it does nearblacks better . meaning that the shadow detail just out of 0 % black is done better on a plasma . there ' s no uniformity issues or black crush . If you ' re watching a showmovie that has a lot of shadow detail , you could make the argument that the plasma reproduces it better , though OLED is still no slouch , and producing absolute black does make a difference , though the 2013 Panasonics produce some really deep 0 % blacks . Even on the ST 60 in a dark room , there has to be very little on the screen for me to see that pure black is outputting any light , and the VTZT can get about 50 % darker . I understand you on the noise you must be sitting pretty close , i sit about 8 feet from my P 65 ST 60 and cant see noise from there , but I ' m not sure what you mean about the banding . Any banding issues I ever detected on my set initially were purely a whitebalance issue that is correctable with a proper calibration . White balance on the Panny ' s can be a little finicky though , so maybe that ' s what you ' re witnessing .