Why You Can Trust CNET Panasonic Viera G20 (TX-P50G20B) review: Panasonic Viera G20 (TX-P50G20B)
The 50-inch, 1080p Viera TX-P50G20B is a corking plasma TV. Its design isn't hugely exciting, but its performance with Blu-ray movies, and high-definition content via its freesat HD and Freeview HD tuners, is magnificent. If you can afford to fork out for it, we think it'll make you very happy
There are plenty of people who, for whatever reason, just don't care about the arrival of 3D TVs. The 50-inch, 1080p Panasonic Viera TX-P50G20B plasma TV is aimed at such folk -- it's full of amazing features that will appeal to picture-quality enthusiasts, but it doesn't cost the earth and you don't need daft glasses to watch it.
Panasonic Viera G20 (TX-P50G20B)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
You might argue that buying a TV that isn't 3D-capable now is rather daft. But this set costs around £700 less than the 3D version, and has broadly the same set of features, including an identical panel. Come to think of it, we're surprised Panasonic isn't shipping this TV as '3D ready' and selling a glasses pack separately.
The TX-P50G20B costs around £1,400 and is available now. Let's take a look and find out if it's worth all that money.
Black ain't whack
We always feel rather uncharitable when we moan about the appearance of Panasonic TVs. After all, they aren't ugly -- they're just a little, erm, dull. But, while they aren't the most exciting sets to look at, they're sturdy and well built. Like most TVs, the TX-P50G20B sports a piano-black finish, and will look good in virtually all rooms, even bright pink ones, if that's your bag.
Freeview and freesat in HD
Panasonic's always embraced new ways to deliver TV channels. It was one of the first companies to integrate freesat HD tuners into its TVs, and now it's done the same with Freeview HD, which is potentially a more exciting development.
When you set up the TX-P50G20B, it scans DVB and analogue TV frequencies as any normal telly would. Once it's done, you probably won't notice much difference, but head to channel 50 or 51 and, as long as you're in a Freeview HD region, you'll see either BBC HD or ITV HD. The simplicity of this is really appealing -- take the TV out of the box and, minutes later, you're watching a high-definition channel.
If you don't know whether your region has Freeview HD yet, check the Freeview site, which has a postcode checker that will tell you. If you aren't in a Freeview HD region, then hook the TV up to a satellite dish, and you'll get dozens of free channels via freesat, including HD channels from the BBC and ITV.
Electronic programme git
As much as we love the fact that this TV has both Freeview HD and freesat HD tuners, we can't help being rather irked by the electronic programme guide. Why? Because the two systems -- freesat and Freeview -- aren't combined, so you have to switch between the two of them to view the listings. It would be much better if Panasonic offered you the option to combine all of the available services into one easy-to-use EPG.
We also have an ongoing hatred of the Guide Plus+ system that Panasonic insists on using in all its Freeview hardware. Not only is it festooned with annoying adverts, it also looks pretty hideous. It feels like something from the '90s, and we really don't care for it.
TV nut's delight
The TX-P50G20B is clearly aimed at people who care about picture quality. To that end, Panasonic has had this set THX-certified -- when the TV is in its THX picture mode, what you see on the screen is as close to the original image as possible. For us, watching movies in this mode is about as good as it gets with out-of-the-box settings -- we really liked the tones, colours and black levels of this TV when playing Blu-ray movies. Normal TV shows aren't quite as bright and gaudy as you might be used to, though, and we fear many people will plonk their TVs on the dynamic setting.
If you're a real nut for image quality, then you'll no doubt be stoked to hear that the TV can also be calibrated by an engineer certified by the Imaging Science Foundation. When this is done, the TV has two custom modes used for optimal viewing -- Pro1 and Pro2. One is designed to be used during the day, and one at night -- or with the blinds and curtains closed for cinema-style viewing. ISF calibration isn't cheap, but it will get your TV's pictures looking as good as the laws of physics allow.
As a matter of artefact
Overall, we liked the TX-P50G20B's picture quality a great deal. But there's something we should mention. Because we had a brand-new TV, pictures showed some solarisation effects -- random colours on moving objects and haloing around bright objects. (Plasma TV panels take around 100 hours to reach their best quality.) We're mentioning this here because we don't believe it to be a fault, and want you to understand that, when you get this TV home, you may notice some mild problems to start with. Sadly, we don't have a couple of months to spend with each TV we review, so inevitably we'll see these problems from time to time.
Despite some artefacts, we couldn't help but be impressed by the TX-P50G20B's pictures. In the case of Blu-ray material, we urge you to use the THX mode. This will give the best initial image quality. To get the picture to the point where we were really satisfied, however, we needed to perform a few more tweaks. For example, we dialled the brightness down a little more than the default setting, which improved the black levels and contrast.
We also upped the contrast slightly, and made sure both the intelligent-frame-creation mode and other 'picture-enhancing' modes were switched off. As is the case with all TVs, creating extra frames to smooth motion is all well and good, but the TX-P50G20B, sadly, suffers from artefacts when the extra frames are generated. Run this panel without the trickery. It's much better that way.
Standard-definition Freeview picture quality was good but not exceptional. We found that the picture looked, for the most part, quite soft. This is to be expected on a large-screen TV. The screen proves how capable it is, however, when you switch to BBC HD and see something like Hustle in high definition. It looks totally amazing, and we can only hope that more TV shows are made in HD soon, because this is how pictures are supposed to look.
Plugging away
There are plenty of things you can plug into this TV, including a Wi-Fi dongle, four HDMI cables, an Ethernet connection and the usual array of analogue video connectors, such as Scart, component and composite video. There's also a pair of USB sockets -- one designed for the Wi-Fi dongle and one for a memory stick or portable hard drive. As with all Panasonic hardware, there's an SD-card slot too, for looking at photos and AVC video.
Get your Net on
As you might have guessed by the talk of Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, the Panasonic is very much an Internet-ready TV. It comes with Viera Cast, which allows you to connect with services specially selected by Panasonic. You can connect to Dailymotion and YouTube to watch short-form video, for example. There's no catch-up service yet, so iPlayer is just a pipe dream, as are Sky Player and movie streaming from LoveFilm. But the TX-P50G20B is capable of supporting all of these, so all that's really needed is for Panasonic to do a deal with the relevant companies.
The system itself works brilliantly, and we were very taken with how snappy the interface is. At the moment, we see the Internet functionality as a diversion -- for when you're really dying to watch cat videos, for example -- but we can see Panasonic offering some really cool content in the future. It's just a shame that it isn't here yet.
Sound's atrocious
As we expected, the TX-P50G20B's sound quality is utterly dire. Built-in speakers are never any good, and you should jolly well have a separate set of speakers attached to your new £1,400 HDTV. After all, sound is half the experience. The integrated speakers will, however, suffice for most TV viewing.
Conclusion
We think you should buy the Panasonic Viera TX-P50G20B. It will almost certainly make you very happy indeed. It's got a shed load of cool Internet features, and the picture is very good, with the potential to get even better if you get it calibrated properly. It's also a decent-looking TV and just about the only screen on the market that can claim to come anywhere close to the black levels of Pioneer TVs. That said, this TV isn't capable of the deep blacks displayed by our Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX5090, which remains our reference TV two years after it was discontinued.
Edited by Charles Kloet