Have been living with this monster for a couple of months now and it still doesn't fail to bring a smile to my face, whether it's on or not, every time I enter the room.My wife didn't realise we needed a 50" Plasma until she was persuaded whilst we were searching for a little 17" LCD.
From the moment you remove the packaging, installation and set-up are a doddle. The instruction book contains some techno-babble with the usual range of superflous instructions that every manual covers these days to deal with every eventuallity. But apart from that, using a modicum of common sense it all falls into place quite quickly.Auto-search and store worked seamlessly, as you would expect, without this user having to lift a finger. I'm a Sky customer myself but the freeview tuner this set has is a major bonus, and it found all the freeview channels without a hitch.
Along with freeview you still have an analogue tuner which set up perfectly too. And switching between the 2 modes is just a simple button press. Even the analogue picture comes across very clearly.The sound, as has been mentioned in other reviews, is also another plus point. If you want to crank it up the speakers will handle it with no distortion and even at low volume you won't miss a word.
I've not upgrades to Sky HD yet but have seen this set displaying HD. To my mind, it handles HD better than a lot of more expensive sets.Playing XBOX games is another thing to look forward to. Playing Halo 2 is almost like being on another planet and TOCA 3 is total immersement. I'm looking forward to purchasing the XBOX360 ELITE so I can experience some true HD gaming. The kids love it as well.
The 50PC1D comes with all the added features you could possibly need including PiP, Fastext and as many personalised settings as you could wish for.So, overall, I would heartily recommend this television and with it being probably the cheapest 50" Plasma on the market by quite a margin in some instances, it's amazing value for money.
