Panasonic Viera TH-PZ85U review: Panasonic Viera TH-PZ85U

Editors' note: The rating on this review has been lowered because of changes in the competitive marketplace.

Panasonic rules the plasma roost, outselling other brands and rolling out a massive suite of models to compete against LCD in 2008. The TH-PZ85U series may be the most exciting of the bunch, thanks to its improved black-level performance, the holy grail of home theater image quality. The 46-inch TH-46PZ85U represents a new size that contends directly against 46- and 47-inch LCD sets, and it indeed produces some of the deepest black levels we've ever seen on any display. A few other aspects of its picture quality, however, make this Panasonic plasma a bit less exciting than we originally thought. Still, for home theater aficionados who can deal with a bit of video noise, somewhat less-accurate color, and a price premium over many LCDs and even some 50-inch plasmas, the TH-46PZ85U's deep blacks are easily worth the trade-offs.

Design
While it can no doubt qualify as "sleek," the Panasonic TH-46PZ85U isn't quite as handsome to our eye as the Samsung PN50A550, although the styling differences between the two glossy-black, flat-panel plasma HDTVs are subtle. The bottom of the Panasonic's frame rounds downward slightly, where a sort of "lip" protrudes with downward-firing speakers. The included stand doesn't swivel, and it lacks a trim, attractive pedestal supporting the panel, but at least its large swath of glossy plastic out front seems entirely tip-proof. All told, this 46-inch plasma measures 46 inches by 31 inches by 15.3 inches including the stand and 46 inches by 28.9 inches by 3.7 inches without it, and weighs 81.6 pounds and 772 pounds, respectively.

The remote is also the same as last year, and we remain fans of its design. The medium-length wand groups the distinct sets of right-size buttons in an easy-to-feel arrangement, and although we'd have liked to see some backlighting, we didn't really miss it after a few minutes of becoming familiar with the button layout. Panasonic also throws a smattering of controls, along with the SD card slot, into an access bay on the right side, which might be a bit difficult to access if the set is mounted on the wall.

A panel on the right side of the TV allows access to a few controls and an SD card slot.

A familiar yellow-on-blue menu system leads to the television's setup functions, and although the graphics lack the panache of a Sony or a Samsung menu, navigation was intuitive enough. We liked that the company renamed its previously confusing "Normal" command to "Reset," which more accurately describes what it does to your picture settings.

Features
Like most plasmas in Panasonic's 2008 lineup, the TH-46PZ85U has a native resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, or 1080p. In fact, Panasonic's 46-inch plasmas all have 1080p resolution, which is fast becoming a standard feature on all flat-panel HDTVs. As we've said before, however, the difference between 1080p and lower resolutions is difficult to discern, especially at this screen size (see Performance for more).

The Panasonic's main picture menu includes the standard array of controls.

Picture controls on the TH-46Z85U aren't as extensive as seen on many HDTVs. While we appreciated the capability to adjust all of the five picture modes, and the fact that the Custom mode is independent per input, we missed the capability to adjust color temperature beyond the three presets. There's also no gamma control, which may have improved the realism of the set's shadows. Extra picture controls of note include a color management control that does improve color decoding slightly; a "C.A.T.S." mode that changes contrast on the fly and so should be left turned off; two species of noise reduction; and a black level control.

Panasonic also touts the mysterious Game mode, which turns out to be little more than an easy way to select a particular input. A quick press of the "Game" button on the remote toggles between any of the inputs that have been labeled "Game" in the input naming menu. Pressing that button does not engage the Game picture mode (which is simply another collection of adjustable picture settings), nor does it affect video processing or lag time between controller and screen--although, to be fair, such modes on other HDTVs have little value as far as we can discern.

The TH-46PZ85U offers five aspect ratio controls for HD sources, more than most HDTVs on the market. There's also a setting that lets the TV display every pixel of 1080i and 1080p sources without overscan, and we recommend using it unless you notice interference along the extreme edges of the screen, which can occur on some HD channels. The same selection of five modes is also available for SD sources.

A new menu for 2008 deals with burn-in or, as the company calls it, "image retention." There's a pixel orbiter that moves the entire image gradually around the screen, along with an option to set the 4:3 mode to include gray bars to either side of the picture (as opposed to black, which cause image retention more easily than gray). On the off chance that the plasma retains an image, there's a scrolling bar that slides across the screen as a sort of eraser.

We would have liked to see an energy-saver mode on this TV, especially with its prodigious power consumption--according to our measurements (see the Juice box below), it actually consumes more power than the 50-inch Samsung PN50A550. The Panasonic TH-46PZ85U also lacks picture-in-picture, but it does include a thoughtful "Surf Mode" control, which can be set to restrict the TV's tuning options. You can set it to "all," "favorite," "digital only," or "analog only."

Two HDMI inputs and a PC input highlight the Panasonic's back-panel connectivity.

The jack pack of the TH-46PZ85U is just about standard, including a pair of HDMI inputs on the back panel and a third to the side, for easier access. A VGA-style PC input is also on board (1,360x768 maximum resolution), along with two component video inputs, an AV input with composite or S-Video, an RF input for antenna or cable, as well as an optical and an analog audio output. In addition to that last HDMI input, the side panel also sports a second AV input with composite and S-Video.

A secondary panel on the left side houses a third HDMI input and an analog input.

Performance
The Panasonic's picture quality was a bit less impressive, despite superb black-level performance, than that of the best plasmas we've tested recently. Our main hang-up revolved around its ineffective noise reduction and less-accurate color.

The Cinema picture preset came quite close to our standard calibration, although we would have appreciated the capability to adjust the set's color temperature beyond the still-too-cool Warm preset, as well as the capability to tweak gamma. We adjusted the remainder of the controls to our liking--see the Tip for details--and then set up our comparison between the Panasonic, the Samsung PN50A550P, and our reference sets, including the Pioneer PDP-5080HD plasma. We checked out Juno on Blu-ray for the majority of our image quality tests.

Black level: The TH-46PZ85U exhibited the deepest shade of black we've seen from any Panasonic plasma, deeper than any display we've reviewed except for the Pioneer and the OLED-based Sony XEL-1. Those deep blacks lent punch and dimension to both dark and brighter scenes; the black background behind the freaky girl Goth librarian, for example, was a couple of shades darker than the Samsung and the other displays in our test, aside from the Pioneer. The black-level difference between the Panasonic and the Pioneer was slight, and we could only confirm it by side-by-side comparison.

Details in shadows, however, such as the dark hair of the ultrasound technician in the dim hospital room, appeared a bit too bright and thus less realistic on the Panasonic than they did on the other two plasmas.

Color accuracy: Compared with the Samsung and the Pioneer, the TH-46PZ85U fell a step behind in this category. Its color temperature measured a tab bluer than the standard, which introduced a hint of paleness into skin tones and other delicate areas. We also noticed red push, which over-accentuated reds in the color decoding and again imbalanced delicate colors--the only way to reduce its effects was to dial back the color control somewhat to de-saturate the image. During the scene between Juno and Bleeker on his front lawn, for example, the effect of these color issues was somewhat less-realistic skin tones in close-ups of their faces, as well as a bit less impact in the colorful furniture compared with the rest of the displays. The Panasonic's superb black levels helped keep the colors punchy, however. We also noticed the effects of the TH-46PZ85U's inaccurate green primary in, for example, the slightly paler, less-lush green of Bleeker's grass.

Video processing: As we'd expect from a 1080p plasma, the TH-46PZ85U successfully resolved every detail of 1080i and 1080p sources according to test patterns, and while it didn't correctly de-interlace 1080i film-based sources, we don't consider that a deal-breaker. As usual, it was nearly impossible to appreciate any difference in detail between the 1080p Panasonic and the 720p Pioneer--both looked equally sharp with 1080 resolution sources.

The biggest issue with the Panasonic compared with the other displays was its relatively ineffective noise reduction. Juno isn't the cleanest Blu-ray Disc, and we saw significantly more roiling motes of snowy video noise and film grain in numerous scenes, such in the ultrasound room in the background and on Juno's pregnant belly, than we did on the other displays (all of their NR controls were engaged for this test). We confirmed these observations with the noise tests from the HQV Blu-ray disc and other relatively noisy/grainy discs, such as the Full Metal Jacket Blu-ray. Of course, the motes become less visible from further seating distances--we didn't object to the belly noise from further than about 10 feet, for example--but it can be an issue with certain material and closer seating distances, especially to people sensitive to video noise.

Bright lighting: We compared all of the displays in a brightly lit room, with overhead fluorescent lights and the screens facing the windows on a bright afternoon, and the Panasonic's antireflective screen held its own. It didn't attenuate reflections to the same extent as the Pioneer but it was pretty close, and clearly better than the Samsung. Of course, matte screens of the rear-projection and LCD reference displays were best of all, but for a plasma, the TH-46PZ85U's antireflective screen was very good.

We did ask the company why it was no longer offering the excellent antiglare screen found on the 2007 TH-PX77U and TH-PZ77U models, and a spokesman told us that customers didn't like those screens as much. That's a shame in our opinion, because those screens worked great for rooms with a lot of ambient light--significantly better than any antireflective screen in our experience, including the Pioneer.

Standard-definition: The TH-46PZ85U earned a below-average score in our standard-definition tests. Details were relatively soft, and the full resolution of the DVD format, according to test patterns, was not displayed. The Panasonic did an average job of removing jagged edges from moving diagonal lines, and, as with high-definition sources, its noise reduction wasn't as effective at cleaning up snowy-looking material, such as HQV's low-quality shots of skies and sunsets, as the other two plasmas--especially the Samsung. It did quickly engage 2:3 pull-down.

PC: Via HDMI, the Panasonic performed perfectly, resolving every detail of a 1,920x1,080 source according to DisplayMate. Unfortunately, the set's maximum resolution via VGA is much lower, just 1,360x768, and since that resolution doesn't match the panel's pixels exactly, we saw the usual softness around edges and funky-looking text.

Juice box

Panasonic TH-46PZ85U	Picture settings
	Default	Calibrated	Power Save
Picture on (watts)	454.51	329.05	N/A
Picture on (watts/sq. inch)	0.5	0.36	N/A
Standby (watts)	0.92	0.92	N/A
Cost per year	$138.58	$100.48	N/A
Score (considering size)	Poor
Score (overall)	Poor

*Cost per year based on 2007 average U.S. residential electricity cost of 10.6 cents per kw/hr at 8 hours on/16 hours off per day.