A plasma TV has become one of the most desirable items on the planet, and owning one confers a certain amount of social status. Case in point: a friend of mine recently visited the palatial Long Island house of a certain hip-hop star, who had hung more than twenty of the things on his (presumably gold-plated) walls. And I recently installed a plasma screen in a much more modest New Jersey home — the hungry look of the owner turned to sweet satisfaction as he watched me set up, then turn on, his new prize.


From left to right, Sony's KDE-42XBR950 ($8,000), LG's DU-42PZ60 ($4,500), and Panasonic's TH-42PX20U/P ($6,500).

The dark images of the horror flick Gothika provided a wealth of shadows to challenge the display capabilities of these plasma TVs.

The three plasma screens I tested here — Sony’s KDE-42XBR950 ($8,000), Panasonic’s TH-42PX20U/P ($6,500), and LG’s DU-42PZ60 ($4,500) — are each company’s current top-of-the-line 42-inch (diagonal) plasma HDTV and have enough style to cause double-takes from visitors in the Hamptons, let alone in Middlesex, New Jersey. While the list prices may seem high, you can usually buy them for less.

PDF: Features Checklist

Sony KDE-42XBR950
The KDE-42XBR950 takes plasma TV closer to wall art than ever before. Its 42-inch screen is framed by a wide swath of black, but that’s where the similarity to other sets ends. Beyond the frame is an inch or so of glass through which your wall will show. Since the screen and the black frame are both behind the sheet of glass, the overall effect is like a painting hung between a pair of slim, silvery speakers.

The heavy, metal-sheathed remote control ups the design ante another notch. Closely spaced buttons form subtle arcs around the central cursor, a solid ring around the single principal play/select button. While aesthetically pleasing, the layout was a nightmare to navigate in the dark because there’s no illumination.

Connections are made not on the panel’s backside but on the back of a component-sized “media receiver” that connects to the TV via a 10-foot cable (a 30-foot version is available for $299). Besides connectors, including a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) input and a pair of i.Link (a.k.a. FireWire) ports, the box boasts a digital TV tuner so you can connect an antenna to watch over-the-air HDTV.

Other highlights include a Twin View mode, for watching two programs at once, four aspect ratio (screen shape) modes — unfortunately, they can’t resize an HDTV source — and a convenient Memory Stick slot for displaying your digital photos. The most glaring omission is a lack of independent picture memories, which makes adjusting the set for different input sources inconvenient.

Sony KDE-42XBR950

DIMENSIONS(WxHxD) 53 1/4 x 28 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches WEIGHT 86 pounds PRICE $8,000 MANUFACTURER Sony Electronics, www.sonystyle.com, 800-222-7669

After making a few service-menu picture adjustments (Click to view 'In the Lab' PDF), I slid the horror flick Gothika into my DVD player. I immediately noticed a few things that the Sony did better than most other plasmas I’ve seen. In the opening scene, where Miranda (Halle Berry) questions Chloe, the camera orbits their isolation cage, peering through the mesh. The 42XBR950 handled this difficult section well. Each pass of the shadowy wire was relatively clean and natural — a somewhat solid shadow as opposed to a mass of moving motes. I still saw some unnatural contours rather than smooth gradations, but they were much less severe than I’ve seen elsewhere. And when the camera passed a large swath of black, I saw one solid color.

Unfortunately, that color was closer to dark gray than true black — par for the course with many plasma TVs. Miranda’s black sweater showed only a few levels of darkness, and the depth of blacks bottomed out too early, leaving the image a little washed-out compared with the best plasmas (or any tube TV).

Color and detail, on the other hand, were superb. In the mass shower scene, the rills of water flowing down Miranda’s face seemed to stand out like molten silver. The various skin tones all looked appropriately pale and greenish in the grim crazy-ward shower, and I saw no trace of the exaggerated reds characteristic of less accurate displays. When Miranda finally emerged into the sun in the prison yard, her light brown skin shone with warmth.

The KDE-42XBR950’s video processing worked well, and in CineMotion mode it did a good job of detecting 2:3 pulldown — a byproduct of the process of transferring film to video. Sony provides a few Digital Reality Creation modes, but none of them did much to improve a standard-definition cable signal.

HDTV looked great. I watched a spectacular Discovery HD Theater production on our Dish Network DVR 921, Arctic Mission: Eyes of the Inuit, and every shot was a smorgasbord of detail. One Eskimo’s fur-lined hood glistened with tiny snowflakes, and the expanses of snow revealed weathered texture, small depressions, and little hillocks. I could see every hair on the ice fisherman’s polar-bear mittens. I noticed one slight flaw, however: in a scene where an Inuit woman sits on a hillside of waving grass, some of the long, thin stems broke up into fine lines. This didn’t happen with the Panasonic or the LG.

When it comes to design, Sony’s KDE-42XBR950 simply outclasses any other TV I’ve seen. Its striking looks alone might not justify the high asking price for average consumers, but this TV wasn’t created with “average” in mind.

PDF: Features Checklist

Panasonic TH-42PX20U/P
Panasonic’s plasma TVs have always offered reliable video performance, but lately the company has dramatically improved its panels’ outward appearance as well. This is its nicest-looking plasma to date, with a slick black lacquerlike border around the screen and a silver bottom that sweeps back gracefully. Naturally, a wall-mount kit is available, though the supplied table stand looks good, too. At first I didn’t think this plasma included speakers, but in fact the thin slits to either side of the screen do emit sound.

Compared with the Sony, Panasonic’s remote is homely but highly functional. All of the keys have red backlighting, they’re generously spaced and differently shaped for no-look operation, and the big cursor ring moved easily under my thumb. A flip-down door on the front of the TV hides most of the controls along with a VGA computer input and SD and PC Card slots so you can display digital photos.

While the TH-42PX20U/P lacks a digital TV tuner, I don’t consider this a big problem since most people get their HDTV from satellite or cable boxes anyway. People who want a tuner can choose the nearly identical TH-42PX25U/P. The Panasonic does, however, include a connection the LG and Sony lack: an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) port.

Equipped with picture-in-picture, a couple of video presets, and a capable sound system, this plasma behaves just like a regular TV. I was a little disappointed that, as with the Sony, the five aspect ratio choices don’t work with HDTV sources and that I was unable to adjust each input individually for different sources.

Panasonic TH-42PX20U/P

DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 44 7/8 x 29 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches WEIGHT 90 pounds PRICE $6,500; optional wall-mount kit, $600 MANUFACTURE Panasonic, www.panasonic.com, 800-211-7262

After an unusually long calibration session, I turned to Gothika for welcome, horror-fueled relief. As I expected from a high-resolution plasma set, the Panasonic was topnotch at displaying detail. In one memorable scene, Miranda, locked in her cell, is taunted by an invisible presence that sweeps against her neck and toward her eye. As the camera swoops toward her face, I could clearly discern the veins and pink coloration at the extreme edge of her eyes.

When she snaps her head back and the camera retreats to show her entire face, I got a good look at something the Panasonic didn’t do so well: reduce false contouring. Berry’s high cheekbones created a shadow on her face that, instead of smoothly fading from the shiny cheek to the shadowed chin, proceeded in clearly discernible contours, or steps, from light to dark. I also continually saw motes of video noise, which looked sort of like black snow, crawling along the edges of shadows.

I was impressed with the depth of the Panasonic’s blacks, which contributed more to the high quality of its picture than anything else. The darkest parts of the picture, such as Miranda’s sweater in the opening interview with Chloe, were closer to true black than with either of the other two plasmas. This depth made the colors and lighter areas pop with impact.

Despite claims by Panasonic, the 42PX20U/P cannot correctly implement 2:3 pulldown detection. For example, as the camera follows Miranda down a hospital corridor, the exposed pipes along the ceiling took on moving diagonal lines, which disappeared when I set my DVD player to progressive-scan mode. Moral of the story: Make sure this panel is connected to a good progressive-scan DVD player.

The HDTV images from Eyes of the Inuit were incredibly sharp, a credit to the Panasonic’s high resolution. The gorgeous hillsides, with their craggy rocks and snow-dusted mountains beyond, came to life before my eyes. The resolution was fine enough to display every stem of waving grass and the smooth, fine diagonal line of a radio-tower support wire. Unfortunately, the panel would not accept a 720p signal — the more stable and filmlike of the two high-def formats — but it did handle 1080i (interlaced) without a hitch. My only serious complaint had to do with small motes of video noise that were clearly visible, for example, in the dark rocks of a mountainside. The noise became less visible as I moved back but didn’t disappear until I was about 12 feet from the screen.

If the sharpness of the image and the depth of darkness aren’t enough to recommend the Panasonic TH-42PX20U/P, its reasonable price could seal the deal for most folks. I mean “reasonable” in the high-end plasma TV sense, of course.

PDF: Features Checklist
PDF: In the Lab 

LG DU-42PZ60
While not quite as striking as the Sony or the Panasonic, the still stands tall on the plasma catwalk. An inch-thick border of what appears to be stainless steel surrounds a thinner strip of black on all sides of the glass, creating an understated, classic look. Along the lower edge is a reflective strip of plastic, printed with markers that correspond to keys hidden on the bottom of the panel.

LG DU-42PZ60

DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 41 5/8 x 25 x 4 3/8 inches WEIGHT 76 pounds PRICE $4,500; optional stereo speakers, $699; optional table stand, $499 MANUFACTURER LG, www.lgusa.com, 800-942-3786

Along with the Sony, this LG is one of the few plasmas on the market to have a built-in over-the-air HDTV tuner. Plug an antenna into the back, and you can immediately tune in any digital and high-def broadcasts in your area. Doing just that, I discovered that the LG’s tuner outperformed the one in my Dish 921 satellite receiver/recorder. It snagged a channel the Dish couldn’t find, and reception of weak channels seemed less prone to breakup.

Aside from the usual connectors on the back of the LG, I counted a trio of optical digital audio jacks. One pipes Dolby Digital from the HDTV tuner to an A/V receiver, and the other two — associated with the component-video and DVI inputs — function just like analog inputs to supply sound to the optional pair of speakers in our photo (AP-42SA70, $699). LG also offers a matching tabletop stand, the AP-42DA70, for $499.

I liked the design and ergonomics of LG’s remote. Fully backlit, its keys were easily accessible to my thumb — except for the two used to cycle through the SD and HD inputs. A sliding door hides a set of buttons for picture-in-picture (PIP) and other lesser-used functions, including a convenient dedicated button for DTV channel signal strength.

Another big plus: the DU-42PZ60 delivers full aspect ratio control for high-def sources. I could expand, crop, or shrink HDTV and regular, standard-def shows with equal agility. This plasma also offers more aspect ratio choices than any other I’ve seen, including a 16-step Cinema Zoom setting that expands the picture incrementally.

While the DU-42PZ60 may out-feature the other two sets here, it couldn’t match their image quality. During Gothika, Miranda’s lighter cheek lacked the texture and depth I saw with the other two models. Her black sweater looked dark gray, and it crawled with “black snow” video noise, especially on borders between darker and lighter areas. To its credit, the LG didn’t seem quite as snowy as the Panasonic, and moving back to about 10 feet made the motes too small to detect.

As I expected, the panel’s picture improved immensely as Miranda walked out of the dark confines of the crazy ward and into brighter climes, like the office of her boss/husband, Douglas. I could clearly make out the fine grain in the wood paneling.

One important caveat emerged after looking at the LG panel: even with contrast at its minimum setting, I was missing important detail in white areas. For example, areas of Douglas’s shirt sleeves looked like smooth swaths of white, without any wrinkles or texture. I had to enter the service menu to reduce contrast enough to restore lost detail in white areas.

The DU-42PZ60 certainly looked its best displaying HDTV. The Discovery HD special looked sharp and powerful. I could see even the tiniest shacks in the satellite shots of the Eskimo village and every line of muscle in the exposed innards of a dead seal. Other issues remained, however — I still saw distinct bands of color across what should have been a smooth sky and crawling motes of noise in the shadows of mountains. Happily, fine detail, such as those wisps of dry grass on the hillside, was realistically conveyed.

With its many friendly features and built-in HDTV tuner, the DU-42PZ60 is one of the best-equipped plasma TVs I’ve seen. Sure its picture doesn’t outdo the other two, but its aggressive pricing could help overcome the qualms of less critical viewers.

The flipside of plasma’s incredible popularity is that most prices for name-brand models haven’t fallen very far in the last year or so. If the Sony and Panasonic are any indication, the trend is to imbue high-end flat TVs with great style and keep prices relatively high — but some manufacturers, like LG, are willing to buck the trend. In any case, all three of these plasmas will earn hungry looks from TV browsers in specialty A/V stores and jealous stares from lucky visitors to their new homes.

PDF: Features Checklist
PDF: In the Lab