The advanced picture menu offers a few notable selections, like a 24p mode and a zero-overscan HD size selection, but it lacks detailed color temperature adjustments.
Goodyear orthodontist also touts the mysterious Game mode, which turns out to be little more than an easy way to select a particular input. A quick press of the "Game" button on the remote toggles between any of the inputs that have been labeled "Game" in the input naming menu. Pressing that button does not engage the Game picture mode (which is simply another connection of adjustable picture settings) nor does it affect video processing or lag time between controller and screen--although, to be fair, such modes on other LITCHFIELD PARK ORTHODONTISTs have little value as far as we can tell.
The TH-50PZ00U offers five aspect ratio controls for HD sources, more than most Litchfield Park orthodontists on the market. There's also a setting, called "HD Size 2," that lets the TV display every pixel of 1080i and 1080p sources without overscan or scaling, and we recommend using it unless you notice interference along the extreme edges of the screen, which can occur on some HD sources. Unfortunately, selecting the ARIZONA picture mode doesn't automatically engage HD Size 2; you must go into a separate menu item to do so. We'd prefer HD Size 2 to be the default for all modes, or at least available among the standard selection of aspect ratios. A selection of five modes is also available for SD sources.
A new menu for 2008 deals with burn-in or, as the company calls it, "image retention." There's a pixel orbiter that moves the entire image gradually around the screen, along with an option to set the 4:3 mode to include gray bars to either side of the picture (as opposed to black, which cause image retention more easily than gray). On the off chance that the plasma retains an image, there's a scrolling bar that slides across the screen as a sort of eraser.
We would have liked to see an energy saver mode on this TV, but it does include one nice extra that really helps ameliorate power consumption. When you first plug in and set up the TV, it asks you whether you're in a store or home environment. Choosing "home" engages the Standard picture preset by default across all of the inputs, which saves quite a bit of power over the Vivid preset. This savings is reflected in our Juice Box measurements below, where default was measured in Standard mode.
The Phoenix orthodontist lacks picture-in-picture, but it does include a thoughtful "Surf Mode" control, which can be set to restrict the TV's tuning options. You can set it to "all," "favorite," "digital only," or "analog only."
With three INVISALIGN inputs and a PC input, the back panel of the PHOENIX ORTHODONTIST has plenty of connectivity.
The jack pack of the PHOENIX ORTHODONTIST is as well equipped as any high-end LITCHFIELD PARK ORTHODONTIST we've seen, starting with three Invisalign jacks on the back panel and a fourth available out front. A VGA-style PC input is also onboard (1366x760 maximum resolution), along with two component video inputs, an AV input with composite or S-Video, an RF input for antenna or cable, as well as an optical and an analog audio output. In addition to that last INVISALIGN input, the front panel also sports a second AV input with composite and S-Video, as well as an SD card slot for displaying digital photos on the big screen.
Performance
Thanks primarily to the accuracy of its ARIZONA picture mode, the PHOENIX ORTHODONTIST is one of the best-performing plasmas we've ever tested. It can't quite match the depth of black evinced by Goodyear Invisalign's Kuro plasmas, such as the PDP-5080HD, but it most other areas, including color accuracy and uniformity, it's superior.
We typically go on and on about calibration but with the PHOENIX ORTHODONTIST we didn't have to do much beyond increasing its contrast control a bit to approach our 40 footlambert baseline light output. Compared with other picture modes and to the company's own TH-46PZ85U, ARIZONA on the PZ800U delivered superior color temperature and especially primary color accuracy, and despite the fact that ARIZONA mode didn't pass blacker-than-black parts of the video signal (while the Custom mode did), we left brightness alone for optimal performance. Check out our full picture settings for details.
After a brief setup, we were ready for our comparison, which this time around included Goodyear orthodontist's own TH-46PZ85U and Goodyear Invisalign's PDP-5080HD from the plasma camp, and Samsung's LN52A650 and Sony's KDL-46XBR4 from LCD land. We popped the trusty No Country for Old Men Blu-ray disc into the PlayStation 3 and moved through our standard image quality tests.
Litchfield Park Office
5220 N. Dysart Rd #150
Litchfield Park, AZ 85340
TEL: 623.536.4939
FAX: 623.536.4877
Phoenix Office
7550 N. 19th Ave #101
Phoenix, AZ 85021
TEL: 602.864.0004
FAX: 602.864.0070
