Panasonic PZ80/PZ85 Owners Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 409

I notice no real difference between it and the ideal lume light ($65), only that the ideal lume is much smaller and has a nice shield.

Thinking about getting the 46" version
has anyone been able to compare the PQ on this to a PZ850U? I know the price difference is not a whole lot now but just curious

also if someone would be kind enough to save me from having to read through 400 some pages, are there any serious common manufacture defects in this line?


Thanks!

I've had the 46" for 14 months and all I can say is the tv is just about perfect. The picture is awesome and is every bit as good or better than when new. There are no known manufacturer issues or defects. This is my opinion but I believe it's an easy choice that I'd make again.

Really have not been any defects with this model. I would not sweat 85u vs 800/850, black levels are the same on all. THX mode adds a little more accurate color on the 800u.

I have to say that after using the i1d2 to get my grayscale as accurate as possible (the third time using it being a charm), the PQ is vastly improved not just in the blacks, whites, and grays but also skin tones. Red push is no longer significant nor noticeable most of the time. I'm very happy with the results and the only thing I might do now is see if the i1d2 can do a better job setting color and tint than my blue filter .

Ah come on now! Calibrations are BS and not worth the time or money

Funny ha ha, right? Some of us actually subscribe to this theory. Don't get upset about it but I'd sooner put that money into new windows for the house or perhaps one of those front loading washers. Do I really need to improve on perfection? Do I need better skin tones when I am already looking at the most realistic skin tones I've ever seen? Before this tv I had a Panasonic Tau 32 hdtv which had one of those "looking glass" pictures that I thought I would never improve on. All things considered, the plasma is twice as good.

I dont disagree that these are great outta the box, but they can be improved upon for sure.

I watch a LOT of HD sports, HD locals OTA and Blu-ray movies (substitute for the theater) so it was a worthwhile investment.

I have about $5000 in my tv and 3.1 system and love it.

That's cool. I can understand that. I've got about 6k in my system (5.1). I think if I can ever get one (a calibration) for a reasonable sum (somewhere between 200 and 300) I would strongly consider it just to see if it made a difference for me.

I would contact Chad Billheimer on AVS. His price is about $350 and he does good work.

I dont knock anyone for not trying it, I just get irritated when people post that its a waste when they have never tried it.

thanks ElwayLite & StuJac for your comments

How Can YOU Say That??????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I should mention that the picture and brightness settings have a substantial effect on grayscale rgb tracking, enough that making any changes to picture or brightness (especially picture) require different red and blue cuts and drives to compensate.

Since brightness doesn't change much when adjusted with black clipping pattern (stays in the low to high 50s typically), it doesn't greatly alter the cuts or drives when it is changed.

Picture, on the other hand can vary substantially based on what light output you want and can alter the grayscale enough to require a whole new set of red and blue cuts and drives.

Using before and after pictures, I was able to see much more shadow detail (brightness was set with DVE BR before the calibration).

Visually, flesh tones looked a lot better.

What's your take on color calibration for this set? Does a blue filter do the job or can a colorimeter produce better results considering the minimalist color and tint controls on this set?

Greg used this unit:

http://www.photoresearch.com/current/pr670.asp (+$10k)



to set gains and cuts in the SM. He only tweaked color and tint with the filter. What he was looking at was blue tracking and wanted it on top.

I find it interesting that the grayscale graphs start at 20 IRE. Would it be correct to assume measurements below that are not reliable/significant?


Was just a blue filter used or also red and green ones like those that come with DVE BR?

He used all 3; DVE Blu-ray

I was thinking that under 20% was not used for some reason, but I cannot remember

TH-50PZ85U [HDMI-1 in] purchased 11/15
Yamaha RX-V665 (HDMI)
Panasonic BD35 (HDMI)
DTV HR22-100 (HDMI)

About a week ago it powered up for only about 2 sec and got the 11 blinks Fan SOS error. Error appeared with or without HDMI connectd. Called Panasonic (twice now). Now, after several factory resets and overnight unplug, the problem doesn't reappear. I'm trying every combination trying to recreate the problem. Leaving set on for extended periods, short periods, etc. I keep checking the fans (4); all are running. Temp of tv seems normal, just slightly warm.
I've read about some people having problems similar with HTPC's conncected to HDMI 1; their success is with HDMI-3 in. I don't have a computer connected.

So far, it's been 6 days with no problems again.

So . . . opinions? Could this be a one time problem? Panasonic says we need to get the 11 blinks back for a tech visit.

This will motivate me to buy an extended warranty. I've read here about Mack warranties, but do they do "in home" service; it doesn't say that on their site. The other I've considered is DTVExpress. Opinions?

dhoover:

Mack does offer "in home service", read up on CPS or Mack here.

had mine since february and everyone that comes over says best picture they ever seen, and to think, i almost bought an lcd ahahaha

why not ride it out, if it doest come back then who cares, as long as all your fans are working then its no big deal

Thanks. I'll check it out.

That's pretty much what I thought I'd do, just babysit it for a while. It's been just fine since my last post. Thanks

Well, my living room looks like this again

Well, Gregg just finished and found that the shop had apparently skewed my calibration when my tv was repaired. He also told me that he is seeing a 10% change in red ("yellow reds" on these tv's over the course of a year, so tuneups are recommended.

Gamma was 2.2
foot lambert reading was 34 (plenty damn bright)

When I got my tv back from the shop, I reset cinema and changed color to what Gregg had left which should have put it back to his calibrated settings, but I noticed I was clipping whites on the DVE blu-ray. This was corrected by my turning the contrast down from 100-65, but it concerned me.

Gregg used a signal generator from his laptop to HDMI 1 to first calibrate the tv and determine the whites were not clipping at a pic of 100. Once he put the DVE blu-ray in to see how his signal generator settings made the DVE blu-ray look, he found the whites clipped. Come to find out, it was my BD35. He put it in "user" mode and made the contrast a -2. He said he sees this issue on panny's, sonys and pioneers, so I'd suggest anyone with a BR player and the DVE disc throw it in and check the slide with the bars that go from black to white. If the brightest two white bars blend as one, crank the contrast setting down on the BR player. This made the visit even more worth it because we found a problem I did not even know I had.

Gregg also showed me how to setup my Denon rcvr and 3.1 system the right way, so I learned a lot there too.

His new photo research 670 ($25,000) is pretty sweet; talks to his laptop via bluetooth. He also had the new calman software (did not have it last time) and showed me how easy it made things.

Thanks again Gregg for another quality visit!

I'll post my before and after when I get it in a few days.

FYI, Gregg set the laptop to display all slides 0-100% and let the PR 670 take shots. He then made adjustments, and then had it run thru all again to see the final.

I ended up with a setting of +36 for color and -3 for tint (with SM defaults of 3D for color and 03 for tint). This resulted in the most balanced deltaE's for the primaries and secondaries. I actually observed the highest deltaE of the primaries and made it as small as possible while setting color and then did the same for the secondaries with the tint adjustment. I'm still getting used to the lesser color saturation since before I had a setting of +44 with the blue filter but Blu-ray's look great. I saw Stealth the other day and the PQ was phenomenal despite the lesser black levels in dark scenes (referring to the source material, not my display).

Yeah, he told me that any difference less than a 2.0 in delta was unable to be see by the eye. When he started, I was between less than one and almost 7 depending on the slide, which led him to believe that the shop did something to the calibrations.

When he was finished, all were under 1.5, and most were under 1.

Im in Cinema, 100 pic, 55 bright, 41 color, 0 tint, 15 sharp and warm.

Hold on, are you saying your deltaE's for your primaries and secondaries are between 1 and 1.5? I got deltaE's ranging from 4.3 to 20.9. I used the HD 709 colorspace and 100% color windows. I did leave x.v.color on auto, but I don't think that feature would have any impact on my AVSHD709 Disc, which plays like a Blu-ray.