I picked up my 58PZ850 on Thurs and hung it Friday, I've got about 80hrs on it so still have the settings to custom with everything around 48-49. This replaced a Sony 52XBR3 that I got a store credit on for clouds and flashlights (extended warranty program).

I thought the thing I would notice most when I got it home was the increase in real estate, boy was I wrong. My jaw is on the floor with how poor this makes my XBR3 look, I really thought it was a decent TV. I feel like I owe the blu-ray forum an apology for my comments on so many movies that look so much better on a proper display. Since I'm still breaking it in and want to play with the settings I'm not going to give much of a review but my initial impressions are that my expectations have been far exceeded. Colors seem very natural, detail is exceptional, amazing sense of depth and that "looking out the window" experience is in full tilt! Blacks are nice and inky with great shadow detail and no visible crushing. It seems to resolve grain very well and stay true to source material. In fact that is one of the main things I notice about this TV is that it is a very clear window to your source. So-called "HD" channels like AMCHD look awful but the super bowl looked pretty good and the top tier blu-ray movies such as Apocalypto, I'Robot, Hellboy II, etc. are extremely real and very drool-worthy.

Here are a couple pics but you can blame the camera and my poor photo abilities for the colors. I don't have photoshop or anything so there is a lot of blue in the night city shot that is not there on the TV, again just blame the camera. Anyways, I am very happy with the TV and am enjoying my BD library all over again, seeing things I hadn't seen on my XBR. I spent plenty of time looking at this in the store but there are not words that can express the value of an in-home experience. I'll report back in a couple months with some more impressions. btw - I also watched a couple movies with black bars and not even a hint of IR after.


http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b212/iamjackspictures/DSC_0079-1.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b212/iamjackspictures/DSC_0082.jpg

Nice set up General. Looks great!

Very nice set up. What tower speakers are those?

Thanks! I'm looking forward to passing that 100-150 hr mark this week and going into tweak mode. I'll eventually get it calibrated but I want to play with it myself first and try out some settings from other avs members.

The speakers are Aperion Audio 633-T.

Congrats!! Looks fantastic!!!!

I bet you had one HE*L of a Superbowl party. I bet it was it like sitting in the skybox!

we're all SO PROUD! :D

I like it...

I picked up my 58PZ850 on Thurs and hung it Friday, I've got about 80hrs on it so still have the settings to custom with everything around 48-49. This replaced a Sony 52XBR3 that I got a store credit on for clouds and flashlights (extended warranty program).

I thought the thing I would notice most when I got it home was the increase in real estate, boy was I wrong. My jaw is on the floor with how poor this makes my XBR3 look, I really thought it was a decent TV. I feel like I owe the blu-ray forum an apology for my comments on so many movies that look so much better on a proper display. Since I'm still breaking it in and want to play with the settings I'm not going to give much of a review but my initial impressions are that my expectations have been far exceeded. Colors seem very natural, detail is exceptional, amazing sense of depth and that "looking out the window" experience is in full tilt! Blacks are nice and inky with great shadow detail and no visible crushing. It seems to resolve grain very well and stay true to source material. In fact that is one of the main things I notice about this TV is that it is a very clear window to your source. So-called "HD" channels like AMCHD look awful but the super bowl looked pretty good and the top tier blu-ray movies such as Apocalypto, I'Robot, Hellboy II, etc. are extremely real and very drool-worthy.

Here are a couple pics but you can blame the camera and my poor photo abilities for the colors. I don't have photoshop or anything so there is a lot of blue in the night city shot that is not there on the TV, again just blame the camera. Anyways, I am very happy with the TV and am enjoying my BD library all over again, seeing things I hadn't seen on my XBR. I spent plenty of time looking at this in the store but there are not words that can express the value of an in-home experience. I'll report back in a couple months with some more impressions. btw - I also watched a couple movies with black bars and not even a hint of IR after.


http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b212/iamjackspictures/DSC_0079-1.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b212/iamjackspictures/DSC_0082.jpg

Very nice indeed! Enjoy and post your observations when you get some time.

looks very nice.....

any reason why you went with the 850 over the 800?

looks very nice.....

any reason why you went with the 850 over the 800?

After doing some in-store testing with BD discs and reading around here it seemed like the 850 had improved black levels over the 800 and more user tweaking options both of which I like:p

Congrats. Awesome set.:)

Ok, so I started adjusting some of the settings last night while watching Babylon AD with Vin Diesel (terrible movie btw). I'm not familiar with the movie so I don't know what it is supposed to look like but I'll be spending plenty of time tweaking with material I am familiar with over the next week or two.

I tried the settings from cnet and found that with the Warm color temp the picture seemed to have an unnatural green/yellow push. I found the normal color temp to appear more natural and accurate to my eyes. I later put in Predator which is a pretty bad BD transfer but I know how it is supposed to look. With the custom settings tweaked a bit more I got it looking pretty decent but I still felt the studio reference mode with the picture cranked up to about 70 looked more accurate. I haven't had the time to mess with the service menu settings yet.

There is a laundry list of settings buried in the pages of the 850 thread so if any of you that has had theirs for a while and landed on some settings they are happy with please post them or PM me with them. This will be for watching movies from my Pany BD55 and I'm looking for something that wouldn't be too dark for watching stuff in the afternoon or too bright for watching movies at night with dim or no light.