Accurate colour reproduction has always been a challenge for plasma screens. Not only must the colour be bright and clear, with a good balance between red, green and blue, but the screen also needs to handle low intensity colour with a deft touch. Panasonic?s TH-50PV500A features an 8th generation plasma panel, which incorporates Panasonic’s Viera Colour Management System. This gives the screen greater control over fine colour gradation making it capable of reproducing up to 8.58 billion discrete colours.
The contrast levels of the screen are not as high as some other plasmas around these days, although the difference between 3000:1 and 10,000:1 are subtle in most cases. Panasonic also doesn’t release its brightness figures, although the TH-50PV500A is 10 percent brighter than its previous generation of screens.
The Viera also features an HDMI connector for a digital-to-digital connection with your high-definition set-top box, which is needed because there’s no built-in digital tuner.
