The Official Panasonic G20/25 Owner's Discussion Thread [no price talk] - Page 203

Hello everyone,

For the sake of discussion, I caught an example of banding last night while flipping channels. It's not the McD's commercial or the Southwest Airlines commercials, but it'll do. I paused the screen and grabbed my camera. The pictures don't do it much justice. It looks a little bit worse in real life. I see banding like this every day and this is a fairly normal example, some are much more pronounced.

Now, it may be my cable box or the signal, but I'm using the same equipment that I used with my CRT, which produced no banding. I think I might try to run a set of component cables to the TV and see if the banding disappears.

EDIT: Added an example from a Playstation commercial.

I was incorrect. I had thought I read a rumor elsewhere, but apparently the rumor was wrong.

any suggestions would be awesome, struggling to decide between a 58s and a 54g25, with the g being a couple hundred more. whatcha think?

I would go with the 54G25 myself, but the extra 4" would be nice. I went from a 56" JVC and it's is noticeably smaller, but the picture is so much cleaner it makes up for it!
If you can get to Costco, the 54G20 is a great deal!

I don't know much about cable boxes but looked your's up:

http://www.motorola.com/Video-Soluti.../DCX3400_US-EN

Just out of curiosity, is it possible to record a few seconds of video using MPEG-4 AVC and export the file? You could then push the file to an upload site so I can download it and take a look at what's natively being recorded.

The recorded file may not be a fair representation of what the box is outputting to the TV, but it would be fun to look at nevertheless.

Sizable instant rebate, 90-day return period, and extended 2-year warranty!

Last week I saw a Costco employee help load a 54G20 onto an elderly couple's cart ... horizontally flat on the cart! Make sure the box is vertical during transport.

For my money, the G25 wins, hands down. I had a chance to see the two side by side in a store. With the lights off, you can get the S2 to look pretty decent--although the set I was checking out was always a bit soft compared to the G25. Introduce a bit of light in the room and it's night and day: the image on the S2 gets washed out very quickly. The better anti-glare properties of the G is not just hype--it makes a huge difference. The G also shows a lot more shadow detail out of the box in THX mode than the S in Cinema mode.

If you do a search on this forum you'll find this is pretty much the consensus opinion--no contest, amigo!

Nice contemporary look to your place! Where do you live? Furnishings look similar to mine (got them at a Scandanvian furniture store).

I have a bright room during the day and have the P42G25. It does pretty well in those conditions. I'm very happy with it.

I have a G25 and generally love it. But I am noticing a problem that may or may not be display related.

I've noticed that when watching DVDs or blu rays, every once in a while the display goes to full static for about 5 seconds, they "renegotiates". I've tried replacing the HDMI cable, and changing the HDMI connection on the TV, same result. Complicating the issue is that I am using a Yamaha RX-V667 to route all the HDMI connections, so I am unsure if this is a display issue, bd player issue, or receiver issue.

I'm tempted to let it go as it only happens every once in a while, but its all brand new equipment.

Did you try connecting the blu ray player directly to a spare HDMI port on the G25 to see what happens?

Could also try disabling HDMI Deep Color if its on. Or trying different combinations of HDMI ports on both the Yamaha and G25. Or disabling HDMI-CEC (Vieralink on the Panny, don't know what Yamaha calls it). And make sure HDMI cables are plugged in tight with no weight/force pulling down on the connectors. Maybe borrow a disc player from a friend to try.

Donkey Kong Country Returns looks fantasTIK on this set. 480P on this set is damn good.

Now that I got my TV out from in front my fireplace and am able to turn it on again, I no longer hear the buzzing whenever its on, which is ALOT.

Yeah, my son's Wii looks pretty good for a 480P gaming console.

Can you fill us in on the details of the mounting? Was it mounted on the wall above the fireplace?

The only HDMI port I have access to on the Panny is HDMI3. While our installers did a great job on the mounting of the TV, trying to get an HDMI cable back there would be difficult given the lack of clearance. In fact, the cable that was plugged into HDMI1 is still there, wedged in between the wall and the TV. I plugged the HDMI out from the receiver into Panny HDMI3 thinking that tight connection may be the issue, same result. Looks to me that it isnt the display.

I'll look to see what the Yamaha settings are for both CEC (which Yamaha calls HDMI Control) and VieraLink since I'm not using that functionality anyways.

Thanks for the tips, I love my system setup except for those unfortunate moments when the static monster intervenes.

Was at Costco in Holbrook, NY and they had 3-4 of the 54's these in stock for those looking.

Hola fellas

I'm going to buy my new plasma tomorrow. I got a friend who works at SEARS and says he can get me the 50 inch G20 for $974 out the door.

It's either that or I can buy the G25 series for regular price (I'm not sure how much that is). Is there even a big difference between the two? What should I do?

Cheers =)

Only difference is a bluish strip on the bottom of the bezel of the g20 and a sliver one on the g25. Also, g25 supports a networked camera.

thanx for the help guys, looks like a 54G under the tree for me!!

Its stand mounted. Just that the stand was too close to the fireplace. Not wall mounted.

Thanks for the quick reply. So i'm assuming I should take that 50 inch G20 for $974 and run.

Any beginner's tips you guys have for me? Like when to calibrate it and which disc to use? and how to prevent image retention.

Appreciate it.

=)

Check out the deal Costco has for the 54" G20.

Yeah, I just saw that and called my local Costco and they told me they're out of it and don't know when they'll get any more. Thanks for the info though!

A couple of comments:

1. I have found the very slight tilt downward good at minimizing reflected glare. My TV mid screen is about eye height when sitting on the couch and the image is great.

3. You can't put a dish on your apartment because you don't have a good place to put it (i.e. can't see the satellites) or you "can't" put a satellite dish on your apartment because of Apartment rules?

If the latter, the FCC has rules on antennas that can in some cases trump apartment prohibitions. See the FCC Fact Sheet on Over the Air Reception Devices:

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

Cheers

Picked it up at BB for $1099. Cant wait to set it up. Reading through posts now to determine break in time, settings, etc.

This cable box is supposed to be a good box, but it's also the ONLY option. Comcast does not have another option for a dual-tuner HD DVR box.

I don't know how I would get any video off the cable box. I've often wanted to save some of my DVR'ed shows but I'm not sure how to. The USB port is disabled on this box and I don't have a DVD recorder hooked up to my home theater so I guess I'm stuck.

I live a few blocks from the US Capitol in DC.

So Panasonic Bluray players just got Vudu, any word on these TV's??? I've wanted Vudu for a long time! I did check for an update and still 3.0.

How much difference is there between the Infinite Black panel of the G20/25 and the Infinite Black PRO panel in the VT20/25?

Not much info out there:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=6008

My BD85's firmware was updated yesterday. Vudu came with a credit for one free viewing. Haven't watched a movie yet but did watch a bunch of free trailers in HDX format (4.5 Mbps compared to Amazon VOD HD's 2.5 Mbps). The trailers were 2-3 minutes long and all played smoothly, looked and sounded great.

3-days with the Panny 54G20, about 12-hours, and the toxins are starting to build. The picture was gorgeous until the first honeymoon squabble: judder. (Day 1) Some say it doesn't bother but I fall out of the story any time an artifact grabs my attention.

"The buzz" came on day 2 and was most pronounced with Pandora. (Buzz during ambient music = negative) Bright screen images bring it out and it is not in the audio processing ... I suspect the power board supplier made an engineering compromise that I cannot live with.

These 2 issues do not seem to exist in the LG PK950 so I am going to see if I can live with the compromises in that set. The pictures seem close enough in quality but I will miss the ability to play compressed videos from a stick. (In spite of the limited formats in the G20, some is more than "none" with the LG)

I don't want to turn this into Plasma vs. LED war....
but I'm considering to purchase either P54G25 or Samsung UN55C6300
Webapps and deeper black of P54G25 are very attractive but at the same time thin and bright LED screen attracts me a lot.

What will be a good decision?