Official Panasonic 2011 TC-PxxST30 Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 128

Nice solution. Thanks for the idea.

cal thats a great idea to use a pencil case for the glasses case or a tupperware will work also

Do you have any links for this?

Thanks cal. I looked at walmart today for glasses cases but they were all too small. That pencil case looks like a great solution. I'll have to go back to walmart tomorrow and pick one up.

My 55st30 is manufactured in March and I have not noticed any fbr problems. Is there some content I can use to test for it?

You're welcome. Glad that I stumbled upon this and.could pass it along.

Type "2011 Panasonic Fluctuating Brightness Master Discussion Thread" in Google and click on the first link. Then soak in all the great info.

I would also like to see the ratio of non fbr to fbr problems in pre August tv's.

mine is perfect, no issues what so ever. and I bought it on April. I tried the same movies some other member posted on Youtube showing off the FB issue and my set did not presented any.

Ok, thanks. However there are over 200 pages in that thread, I don't really want to have to wade through all of them to find the one or two posts that talk about the solution. Can anyone who is already familiar with this please post a very short summary of what can be done? I looked at the first couple of posts, and saw the one by D-Nice where he tells how to see the fluctuation (black screen, bring up Vierra Link, notice how the blue panel on the left increases in brightness). It wasn't really bad, but I could see it on my ST30. So is there a software fix for this issue, or have they fixed it in hardware? If hardware, do I need to send the whole TV back to Panasonic?

Neil, when did you get you're TV? And I think they can send a tech out to fix you're TV if you call Panasonic.

I ordered it from Amazon on May 29th. The sticker on the back of the TV says March 2011. Does that tell you anything useful? Thanks!

Well you should still have the year warranty by Panasonic, so if ur unhappy with the issue i'd def give them a call and see what they have to say. I see alot of people saying they have amazing customer service, big reason of why im gonna buy a ST30

Well, I already have a ticket open with them regarding the issue I posted about earlier (namely, when I start up a Blu-Ray disk, then it always changes my picture setting from Custom back to Cinema). They have escalated this to their engineering people, who are supposed to call me back on Monday. But I will call them again to ask about this fluctuating brightness thing. In fact I do remember the customer support guy I spoke to commenting how he had never heard of this BD/picture mode change issue, most of what he heard was about fluctuating brightness. To be honest I haven't overtly noticed fluctuations in brightness, but with the test that D-Nice suggested I can certainly see it's present, even if it's not huge. So if there is a fix, then I would certainly like to get it. I'll post here whatever Panasonic comes back with. Thanks again.

By the way, I've been very happy with this TV so far. We have never had an HD Tv before, so perhaps I'm not the best person to comment on this, but lately we've been watching Blu-Ray and some of these have been really impressive. Currently we're watching Firefly on Blu-Ray, and the colors are just amazing (I'm using the D-Nice custom settings). The only downside with this TV really is that it's not so great in brighter environments - but we tend to watch TV mostly at night anyway, so that's not an issue.

Start by reading Gotchaa's post on page 164, and then skip to the last 10 pages or so. Contact Panasonic and tell them you have fluctuating brightness on various content. They make sure you have the latest firmware update and ask you basic questions. Once you tell them you still have fluctuating brightness they should eventually set up a technician visit that will either flash your TV with an SD card or replace the A-Board. Your TV will then be patched.

I do know that it's overwhelming to get into a large thread, but it helps to do research because the details and experiences provided in the thread probably answer any questions you have.

Ok, thanks very much - that was useful to help me cut to the chase. Post #164 was great for laying the groundwork, then I read the last 10 pages of the thread as you suggested. My mind boggles at a few of those posts - e.g. the one talking about the response from Panasonic Canada customer support, or your know-it-all technician (I assume that's you over there, same username?). You know, I don't mind simple ignorance, anybody can be misinformed, and I don't mind attitude, when it's backed up by competence. But nothing irks me more than stupid, ignorant people with attitude.

I'll be calling Panasonic about this on Monday. I'm kind of dreading the process, though, because now I'm pretty sure that I'll experience this sequence:

a) Denial of any problem, cue 45 minutes trying to get someone who knows what I'm talking about
b) Finally get the right person, who arranges for a new A board for me
c) Technician turns out to be 3rd party local yokel who wants to cart my TV away in their pickup truck
d) The tech shows up without any idea about SD cards or A card replacements - another wasted day
e) Another 2 week wait while they actually order the card
f) They come and want to take my TV away again, cue animated conversations with their manager and Panasonic support

God I hope it doesn't go down like that. But I live out in the boonies (Fortuna, CA) and I just don't think Panasonic is going to have any of their actual people out here. So I'm going to get Jim Bob's TV And Skateboard Repair Service. Who knows what they will do.

I'm not exhaggerating on this - e.g. when my TV was originally delivered from Amazon, the guy who finally delivered (via Pilot) showed up in his personal pickup truck. It wasn't an actual delivery service van, just the guy's pickup truck.

Neil

You never know how it will work out. Hopefully everyone in Panasonic, and their third party techs, become more familiar with the problem and how to schedule a fix. But it all starts with a phone call to Panasonic.

I read this review. What's up with the 'huge' problems they found with motion? Why aren't other people seeing this?


Also, they seemed to measure the black level of the VT30 set as identical to the ST30. That doesn't seem right. They do say that the VT30 doesn't acheive as much brightness, so it had lower contrast than the ST30. This review was posted a while back. I am trying to re-read this thread to get up to date. Did I miss something after this review was posted?

The review doesn't match reality, so it's hard to make sense of it.

I was scheduled for Tuesday but no one has called yet.

My 65GT30 is wall mounted with the 1 inch spacers so you can get an SD card in there.

I assume the A-Board is the backup plans if the flash fails. Is that correct?

- Rich

How do I get my receiver to play sound from the Netflix app and the other Viera apps?

My receiver is only playing audio from my cable box. What setting do I change to be able to hear Netflix through my receiver?

No, some techs only have the ability to order/install the A-Board. My tech didn't even know about the SD Card, and when I told him about it he didn't believe me because Panasonic didn't make the SD Card an option for him.

Rhammer if you run an optical cable from your tv to your reciever it will work

Ok, thanks.

That is odd, I guess I was told it would be firmware on an SD card.

Time will tell.

Thanks,

Rich

Ok. I have it plugged in but now what do I do?

Is there some kind of setting?

Edit: I fixed it.

Thanks for the help!

Ok then. Fair enough. I wonder why the review is the way it is....oh well....sorry about regurgitating this. I see just a few posts later a few people point out their un-usual measurements etc.

I just bought a ST30 60 today,I am real impressed and I am only watching in 2 D. How much better are the sets when calibrated? My reference set was a Sammie 650 LCD it was way better than my 2 Pannie PZ 85 U's in the bedrooms. have plasma come a way's since 2008 for Pannie because this seems to be much better than my 08 Pan models?

Everybody still say's the Pioneer's were the best? are the 3D sets better picture than the pannie 2D sets? in 2D mode? I am trying to learn what I can and I am happy so far with what I bought. Do you all think a 60 is alot better for 3 D or 2 D for power effect than a 50 because this thing put's out alot of heat and I was thinking about maybe a 50 because they would be cooler.

thanks my name is Scott!

If you get a Panasonic employee, you will get the SD card update. If it is a local 3rd party tech, they will replace the board.

Ok, just got off the phone with Panasonic. They couldn't find anybody within 150 miles of where I live, so they are going to have to look for someone who can come out here and do the update. If I don't hear back by end of business Wednesday then I am to call them back to get a status update. So my impression is that Panasonic is certainly doing their best to help me with this, which is really encouraging. I don't feel like I'm getting the runaround at all (even though they couldn't find anybody, I understand completely since we really are out in the boonies here - Fortuna CA is 5 hours north of San Francisco, on the coast, middle of nowhere basically). So now I just wait. One good side effect of all this is that now it's much more likely that they'll just do whatever it is they need to do here in my home, rather than wanting to take it in to some local shop where who knows what might happen to it. That's fine with me...