Official Panasonic GT30 Series Discussion Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 85

TV just got here. This may sound dumb, but is that DNice procedure the first thing I should do out of the box? And those slides should run off the SD card, right?

Sounds like a good deal. Not that it's a problem but the glasses are 2nd gen but they work well. The camera's not cheap by itself either.

Correct

Also, don't forget to adjust the picture settings AFTER you enter the Photo Media Player app.

Thanks.

Got going on that. 100hrs is a long time! It's hard to resist plugging it in and getting going on watching TV/Movies.

After the slides and entering d-nice's picture settings, should I run the break in DVD?

I'm thinking about pulling the trigger any day now on a 65" GT30 and am hoping to get some thoughts from owners regarding some concerns that have stayed my hand...

Background: The high-use, 58" DLP TV (HP MD5880N) in our family room died unexpectedly so I'm under the gun to make a fast purchase decision. Mainly DirectTV use. The room gets a decent amount of natural light from various windows/glass doors, nothing direct but there can be some significant light bouncing off white walls. This TV will never be used in a pitch black environment, at night we'd watch with some lights on. I have a separate, light-controlled media room w/ projector for serious movie watching.

Brightness
1) "Black Crush" - traditionally the plasma's I've seen get called out for great blacks, but to me it always seems like it's at the expense of shadow detail, where very dark detail that's apparent on non-plasmas instead "essentially" goes to black or is too hard for me to distinguish from black. Is the GT30 different in that regard? Or alternatively can the TV be adjusted to brighten some of that detail without overly washing out/hurting overall picture quality? FYI I have never been impressed with the older JVC RS projectors because of the darker image & "black crush" (to MY eyes), though I am quite happy with my JVC RS40 paired w/ 133" Da-lite High Power.

2) White looks like grey. When white backgrounds came up on a store-display ST30, it looked exceedingly "grey". I played around a little with settings but after a few mins couldn't make much improvement. I think I tried with Vivid and maybe Standard as baseline. I've since read there may be a Panel Brightness setting (Low-->Mid) that might brighten things (?) but that's where I need opinions on if it helps and if it's a net gain or causes bigger image quality issues.

Plasma & burn-in
I probably have CNBC (business news, stock ticker bars, corner logo - though the logo animates every 10 - 30 seconds, etc..) on for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week.. Could plasma be a bad choice for me?

Final, general question
Given my comments & the TV's use, is there any other 64-65" display I should be considering or will the GT30 be the best choice for me? Though I read the Samsung D7000 plasma might handle light-filled rooms better, I keep reading so many issues that it makes me want to stay away, in particular the "popping" (I am less worried about screen peel since Samsung seems to be giving good support including post-warranty). Though if there's concern about my "CNBC burn-in" question, no other plasma is going to avoid that so the question could become if there's a "pretty darn good" LCD out there for the GT30 budget. One of the things I hate most about LCD is it often seems like it amplifies DirectTV artifacting/color-pooling, I hate the digital/bad-dither look.

Wish I wasn't so rushed on this..

Thanks much!

I am going to add to Speed Demon's message a little.
I've narrowed my search (or so I thought) to a few models:
Panny 65GT30
Sharp 70LE732/632 or 60" versions
Sony 60ex720 (wish they made a 65")

I went to Best Buy last night to audition them hopefully within sight of each other, and also hoping to watch hockey on all sets to compare motion and ice color. All sets were being fed their self-made Best Buy loop, and said that they had no way to change the feed to a cable or satellite. So much for seeing what these sets could do with various program material. Very disappointing.

So I worked with what they had. Of course, no remotes were available, so I did my best to try some adjusting from the side button menus.
Bottom line is this: I just could not get with the Panasonic plasma picture. It was dark, dull, and lifeless, especially compared with the nearby Sharp 70". And I really wanted to prefer the Panny, but I just couldn't. There were times when itvwas relatively dark picture, and the sets were more similar, but once it switched to a brighter scene, the LCDs brightened up, but the Panny never did, as if there was something preventing it from brightening. I started with THX mode which is often recommended here, but I found it unwatchable - dark, dreary, and a greying tint to everything. Vivid was somewhat better, but still not close to the others, plus I understand that vivid can lead to IR. Perhaps there are more adjustments that could be done, I don't know.

My room is very similar to Speed Demon's.
Thanks.

I'm there with both of you...the Panny ST30 I saw on the wall looks dead compared to all the LCDs around it...my wife thought it looked like crap. I also have a room that, while I do most of my viewing in low light, there is always some, and we do watch in the days on weekends. I asked the questions you guys did and most responces were that when you get home and adjust it, it looks great. Too bright of a picture in evening viewing can be fatiguing. I guess it's like salt. We love salty tasting food, but when you gradually cut down on it for health, you get used to it and it's fine. There is no perfect TV I can afford, and each type LCD and plasma) have strengths and weeknesses.

I'm interested in what responses you get. I have to close this deal in the next couple days or the wife's gonna kill me ;-). The sales are on and I gotta get this over with.

Im curious. Does anyone who got their A-Boards replaced STILL have FBR?

I got mine replaced the other month, and I swear I still have FBR at random times. (CATS off, etc etc)

Will your living room ever have as many lights on as BestBuy does on their showroom floors? Probably not, unless you watch TV primarily in the daytime or in a sunroom with lots of sunlight.

You are seeing two things: Overly saturated and inaccurate colors, and overly brightened LCD/LED panels. Of course the more vibrant/bright picture will look better - I'll admit it does in that environment, and thats where I made my mistake on my first LCD purchase. Looked way better than plasmas in the store - brighter, more vivid colors, lots more pop and color. Thats what people are DRAWN to - its why LCD/LEDs outsell plasmas. The "wow" factor.

But if you want your TV to look more "filmic" like a theater, plasma is simply a better performer. Its all about Dynamic Range....When LCDs have to come down in brightness and move to more accurate picture modes they end up looking flat and lifeless.... plasmas far outperform them in depth, contrast, motion resolution, and not to mention off angle viewing.

Plus, I like to have friends over to watch football. It sucks when John invites us over because he has a giant LCD and everyone always fights over the seats closest to the center of the room.

Looked at the GT again...looked pretty nice in the darkened Magnolia room. I noticed the price was the sameas the ST30. BTW, the ST30 and S30 had a 4 tube flourecent light above them, which I didn't pay attention to before

I'm very happy with my gt30 !
unless I was putting a TV in a bright sun room id go led but otherwise plasma and im glad I did. I can see the huge difference in quality once I had it home away from the evil leds. After messing with some settings and not even fully tuning it, it looks great!

Can't wait to get a calibrating disk

Just ordered a 60GT30. Now in the market for a good wall mount for it. I was looking at something like this. Anyone have experience with this brand/model? Any other recommendations?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882191027

I'm planning on installing power and patch panels directly behind the TV so am looking at a mount without a solid backing plate to ease cable installation. This will be my first flat panel installation since my DLP recently died.

Thanks!

Go back and look at the difference between the blacks, not the whites.

^^^ Not the best advice IMO....with all that lighting the LED/LCDs will still appear to have deeper blacks.

Just got my new 55gt30 home from best buy....it was part of the BB 55GT31 bundle with sound bar, avatar, glasses and blue ray player. Serial on the box is MG11990189. Does this mean I got one prior to the August patch for the fluctuating brightness issue???? Thanks

The build date is on the back of the set.

I just got the GT30 50 inch, my build date is July 2011. I won't be able to hook this up until Monday. There maybe a chance that mine was fixed, can anyone tell me what firmware number I should look for and also how to access the firmware number from the service menu from the TV.

My 65" is being delivered tomorrow, and I REALLY hope I get a newer build date. I would hate having to go back to the shop to get another one delivered.

53.41 is what your looking for.... under PDP EEP in SM...

How to get into service menu (Note that you can damage your TV if you don't know what you are doing; so stop now if you are nervous)
1. Turn TV On.
2. With TV on, hold down the volume down (-) button on the right side of the TV (not the controller).
3. While holding the volume (-) button down, point the remote at the TV IR sensor and press the "info" button on the controller three times.
4. The service menu will pop up after a few seconds.

The default screen that pops up is where it has all the software info will be; don't push any other buttons. When you are done turn the TV off or unplug it.

Has anyone gotten a 65GT30 from the Amazon Indiana distribution center lately and if so, what was the build date? Thanks.

I think I'm going for the 50" GT30. It's still on sale at BB for $999. Are there any cheaper elswhere? Does anyone know?

Also is there a way to determine the build date on the actual packaged box?

should have got the GT55 when Panasonic was bundling the 3D blue ray player. i decided to wait til black friday for another bundle or cheaper price. the price is the same and no bundles. (i'm going through the corporate discount site)

Oh good idea! I have that option as well. I did try to login yesterday but the site was down.

same here, i was having trouble too. i was thinking "they slashing prices and have to update their site!!!" i was so excited. then when i woke up and checked and saw the same price since as last week i was like "WTF!!"

It's cheaper! It's an extra $150 off for a limited time.

The price for the 60gt30 has dropped near the price of the panasonic site. I just pulled the trigger. No taxes makes it a better deal. I also picked up the BDT310 3D player for a good price.

Thanks for this heads up! I had been staring at the Panny site waiting to pull the trigger on a 60GT30, but had hopes of the Amazon drop...

BINGO! Thanks again for the heads up.

edit: nvm

David, mine arrived today with the above parameters and it has an August build date.

Bob