The Panasonic Plasma TC-P60ST50 I have is an excellent set, but there is one aspect of it which is disappointing. When I have the set on the 4:3 ratio on low def cable TV programming all is fine until the "zoom' setting is selected. The picture then becomes compromised and blurry. On DVD's this zoom setting on a 4:3 aspect ratio is not an issue (been watch Babylon-5 lately with good results), it's only on cable TV sources.
Funny thing is my wife does not even care, she also does not care if the programming is stretched out either. This leaves me occasionally pressing the aspect ratio button to get best results, an activity absent from the LG LCD in our bedroom.
Much focus has been given to the best sets with the best program material available, however equal time for garbage in, garbage out should be given to address real world conditions.
Of course, I have almost all my image management software turned off for optimum results under optimum conditions, so there may be a feature setting I can switch to fix things, but it really isn't that much of a problem. The set is so large that even with 4:3 material cropped with black bars to each side, the image is still very large, and very clear. The zoom setting tends to chop off heads and captions, which is not true to the original source material nor the director's intent.