Standard Definition
We ran through our standard test regime beginning with the HQV standard defintion DVD tests for signal processing via the 30′s sole composite video input.
The TC-P50ST30 passed all tests (vertical detail, jaggies, waving flag jaggies, picture detail, video noise reduction, motion adaptive noise reduction, 3:2 pulldown detection and filmed content that’s mixed with video titles). The only fails were of a few of the multi-rate film cadence, such as Vari-Cam, an insignificant failure as these formats are generally limited to news gathering and animation, which by their nature are low resolution.
We found the noise reduction very effective (an improvement over last year’s models), and could not see any picture degradation using it, thereby we recommend the maximum setting. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Panasonic provides separate memory settings for on-line streaming content as well as for each picture mode and input. Too bad none of the on-line movie services such as Amazon Video on Demand offer streaming of test signals. We will continue to fine tune the streaming user settings and plan to publish them if and when we can nail them down.
High Definition
Checking the HQV Blu-ray test disc, the TC-P50ST30 passed all tests (noise reduction, deinterlacing with and without motion, jaggies and 3:2 pulldown detection). However, please note “Auto” film detect mode produced unwanted noise in the test signal. Changing the film detect mode to “On” produced a noise free passing grade.
Our FPD motion resolution test confirmed full 1080 line (per picture height) motion resolution.