Best Plasma TV CES 2012

Plasma Television Manufacturers Continue to Improve Black Levels and Contrast

by Jack Burden and Robert Wiley

There is really no way plasmas television manufacturers can compete with the peak white and light output of LED Televisions these days. But what they can do is go deep on the black levels and that is exactly what they did with their new offerings. As well, there are many technologies such as louvered filter screen technology that is not available to LED TVs while it is to plasma. That said, these were the most impressive plasma televisions for 2012 as displayed at CES.

Panasonic TC-P65VT50

This replacement for Panasonic's highest end plasma from last year has all the best screen tech such as the more louvered filter for better performance in bright rooms. It also has super rich, deep saturated blacks due to a low voltage discharge that takes less power to "light" the phosphors. In the pitch black room in which we viewed this plasma, we can attest that the screen is barely lighter than the black curtain in the background. It also has a small dedicated remote designed for the included Smart Viera TV options.

Samsung PN64E8000 Plasma

This is Samsung's replacement for their top of the line very impressive PN64D8000 from last year. It has the same style bezel framing of black titanium metal with a just over 1" depth. The black levels on 2012's model are even better due to a new pixel cell structure design that reduces the ribbing between phosphors to allow for more color on the screen. Very impressive overall and of course it has a full QWERT remote and all the Smart TV features Samsung can muster along with Google TV and the new Social TV function.

LG 60PM9700 Plasma Television HDTV

Like the others in this list LG also has a new filtering technology in their screens and this TV's picture quality also looks incredibly good. This plasma TV was off in a corner of LG's CES display but.... with an Innovations CES 2012 award! We're sure LG would have rather won for it's LED Cinema 3D Televisions or its OLED or 84 4K screen, but it was the old Plasma that came through. The brushed charcoal metal bezel gives this TV a nice refined appearance and black levels and color look great.