Panasonic 11G/12G/13G black levels have seemingly doubled overnight? - Page 354

point of order:

please don't 'shoot the messenger' with regard to this issue.

please do not attack a member for not giving out information: let's move on

Thanks

Bottom line - If I decrease the lifespan of my v-10 by 5 years it will be worth it if I can get my black levels back for a year or two.

That isn't a Panasonic shootout, it is a shootout of TVs from all major manufacturers. In that video they are just currently discussing the 58VT25 located ABOVE the TV you circled with the LG Logo. The TV you circled happens to be a... GASP LG LED.

Very unlikely. With my LG Plasma I can set the voltages up and down as I want, and there are no colorshfts or other PQ-relevated changes at all (the MLL changes of course).

The chance to brick the TV is greater, if no whistleblower, may he be named D-Nice or whatwever, spoils this solution!

Cause I can go to my brother's house tomorrow and try some hexsettings in the EEPROM-editor of his S10 to reset the A-Board, so there may be a chance, that I'll brick it while trying.

Otherwise, If I knew the adress in the EEPROM to do this reset, chances I would brick it, are ZERO.

I found the right entries to set the gamma menu of the german S10 active, so I don't see any reason, why there should be no chance to figure this A-board reset out.

It's already been done to my v-10 before. I was an idiot and never asked how to do it by the guy I know who worked as a tech. He disappeared and I have no access to anyone "in the know" anymore.

It's a standard procedure when given proper instructions would not wind up bricking any tv's, I'm sure. If someone has access to a tech, any tech, without saying "why" - ask them how it's done, and the problem is solved.

congrats. don't spend all of your winnings in one place. lol

Well thanks a LOT, man!


I would love to make this tradeoff myself as well.

I'm sitting at a friends house watching his Samsung 52" B series CFL backlit LCD (at factory settings) and it runs circles around my G10. I guess my black levels have gotten that bad. I'm at a loss what to do. My TV technically is functioning properly but just looks horrible in comparison, do I try to get a tech to come out or just write this TV off as a complete loss? I've been able to get the wife to sign off on moving it to the bedroom but it seems like such a waste to replace a TV that's only about 18 months old. I can say that this will be my last Panasonic. This whole black level debacle has cost them another customer for life. I tried to tell myself that my G10 was still a good display even with its problems but today has completely changed my mind, my TV is a POS.

Rant over....

Are the lights on? Many basic lcds look like they have deep blacks with the lights on (esp at default settings with contrast jacked up) but won't retain that with lights low wacthing a movie.

It's more the depth and reality of the picture, my TV just looks so flat now. When we first got it, it had a "looking out a window" quality. Now it looks on par with the $200 little LCD in my guest room and about the same as my 7 year old EDTV plasma. On top of that' the image retention is at a whole new level of bad. My old EDTV has zero problems with IR and shows no burn in after all this time. I did baby at first but really have not in the last few years. I just bought the cheapo Insigna/Samsung 720P plasma for my Mother for X-mas and it also looks much better than my G10. Maybe it's just time to quit complaining and use it as an excuse to upgrade to 3D. I guess I just keep hoping someone will come up with a fix/reset to make my TV perform the way it did when I purchased it.

Before you totally give up on this tv download this calibration disc for free and do yourself a basic set-up. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496 You can do Contrast, Brightness, sharpness, color and tint. Actually you need color filters for the color and tint. If you want a calibration disc with color filters there are a couple of options. For about $25 you can use DVE or Spears&Munsil. Just by setting contrast and brightness correctly you should see a nice difference. What picture mode are you using? Have you tried D-nice settings? Have you turned off all unnecessary enhancements? You should either be in CUSTOM or THX mode. All others aren't very accurate.
I own a V10 and I feel your pain with the rising black level. There will be no fix from Panasonic unfortunately.

If were talking about the B8500 Samsung LCD isnt that one of the best TV's on the market? I've read reviews that has it holding its own next to a Kuro so that might be why you expect more out of your set? Ask what model his TV is.

Yeah man. Make sure your settings are as best as you can get them. Use bias lighting, the g10 is still a good tv. It still maintains 1080 lines of resolution that LCD does not do, probably. Unless its 240hz. Oh, and off angle that LCD sucks most likely too. Something your tv doesn't have to worry about.

Hehe quite much agree with you, i already spend many days trying to fix the blacks of my pz85, even managed to kill the tv once, by adjusting a pot without a insulated screw driver (lol pot looked like plastic, but had metal inside).
At least in that matter panasonic support was ok, since they send me a replacement component i thought i killed, which was normally only available in Japan. I paid them 20 euro for 2 of those and got my tv back running as before.

Then i started hacking the firmware, with no real avail either. I still have some ways to get further in, by writing bash scripts which i can load, but i kinda gave up wasting time on it. (especially after the near death of it).

So at the moment ill just keep it, till there are decent 3d tvs, and upgrade then.
So yea, no pannie for me again, especially since my tv still has a 'flickering color' bug, which pannie fixed for USA models, but not for the european model.. asked them 2x by mail to send me the latest firmware but they didnt.

I guess people just expect more if they pay 1500+ euro on a tv. Otherwise i can just buy ****** ones every 2 years, and end up with better image quality and reserve tvs.

I have all the calibration discs, been there, done that. Was a custom installer/HT salesman in a past life. Like everyone else, I'm just disappointed that my Ferrari is really a Yugo after a few years of use. Day one, this TV was stunning, now it's mediocre. I guess I just wanted to share my disappointment with an empathetic crowd. I had learned to live with it until my wife asked me yesterday why our TV didn't look nearly as good as our friends and she normally could not care less. Basically, if she noticed then there is a glaring difference. After some research, anything I would replace it with is close to 2k so it's going to stay but I don't think I will ever be able to accept its flaws and really ever have faith in Panasonic again. Sorry for adding to this never dying thread.

Mh. Should I calculate the On/Off MLL or the ANSI MLL in my gamma formula?

Amen to that. Like a lot a people on this site I get asked to recommend several TVs a year. Panasonic is not on that list anymore. In my opinion, you can't trust their manufacturing and design and you can't rely on their customer support to fix problems.

lol okay whatever you say b/c Panasonic is the only company that has problems not Samsung and their panel lottery right? Please son theres a reason why Panasonic is king.

And your qualifications are ?

I think he had a 54V10 so... But the same thing can be said about Samsung from what I gather. For instance, the thought of getting an internally cracked screen then no warranty for that would be a recommending disaster.

I was sold on the ST30 but ended up with a Samsung C630 46" instead. I am very impressed with it's blacks and it was much cheaper on sale. I sit in a totally black room and even then the amount of show through is amazing.

I would have loved the ST30 but got scared off.

I got the best settings for my AA06 panel at a UK site. They look fantastic and it measured the blacks at .01fl with the backlight set at 4.

So in reality I am guessing the ST30 wouldn't be much different or may even get worse if the black level problem does still exist?

Does anyone know exactly why the black levels change? Is it something that is inherent to PDP or is it a design problem?

Its inherent with Panasonic plasmas.

I've had my 50G10 for over a year now and am still happy with it, of course I did install bias lighting as a preemptive strike. Hopefully that will hide the rising black level enough that I don't feel the need to buy another $1500 TV...that will really piss me off.

I'm with you there didnt stop me from buying a Panny

Only Samsung have confirmed "officially" at CES their black levels are stable,
so there you ve the answer

Since the black level issue is related to the initialization voltage, could you use a Variac (http://www.variac.com/) to lower the voltage going to the TV? I'm no engineer, so someone else with the proper technical background might be able to determine if this would lower the MLL, and if there would be any negative side effects such as lower overall brightness, possible pixel misfiring, etc.