Panasonic 42V20 Plasma
July 2010
by Carlo777
DVD:
Plugging a Toshiba XDE 500 via an Ixos HDMI (set to 1080p) and playing "The Day After Tomorrow". The V20 presented a soft picture but with very good colors. Comparing the V20 to my G11 becomes a mixed bag, those who prefer sharper pictures with more aggressive colors will prefer the later. The V20, on the other hand may be on the softer side, but I'd prefer it over the G11 because it's "True Cinema" settings will give you an "out of the box" cinema feel with more accurate colors.
Blu-Ray:
Blu-ray has never been this good, the V20 is the plasma of choice for the blue laser! Pictures were razor sharp, and fast scenes were depicted with no signs of slowdown or blur. The advertised 1080 moving resolution gives you detail per detail at full 1080p everytime all the time (at least for my eyes). Film grain and grit were rendered in a fashion that preserves the theatrical pomp of a blockbuster without being too overbearing.
Testing movies like the "Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans" and "The Dark Knight Returns", I didn't notice any "fluctuating blacks". Not that the V20 is free of the issue, it's just that at testing, I was not able to see them. If it were there, it could have been so subtle... that you couldn't really spot them during regular viewing.
Blacks from the V20 is the most generous of all plasma models I had the pleasure of owning. And this translates to the best plasma for high definition movies to date.
IFC/24p:
Activating 24p from a High definition source like the PS3, will enable the V20 to go into "24p" mode. This mode will give you silky smooth pictures, almost like handy cam shots! Though judder is effectively eliminated; visual artifacts like flickers and some screen tearing were observed. This has always been a problem of 24p playback that stretches all the way back to the PV80/PY800. It hasn't been fixed, and will still advise people to stay away from these features.
Console gaming:
Playing MGS5 a native 1080p game on the PS3, and with the V20's game mode activated delivered spot-on input response time backed with very rich colors. Panasonic attempts to court gamers into their plasma format by giving you nearly the best of both worlds for gaming, namely - speedy response time with excellent picture quality to boot!
The green phosphor lag, however, is still present, and sensitive individuals can still make them out during vicious first person pans. I've been on the plasma format long enough to no longer be bothered by this issue, but it seems there is no workaround for this "problem" in the foreseeable future.
Image retention:
Now, unlike the C10,S10 and the Panny G11, the V20 seems to be more prone to this plasma limitation! Just a few minutes of gaming produced evident ghosting just like the old PV80. A flip to new content, however, washed it away quickly. Let's not be alarmed by this, simply because my V20 is still fresh off the pan, and may need to go thru with the 100 hours break-in period.
Resolution enhancer:
The Panasonic V20 boasts of a feature called "Resolution enhancer", according to the product manual it...
"Enhances resolution to make images sharper".
Testing it on DVD does not seem to make a lot of difference, however, with gritty movies on Blu-Ray like "Bram Stokers: Dracula" and the classic "Clash of the Titans" you could see these images sharpen to improve over-all picture.
THX mode/True Cinema:
Yes, there is no THX mode on this unit but it was well covered by a picture setting called "True Cinema". "True Cinema" brings you closer to that ever elusive "movie" rendition that is warm to the eye and with colors that are rich and deep. Blacks seem even more gorgeous with this setting kept on for both Blu-Ray and dvd. The perfect settings for those with dimmer lighting environments! (Picture on reply#65 was set on True-Cinema and Resolution enhancer set to mid)
Cable (Sky at Standard)
Cable seems to be sharper on the C10 over this particular model. Not that the V20 projects a bad cable T.V picture, it's actually very good! Better than any LCD I've tested so far, it's just that defining a softer over-all standard definition picture is not "picture perfect" for grainy cable connections - not the V20's fault.
Sound:
I'm not into thumping sound effects, and don't even care about epic soundtracks and the sort...Heck I don't even like music to begin with, and my car radio to this day remains unused...But this much I can say - The V20 and it's immediate predecessors like the C10 and S10 can't really compare favorably to the thud and thump of the PY800 and it's BBE-VIVA sound.
The "Kuro" factor:
The V20 esp in "True-Cinema" mode and your High-Def source (PS3) on FULL RGB will bring you as close to the Kuro as possible. Blacks become very deep, rich and gorgeous but without the "black crush" effect that lingers around the Pioneer 8XG. It's that good! And for some in my T.V ridden place - The V20 fares even better!
However, let's not get too excited here, bringing the V20 to "True Cinema" coupled with "FULL RGB" now displays the infamous "floating blacks". At the opening scene of Batman: The Dark Knight, right after the D.C logo, you'll see the symbol of the bat emerge from a cloud of blue flame, and there I noticed a very slight contrast change, that's harder to see if your source is to "Limited RGB". That said, it's still too feint for you to really give it much attention.
Long and short: If you want a Pioneer Kuro performance without the hitch, then buy a Kuro! - Simple huh?
24p/IFC revisited:
I few posts back I observed that the V20 introduces flickering and tearing with 24p/IFC activated. Yes, this is very true: just look at the opening scene of the dark knight, when the camera pans closer to the panoramic IMAX shot of Gotham's buildings! Now, to fix this issue, I noticed that when you activate 24p from your HD source, the V20 automatically activates the "24p smooth film". Now this feature combines both 24p and IFC at the same time causing more artifacts like the one I just mentioned.
To counter this, make sure when you have either 24p on and IFC off and not to have them both at the same time. Switch-off "24p smooth film" from the T.V and just let the vanilla 24p from your source run the movie, and there you go! A smoother and now, very very cinematic experience minus the handy cam look and the added mush.
Conclusion:
Panasonic continues to woe us with flashy new plasma models every year, each with it's own unique capabilities or just re-hashes of old technology. Makes you wonder, if there's still a quantum leap in improvement for the technology despite new offerings. The V20 is a price friendly FULL HD plasma and what the S10 or the PY800 should have been. Picture quality remains strong especially on the HD side, dvd and cable seems to have taken a back seat, but that's purely subjective.
Truly, one of the stronger if not the strongest HD offering this year.
Pro's
+Very strong HD/NMT/Blu-ray performance
+Deep and gorgeous blacks
+Accurate color rendition
+"True Cinema" gives you near picture perfect viewing
+Game mode is spot on with superb picture quality and fast input response time
+Well priced
Con's
-High susceptibility to Image Retention
-Mild contrast fluctuation
-Soft SD/Cable broadcast.
