A simpler menu system features (for the most part) basic settings such as picture and audio mode. To get to this menu system, you press the "Q.MENU" (for "Quick Menu") button on the remote. This menu is much better-laid-out, and it appears unassumingly across the bottom of the screen. You can use the Quick Menu to scan for channels or change your Picture or Audio mode. If you want to make detailed changes to your picture or audio, however, you'll still have to go through the Home menu.

To get to the main setup menu, you must open the Home menu and select Setup. Here you can change real picture settings--such as brightness, contrast, sharpness, color, tint, and color temperature--and advanced settings. You can also adjust your 3D settings, balance your speakers, adjust your bass or treble, and find all of the usual parental lock controls and miscellaneous options.

Testing

In our jury testing, the Infinia 50PZ950 scored fairly well. All of our testers agreed that the set had consistently good picture quality in both 720p and 1080i "over the air" transport streams. The 50PZ950 also did a good job of DVD upconversion--though in our Phantom of the Opera scenes, colors and skin tones sometimes looked slightly off. The television scored poorly in our motion test for diagonal panning, as the picture looked very blurry while moving across the screen. On the other hand, it scored pretty well in our horizontal-panning motion test.

The 50PZ950 supports active-shutter 3D, and ships with a pair of active-shutter glasses. The glasses are fairly comfortable and not too dark, though they may give you a headache if you wear them while other lights are on in the room. The 50PZ950 looked very good in 3D, with plenty of picture depth, and fast-moving scenes displayed fairly smoothly. If you press the Q.MENU button while watching a 3D picture, you can access the 3D menu, where you can adjust the picture size, picture depth, 3D viewpoint, and picture balance, and switch L/R to R/L (useful for different 3D media formats).