LG 50PZ550 3D Plasma HDTV Review

Conclusion

LG did not release a good set of plasma televisions this year. We really expected to see a line of televisions that could compete with the best because of the sterling color performance of their LCD displays. However, none of these plasmas were going to win our year end awards. What we saw instead of pristine machines, were a couple of dim displays with overly manipulated mechanics, that basically failed most of our tests.

The LG 50PZ550 ($1099 MSRP) is not completely worthless. When you buy an LG smart TV, you get one of the best menu systems in the game, with great online content done in an easy-to-use interface. The viewing angle, like most plasma screens, was really wide, so you could be spread across the room and see a reasonably unaffected picture. Furthermore, the motion processing was really top notch. Moving pictures will have no problem getting across the screen.

But the list of cons is long and severe. Both the color performance and the black and white values have such a limited range because they have been so crushed on either end of the spectrum. The result is a pretty big loss of detail at both ends of the spectrum, blanketing pictures in ink black shadows and color that lacks value differentiation to describe important detail. If owning a 3D TV excites you, consider that the brightest a 3D image will ever get on this TV is no more than 8, yes 8 cd/m2. Try turning down the backlight of your television down as low as possible and then wear sunglasses, that is what 8 cd/m2 looks like.

We would understand if the the LG 50PZ550 had a few flaws. Hey, no one's perfect, but the drawbacks don't just impede on a perfect picture, they remove the possibility of showing reasonably accurate images at brightnesses you can see. You work hard for your money, and you shouldn't have to spend a good hunk of it on a television that just can't output a proper picture.