Panasonic created the TH-65PZ750U about 2 years ago, and it is still being sold. That’s probably a marker of a great success, to manufacture so advanced technology that it is still great after that many years. We’ll have a look at this masterpiece of engineering, but first the as usual - pricing. Currently it is being sold for just $5,999 at amazon (meaning saves us about $1,000), quite a good price considering it is a 65 inch plasma screen with top construction elements.

This HDTV is a full HD 1080p which supposedly has been developed in cooperation with movie directors, so it could reproduce the colors as they look on professional studio screens. The screen can be adjusted very precisely if one doesn’t find the default settings good for him/her. The rich set of colors that can be reproduced on this screen consists of 68.8 billion colors, and the contrast ratio is 5,000 to 1 (remember that some producers sometimes have higher ratios, but they measure it differently).

TH65PZ750U has three built in tuners one for receiving standard signal, one for HDTV and another one for cable, so there is no need to put an ugly box near your nice tv set. The other source of signal might be the three HDMI connectors that allow plugging in peripherals such as Blu-ray or HD-DVD player, or home audio system. More over the connected equipment can be controlled using just one button thanks to EZ Sync HDAVI technology - one press and everything is setup and ready for watching and hearing.

The sound system in this Panasonic HDTV is also incredible, it consists of a set of speakers including two subwoofers and an 31 Watt amplifier. The surround system is called BBE ViVA HD3D and it gives a sound much better than in any other HDTV heard before.

You could also try to connect your PC to this 65 Inch monster and try to display Windows on it, it looks pretty impressive. There is also a SD card slot so viewing pictures from vacations is also an option.

One could probably write about this HDTV more, but above are the essentials. The big screen gives truly colorful images with high contrast and accompanied with a one of its kind built-in surround system, and all this for a quite good price as for a high-end model.

Learn more about the high-end Panasonic TH-65PZ750U HDTV

One more time we review a high-end model, this time from Samsung. Oddly enough it is again a plasma screen with very high contrast of 15,000 to 1 and a brilliant color representation. FPT5884 is a 1080p model with a wide range of connectors (three HDMI, component video, svideo, pc input and even a headphone jack). All this for a quite good price of $2,488 from amazon (it saves $1,511 from the regular price).

Going further with the features, Samsung included in this HDTVs panel Ultra FilterBright™, it means that one can watch the screen from very wide angle and even in a brightly lighted room. It is achieved by attaching optical films on the front glass, as a side effect it exposed the light of the movies.

Great addition is a specialized video processor with 18 bit color processing, it means that one should see more natural and crisp colors, even for the standard definition signals. Bear in mind that the default factory settings are not as good, so if you walk into store and look at the TV ask if you could tune the settings.

FPT5884 also has a so called CEC (a short from Consumer Electronic Control) technology, which means that one can control all the HDMI connected (and CEC capable) devices with just one press of a button from just one remote control. So e.g. you could quickly turn on the Blu-ray player, set the volume level in the audio system and power on the HDTV very quickly. It’s probably a must with the large amounts of home theater equipment one can have nowadays.

If you have a console such as Plastation 3, Xbox or Wii you could connect it to the TV and turn on the GAME MODE. What it does? It adjust the visual and audio settings to the appropriate for game playing. The changes include: increasing the contrast of dark areas, the bass is amplified more and the screen response time is shortened.

This Samsung model is one of the best in it’s price and inch range, you get a clear and color rich screen, with great additional features (such as CEC) and a good power saving modes (important for watching your electrical bills), and all this with price lowered by more than $1,000.

Learn more about the high-end Samsung FPT5884 HDTV

This time let’s have a look at a magnificent piece of engineering that we probably won’t see in a long time - Pioneer KURO PDP-6010FD. It’s the last time that we can buy one of those things because of Pioneer switching to LCD screens only. And that’s probably the thing behind a great deal that we can see on amazon it is available for just $3,998 (including free shipping).

For starters, it’s of course a 1080p capable set (with the usual 1920 resolution) in 60 inches of diameter, equipped with 4 HDMI slots (that’s more than the cheaper sets). There is also a USB connector to which one can connect a picture storage or camera and view vacation photos on a big, high contrast screen. From other miscellaneous additions there is also an included ATSC and Dual NTSC tuner, so no need for some ugly box near your TV screen.

The screen is larger than in typical consumer models (the 46 inch ones) as a result it needs a larger room, but also gives a more cinema-like feeling. As it is a plasma screen the contrast is superb as a result of very deep blacks in this technology and Pioneer’s mastering of it. More over, there is a special light sensor that adjusts the brightness, contrast and numerous other settings to accommodate too bright light in the room. There is also a motion compensator to allow smoother film playback, even for fast action movies.

PDP-6010FD has a modern video processor (ASIC) which converts the lower resolution standard definition video to the high 1080p, meaning that even TV channels in older technology can be viewed in 60 inches. The way the lower resolution signal is up scaled can be selected from five aspect ratios. The same processor can store up to six audio and video settings, so one can switch between Movies, Games and such modes.

The audio is remarkable as for HDTV, PDP6010FD has a detachable bottom speaker to allow better sound placement in the room. The built-in amplifier has 17 Watts and such capabilities as SRS WOW/FOCUS/TruBass surround sound.

Summing it all up, one this HDTV model is only for those who need a high class panel, with the blackest of all blacks and great picture quality. Before you consider buying this screen bear in mind that you should have a decent sized room to take the full advantage of it’s screen (good guide can be found here) and of course want a top of the shelf luxury HDTV screen.

Learn more about the high-end Pioneer KURO PDP6010FD HDTV