lives up to the expectation. If Panasonic's claim about its black-level stability holds true, allowing it to outdo the 2010 models after a few months of age, the VT30 is the blackest plasma we've tested since the Pioneer Kuro (but the Kuro is still better). Other areas of this Panasonic's picture quality are also generally superb, although it doesn't stand quite as tall above the competition as last year's VT25 series did. The competition, namely Samsung's best plasmas, has gotten better, and the PND8000 we tested (review posting soon) outdoes the color accuracy of the VT30, although the Samsung falls short of the Panasonic in a couple of other areas. The Samsung is the better value, however, so if you want the best picture for your dollar, the VT30 is not the way to go. But if you want the best picture regardless of cost, the Panasonic TC-PVT30 series is our No. 1 pick this year.
The Panasonic VT30's main design improvement over the GT30 series is a single pane of glass that fronts the entire panel, eliminating the depth difference between the frame and the screen. We've always liked this look, and we appreciate the VT30's touch of extra classiness: a thin sliver of silver along the extreme edge to offset the glossy black. Panasonic's menus and remotes are basically unchanged from 2010. The menu system looks and acts quite a bit less sophisticated than Samsung or Sony, and we didn't appreciate having to scroll through so many pages in the Picture menu. 3D Settings seems misplaced in the Setup menu, and on-screen support beyond basic explanations is nonexistent.
Compared with the GT30, the flagship VT30's main step-up features are a dedicated 96Hz mode for 1080p/24 content and a single included pair of 3D glasses. Both models offer THX certification, which can be utilized via a preset picture mode available with both 2D and 3D sources. New for 2011 Panasonic has added dejudder processing to its plasmas. See performance for more details. The new 2011 glasses are quite expensive at $179 list per additional pair, on the other hand we appreciate their prior-year backward compatibility; you can use Panasonic's 2011 glasses with the 2010 TVs, and the 2010 glasses with the 2011 TVs. The new 3D glasses, included, are rechargeable and slightly less-dorky-looking then their predecessors (provided you remove the USB charging cable before donning them). Panasonic includes a Wi-Fi dongle with the VT30, occupying a USB slot but happily allowing you to use a wireless connection with this TV without paying an extra $80 or more for a dongle.
Overall we preferred the layout and simplicity of the Viera Connect interface to Samsung's significantly more ambitious, and more cluttered, Smart Hub. Panasonic seems to enforce a straightforward menu structure and default font in many of its app and widget designs, and as a result using them feels easier and more cohesive. On the downside response times were slower than Samsung in many cases, but not slow enough to be annoying.
The VT30 offers more user-menu control options than any other TV. New for 2011 Panasonic has added a 10-point grayscale adjustment, full-fledged CMS and, unlike any other TV we've seen so far, a 10-point luminance control to home in on gamma. Unfortunately these controls are only available in the Custom preset, not on any others; they were difficult to use and didn't produce the results we expected.
You also get full picture control with Netflix and other streaming services--the TV basically treats Viera Connect as a separate "input." Panasonic also offers 2D-to-3D conversion among its smattering of 3D settings, but it won't convert streaming video. Its black levels are among the deepest you would see, outdoing the competing Samsung PND8000 plasma, and its shadow detail is also superior. Color accuracy is very good, albeit not as accurate as the Samsung, video processing is excellent, and of course it enjoys the near-perfect uniformity of plasma. 3D picture quality was excellent as well in the THX 3D mode, although Samsung's flagship plasma and LCD were better at reducing crosstalk.
Although colors in THX mode looked very good on the VT30, with great saturation and accurate color points, the Samsung was superior overall in this area. The Panasonic seemed to have a slight greenish cast to many scenes when compared side-by-side with the Samsung and a few of the others. Like the ST30 and GT30 series, the VT30 correctly handled 1080p/24 cadence in its 60Hz mode. Compared to the Samsung the VT30's screen was a bit more reflective, with brighter highlights when we turned on the lights. On the other hand it did a slightly better job at preserving black levels under bright lights, although the Samsung was still very good in that area. The VT30 is a very good 3D performer, roughly equaling the GT30, but it wasn't quite as good as the two Samsungs in our lineup at handling crosstalk. Typically, plasma screens require a lot more power to operate than LCD screens, but the giant screen of the Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 didn’t actually draw a ton of power for its size.
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