Panasonic TC-P42X1 Plasma HDTV Review - Color Accuracy

Color Accuracy Summary
• Great color temperature. • Average color representation. • Color gamut isnt' particularly accurate.
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Color Temperature (9.8)

Color temperature refers to how the television emulates white. The ideal color temperature is 6500K. If it's higher than this, the TV will look bluish; lower than this and it'll look reddish. Color temperature isn't always consistent, so we measure it throughout the grayscale.
 

The TC-P42X1 had a pretty solid color temperature. On the graph below, the black line represents the ideal color temperature. Above that line is a red tint, below it is blue. It might look slightly erratic, quickly vacillating between slightly red and slightly blue, but those tiny spikes won't be perceptible. Overall, this was a great performance. 

This graph plots the same data differently. The dots in the red circle represent color temperatures we measured that are so close to ideal they'd be imperceptible. The overwhelming majority of dots do fall within the red circle.
 

 RGB Curves (6.63)

Every color on the TV is made up of red, green, and blue light. These three colors are therefore very important, so we measure how each one performs from low to high levels of intensity. The three following graphs should all appear to be smooth, concave hyperbolas.
 

First of all, you might notice that none of the colors have much of a presence in the low end. These hyperbolas are suppose to start picking up steam well before they do, and then increase gradually for a while. As it is, the TV loses a lot of detail in the low end. Similarly, the colors don't ramp up their intensity as much as they should. Further, notice the jagged edges along the curve of the graph, particularly towards the higher intensities? This means colors aren't being uniformly represented.
 

In summation, the TC-P42X1 has below average color quality. 

Color Gamut (3.78)

TVs are supposed to display a certain range (gamut) of colors. The size and shape of this gamut isn't vague by any means: they're specifically defined by the international standard, ITU Recommendation .709, or Rec.709 for short. Typically TVs follow this standard loosely.
 

In the TC-P42X1's case, they weren't particularly faithful to Rec.709. Note how the greens and reds extend further out than they should? This means these two colors are likely to appear oversaturated on the screen.