Rated 
Beautiful 1080p picture at a relatively reasonable cost.
Spectacular brightness and contrast, wide wviewing angle, active cooling, copious setting options.
Very power-hungry, no PIP (read for details), some awkward controls, relatively large bezel, odd-shaped stand.
Posted Nov 15, 2007 - After deciding between this TV and the Pioneer Kuro 5010FD, I'm very glad I decided to go with the $1,000 less expensive model... The brightness and contrast on this Panasonic are superb, as is the vieweing angle (IMHO a match for the Pioneer). Additionally, the custom/"pro" settings are generally accessible (at least after a cursory glance at the manual to figure out when they can and can't be used), and the ability to customize the picture to the input (appriprite signal conversion, noise reduction, differential picture setrtings) is probably better than any other TV I've owned or operated... Not only does the TV produce a wonderful 1080p image, it's equally adept at converting abandwidth-starved HD cable signal into a respectable picture (managing to reduce the graininess and visible compression errors quite adequately playing aroud for just a minute or two.) On the downside, this TV will pull enough power to supply a small city (Panasonic lists its maximum power consumption at 705W -- when the display is set to optimize brightness and contrast at full resolution, it draws rather close to this consistently. On the bright side, you don't need to worry about ever heating the room it's in...) There are 3 80mm fans on the rear of the panel towards the top. I don't know at what speed they operate, but they are relatively quiet (the PS3 I have close to the TV is decidedly louder than the Panasonic's cooling fans) and they do add a decent amount of airflow to the convection currents a power draw like this produces. Aside from dreading my next power bill, I can't complain about the overall results. Otherwise, the negatives are relatively minot. The remote control could be laid out/labeled a bit more clearly. Similarly, the manual could at times provide more detail than it does (e.g. about the operation of the 3:2 pulldown function, which I had to go online to clarify.) And most strangely, the TV offers split-screen and P-out-P (although an HDMI cannot be used as the "secondary" input in either mode), but no P-in-P mode is available (so you can't have a full-frame picture with any secondary picture). Aside from those quibbles, the only advantage I can really see to the more expensive Pioneer is the native 72Hz display, resulting in a 3:3 (rather than a 3:2) pulldown for 24p sources. However nice that would be, though, I cant' imnagine it would be worth the incremental cost for all but the most picture-conscious (and non-price-conscious) buyer. Otherwise, the display on this Panasonic rivals any other TV of it size, and represents what I'd consider to be the best 1080p "value". (I.e. -- if you're not unwilling to spend this much on a 50" screen TV, you'd be better off saving your money by going with with lower resolution rather than sacrificing the brightness/contrast/vieweing angle that would occur with any less expensive 1080p TV of similar size).
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