Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT20

Value Comparison

The Samsung UN55C7000 is a very good looking TV, in regards to both its aesthetic outer design and its display performance. The Panasonic is, well… just the latter. It’s a big, ugly box on the outside. Putting these TVs side by side (which we’re doing) is an interesting study in contrasts. The Panasonic is far darker, which made certain types of content, like horror films, look good. But the Samsung showed a lot more detail in the highlights. We imagine that the passing consumer might have a more positive first reaction to the Samsung, based purely on its brightness.

The final verdict is still up for vote, because we’re waiting on the glasses for the Samsung to view its 3D content. One thing’s for certain, we’d prefer the look of the Samsung in our living room.

Core Attributes Comparison
	Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT20	Samsung UN55C7000
Size	50 in.	55 in.
General Type	Plasma	LCD
Format	1080p	1080p

Blacks & Whites

The Panasonic TC-P50VT20 had a decidedly uneven performance in blacks & whites. Like the best plasmas, the black level was capable of dropping quite low, certainly better than an LCD television like the Samsung UN55C7000. But the Panasonic’s white level was just terrible. We could have tweaked with the settings all day, but having these two TVs side-by-side was illuminating (forgive the godawful pun). The Samsung is so much brighter. The test data bore this out, as well. Because of the disparity between these two tests, the contrast ratio is nearly even, but the Samsung pulls out ahead.

Color Accuracy

The Panasonic proved to have a more consistent color temperature than the Samsung, but only by a little. As you can see from the charts below, the both TVs warm as the signal intensity decreases, but the Samsung’s error is more egregious. RGB color curves were more closely matched. The important thing to note here is that the Samsung, with its bright backlighting, will show more detail in the highlights. The plasma Panasonic has deeper blacks.

Color Temperature Comparison
Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT20 (Score: 7.81)
Samsung UN55C7000 (Score: 6.39)

RGB Comparison
Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT20 (Score: 7.70)
Samsung UN55C7000 (Score: 8.00)

Motion

The motion performance on both the Panasonic TC-P50VT20 and the Samsung UN55C7000 was good, which is something you should hope for on TVs this expensive. However, the Panasonic showed virtually no artifacting, at least when we applied a little of the special motion processing features. Even so, the Samsung is still quite good.

Motion Scores
	Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT20	Samsung UN55C7000
Motion Score

Viewing Effects

The Panasonic TC-P50VT20 is a plasma TV. There’s no contest. It completely clobbered the Samsung UN55C7000.

Viewing Angle Comparison
Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT20: 12.67	Samsung UN55C7000: 4.95

Connectivity

The Panasonic TC-P50VT20 and the Samsung UN55C7000 are both good fits for a home entertainment system, with all the necessary ports. In Panasonic’s favor, it has more component and composite inputs, three more analog audio inputs, and an SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot. Also, the ports are easier to access. On the other hand, the Samsung has the ability to interface with hard drives through one of the USB ports.

Connectivity Comparison
	Panasonic TC-P50VT20	Samsung UN55C7000	Sony KDL-46EX700	Panasonic TC-P50G10
HDMI	4	4	4	3
Component	2	1	2	2
Composite	2	1	1	2
S-Video	0	0	0	1
VGA	1	1	1	1
Analog Audio In	4	2	4	4
Digital Audio Out	1	1	1	1
Analog Audio Out	0	1	1	1
Ethernet	Yes	Yes	None	None
Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
USB	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Memory Card Types	SD/SDHC/SDXC/SDXC	None	None	None
DLNA	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No

Other Comparisons

The 3D video performance is clearly one of the most interesting comparisons about this TV. Unfortunately, we don’t have all the information we need at the time of publication. Samsung didn’t provide the necessary glasses with the UN55C7000. Panasonic did provide glasses. We’ll have more about this soon.