The Official Panasonic TC-PXXS2 Owner's Discussion Thread [NO Price talk] - Page 61

Seems that most people are doing a mix of watching real material in cinema mode and the break-in slides with Dnices slide show settings. I just switch to slide show mode whenever I'm not watching anything on that TV.

I had the 85U and didn't care for it the S2 is much nicer to me.

Gentlemen,
I just purchased the 54s2. I have read alot on this thread. I dont really feel comfortable messing with the menu settings from D Nices' post. After the break in, can someone (1) recommend setting from Cinema mode settings and/or (2) a caliberation video or download for the best picture without going into the permanent menu settings.

Or any other advice.
Thank you.

To answer both questions with one answer.... AVE Bluray disk. Great information and tutorial about doing a simple calibration with the controls you have.

Though it does not mention a few items like Warm setting and disabling CATS along with Noise Reduction settings.

Every person has their own taste as for contrast and brightness.

Start at 50 and work around to a setting that is agreeable to you.

Most agree 54 for Brightness is good as for keeping good black levels.

Now there are some using high brightness and contrast levels to make black levels more stable while sacraficing deep blacks.

Once you use the DVE to assist with proper setup, you'll understand and see what looks best for your invironment.

Thank you for your quick response sir. I googled AVE blueray disc but did not find it.

BTW: Boxing week sale i purchased the 54s2 for $1175 CAD plus tax.

That was apparently a typo. It is the DVE (Digital Video Essentials) bluray disc, as referenced later in his post.

D-nice's break-in settings from the 2010 panasonic settings/issues thread? Thanks a lot!

Just brought home a TCP42S2 a couple of days ago. The picture is fantastic for the price; couldn't be happier with the image quality, but... I'm noticing some image retention if I watch movies with black bars at top and bottom.
When I remove all input after watching movies, the black bars are still visible because the central area (where the movie was taking place) is noticeably brighter.

I have it hooked up to my pc (which is my main source of media) and if I leave, say, windows media player on the screen for even a couple of minutes it leaves a ghost onscreen after I minimize it.

Still have 12 days to take it back to the dealer. Imo, the picture on this S2 is absolutely gorgeous; certainly the best I can afford. But am I going to wreck this thing with media from my computer? I chose plasma over LCD because it was the best picture for the money, but it's a huge waste of dough if it doesn't last me.

Should I go back and shop for an LCD instead, or am I worrying over nothing?

Hi guys, I'm new here. I'm planning to pick up the P42S2 and had some questions. I understand that in store displays are the worst way to judge a plasma, but it's really all I have to go by for now. I was looking at the 42S2 at Best Buy and noticed that the blacks were far more washed out and gray looking compared to the LCD's around it. Since this is plasma I know to expect superior black levels, so is this something that is caused by the lighting at Best Buy? I know the Panasonics lose black level but this was pretty much a washed out gray and didn't even look black. Is this something I should expect from this TV after the black level has finally leveled off and stopped worsening?
I still want this over an LCD (can't stand motion blurring on my games anymore) but really just want to make sure I'm making the right choice.

Thanks for the help, folks.

It could be a # of things, 1 of them being that because it's a display model and it's on ALL the time, the Blacks have indeed lost their punch. My roommates 42S2's blacks have been suffering as of late and he is not pleased at all. Here's hoping they remedy this as they promised they did with the 2010 models but I've seen 1st hand what a year can do to these tv's. Unacceptable IMO.

The other as you know is that it's probably NOT calibrated at all, and the lighting doesn't help.

[quote=Mastperf;19738207]Hi guys, I'm new here. I'm planning to pick up the P42S2 and had some questions. I understand that in store displays are the worst way to judge a plasma, but it's really all I have to go by for now. I was looking at the 42S2 at Best Buy and noticed that the blacks were far more washed out and gray looking compared to the LCD's around it. Since this is plasma I know to expect superior black levels, so is this something that is caused by the lighting at Best Buy? I know the Panasonics lose black level but this was pretty much a washed out gray and didn't even look black. Is this something I should expect from this TV after the black level has finally leveled off and stopped worsening?
I still want this over an LCD (can't stand motion blurring on my games anymore) but really just want to make sure I'm making the right choice.

Thanks for the help, folks.[/QUOTE

We got a 50s2 for my father in law for christmas and It looked bad in Sears next to the LEDs. The blacks looked grey and washed out .Went to Worst Buy and the S2 they had looked great. It is hard to judge a TV in a showroom.

Any way we got it home and the blacks are pretty darn good. It is a little grainy on S.D. but on H.D. and D.V.D. and Blue Ray its got a really nice Pic. I have a three year old 85U and cant notice a bit of change in the black level on it and its a great T.V.so far.

I would spend a little more and bump up to the G-20 but the S2 is I think a good bang for the buck T.V. We spent 1/2 on the S2 that my 85U cost three years ago.Come to think of it the S2 was 1/3 what we spent on a Sony 36 CTR 10 to 12 years ago.

If you go look at one in a showroom get the remote and change the settings to on the brightness to between 50 and 60 and then that will give you a better idea of the black levels.

Good luck.

Thanks guys.
I really appreciate the help.

This set seems to be a great display at such a cheap price that I'm gonna go ahead and pick one up.

My good friend was looking for a set around Thanksgiving, and I turned him on to the 58 S2. Calibrated it last night for him, after he had 354 hours on it. Turned out pretty good, except that ridiculous Gamma Panny came up with.

CIE


fL (90 contrast)


Gamma


Grayscale

Hey all I decided to give D'Nice's settings a chance and so far am very pleased but had a question about the SM options which I was very hesitant to do and now am a bit confused. When the SM popped up the first thing I noticed was that the TV went into "VIVID" setting, I changed everything including changing to "CINEMA" and "WARM" and powered off the TV to set the changes. I then turned TV back on and went into SM again to make sure the changes were there and when it popped up I immediately noticed that the TV went back to "VIVID" setting. I went ahead and changed it back to "CINEMA" and "WARM" and checked that my prior settings were previously saved and they appeared to be so I powered off the TV again to save changes and haven't touched it since last night.

I am just wondering if anyone else noticed this and if I am set?

Also are numbers different for each size model (46" as opposed to 50") because I saw a post earlier where the guy mentioned the prior settings and the new settings and I noticed that some of mine ended up the same but a couple of mine display as numbers only which don't match the other persons post (example: mine was like 88 and the other persons was F4). I hope this makes sense.

Thanks

WHen you first go into the SM, it always is in Vivid. As long as you make the changes in Cinema, and press OK to save them, its fine.

Thanks for info just wanted to make sure that the VIVID was not a problem. I didn't see any place to press OK but the post I found detailing the procedure says to power TV off to save changes which seemed to work for me. Thanks again.

I just re-calibrated my 46S2 (>2600 hours) this week (actually, I calibrated it twice... in addition to calibrating warm for D65 I also calibrated Normal for D75... both look great in their own right and allow for some "preference" while still maintaining a linear grayscale).

Your CIE gamut looks virtually identical to mine and, of course, there is little to nothing that we can do about it (without your Edge), but I guess that means that its working "as intended" since they are so similar. However, my gamma curve looks nothing like yours... it stays flat around 2.1 up to about 50%, then dives down to about 1.9 and stays relatively flat up to 100%.

I'm curious about your the 36.8 ft-L luminance with the contrast set at 90? I'm getting 38 ft-L with my contrast set only at 73 (Cinema mode, of course).

My son has my computer with the HCFR files on it right now (to work on his LG LCD)... when I get it back I will post my files.

OK on the remote.

I was Contrast of 90. I think I may have made a mistake, because mine is close to 40 at 90, and so was his, then when I saved that one, I noticed it was 37. I may have accidentally used a wrong field. Once I noticed, I was not breaking it all back out again

Strange your gamma is that nice, maybe it has to do with the contrast setting (have seen contrast do weird things with Gamma). Other S2 I saw had a bad gamma like my friends, or at least worse than yours. Could also be the meter. Mine tends to track grayscale and CMS close enough to Gregg Loewens meter, but has variances in fL and Gamma.

You are putting some hours on that set!

What meter? I'm using an i1 Display2 that's about two years old.

I also had a strange grayscale anomaly... very good dE's (all less than 2, most less than 1) across the board except at 40%, where blue shot high and red shot low (dE was ~5 at 40%). I could not reduce that anomaly without adjustments that pushed all of the other dEs above 3. I don't think its the meter because the red and blue anomalies at 40% did not occur consistently on this TV and also did not show up at all in preliminary runs on my son's TV.

I found a great deal (<1000) on a 58 S2 from the Navy Exchange. Would you guys buy your TVs again? I'll use the TV for family movie nights, video games, and some TV. I wanted a 65 because of our sitting distance, but the 58 will still be a nice upgrade in size from our 50 and the price seems to be a good value. Good TV or wait for something better? I'm not interested in Internet apps or 3D.

Thanks!

Chroma 5. It was in at Spectracal a couple of months ago for recalibration.


Sounds like the S2 would be a good choice for you.

Try running the alldrv and/or allcut up and down while watching the 40% gray bar on a grayscale step pattern. With a delta E of 5, the tinting at 40% should be easily seen and any change easily noticed. Of course, keep a lookout for changes that might appear elsewhere. When there is no significant obvious discoloration in the pattern, redo the calibration.

Larry

I wanted a new bedroom TV, so the hunt was on. I was leaning toward an LCD, although I own a V10. I tried and tried to convince myself to buy one of them thin cool LCD's. In the end, I just did NOT like the picture of LCD, LED or any other "D" besides DD...
I found a great price on the 42S2, so I pulled the trigger and bundled it with the BDP-65. Starting the break in process, and need to get some HD DVR in my room soon. Looking forward to calibrating it, and seeing how it compares to the V10. Might wall mount it as well. From what I saw it looked to be a good PDP for the $$....

Great display for the money.

I have a 50" 111fd and I LOVE it but its just too small...

Problem is I can only get a bigger TV with whatever I get from selling it.

Has anoyone compared the lg pk550 to the panny s2?

Im looking at getting under 1700 for my kuro (ouch!!) so I need to stay under 2000

Should I just suck it up and use the smaller kuro? would lowering the tv on the wall make it feel bigger?

One difference is that the pk550 has 900 lines moving picture resolution to the S2's 1080. Whether you'll notice this difference or not is probably up for debate. That being said, I went with the S2 and imo it's an outstanding mid-range screen.

Bought a 54" S2 from amazon a couple days ago for around $850 new. It was FP on Slickdeals so i figure many did. And now I see all this about rising blacks. Ugh. This is my first plasma too. I don't want to accept delivery for a defective product, but looking through all these threads on the matter, seems a lot of people perceive the post rising black levels to be acceptable, or "better still than the majority of the competition." And some dissenting opinions as well.

Are the S2 owners happy with the product still? Can I get better black levels (read: more consistent) If I get something else similarly priced? Been suffering a tad bit of buyers remorse for obvious reasons.. I don't want to get stuck with a subpar TV, so I suppose my best option would be to cancel and wait for another inevitable deal.

54s2 @ $ 850 is a steal, enjoy enjoy your new set. I have one, given a
good signal the set is excellent. standard siginals are so-so. If the latter is
important to you, you will not be happy. but A clean hd signal is good to go.

Buy it and enjoy it. Have had my 58" for over a month now. Also >1k. Wish I would have gotten two. I never jumped on a V10 when I saw them under 2K and the next 58" in a Panny was the S2, thought about the 65 but price factor was too good to pass up for me.