PRODUCT REVIEW: DECEMBER 29, 2006
Panasonic TH-50PF9UK Plasma Monitor
Panasonic’s finally shipping a 50-inch 1080p plasma monitor, and it’s a keeper.
The battle for flat panel supremacy continues between LCD and plasma technology, and one tactical advantage of the LCD camp is full 1920x1080 resolution, available in HDTVs and monitors as small as 37 inches. It has proven a formidable obstacle for plasma manufacturers to overcome.
But they are reclaiming ground with a new generation of 50-inch 1080p plasma displays, starting with Pioneer’s PRO-FHD1 consumer HDTV and continuing with Panasonic’s TH-50PF9UK professional monitor. The latter is one of three new 1080p pro displays, the others being the 65-inch TH-65PF9UK and the immense 103-inch TH-103PF9UK.
Figure 1. Panasonic’s TH-50PF9UK is a new, 9th-generation plasma display.
There’s bound to be a lot of interest in this product on the part of consumers, too. Even though the TH-50PF9UK is only a monitor, its’ MSRP of $5,995 and the availability of DVI and HDMI expansion slots would make it a possible candidate for a home theater installation.
OUT OF THE BOX
The TH-50PF9UK retains Panasonic’s classic dark gray finish that’s been seen on Panasonic monitors for years. It’s not a deep gloss black or silver, just an unassuming “all business” color scheme. There are no speakers attached, but you can certainly order them as accessories — there’s a built-in 16W stereo amplifier with speaker terminals.
The connector complement is basic. There is one fixed input slot with a 15-pin VGA jack and stereo audio through a 1/8” mini jack. The remaining three slots can be populated with a variety of interfaces.
On the review model, Slot 3 was set up with three BNC jacks for component YPbPr video, while Slot 2 contained a DVI-D jack for both PC and HDCP signals. Both inputs have stereo audio connections as well. The review model also came with an optional HDMI expansion board (TY-FB8HM), which I installed in Slot 1.
There are actually 11 different expansion boards you can install for a variety of applications, some of which span two slots (composite/S-video/component) and one that spans three slots and includes a compact PC/server. There’s also an expansion slot for CAT5 UTP interconnects.
Figure 2. Here’s a view of the rear panel connections and expansion slots.
Figure 3. This is the optional TY-FB8HM HDMI expansion card.
REMOTE AND MENUS
The remote control has a clean layout, but there are a few too many small buttons for my liking. It’s obviously adapted from a consumer remote as it includes rocker switches for channel up/down and a 12-button numeric keypad. There are also controls for Picture In Picture, an “off” timer, and surround sound modes.
You’ll have direct access to any input as well as the four different sub-menus, which are Image Position/Size, Picture Adjust, Sound, and Setup. The Aspect Ratio control provides four different options with lower-resolution video: Normal (4:3), Zoom (fills image width to screen), Full (anamorphic stretch of image width), and Just (non-linear image stretch).
In the Picture menu, you can set basic parameters, such as brightness, contrast, color saturation, color hue, and sharpness. There are four preset image modes — Standard, Dynamic, Cinema, and Super Cinema — and you can tweak the parameters of each to suit your tastes.
An advanced menu provides more useful settings including Red and Blue contrast and brightness (still no green channel adjustments after all these years!), Black Extension (adjust grayscale at low luminance levels), Input Level (set between 0 and 7.5 IRE), and Gamma (2.0, 2.2, 2.5, and S-curve.
There’s also an AGC setting that boosts low-luminance video. I’d stay away from this function unless you are looking at some pretty noisy analog composite video. The TH-50PF9UK has excellent black levels and does a great job with clean video, as you’ll see in a moment.
While the menus do provide a great deal of control, the TH-50PF9UK is missing choices like color standard reference selections (709, 601, EBU) and preset color temperature settings like DCI 1.0 or SMPTE-C. I’d expect to see both in any professional monitor, along with a green channel adjustment.
Since the TH-50PF9UK’s native resolution is 1920x1080, there is a 1:1 pixel map setting. When turned off, it provides about 5–7% picture overscan. You’ll also find four “green” settings - Power Save, Standby Save, Power Management, and Auto Power Off.
The first setting lowers overall luminance levels, while the second reduces standby power consumption. The power supply can also be turned off automatically if no signal is present, using Power Management for the PC input and Auto Power Off for all other inputs.
Last but not least are several screen saver controls. Differential phosphor aging is a big problem with plasma (and, for that matter, any phosphor-based display) when static images with high luminous content are displayed for a long period of time. Those phosphors can age rapidly enough so a ghost image of them is seen when different content is shown.
The trick is to age all phosphors at a constant rate, so Panasonic provides three options. The first displays a scrolling white bar, which slowly moves back and forth on the screen like a windshield wiper. This is also useful for clearing image sticking due to a residual charge in any pixels. The second option provides a “negative’ or reversed image. Both can be left on-screen for pre-programmed intervals and will shut down automatically.
A third option is known as “wobbling”, but you’ll recognize it as pixel orbiting. In this mode, the entire picture is slowly shifted one pixel at a time, in a circular fashion. To the casual viewer, no motion is detected. But the static image is spread out over more pixels, which in theory should diminish differential aging.
ON THE TEST BENCH
I used several different signal sources to “ring out” the TH-50PF9UK. For brightness, contrast, and color measurements, an AccuPel HDG2000 provided the 720p and 1080i test signals. For video quality tests, I used the Silicon Optix Realta HD DVD, played from Toshiba’s HD-A2 player.
Other video quality checks came from HD DVDs of “King Kong” and “Superman Returns,” while 480i-to-1080i scaling performance was judged using the SDTV version of the Realta HQV DVD.
After calibration for best grayscale in Cinema mode with a gamma of 2.5 selected, I measured full white (FW) brightness at 70 nits (20.5 ft-L) with a 100 IRE test pattern. A small area pattern of similar intensity produced a reading of 113 nits (33 ft-L). Because of the monitor’s internal AGC system, full-screen, full-white brightness readings varied by only 6% across all four preset image modes.
Figure 4. The actual gamma curve in Cinema mode, after calibration.
Figure 5. The before and after grayscale tracks.
Image contrast was clocked at 701:1 ANSI (average) and 905:1 peak, again measured in Cinema mode. That’s largely due to the outstanding black level measurements I took, which averaged .154 nits. You can get higher peak contrast readings: I measured 1815:1 in Dynamic mode, but grayscale performance is impaired.
For one reason or another, grayscales start compressing around 120-130 nits, which results in “white crush.” Figure 4 compares the TH-50PF9UK gamma curves recorded in Cinema and Dynamic modes, and you’ll clearly see the high end of the grayscale getting clipped while in the latter mode.
256-level grayscale ramps are remarkably clean and free of false contouring, something Panasonic has been well known for. That clean grayscale also produces a nice steady track from 20 IRE to 100 IRE, as seen in Figure 5, with a maximum color temperature shift of 400 degrees K. That level of performance approaches a professional CRT monitor, as do the super-low black levels.
Figure 6a shows the uncorrected, “raw” color gamut for the TH-50PF9UK. The blue coordinate is almost dead-on, while the green and red coordinates exceed the REC.709 space. However, the green coordinate shifts towards blue, which combined with the lack of green contrast and brightness adjustments, will make it difficult to precisely overlay the REC.709 space.
Figure 6b shows the interpolated gamut of the TH-50PF9UK within the REC.709 color space. It comes very close to the desired red, blue, yellow, cyan, and magenta coordinates, but falls short in the green channel by about 13%. More yellow and less cyan in the green phosphor would correct the problem nicely.
Figures 6a and b. The TH-50PF9UK’s full color gamut (left) and
interpolated gamut (right) compared to the REC.709 space.
As for signal bandwidth, frequency response is good to at least 20 MHz, using 720p and 1080i luminance multiburst patterns. I saw some filling at 37.5 MHz in both modes. Chroma bandwidth is much better in 720p mode, but there is some color phase reversal at 37.5 MHz in 1080i mode.
I also tested the monitor for power consumption, using the WattsUp? Pro meter. Power Save, Power Management, and Auto Power were all switched “OFF,” and I selected Cinema mode with a 2.5 gamma to display content from Discovery HD for just shy of 9 hours. The Discovery HD programming varies in luminance from high to low and includes many station breaks with bright graphics.
Average power consumption during that period was 322 watts, which is on the low side for a 50-inch plasma. Total power consumption came to 3.055 KWH. Activating the Power Save feature would have reduced that number even more, but at the expense of screen brightness.
VIDEO IMAGE QUALITY
The TH-50PF9UK is happiest with progressive-scan images. It doesn’t matter if they’re 480p/576p, 720p, or 1080p. Yes, this monitor does support 1080p with 24Hz, 24Hz sF, 25Hz, 30Hz, 50Hz, and 60Hz refresh rates, through the DVI, RGB, or HDMI inputs.
It has some trouble deinterlacing 1080i cleanly, which was clearly shown using the HD DVD version of the Realta HQV test pattern disc. It also needs some help in cleaning up 480i content for the same reason — you’ll see “jaggies” in both interlaced modes on moving objects.
Running all interlaced signals through a Silicon Optix Whitehorse scaler (uses the Realta chipset) made a big difference and smoothed out all motion and scan line artifacts. 3:2 detection and correction does work well, but some of the oddball cadences on the Realta DVD gave the TH-50PF9UK problems, particularly Varispeed 3:2:3:2:2.
If you plan to use this monitor for post-production work, stay in Cinema mode and set your peak white no higher than 120 nits (35 ft-L). That will give you excellent dynamic range, smooth grayscales, and rich black levels. I ran clips from HD DVDs of King Kong and Superman Returns to judge low- and high-level detail and was impressed with flesh tones and color saturation throughout.
Live 720p and 1080i video from ESPN HD and Comcast SportsNet HD was also equally impressive. Colors were very accurate, pastels and flesh tones rendered nicely, and grayscale performance was top-notch. Fast motion was also crisp and clean (as it should be on an emissive display).
In fact, 1080p picture detail was so good I could clearly see macroblock and mosquito noise compression artifacts on NBC’s Sunday Night Football during periods of fast motion and camera movement. (Engineers who think that multicasting one or more SD programs with an HD program in a 19.39 Mb/s stream really ought to take a close look at their handiwork on the TH-50PF9UK!)
CONCLUSIONS
Panasonic’s TH-50PF9UK is definitely a keeper, as I stated at the beginning of this review. It has a very CRT-like image when set up correctly and takes full advantage of its 1920x1080 pixel matrix. Image quality is good enough to use as a reference monitor for many applications, such as exposure and gamma correction.
Tweaks to signal bandwidth through the analog inputs and higher saturation in the green channel would help for color grading and correction, particularly for content that will wind up in a digital cinema application. For public display and signage modes, the low power consumption will be appealing, as will the expansion slots and network/PC interfaces.
