The King is dead. Long live the King!

No one at Panasonic seemed to care that Pioneer left the plasma TV market. Then again, maybe they did. It would have been easy, perhaps expected, for Panasonic to put out a gussied-up version of their last generation plasma now that the direct picture quality competition has fled the market. But that's not how it played out.

The G10 is a significant step forward in picture quality for the company best known for value and consistency more than outright picture quality.

Then again, the G10 is based on the NeoPDP glass that has been in development for years, so maybe it’s just the pea-sized part of my brain that pretends to be a journalist struggling to come up with a clever intro. Whatever. The G10 is a big step forward in picture quality. Crap, I said that already.

Repetition is good, right? Ask Philip Glass. Ask Philip Glass. Ask Philip Glass.

(I'm going to guess about three people got that joke, and if you didn't, just smile and nod. I get that a lot.)

The Case

The G10 doesn’t look that different from the previous generations, with a glossy black bezel and a little chrome strip along the bottom. It’s also not one of the über-thin models that many companies are coming out with (that’s coming in the Z1 series).

That’s not to say the G10 isn’t thin, it’s only 4-inches deep. The remote is a touched up version of the one they've been using for a while. It's got huge, friendly buttons that are oddly endearing, and while there is no direct input access, the input menu pulls up a list where you can select the input you want.

Like the 800-series I reviewed last year, the G10 is THX-certified, and has a mode so named in the menu. Selecting this gets you most of the way toward the accurate-looking display I always recommend. The color points shift, as does the color temperature and a few other settings. It’s not perfect and still needs some adjusting with a setup DVD/BD.

Once you dial in that last little bit, though, you get a fantastically accurate display. I don’t think I’ve measured a plasma this accurate before (Samsung LCDs are usually the only other flat panels that measure this accurate). Red and green are just a touch oversaturated, but so close you’d never notice.

This has a dramatic effect on the image. I’m a sucker for accurate colors. I find the image to be immensely more watchable and realistic. The sky, grass, food, skin tones—everything that you have a real-world reference for looks more realistic. There is less of a “watching a TV” feeling and more of an, “I am so absorbed in this movie” feeling.

If you want to go back to the oversaturated, there are other picture modes that blow out the red and green. Do yourself a favor and put the G10 in THX mode as soon as you get it, and leave it that way for a few days. Then check the other modes. I’m positive you won’t be able to get back to the accurate image fast enough. That’s not to say the other modes are bad, just that THX mode is so much better.

The HD detail is truly fantastic. I’m sad to say I’ve gotten so used to the motion blur with LCD and LCOS displays that seeing such solid and consistent detail is welcome and almost relaxing. Everything seems a little more realistic when it doesn’t blur out with motion.

Panasonic claims this is due to their 600 Hz sub-field drive. Mostly, this is a marketing ploy against the 120/240/etc Hz refresh from the LCD companies. All plasmas have to have sub fields to create the light we see as an image. Cranking it up to 600 Hz (it was 480) is laudable, but the benefit is elsewhere in the image (like in noise and gradations) than specifically motion. Hey, it can't hurt.

Speaking of that, another positive aspect to the picture you don't notice at first, because it isn't there. There is very little noise in the image, and here the G10 has a clear (get it, a pun!) leg up over the KURO.

On the processing side, the G10 continues to impress. The standard tests, like the rotating bar and flag clip on the HQV Test DVD, both show minimal jagged edges. While the G10 takes an extra beat to pick up the 3:2 sequence, it does pick it up with both 480i and 1080i (with component and HDMI). Oddly, you have to enable the 3:2 in the advanced picture menu. With actual video material, the processing in the G10 looks better than many upconverting DVD players. You may be able to get a little more created detail with some said players, but not a lot.

The black level and contrast ratio are second only to the KURO. The black level is a touch higher and the contrast ratio is a touch lower, but both are a lot better than nearly all LCDs. The image really pops, and it has a depth that is still lacking in most LCDs.

Like nearly all new Panasonic products, the G10 has VIERA Cast, a web portal for Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube videos, weather and so on. (I go into this in detail in the BD80 Review). It's a neat feature that works well on the G10, though it's not something that would push me one way or another in a TV purchase. Maybe that's just me. Maybe you really like weather.

The G10 accepts a 1080p/24 signal, and you can select 48Hz in the Advanced picture menu. This eliminates the inherent judder in the 3:2 sequence that’s required when watching 24 frame-per-second films on 60-Hz refresh TVs.

The last generation Panasonic plasma could do this as well, but it flickered badly. Well, the flickering has gotten better, but it’s still a little like watching PAL (which, not surprisingly, is 50 Hz). Your mileage may vary, but I found the flicker to be a little too distracting to watch. I’m getting used to not watching the 3:2 film judder thanks to a multitude of displays that now offer a refresh with a multiple of 24. Hopefully the next generation of Panasonic plasmas will have got this working fluidly.

The Once and Future King?

It’s great to see a mainstream product have such impressive performance. Just a few years ago, a picture this good in a flat panel was only available in the highest priced displays.

The G10 doesn’t quite unseat the vaunted KURO, but as that king abdicates, Panasonic has done an outstanding job of offering up a replacement that performs nearly as well (and in some ways better)... for less than half the price. Hail to the King, baby.

PRICE:
TC-P46G10: $1,500

CONTACT: 800.405.0652, Panasonic.com