Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ8OU Plasma HDTV Review - Performance: Motion

The TH-46PZ8OU produced smooth, clean motion that maintained the detail in images well. It also worked with 24 frame per second and video sources requiring 3:2 pulldown processing, such as TV shows that want to look like movies.

Motion Smoothness (8.5)
The TH-46PZ8OU is not a 120Hz display; instead the screen is refreshed 60 times a second. This means that the motion of objects on the screen may not be as smooth as the newer 120Hz models. However, the motion of objects on the screen was smooth, and even fast movements kept a smooth, organic look as they moved across the screen. One thing that we did notice was a slight amount of trailing; objects moving against black backgrounds had a slight trail of color behind then. UPDATE: an earlier version of this review erroneously listed this display as being a 120Hz model; it is not.

Update: please note that the text in this section does not explain that refresh rate on Plasma televisions is not the same as refresh rate on LCD televisions. In generaly Plasma televisions do not have the same issues with  motion blurring that LCD televisions have. You should not consider refresh rate to be an important spec in regards to motion for Plasma televisions like the TH-46PZ8OU.

Motion Artifacting (8.5)
The flip side of motion is the amount of detail that the display manages to maintain in images on the screen; having smooth motion is no good if the details of the images turn into a glitchy mess. We saw little evidence of such issues on the TH-46PZ8OU; the smooth motion was accompanied by a good level of detail in the images. We did see some minor issues, though; some sharp color transitions (such as a transition from red to green) had a tendency to produce slight blotchiness in the areas of color, as if the screen was having some trouble making the transition from one color to the other quickly.

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps (7.5)
All movies and many TV shows are shot at a frame rate of 24 frames per second, then converted to the 29.97 frames per second of a TV signal using a process called Telecine. Many displays can detect this and try to restore the filmic look using a process called 3:2 pulldown. The TH-46PZ8OU is one such display; it did an excellent job of detecting the telecine signal and interpreting it to recreate the film look of a 24 frames per second video source. Our only complaint is that you can't control this; there is no way to enable or disable the setting through the on-screen menu.

The TH-46PZ8OU also did a good job of rendering a 24fps video source (we use a Blu-ray movie and a PS3 set to output a 24fps signal); again, the motion of the image was clean and smooth.