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| The TH-46PZ8OU had a decent angle of view in our tests, but the glossy screen showed reflections that proved to be somewhat distracting. The various image processing features it offers did little to improve the image quality; we don't recommend that you use them. |
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Viewing Angle (10.0) 
The viewing angle of a display is a critical part of its performance. Only one person typically gets to sit right in front of the display (or two people if you are good friends); the rest get to sit at an angle to either side of the screen. So, we test how the display performs at a variety of angles, right up to 85 degrees from straight on. The graph on the right shows how the contrast ratio of the display of the screen holds up
The manufacturers produce ratings for the viewing angle of displays based on a number of different measurements (based on brightness, contrast, etc), but we look at the angle at which the contrast ratio falls by half. And, like most plasmas, the TH-46PZ8OU looked good across most of the viewing angle range; we measured the angle at which contrast fell by 50 per cent at at pretty amazing 78 degrees. Colors also remained bright across most of the viewing range, only becoming pale at a very extreme angle.
Reflectance (4.0)
The TH-46PZ8OU has a shiny glass front to the screen, and this proves to be something of an issue. This reflects a lot of light, and you can distinctly see the shape of the light source if the angle is right. These are somewhat irritating; most TVs have a matte front of the screen which makes reflections more diffuse, but the shiny glass of this one makes the reflections sharper and definitely more irritating; we found the reflections to be somewhat distracting while watching a dark sequence of a movie.
Part of this is a question of positioning; as with any display, you should consider putting lights in a position that minimizes reflections. But you can't always do this, and the shiny glass of the TH-46PZ8OU will make any reflections that you can't control more irritating than they should be.
Video Processing (2.5)
Most TVs include some form of video processing that, the manufacturers claim, will help enhance the image quality. In this section of the review, we look at what they claim for these, and what we found.
| Processing Type |
What They Claim |
What We Saw |
| Video NR |
"Reduces noise, commonly called snow" |
Very slight improvement with some noisy analog signals; smooth out some of the noise in areas of flat color. |
| 3D Y/C filter |
"Minimizes noise and cross-color in the picture" |
Very, very slight improvement with some particularly noisy analog signals; smooths out some mosquito noise. |
| MPEG NR |
"Reduces noise of specific digital signal of DVD, STB, etc" |
Removes some of the jitter and blockiness from heavily compressed digital signals (such as online video and DVD home movies) |
| Black Level |
"Selects Dark or Light" |
Dark makes shadows, and lowlights deeper, but looses a lot of detail in the process. |
Most of these are only useful if you are watching an analog video source; if you are watching a digital source (such as high def cable box, digital over the air TV or a digital DVD player), they won't make any difference, or aren't available. The Black Level control is also only available when you are using a digital input. Overall, as with most of these processing effects, we don't recommend that you use any of them. Video NR and 3D Y/C filter might be useful if you are trying to watch a poor quality cable or analog over the air signal. But if you really need to use these, you would be better off calling your cable company and complaining, or buying a new TV antenna and switching to a digital TV signal. The other controls aren't that useful; the black level just pushes down the black point, making the image darker. Again, you'd be better served calibrating the TV to more accurately represent black than trying to fake it with this feature.
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