LG 50PZ550 50-Inch 1080p 600 Hz Active 3D Plasma HDTV with Internet Applications

Cannot beat the price/performance for a 3D experience, March 23, 2011

By 

M. Murphy “No Bling” (McDonough, GA United States) –

  

Over the years, I’ve done reviews and have studied prior to purchasing. I did no different on this LG 60PZ550. I looked at nearly all brands of PLASMA TVs and finally fell into the LG realm. My first thought was to get the biggest/best, then I started looking at the actual numbers. What was my criteria?

1) Screen Size: 60″ … but, it had to be no more than 34″ in height.
2) 3D: this isn’t really my criteria, I inherited it from my kids.
3) Thickness: I don’t want a very thick or heavy TV
4) Plasma: Sorry, I’ve owned and viewed LED/LCDs v. Plasma – for sheer 1080p experience, my perception is that Plasma always looks better.

So, going through the brands, I found only LG to fit my criteria. The most important was #1, if it doesn’t fit where I need it to fit, all the bells/whistles won’t matter. I could give a hoot about 3D, but my kids insisted for their experience. We went to the big box stores and I will admit, it does look cool. I do not have the glasses yet, they are on their way (As the first reviewer mentioned, the 250’s are for this TV). Thickness, holy smokes, who wants those behemoths we had a few years ago. This is thin and fairly lightweight. Beautifully done. OK, then finally, the Plasma v. LED/LCD debate. It will go on/on/on.. it’s a matter of perception. Technically, the Plasmas have the edge; however, LED/LCDs are catching up. My personal perception is that Plasmas look MUCH better than LED/LCD. Your mileage may vary.

If you do the great comparison that Amazon has towards the bottom of the product page, you’ll see this TV is stacked up against the big 2 – PZ950 and PZ750 – whats missing from the 550? THX (yea right); TruBlack Filter (err, not sure what that is); SmartTV (more apps on the TV I’ll never use because my 3D Bluray player has them); Magic Motion Remote (great, another remote that I have to point “just right” to do the menus … plus, I already have a remote that turns it on and off) … hmm … not really seeing why I would pay a premium for those features. All else is equal.

So, yes, would I recommend? **ABSOLUTELY** What don’t I like about it? Nothing, I love it; however, something that might irritate people is the very reflective surface. It’s like a mirror; however, properly positioned (I have a tilt mount), it eliminates my the irritant factor. I’ve had it with lights on and off and it’s beautiful. Really, I am not using this TV to it’s true potential with all the stuff on it. I don’t use sound (it’s connected to an HDMI receiver), I don’t tune with it (U-Verse customer), I have 2 cables going to it: power and HDMI (high speed recommended … or … incorrectly labeled HDMI 1.4a). I don’t even use the internet portion. I use it as a HUGE monitor for all the stuff I do (U-Verse, Wii, PS3, Bluray) … and now 3D.

UPDATE 13APR2011 – This TV most certainly has ARC (Audio Return Channel). “Definition: Audio Return Channel (ARC) ia a very practical feature that has been introduced in HDMI ver1.4. What this function allows, if both a home theater receiver and a TV have HDMI ver1.4 and offer this feature, is that you can transfer audio from the TV back to a home theater receiver and listen to your TV’s audio through your home theater audio system instead of the TV’s speakers without having to connect a second cable between the TV and home theater system.”
The 60PZ550 is certainly doing this function through my receiver. I made the assumption that since I did not connect my internet to it, I wouldn’t need it. I connected my TV to the internet today to see what the functions were … typical … Netflix, Hula, Youtube… etc. I fired up a Netflix movie (which looked pretty decent) and low and behold, I have BEAUTIFUL sound coming out of my receiver. Please DISREGARD the reviewer who stated there was NO ARC.

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Incredible Picture!!, April 1, 2011

I just purchased this TV locally to replace my Sony KDL-46Z4100 LCD TV in the master bedroom. I felt the picture on my Sony was too dark…especially for playing video games on the PS3 and/or Xbox 360. I researched via google and read that a plasma TV is better for a darker environment. After hooking up the TV to the wall mount and turning it on, I was shocked at remarkable picture improvement between the plasma and my previous LCD. I feel this TV is WELL worth the money, considering it came with 2 free pair of AGS250 (current 2011 model) 3D glasses. A couple of notes: make sure you turn the contrast down to 60 or less, since the factory settings have it at 100. If you leave it at the default setting, you’ll have a problem with burn-in. I have mine set at 60/65 (contrast/brightness). You’ll notice burn-in either way if you watch a lot of sporting events as I do (IE – any programming that has a non-moving bar along the bottom…like the current score of a game), but it’s easy to get rid off by either tuning in a channel with white noise or using the TV’s built-in ISM (Image Sticking Minimization) “white wash” feature to eliminate it. Overall, I’m very satisfied with this purchase….GREAT VALUE!

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