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As we begin 2011, 2D picture quality (PQ) remains firmly at the top of my Performance checklist. Maybe in 2012 or 13, when we are flooded with a torrent of must-see 3D content, I will change my priorities.

But for now, a good 3D TV must be built on the foundation of a very, very good 2D TV. And the Samsung PN50C8000 fills the bill with the type of silky top-notch 2D PQ that I have come to expect from a high-end plasma.

In Movie mode, the blacks are smooth and deep, the colors are rich without being overpowering. Ah, the visual joys of a plasma display.

With that solid base established, the 3D performance is impressive, even to a 2D-centric curmudgeon like me. The PN50C8000's display of 3D Blu-rays like Alice in Wonderland is some of the best that I have seen.

Of course, movies with bad 3D effects like Step Up 3D are not going to wow you. But others, like The Christmas Carol from old pro Robert Zemeckis, will have your family reaching out to catch the snow falling in the London street scene.

As for audio, I have come to expect very little from the pair of tiny speakers integrated into today's TVs. Therefore, I was quite delighted by the sound quality emanating from this plasma.

But if you are springing for a top of the line 3D TV, treat your ears to a dedicated 5.1 or 7.1 surround system that can fill your room with multi-dimensional audio.

Before I end, I must address one issue that I encountered with the PN50C8000. I noticed that when I would turn the TV on and before the screen would light up with the program, I often could see a ghost of the image that was up when I previously turned the TV off.

Since this Samsung is a plasma, I thought this latent image may be an indication of burn-in. I decided to query Samsung's Senior Testing Manager about this phenomenon.

He responded, "Our plasma TVs do have what I call Image Retention. This is different from burn-in, though. With image retention...this ghost image is not permanent and will disappear once the pixels refresh a couple times."

He explained that with image burn-in, the phosphors in the plasma display are permanently faded. Though he believes that "with modern plasmas, image burn is really hard to come by. Phosphor life is such (100k hours?) that you'd practically have to intentionally leave a high-contrast still image on screen for an excessively long period of time to permanently wear the phosphors."

The bottom line for me is that the ghost images do disappear quickly and do not detract from my appraisal of the 8000 series of Samsung 3D plasma TVs.

If you are concerned, Samsung does provide a Screen Burn Protection feature, which includes Pixel Shift (to minimize after-images) and Scrolling (to remove after-images) options.

With the PN50C8000, Samsung has bundled together a winning combination of top notch performance (both 2D and 3D) and non-stop features that earn it our Highly Recommended rating.