After six years, it was time to replace my aging 42" Samsung plasma (during which a circuit board died, which ended up requiring an all new screen to be installed--thank goodness I had the extended warranty). At first, I went with the UN55D8000, which was a good looking set, granted, but just didn't have the picture quality I wanted, so I ended up returning that less than a week after it arrived. Then I heard about the new Panasonic models coming out, and realized that the GT50 looked like a promising candidate.

I have had the TV for less than a week, and there is no way I am returning this incredible plasma television. I will share some initial thoughts (and have submitted photos as well), and will update my comments later as a kind of progress report.

If you care about picture quality and don't feel like waiting for the VT, look no further. This set has one of the best pictures out of the box I have ever seen, with deep, silky blacks and vibrant (not never... Read more

I purchased a Samsung series 8000 TV and loved it. Unfortunately a dead pixel appeared, so I did a little more homework and decided to go with a plasma, which are praised for quality, affordability, and deep and realistic blacks. I am pleased with my purchase.

Pros:

*Picture looks stunning. I was watching a show on Netflix, and I never noticed how red the main characters hair was until watching from this TV. It was so realistic, even the wrinkles were on his face. My Samsung that was 33% more expensive did not show this!

*Blacks are deep and realistic, especially in night scenes. Usually you may see a glowing black during night scenes, but the darkness it pitch black, which makes it so much more pleasing to the eye.

*Backlighting is perfectly even. The LED had blotches of uneven backlighting; this one is perfect

*Built in WiFi, Netflix, apps, etc. are good quality and easy to navigate

Cons:

*Menus are... Read more

I bought this TV to replace my broken Samsung HLR-5688 DLP TV. The Samsung was a nice TV for the first 2 years and then developed a shopping list of repairs and finally had its last broken digital board after my 5yr extended warranty expired.

So after doing some research I decided to purchase the Panasonic P55GT50. I was always unhappy with Samsung's black levels which was probably a DLP technology issue. Well this Plasma TV has amazing black levels. When watching previously viewed movies I cannot believe the level of detail I can see now in dark scenes.

THX mode is my current picture setting and without calibration equipment to verify it appears perfect. I am using a TiVo Premiere and OTA Antenna to watch HD content and the picture is stunning. I also have an AppleTV connected for streaming movies and the quality is also stellar.

For the price of the TV you cannot go wrong.