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Official Panasonic UT50 Series Discussion Thread

402K views 3K replies 411 participants last post by  CraigBobchin 
#1 ·
Available in 50", 55", and 60". The 42" size was discontinued a few months after release due to lack of interest.


UT50 Information Page:
http://panasonic.net/avc/viera/us/ut_plasma.html


Quick Start Guide (contains dimensions and schematics at the bottom):
http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/TCP60UT50.PDF



E-Help Manual:
http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/E-HELP_UT50.PDF




UT50 Settings / Issues thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1412033/the-official-panasonic-ut50-settings-issues-thread


UT50 MSRP:


TC-P42UT50 $799 (now discontinued due to lack of interest from retailers)


TC-P50UT50 $1,099


TC-P55UT50 $1,399


TC-P60UT50 $1,799
 
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#3 ·

The time has come and the 42UT50 arrived at my house earlier this week. The reason for my late post was to get it set up, running misc content, and get it calibrated. So I'll be giving you a review of my 42UT50 based on the limited time I've had with it thus far. As I mentioned earlier.. I planned on ordering both the 42 and 55UT50 but I decided to hold off on the 55" until I at least got the 42" for the bedroom to see how it met my standards.


First off I want to get this outta the way.... HOLY ****! What a tv this is. Mind you I'm coming from some pretty high end sets over the years including several Sony 34XBR960s, Samsung locally dimmed 46A950, Pioneer 4270HD, and eventually a Pioneer 5020FD Kuro that I used D-Nice's settings (after service menu offsets) for the past 3.5 years. So to say I'm accustomed to jet blacks, near perfect color accuracy, fluid motion, and a tv able to handle any content (pal, ntsc, sd, hd, etc) with ease is an understatement. I'll break this review down in segments hoping not to leave anything off.



Blacks-


Obviously we all know contrast ratio is the most important aspect of picture quality, rivaling color and resolution itself. The blacks your tv is able to reproduce tells us exactly what we're dealing with. I was expecting the worse here from my previous experience with Panasonic plasmas, and in general every other tv that didn't bare the logo "Kuro" or "Pioneer" on it. I will ignore local dimming LCDs due to the fact that their pixels shut off and to me it's not a proper measurement. Black crush, blooming, etc not in the same league. This is the second tv I've personally seen/had to date that passed the grueling Pioneer Blu-ray demo disc. I had a 42ST30 for a short time before returning it last year. It was a long shot from my Kuro to the point blacks looked grey with this demo disc, and nearly every Blu-ray movie I tried on it. Even calibrated I wasn't satisfied with the color either, but I'll cover that later. The blacks on this tv will satisfy anyone. The scene in particular with objects and fish swimming in an all-black environment had my jaw dropped. In my man cave in which I do all my critical viewing in the dark you could see nothing but the fish or object on screen. The bezel of the tv, along with the walls and room itself vanished. I could barely make out the black on the tv. It looked like a less than 1% pattern which is crazy. In fact it at times it had more pop than my Kuro due to a brighter picture. I tested this with some of my favorite movies with dark scenes including The Thing, Sin City, and Batman and not once did I pay attention to the anamorphic black bars. Outside of the Kuro there is no other tv that impressed me like this. Even with last year's top of the line sets I found myself distracted by the greyish bars to the point I couldn't enjoy dark films. It was certainly not the case here.


Anamorphic Black Bars-


Not including LCDs with local dimming, this is the only other tv other than the Kuro with black bars vanishing in all but extreme dark scenes. When the screen goes black then yeah you can see a slight glow.. but the same can be said about the Kuro. No winner here. With a 0% background showing, both are as close to 'black hole black' as plasma gets at this point. The only difference is with any content present and I give the nod to the UT50 due to more brightness and pop (not lcd fake pop but overall natural pop). During the first couple minutes of Sin City I sorta noticed the bars like any other quality plasma (Kuro) but for the rest of the film it vanished once your eyes get used to seeing that much dark. I sound like a broken record here but I don't know how to describe it other than being very Kuroish.


Color-


I dialed it in using a blue filter with several calibration discs including Disney's Wow, AVSHD, DVE HD, etc using the graphics output for hdmi settings. At first I wasn't satisfied with the default hdmi settings similar to the ST30 it just lacked. But as soon as I changed it to graphics is where it came alive. Now the colors aren't overblown in your face and more subdued like the Kuro. Skin tones are spot on.. in fact more so than my XBR960 which was my reference up till this point. I'm sure if I had the Kuro professionally calibrated it could be better but to me there was always a reddish skin tone that I couldn't defeat. It's still okay but I'd notice it now and then. I haven't seen any skin tone problems yet with the UT50. I've only spent about 10 hours with it now but this is a problem I usually notice right away with any panel so I believe this one is good to go.


Motion-


This is an area I feel bests my Kuro. I don't think it's a question. I prefer no motion interpolation as to watch films smooth like you'd see at the cinema with proper judder. The Kuro was the only tv that ever got this right, and now this one does. The first thing I did was turn the motion smoother OFF.. along with any other digital enhancements (after all it's digital). Pans are now butter smooth without the side effect of motion smoothing. I watched a few scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean and its smooth as silk. The only other way for me to defeat this in the past was with a low setting of motion interpolation (ST30, LCDs, etc). But now with it disabled it's as smooth as ever while still preserving natural motion. I don't know how they did it, but they did it. I'm very impressed here.


Flicker-


48hz mode is unusable, as it flickers like the models before it. This is fine with me since 60hz is perfect. This tv also doubles nicely as a PC monitor. I hooked it up via hdmi to my Nvidia equipped desktop and everything syncs smoothly and the mouse glides naturally. Haven't tested it with games but if it's anything like the ST30 it should be good. I'll update later.


Green Blob / Uniformity-


The ST30 I had last year had a green blob in the middle of the screen with contrast set too high. I haven't noticed a green blob with this one with it dialed up yet. I tested this with a white background. Uniformity seems really good on this set. There is no blobs, clouding, etc black screens are black and white screens are white with no noticeable artifacts on color patterns. Probably not the best I've seen in the world, but should satisfy even demanding users.


Image Retention-


I haven't had enough time with this set to be fair. I will say that I noticed the Disney logo burned onto the screen with it turned off after calibrating. But after watching content that filled the screen for a few minutes it vanished. This is a normal trait for plasmas so what can I say...par for the course? My Kuro did the same thing when new and I still notice it now and then but it's never been a long term problem. The fact that the logo went away so quickly tells me that hopefully it won't be a problem.


Reflections-


Yes this tv reflects a lot with windows and/or lighting in the room during the day. More so than most. I can see how this will be a problem for some. Compared to the Kuro it acts similar, if not maybe a little worse. This is a tradeoff that I'm willing to take in order to achieve IMO the best picture possible currently on the market. If it bothers you then the ST50 will suit you better. I don't test tvs during the daytime as I'm strictly an after dark movie buff, and if that's you than I suggest the UT50. This is something you'd have to see in store for yourself, but can tell you it's like most plasmas if you can deal with it. To sum it up it's similar to the 46A950 I had which looked like a mirror turned off. To me this only adds to the vibrancy, sharpness, and natural pop with the lights out but to others will take away value during the day. To each his own.


Conclusion-


This tv IMO is the deal of the decade. It's what us videophiles crave here at AVS every day. It's crazy how much I paid for this UT50 to get a picture I thought wouldn't be possible until the next couple years. The reason I didn't go for the ST50 was because of that aggressive anti-glare filter that's on it (louver filter). Not due to cost. Not due to hype. Not due to bang-for-buck, not due to any other reason. Hell.. I'd pay double what I did for even a 42" to get the picture that I'm after. After inspecting the ST50 up close I came to the conclusion that the UT50 is more suited as a Kuro suppliment for me. It's plain and simple. The UT50 has more pop, feels like it has more brightness than it does, is actually sharper, and overall very solid on all fronts and it's all due to the fact that it's using 2012 Panasonic tech and doesn't include that all-miraculous filter than hundreds on this board rant and rave about. I've even been told ppl here wouldn't consider a tv without some sort of filter like that. Well I'm here to tell you that they blew it out of proportion. The Kuro doesn't have an aggressive filter like the ST50..and frankly I'm unaware of many other plasmas that do either. I personally don't like looking at a screen that seems to have a layer of vasoline of sort smeared over.


I'm also sure some will say it's not a proper comparison with the Kuro due to the difference in size (42" vs 50") with some of my comments regarding sharpness and brightness. But I've had a 42ST30 and smaller sets in my home before and this tv had their number. I also gave the Kuro the benefit of the doubt to be fair. I stand by what I said. If your looking for the next best thing then look no further. With the tiniest difference in blacks between them I just can't recommend the Kuro to someone shopping now.. even if they could buy them both new. The benefits of the UT50 outweighs it. The ability to display 3D, the faster phosphors, 16ms input lag in Game Mode if that's your thing, certain critical scenes in film have equal impressive blacks and bars that literally vanish. The Kuro I'd say has overall more solid stable blacks but at peak times the UT50 I thought impressed me more (and this is in a pitch black room). Like I said.. the difference is null. We really need to get a MLL reading of the UT50 because I highly doubt the ST50 is lower. It also has natural sharpness and fluid motion that's beautiful.. something the Kuro has as well but it's certainly not downgraded here. Like I said, IMO I don't believe the Kuro actually bests anything here in the real world outside of technical labs.


2D and 3D settings can be found in the settings thread here .
 
#5 ·
Nice to see this thread starting. I think this tv deserves a little more attention. I have had it for a month now and it really is a nice set. Although we know it is reflective I was very pleased to see how well the blacks actually did not get washed out with sunlight in my room. The S2 I had was terrible in daytime viewing.
 
#8 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by leftyguitar1963 /forum/post/21934945


Is the UT plenty bright? And maybe even more so, since no AR filter, than its neo cousins, the st, gt & vt?

Yes it's at least as bright as the the ST cousin. In fact, it has more clarity due to the lack of filter. It more or less resembles a locally dimmed LCD than a plasma. It's very clear.
 
#9 ·
My UT50 continues to amaze me. Really love this tv. I've been going with the following as far as settings:


Custom

Contrast 81

Brightness 58

Color 50

Tint 0

Sharpness 20 (Don't ask, it just looks better than 0)


I tweak these settings a bit when watching blu-rays or gaming.


I switch it to Vibrant and adjust down when watching 3D content on DirecTV.
 
#10 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Haroof /forum/post/21935980


My UT50 continues to amaze me. Really love this tv. I've been going with the following as far as settings:


Custom

Contrast 81

Brightness 58

Color 50

Tint 0

Sharpness 20 (Don't ask, it just looks better than 0)


I tweak these settings a bit when watching blu-rays or gaming.


I switch it to Vibrant and adjust down when watching 3D content on DirecTV.

I also switch to vibrant for 3D content due to the shade of the glasses. The 3D on this set is very nice and clear no signs of ghosting or crosstalk.
 
#11 ·
Guys I'm gonna join you soon. I'm ordering both a 42UT50 and 55UT50 for the bedroom and living room. The Kuro is doing full-time duty in the man cave. I'm serious now I've been to 3 different BBs with all the same results. The ST50 lacks the punch of the UT50. It's due to the aggressive louver filter. It works and for those that care about daylight viewing will love it...but unfortunately the UT50 next to it outshined it. It was sharper, clearer, more vibrant, had an even better viewing angle (from up top), colors more saturated, and an incredible crispness factor to it. It reminds me of a quality local dimming LCD (except with benefits of plasma).


There's no way this has worse blacks than the ST50. It wouldn't make sense for Panasonic to gimp the blacks on a tv with a pricetag that competes with last year's ST30. It uses the same fast phosphors so expect 16ms of lag, same panel (minus AR filter), and I bet it's identical minus pro settings and other bells n' whistles. I'm tellin' you it had a BETTER picture. I got the remote and plugged D-Nice's settings for the ST50 on there and went from there. I had it close to where it needed to be. Still had more pop than anything in the store minus a few LCDs. Literally on the wall with a sea of displays the UT50 was the winner. You could have sworn after dialing in settings that it was as good as any local dimming LCD ever was such as the B8500. This tv is magic for it's price. Coming from a Kuro owner/enthusiast...this is a very impressive tv.


Will be getting them in within a week and I'll use my Disney Wow disk on them and let you know what I come up with. The Disney disk is nearly spot on with D-Nice's Kuro settings so I'm hoping to nail it and will post the results.
 
#12 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by PathofNeo /forum/post/21936083


Guys I'm gonna join you soon. I'm ordering both a 42UT50 and 55UT50 for the bedroom and living room. The Kuro is doing full-time duty in the man cave. I'm serious now I've been to 3 different BBs with all the same results. The ST50 lacks the punch of the UT50. It's due to the aggressive louver filter. It works and for those that care about daylight viewing will love it...but unfortunately the UT50 next to it outshined it. It was sharper, clearer, more vibrant, had an even better viewing angle (from up top), colors more saturated, and an incredible crispness factor to it. It reminds me of a quality local dimming LCD (except with benefits of plasma).


There's no way this has worse blacks than the ST50. It wouldn't make sense for Panasonic to gimp the blacks on a tv with a pricetag that competes with last year's ST30. It uses the same fast phosphors so expect 16ms of lag, same panel (minus AR filter), and I bet it's identical minus pro settings and other bells n' whistles. I'm tellin' you it had a BETTER picture. I got the remote and plugged D-Nice's settings for the ST50 on there and went from there. I had it close to where it needed to be. Still had more pop than anything in the store minus a few LCDs. Literally on the wall with a sea of displays the UT50 was the winner. You could have sworn after dialing in settings that it was as good as any local dimming LCD ever was such as the B8500. This tv is magic for it's price. Coming from a Kuro owner/enthusiast...this is a very impressive tv.


Will be getting them in within a week and I'll use my Disney Wow disk on them and let you know what I come up with. The Disney disk is nearly spot on with D-Nice's Kuro settings so I'm hoping to nail it and will post the results.

Where are you getting the 42inch from? They seem to be sold out everywhere. I am looking at a 50ut for the bedroom because I missed out on the 42. I should have ordered one when amazon had them with the free 220 bluray player.
 
#13 ·
It's looks like I'm not. Cleveland Plasma had the 42UT50 in stock last night but now their gone.


Keep us posted guys if you find anything!
 
#14 ·
Just picked up my 50" UT50 yesterday and am blown away by the picture. Incredible blacks, excellent motion and true colors. I was worried about heat, but this gives off very little. I have to admit I was timid to get plasma because I was focused on LED, but after experiencing this set I wonder why it doesn't get more attention.


The one part I am struggling with is getting the audio return channel to work. Most of our connections are through a receiver with one hdmi out to the tv (on hdmi 2). Those devices work perfectly.


My challenge is a wii connected to component. I can't get sound out to the receiver. I haven't tried many settings but am curious if anyone else has this setup and got it to work. I bet I'm missing something simple. I have the same struggle with Internet tools (eg Amazon Prime won't send sound to the receiver).


I have the tv speakers off because we use the receiver.


Any thoughts?


I'll also be curious to hear about settings. The only adjustment I made was changing to Cinema mode and like I said above, the picture blows me away. Definitely a convert.


Thanks for any thoughts on the above.
 
#15 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by weid5 /forum/post/0


Just picked my 50" UT50 up yesterday and am blown away by the picture. Incredible blacks, excellent motion and true colors. I was worried about heat, but this gives off very little. I have to admit I was timid to get plasma because I was focused on LED, but after experiencing this set I wonder why it doesn't get more attention.


The one part I am struggling with is getting the audio return channel to work. Most of our connections are through a receiver with one hdmi out to the tv (on hdmi 2). Those devices work perfectly.


My challenge is a wii connected to component. I can't get sound out to the receiver. I haven't tried many settings but am curious if anyone else has this setup and got it to work. I bet I'm missing something simple. I have the same struggle with Internet tools (eg Amazon Prime won't send sound to the receiver).


I have the tv speakers off because we use the receiver.


Any thoughts?


I'll also be curious to hear about settings. The only adjustment I made was changing to Cinema mode and like I said above, the picture blows me away. Definitely a convert.


Thanks for any thoughts on the above.

Take the red and white out of the tv and put them right to the receiver for the wii? and use digital optical from tv to receiver worse case.
 
#17 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mantiz /forum/post/21936834


Paul's TV has the 42 in stock and free shipping. I bought a few tv's from them with no problems. They bring it in the house and set it up and turn it on to make sure it works before they leave.
http://www.paulstv.com/Plasma-Televi...-TCP42UT50.asp

Thanks! Now I have to decide if I want to go with the 50 or 42. Since the 42 disappeared I started looking at the 50 for the bedroom.
 
#19 ·
I'm debating whether or not running the slides for 100 hours as found in D-Nice's settings thread. I see he has settings for ST50 but not UT50...yet? Either way is it recommended to run them regardless? I figured it couldn't do any harm and when/if he gets around to it then we can just plug the settings in. His settings are spot on for my Kuro so I hope he will consider this one. I'm sure it'd make A LOT of folks happy. Perhaps others can speak up.


What do you think?
 
#20 ·
Ah, glad to see a thread for the UT.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PathofNeo /forum/post/21939607


I'm debating whether or not running the slides for 100 hours as found in D-Nice's settings thread. I see he has settings for ST50 but not UT50...yet? Either way is it recommended to run them regardless? I figured it couldn't do any harm and when/if he gets around to it then we can just plug the settings in. His settings are spot on for my Kuro so I hope he will consider this one. I'm sure it'd make A LOT of folks happy. Perhaps others can speak up.


What do you think?

I think he stated he has no plans to work on the UT50. You can run the slides, but it probably won't be necessary without his settings.
 
#22 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by PathofNeo /forum/post/21939741


So are you saying there's no other benefit running the slides?

Pretty much correct. Since D-Nice's ST50 reference settings only apply to the ST50 and won't work on a UT50, there is no real need to perform his panel aging procedure (run the slides).
 
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#23 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iron Condor /forum/post/21939672


I think he stated he has no plans to work on the UT50.

He did specifically state that he will not be providing UT50 Reference Settings. But i think his ST50 Reference Settings would give UT50 owners a good idea of where to start with the Contrast and Brightness ranges though.
 
#24 ·
Finally hooked the 50UT up last night after it sat in the box for a week while I contemplated what to do. Glad I stuck with this unit. Besides the fact that it might be a tad too big for my bedroom, the picture was rather impressive out of the box. Once I turned off the "motion enhancer" or whatever you want to call it, it looked a ton better.


It seems to have quite a bit more pop than my old S20 did and I will be anxious to see what happens as I tweak the settings.


I have a 60" Elite Kuro in my living room and this isn't the same as that one but it does a great job. Makes me want to check out a 65" VT50 fully calibrated...



My S20 wasn't ISF calibrated, but I might go ahead and get this one done if I don't find any user settings that I like...
 
#25 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by COACH2369 /forum/post/21940278


It seems to have quite a bit more pop than my old S20 did and I will be anxious to see what happens as I tweak the settings.

What is an S20?
 
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