Panasonic PZ80/PZ85 Owners Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 172

Same here. Not so much to impress others but I did expect a picture that would impress me. Out of the box I was definitely concerned. I tried the picture settings in the calibration thread but the picture was to dark and not sharp enough for my taste. The lettering on preview scenes was soft compared to my DLP so I took a different route in my picture settings. As others noted my picture had a red push so I went into the service menu and backed down my red drive (R-DRV) it was at FC or so and max color is FF! As a matter of fact all the drives were close to maximum. I backed down the red from FC to AA, exited the menu and WOW that was the picture I was looking for! A brilliant display with a ton of detail in the picture. I watch my TV on vivid most of the time.

The only issue with the TV (not my settings) is I have noticed reflection in a brigh room within a dark scene. You will notice reflection but it's also up to you to let it bother you.

I occasionaly run the break in SDcard but mostly watch my normal programming with no IR. This is an outstanding TV once you customize the settings.

I played some GTA4 last night for about 2 hours again no hint of IR.

Little off topic.. I saw the Panasonic 103" Plasma today and OMG! Its HUGE!!!

hello everyone... im quite torn here...

I own a pioneer pdp-4271 and im thinking of upgrading...

Ive done numerous research, clicking here and there etc etc..


So im asking you guys...
which would you prefer. The samsung DLP LED (HL61A750) or panasonic (TH-50PZ80U)..

Both are about the same price. Im sitting about 9-10 feet away... I understand about viewing distance in conjuntion to screen sizes.. but the panasonic is very tempting...


so I ask help please.. which would you guys recommend?

As far as I can tell, we've got some professionals with meters saying that cinema is the only one that is "accurate" on these TVs (without any regard for total image brightness, that I've seen). Perhaps this "most accurate" claim is true, though I have also seen no effort on the part of any professional calibrator to do anything with Custom. My eyes say Custom kicks Cinema in the balls

You say that you are surprised hearing people say they like it, yet, haven't tried it yourself. Nothing wrong with "professional advice", but your eyes don't lie. Try it for yourself, and you will see. No need to "imagine" it, just a few remote clicks and you will know. It has all the color range (which results in smooth/soft-looking images) as *cinema, yet, you don't have to turn out all the lights, shut the curtains, and put duct tape on any LEDs to have any hope of enjoying the TV. What adds to the silliness of all of this (what seems like) "cinema pro calibrator fanboy-ism", is that I am photosensitive. I always reduce brightness on monitors because of it. And even I say cinema is way to dim to be enjoyable at max brightness. I suppose the pro calibrators can argue with my eye doc lol.

My current custom settings are: Pic 85, Bright 73, Color 40, Sharp 25, color warm. It needs some work yet, and of course every panel is somewhat different. I like a little more color that what is fully "accurate" based on the calibration images I used, so you might want to adjust down as appropriate. I've tested all the modes at length, and Custom seems to be the best for all-around use. I don't have a blu ray player, so perhaps that would change my opinion somewhat, but still I say Custom is definitely worth a look. Give it a try and see if you like it. It will only cost you a few remote clicks. Cheers!

well then it sounds like you probably cant buy just about anythig, LCD's in particular.

at least with this set you only have one issue to worry about, and it "i think" at least that it can be avoided if you get a good set. I dont find that luck to be nearly as good with any LCD model out there, whether it be the random clouding and mura pattersn you get, flashlighting or any other host of odd issues they seem to be getting.

Or you could just look into Pioneer and simply put up with the possibiltiy of getting a Buzzing set

That's great if you like it, it has nothing to do with being an expert or not, using custom screws up the gamma and makes the picture noisy.It's a fact not a preference, it gives a worse picture. If you (or others) don't notice it more power to you(wanna change eyes? lol), I just can't use it.. I actually thought custom looked good too until some people here pointed out the problem earlier on. The comment about the calibrators not trying to do anything is because the TV is made that way, it's not changeable in the service menu, one mode has one gamma setting one has the other. No matter how much you mess around with your user settings you'll never make custom as "good" as cinema. A calibrated TV isn't supposed to necessarily impress or family as anyone in the calibration forum will tell you.

I've had my 50PZ80U for about 2 months and I've seen the flicker exactly once.

I purchased a TH-50PZ800U a few days ago and after reading through some of this thread realized I do not know what I am doing! I would be very grateful if someone could respond to a few questions. I have a Xbox 360 and a digital cable box , both playing through HDMI.

1.) 48P, 60P, 72P, I have seen this mentioned several times and have no idea how to change it or if I should? I think it is "greyed out" in my menu?

2.) It seems most people prefer THX mode, would this be a good mode for games, DVD, and HD television also, how should the other settings be, everything "OFF"?

3.) What about HD1 and HD2 it seems to adjust the size? Where should mine be set?

Any other advice you could give me to help get the most out of this great television? Thank you.

thanks. i just bought the 42z85u. Now I just have to stop myself from looking for the flicker. lol

I would start with the break-in period advice. Run everything full screen and keep settings below 50 on brightness/contrast/etc.. until it has at least 100 hours use on it [though research shows 200-500 seem to yield better benefits] as to IR [Image Retention] prevention (meaning temporary screen burn-in of typically from static (on-screen for long periods of time images).

Dont let DVD/Blu-Ray menu's stay on screen very long during the first 100 hours use and avoid viewing movies in widescreen ratio's were you can see black bars at top/bottom and/or left/right (also set the 4:3 mode to medium grey and set pixel orbitor to force 1).

Once your passed the 100 hour (150-200 hour in my opinion), Burn-in and IR shouldn't cause a problem (unless you totally abuse it -- ie. DVD menu on all day/night with static colors the whole time).

You'll get plenty more advice, but the break-in prevention to maximize you investment in my opinion is #1 on the list of priorities for new ownership on plazma's.

You might get more answers specific to your model HDTV in this other thread thats for the PZ800 models. The PZ80/PZ85 models (discussed in this thread) don't have the THX mode, 48p display mode, etc. thats specific to the PZ800's. So the PZ800 owners in the other thread may be more helpful for you in this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1007175

Just wanted to post that after way too much research and reading, I decided on the 50pz80.

I thought I wanted an LCD but the price on this was too good to pass up. Thanks to everybody here who helped with my fear of burn-in. I had a hard time deciding between the pz80 and Samsung A550 plasma, which was about $100 more. While the A550 has an excellent picture and great features, what it came down to for me was Panasonic's Energy Star rating, better sound, better anti-glare, and cooler operating temperature (A550 and 650 ran very hot at the stores). Cooler electronics tend to last longer. That and Panasonic's reputation. Every salesman at every store I went to, including those who were also technicians, recommended Panasonic over Samsung. Although I did like the Samsung's PQ a bit better, particularly the reds, I figured it was close enough that I wouldn't notice it at home and long-term reliability is more important to me. While I realize that reputation doesn't guarantee anything, at the very least it makes me feel a little more confident.

So far, I really like it EXCEPT the very annoying red push. Everybody looks like they are sunburned, although with about 40 hours on it it does seem to be getting better. I can't believe Panasonic won't let me adjust that in the standard menu, but thanks to everybody on this forum (and of course a lot more research) I think I will be able to accomplish a better setting using the service menu. Good thing I'm a geek I guess. I also miss the night/day button on my old tv which allowed easy changes from bright to dark room settings.

One other nit pick is the gloss black finish. All sorts of glare coming off that thing from my recessed lights. Of course most TVs this year have the same gloss finish. Stupid, just plain stupid design touch.

Overall, I'm pretty happy so far. Big upgrade from my Hitachi 46" RP CRT tank, and the room looks much better. Hopefully once I have it broken in I can adjust the red down a bit and be good to go for 100,000 hours of reliable service.

Thanks again to this forum and everybody who contributes to it,

Phil

welll just by reading about 10 posts in here... i think i feel more at home in the PN50A550 forum...

sounds like problem city over here

unhappy customers

havent read much good, mostly negative, no offense

there seems to be lots of good chat over in the pn50a450 and pn50a550 forum so those of u looking for an alternative should consider those sets as well

Nice try, but you need to work on your trolling a bit more.

I have been trying different settings all weekend and right now am running in Cinema mode. It seemed a bit dark at first but with a few tweaks I quite like it. Very natural picture. I love this set.

I was able to find that the guys from the store who hooked up the set were thrown off (understandably) by the old DVD cable I was using on my home theater in a box and connected it wrong. I went out and got a component video cable and all is well. However, I have a couple of questions.

The video inputs on the back of the set are color-coded but do not correspond to the red/blue/green of my cable, although the component inputs do. I hooked it to them and all is well, except that when I run in 4:3 mode when viewing DVDs, I get black bars on the sides, not the gray I have at other times. Any thoughts on how to fix that? I watch a lot of DVDs and am afraid of IR. And any idea why the colors on the video inputs are different?

Yes, the a550 is a good choice, but it is not without flaws. As I listed before, the pz80 has a number of advantages, it really depends on what your priorities are.

You're not reading enough of the thread; this is a great tv (I have the 85PZU) which is a great tv-not much difference with the PX80. Remember, we don't jump in every time we feel we're getting a great picture; only the very, very few who have problems come here to whine.

Read more posts!

Don't feed the trolls guys

Not sure if this has been expounded upon or not, but I've searched and have thus far not been able to find anything about it. I have the Panny PZ80U (Love it!) and this is one of two (albeit small) issues I have with it:

On very dark screens (Really only on complete black, but on the darker screens it is visible too) there are faint purple scrolling bars that go up the screen. They vary in width from maybe a half an inch to 3 or 4 inches, they seem to be a very grainey purple, and there are usually 4 to 7 of them on screen at a time. They dont appear on HD channels or on my HD-DVD player (I just spilled coffee on my shirt at work. I must have a drinking problem, or that it's Monday) Anyway, I figured it was just the source (Comcast) but I shut off my cable box and they still appear. On stretched SD singals (still burning in) they are pretty apparent to the finicky eye (mine). Is this what is referred to as "Purple banding"? I've searched for that and havent been able to find out really what it is, just people saying they have it. Apparently it was a big issue on the 600 series Panny's. Anyone else have this problem? Anyone having trouble figuring out what I'm trying to say? I'm wondering if this is just something that will go away after the burn-in, if it's a problem with my TV, if it's a problem across the board, or if it's something that will go away if I get the calibration (Price is an issue, still on the fence about that one). Somebody help me?

I think the lines are too faint to appear on a camera if I took a picture, plus I've no camera .

Thanks!

BTW: Did I say that I love this telly?

all that i was trying to get acrossed is that when i came to this thread... i noticed that people were saying negative things in the comments i read... in the samsung thread people help each other more ... i mean u always get the person who is like "omg i think i have IR, what should i do?"

i just ignore them haha

but over here is like every other post, no offense the panasonic is a great tv in fact i sell tvs and i am at work right now...

the 50pz80u is about 20 feet from me and it will be on 12 hours today

there are plenty of others near me as well.. but the only plasmas in my store r the 50pz80u 42px80u

so it kinda sucks for me

we have the lcds though most of em... pretty much all the samsungs... half the sonys...

anyways PEOPLE say good things once in a while rather then like all negative
i personally dont like the panasonic as much as the samsung because of the noise reduction... the menu sucks... colors arent as good

the panasonic does have deepers blacks though, ill give u that one

rofl now im a troll

id really c

I have not noticed this, but I'll look closely tonight. What size is your PZ80? What are your picture settings?

42". I'm glad I'm not the only one with this issue, gives me some hope. I'm not sure of my settings ATM, but I think it always appears regardless of what mode I have it set on, and when it's on custom (which is the usual mode) most all the settings are >50.

Thanks for the useless information.
Come back when you learn how to type better.

Artslinger,

You are a chauch.

Sincerely,
The Bruiser

HA! Chauch.

Collars be popped EVERYWHERE!

however u SPELL IT

anyways its underlined as misspelled as chauch also

Well, my 50PZ80U just up and died a few minutes ago.

I had been watching for about 45 min, when the TV suddenly shut off without warning. The front LED was flashing, and the TV wouldn't respond to any controls. Unplugging it for about 15 secs stopped the flashing and allowed me to turn it back on.

Turned on just fine, except there is a 2.5" wide black stripe running vertically left of center the entire screen.

Fascinating. Will be calling for warranty service tomorrow. FYI the set is a little over a month old, worked flawlessly until now.

Sorry to hear that Good luck with your repairs, keep us posted

I'm curious how many reporting issues with their 80U/85U, bought them on-line versus how many purchased theirs via a retail store such as BB, CC and/or specialty HT shop.

I suspect there their is a 80% online vs 20% retail sales, where the 80% online buyers are the ones having issues.

Researching prices, they fluctuate hourly by very large margins. I also suspect there are dealers out there selling not-so-new (refurb's maybe or returned item TVs) and being liquidated into the on-line sales channels, where the TVs sold on-line aren't exactly "NEW" straight from the factory, as you would expect from a retail brick build store chain like BB/CC/etc...

I purchased mine online when they were first released through big river and haven't had any problems I would relate to defects. There are some things this set could do better which have been discussed, but HD material looks excellent, and I have enjoyed this set so far (have close to 1000 hours now).

On the flicker problem (and I haven't posted this in the flicker thread yet), I finally saw it on a scene of "So I Married an Axe Murderer" where someones face was flickering in a dark scene (this was the HD version recorded off satellite and wasn't the best quality). I had been playing with the Brightness, and had it on 50, when I normally keep it on 52-53. I kept rewinding the scene and bumping the brightness up, and when I hit 52 and above, the flicker went away. Below that, it would appear again. I'm thinking this may be related to the "unstable gamma" at the low end of the scale that some of the calibrators have mentioned. Maybe one will chime in and see if they've seen the same thing or think it's related.