The Panasonic TH-42PX60U is the 9th edition of the very popular Panasonic high-definition plasma televisions. Because of increased demand, Panasonic has included a second HDMI connection for this year's consumer plasma line. Panasonic even gives the TH-42PX60U a makeover to a more modern look. The resolution remains 1024x768 like the previous model, the TH-42PX50U—a Best Seller in 2005, but Panasonic has upped its contrast ratio specification to 10,000:1 for this year's model.
Panasonic has strategically placed the TH-42PX60U to compete with Pioneer for top picture quality while maintaining its aggressive value in the market. Like most televisions on the market today, the Panasonic TH-42PX60U came out of the box with superficially bright default picture settings. Out of the box, the picture is in a default picture mode setting of Vivid (which maximizes Contrast and Sharpness settings)and a color temperature setting of Cool. The first task before examining the picture quality of the plasma TV is to find the picture settings that get us closest to D6500K—the optimum prescribed color temperature used by the film and broadcast industry. Because Panasonic plasmas typically have a cooler default temperature setting than other brands, the "Warm" color temperature setting is preferred for increased realism. By switching to the "Standard" picture setting (which has medium Contrast and Sharpness settings) and using a "Warm" color temperature, we quickly move much closer to D6500K. Maintaining a color temperature close to D6500K is important because it is the basis on which the rest of the picture calibrations are made.
