I've had my TH-42PX60U for almost a week now and so far I'm pretty happy with it. One thing I've noticed is that on PBS HD (1080i), when they are interviewing someone and have a closeup of their face, features like lines on their forehead don't track their head movements well. It almost looks as if their forehead is melting for lack of a better term.

I have the latest firmware. I'm using Standard mode and I have turned down the color, brightness, etc. I don't have the specific settings handy.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Thanks a BUNCH! Especially re: the box size. I now know I need to borrow a truck.
Any advice on how to position and secure the box in the bed of a pickup? I have never used a pickup before and wouldn't want the tv to fall down in the bed of it. What did you guys do?

I punted and had mine delivered. :)

None of these should affect Avia/DVE calibrations, which are meant to match voltages and whatnot from the signal source to the display. The point at which whiter-than-white or blacker-than-black become indistinguishable from regular white and black has nothing to do with preference or lighting conditions.

This is not entirely true. The problem is that you are using the human eye as the instrument for this measurement which is far from a precise measuring device. Room lighting conditions can affect the human eye's ability to see (or not see) details. If there is a lot of natural sun light in the room, you might not be able to see (for example) a really dark shaded box of gray on an otherwise completely black screen compared to looking at the same screen with the same settings in complete darkness. It's not the screen that is changing based on lighting conditions, it's the human eye that is seeing differently based on lighting conditions.

Has anyone used the wall mount from monoprice to mount your panny? How was the quality?

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082801&p_id=2852&seq=1&format=2


I just recieved the corresponding unit for my 58 panny and the build quality looks excellent. Will be mounting this weekend

Thanks a BUNCH! Especially re: the box size. I now know I need to borrow a truck.
Any advice on how to position and secure the box in the bed of a pickup? I have never used a pickup before and wouldn't want the tv to fall down in the bed of it. What did you guys do?

I used a whole lot of rope and drove slow
(c:

my wife and I took it out of the box with the helkp of the guys at magnolia and placed the screen on the back seet of her jetta, so the screen was still vertical laying up against the seatback and the box with the stand and remote and instructions in the trunk. She helped me carry it up the stairs into our condo. The handles on the back help out.

I've had my TH-42PX60U for almost a week now and so far I'm pretty happy with it. One thing I've noticed is that on PBS HD (1080i), when they are interviewing someone and have a closeup of their face, features like lines on their forehead don't track their head movements well. It almost looks as if their forehead is melting for lack of a better term.

I have the latest firmware. I'm using Standard mode and I have turned down the color, brightness, etc. I don't have the specific settings handy.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
whats your sharpness at? put it around -14

I've had my TH-42PX60U for almost a week now and so far I'm pretty happy with it. One thing I've noticed is that on PBS HD (1080i), when they are interviewing someone and have a closeup of their face, features like lines on their forehead don't track their head movements well. It almost looks as if their forehead is melting for lack of a better term.

I have the latest firmware. I'm using Standard mode and I have turned down the color, brightness, etc. I don't have the specific settings handy.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Hello fuhkinay. Just from what I've read here it seems this is common for PBS. If I remember correctly PBS piggy-backs their hi-def signal onto their analog and standard digital signals. This degrades the signal causing what you describe. I have the same issue here in NY. Hope this helps.

Do you mean enter channels manually? They're not there from auto? (I cycled through many 100-plus channels, all black.) I did already check that local S.D. thread you mention, and it appears that it's all digital in my area -- 2 though 99 is digital is what what one person in my area said. I get 2 through 99, but not digital -- I don't know what to do as far as find out "what the local QAM channels are through Cox."
THey might be there from auto, but i didnt feel like going all the way to 106-3 so I looked online to find out. Just ask that very question in the SD thread, and Im sure you'll get an answer.

I have cox in rhode island and I pick up abc, nbc, and pbs through qam. I would go to the local HDTV forum and look for the san diego thread. Then either search or ask what the local QAM channels are through cox. I had to do this to find pbs hd, which was channel 106-3 for me.

I'm in RI also.......check out 107.1(ESPN HD)

I'm in RI also.......check out 107.1(ESPN HD)
Awesome! You rule, I never would have found that. So the only thing we have on qam is abc, nbc, pbs, and espn right? :)

Does anyone use their 360 for DVD playback to their 60u?
If so, can you please post your AVIA settings b/c we will have the exact same setup.

Does anyone use their 360 for DVD playback to their 60u?
If so, can you please post your AVIA settings b/c we will have the exact same setup.
I do now, but I just got my 60u on tuesday, so I haven't calibrated or anything yet. Still breaking it in. I am also curious what others settings are though.

I have a TH-58PX60U and a Playstation 3. Does anyone know if it's best to set the output on the Playstation 3 to 1080p or 1080i? I know the TH-58PX60U doesn't do 1080p, but if you set the PS3 to 1080p and hit the Recall button on the the remote, it says it's running at 1080p. I'm not sure if the TV is deinterlacing or something. For the best picture, should I set it to 1080i or 1080p?

THey might be there from auto, but i didnt feel like going all the way to 106-3 so I looked online to find out. Just ask that very question in the SD thread, and Im sure you'll get an answer.

NOW I get it -- I knew I was missing something. It's 75.2, etc., in S.D.

For San Diego/South, I found CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, and WB from a January post on hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages. Can anyone provide other channels? ESPN? DISC?

NOW I get it -- I knew I was missing something. It's 75.2, etc., in S.D.

For San Diego/South, I found CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, and WB from a January post on hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages. Can anyone provide other channels? ESPN? DISC?
You're better off asking in the local HD thread

I have a new 50PX60U. I use outdoor OTA in San Jose area. I have great picture quality for 1080i channels such as PBS 9.1. However my 720p channel HD programmings look blur and more like a 480i SD channel or HD channel showing SD content. For example, the 2.1 FOX News HD even in the studio the news anchors looks soft and the text on the screen blur. I assume my 720p channel should look more like 1080i channel. In fact one of my colleague said his 720p channel looks in general sharper than 1080i channels.
I called Panasonic support, they couldn't offer any help and said will call me back in two days. They have not called me back yet after four days. I am at the point thinking about returning the set. Anyone can offer some help on why this is possible? It seems to me everyone in thread is very happy with the picture quality.

Something happened. I went home this evening. Channel 2.2 SD was gone. May be the station is in maintenance? I don't know why. Now I don't have a choice to compare with 2.1 HD. I sat there watching and adjusted picture from 0 to +10 [range -30 to +30]. The picture appeared a lot better. 10pm News came. I started like what I saw. I think +10 picture gave me a little sharper picture. May be once the plasma is a little burned in, it will be even better?

Three things.

1.) Here is a video of the swimming grain. I notice more when I'm up close of course, but in certain circumstances it's noticeable from afar. Is this a product of all plasmas? I can't get it to go away no matter how I tweak: edit: actually the video will have to wait til tomorrow. I need to get a better copy of it.


2.) What is the standard for HD channels? We don't have HD in our area via cable (boonies in Mississippi) so we're switching back to DirecTV. Regardless, I've been searching through the analog channels for some unencrypted HD feeds coming over analog cable.

The channels are all 102.1 through 102.136 and so on....are these "subchannels?" (the .1-.136 parts)

3.) I found one HD (1080i) channel on the analog feed. It seems nice but cuts in and out with a lot of digital interference (blocks) and sometimes will cut out for a minute at a time. It's completely utterly unwatchable. Does this mean it's encrypted or just a ****** feed?

TH42-PX60U

Hi, I am excited to receive our new 42" panny. We are replacing a gateway 46" that is on the fritz. I hope I can find parts for it. I have a question relating to the wall mount screws.

I was hoping to just swap the universal wall mount I had the gateway on and transfer the Panny seamlessly. Well I find that the screws I used with the Gateway was too short to even reach the threading inside the tv.

Im hoping someout out there can help me identify the screws I need to buy at the hardware store so Ican mount the tv this friday evening or saturday morning. please, please! :)

I do now, but I just got my 60u on tuesday, so I haven't calibrated or anything yet. Still breaking it in. I am also curious what others settings are though.
Yeah...I just bought mine on Monday, but don't get it till the 29th (Best Buy had one there, but the box was damaged, so I refused it). Have to wait for the new shipment. When you get yours calibrated with your 360, can you PM me or post here the settings?

Too bad the 60u doesn't have VGA b/c the 360 upscales with it. Now its just 480 p :(

Yeah...I just bought mine on Monday, but don't get it till the 29th (Best Buy had one there, but the box was damaged, so I refused it). Have to wait for the new shipment. When you get yours calibrated with your 360, can you PM me or post here the settings?

Too bad the 60u doesn't have VGA b/c the 360 upscales with it. Now its just 480 p :(


I have another question.

What aspect ration of movies will fill the screen without black bars? 1:85? The reason I'm asking is b/c I want to play a movie to help break-in time, but don't want the bars.

I have another question.

What aspect ration of movies will fill the screen without black bars? 1:85? The reason I'm asking is b/c I want to play a movie to help break-in time, but don't want the bars.

I think you're right about the 1.85:1.

You can download a breakin DVD here:
http://www.eaprogramming.com/

whats your sharpness at? put it around -14

It was set at +5. I changed it to -14, then to -10. It seems a little better. I'll leave it like that for a while. Once the TV is broken in, I'll calibrate using Avia.

Thanks for the reply.

Hello fuhkinay. Just from what I've read here it seems this is common for PBS. If I remember correctly PBS piggy-backs their hi-def signal onto their analog and standard digital signals. This degrades the signal causing what you describe. I have the same issue here in NY. Hope this helps.

Good to know. I was thinking maybe something was wrong with my TV. I was also worried that it had something to do with signal strength. The cable infrastructure has been upgraded in our area, but the cable in my house is older and the installation is questionable. It was a DIY job by the previous owner. I don't really want to crawl under the house to redo it.

Just got my 42px60U yesterday. I exchanged a new Sharp 42" for this Panny. The difference is incredible. The only thing is that I have used a set up that I have seen on here many times....

Pic Mode Standard
Picture +22
Brightness +8
sharpness -14
color -1
tint -4
Color Temp: Warm/Normal

Everything looked fantastic until I put in the "Goblet of Fire" DVD last night and its very dark at the beginning and when the WB logo is coming at you it looks incredibly blocky and the scene where the old man is walking outside in the dark is so bright it looks like it's almost daytime.

Has anyone else had the same experience with this DVD with those settings? I turned the brightness down to about 0 to -2 and it almost eliminated the blockieness and it looks like night time like it should. I just wonder if you really need to change brightness settings a lot depending on what DVD you might be watching?

Just got my 42px60U yesterday. I exchanged a new Sharp 42" for this Panny. The difference is incredible. The only thing is that I have used a set up that I have seen on here many times....

Pic Mode Standard
Picture +22
Brightness +8
sharpness -14
color -1
tint -4
Color Temp: Warm/Normal

Everything looked fantastic until I put in the "Goblet of Fire" DVD last night and its very dark at the beginning and when the WB logo is coming at you it looks incredibly blocky and the scene where the old man is walking outside in the dark is so bright it looks like it's almost daytime.

Has anyone else had the same experience with this DVD with those settings? I turned the brightness down to about 0 to -2 and it almost eliminated the blockieness and it looks like night time like it should. I just wonder if you really need to change brightness settings a lot depending on what DVD you might be watching?

If your 60U is new, the picture and brightness settings are too high. They should be set to 0 or lower during the 100-200 hour break-in period to reduce chance of burn-in/IR (image retention). The recommendation is to set everything except Sharpness to 0. Then set Sharpness to around -15.

Even after the 100-200 hour break-in many have stated that +22 for Picture, referenced from the Plasma TV Buying Guide, is too high. That may explain why the dark scene looked like daytime.

The blocky WB logo may be the macroblocking effect that occurs with Panansonic plasmas connected to a DVD with DCDi by Foroudja, which is a process to produce a smooth natural looking image without visible artifacts (jaggies). Specifying which DVD player you have would help. :)

If your 60U is new, the picture and brightness settings are too high. They should be set to 0 or lower during the 100-200 hour break-in period to reduce chance of burn-in/IR (image retention). The recommendation is to set everything except Sharpness to 0. Then set Sharpness to around -15.

Even after the 100-200 hour break-in many have stated that +22 for Picture, referenced from the Plasma TV Buying Guide, is too high. That may explain why the dark scene looked like daytime.

The blocky WB logo may be the macroblocking effect that occurs with Panansonic plasmas connected to a DVD with DCDi by Foroudja, which is a process to produce a smooth natural looking image without visible artifacts (jaggies). Specifying which DVD player you have would help. :)

It happened on two DVD players. The Samsung Blu Ray "BDP1000" and a cheap progressive scan DVD player from Sony. Like I said it almost totally went away on both players when I turned the brightness down.

My main question would be if this is normal? I haven't really seen this happen on other dark scenes in any DVD's yet besides this Harry Potter DVD.

+22 is too bright and you should use Cinema for DvD.

+22 is too bright and you should use Cinema for DvD.

Cinema? I will try that. I will also try turning the brightness back up a bit and turning down the picture setting. Thanks for all the help guys.

ive gamed on my 42px60 no problem. just dont sit there playing the same game for 8 hours. also all modern plasmas have pixel orbitors to help prevent burnin

Nope.

They do not all have orbitors/shifters. And those features do not prevent burn-in.

I think you're right about the 1.85:1.

You can download a breakin DVD here:
http://www.eaprogramming.com/
1.78:1 is the aspect ratio of 16:9 Television ... I think!

Yeah...I just bought mine on Monday, but don't get it till the 29th (Best Buy had one there, but the box was damaged, so I refused it). Have to wait for the new shipment. When you get yours calibrated with your 360, can you PM me or post here the settings?

Too bad the 60u doesn't have VGA b/c the 360 upscales with it. Now its just 480 p :(
I know. I really wish they would just have an HDMI cable for it.

Hey all. Please don't burn me for this question, but I can't seem to find it on the search-engine. I'm probably not using the right nomenclature. How do I find the number of hours my screen has been on? I'm breaking it in right now, and I'm trying to find this feature but am missing something. It is a 42" 60U by the way. Thanks for the help all.

1.78:1 is the aspect ratio of 16:9 Television ... I think!
your right, but because of overscan you won't see black bars on a 1.85:1 movie.

i am looking for some insight in wall mounting a 42px60. i ordered the generic wall mount from monoprice.. i looked in the manual of the tv and noticed talk about mounting the tv to a tv stand or wall for balance but nothing about mounting to a wall with a wall mount. If anyone that has experienced the wall mount of this tv, any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

Hey all. Please don't burn me for this question, but I can't seem to find it on the search-engine. I'm probably not using the right nomenclature. How do I find the number of hours my screen has been on? I'm breaking it in right now, and I'm trying to find this feature but am missing something. It is a 42" 60U by the way. Thanks for the help all.


A great source for a lot of FAQs like this one is to check it through Buzzi's url:
http://www.bruzziforum.com/vbf/

He is a great help

..Mark

I've had my TH-42PX60U for almost a week now and so far I'm pretty happy with it. One thing I've noticed is that on PBS HD (1080i), when they are interviewing someone and have a closeup of their face, features like lines on their forehead don't track their head movements well. It almost looks as if their forehead is melting for lack of a better term.I've seen that as well from time to time - most notably on the Lance Armstrong commercial where he taunts cancer. It's like his eyes move independently of the rest of his face.

Digital video typically updates the screen in regions and may leave some regions unmodified (or only slightly modified) from frame to frame if there is little movement or change in that area. If you have ever gotten a signal dropout on a digital video station you may have noticed that you get only pieces of the picture - sometimes it looks like the people are wearing masks of "old pixel data" until a couple of seconds go by and it clears up (every couple of seconds a digital video stream should contain a "starting over from square one" frame which is all new data and shares nothing with previous frames).

My impression was that these "melting forehead" or "Dali faces" is probably due to overcompression in the digital video streams. As you compress them more, the compressor becomes more and more conservative on deciding which blocks need to be updated and which can survive from frame to frame with little modifications. So the eyes may change enough from frame to frame to convince it to waste bits to update those areas, but the forehead may not change enough to go over the threshold until you dial back the compression ratio.

As someone said earlier - if the PBS stations are getting stingy on their HD/digital bandwidth then they may use higher compression ratios and end up with this problem more than other stations...

If you set the Cinema, Standard, and Vivid settings all to 0, will the picture look the same? Meaning, besides having a different default starting point, do these modes look any different? Maybe they have different settings in the service menu? Anybody know?

Thanks adm. I looked on that website already, but had no idea with all the links which heading to look under (hence my original question). If you know it would be most appreciated.

i am looking for some insight in wall mounting a 42px60. i ordered the generic wall mount from monoprice.. i looked in the manual of the tv and noticed talk about mounting the tv to a tv stand or wall for balance but nothing about mounting to a wall with a wall mount. If anyone that has experienced the wall mount of this tv, any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

the mount should come with all the hardware you need. they will probably give you a large bag of screws - find which ones work in the holes in the back of the panny, grab some of the supplied washers, screw the mounting arms onto the back of the tv, find some studs in the wall, attach the wall bracket with 4 supplied lag bolts, level, and place tv on the bracket. not very difficult as long as the mount supplies you with all the screws/washers/bolts that you need.

i am looking for some insight in wall mounting a 42px60. i ordered the generic wall mount from monoprice.. i looked in the manual of the tv and noticed talk about mounting the tv to a tv stand or wall for balance but nothing about mounting to a wall with a wall mount. If anyone that has experienced the wall mount of this tv, any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

See this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9178029) (c:

your right, but because of overscan you won't see black bars on a 1.85:1 movie.


So...to make SURE I get this right....for helping to break in my DVD, it will be safe to play movies that are 1:85 and 1:78 b/c they are FULL screen?

We don't want to break it in JUST with the TV b/c it will be a slower process.

Also, has anyone posted thoughts on the 360's visualizer as a way to break-in? It is full-screen, and the colors are really varied, compared to the discs on this forum.

So...to make SURE I get this right....for helping to break in my DVD, it will be safe to play movies that are 1:85 and 1:78 b/c they are FULL screen?

We don't want to break it in JUST with the TV b/c it will be a slower process.

Also, has anyone posted thoughts on the 360's visualizer as a way to break-in? It is full-screen, and the colors are really varied, compared to the discs on this forum.

you can do it either way - if there is an HD channel that is full screen with minimal on-screen logos, you can use that. otherwise you can use a break-in dvd or simply loop a movie that has a lot of different types of scenes.

either will do the job. but yes, keep it in whatever mode you need to prevent bars.

Can we recap the commonly accepted "break in" settings, standard settings and service menu settings?

It would be nice if someone threw together some truncated advice on what to do during breakin, what to do after breakin, and the optimal settings for the remainder of the televisions life. Up until now, I've been using the settings over at ******************* and am fairly dissapointed. My whites look grey, and no matter what I do to it they don't come out looking any better.

Also, where do you turn on enhanced black levels? All I can find is "black level light/dark"

Is there a way to display the time when switching station?

Thanks

Since the 50PX600U has only 1 coax input, can I use a coax spliter from Radio shack to connect my cable connection and rabbit ears connetion?

myboat254x.
A splitter won't help you if you want to receive 2 inputs. Try something like this http://www.amazon.com/Parts-Express-COAXIAL-A-B-SWITCH/dp/B0002ZPIQ4

Can we recap the commonly accepted "break in" settings, standard settings and service menu settings?

It would be nice if someone threw together some truncated advice on what to do during breakin, what to do after breakin, and the optimal settings for the remainder of the televisions life. Up until now, I've been using the settings over at ******************* and am fairly dissapointed. My whites look grey, and no matter what I do to it they don't come out looking any better.

Also, where do you turn on enhanced black levels? All I can find is "black level light/dark"

unfortunately, there isnt a one size fits all setting - everyone is going to prefer something different based on how they perceive colors, what the lighting is like in the room, what they personally like/dislike - so there is no way that one setting for this set that will please everyone. so for any particular setting that is posted - your mileage may vary.

as youve said, youre using settings from another website and you dont like them - im sure there are a handful of people who DO like those settings but you dont. so get yourself a calibration disc (getgray, avia, dve) and use the provided patterns to choose something you like. or just put on a movie and tinker with the settings until you find a happy medium. theres no right or wrong way to do it and no one single answer to the question.

and again, there are no 'optimal' setting before/during/after break-in - during break-in, set everything to 0 and set sharpness to -10. that is more than satisfactory. after your 100-200 hour mark, calibrate as i suggested previously.

the black level is the setting youre talking about - light/dark. almost every recommendation ive seen is to leave it at light as dark will kill some of the sharpness of the picture.

the black level is the setting youre talking about - light/dark. almost every recommendation ive seen is to leave it at light as dark will kill some of the sharpness of the picture.

The Black Level = Light or Dark setting adjusts the same value as the Brightness setting, but it's intended for a different purpose.

The Black Level setting is intended to select between sources that output 0 IRE voltage level as their zero black level, and sources that output +7.5 IRE voltage level as their zero black level. This is the same function you'll find on DVD players that have an "enhanced black level" setting. You can override either the Light or Dark setting to look like the other within the range of adjustment of the Brightness setting, but the Black Level setting is remembered independently per input, while the Brightness setting goes with the picture mode Cinema/Standard/Vivid.

Hi everyone and Happy Holidays. Newbie to this forum. I, too, recently purchased a TH42-PX60U and so far so good. Per hdguru, I set it to Standard and picture ot +15. tint and Color at 0. I also purchased an Oppo 971H to use until the HD DVD format war is settled and it's fine. Right now, I have an OTA antenna for HD and decided not to give DISH more of my money for their HD as FIOS will be here in a few months. Does anyone here have FIOS with their panny and what is your opinion? FIOS or satellite? I will be geting into HT when bucks allow but one step at a time. this is a very helpful site, BTW

Question...I have a 50PX600U. If I lose power, will I also lose all my setting?

Thanks

Hi everyone and Happy Holidays. Newbie to this forum. I, too, recently purchased a TH42-PX60U and so far so good. Per hdguru, I set it to Standard and picture ot +15. tint and Color at 0. I also purchased an Oppo 971H to use until the HD DVD format war is settled and it's fine. Right now, I have an OTA antenna for HD and decided not to give DISH more of my money for their HD as FIOS will be here in a few months. Does anyone here have FIOS with their panny and what is your opinion? FIOS or satellite? I will be geting into HT when bucks allow but one step at a time. this is a very helpful site, BTW

FiOS will be hard to beat for PQ. :cool:

Hi everyone and Happy Holidays. Newbie to this forum. I, too, recently purchased a TH42-PX60U and so far so good. Per hdguru, I set it to Standard and picture ot +15. tint and Color at 0. I also purchased an Oppo 971H to use until the HD DVD format war is settled and it's fine. Right now, I have an OTA antenna for HD and decided not to give DISH more of my money for their HD as FIOS will be here in a few months. Does anyone here have FIOS with their panny and what is your opinion? FIOS or satellite? I will be geting into HT when bucks allow but one step at a time. this is a very helpful site, BTW
I currently have FIOS (not Verizon) to my 50px60u and it's great. Just as with any other service though you can get bad source material. PBS is a know issue, but channels like UniHD, HDNet, DiscHD, etc. look amazing.

I currently have FIOS (not Verizon) to my 50px60u and it's great. Just as with any other service though you can get bad source material. PBS is a know issue, but channels like UniHD, HDNet, DiscHD, etc. look amazing.

Hmmm.. so FIOS quality can vary by provider? Verizon will be offering FIOS in my area. Do they have a poor reputation with their FIOS service?

Please HELP!
I am picking up my 50 (60U) from Best Buy on the 29th. I am borrowing a friends truck. I have never used a truck before and won't have any help securing this tv in the bed of it. Can someone please post in detail how to secure this enormous tv?

Should I put the TV by the back of the truck (near the cabin), or in the middle, or what? I presume I need bungie chords...how should I secure this? I'll have about a .5 hour drive with it before I get home.

Thanks

Can speakers on the TH50PX60U be used as center channel in a Dolby 5.1 setup?

Question...I have a 50PX600U. If I lose power, will I also lose all my setting?

Thanks

No.

XboxEboy,
When I picked mine up (1 Hr. drive 65 mph.) I put the TV in the center of the bed with the TV facing the side of the truck. I then used rope in a crisscross pattern over the top of the TV (right front to left rear, left front to right rear).

What type of truck is it? If it's a super-cab or crew-cab, you can easily put it in the back seat area if you raise the seats. I popped my seats up in my F-150 supercab and it fit perfectly (had to slide the front seats up a little, but no big deal). Give it a shot. Otherwise, in the bed of the pickup, that box will be a big kite for the wind. You better tie it down as if your TV depended on it, because it does (and use tine or rope, bungies will flex too much and can allow it to tip and drop).

What type of truck is it? If it's a super-cab or crew-cab, you can easily put it in the back seat area if you raise the seats. I popped my seats up in my F-150 supercab and it fit perfectly (had to slide the front seats up a little, but no big deal). Give it a shot. Otherwise, in the bed of the pickup, that box will be a big kite for the wind. You better tie it down as if your TV depended on it, because it does (and use tine or rope, bungies will flex too much and can allow it to tip and drop).


Yeah use rope or those heavy duty canvas-y straps that have a mini-winch thing on them to tighten it.

But what Jdog said about it fitting in the back of most extended cabs is right. I saw a guy do it when I picked up mine on Black Friday. The workers that were loading the TV's swore it wouldn't fit, but the guy convinced them to try and it fit just fine.

Just got my new Panasonic 42" 60U model. Turn it on a went through the start up procedure - no problems. Ran it for about 10 minutes. :) Turned it off to change some connections and attempted to restart it. No power! (yes, the plug is in and there is power to the plug). The red light next to the power button is blinking. Can anyone tell me what's going on? :(

Just got my new Panasonic 42" 60U model. Turn it on a went through the start up procedure - no problems. Ran it for about 10 minutes. :) Turned it off to change some connections and attempted to restart it. No power! (yes, the plug is in and there is power to the plug). The red light next to the power button is blinking. Can anyone tell me what's going on? :(

I wish I could tell ya, man. I'd say leave it unplugged for 30 minutes and then try and turn it on. If that doesn't work, call panasonic or google it. Good luck!

I've set all of my stuff to 0, and ran two episodes of ER from about midnight to 8am this morning to get out of my 100 hour mark. My room is of average brightness---no direct light on the screen. I'm still dissapointed by the whites of the set, although everything else is a big improvement over my old LTV-32w6 set. I just need to get the white level right.

Any advice on achieving this would be appreciated! Also, I still can't find where you turn enhanced black level off or on. Any help?

I'm trying to ensure my STB is outputting a 720p or 1080i signal via its HDMI output, because I really don't think it is doing so correctly. I can't seem to find information about the current input signal's resolution in my 42PX60U's OSD.

Does anyone know if it is possible to view the current signal's resolution? Somewhere in the service menu, perhaps?

To answer my own question: it's the "Recall" button on the remote. Knew it had to be there somewhere. And indeed, my STB is outputting 480i even on the HDTV channels.

I took some time to write up my improssions of the 42PX60U on my blog. I didn't want to concentrate on cold facts, but rather my impressions any things that were not easly gleaned from spec sheets.

http://brontide.blogspot.com/2006/12/review-panasonic-th-42px60u-great.html

Just picked up my TH-42PX60U at Tweeter. I just dled the break-in SVCD and Im about to get going on it for about 10 days whenever Im not watching TV :) cuz I have to watch some. RIght now I have these settings, I am wandering if they will suffice during break in:

Picture: -15
Brightness: -20
Color: -3
Tint: 0
Sharpness: -25 *HIGH SHARPNESS BAD ON ANY TV!
Color Temp: Normal
Black leve: Light (prob gonna change when calibrated, but I need to see the image with those settings)

But I think that brightness and contrast are down enough for break-in, first plasma so Im tryin to be very cautious. Thanks

Why is high Sharpness bad on any TV? i like a VIVID Sharp Picture and like my SHarpness up high on all my TVs. Is this hurtung something on a pLasma display?

Yeah use rope or those heavy duty canvas-y straps that have a mini-winch thing on them to tighten it.

But what Jdog said about it fitting in the back of most extended cabs is right. I saw a guy do it when I picked up mine on Black Friday. The workers that were loading the TV's swore it wouldn't fit, but the guy convinced them to try and it fit just fine.

Yep, ratcheting tie-downs are the greatest. :D I drove home very slow (for me) on the day I got my 50". It fit in the truck bed with no problems. Just tie it down coner to corner.

Nothing screams 'Please come rob me' like that. ;)

I really have looked for this, but I cannot find any information: upgrading the firmware.

So, I grab the firmware package. I put all the files on my SD card, in this case a half gig card I pulled from my camera. I pop it into the back of my 42px6u and...nothing. I do this when the television is off and then turn it on. Nothing. I do it while the television is on. Nothing. It doesn't seem to recognise the SD card at all. Is this a problem with my set, with my method, or with my card? I'm at firmware 1.14, and I'd like to see what 1.25 does for picture quality. No one else seems to have had an issue with this, so I'm concerned.
DID you format the SD card with Panasonics Format Utility?

Nothing screams 'Please come rob me' like that. ;)
Good point. I guess I was to excited to think about it. :D

Why is high Sharpness bad on any TV? i like a VIVID Sharp Picture and like my SHarpness up high on all my TVs. Is this hurtung something on a pLasma display?

It's not bad if you like the way it looks.

But most people think high Sharpness looks bad. Sharpness controls increase the amount of artificial edge-enhancement applied to the picture, which generally results in image artifacts and general unpleasantness. Having the Sharpness set to its low value doesn't soften the original image, it displays it more accurately.

@snowmoon

Nice write up.

I get a great SD picture on my 37PX60U. I needed something no bigger than 37 inches because of the entertainment center I have. There is very little HD content that I am interested in. I watch mostly European soccer on Fox Soccer Channel and GOL TV. These are digital channels and I think they look great, even with the fast action and other challenges of broadcasting soccer matches. Analog SD channels look good, too, but I don't watch them much.

Other than soccer, I mostly watch DVDs, and they look great. The set is "only" 720p (1024 x 720 with rectangular pixels) but from my viewing distances (6-12 feet) and given the relatively small screen size, the picture looks really good. I am also finding that the "Just" aspect mode is not at all distracting and very watchable; at first I thought that I would hate it.

I use component cables connected to my DVD player and my Motorola Moxi DVR.

I'm not sure if 37-inch plasmas will be produced much longer so I wanted to grab this unit before it disappeared. Given my preferences, I'll be watching SD channels and SD DVDs for years to come, and I wanted a nice plasma that fit into my cabinet.

Finally...a note on JPEGs. If you reformat them to 1920x1080, they display at full screen and look great. (Thanks to member kjm5 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/member.php?u=7641925) for this tip.)

I have been studying 37-inch displays for almost a year, mainly via these forums. Many thanks to all of you.

-JPEG

I took some time to write up my improssions of the 42PX60U on my blog. I didn't want to concentrate on cold facts, but rather my impressions any things that were not easly gleaned from spec sheets.

http://brontide.blogspot.com/2006/12/review-panasonic-th-42px60u-great.html

Can speakers on the TH50PX60U be used as center channel in a Dolby 5.1 setup?
You wouldn't want too. The speakers built into the tv are very lacking. It offers no surround enhancements like SRS , BBE, etc. The surround audio option in the menu for this tv just makes the audio sound worse.

@snowmoon

Nice write up.

I get a great SD picture on my 37PX60U. I needed something no bigger than 37 inches because of the entertainment center I have. There is very little HD content that I am interested in. I watch mostly European soccer on Fox Soccer Channel and GOL TV. These are digital channels and I think they look great, even with the fast action and other challenges of broadcasting soccer matches. Analog SD channels look good, too, but I don't watch them much.

I would have gotten the 37" set, but I could get the 42" for cheaper! and it just fit into the space I had allocated.

You post reminded me that I should add a writeup of the sources I use it with... I have added info on use with my A/V devices ( Xbox, Sony DVR, Oppo 981 ).

i picked a 50" plasma up using a ford ex-cab.
we just put the box as far front in the bed and then used a rope and went around the box and closed the rope ends in the doors.

What breakin CD are you guys using? Also, what settings should I raise to make my whites whiter? My whites are looking kind of grey.

Just got my new Panasonic 42" 60U model. Turn it on a went through the start up procedure - no problems. Ran it for about 10 minutes. :) Turned it off to change some connections and attempted to restart it. No power! (yes, the plug is in and there is power to the plug). The red light next to the power button is blinking. Can anyone tell me what's going on? :(

Friend of mine just bought the 50 60u and his did the same thing. Apparently there is a circuit breaker on the back of the TV. Try resetting that.

ive noticed that while playing ps2, the image is not centered on the screen - it definitely favors the top half of the screen, leaving a chunk of area towards the bottom, black. i wouldnt care very much except for the fact that it is obviously off center and is noticeable.

any thoughts on this? this is with the ps2 via component and set to widescreen (16x9) output. doesnt matter if the tv is on full or not.

I made a list of movies I own that are in 1:85 or 1:78 aspect ration. Hopefully, this will help anyone who owns these movies who wants to break in their tv faster.
These aspect ratios will apparently fill the screen and play w/o black bars
In no particular order:
Spider-Man
Monster, Inc.
War of the Worlds
E.T.
Finding Nemo
Toy Story 1 and 2
The Princess Bride
Psycho (Would a Black and White Movie be better or worse for break-in?)
Schindler's List
Jurassic Park
Taxi Driver
Vertigo
Fargo
Home Alone

I use this one: http://www.eaprogramming.com/

Ya gotta download and burn it yerself, tho.

JPEG

What breakin CD are you guys using? Also, what settings should I raise to make my whites whiter? My whites are looking kind of grey.

i picked a 50" plasma up using a ford ex-cab.
we just put the box as far front in the bed and then used a rope and went around the box and closed the rope ends in the doors.

My Friend's truck is a Dodge Ram. I know it will fit, I'm just worried about tying it down. Did you worry that just tying it around the top of the box wouldn't be enough? Approximately how many feet of rope would I need? The way how the back tire well fills up the bed, I'm not sure I can fit the TV in the very front by the cab. If I can't do this, how do I tie it corner to corner?

Please be very specific. I am such a noob at trucks and stuff.

Ironically, today, I watched the neighbor and his wife pull out a box of their Suburu (laying down). I told my wife, "that is a plasma!" I watched them lay it down on the ground (again, lying flat), open the box, and take the TV in by itself. Again, flat. They also rested it flat on the stairs! I kept thinking the glass would break, but I guess they made it!

just stick it in upright, longways along the back window. the rope was around 15 ft long. we just used that piece around the sides and didnt worry about the top. the box didnt move a bit.

I brought mine home in my 98 VW' Golf. The whole box wouldn't fit in the back, so I had to take it out of the box and prop it up against a bunch of blankets. I stuck my girlfriend in the back seat and had her hold on to it to keep it from slipping. We made the 7 mile journey home just fine. The girlfriends arm is a bit sore still, but the TV is OK and that's all that matters!

I'm trying that break-in CD now. Thanks for the tip!

Edit: Ooh---that reminds me. How do you check how many hours you've logged on the set? I'm guesstimating somewhere around 40, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyone know?

I brought mine home in my 98 VW' Golf. The whole box wouldn't fit in the back, so I had to take it out of the box and prop it up against a bunch of blankets. I stuck my girlfriend in the back seat and had her hold on to it to keep it from slipping. We made the 7 mile journey home just fine.
Your joking, right?!?! :eek:

My Friend's truck is a Dodge Ram. I know it will fit, I'm just worried about tying it down. Did you worry that just tying it around the top of the box wouldn't be enough? Approximately how many feet of rope would I need? The way how the back tire well fills up the bed, I'm not sure I can fit the TV in the very front by the cab. If I can't do this, how do I tie it corner to corner?

Please be very specific. I am such a noob at trucks and stuff.

Ironically, today, I watched the neighbor and his wife pull out a box of their Suburu (laying down). I told my wife, "that is a plasma!" I watched them lay it down on the ground (again, lying flat), open the box, and take the TV in by itself. Again, flat. They also rested it flat on the stairs! I kept thinking the glass would break, but I guess they made it!

Laying it flat doesn't nesscesay break the glass. It just increases the chances of breakage.

I made a list of movies I own that are in 1:85 or 1:78 aspect ration. Hopefully, this will help anyone who owns these movies who wants to break in their tv faster.
These aspect ratios will apparently fill the screen and play w/o black bars
In no particular order:
Spider-Man
Monster, Inc.
War of the Worlds
E.T.
Finding Nemo
Toy Story 1 and 2
The Princess Bride
Psycho (Would a Black and White Movie be better or worse for break-in?)
Schindler's List
Jurassic Park
Taxi Driver
Vertigo
Fargo
Home Alone

When I was doing this, I noticed something I forgot to ask. When a DVD says, "enhanced for wide screen tvs," does this just mean it is anamorphic, or does this gaurantee it will fill the TV screen without black bars?
For example, "The Incredibles" DVD says this, but the aspect ration is 2:35: 1 or something like that, so I didn't include it on the list.

For those with Harmony remotes, please update and try them out. My recent run-in with support we not have discrete codes for all inputs except antenna/tuner. This should speed the time it takes to select most activities. I got the notice this morning that they had included the new codes in the global database.

Hi everyone

Sorry if this has already been answered, but I've been searching the boards for the past hour and a half with minimal results.

Does anyone have issues with watching HDTV channels and the sound volume being lower than SDTV channels on a TH-42PX600U? My friend recently purchased this killer plasma during BF. He's got this weird issue when using the PDP's speakers though. Whenever he goes to ESPN or other HDTV channels, the audio seems like half of what SDTV audio levels are. We'll be watching a non HD channel and have the volume set to a normal level, but then flip over to ESPN and the sound becomes non existant requiring us to up the volume a lot higher almost double. Does anyone have any recommendations or has experienced anything similar? Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone

Sorry if this has already been answered, but I've been searching the boards for the past hour and a half with minimal results.

Does anyone have issues with watching HDTV channels and the sound volume being lower than SDTV channels on a TH-42PX600U? My friend recently purchased this killer plasma during BF. He's got this weird issue when using the PDP's speakers though. Whenever he goes to ESPN or other HDTV channels, the audio seems like half of what SDTV audio levels are. We'll be watching a non HD channel and have the volume set to a normal level, but then flip over to ESPN and the sound becomes non existant requiring us to up the volume a lot higher almost double. Does anyone have any recommendations or has experienced anything similar? Thanks in advance.

Mine does the same thing...I think this is related to the source audio coming from my Cable box though....is that what you are using?

mines the same way and it is the source. a lot of cable channels like food network are also lower in volume the regular channels.

Yeah, we're using a cable box. It's a minor inconvenience. Guess a quick call to the cable provider is in order.

Your joking, right?!?! :eek:


naw it would fit. you musta missed my post a couple pages back. We did the same thing in my wifes jetta. Resting upright in the back seat outta the box.

When I was doing this, I noticed something I forgot to ask. When a DVD says, "enhanced for wide screen tvs," does this just mean it is anamorphic, or does this gaurantee it will fill the TV screen without black bars?
For example, "The Incredibles" DVD says this, but the aspect ration is 2:35: 1 or something like that, so I didn't include it on the list.
enhanced for widescreen tv means it is an anamorphic transfer.

For those with Harmony remotes, please update and try them out. My recent run-in with support we not have discrete codes for all inputs except antenna/tuner. This should speed the time it takes to select most activities. I got the notice this morning that they had included the new codes in the global database.

I'm afraid to do unnecessary updates to my Harmony remote. Half the time Logitech's server software trashes my configuration and loses everything, especially when they've recently added something new. They have absolutely no backup capability unless you call their support line and ask them to clone your account to a different user ID before you make the change.

mines the same way and it is the source. a lot of cable channels like food network are also lower in volume the regular channels.

Does that mean there's nothing that can be done about the low volume in HD channels?

Does that mean there's nothing that can be done about the low volume in HD channels?

turn the volume up more?? Its that way coming from your cable source, the tv isn't casuing it, so really the only answer is to turn the volume up.

The surround and 3D settings also affect sound levels.

Can we get some more settings from other users in this thread? So many posts and yet so few that actually deal with numbers for the Panny sets.

I have the TH42PX60U and break-in will be done very soon. I will admit that I dont neccessarily trust myself for calibration nor am I into blowing money on calibration discs for the same reasons. What I would like to try is to start with some suggestions from others that have calibrated and then work off of those doing small tweaks. Again, Ive tried a few "cal" discs and exercises and never get much out of them. The test patterns they use dont reveal much to me and I walk away with nothing gained!

So then.... what are you running your TH42PX60U at for Picture, Brightness, Color, Tint, and Sharpness? How about color temp?

My viewing roon has nonminal room lighting, nothing really bad or bright if that helps.

turn the volume up more?? Its that way coming from your cable source, the tv isn't casuing it, so really the only answer is to turn the volume up.

the 600u models of the panasonic tv's have two menu features you can use to help with this problem, which is a result of the different audio signals coming in from analog stations (SD) and digital stations. the first feature is called "AI Sound" and is discussed briefly on page 33 of the instruction manul under the section "How to use menu functions". you can turn this feature on and it will equalize the volume level on all channels to make them more uniform across the board. the second feature is called "Audio Leveler" and is used if there is a disparity between sound levels from different inputs through the tv. try the first feature to see if that solves your problem. some tv's have a specific feature that can adjust each channels volume so that one is not too high or low compared to another, but the panny only has the AI Sound feature which is supposed to automatically adjust each channels volume for you.

hope this helps.

Anyone notice that the black frame around the top of the screen has what looks like light dents from the molding of the frame.
It can be seen on an angle with the right lighting shadowing the frame.

I have a Panny TH50PX60U connected to a Time Warner SA8300HD settop box. In the 8300 set up menu it says to include only those picture formats that the TV can display. The 8300 lists 480i nornal, 480i wide also 480p normal and 480p wide as formats. Should I select all of these formats as displayable on my set? If not, which should I use, the normal or wide settings?

Thanks

i am trying to output from my computer >> tv via a DVI-HDMI cable but am not having any success. I am getting no picture when I turn on the computer with the HDMI cable in place (plugged into HDMI-2..tried HDMI-1 but that didnt help either).

Do I need a special video card to output correctly? I have an old AGP Radeon 9550 on that computer, and the OS is windows XP Pro. The video card is not HDCP complaint, but it should at least output a picture right? Guess its always possible my cable is bad...will ask my friend to borrow his and see if the picture shows up (got the cable from monoprice.com)

50PX60u can be set to display CC from both analog channels and digital channels delivered to it via component cables fm. our Comcast Moto 6412 box. I think I read in this thread that HDMI would not pass CC. Is that correct?

However - I can't get HD channels to display CC. Is it that HD doesn't pass CC at all? Eg. We could watch HBO non-HD w. CC. The same broadcast in HD did not display CC.

The Comcast DVR box does allow you to turn on CC via the DVR box. I haven't bothered since you have to go thru lots of contortions to do it.

Any input on this would be appreciated.

...mike

the 600u models of the panasonic tv's have two menu features you can use to help with this problem, which is a result of the different audio signals coming in from analog stations (SD) and digital stations. the first feature is called "AI Sound" and is discussed briefly on page 33 of the instruction manul under the section "How to use menu functions". you can turn this feature on and it will equalize the volume level on all channels to make them more uniform across the board. the second feature is called "Audio Leveler" and is used if there is a disparity between sound levels from different inputs through the tv. try the first feature to see if that solves your problem. some tv's have a specific feature that can adjust each channels volume so that one is not too high or low compared to another, but the panny only has the AI Sound feature which is supposed to automatically adjust each channels volume for you.

hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a shot. I'm just kind of surprised that TWC didn't notice a problem like this with the source earlier. Thanks for the help that everyone provided.

I hear a lot of people talking about using calibration disks(avia) to set up their Panis. I have a 50" 60U - Where do I get a calibration disk and which one is best. Can it be downloaded. On another forum it was recommended I record on my DVR a HD test pattern from HDNet channel, I did so, but there are no instructions on how to use it.

Can anybody give me a starting point to set up my Pani correctly?

thanks

Ya gotta download and burn it yerself, tho.

JPEG[/QUOTE]

I'm giving this one a shot. Never burned/ripped a dvd before, so this should be interesting!

Bought my TH-42PX60U a couple weeks ago and it has the Clay Face Problem.
Panasonic sent Firmware update V1.25 on SD card. Installed it last night. Not Happy with it. I think the picture was better before the update. It seems to have less depth and clarity to the picture.

Anyone know if there is any way to revert back to original condition?

Anyone else experience similar results?

Thanks, Kevin

About this "clay face" issue, can anyone please point me to a specific post where I can see an example/picture of this?

Thank you

Guitar1969,
You can get Avia, Digital Video Essentials or Getgray calibration disks (DVD). I can only comment on Avia and Digital Video Essentials since I don’t on Getgray. Avia is very simple to navigate but is aimed more at CRTs. Digital Video Essentials can be difficult to navigate but is my preference. Amazon carries both Avia and Digital Video Essentials. You can get Getgray from the AVS forum.

I can only comment on my experience with clay face. Panasonic ships the TVs in vivid mode with “picture” and “brightness” turned up to high. I saw it when I first turned on the TV but after switching to cinema mode and turning “picture” and “brightness” down, I haven’t seen it. Zooming in will also create the effect.
Someone recently posted that the firmware can be turned back for the price of a service call.

I prefer GetGray over the others. It is offered as a download. Check out the Calibration Forum for info.

I had slight clay face with my 50PX60U. I completely resolved it by changing it out of Vivid mode first of all. I set it to Standard, and set Sharpness at -15. More importantly, I turned off MPEG NR and Video NR. These settings try to clean up noisy signals, but end up stripping away fine detail, which gives people this clay face appearance. I have not upgraded my firmware, I don't think it's necessary seeing as I was able to completely resolve my clay face issue from the remote.

Jeff, what connection cable type do you use....component or HDMI? Also, I can't seem to be able to access Video NR or MPGE NR in the menu, grayed out. Does this depend on what type of cable is in use? I am still using component, though I do have the HDMI cables already.

Can we get some more settings from other users in this thread? So many posts and yet so few that actually deal with numbers for the Panny sets........................
.
For service-menu settings, you are right. I can't find a single post on this thread with actual numbers, except mine. Here is the <LINK> (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8833926) to color-temperature / ISF calibration and service-menu settings I posted some time back. I had some hope that once I post my settings, others will do the same, especially DIY calibrators... but nothing so far.

For user-menu, based on infinite amount of posts, the best settings are close to settings posted at this<LINK> (http://www.*******************.com/plasmatvreviews/panasonic-th50px60u-review.html) .
(replace ****** with plasma tv buying guide)

My settings are: (Mode = Standard, Picture = +19, Brightness = +7, Color = -1, Tint = -3, Sharpness = -9, Temperature = Warm, Black Level = Light)



I..................Where do I get a calibration disk and which one is best..................
thanks
AVIA is easy to use but it was published in 1999, therefore old-technology, but still very good reference material. DVE covers new-technology, published in 2003, good reference material, but limited hand-holding. GetGray is latest one, very good reference material, but zero hand-holding (i.e. you should know what to do with all the info provided).

Since Panasonics have SD slot, you can use that for calibration. I posted some example images for GrayScale adjustment at this<LINK> (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8960056) . You can create your own set of images for everything from contrast, brightness, and sharpness. But for Color and Tint, you will still need a RGB filter to do adjustment.

I have read through this thread for some answers to a few problems I am having with my TH-42PX6U unit but wasn't able to find any. I appreciate if any one can help me get the best performance out of my set.

My setup:
Panasonic TH-42PX6U
Motorola DCT6412 Phase III STB
Componet wires - Actually switched to HDMI but while the HD footage looked better the SD footage became significantly worse so I went back to component.

Settings:
Picture Mode Standard
Picture +22
Brightness +8
Color -1
Tint -4
Sharpness -14
Color Temperature Warm
Enhanced Black Level On - I leave this on cause off gives the entire picture a washed out look. In any case with it Off or On I still have the below issues so this setting is not a factor.


My biggest problems are with the SD channels. The two biggest issues are distorted faces and image delay.

1 - The distorted faces are similar to the clay face issue but not exactly the same. The overall faces looks fine and the flesh tones ok though sometimes the cheeks and forehead areas look smeared or as if there is a second image or artifact on top of it. I see this quite a bit on the local SD channel and on USA and CNN.

I have not done the firmware update as I have heard mixed results. What is the best course of action to get the faces to look clear? Like I said the HD channels and also the premium channels like HBO, etc. do not have this issue. There flesh tones look good.

2 - Image delay - This is not an issue of image retention, its more to do with a delay in movement of the picture. For example, when a news-caster moves his head for some weird reason his forehead, nose, eyebrows, and cheekbone move a split second later. This gives his face a weird shifting image. Again, this is only an issue on the lower SD channels and most news programs.

I have tried my best to adjust as much as I can to improve this. I have forced my STB to output in either 1080i or 720p with little to no effect. I do not know what else to do to get a good image with no artifacts.

Any help would be appreciated.

I use this one: http://www.eaprogramming.com/

Ya gotta download and burn it yerself, tho.

JPEG

Forgive me for this (hey, shouldn't everyone get one mulligan around the holidays?), how do you do this? I downloaeded all three versions (ISO, NRG, VIDEO_TS) in an attempt to burn this dvd to disc. Okay, first off, I have no idea what any of those three format types are/mean. Never heard of any of the 3.
But back to task at hand. I left-clicked on each one and saved each one to my hard drive. I directed them to go to my desktop, and they showed up as nice little zipped folder icons. When I then click on any of them, the icons inside the folder aren't recognized. That is, I get that, "Windows/Internet Explorer cannot open these files. Would you like to select a program to be used to open them?" (That's not verbatim mind you) I'm assuming I'd need to go out and download a new software to make any of them work, the same way I once did with divx software so I could watch divx video files. I'm not sure where to go/what to download though. My Dell computer came with Sonic cd/dvd burning softward installed on it when I bought it new back in Nov '05. I'm assuming this would suffice for burning this specific video to dvd, but I have no clue.

So if anyone could help with this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Which of these three program types would be best for me? How do I go from downloading one of these three programs to burning it onto a disk? If anyone can help, please give me the "Dummies" version.

ISO is a CD image...Nero can open it. Video_TS are the files that are normally on a DVD...if you put a DVD in your PC and open up file explorer, that's what you'll see. You should be able to burn that file also. I use NERO for burning DVDs.

ion-man I use HDMI, but I have also used component and composite, and those options to disable MPEG NR and Video NR were always available. Perhaps they are dimmed because of the picture mode you are in. Are you in Vivid? Try Standard.

I will be playing DVDs out of my 360. The 360 only upscales with VGA, and since the 60u model I have doesn't accept VGA, I need to know if the Panny will upscale the 480i image for me.

If not, what would you do if you had $200:

1) Buy the HD-DVD add-on (that also doesn't upscale SD DVDs to my knowledge)

or

2) Save $100 and just buy an upscaling DVD player by Oppo or Sony

or

3) Not buy anything b/c there really isn't a difference (visually) between the 360's DVD playback and an upscaling DVD player.

I have a 50 inch if that helps.

I have a 50PX600U. My cable outputs 480i. Is there a way to increase this?

Thanks

Jim

I have a 50PX600U. My cable outputs 480i. Is there a way to increase this?

Thanks

Jim

What model cable box do you have? I have Moto 6412 DVR box and it has settings that are accessed when the box is turned off to control what the output to the TV is.

I don't have a caable box. I plug in the coax directly in my TV, Panny 50PX600U.

XboxEboy,
The 360 will output DVDs at 480P over component. The picture quality is very good. I would guess that it’s better than most DVD players. You won’t be disappointed playing it on your plasma.

I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question.
When people are calibrating their sets using the Avia disk, are you using the main menu options? Or are you getting into the other settings as well?

If you are diving deep into the settings is there a guide to follow? I've read through 30 or 40 pages and can't quite seem to find something that will help.

Gonna calibrate the set tonight.

Thanks all
Rob

Someone earlier asked if there was a code for the Oppo DVD players for the remote. I would be interested in this as well.

Thanks,
David

XboxEboy,
The 360 will output DVDs at 480P over component. The picture quality is very good. I would guess that it’s better than most DVD players. You won’t be disappointed playing it on your plasma.


Is it good enough that you wouldn't recommend spending $100 or more on an upconverting player?

here are my updated settings after about 150+ hours of viewing, GetGray Calibration w/ THX Blue Filter Glasses -

+12
+17
-2
-5
-5

so far, so good. looks great!

Is it good enough that you wouldn't recommend spending $100 or more on an upconverting player?

I agree with Vandu, if you feed it 480p, it will look great and you just don't need to upscale it....which in many cases can cause other picture problems. I have a scaler (that I use for projection), as well as an upscaling player and on the panny plasma, it looks just as good feeding 480p, if not better, than on a scaled DVD. ;)

here are my updated settings after about 150+ hours of viewing, GetGray Calibration w/ THX Blue Filter Glasses -

+12
+17
-2
-5
-5

so far, so good. looks great!

Other than the +17 brightness, your settings are looking good. But... OMG! +17 for brightness ?! Unless your Black setting is set to "Dark"?

I'm hooked up with HDMI (both my DVD and HD STB) and on both units, +6 / +7 max gives me a very precise and calibrated black level (TH-42PX600U). What model TV do you own?

Other than the +17 brightness, your settings are looking good. But... OMG! +17 for brightness ?! Unless your Black setting is set to "Dark"?

I'm hooked up with HDMI (both my DVD and HD STB) and on both units, +6 / +7 max gives me a very precise and calibrated black level (TH-42PX600U). What model TV do you own?

ill double check it. when i was doing brightness, i couldnt seem to get the white to disappear, so i did it as close as i could. ill check my other settings and give it another whirl.

I agree with Vandu, if you feed it 480p, it will look great and you just don't need to upscale it....which in many cases can cause other picture problems. I have a scaler (that I use for projection), as well as an upscaling player and on the panny plasma, it looks just as good feeding 480p, if not better, than on a scaled DVD. ;)

I would also agree. I tested my high-end upscalling DVD player on my plasma recently, and tried both 1920x1080i and 720x480p. After careful examination, the 480p gave better results. The TV's scaller seems to be doing an excellent job and does not benefit from an upconversion at the DVD level. BTW, 720p from DVD looked worse than both 1080i and 480p.

Only advantage of using an upscaling DVD unit is to send the 480p data stream in digital format (HDMI) directly to the TV, therefore avoiding 2 D/A - A/D unnecessary conversions (such as when using analog component).

Seems that this plasma likes either 480i/p or 1080i. 720p, whether from the HD STB or DVD is not that great. Probably due to 1080p internal processing.

ill double check it. when i was doing brightness, i couldnt seem to get the white to disappear, so i did it as close as i could. ill check my other settings and give it another whirl.

"the white to disappear"? I'm not sure I understand. Perhaps we're talking about two different things. White level would be "contrast/picture", not brightness.

To set brightness (your +17 setting) in AVIA, for example, you use a moving-white-bar pattern to raise the picture setting until one of the white bars disappear, then dial back a notch. But this has nothing (well, it does, but...) to do with the brightness setting.

Brightness is typically set by observing black and blacker-then-black bars on screen and then tuning the brightness level until the blacker than black bar disapears, and the black bar is barely visible.

"the white to disappear"? I'm not sure I understand. Perhaps we're talking about two different things. White level would be "contrast/picture", not brightness.

The Avia test DVD shows a moving max-white bar on a nearly-max-white background and tells you to adjust contrast until they blend together. That doesn't work on plasma TVs - they stay distinguishable all the way from minimum to maximum contrast.

The Avia test DVD shows a moving max-white bar on a nearly-max-white background and tells you to adjust contrast until they blend together. That doesn't work on plasma TVs - they stay distinguishable all the way from minimum to maximum contrast.

Yes, I am well aware of that fact. I was simply replying to the other person that I thought he was mistaking white levels for brightness, which are in fact two very different things (white level vs. black level). OTOH, the black level test in avia works just fine on a plasma, even though it won't be perfect, given that the panny floats its blacks.

rudemood12,
I tried the GetGray calibration disk last night. I agree with you that the brightness test pattern does not respond well on this TV. I had to use the stepped gray scale ramp to adjust brightness.

I would also agree. I tested my high-end upscalling DVD player on my plasma recently, and tried both 1920x1080i and 720x480p. After careful examination, the 480p gave better results. The TV's scaller seems to be doing an excellent job and does not benefit from an upconversion at the DVD level. BTW, 720p from DVD looked worse than both 1080i and 480p.

Only advantage of using an upscaling DVD unit is to send the 480p data stream in digital format (HDMI) directly to the TV, therefore avoiding 2 D/A - A/D unnecessary conversions (such as when using analog component).

Seems that this plasma likes either 480i/p or 1080i. 720p, whether from the HD STB or DVD is not that great. Probably due to 1080p internal processing.

Does this mean I should set my 360 to 1080i, not 720P? Since the 360 is native 720P, I wanted to keep it at that.

Does this mean I should set my 360 to 1080i, not 720P? Since the 360 is native 720P, I wanted to keep it at that.

Correct. 360 games are 720p native. If you set the 360 to output 1080i, it will obviously have to upconvert the 720p games to 1080i before the output. Now, as far as I'm concerned, I leave my 360 set at 720p, since it will prevent one scalling step in the xbox, and then I let the plasma scale to 1080p internally, and then to 1024x768 finally.

I prefer letting the plasma scale the 720p to 1080, rather than the xbox. So I leave mine on 720p, which is the native format for all 360 games.

HD-DVDs on the X360, on the other hand, is another story. HD-DVDs are 1080p native and I get better results when the xbox is set to 1080i.

So, I switch the 360 between 720p and 1080i, depending if I'm playing games, or watching HD-DVDs.

Rule of thumb, when dealing with a good scaller in the display: let the sources (DVD, Xbox, STB, etc.) output their native formats (according to source material) and let the display do the scalling.


Ex: STB should be set to passthrough (to avoid any scalling done at the STB level)
DVD player to 480p (not upconverted)
X360 games: 720p
X360 HD-DVD: 1080i

Since the subject of scaling is mentioned here, I also have a question. I have a cheap samsung dvd player which I have set for 1080i scaling via HDMI. When I play a 480p SD dvd, my dvd player scales the movie up to 1080i (I'm assuming) and then the plasma scales the 1080i signal back to down 768p which is native or does it keep it at 1080i? Is this the correct process? Sorry for maybe sounding stupid but I'm new to this as I just got my plasma on BF.
The picture looks great at 1080i, as well as 720p. I check the signal using the RECALL button on the remote for the plasma and it says either 1080i or 720p there but I'm not sure which is better.
I guess what I'm asking from the last post is how do you tell the plasma to scale something up or down or set the resolution within it? I'm assuming the scaler in my plasma is better than the scaler on my cheap HDMI upconvert dvd player. Thanks!

have the dvd player pass the signal as 480p and then the tv will take the 480p signal and scale it to the native resolution of the panel

So the TV will automatically upconvert the signal from 480p from the dvd player to its native resolution of 768P in the TV? What about if I wanted to watch 1080i solution which my TV will support? I can't send the 480p signal to the TV and tell the tv somehow to show the movie in 1080i can I? I'd had to change the dvd player to 1080i and then have the TV upconvert from 768P to 1080i?

So the TV will automatically upconvert the signal from 480p from the dvd player to its native resolution of 768P in the TV? What about if I wanted to watch 1080i solution which my TV will support? I can't send the 480p signal to the TV and tell the tv somehow to show the movie in 1080i can I? I'd had to change the dvd player to 1080i and then have the TV scale from 768P to 1080i?

Other than the +17 brightness, your settings are looking good. But... OMG! +17 for brightness ?! Unless your Black setting is set to "Dark"?

I'm hooked up with HDMI (both my DVD and HD STB) and on both units, +6 / +7 max gives me a very precise and calibrated black level (TH-42PX600U). What model TV do you own?

I agree, I've got brightness set to +7 as well with Dark Enhancement set to Light. These are my settings for my TH-42PX60U...

Picture: +13
Brightness: +7
Color: -4
Tint: -6
Sharpness: -25
Color Temp: Warm
All NR: Off
Color Management: Off
Dark Enhancement: Light

I calibrated using Avia. I believe the contrast/picture setting to be a bit subjective since you really can't adjust it properly with Avia and a plasma. The sharpness is also a very subjective setting even with the calibration DVD but I don't like artificial edge enhancement (which is what sharpness is) so I dial it almost completely down. The color adjustments are perfect based on the blue filter and blinking boxes (whatever it's called) test. The red/green/blue push test is within reasonable tolerances to me so I did no further color/tint adjustments beyond the basic blue filter adjustments.

The above settings are for a Comcast/Motorola 6412 DVR hooked up via HDMI as well as a cheap GoVideo progressive DVD player hooked up via component (this was where the Avia calibration was run and I just used the same settings for the DVR which look equally as good on that input/box). I also have a computer with an ATI card hooked up via DVI -> HDMI. For this I have adjusted the brightness up to +10 (if I recall correctly) but everything else is the same.

So the TV will automatically upconvert the signal from 480p from the dvd player to its native resolution of 768P in the TV? What about if I wanted to watch 1080i solution which my TV will support? I can't send the 480p signal to the TV and tell the tv somehow to show the movie in 1080i can I? I'd had to change the dvd player to 1080i and then have the TV upconvert from 768P to 1080i?

Ok. This is getting out of hand lol :)

This is whats happening: DVD player should be set to output 480p (NOT 720p or 1080i).

Upon arrival in the plasma tv, the 480p signal (or whatever other type of signal) is automatically converted to 1080p, which is how the new panasonics process any incomming signal. 1080p is for INTERNAL processing, and is not what will be displayed in the end.

Last step is that the signal will be scalled to fit the native rez of the panel (1024x768 in case of the 42" model).

This means two scaling steps: fist is 480p to 1080p, second is 1080p to 1024x768.

If you set your DVD to upscale to 1080i, for example, there will still be only two scalling steps (480p to 1080i in the player and then sent to the plasma, deinterlaced to 1080p and then scalled to 1024x768). Difference being that the first scalling step will be done in the DVD, instead of in the plasma, which I believe does a much better job.

Three things.

2.) What is the standard for HD channels? We don't have HD in our area via cable (boonies in Mississippi) so we're switching back to DirecTV. Regardless, I've been searching through the analog channels for some unencrypted HD feeds coming over analog cable.

3.) I found one HD (1080i) channel on the analog feed. It seems nice but cuts in and out with a lot of digital interference (blocks) and sometimes will cut out for a minute at a time. It's completely utterly unwatchable. Does this mean it's encrypted or just a ****** feed?

#2: I live in Atlanta and some of our stations are 720p, others 1080i.

#3: Go into the menu where you set up the channels and look at the signal meter. I found that I need at least 60% to get a consistent picture.

So the TV will automatically upconvert the signal from 480p from the dvd player to its native resolution of 768P in the TV? What about if I wanted to watch 1080i solution which my TV will support? I can't send the 480p signal to the TV and tell the tv somehow to show the movie in 1080i can I? I'd had to change the dvd player to 1080i and then have the TV scale from 768P to 1080i?
unless you are watching an HD DVD or BluRay disc. There is no 1080i content on the DVD. Max resolution is 480p. So unless your dvd player has a good video processor its better to let the tv handle the conversion from 480p to 768p. Rather then go 480p to 1080i in the dvd player and then 1080i to 768p in the tv. Now if your source is an HD DVD or Blueray. have the output to the tv be in the 1080i or 1080p (cause that is native resolution on those disc) and let the tv do the 1080 to 768p conversion. The least amount of conversions to the screen the better.

I recently (yesterday), purchased a Panasonic TH-42PX600U after much deliberation and some help from the folks here. I'm just learning all the technical jargon so excuse my remedial vocabulary. I need help to decide what else to buy. This is what else I currently have: 1) An old (6yrs) non-progressive Sony DVD player, 2) an old (5yrs) Pioneer receiver with 2 component RGB outputs and 5.1 surround, 3) a Playstation 2, 4) A comcast HD cable box with DVR.

I've already decided to avoid the Blu-ray/HD devices for now while they battle it out for supremacy. So my questions...

1) Do I need to buy a new progressive DVD player to optimize playing of standard DVD's on my new plasma? If so, which one? I've done some research and the OPPO DV-970HD looks pretty good.

2) Should I upgrade receivers now or can I wait to put a little more dough in the bank? i.e. what do i sacrifice with my current receiver?

3) Any advice on a universal remote? A colleague suggested the Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote , and it sounds pretty good.

Thanks in advance...I look forward to hearing your responses

Hi,
I am new to this whole Plasma HDTV thing. I just bought the TH-42px60u. I was going through the different aspect modes and noticed that I can't get H-FILL. Do I have to be on some sort of HD network to get this?

So the TV will automatically upconvert the signal from 480p from the dvd player to its native resolution of 768P in the TV? What about if I wanted to watch 1080i solution which my TV will support? I can't send the 480p signal to the TV and tell the tv somehow to show the movie in 1080i can I? I'd had to change the dvd player to 1080i and then have the TV upconvert from 768P to 1080i?

If you send a 480p signal to the TV, there is no way to tell the TV to display it at 1080i. However, if you've been following the previous posts, it seems that this plasma displays 480p source material as good, if not better than if you first scaled the source to 1080i or 720p.

If you use a scaler and send it a real oddball resolution, it won't fill the screen properly. Even though it doesn't have a VGA input for a computer, I use the TV with my computer by using Powerstrip and setting it for 1080i @ 60Hz and feed the DVI output of the computer to the TV through a DVI to HDMI cable. With that arrangement, it fills the screen properly and looks great. I also use that setup to play DVDs and the signal stays digital and never gets converted to analog at all. :)

If you send a 480p signal to the TV, there is no way to tell the TV to display it at 1080i. However, if you've been following the previous posts, it seems that this plasma displays 480p source material as good, if not better than if you first scaled the source to 1080i or 720p.

If you use a scaler and send it a real oddball resolution, it won't fill the screen properly. Even though it doesn't have a VGA input for a computer, I use the TV with my computer by using Powerstrip and setting it for 1080i @ 60Hz and feed the DVI output of the computer to the TV through a DVI to HDMI cable. With that arrangement, it fills the screen properly and looks great. I also use that setup to play DVDs and the signal stays digital and never gets converted to analog at all. :)
Setting powerstrip to the native res of the tv won't fill the screen properly because of the rectangular pixels right?

rudemood12,
I tried the GetGray calibration disk last night. I agree with you that the brightness test pattern does not respond well on this TV. I had to use the stepped gray scale ramp to adjust brightness.

thanks for the info. while the brightness may seem high to you guys, it doesnt bother me that much. it looks great. ill dial it back a bit in a couple days to see if i like it more at a lower setting.

how do you use the stepped gray scale to adjust brightness? is there a note in the GG PDF file?

Hi,
I am new to this whole Plasma HDTV thing. I just bought the TH-42px60u. I was going through the different aspect modes and noticed that I can't get H-FILL. Do I have to be on some sort of HD network to get this?

yes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by philthyrichcore
Hi,
I am new to this whole Plasma HDTV thing. I just bought the TH-42px60u. I was going through the different aspect modes and noticed that I can't get H-FILL. Do I have to be on some sort of HD network to get this?



yes.


Thanks. I have one more question...I was watching a Full Screen Version of "Casino" on my Upconvert DVD player. What is the best aspect ratio to view these movies on? When I put it on Full Mode, everybody seemed a little bit bloated to me. Is there anything in the setup menu that I have to do, or is this just the way the movies are supposed to look? I went thru the whole set up on the DVD player and made sure that it was coordinated for a 16:9 ratio. I am still in the break-in period so I haven't tried the widescreen version of this movie yet. So it could just be the Fullscreen transfer of the movie. But, coming from having a 4:3 television everything on the full screen version seemed to have a bit of a slimer look.

Thanks. I have one more question...I was watching a Full Screen Version of "Casino" on my Upconvert DVD player. What is the best aspect ratio to view these movies on? When I put it on Full Mode, everybody seemed a little bit bloated to me. Is there anything in the setup menu that I have to do, or is this just the way the movies are supposed to look? I went thru the whole set up on the DVD player and made sure that it was coordinated for a 16:9 ratio. I am still in the break-in period so I haven't tried the widescreen version of this movie yet. So it could just be the Fullscreen transfer of the movie. But, coming from having a 4:3 television everything on the full screen version seemed to have a bit of a slimer look.

The least offensive stretch mode is "Just". It is still going to make people look a bit plump, but less so than "Full". You only want to use "Full" for widescreen movies or other 16:9 content. Alternatively for full screen (4:3) content you could use the Zoom mode, which will preserve the proper proportions of the image but it also crops a lot off the top and bottom.

Hi,
I am new to this whole Plasma HDTV thing. I just bought the TH-42px60u. I was going through the different aspect modes and noticed that I can't get H-FILL. Do I have to be on some sort of HD network to get this?

Yes, you need to be on an HD signal to use H-fill. You'll only really use it when watching an HD channel that is being displayed in 4:3 aspect ratio.

Has anyone calibrated there unit using the servie menu and if so what are your settings and how do i access the service menu. Where do i get the latest firmware. I have a pioneer vsx-82tsx hooked up thru the hdmi and have it set at 1080i.

thanks for the info. while the brightness may seem high to you guys, it doesnt bother me that much. it looks great. ill dial it back a bit in a couple days to see if i like it more at a lower setting.

how do you use the stepped gray scale to adjust brightness? is there a note in the GG PDF file?

I'm not familiar with the GetGray calibration DVD, so I can't be of much help. I normally use DVE or AVIA DVDs for calibration. If you don't have access to either one, you can also use "THX Optimizer" which comes bundled with the extras onto many THX Mastererd DVDs, such as Star Wars. The THX Optimizer calibrator is very easy to use and will yeild results that are very similar (w/regards to the Brightness setting at least) to what you would be getting with DVE and Avia.

In any case, the rule of thumb, when calibrating Brightness (black level), is to set this to the point where blacked-than-black material is invisible against the dark background, and "regular" black is only barely visible against the black background.

At the very least, you could even calibrate the Brightness setting without any calibration software. This is how you would do it: Find a scene on TV which is very dark, such as rolling credits on a black background. Pause the source. Then, lower the brightness setting to somewhere below the mid-point (50%), and then raise it again, slowly, until the black background behind the credits changes from black (the blackest black your TV can give you) to a lighter shade. This is easier done in a very dark room. Once you hit that point, dial back one notch, and voila.

I agree, I've got brightness set to +7 as well with Dark Enhancement set to Light. These are my settings for my TH-42PX60U...

Picture: +13
Brightness: +7
Color: -4
Tint: -6
Sharpness: -25
Color Temp: Warm
All NR: Off
Color Management: Off
Dark Enhancement: Light


Your settings are very similar to mine. Picture looks very good for both HD and SD. I've seen settings posted in this thread for "Color" which looked like -1, or -2. I don't know, but this just doesn't work on my 600U. Not only does AVIA tell me that -1 or -2 is way oversaturated, but when watching TV, people look like cartoons. So.. I'm not exactly sure how these people got their settings, but, like you, -4 (and even -5) is spot on.

Originally Posted by philthyrichcore
Thanks. I have one more question...I was watching a Full Screen Version of "Casino" on my Upconvert DVD player. What is the best aspect ratio to view these movies on? When I put it on Full Mode, everybody seemed a little bit bloated to me. Is there anything in the setup menu that I have to do, or is this just the way the movies are supposed to look? I went thru the whole set up on the DVD player and made sure that it was coordinated for a 16:9 ratio. I am still in the break-in period so I haven't tried the widescreen version of this movie yet. So it could just be the Fullscreen transfer of the movie. But, coming from having a 4:3 television everything on the full screen version seemed to have a bit of a slimer look.



The least offensive stretch mode is "Just". It is still going to make people look a bit plump, but less so than "Full". You only want to use "Full" for widescreen movies or other 16:9 content. Alternatively for full screen (4:3) content you could use the Zoom mode, which will preserve the proper proportions of the image but it also crops a lot off the top and bottom.

Thanks hifisponge. I know that the full screen version is 1:33:1, is this the same as 4:3 ratio? I went into Just mode and it kind of made the subjects even more plump. The Full Mode seemed to be least offensive with this movie. Now when I watch SD television I switch it over to JUST MODE because this shows the best picture out of the 4 aspect modes to choose from. I guess if I want to Watch NFL, the Full Mode would be the best. I just didn't know if I needed to go back into the setup menu and correct anything to get the picture to fit the screen a little better.

My 50px60u is about 130 hours now. I like my settings below (very natural looking PQ in a dark, light-controlled environment):

------------------------------
Mode: Standard
Picture: -3
Brightness: -8
Color: -7
Tint: -2
Sharpness: -13
Color Mng: on
Black level: light
(all NR/filter: off)
------------------------------

It seems my settings are quite different from those reported by other people. :confused:

P.S. The response time of this site is very slow!

My 50px60u is about 130 hours now. I like my settings below (very natural looking PQ in a dark, light-controlled environment):

------------------------------
Mode: Standard
Picture: -3
Brightness: -8
Color: -7
Tint: -2
Sharpness: -13
Color Mng: on
Black level: light
(all NR/filter: off)
------------------------------

It seems my settings are quite different from those reported by other people. :confused:

P.S. The response time of this site is very slow!

Settings will vary quite a bit. You'd be surprised about how little a room lighting change it takes to change the overall PQ. That being said, Im a TH42PX60U owner and I have actually found that like 4-5 other owners are using the almost the exact same settings as me. The settings we are using appear to have come from an AVIA calibration DVD. Interesting.... :cool:

Your Contrast and Brightness seem pretty low for a calibrated picture but if looks good to YOU then by all means go with it! ;)

I finally got my 600U mounted to the wall and now I've begun the break-in period. I wanted to set up the TV Guide function but I am unable to get the curser to move to my cable carrier. It recognizes 4 different cable carriers in my area, including the one I have (Comcast), but the arrow is pointing to RCN (which is not my carrier) and I am unable to get the arrow to Comcast!!! It won't even let me move it to any of the other carriers. Comcast is the biggest carrier in this area (north Boston 'burbs) if not the entire east coast, so I'm not sure why it recognizes the carrier but will not let me activate its TV Guide. :mad:

Any suggestions???

Thanks everyone and have a Merry Christmas!

Hi Guys -
To all who responded yesterday to my question regarding resolution of the TH-50PX60U plasma and the settings for the dvd output resolution, thank you.
Its a little more clear to me now. From what I can gather from your posts, keep the lowest # of scalings between the dvd player to TV.
For standard dvds in 480P, I can basically set my output in the player to 480p, 720p, or 1080i. If I'm understanding correctly, whatever I set this to, the plasma will take this signal and scale it to 1080p, then down to 768P which is my native resolution (I think its 1366 x 768 for my 50").
What I don't quite understand is when I hit the recall button on the remote for the tv, it shows the resolution of what is being shown. For example, if my dvd player is set to output at 480p, I'm assuming the signal will be scaled to 1080p in the tv then scaled back down to 480p on the plasma cuz the recall says 480p on the TV (not 720 which is the native for the tv). Same goes for if I change the dvd player to 1080i, the tv will show 1080i when I hit recall.
So how do I know what kind of scaling the TV is doing? It only shows the exact setting of the dvd player output. Or maybe I'm missing something.

Hi Guys -
To all who responded yesterday to my question regarding resolution of the TH-50PX60U plasma and the settings for the dvd output resolution, thank you.
Its a little more clear to me now. From what I can gather from your posts, keep the lowest # of scalings between the dvd player to TV.
For standard dvds in 480P, I can basically set my output in the player to 480p, 720p, or 1080i. If I'm understanding correctly, whatever I set this to, the plasma will take this signal and scale it to 1080p, then down to 768P which is my native resolution (I think its 1366 x 768 for my 50").
What I don't quite understand is when I hit the recall button on the remote for the tv, it shows the resolution of what is being shown. For example, if my dvd player is set to output at 480p, I'm assuming the signal will be scaled to 1080p in the tv then scaled back down to 480p on the plasma cuz the recall says 480p on the TV (not 720 which is the native for the tv). Same goes for if I change the dvd player to 1080i, the tv will show 1080i when I hit recall.
So how do I know what kind of scaling the TV is doing? It only shows the exact setting of the dvd player output. Or maybe I'm missing something.

The button shows you the resolution of the incoming signal before the tv does any scalling, so if you set you dvd player to output 720p the recall will show 720p if you have it output 480p it will show 480p on the recall screen.

Thanks hifisponge. I know that the full screen version is 1:33:1, is this the same as 4:3 ratio? I went into Just mode and it kind of made the subjects even more plump. The Full Mode seemed to be least offensive with this movie. Now when I watch SD television I switch it over to JUST MODE because this shows the best picture out of the 4 aspect modes to choose from. I guess if I want to Watch NFL, the Full Mode would be the best. I just didn't know if I needed to go back into the setup menu and correct anything to get the picture to fit the screen a little better.


yes 1.33:1 is 4:3 4/3=1.33 3/3=1

theres a simple solution to this problem. Go to target and get the widescreen version of casion it is only 8 dollars

The button shows you the resolution of the incoming signal before the tv does any scalling, so if you set you dvd player to output 720p the recall will show 720p if you have it output 480p it will show 480p on the recall screen.

Thanx Steve. That makes sense. The RECALL is for the signal BEFORE it gets to the tv scaling....gotcha. The confusing thing to me is how / what the TV scales to AFTER it gets the signal. Is it that the Plasma will scale all input signals (whether it be 480p, 720p, or 1080i) to 1080p internally then FINALLY to 768p native resolution no matter what the incoming resolution signal is at? Does that make sense?

I believe that is how the 60/600 series video processor works. It takes all signals and converts to 1080p and then from 1080p converts to 768p. Unless of corse it is recieveing a 1080p signal from a HD source. Then it just converts from 1080p to 768p.

I believe that is how the 60/600 series video processor works. It takes all signals and converts to 1080p and then from 1080p converts to 768p. Unless of corse it is recieveing a 1080p signal from a HD source. Then it just converts from 1080p to 768p.

Now this is all making more sense! I guess the only question I have left then is this. If the TV internally converts ALL signals to 1080P, then subsequently to 768P native for output to the screen, what difference does it make if you set the dvd player resolution to 480p, 720p, or 1080i?

usually the tv's scaler is better then the DVD player, but it depends on the dvd player and what video processor it uses. As a general rule its better to feed the tv the native resolution of the source material.These cheep $80 upconverting dvd players, the good thing about them is you can feed the 480p signal digitally to the tv reducing the digital to analog conversion in the dvd player and then the analog to digital conversion in the tv. Instead you send it all digitally over hdmi to the tv and reduce the digital->analog and then analog-> digital conversion steps. Life was a little simpler when we had one resoultion analog tvs wasn't it :)

usually the tv's scaler is better then the DVD player, but it depends on the dvd player and what video processor it uses. As a general rule its better to feed the tv the native resolution of the source material.These cheep $80 upconverting dvd players, the good thing about them is you can feed the 480p signal digitally to the tv reducing the digital to analog conversion in the dvd player and then the analog to digital conversion in the tv. Instead you send it all digitally over hdmi to the tv and reduce the digital->analog and then analog-> digital conversion steps. Life was a little simpler when we had one resoultion analog tvs wasn't it :)

I have a cheap Samsung HD845 upconvert dvd player using an HDMI cable directly to the TV. So basically what you're saying (if I'm understanding correctly) is that whether I set the dvd player to 480p or have it scale to 720p or 1080i upconvert, I won't see a difference in the picture? If I keep the player at 480p so it doesn't scale at all and sends the tv the unscaled 480p pure digital signal, I may get a better picture than having the dvd player set to scale / upconvert to 1080i.

So the tv will output the picture to 768p native resolution no matter what I have the dvd player set to output? That's where I'm confused. Sorry if I keep repeating myself with the same questions.

When the TV has a good scaler like the Panasonic plasma, you probably won't see much difference with an upconverting DVD player. But in theory the picture can be a little better from an upconverting DVD player because it's resampling the image in the digital domain, using the original digital data directly from the DVD. With a regular DVD player, the TV has to reconstruct the original DVD data from the analog component video input first, then resample it to a higher resolution, so a little accuracy can be lost in the processing.

Will these tweaks apply to 6u as well?

When the TV has a good scaler like the Panasonic plasma, you probably won't see much difference with an upconverting DVD player. But in theory the picture can be a little better from an upconverting DVD player because it's resampling the image in the digital domain, using the original digital data directly from the DVD. With a regular DVD player, the TV has to reconstruct the original DVD data from the analog component video input first, then resample it to a higher resolution, so a little accuracy can be lost in the processing.

Hi Amesdp:
So it sounds like my best bet is to set my dvd player to output at 480p and have my Panny scale to 768p native? I'm planning on getting an HD player fairly soon (don't know how long the war will go on and the HD DVD players are pretty cheap nowadays.....for the firs generation ones). Blu-ray costs too much and I probably won't see ANY difference at all between BR and HD DVD since my Panny is only 720p (768p)

When the TV has a good scaler like the Panasonic plasma, you probably won't see much difference with an upconverting DVD player. But in theory the picture can be a little better from an upconverting DVD player because it's resampling the image in the digital domain, using the original digital data directly from the DVD. With a regular DVD player, the TV has to reconstruct the original DVD data from the analog component video input first, then resample it to a higher resolution, so a little accuracy can be lost in the processing.
thats true, unless you are feeding the tv the signal over hdmi. Then there is not d->a and a->d conversions

Your settings are very similar to mine. Picture looks very good for both HD and SD. I've seen settings posted in this thread for "Color" which looked like -1, or -2. I don't know, but this just doesn't work on my 600U. Not only does AVIA tell me that -1 or -2 is way oversaturated, but when watching TV, people look like cartoons. So.. I'm not exactly sure how these people got their settings, but, like you, -4 (and even -5) is spot on.

Yeah, our settings are very close. I agree that not only does HD look great with these settings but SD looks noticeably better once I dialed in these settings. I might venture to say that SD actually looks good. :) Of course HD looks WAY better. :)

hey guys!
just got my new panny TH42PX60u delivered yesterday!

after reading the first 40 pages of this thread, i of course am worried about the break-in, so i've put all my settings to 0. hopefully thats right

2 questions that i havent been able to find the answers for in the forums

1). is it wrong to leave my tv on for say, 20 hours at a time on a channel with no logo and full screen, in order to speed up the break-in??

2) i cant figure out how to find out how many hours i've watched on the tv, can someome explain?

thanks guys

yes 1.33:1 is 4:3 4/3=1.33 3/3=1

theres a simple solution to this problem. Go to target and get the widescreen version of casion it is only 8 dollars

Thanks Steve123...I do have the widescreen version of this movie, but I am still breaking in the tv. So I wanted to try and avoid any widescreen images on the tv until after the 100+ hours of break-in.

Does anyone know how to get into the service menu on the TH-42PX60U so I can check out the hours used. I tried to look it up on Bruzziforums but the link was no good.

Thanks again.

-Rich

you could always use the widescreen version and use zoom. you'd loos a little on the edges and a slight bit on the top and bottom, but everything would be in proportion and you wouldn't loose as much of the image as the full screen version of the movie.

New address for Bruzzi
http://www.bruzziforum.com/vbf/forumdisplay.php?f=2

unless you are watching an HD DVD or BluRay disc. There is no 1080i content on the DVD. Max resolution is 480p. So unless your dvd player has a good video processor its better to let the tv handle the conversion from 480p to 768p. Rather then go 480p to 1080i in the dvd player and then 1080i to 768p in the tv. Now if your source is an HD DVD or Blueray. have the output to the tv be in the 1080i or 1080p (cause that is native resolution on those disc) and let the tv do the 1080 to 768p conversion. The least amount of conversions to the screen the better.

Getting back to these resolutions, if the TV automatically scales any input signal from 480p or 720p or 1080i to 1080p internally to its native res. of 768p on the display, how would an HD DVD @ 1080i/720p or BluRay @ 1080p fair on it. Would the plasma still scale this down from the 1080i on an HD DVD or 1080p on BR to 768p? I'm assuming that if I fed it a BluRay 1080p signal, there would be no need for deinterlacing, but would the picture look any better since it still scales it back down to 768p like it would with the lower (480p/1080i/720p) resolutions? Thanx for any help!

yes it will look better because you are starting with a far superior source. and yes it has to scale it down to the pixels available on the screen

Sorry if the information I am requesting is somewhere in the preceeding 113 pages, I did a few searches of the thread but couldn't come up with anything. Does anybody know the remote codes to make this set work with the comcast remote (the silver DVR one). I have tried everything including the "learning" mode where you enter the 991 code and then alternate "tv" and "power" for a bazillion times to find the correct setting... The codes the people at Comcast have dont work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

hmmm I got mine to work with my comcast dvr. which remote do you have?

Getting back to these resolutions, if the TV automatically scales any input signal from 480p or 720p or 1080i to 1080p internally to its native res. of 768p on the display, how would an HD DVD @ 1080i/720p or BluRay @ 1080p fair on it. Would the plasma still scale this down from the 1080i on an HD DVD or 1080p on BR to 768p? I'm assuming that if I fed it a BluRay 1080p signal, there would be no need for deinterlacing, but would the picture look any better since it still scales it back down to 768p like it would with the lower (480p/1080i/720p) resolutions? Thanx for any help!

To sidestep the theoretical discussion for a moment, I can tell you, without a doubt, that you will find no better looking HD image on your new Panny Plasma than when you feed it either 1080i OR 720P from an HDDVD player. I own the Toshiba HD DVD player and the picture as good or better than any of my HD cable channels. If you have HD cable or satillite subscription, you know that HD already looks amazing on these TVs. Now just imagine watching the movvie of your choice with picture quality that good.

Keep in mind though that there have been several firmware updates to the HDDVD players since they were released. One of them corrected a poor image problem with the 720P output of the player. So if you plan to buy an HDDVD player and want to run 720P vs 1080i, make sure you can connect it to the internet to download the firmware update. Personally, I think the 1080i output of the HDDVD player looks slightly sharper than the 720P output, but that is debatable.

of course the 1080i output looks sharper. the 720p is first downcoverted from 1080p to 720p in the HD DVD player then sent to the TV. The TV then upconvertes it to 1080P. Which then turns around and scales it to the panel resolution. With the 1080i output all the tv does is deinterlace the 1080i input to 1080p then scales it to the panel resolution. Why have the HD DVD player down convert which will cause lose of detail, only to have the TV try and fake the detail that was truely there in its conversion to the panel resolution.

of course the 1080i output looks sharper. the 720p is first downcoverted from 1080p to 720p in the HD DVD player then sent to the TV. The TV then upconvertes it to 1080P. Which then turns around and scales it to the panel resolution. With the 1080i output all the tv does is deinterlace the 1080i input to 1080p then scales it to the panel resolution. Why have the HD DVD player down convert which will cause lose of detail, only to have the TV try and fake the detail that was truely there in its conversion to the panel resolution.


Is that really true, that the TV upconverts EVERYTHING to 1080 then down to 720, irregardless of original resolution? I have the Toshiba player as well, and I've had a habit of using 1080 output for HD-DVDs, but 720 output for regular DVDs based on the theory that it would require less conversion to have the regular 480 DVD signal just upconverted to 720, rather than going all the way to 1080.

for regular dvds your best bet is to output 480p and let the tv handle the scaling. But yes it is my understanding everything is processed in 1080p

[QUOTE=hifisponge]To sidestep the theoretical discussion for a moment, I can tell you, without a doubt, that you will find no better looking HD image on your new Panny Plasma than when you feed it either 1080i OR 720P from an HDDVD player. I own the Toshiba HD DVD player and the picture as good or better than any of my HD cable channels. If you have HD cable or satillite subscription, you know that HD already looks amazing on these TVs. Now just imagine watching the movvie of your choice with picture quality that good.

Hifisponge -
Thanx for the input. That's my plan, to buy some sort of HD DVD player, whether it be the HD-A1, HD-XA1, or RCA one, but my question would be is there any advantage if I bought a BluRay player at 1080p over the HD DVD at 720p/1080i output for the Panny Plasma 720p that we both have?

sonydude1966,
I wouldn’t be to pleased to find any dead pixels but it apparently happens. I have a 50 inch and have no dead pixels for any color.

hmmm I got mine to work with my comcast dvr. which remote do you have?
Not sure there is a part number anywhere on it, it's the standard silver one that comcast gives you with the motorola dvr unit. I am thinking now that this may not be a problem with the comcast remote after all. The remote that came with the panny didn't work so I got a replacement (which arrived today). The replacement panny remote doesn't work either so odds are it's the tv <sigh>. I wish now I had signed up for that concierge service... :(

i have everything hooked up to a VSX-82TSX using the 1080i output. and using the plasmaguide settings. Looks great ;)

Hifisponge -
Thanx for the input. That's my plan, to buy some sort of HD DVD player, whether it be the HD-A1, HD-XA1, or RCA one, but my question would be is there any advantage if I bought a BluRay player at 1080p over the HD DVD at 720p/1080i output for the Panny Plasma 720p that we both have?

I would say that theortically it is possible that the 1080p output of the bluray player would be an advatange, but I think we are splitting hairs here. People have a hard enough time seeing a distinct difference between 1080P and 720P HDTVs, let alone trying to detect the difference between 1080P being converted to 768P vs 1080i being converted to 768P. Either way, the new HD DVD players also output 1080P, so at least you have a choice.

I also believe that the quality of the movie production and video transfer will make a greater difference in percieved image quality than the difference between 1080i or 1080P output by the player.

of course the 1080i output looks sharper. the 720p is first downcoverted from 1080p to 720p in the HD DVD player then sent to the TV. The TV then upconvertes it to 1080P. Which then turns around and scales it to the panel resolution. With the 1080i output all the tv does is deinterlace the 1080i input to 1080p then scales it to the panel resolution. Why have the HD DVD player down convert which will cause lose of detail, only to have the TV try and fake the detail that was truely there in its conversion to the panel resolution.

This is absolutely correct.

Took delivery of a PX600 this morning. I did the channel scan w/ "All" selected and to my surprise I have no digital channels. (I have Cox cable.) When I press "info" it says 480i. What am I doing wrong? The Cox guy is coming in a few days to install CableCard, but I thought until then I could at least have digital, maybe some HD even.


Did the cable card make any difference?

This is absolutely correct.

So I guess what this all comes down to is this:

If you have an upconvert dvd player, set it to output 480p for SD dvds and have the Panny do all the scaling to 768p which is its native res for the best picture

If you have an HD DVD player, set it to output 1080i (instead of 720p) for the native HD DVD's res and have the TV only have to deinterlace to 1080p internally then to the Panny's native res of 768p.

I'm going under the assumption from you guys that there will hardly be any discernable difference between sending a 1080p BluRay signal to the Panny or a 1080i HD DVD signal to the Panny if they both get scaled back down to 768P.

So I guess what this all comes down to is this:

If you have an upconvert dvd player, set it to output 480p for SD dvds and have the Panny do all the scaling to 768p which is its native res for the best picture

If you have an HD DVD player, set it to output 1080i (instead of 720p) for the native HD DVD's res and have the TV only have to deinterlace to 1080p internally then to the Panny's native res of 768p.

I'm going under the assumption from you guys that there will hardly be any discernable difference between sending a 1080p BluRay signal to the Panny or a 1080i HD DVD signal to the Panny if they both get scaled back down to 768P.


Wow, this should ought to be a "sticky" because it has to be the most asked question and this is a very clear response.

So I guess what this all comes down to is this:

If you have an upconvert dvd player, set it to output 480p for SD dvds and have the Panny do all the scaling to 768p which is its native res for the best picture.

So then what is the advantage of an upconverting DVD player? My current progressive player outputs at 480p. If I buy a new upconverting player and have to set it at 480p then what is the difference?

I have a Panasonic TH-50PX60U it was purchased from Circuit City on Black Friday 2006. I have an outside antenna connected and can receive 25 digital stations with HD content in the Philadelphia area (Hey why pay for HD when its free over the air)

My question is after the TV has discovered/scanned the available stations (analog and digital) Panasonic has a menu option to go in and edit/remove the analog stations from the channel surfing rotation.

When I remove/edit some of the analog stations or digital stations, in a day or two after I make the edit; as I channel surf, the TV hits stations and does not display them I get a black screen. But there is plenty of signal strength and the tuner should be showing the station!

The only way I gain re-gain the stations is to manually key in the channel number or re-scan the whole band again. It seems like a software problem.

I noticed on here about a year ago this was a documented problem, and there was a software fix. I would have expected that my TV purchased just weeks ago would have the current software fix.

So do I have a software problem? Or a hardware problem? Should I pursue this with Panasonic?

Has anyone else had this problem and fixed it? If so what did you do?

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

So then what is the advantage of an upconverting DVD player? My current progressive player outputs at 480p. If I buy a new upconverting player and have to set it at 480p then what is the difference?


The all digital link over HDMI from dvd player to tv. you remove the 2 conversions one from digital to analog in the dvd player and the next from analog to digital in the tv. The least amount of conversions of any type whether it be analog to digital, digital to analog or resolution scaling the better.

The all digital link over HDMI from dvd player to tv. you remove the 2 conversions one from digital to analog in the dvd player and the next from analog to digital in the tv. The least amount of conversions of any type whether it be analog to digital, digital to analog or resolution scaling the better.

And another q and a that should be a 'sticky"

Thought I'd post these questions again. Any help would be appreciated:

My biggest problems are with the SD channels. The two biggest issues are distorted faces and image delay.

1 - The distorted faces are similar to the clay face issue but not exactly the same. The overall faces looks fine and the flesh tones ok though sometimes the cheeks and forehead areas look smeared or as if there is a second image or artifact on top of it. I see this quite a bit on the local SD channel and on USA and CNN.

I have not done the firmware update as I have heard mixed results. What is the best course of action to get the faces to look clear? Like I said the HD channels and also the premium channels like HBO, etc. do not have this issue. There flesh tones look good.

2 - Image delay - This is not an issue of image retention, its more to do with a delay in movement of the picture. For example, when a news-caster moves his head for some weird reason his forehead, nose, eyebrows, and cheekbone move a split second later. This gives his face a weird shifting image. Again, this is only an issue on the lower SD channels and most news programs.

I have tried my best to adjust as much as I can to improve this. I have forced my STB to output in either 1080i or 720p with little to no effect. I do not know what else to do to get a good image with no artifacts.

Any help would be appreciated.

I bought a TH50PX60U a couple of weeks ago and have a couple of questions around some observations that I have made. I'm not sure if these are issues or are normal for this display.

All of these happen via component and HDMI inputs. Sources include an SA8300 HD cable box, Panasonic RP62 DVD player, Wii and a PS3. Same behavior consistent across. Also, I have a decent HT Monster power bar (with noise filtering) that runs all this hardware.

1. There is a faint horizontal band (darker and about 1/4" wide) halfway between the top and bottom of the display. It is very faint and can only be seen when there is a flat colour on the screen and more so if the scene is panning. It runs across the full length of the screen.

2. Sometimes when there is a bright line or letters against a dark background on the screen faint (and lighter) lines extend horizontally across the display. Sometimes it is more a slightly lighter rectangular band than a line.

3. Moving very close to the display for some shades of grey or certain colours there are dozens of tiny moving pixels (most often green dots in darker areas). This is not noticeable from more than 3-4 feet away. Our normal sitting position is 8.5 feet away.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining these as clearly as possible. If anything above should not be happening then I'm going to contact Panasonic to get these issues sorted out.

Thanks in advance!

Grymhawk-

The 2nd issue happens with all Pannys, and I think to some extent with all plasma TVs. I noticed the faint lines on some text boxes when l first bought my set, and it worried me as well. But, it is a rather minor annoyance that hardly bothers me anymore. For what it's worth, l also have a flat panel LCD that does th same thing.

The last issue is normal. Its called dithering and it happens with all plasma TV's when they are trying to display certain shades of gray.

Sorry, l cant help with the first horizontal line problem. Sounds like a defect.

So then what is the advantage of an upconverting DVD player? My current progressive player outputs at 480p. If I buy a new upconverting player and have to set it at 480p then what is the difference?

There is no real advantage to using a DVD player that upscales from 480p when feeding it to a native 768p plasma TV. Most of the people that originally began buying the Momtisu scaling DVD players were using them for front projection CRT projectors, where it DOES make a difference. ;)

of course the 1080i output looks sharper. the 720p is first downcoverted from 1080p to 720p in the HD DVD player then sent to the TV. The TV then upconvertes it to 1080P. Which then turns around and scales it to the panel resolution. With the 1080i output all the tv does is deinterlace the 1080i input to 1080p then scales it to the panel resolution. Why have the HD DVD player down convert which will cause lose of detail, only to have the TV try and fake the detail that was truely there in its conversion to the panel resolution.

Great point. l hadn't thought of that. The difference in detail is still surprisingly small though.

I would like to combine my outside antenna feed (Which receives all of my HD programing for free) with my basic cable feed into the RG6 input on the back of the TV so I can channel surf the HD channels AND my basic cable subscription channels.

I bet there are a bunch of guys who have already figured out how to do this?

I know I could strip off one of these feeds and put it into another box that would feed HDMI or Component ports into the TV but then I am forced to use two remotes to channel surf (1 for the Panasonic and 1 for the other box)

Your ideas are appreciated!

of course the 1080i output looks sharper. the 720p is first downcoverted from 1080p to 720p in the HD DVD player then sent to the TV. The TV then upconvertes it to 1080P. Which then turns around and scales it to the panel resolution. With the 1080i output all the tv does is deinterlace the 1080i input to 1080p then scales it to the panel resolution. Why have the HD DVD player down convert which will cause lose of detail, only to have the TV try and fake the detail that was truely there in its conversion to the panel resolution.


Although the material on the HD DVD is encoded at 1080p the HD DVD player only outputs 1080i and no scaling takes place. In addition, the panny plasma doesn't upconvert to 1080p before it is scaled to its native resolution of 768p.

hey guys i'm repeating myself here, but.....

its fine for me to leave my tv on for 100 hours straight on a channel with no logo, in order to speed up the break-in process?

or is this the wrong way to go about things

Sure, just turn down the brightness and contrast somewhat and maybe put it in cinema or normal first.

In addition, the panny plasma doesn't upconvert to 1080p before it is scaled to its native resolution of 768p.
Was just gonna post the same thing! :D
FUD I say FUD!! :p

Just a reply with my findings. Been hanging out here for the past 4 years and all I learned about audio/video was from here, so I am giving some of this back. I got my TH-50px60u on Black Friday from CC.com. Great price, delivery top notch, no probs. I live in NYC so I went and got an SA8300HD DVR from them. Hooked up the tv via HDMI-again no problem. There is a delay when switching from one HD channel to another, but I can live with that. I am using all the advice from all the more knowledgable posters for the first 100 hours and have been playing the Break-in DVD. Even though the set is not calibrated the picture is awsome(especially the HD channels). A side note, I HATE THE LOGOS!!!! :mad: I have signed all the petitions I could find and urge everyone here to do the same. I have been sending e-mails to various stations every day as well.
I am enjoying my Panny and want to thank everyone here for all their advice and time to help newbs like me to plunge in. :)

I posted the following in a 600U thread with which my subject concerns but unfortunately it didn't receive any replies. I believe the 600U has all of the same in/outs as the 60U (with exception to the cable slot) so I'm hoping people here can help me out. :)

-----

I'm looking at possibly buying this set. However, I'm a bit confused about managing the inputs/outputs of all of my devices. I would like to have everything hooked up in such a way that I get the best possible quality in audio/video. My set up is/will be as follows:

1)This TV
2)Onkyo Sr-503 receiver (only allows for 3 input sources, no HDMI)
3)6.1 Hsu Surround Speaker set up
4)Oppo DV970HD DVD player
3)Xbox which I use to stream video. I suppose a topnotch video connection wouldn't be necessary but I do want good quality audio running from this.
4)Nintendo Wii-neither topnotch video or audio are entirely necessary for this. Component video to the Wii would be nice, however.

Now, then, my first question is would there be a noticeable sound/visual quality difference between the following methods?:

1)Oppo DVD Player --HDMI--> TV --Coaxial Audio--> Onkyo Receiver

2)Oppo DVD Player --HDMI--> TV
Oppo DVD Player --Coaxial Audio-->Onkyo Receiver

On a related note: was it ever determined if the 60U/600U sets can pass a 5.1 signal through to the receiver?

Other suggestions on how to best setup this array of devices are welcome.

I posted the following in a 600U thread with which my subject concerns but unfortunately it didn't receive any replies. I believe the 600U has all of the same in/outs as the 60U (with exception to the cable slot) so I'm hoping people here can help me out. :)

-----

I'm looking at possibly buying this set. However, I'm a bit confused about managing the inputs/outputs of all of my devices. I would like to have everything hooked up in such a way that I get the best possible quality in audio/video. My set up is/will be as follows:

1)This TV
2)Onkyo Sr-503 receiver (only allows for 3 input sources, no HDMI)
3)6.1 Hsu Surround Speaker set up
4)Oppo DV970HD DVD player
3)Xbox which I use to stream video. I suppose a topnotch video connection wouldn't be necessary but I do want good quality audio running from this.
4)Nintendo Wii-neither topnotch video or audio are entirely necessary for this. Component video to the Wii would be nice, however.

Now, then, my first question is would there be a noticeable sound/visual quality difference between the following methods?:

1)Oppo DVD Player --HDMI--> TV --Coaxial Audio--> Onkyo Receiver

2)Oppo DVD Player --HDMI--> TV
Oppo DVD Player --Coaxial Audio-->Onkyo Receiver

On a related note: was it ever determined if the 60U/600U sets can pass a 5.1 signal through to the receiver?

Other suggestions on how to best setup this array of devices are welcome.


While there are those who say there may be no real noticable difference, you might want to consider using a toslink from the plasma to the Onkyo for the audio. My HK AVR is similar in that there is not HDMI connection and this workaround worked well in terms of quality sound. Monoprice (AVS sponsor) has some real sweet pricing on cables. If you are not sure, go to Radio Shack and pick up one for a trial (save the packaging). Even do an A/B testing of the two (Toslink & coax audio). Decide which one you like, compare the pricing, order the size you need from Monoprice and return the RS item.

Does anyone have a suggestion of the best settings to display a Wii through component cables to minimize jaggies and make the picture as best as possible? I have the 42" 60U.

I use the coax cable input to my Panny 50PX600u . If I use a RCA male to F-type female adapter and hock up to anothe input, will I get a better picture?

Thanks

Jim

I use the coax cable input to my Panny 50PX600u . If I use a RCA male to F-type female adapter and hock up to anothe input, will I get a better picture?

Thanks

Jim

Nope.

Was just gonna post the same thing! :D
FUD I say FUD!! :p


If thats the cas I stand corrected. I had been told by several that the internal processing was done in 1080p.

I want to hook up cable tv via coax to get unencrypted QAM and an OTA antenna via coax to get my HD locals. How would I do this with a TH50PX60U?

I am getting a 42PX60U from Santa on Christmas (heck of a guy that Santa!) and have read all 116 pages of this thread. This is my first expierence with Plasma/HDTV and I have learned much from all of the very knowledgeable folks on this forum. I think I may even know what I'm doing come Christmas morning! One question (for now).

I plan on hooking the SA8300 HD up to the Panny via HDMI and then running the audio form the SA8300 to my Yamaha HTR-5650 receiver. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to doing it this way as opposed to running the audio from the SA8300 to the Panny and then to the receiver?

Thanks in advance for your help!

hey guys i'm repeating myself here, but.....

its fine for me to leave my tv on for 100 hours straight on a channel with no logo, in order to speed up the break-in process?

or is this the wrong way to go about things
Very interesting question. I don't have the technical or chemical answer but intuitively it would seem that cycling the power on and off and thus allowing the gas to cool would be more beneficial than a non-stop burnin period. I have used a max of 8 hr on times during the (successful) break-in periods of both Panasonic and Pioneer systems. I do think that most of us tend to be ultra conservative during this period and that the on time is not as critical as dialing down the contrast and sharpness etc.

I am getting a 42PX60U from Santa on Christmas (heck of a guy that Santa!) and have read all 116 pages of this thread. This is my first expierence with Plasma/HDTV and I have learned much from all of the very knowledgeable folks on this forum. I think I may even know what I'm doing come Christmas morning! One question (for now).

I plan on hooking the SA8300 HD up to the Panny via HDMI and then running the audio form the SA8300 to my Yamaha HTR-5650 receiver. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to doing it this way as opposed to running the audio from the SA8300 to the Panny and then to the receiver?

Thanks in advance for your help!
I have a new 50PX60u hooked up to my SA8300HD DVR via HDMI and run the audio from the DVR directly to my Yamaha HTR-5760 receiver via an optical cable. Works fine.

I believe either way would work OK, but if you are planning on mounting the Panny on a wall, using my setup you would not have to feed the optical cable through the wall (or down the outside, if you prefer). The optical cable simply goes from the 8300HD to the Yamaha receiver.

I am getting a 42PX60U from Santa on Christmas (heck of a guy that Santa!) and have read all 116 pages of this thread. This is my first expierence with Plasma/HDTV and I have learned much from all of the very knowledgeable folks on this forum. I think I may even know what I'm doing come Christmas morning! One question (for now).

I plan on hooking the SA8300 HD up to the Panny via HDMI and then running the audio form the SA8300 to my Yamaha HTR-5650 receiver. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to doing it this way as opposed to running the audio from the SA8300 to the Panny and then to the receiver?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Great choice on the TV, Ive had mine for about a week and its been awesome!

As for your question.... its prolly worth trying both arrangements and see what makes you the happiest. I have my setup where the TWC cable box goes right into the surround receiver via optical cable and thats working good for me. Then, I use basic audio cables for the TV to the TWC box so I can just quickly watch TV without firing up the surround system and use the TV's speakers.

My 4 cents.... :)

Although I'm considering getting the 600U I saw a 60U at HH Gregg yesterday and really noticed how much glare there is on the screen. While looking at the screen, I could see everything going on behind me in the store. Is this a problem when viewing the set in your home? I'm assuming the 60u and 600U have the same display.

Although I'm considering getting the 600U I saw a 60U at HH Gregg yesterday and really noticed how much glare there is on the screen. While looking at the screen, I could see everything going on behind me in the store. Is this a problem when viewing the set in your home? I'm assuming the 60u and 600U have the same display.

I noticed that the glare was fairly annoying at BB when I got my 42PX60U.

Once at home, it was barely an issue anymore. The store lighting is just horrendous for plasma displays since they are more prone to glare than LCD. I will say that during the day, you CAN perceive a little more glare than at night but it is not nearly as bad as you'd think. I also have an LCD and yes, the LCD is better in this regard.

Basically, do NOT worry about it. Unless you watch most of your movies or TV shows during the day with sun beaming in from every angle it will not be an issue.

Although I'm considering getting the 600U I saw a 60U at HH Gregg yesterday and really noticed how much glare there is on the screen. While looking at the screen, I could see everything going on behind me in the store. Is this a problem when viewing the set in your home? I'm assuming the 60u and 600U have the same display.
It all depends on the room you'll have it in. I have mine in the living room and get glare in the late afternoon, but that's what curtains are for. :D

If thats the cas I stand corrected. I had been told by several that the internal processing was done in 1080p.

It DOES process incoming digital formats in the 1080p mode (internally). A quick chat with some members of the engineering group for Matsushita confirmed exactly that. This is one of the key features of Panasonic's 9th generation plasma panels.

Some forum members are simply misinformed, or were given distorted facts.

On the subject of power consumption, plasma TV's are not Toyota hybrids. IIRC, 400-750 watts of consumption.
According to the display on my UPS which has a 42" Panasonic plasma, Directv HDTivo and a APC A/V conditioner connected to it, I'm around 220W.

stripe,
I’m trying to read between the lines of your post. You say “incoming digital signals”. I assume you mean all signals are converted to 1080P and not just digital signals. Is this correct? Do you know if this is published anywhere?

Shinner,
The power consumption is dependent on what is on the screen. The power will go up for a white screen vs. a dark screen.

Shinner,
The power consumption is dependent on what is on the screen. The power will go up for a white screen vs. a dark screen.
I watched it fluctuate for a while and never saw it break 300w...think a sitcom (SD) was on, nothing very dark which would account for a low wattage. I do have all the settings turned fairly low though (picture 10, brightness 6).

It DOES process incoming digital formats in the 1080p mode (internally). A quick chat with some members of the engineering group for Matsushita confirmed exactly that. This is one of the key features of Panasonic's 9th generation plasma panels.

Some forum members are simply misinformed, or were given distorted facts.


Your statement is somewhat confusing, and could be understood several different ways. You're either saying that the TV will accept an incoming 1080p signal and process it and scale it down to 768p (something I believe to be true), OR you're saying the TV will take ANY incoming signal, convert it to 1080p and then scale it down to 768p. Something that does NOT make sense to do. How could it be a feature if the TV took a 720p signal, scaled it up to 1080p, then scaled it down to 768p, something that would require much more processing than simply take the 720p signal and just slightly upscale it to 768p?

Bill if you do plan on doing it yourself (I put mine together without anyone else's help, and I didn't have too much trouble) just make sure you don't have jeans or a belt on. The last thing you want to do is scratch the glass with a buckle or a metal button on jeans. I just had on my jogging pants and a tshirt and I was able to lift the panel onto the stand without a problem. I had it leaned up against my couch before hand.

If you decide to do this yourself, just be careful.
Just a tip....I did mine by myself as well. Held the panel from the back when I lifted it onto the pedestal pegs. Had the panel leaning against the couch (back of the panel obviously) while I put the stand together.

What was much more difficult was when I got the new entertainment center which has one of those vertical mounting posts so the panel is above the EC itself. Getting the panel off the Panasonic stand was easy (mounted the supports for the new stand first). Lifting off the Panny stand, no problem. Getting it on the frame of the new EC, no so easy. Coulda used some help with that.

My brother just got the TH-42PX600U 42" model. Can someone confirm that this model actually has a QAM tuner built-in? I know it has NTSC/ATSC, but it seems like it doesn't have QAM. We plugged the cable line in to see if we could pick up the unencrypted HD channels from our local cable company and got nothing.

sticky

I have a 50/600 and am trying to install a Comcast cablecard. The first time I put it in, after a few minutes a message came up (that I can't remember what it said) and I thought I hit the option that made sense. Well, I still can't get it to work. Whenever I insert the card all I get is a blank screen with a message that says "Cablecard inserted. Cable signal must be connected. Now receiving channel information..." It never gets a picture. I've left it on all night before.

So, how long does it take and/or do I have a bad cablecard?

you have to call the cable company. at least that's what Insight had to do with mine. There's a code in the TV that has to be associated with the CableCard in the Cable company's system. I have a Motorola cablecard. I think the menu you need is in Setup. Let me know if you need further help.

Resize your jpegs to 1920x1080. A while back I posted some grayscale images for ISF color-temperature calibrations, all resized to 1920x1080.
This is great info, I noticed it way back when you posted. Stuck your files on a SD card, saw they were shown at full screen and checked out the dimensions.

Only (slight) issue is that when I went to resize some of my photos to give it a test try, I found that this ratio is not "native" to a picture taken with a digital camera (I'm assuming it's the same with all, but that's just a guess). So...any resizing of untouched pix from a camera are most likely going to result in either empty space left/right of the pic or above/below it depending on whether you resize the width to 1920 or height to 1080 pixels. If you resize one dimension to spec and the opposite is larger than spec, then I believe the plasma will display the picture on-screen much smaller (as it does with an untouched pic from a camera that is larger than 1920 x 1080).

This is kind of a bummer because I really don't want to crop my pix to a 16:9 ratio and then resize to 1920 x 1080. It would have been much nicer if the plasma "stretched" the untouched photo to fill the width of the screen, cropping the height to 1080 pixels.

The only other alternative is to take pictures at a much lower resolution....but then again, I didn't invest in a digital SLR to take pictures at less than the best quality just to be able to show them on a TV.

So, for the most part, the SD slot will function as nothing more than a firmware upgrade path, for me.

PS - Sorry for all the replies to older posts. I just finished reading the whole thread, tonight :)

How many here have noticed banding issues?

I've had my TH50PX60U for almost 2 weeks now.

I'm noticing banding issues on the usual subjects, sky scenes.. sometimes walls, ect.

Anytime there is supposed to be a graduated colour effect.

This looks exactly like the banding you see in an LCD at times.

Example: haze in bladerunner scenes.. I saw alot of that last night on IFC,

I's bad enough that I see it from 10 feet away. It shows up quite frequently in anime shows, due to the large amount of solid colours.

I must say, I'm quite dissappointed, I thought Panasonic was bragging on how many shades and colours it could produce WITHOUT banding..

As a reference, I compared some VOD scenes A/B with a CRT set.. NO Banding on the CRT, but significant on the Plasma.

NOTE: It's not a source compression issue, as my CRT shows no evidence of the banding.

Also, on DiscoveryHD.. during the show on the aircraft carrier.. I saw banding in the sky at times. STB is SA8300

I have a 50/600 and am trying to install a Comcast cablecard. The first time I put it in, after a few minutes a message came up (that I can't remember what it said) and I thought I hit the option that made sense. Well, I still can't get it to work. Whenever I insert the card all I get is a blank screen with a message that says "Cablecard inserted. Cable signal must be connected. Now receiving channel information..." It never gets a picture. I've left it on all night before.

So, how long does it take and/or do I have a bad cablecard?


Take the CC out, reset the TV, unplug the TV from the outlet for 3 minutes, turn the TV on and re-install the CC. These were the instruction that I got from Panasonic as I had the same problem. A series of numbers comes up that have to be called into the cable company. The cable tech that came to my house would have never figured it out if I had not called Panasonic first. When the numbers came up he was relieved.

I have a 42px600 and want to mount it to the wall. What is a cheap brand and type mount to use. I am looking for convenience as well as performance. There is such a discrepancy in costs and types of mounts I am confused. Please help.

I have a 42px600 and want to mount it to the wall. What is a cheap brand and type mount to use. I am looking for convenience as well as performance. There is such a discrepancy in costs and types of mounts I am confused. Please help.

Here you go (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=763198)

Does anyone have a suggestion of the best settings to display a Wii through component cables to minimize jaggies and make the picture as best as possible? I have the 42" 60U.

Nintendo has taken a decidedly lower tech approach to the graphics processing in their machine, putting the focus on the unique control and affordability. My point is that the image is always going to look jaggy because it is only ouputting 480P with the component cables. It is the low resolution of the system you are seeing. With that said, using the component cables is going to give you a noticeably sharper image than using the composite cable that comes with the system.

I want to hook up cable tv via coax to get unencrypted QAM and an OTA antenna via coax to get my HD locals. How would I do this with a TH50PX60U?
Anyone?

vidguy_1,
I have a 50PX60U and a 1080P DLP. Both TVs sometimes show the banding you are referring to. My CRTs don’t show it. It may be due to the CRT's lower resolution. It is more likely an artifact of the compression/decompression of the signal to the higher resolution of the digital TVs. People with satellite reception seem to complain about it more than those with cable.

Just picked up a TH50PX60U the other day and was wondering if anyone ever had any luck connecting an HTPC via HDMI at 1366x768? I'm able to do 720p with the dvi->hdmi and adjust to 1256x704 with Nvidias overscan utility. Text & graphics still look amazing at this resolution but I'm wondering if I can output at the screen's native res.

Or do HDMI inputs just not accept anything other than standard HD resolutions (i.e 720p, 1080p, 1080i etc)?

How many here have noticed banding issues?

I've had my TH50PX60U for almost 2 weeks now.

I'm noticing banding issues on the usual subjects, sky scenes.. sometimes walls, ect.

Anytime there is supposed to be a graduated colour effect.

This looks exactly like the banding you see in an LCD at times.

Example: haze in bladerunner scenes.. I saw alot of that last night on IFC,

I's bad enough that I see it from 10 feet away. It shows up quite frequently in anime shows, due to the large amount of solid colours.

I must say, I'm quite dissappointed, I thought Panasonic was bragging on how many shades and colours it could produce WITHOUT banding..

As a reference, I compared some VOD scenes A/B with a CRT set.. NO Banding on the CRT, but significant on the Plasma.

NOTE: It's not a source compression issue, as my CRT shows no evidence of the banding.

Also, on DiscoveryHD.. during the show on the aircraft carrier.. I saw banding in the sky at times. STB is SA8300

Unfortunately this is the best the current state of technology has to offer. I can't think of a flat panel TV that doesn't exhibit banding. I haven't seen them all, but everyone I have seen has this problem.

Can someone take me through the merits/risks of going with either the commercial version (TH-65PF9UK) and the consumer version (TH-65PX600U). I plan on connecting DirecTV, Cable (both HD), a gaming system, a DVD player, and I have a 5.1 speaker system. PQ very important and I watch tons of HD sports. Thx in advance.

I am installing my parents new 42PX60U to (1) a Time-Warner Scientific America 8300HD and (2) LG DN191H DVD player, both via HDMI, with optical going to their Yamaha receiver. Occasionally *both* the DVD and DVR output will flash on the screen, usually like 3-4 seconds on, then 2 seconds off, then repeat. I have extra (mono price) HDMI cables, and so I have swapped out the cables, but that didn't do the trick. If the flashing happens to one HDMI in, then it will happen to the other.

The only way to solve the problem is to turn off the TV, DVD, DVR at the surge protector, leave off for a minute, then turn back on. This appears to reset everything. I did that last night a couple of times, and then today once.

Since it is happening on both HDMI ins, I don't think it is a set-top box issue, nor do I think it is the cables. I guess that leaves the TV, but I would like to hear from some of you Panny-experts before I ask my non-tech father to deal with the manufacturer.

THANKS!

Hi All,
I have been a regular reader on this forum and great to see everybody's response/opinions regarding several plasma, LCDs, and other components. I recently purchased Panasonic TH-42PX60U. I found a great deal on CC and could not resist.

First impression, this is an awesome TV for a first time user. I did have some questions/concerns and would like your suggestions.

1) Picture quality is great on HD and regular DTV channels from DISH. I had to play around with the video settings to get the best out of it. I also chose to connect DISH receiver to the TV via S-video and it improved. I have HDTV indoor antenna and started receiving few HD channels. They look awesome with only 60 % level. I do have some questions. The local channels seems to be SD transmission (xx.1, xx.2, etc) with some shows on HD. I read users watching local HD channels (transmission) but I think they are really SD. The way I started to notice is watching NBC, the shows that are HD cover the full screen automatically and have HD logo on left bottom screen and when they are regular SD shows, they cover 4:3 without HD logo. Please confirm if anybody has noticed this. How can one know for fact if a show/transmission is HD or SD.

2) When I turned on the TV, it makes 3 beeping noise. I had an old 32" Sony CRT, which use to make a noise(not a beep) when turning it on. There was a lawsuit on Sony regarding this. I don't want to be a victim again so can someone confirm if this noise is normal on Panny.

3) HDTV indoor antenna is good but I am not receiving all local HD channels and when weather is cloudy, it gets pixellated. I am thinking about getting TWC cable. I live in Dallas and I was wondering if I subscribe to just basic channel, would I receive the local HD for free or do I have to subscribe for Digital Classic. I know this is a question to TWC but may be somebody might have done this before. Please advise.

4) Overall the performance is very very good. One of my cousin has Phillips and comparing with it, Panny is 10 times better. I do think there is a room for improvement. There is only 1 RF input, where most of the plasma come with 2 now. Glare is still a problem comparing with LCD. I also think they could have improved the Menu with shortcuts on the middle part of remote. Finally, when watching a show on JUST screen, you can see that the side vision gets modified. E.g. if a screen show moving faces from left to right, you can see that their faces get stretched on sides. I thought this is prevented in 'JUST' but I can still notice it.

Thanks in advance for your responses/suggestions/opinions.

Hi All,

2) When I turned on the TV, it makes 3 beeping noise. I had an old 32" Sony CRT, which use to make a noise(not a beep) when turning it on. There was a lawsuit on Sony regarding this. I don't want to be a victim again so can someone confirm if this noise is normal on Panny.

The 3 "clicks" are normal. I had the same model, now I'm getting a 600U next week. The HD is awesome on this set. Not sure about the other questions. Make sure to break-in first, but try these settings on an HD channel:

Picture Mode Standard
Picture +22
Brightness +8
Color -1
Tint -4
Sharpness -14
Color Temperature Warm
Enhanced Black Level Light

I got those settings from plasma tv buying guide. What a difference.

Just picked up a TH50PX60U the other day and was wondering if anyone ever had any luck connecting an HTPC via HDMI at 1366x768? I'm able to do 720p with the dvi->hdmi and adjust to 1256x704 with Nvidias overscan utility. Text & graphics still look amazing at this resolution but I'm wondering if I can output at the screen's native res.

Or do HDMI inputs just not accept anything other than standard HD resolutions (i.e 720p, 1080p, 1080i etc)?

Unfortunately 60U or 600U do not accept native res. It does not accept non standard resolutions like 1366x768(check the Technical information page in the manual page 42). The only way is what you have already done. Send 720p and then try to limit the overscan. You will need to use the commercial panels and the DVI board to be able to acheive native res.