Official Panasonic GT20/25 Owner's Thread! - Page 42

Any tv will work with any cable/staelllite provider. No such thing as a 1.3 or 1.4 cable. You need a high speed HDMI cable or High speed with ethernet. Read the following article.

http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdm...ght_cable.aspx

High speed and 1.4 are the same in my mind, many places advertise the cable as 1.4, others advertise it as high speed. The question remains, will I need a 1.4 or high speed hdmi cable for 3D or will a regular 1.3 or regular speed hdmi produce 3d from directv to the panny tv?

And I did leave out the 3D part on my origina post, sorry, I definately understand that any hdmi cable will provide picture / sound, but I'm interested in the 3D portion as so many devices with 1.3 do not work, where as the directv receiver, to my knowledge, is in fact 1.3

Another question. What converters will work to make the lan into wireless for this set? Panny sells one for 100 bucks, there has to be cheaper ones out there!

I use the regular MonoPrice 1.3 HDMI cable w/o problem playing 3D movies from BD player.

Devices are a different issue. There the key issue is not speed but rather handshake. Without 1.4 support, these devices don't know how to handshake the 1.4 specific 3D video formats.

Gotcha, thanks for the info!

They have many different names: gaming adapters, Ethernet bridges or Ethernet Converters. They aren't necessary cheap ($60 to $100+) but they are worthy investment because they work with any wireless router and any device with an ethernet port.

You could always buy a cheap wireless router (like a WRT54G or G2) and install DD-WRT on it, then turn that into a bridge.

Long time lurker, infrequent poster - figured I'd chime in on my set.

I have a 50GT25, October build date, from Amazon. Have had it 3 weeks - no buzzing, no floating blacks (and I've watched the Dark Knight multiple times to find it). Only complaints are phosphor trailing (which I'm sensitive to and may be getting better, or I may be getting used to it) and inconsistent grayscale - I see red and green push at various levels of the grayscale ramp. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't detectable in regular viewing - cloudy skies and shaded walls/interiors bring it out.

My stock offsets are:
R-cut 7D
G-cut 80
B-cut 7F
R-drv C9
G-drv FF
B-drv 56

First tried Nutdotnet's settings a week or two ago, and things were slightly improved. Then tried Zodduska's first offsets and they were much better. Now that it's become clear that some sets have high R-drvs stock (like Nutdotnet's) and some have low (like Zodduska's and mine), it makes sense why Zodduska's looked better.

Like Zodduska, I tried today to start at Nutdotnet's stock settings and make his latest adjustments. The variability between red and green throughout the IRE ramp has reduced, and instead has been replaced with consistent red push. Makes sense since R-drv is now well higher than my stock R-drv, while evrything else is in the same ballpark. Will probably try to find a R-drv that works, or wait for Zodduska's latest (and I should say I, like many others, greatly appreciate the efforts of these guys and gas_leak). I of course realize that I really should use a meter, which maybe someday I'll do, but I don't currently have access to one.

One other note, my color setting has consistently needed to be at 52 (about 5 higher than most here), both through my PS3 (as has been previously reported), as well as through my Directv HR24.

Look forward to more settings and getting the set dialed in. Despite the minor issues, it's still an awesome bargain - especially if you get one with flaws you can live with. Do wonder about the high vs. low R-drvs - maybe it's a 50 in vs 46 inch thing?

phil, thanks for the feedback regarding the settings. I have since taken mine down because I don't have much confidence in the sensor I have but it sounds like you had pretty good results so I'll probably put them back up in case anyone else wants to try. In the coming months I'll see if I can scrape together some cash to get a proper sensor and give it another go so those with sets like ours with low red drive can have a more accurate baseline to work from.

I wouldn't recommend trying to adjust the r-drv in the posted settings because the result isn't independent of the other cut and drv settings, one adjustment seems to effect the output of the others even though their settings remain the same.

Does anyone have ANY pics/images of floating blacks or a vid? No one has proven it to me yet.

Got my 50GT25 earlier tonight, and just fired it up. Took a few to tell it to switch to HDMI, but no problem. So far, the image is great, and the TV is freakin huge compared to the old set.

Couple of questions...
1st: is there something I have to do to "activate" the optical audio out? I hooked it up to my sound system, but it's not putting anything out. Couldn't find the setting in the menu to switch it.

2nd: If I get close to the set, is it OK that it starts looking all grainy? Guessing that's not a problem.

Now I just have to figure out all the settings and what HD channels I actually get!
Thanks!

It looks grainy because you are seeing the pixels, it happens on all HDTVs. Though it happens more or less on plasmas because of the phosphors.

Here are my SM offsets again in case anyone else with a low red-drive panel wants to try them out. I came up with these using a Spyder 2 which doesn't seem to be very accurate but it may look better than the stock settings for some people.

R-CUT -4
G-CUT 0
B-CUT -1
R-DRV -9
G-DRV 0
B-DRV +9

As always make sure to take pictures or write down your default values first, there is no bult in "reset" for the SM offsets.

I will try to figure something out as far as proof, but there is no doubt that I have floating black levels, and it really sucks. I guess it is hit or miss whether you have it or not, as I have heard all of the 2010 Panasonic models are.

Should I not get a Panny? Could you describe a little further as I am a bit confused. Is the pic quality still good? Does this warrant a return?

If I'm thinking about this right I stumbled across an interesting trick to see how well white balance offsets are doing on your panel without a sensor. Find an image with a lot of gradients, from dark to light, it could be a scene from a blu-ray movie or as I've found the blue ps3 xmb theme works well. Pause it and turn your color setting to 0, if you see any reddish, greenish, or blueish areas your white balance settings could use some improvment. Now this won't help you fix the problem but it may help in comparing different settings.

FYI some one earlier in this thread (way earlier, around pg 7 I think) posted about having floating blacks. He said there are 2 ways to deal with it. First, shine a light into the "CATS" sensor (Control Automated Tracking Sensor) on the bottom front of the TV. This will stop the floating blacks but also weaken the black color on your TV because it changes the setting to the weakest level.

Second is to put tape on the CATS sensor to block it from getting any readings. If I remember correctly he liked this approach better because the blacks stayed deep black.

Hope this helps. I don't know if this actually works just passing it along.

I'm having this problem that just started on my 42" G25. It happens on my xbox360 and PS3 so I know it's not the cables. The tv is still under warranty so I thought I would check with everyone here before I call panasonic. The TV is less than a year old. Any input would be great...Thanks

Well...mine just got delivered.

Mine is a Sept. 2010 build. I don't think it has much of a "buzz" but I need to play with it more first. Starting break-in tonight!

Thanks for the info,

unfortunately covering the CATS sensor does not work. Nobody in the Floating Black level post here on AVS was able to get this method to work. I did try the light shining trick, and it does work, but it does set the TV to the highest float setting and makes it looked washed out a bit, but it may be my only alternative at this point. I could get a cheap USB LED light and mod it to the front of my TV for when I want to use it. This is so disapointing though that I have to go to extreme measures to enjoy my TV. I could pry get used to the Floating after awhile, but everytime it happens it takes me out of what Im watching.

Yeah, I had the GT24, now I have the GT25 50". Every time I buy a TV I wish I had got the bigger one, so I decided to just get the bigger one this time. I'm glad I did.

The G25 doesn't have the faster switching phosphors that the GT25 has, the faster ones decrease phosphor trailing. The reviews on the G25's seem to talk about more about buzzing sets, but it seems that some GT25's have the same issues.

I would go with the newer technology, even at the expense of 4" of screen.

I thought I had decided on going with the GT25 over the bigger G25, but the main thing that is scaring me....dithering. That is something that would annoy me.

I keep reading of dithering problems with the GT25 and even of people thinking their G25 looks better than their newer GT25.

I haven't heard a single dithering problem from the G25.

It's just that I'll be missing the glasses with the GT25 50 vs the GT24...and the two year warranty.

So...running break-in slides...

Question...I have a "Viera" logo that slowly moves about on the screen (simply the word Viera in a greyish color). It is only visible during the full white slide. Looks like a screensaver of sorts? How do I turn that off? Can't find anything in the manual yet...

EDIT: on a side note...I don't see dithering on mine in THX mode either (but I can in Vivid and with custom depending on brightness/contrast)

Could you please post the settings your using to break it in? Mine is coming tomorrow and I'm looking to get started right away, but I'm relatively clueless.

great info. thanks. i'm gonna get rid of the 100 for the 110. i don't need a 210 b/c all it apparently does is add wireless (i am wired) and a hands-free dvd door opening. my 2 year old will just break the hands-free opener lol.

Hi
Does anyone know if the offer from Panasonic to get a free blu ray player, Avatar and glasses with purchase of this set expired yet? Went on Panny's website but it didn't indicate the expiration date and it still shows up as being active.

Ya'll are going to hate me! lol. I just updated my settings.... I spoke with a local ISF calibrator today. Gave me a ton of info, even looked at my graphs. Pretty much gave me an impromptu class. Which I proceeded to give him the only cash I had on me, a $50.00 bill. Which honestly I felt wasn't enough.

Anyways. I am done for now (seriously this time). I am sure I can get Custom a bit better. But honestly I just need to take a break for a little bit

Again, my settings sound like they will only work if your factory R-Drv is high (near F).

I would be careful with using my factory offsets and then applying my calibrated offsets. I actually did the same thing last night as a test. I applied Zod's factory offsets and then his calibrated offsets. It wasn't pretty.

Click on the link in my Sig.

I was wondering that too, but I think its a retailer thing (it's up to them).