LG 60PK950

Display Size & Technology

The LG 60PK950 is a plasma television, displaying at 1080p. It builds on the technology from last year's predecessors, but LG is expected to make some performance gains. First, the glass in the display is thinner, which not only makes the unit weigh less, but is reported to enhance the appearance of dark colors. It should also reduce the amount of bounce-back reflection, an annoying phenomenon that occurs in plasma TVs in which the glass reflects the image back on itself, creating a halo effect around objects when you look at them from an angle.

LG is also planning on enabling the PK950 series for 3D display, but that particular detail has not been confirmed. If it's true, it makes sense. The leading TV manufacturers are kicking off 2010 but putting the 3D option on their top series. Like many others, LG is using Active Shutter technology, which requires glasses (and likely expensive glasses, though prices are not available yet).

This is what a 60-inch screen looks like when it's scaled to 520px.

Both the 50-inch and 60-inch models in the PK950 series are set to have the same features. Only screen size will vary.

Formats & Resolution

The LG 60PK950 is a native 1080p television, with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. You'd be hard pressed to find a 720p TV over 32 inches this year. 

Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio

LG is claiming an improvement called TruBlack Filter, which uses a different type of glass to enhance dark color. Of course, the side-by-side samples on the CES show floor make the difference impossible to ignore, but we're not prone to trusting manufacturers. We'll have to wait until we get a PK950 into our labs to confirm the claim.

Color

There was little mentioned about color performance improvement over last year, except to repeat what's stated above: LG claims dark colors will be enhanced, whatever that means.

Motion & Refresh Rate

The LG 60PK950 features a 600Hz sub-field refresh. Plasma refresh rates aren't the same as LCD refresh rates, though, so don't go drooling over such a high number. Plasmas don't refresh the entirety of the screen, just part of it, hence sub-field refresh. This being said, we didn't notice any obnoxiously obvious artifacting or blurring on the show floor. 

Viewing Angle

Plasma TVs have a much better viewing angle than LCD TVs. We couldn't take real measurements at the CES show, but we'd expect it to still look good 60-70 degrees away from center.