Real-World Performance
Starting with Stargate: Continuum on Blu-ray, the black of space in the title sequence was not very deep, but it was very uniform, and I could see more stars than I usually do on an LCD. And even though the black level was quite high, it did not bother me as much as I expected, perhaps because of the high peak light output, which resulted in a fairly high contrast ratio. Otherwise, colors and detail were excellent, as was shadow detail in the night scenes aboard the Achilles.

As I watched this movie, I switched between my calibrated settings and the THX mode. It was immediately apparent that the colors in the THX mode weren't as accurate, and the overall picture looked a bit duller and more washed out. The image wasn't terrible, but I definitely preferred my calibrated settings.

I saw a bit of false contouring—artificial banding in areas of subtle gradation—in the sky above the Tokra city in Stargate, so I took a quick look at Planet Earth on Blu-ray. Sure enough, there was slight contouring as the sun peeks out from behind the limb of the planet in the title sequence. However, I saw no contouring in the "Shallow Seas" episode with its subtle gradations of underwater blues.

The colors in this episode were gorgeous, with water ranging from deep blue to aqua green. The detail in shots from space was fantastic, though I did see some momentary jaggies in a school of fast-moving fish.

On Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Blu-ray), the black of space somehow seemed darker than the letterbox bars, which was a bit strange. As before, detail in things like the Egyptian pyramids, LA and New York skylines, and facial textures was superb, and colors were beautiful, with natural skin tones. The shadow detail in von Doom's dark hideout was excellent.

Turning to DVD, I watched some of Star Trek: Insurrection. Detail was okay for DVD, but not quite as crisp as I've seen on other sets. Colors were natural, including green foliage and skin tones. Shadow detail in the duck-blind observation post was pretty good, and although the black of space was not all that deep, it was somehow not as bothersome as I expected.

The sound of the 50PG60's audio system was actually better than most. A feature called ClearVoice is supposed to bring out the vocal range by cutting the low end, but this makes the overall sound thinner and more brittle. I didn't find dialog to be much more intelligible with ClearVoice on, and it was reasonably good to begin with, so I left it off.