Happy to and I shared your view that Plasma was difficult to beat in terms of picture quality for SD/HD and the 55VT65B is staying in one of the Daughters rooms and I’d still take the plasma over almost any LCD screen.
Having said that I’m a bit of a convert to OLED now and not just for the extra 10” of screen real estate.
Sources and Picture quality (all picture aids other than IFC are disabled)
Sat feed with SD/HD o 720i/p/1080i output by the receiver as 1080p
SD Channels about on par with the Plasma, but does depending on the quality of the feed and how much compression there is. Compression artifacts are more visible but I think that’s mainly due to the extra size emphasising them
Low bitrate channels do look ropey but that’s the case in both the HZ and the VT
HD Channels looks excellent (i.e. BBC HD, BBC4 HD etc)
4K Fire stick for HD/UHD
HD is excellent, upscales well and appears to have more detail and obvious sharpness than the plasma + the benefits und general picture quality
UHD is WOW: Very Bright when needed but just more depth to the image, better near black graduation, more pop compared to the VT. The benefits in colour gamut coverage/saturation are also big plusses as is the extra sharpness
Freeview play / iPlayer
Freeview: HD channels look as good if not better than on the VT and benefit from the upscaling performance
Freeview: SD Channels, are decent, mainly but can suffer a little from the extra 10” on the HZ but are perfectly watchable, if it’s a decent channel, drop down the list to some of the more bit staved channels and the macro blocking and noise is more visible than on the plasma, again mainly due to the extra screen size
iPlayer: Given that it’s not generally delivering 1080i it’s surprisingly good, I would say excellent for the HD programmes and on par with the Freeview comments above for SD, In fact probably a little better than the Plasma. Certainly no worse
Other Catchup app: Again pretty much a wash between the HZ and the VT, very dependant on the quality of the source and bitrate/compression. Compression artifacts can be more noticeable as edge noise. The biggest differences are again more noticeable due to the extra screen real estate if compared on similar sized TV’s I doubt there would be a noticeable difference
DVD/Blu-ray/UHD
DVD output as 566i and upscaled by the HZ, looks excellent for SD and as good as the plasm, but with the advantages under “General Picture Quality”
Blu-ray – I’d say is better than the Plasma, upscaling is excellent and has more perceived detail, colour is definitely richer
UHD – No contest, for detail, brightness, contrast, richness of colours and those specular highlights
General Picture quality:
The HZ blacks are way deeper than the Plasma, especially in a dark room, no more faint plasma glow on the credit screens, backgrounds are inky black
Contrast ration also is much better than the plasma,. Giving good material and almost 3D depth
Colours are also richer, especially for HD/HDR and about on par for SD
Comparing the same UHD source via a 4K Firestick on the HZ and a 4K 2nd Gen Fire stick, outputting 1080P on the VT, the plasma is a little smoother maybe but less sharp and defined, just feels fuzzier
Brightness, details in shadows and highlights un HDR material is just something else, which does make the plasma look anaemic in comparison
Upscaling and detail are excellent from HD sources
Brightness: The HZ is way brighter than the VT even on full field screens with SD/D material and just WOW with HDR. It really is night and day difference (Using Pro1/2 and Filmmaker mode)
Motion:
Always a bit of a subjective topic and I’m not sure how sensitive I am to some motion artifacts
One the VT I’d never had a complaint and generally had IFC disabled for Blu-ray or on Min for all other sources and never had an issue or complaint
On the HZ I’ve not played enough to really hone it in, IFC off and Min seem fine for 24p sources and Min for Broadcast SD/HD seems ok
Big mountain flyover scenes (via Freeview) are not quite as smooth as the Plasma but IFC Min seems to get the HZ closer. Have to factor in though the extra screen size and impact
The Plasma probably just nudges it though but fine tuning the HZ may make close the gap to being imperceptible, I have not really done much assessment with BFI as of yet
In the month I’d had the HZ the dreaded fame stutter had not reared its head (or not that I’d noticed) until the other night, when I may have spotted it with a DV source.
But it was one of those, did I see it or not type of things.
Of course these are just my own observations and experience but hope they help.
Is the Plasma excellent and would I take it over most LCD Tv's? Yes without a doubt, is some motion noticebly better, yes but not by much and I think with tweaking they can be matched for SD/HD.
Would I go back to the Plasma as my main display? not a chance.