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As always, one of our first comparisons regarded black-level performance, and the Panasonic held its own nicely, displaying as deeper shade of black than nearly any set in the room, with the exception of the Sharp and the Pioneer PDP-5080HD. The letterbox bars and shadows during the scene when Jack Nicholson's gang waits in the dark warehouse, for example, appeared inky and realistic, and we didn't detect any low-level noise (dithering) from our seating position 8 feet away. We did notice, however, that the details near black, such as Leonardo DiCaprio's leather jacket and Nicholson's black hat, appeared a bit too bright compared to some of the other displays' pictures, betraying the Panasonic's somewhat too-steep rise out of black. We'd like to see an adjustable gamma control on the set to address this issue, but it's not available.
Colors on the Panasonic looked very good and were helped tremendously by the set's accurate grayscale. During Matt Damon's dinner with Vera Farmiga, for example, their skin tones looked natural and well-saturated, even in dim lighting of the restaurant, which caused some other displays in the room such as the Sharp and the Toshiba to become too reddish. We did detect the yellowish tinge in the grass and shrubs later, when Damon investigates a crime scene, but the difference wasn't egregious compared to the more-accurate Samsung and Pioneer PRO-FHD1.
Detail on the TH-58PZ700U was everything we'd expect from a 1080p HDTV. The set resolved every line of a 1080i and 1080p test patterns, although it couldn't take 1080p/24 sources (our Samsung BD-P1200 did not allow us to select the 1080p/24 option). Like most HDTVs we've tested, it couldn't properly deinterlace 1080i film-based material, although it was, as usual, difficult to spot this issue.
As we mentioned at the top of this review, the 58-inch screen shows off the benefits of 1080p better than smaller screens, although the extra resolution was by no means a game changer. Unfortunately we didn't have a non-1080p set of similar size to directly compare, but when looking at test patterns we could differentiate between the one-pixel-wide lines from as far back as about 7 feet. When sitting farther back than that, the lines blended together, so we bet even the keenest-eyed viewers would have difficult time detecting the extra detail afforded by the higher-resolution screen. From 8 feet, comparing between the Panasonic and the smaller 1,366x768 Pioneer, we couldn't see the difference--even on the fine computer-animated plants in the demo material from Digital Video Essentials on HD DVD.
With such a large plasma, it makes sense to discuss the comparison to the alternative, a big-screen rear-projection HDTV such as the Samsung HL-T5687S. One big advantage of the plasma was its ability to maintain brightness and image uniformity when see from either side or above and below (plasma also beats LCD in this regard). Speaking of uniformity, the plasma also produced an even image on every part of the screen, while the Samsung (and, to a lesser extent, other RPTVs) has a hot spot in the middle that's noticeably brighter on the sides and corners. LCDs have their own uniformity issues too, from which plasmas don't typically suffer.
It's also worth mentioning that, when seen from severely off-angle, some images, such as white text on a black background, show a dimmer ghost-image repeated behind the main image, and in some cases more than one. This issue, caused by the multilayered plasma glass, is unique to Panasonic plasmas in our experience--it was absent from the Pioneer--and doesn't come up unless you're sitting far off-angle and viewing the right material. Another quirk of the TH-58PZ700U is the very faint vertical lines we saw on white and other light backgrounds that appeared to be part of the screen itself. They were completely invisible from further than 4 feet back.
The TH-58PZ700U has a screen designed to reduce glare from room lighting, but it wasn't as effective as that of the Pioneer or Panasonic's own TH-PZ77U series. Watching dark scenes in a brightly lit room, we could clearly see ourselves reflected in on the screen, and blacks appeared quite a bit lighter, washing out the image somewhat. Of course the Samsung RPTV and both LCDs attenuated more glare than any of the plasmas in the room.
The big Panasonic's standard-def video quality was a bit disappointing. It resolved every vertical line of resolution from the DVD, although horizontal resolution was not fully resolved, which softened some of the test scenes such as the fine brickwork in the stone bridge. The Panasonic was mediocre at removing jagged edges from moving diagonal lines, and we saw some evidence of jaggies in the waving American flag. Despite the presence of three different on/off controls for noise reduction, none of them were effective at cleaning up the noisy shots of skies, clouds, and sunset beaches. The set engaged 2:3 pull-down processing quickly and effectively, however.
With PC sources going in via HDMI, from the DVI output of our test computer, the Panasonic performed very well. It resolved every detail of the 1,920x1,080 resolution source and text looked great. Our only complaint had to do with the faint vertical lines, which were most noticeable from close-up (4 feet and closer) on white backgrounds (like a blank Word document). Sitting further back rendered the lines invisible. We also tried connecting via the set's VGA input and, as the manual states, the set maxed out at 1,280x1,024 resolution, which looked understandably soft on the high-res plasma. As usual, the digital connection provided better results.
| TEST | RESULT | SCORE |
| Before color temp (20/80) | 6,399/6,582K | Good |
| After color temp | N/A | |
| Before grayscale variation | +/- 60K | Good |
| After grayscale variation | N/A | |
| Color of red (x/y) | 0.658/0.339 | Poor |
| Color of green | 0.265/0.655 | Poor |
| Color of blue | 0.151/0.066 | Good |
| Overscan | 0 percent | Good |
| Black-level retention | No stable pattern | Poor |
| Defeatable edge enhancement | Yes | Good |
| 480i 2:3 pull-down, 24 fps | Yes | Good |
| 1080i video resolution | Pass | Good |
| 1080i film resolution | Fail | Poor |
| Panasonic TH-58PZ700U | Picture settings | ||
| Default | Calibrated | Power Save | |
| Picture on (watts) | 609.53 | 384.01 | N/A |
| Picture on (watts/sq. inch) | 0.42 | 0.27 | N/A |
| Standby (watts) | 0.3 | 0.3 | N/A |
| Cost per year | $185.28 | $116.80 | N/A |
 | |||
| Score (considering size) | Poor | ||
| Score (overall) | Poor | ||
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Panasonic Viera TH-58PZ700U:
$2,545.00 - $3,024.90
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
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$3,024.90 | Yes |
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$2,699.00 | No |
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$2,799.44 | Yes |
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Electronique Plus
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$2,737.00 | Yes |
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$2,875.94 | Yes |
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