Well, Sears ended up being out of stock on the ST50. However, I was able to get a comparable model for the price: The new-for-2013 50ST60 for $800 delivered on April 2. It does say that there were minor improvements to the screen but it does also include a couple of pairs of 3D glasses. So, even though I'm not happy about waiting 2 more weeks, I'm happy with the resolution provided. Looking forward to getting my new TV!
http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/TC-P50ST60
Found a few more improvements on the ST60, including slight increase in audio watts (18 on the ST50 and 20 on the ST60) and, more importantly, a dual-core processor.
The Panasonic ST 50 is a very nice plasma TV. You will be glad you go this TV as it does very well across the board on all tests.
Media playback - did you get the ATV 3? If not, you may want to consider the following to play with:
Western Digital's upper end offering
Roku
Dune Media players (pricier but absolutely excellent image)
various blu ray players that offer media playback
AVR - some "receivers" will do airplay which allows you to use your iphone/iPad/iPod and computer with iTunes to directly access and play music. I do this all the time.
Best to you with your Panasonic and hope you get a few years of enjoyment. You will love going from 50 to 60 inches. It is a great bonus!
Also leaning towards LED for lighter weight and better energy consumption (and better picture?).
Edit: Seems DNLA and Apple don't play nice together, so I'll still need the Apple TV to steam wirelessly to my TV!
Don't know if it will effect your decision at all, but a report in a UK hifi and video magazine today states Panasonic is set to pull out of the plasma TV business.
http://www.whathifi.com/news/panasonic-set-to-pull-out-of-plasma-tvs
I have Twonky Server running on my iMac -- it's DLNA server software. No problems streaming wirelessly to my LG BluRay player or Sony BluRay player. I like being able to play .mkv files and ATV just won't do that.
I also have an Iomega StorCenter 4TB RAID drive that has a built in DLNA server. That also works like a charm
Thanks Phred! I actually stayed w/the 50" but got the 2013 model instead of the 2012 (ST60 instead of the ST50). 60" just seems too big for my needs. Do you know: with smart TVs and smart Blu Ray players, would that make Apple TV obsolete in regards to being able to stream from my Macbook Pro to the TV (movies, iTunes, pictures, etc.)? I did get the Apple TV, but am now in the market for a Blu Ray 3D player--if I can find one that would let me stream video/music wirelessly from my Macbook Pro, making me not need the Apple TV, that would be great!
Edit: Seems DNLA and Apple don't play nice together, so I'll still need the Apple TV to steam wirelessly to my TV!
Yeah, I forgot about the lack of love for Samsung here on this site. I have had problems with the TV ...
Is there that great of a difference between 720p and 1080p?
When you say iTunes do you mean just music or do you mean also movies purchased from iTunes?
Putting Twonky on your computer will do the trick if that is the way you want to go. Another option would be to get a small NAS (network attached storage) unit that has some features like DNLA etc.
My AVR (receiver) does airplay which allows my computer, my iPad, iPhone to all send music to the AVR. My blu ray unit plays most typical movie file formats and that happens to be an Oppo. I do believe there are cheaper blu ray players that will also play media files including music. It may be possible for your TV via the Viera Link or connect or whatever it is called to see your Mac on the network if it has DNLA services and thus play directly most movie formats and music. The exceptions would most likely be on hi def movies using HD Audio DTS-Master etc and lossless Apple music files. Typical 256 AAC will play as will Flac and other music files.
My system
Panasonic VT50
QNAP NAS (2)
Oppo Bdp 103 blu ray player
Dune 3 Base Media player (mostly retired)
TiVo 3
Mac Mini quad 2.0 i7
From the NAS, the TV can play music and movies (other than mentioned above). The Oppo plays all but Apple lossless. Dune plays pretty much everything. Mac Mini will of course play everything but HD audio on movies.
Oh - should say they all do photos.
For blu ray - look at typical makers such as Panasonic, Samsung, LG to name a few. They are cheaper. The Panasonic has the ability to possibly share remotes and services.
Dune Media player has a primitive front end but plays pretty much everything and comes in various version including one that houses both a hard drive and blu ray player. My model is old and though it has a drive inside, I stream from my NAS. I have locally turned on several friends to Dune line of players and each seems to think (other than the menus) that it is the best item they have purchased for movie file playback. They all agree that the music playback is clunky and that iTunes is far nicer.
NAS - check out Synology and QNAP and as some would suggest ReadyNas.
I'll just say that this is an expensive hobby on two fronts - in general it is expensive and gets more expensive when we try to go too cheap and end up replacing stuff because we didn't thoroughly shop for the right stuff for a few dollars more.
Hope this helps out. If you have specific questions feel free to pm me.
Twonky is one of my start-up applications and is available any time my iMac is powered up -- which is 24/7. It absolutely does not affect my ability to surf the web or run any other applications. I ran it on my prior 2008 iMac which had only 3gb RAM with no problems whatsoever so it doesn't appear to require much in the way of system resources.Thanks for the tip on Twonky--I learn something new every day. Since I already have Apple TV and it plays so nice w/my Macbook, I think I'll keep it for now, but I'll file Twonky away. Do you ever have compatibility issues with your Mac? Is there a way you can stream from your iMac onto a TV and yet still surf the web?
As an aside, I do believe/hope the DLNA on my Panasonic TV will play w/my Synology DS212J NAS and can pull media off of that to stream to my TV, freeing up the laptop to surf.
Can anyone verify this?