Panasonic TC-P42U1 / TC-P46U1 / TC-P50U1 Owners Thread - Page 2

Hi there

Surge protectors are intended to protect equipment when the electrical power fluctuates.
Some surge protectors are built into power strips.
Not all power strips have surge protection or noise filters built-in.
A basic power strip is simply a fancy extension cord.

Regards

Thanks blue_z, but microbob suggested I plug directly into the wall. Do you think this is a good idea?

Quick Update. Got a 50u1 as a Christmas gift a few days ago. Was nervous after reading some not so good reviews about how they had no AR coating, and that it really was not a good t.v. overall. I have to say that this t.v. is growing on me, and the picture amazes me more each time. It seems that the colors get better each time I watch it.

Indeed, I strongly agree

Those "dirty" colors you're seeing are just the result of dithering, which is exceedingly common in plasma displays. As mentioned in another post, you can usually largely diminish visible dithering by decreasing your brightness settings (and perhaps contrast), but there will always be a little bit there. The good news is that you generally can't see it from more than a couple of feet away, so unless you make a habit of watching TV two feet from the set, you shouldn't see it.

I just bought this set from Walmart last night (a steal at $698), and noticed it right away. After a bunch of research on PDPs and dithering, I'm trying to just accept it. After all, the only time you really see it is when you get up and walk past the set or need to put a new game/movie in. Dithering is largely the nature of the plasma beast, but I agree that it can be difficult to accept it as long as you can see it up close. I just have to keep reminding myself that normal viewing negates the dithering annoyance.

So, in a word, yes, you're being too picky. But I can only say that because I am too! And, by the way, LCDs don't have this particular dithering effect, but they have their own weaknesses when it comes to color/gradation processing, so there's always going to be a trade-off.

I wanted to put a separate post about this, rather than add to my last reply, because it's the single largest annoyance I've found about this TV, and I might just have to call Panasonic about it.

I was psyched that I'd finally be able to hook up three HDMI devices and then output the digital audio to my DD/DTS receiver (and only have to use one receiever input for multiple TV inputs).

What I found out last night, though, is that, no matter what I did, I couldn't get the TV to output to proper 5.1 surround. I tried every setting possible for audio output on my PS3 and Dish Receiver, and no matter what, it kept getting processed as Pro Logic instead of Dolby Digital, as long as I was using the optical cable from the TV output. As soon as I changed to a direct connection from the devices to the receiver (and changed the digital audio output settings on each device), though, it was true Dolby Digital (or DTS).

This is just really bumming me out, because the specs clearly state that you should be able to output a Dolby Digital stream to a receiver from the TV. Any chance anyone else has a similar setup and noticed this? I have an older Panasonic receiver, but it's never had a single issue with resolving DD or DTS streams, so I can't imagine it's the receiver's fault. Just very odd. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

Another question about the green push---I've noticed this myself and it's the only other thing that's really distracting me about the set. Is there really that much of a difference after break in? I was given hope that it will improve, but I'm still doubtful. No matter what, there always seems to be a slight green tinge to many of the middle-ground colors.

I keep reading how the NeoPDP sets (i.e. the G10 series) are more energy efficient, but if you look at the specs for the 46U1 vs. the 46G10 on panasonic's own pages, the "on mode average power consumption" is actually LOWER on the U1 (170 watts) vs the G10 or G15 (207 watts). What's the deal there? Seems to me that the "old" U1 display is more energy efficient, yet Panny and reviews are constantly referring to the added "green" nature of the NeoPDP panel. Just found this very odd.

Thanks, justin! That is certainly good to know. I had no idea this was the case (my last HDTV was a 36" beast of a Toshiba CRT --- one DVI input, no optical out!). I know I set up the digital out from my friend's Samsung 5 series to his Bose receiver, and I could have sworn it was decoded as proper 5.1.

Either way, I just find it odd that Panasonic specifically says in the manual that you can output the dignal to a Dolby 5.1 receiver. A bit misleading if the output only supports 2.1.

I'm still going to call support to question the manual's claims. I'll update the thread when I get Panny's official feedback.

Did Dnice do settings for the u models? Or did you use the settings from another model?

I think the majority of us are just using his "12G" settings:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1128487

Maybe it's just my imagination, but after running the break-in DVD on my set last might for several hours, I popped in the Wall-e blu-ray and just about cried at the beauty of the colors. Even if it was my imagination, I still want to keep going with the break-in process.

So you guys are using the the vivid mode to do burn in. I have been using the standard mode to run the burn in dvd.

I have, yes. I think the thought process is that you run vivid settings for break-in, just to really get those pixels pumping evenly, but then you need to make sure you scale it back to something dull, like cinema, when you're watching something (prior to the break-in period being over). Mine's in my family room, so I can't expect my wife and daughter to watch nothing but blank colors for a week, so it's a fair tradeoff.

I will change the settings then to the 12g break in settings on vivid. I have been running the break in dvd for about 15 hours total on standard so I hope it will still be good. I have watched regular High Def channels, and Blur-rays on either standard or Cinema.

The U1 model appears to be electronically essentially the same as the S1.

Check out my signature for service menu settings that should work. Also check out the xxS1 thread.

Larry

Well, we went out and bought a 42U1, nice set, but my God does it have reflection issues. I put it in my dining room and I think I can just forget about using this thing during the daytime or early evening. Debating on whether to return it or mount it downstairs in the bar area.

Other than that, it has a nice picture, as good as my Samsung 58B560 plasma but falls short against the Samsung LED B6000 I have in our bedroom, used the posted settings and tweaked a bit. I hooked it into my whole house AV system and all seems to be working ok, except for the component 1 input, allot of break up, artifacts on the picture. Switched to component 2 and all is fine now, well maybe not now, it to is breaking up. I have a 46" Sony LCD in the other room and no issues on that set playing the same source. And yes, the Panni has a better picture than the two year old Sony. I cannot say I am blown away, but it is a nice set, just wish it had AR, I thought it did until I got her home. It is like watching a mirror in dining room.

Still debating if I want to keep her...

Thanks for the tip Larry.

I just gave Ruiz's settings a try, and I definitely prefer them to the X1 offsets I had been using with this set.

It's funny you should mention the component input, because I ran into some weird little black pixels in Component 2 AND 1---but only with my Wii. I thought maybe it was the cables, but it's the same with a replacement set. Odd thing is, my 360 is fine through both inputs. I thought maybe it was the way the TV was resolving 480p images, so I set my 360 to 480p, and still no weird black pixels. It must have something to do with the Wii. I never noticed this on my Toshia 36" HD CRT, but that could have been due to size, or just something inherent to the plasma set. Either way's it's identical on both inputs, with different cables, so take that for what you will.

As for the reflection, I have it in my living room, and I'm not bothered at all. I'm sure it just has to do with light placement, but I had more of a problem with my smaller CRT than with the U1. Absolutely zero relfective coating, though, which I knew going into this set, so my expectations haven't changed in that regard.

The dithering is still the ONLY thing that's sticking in my craw on this TV. I'd really like input from everyone to know if this is truly just the nature of the beast, or if I have to call Panasonic. It's so silly, because I can only see it when I'm like two feet from the set (otherwise the eye resolves it fine), but no matter what, dark shadows always have the green dithering there, and it drives me nuts if I'm up close being to picky.

Dabogues,

When I first purchased this set I was experiencing similar problems. Though I don't know if I would call what I was seeing dithering, so maybe what you're seeing is completely different. What I was seeing was too much noise in the picture for my liking as well as a dirty green tinge in most of the content I was viewing. This was all during the first few hours after I purchased the TV. The green push was especially noticeable when closer than 4 feet or so.

I then went ahead and started the break-in process, so I really didn't watch the TV all the much during the first week or so. Once I finished the break in, I went into the Service Menu and applied some offsets that I found in the "12G Issues/Settings" thread. Once I did this I was able to notice pretty soon that the green tinge or push that I had noticed before was completely gone.

Though I was still bothered by the amount of noise that I was seeing, especially when watching cable in HD. I then moved the sharpness down to '0' and pretty much all of the noise I was seeing had cleared up. I really don't watch any SD content, so I don't know if there is any reason to have the sharpness at anything other than '0'.

I haven't tried anything through the component inputs yet, so I wouldn't know about any problems with those. Maybe I'll hook my girlfriends wii up later and see how that looks. I wouldn't want to tell you that you're being to picky, but if I was judging this tv on how it looked from a couple of feet away, I don't know if I'd be that happy with it either. Especially when viewing a cable/sat source that isn't going to be perfectly crisp to begin with.

Hopefully you can figure it out man. I'm very happy with the picture now that I've tweaked a few things .

Well, on my second day, the issues with the components seems to have resolved itself. After I posted the above, it went away and has not happened today.

As far as the colors and any dithering, colors look to be spot on and no dithering or green tinge. Watching a little football on her right now having my morning Heinie, all seems well so far...

The big test will be Monday morning and into the afternoon, will see how CNBC looks in this room...

Johnrg87: Thanks for the feedback, man! I think we're on the same page. Perhaps this isn't truly dithering, but the definition seemed to make sense to me based on what was going on. I am running the break-in DVD when I can, but since I have it's in the family room, it's certainly seeing normal viewing action, too (albeit at low picture settings). The brightness definitely makes a big difference, and I'll have to play more with the sharpness to see if it makes any difference. The source doesn't seem to matter at all for this particular phenomenon. Seen on anything from crappy Wii, average Dish HD, 360 1080i component, and superb Wall-e Blu-ray (PS3) sources. Again, though, it's only within a few feet that you can even see the dithering effect.

I'm glad to hear about the green push drop, though, since that is something that also catches my eye. As for the dots, yes, it's only when you're less than a few feet away---and honestly, I feel silly that it even bothers me, since at normal viewing distance I can't see it at all. I'm just a bit obsessive with this stuff!

Overall, the PQ is just astounding to me, given what I paid for the thing, so I shouldn't be complaining. The "dithering" is minor, the green push is slightly annoying, but hopefully working itself out with break-in, and the Wii issue is just weird. Aside from those issues, I have no complaints with the set. I appreciate all the feedback, and am glad the thread was started.

I found the Ruiz settings to try our on the XXS1 thread, but where is the original post? I'm having trouble finding the actual Ruiz post anywhere.

Here's the post from Ruiz: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post17573692

If you look at the last post LarryInRI made in this thread, you'll find a link in his sig with most of the offsets that have been posted for the S1(along with other panny models too) up to this point. I think he also has a guide in there that will help you find your way around the Service Menu. Just make sure you copy all of the original values down before you change anything in the Service Menu.

The PQ really is good, especially when you consider what we paid for the set. But I do understand being obsessive about these things. I was blissfully ignorant until I bought my first HDTV a few years ago... and then I stumbled across this site, lol.

I'm glad this tv has it's own thread now. Maybe if we're lucky, someone who knows what they're doing will calibrate a U1 and post their setting here. That way we don't keep mooching off other 12g panny model settings.

Thanks, john.

Also, just a follow-up to the component issue---I've foudn that the Wii "black pixel" video glitch is something that is just that---a Wii problem. Apparently, when the video card overheats, these little black pixels appear on the screen.

This is particularly odd, since mine does it as soon as it turns on (and I keep Wii Connect24 off), and frustrating, since I had my Wii replaced by Nintendo a little over a year ago due disc-read errors.

But I digress...this is not a TV issues. It's the Wii. It was most likely present on my old TV, too, but I just didn't notice it due to the smaller size.

Thanks for the link. Are the steps to enter the service menu the same as the S1 also?

I think so.

Just hold vol - on the tv and press the info button on the remote 3 times. Once you're in the SM, use the 1 and 2 buttons on the remote to navigate back and forth through the main menus, and buttons 3 an 4 to navigate back and forth through the sub menus.

To apply the offsets that have been posted press 1 on the remote until you get to the WB-ADJ menu. There you'll be able to use the 3 and 4 buttons to scroll though the R-CUT, G-CUT, B-CUT, R-DRV, G-DRV, and B-DRV. Use the Vol- and Vol+ buttons to change these values. I wouldn't mess with anything else in the SM. Doing so could potentially damage your tv.

Oh, and remember to copy down all your original settings!

That is fantastic information. Thanks for posting it on this thread John. Saves having to search through a bunch of others.

Look forward to playing around (carefully, of course) tonight.

Out of curiosity, is it a bad idea to change the offsets before the TV has had the break-in disc run for the recommended period, or is it OK to change the offsets before break-in is complete? Just not sure if it matters.

No problem.

I don't think it would hurt to change the offsets before the Break-In is finished. After reading through a good bit of 12G Issues/Settings thread it looks like the main purpose of the break in was to provide the most accurate results when applying offsets. If everyone ages their sets the same way through those first critical 120 hours or so, the offsets provided should result in uniform results for those who followed the break in process.

Obviously, since we're using offsets that were intended for other TV's (I've been trying offsets for the S1) we can't exactly expect identical results. But since the sets are pretty similar, and experience similar issues(like green push), I think the U1 can benefit from these offsets too.

Also, the offsets will only apply to the color temp your tv is set to before you enter the SM. So if you enter offsets for the Warm color temp, like most of them are intended to be, when you switch back to Vivid/Cool for break in, your tv won't even be using the new offsets.

Are you using these same offsets from Ruiz?

Calibrated offsets:
Warm
RCut -1
GCut 0
BCut -3
RDrv -3
GDrv -18
BDrv 0

I was just wondering if your initial offsets on your u1 matched his of

RCut 80
GCut 80
BCut 80
RDrv D8
GDrv F3
BDrv 98

Thanks for all your help!

Other than recording them for your own personal records, the original values really don't seem to matter at all. This is because they apparently vary from set to set, even if they're the same model. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the U1 owners in the thread all had somewhat different original values. The same thing goes for the S1, so I wouldn't worry about those. That's exactly why offsets are used, otherwise people would just post the exact hex value.

Though just FYI, here are my originals.

RCut: 80
GCut: 80
BCut: 80
RDrv: CA
GDrv: E4
BDrv: 97

Oh, and yes, I am currently using the offsets Ruiz posted in the S1 thread.

Thanks for the info. I do have a little problem. I got into the service menu this afternoon but when i try changing the values It will only go to 0. I can not get it to go in the negative numbers. You are using these right?

Calibrated offsets:
Warm
RCut -1
GCut 0
BCut -3
RDrv -3
GDrv -18
BDrv 0