I bought a Panasonic TH-50PZ80U at the end of last year at Circuit City and had them come out and do the calibration set-up. I have actually not been very happy with the picture quality (mostly on certain channels). We have DirecTV high definition boxes. The HD channels mostly look okay, but if the channel isn't in HD, it really sucks. Is this normal?

One show we watch is Supernatural and it's on a non HD channel. We watch it on the DirecTV CW network. It's kind of a "dark" show so there's lots of blacks. The blacks look very "blotchy". It's almost hard to watch because the quality sucks.

Another problem we have is Monday night CBS shows. We watch a local CBS channel from an antenna. During, for instance, The Big Bang Theory, the picture is very "grainy". And when there is quick camera movement, the picture gets kind of "streaky". It's almost like the picture has to "catch up" with the camera when it stops.

Another thing I've noticed in the DirecTV guide is when I switch from one item to another. When I move to an item, at first it's goes "blurry" or "grainy" then gets clear almost immediately.

Does any of this sound normal or do I need to get my TV calibrated again? I assumed Circuit City would have calibrated it correctly. I hate to think I wasted $2000 on a TV that I don't like the picture quality on. Or maybe I'm just too picky.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for the help.

Scott

That's a good TV. I would blame DirecTV for the issues you're experiencing.

Part of what you're experiencing is compression, which doesn't have anything to do with the TV. I'm not sure why the guide would be blurry when you switch items...are you sure you're connected to the TV properly? That kind of sounds like blurring you'd get from a 480i signal.

Can you post your settings you are using with this TV? I used to have this exact TV and it is a great TV. The SD quality was just okay

Here's my settings courtesy of Circuit City:

Picture Mode: Standard
Picture: +79
Brightness: +58
Color: +44
Tint: -1
Sharpness: +75
Color Temp: Warm
Color Mgmt: On

Advanced Picture:
Video NR: Off
3D Y/C filter: On
MPEG NR: Off
Black Level: Dark

We have the TV connected to the DirecTV receiver with an HDMI cable.

Is that all you need, or are there more?

I had my 80u ISF calibrated by a pro (not CC wannabes) and the settings he arrived at were:

Picture Mode: Cinema
Picture: +55
Brightness: +57
Color: +41
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Warm
Color Mgmt: off

Advanced Picture:
Video NR: Off
3D Y/C filter: off
MPEG NR: Off
Black Level: light

Few things to point out:

1) The guy at CC obviously had no clue what he was doing.
2) Standard is far inferior when compared to Cinema. Standard's gamma is not as accurate as Cinema.
3) Black Level should be set at light NOT dark. Dark severely crushes blacks. No idea why the CC guy would set this at dark.
4) I would ask for my money back since the calibration was done incorrectly
5) Picture setting should be somewhere between 50-70. This set tends to see a color shift around 60ish so, just know that above 60 you may be degrading picture quality, but in return your set will be a little brighter. To be honest, the difference between 50 and 70 isn't that big so just choose whatever you like.
6) Check out the pz80u/pz85u owner's thread on this forum. There are a lot of great posts there. If you are ever tempted, I posted a FAQ about how to get into the service menu if you want to further calibrate your set (the greyscale for example).
7) Color Temp should be set at warm for this set, however warm is a bit too warm (yellowish skin tones). Normal will give more accurate skin tones. A proper calibration (via service menu) will fix this by calibrating the greyscale. See 6) above.

Let me know if you have any questions. Link below to the 80u calibration thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1019763&highlight=pz80u+calibration+thread

jbrady, thanks for the reply. I'll try your settings and see what happens. The guy from Circuit City used one of those "spiders", or whatever they're called, and his computer for the settings based on the actual conditions of our room, so I assumed they would be good. Although I was never happy with them. I really would like to demand my money back for the calibration, but as you probably know, Circuit City is no longer in business. :mad:

As for using the "cinema" mode compared to the "standard" mode, I thought that the "standard" mode was supposed to be used because it conserved the most energy the TV is using. Am I going to be using even more electricity to run the TV in the "cinema" mode?

I would imagine that standard uses significantly more electricy because it's brighter than cinema...

It's hard to believe that sharpness setting. I agree that the guy didn't know what he was doing.

jbrady, thanks for the reply. I'll try your settings and see what happens. The guy from Circuit City used one of those "spiders", or whatever they're called, and his computer for the settings based on the actual conditions of our room, so I assumed they would be good. Although I was never happy with them. I really would like to demand my money back for the calibration, but as you probably know, Circuit City is no longer in business. :mad:

As for using the "cinema" mode compared to the "standard" mode, I thought that the "standard" mode was supposed to be used because it conserved the most energy the TV is using. Am I going to be using even more electricity to run the TV in the "cinema" mode?

Like Chris stated, Standard is brighter than Cinema so most likely Standard will be using more power.

Give the settings above a shot for a few days. May need to play with the Color Temp (normal or warm), but I think after a few days you will be happy.

Just wanted to give an update. I switched my settings to what jbrady listed. I honestly don't know if it made any difference. I haven't had the opportunity to view something like Supernatural with a lot of black. Tonight I'll see about The Big Bang Theory.

Here's something I have noticed, and I don't know if it was like this before or not. I live in Eastern Ohio and get two CBS channels on the antenna. One is channel 7 from Wheeling, WV and the other is channel 2 from Pittsburgh. Channel 7 is closer than 2 and with my new antenna tower I get 7 at 100% signal and 2 comes in less than that. Yesterday during the Steelers game I had channel 2 at about 77% (I can get it higher if I move the antenna). I was switching between the two to see if there was a difference, and there was. Channel 2 came in really clear, but 7 was really grainy. I couldn't even watch it on 7, well I could, but 2 was better. Can anyone explain that? They are both HD digital channels coming off the antenna.

Greetings,

I have the 50PZ80U, and so far so good. Although, I haven't upgraded to the the monster hdmi cables, the belkin cables are doing pretty good for now. My question is this... What is the best format to watch blu ray movies on? Full or H-Fill? I can already tell the difference in blu ray and regular dvd's on this tv. The blu ray's are much clearer in any format. I just want the BEST picture like they have in the store. Also, i'm new to the flat screen game. This being my first. What's all the fuss about the calibration of this tv, and how do I get mine calibrated if need be?

Thanks

"monster cables" WILL NOT improve anything. a $3.00 cable is just as good as a $100.00 cable. HDMI cables are digital. there is no such thing as better quality. the signal is there or it isnt. "MONSTER CABLES" are a ******** ripoff from big box stores.