Official Panasonic 2011 TC-PxxS30 Thread - Page 9

I bought the P50S30 a week ago at Kmart ($750) after giving up waiting on Amazon to drop their price. Kmart does not have the same restrictive return policy as Sears (15% restocking charge). I was assured that as long as the TV was returned to Kmart in the shipping box with all materials within 90 days, I would get a full refund. I was not thrilled when I realized that the P50S30 I purchased had been previously purchased, but since I wanted the same option, I decided to keep it and see how it performed. So far I have been pleasantly surprised to see the improvements in picture quality over the TH-42PX77U that I bought four years ago. The old TV went to the basement, where the lighting issues will not be a problem. Even when new, I usually closed off the vertical blinds for the large picture window a few feet away from the screen in the upstairs family room because the TH-42PX77U picture never stood out in daylight. Despite what I've read in this forum, the P50S30 screen is easily viewable in a brighter room at normal settings. I was also amazed that this 50" TV is over 20 pounds lighter than the old Panny 42". I have run the aforementioned slide show a few times, but most of our viewing has been normal HD programming. Watching the slide show, I have looked closely for abnormal color splotching and so far, all is OK. In short, there's been a lot of scare talk about bright light viewing and video gaming on plasma that I believe is overblown. The TH-42PX77U has been used more as an Xbox 360 screen than anything else for most of its up time with no ill effects.

My only problem with this set that I didn't anticipate is the lack of any other audio output but one optical out. I may add a soundbar at some point, but what I really wanted was the option to use a single wireless Bluetooth speaker. I want the ability to listen discreetly without the bother of headphones. I already have the Creative D100. So far I've had difficulty finding a Bluetooth transmitter with optical input capability, and I'm concerned that converting optical to RCA jacks or 3.5mm will possibly introduce a sync lag that will put the audio behind the screen. If anyone out there knows a way to do this short of spending several hundred dollars on a wireless home theater, I'd appreciate the info.

Does this tv have hdmi ARC? I just got a Panasonic sound bar with sub and it said if I want to control the bar volume with the tv remote I would have to connect with optical and hdmi arc....

This is completely wrong by the way. I know you are a well respected opinion around here but day one of this thread it seems like you have a vendetta against this tv.

After I set up both this and the st in my Costco right next to each other, both in front of the large entry door, the reflection was almost identical. Please, the st might be a better unit in some ways but you all need to recognize that it really is not that much more grand than the s30. Both are great sets, stone people like spending under a grand. Let them. And don't falsely represent a product

I tried asking this in another thread and got no replies so I thought I'd try here-here's my problem-on the very left edge of the screen I have a vertical strip about 4 or 5 pixels wide where the picture is off center-what I need to do is shift the picture to the left to eliminate this-any ideas what I need to do in the service menu? Or does the tv need to go back to Best Buy for an exchage since I'm still in my 30 day return window?

The s30 has two audio outputs: the toslink connection and the HDMI ARC.

I'm not sure what the bother is about headphones? You could easily find a pair of wireless cans with a fiber optic input: the turtle beach X41 is a great example. The X41 will run you less than 150 and will also work with your Xbox for sound plus chat. If you're ok with a wired solution you could go with the turtle beach DX12 or the Tritton 720s.

Another option would be to buy an inexpensive receiver equipped with hdmi. I bought my onkyo 509 for less than 200 the day after Christmas-- I just saw the excellent pioneer 921 going for 230 on deal news (think Walmart was having the sale). Not sure about the pioneer but my onkyo will simulate surround sound out of just two speakers. Everyone has an extra pair of speakers hanging around!

I use the onkyo to power my legacy Cambridge soundworks movieworks speaker ensemble and use the ps3 wireless headphones for listening late at night or when the GF is doing homework. I prefer the sound from my turtle beach X11s but I keep those in the spare room on my dedicated gaming rig.

Yes. HDMI 1 is ARC. You do not need to use an optical cable, just connect the soundbar into the HDMI ARC port.

I have made three changes to the settings I posted above. While watching the SB last night the Giants jerseys seemed washed out, not very good detail at all. So I made these changes to correct the problem:

Contrast: 58
Brightness: 53
Color: 40

Every other setting remained the same except one, I did lower sharpness to 23.

Let me know what you think, my TV has about 230 hours on it now. Don't know if that will make a difference or not when calibrating your TV.

I was wondering about break in on these tvs. I recently purchased a Panasonic TC-P60S30, coming from a TC-P42s2 I am a huge Panasonic fan after owning my S2 for a little over 2 years now. My question is I have read quite a few people referring to D-Nice break-settings, I found a thread (official Panasonic settings/issue thread) but I am a bit confused from everything I have read you do not want to turn contrast above 50 for the first 100-200hrs and his settings have it 100? Next question is he states "This procedure is NOT designed nor recommended to be used as Break-in, Image Retention and/or Burn-in prevention." I just want to make sure to do this right, with my S2 there was so many posts and great professional calibrations want to make sure I use the right settings for the first little bit and then the best I can after that. Any help with either of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

It is amazing how far plasma tvs have came since I purchased my s2 in 2010

Finally got my defaults recorded, I have attached them for 1badabing2005 (and others) to compare.





I had the same problem, 1badabing2005 helped me out with this. You should get the Slides, set your picture settings a certain way, then run those slides for 100 hours.

Here are the steps. First you need a flash drive. Download these slide images located here: Slide Download

Put the images onto your flash drive and plug it into your TV USB Port. Make sure you don't have other images on the flash drive as you want only the slides displaying.

Now set your TV with the below options:

Next, run the slides. Do so by Pressing Viera Tools on the remote. Go to Media Player, and choose Photos. Then hit the Red Button and set your slideshow settings as follows:


Now, start a timer or something for 100 hours


There are lots of debates on whether this is necessary or not...I've read it both ways. Some state the TV's come "pre-aged"...other's say they don't and that is a myth. Other's say they don't need it...others say they do.

I really don't know the answer but I chose to do it with my set to ensure even aging of the Phosphors. Assuming you do the above, you would then calibrate afterwards.
Good luck, hope this helps!

Can anyone recommend some good calibration setting for game mode to play COD? Or should I play with the default settings it came with. Just got my TC-P60S30

I bought this set two sundays ago. How can you not for $899
I do have the buzzing sounds that vary in volume with whats on the screen, and sadly have the pink blob issue. Have only used it twice and it is in a bedroom and not the primary tv. Im thinking of wall mounting this and liviong with those two issues but will see how i feel after a couple of weeks.
Even though there is no critical viweing on it my first intsinct is to box it back up and return it. The buzzing i could live with as it's not ridiculous but the pink blobs that have shown themselves in about 5 spots on both sides of the set? I'm not so sure about them. But it cool having this set in a bedroom. We'll have to see though...

I have a tech coming thursday... I'll update the thread with the result of that visit.

The pink blob I do not know about. But the buzzing noise you are hearing coming from the TV at low volume is very common in all plasma. I have not seen a plasma that does not have some form of buzzing especially on white screens. Ambient noise usually covers the slight buzz out. Check out the FAQ it is even in there.

I don't get the buzzing noise, but read in another thread that it could be fixed by tightening few screws.
You might not want to do that while your TV is in warranty.

there was a youtube video link posted, search for it.

Badabing

I'm a newbie to this do you know or have any calibration settings for game mode. I have both PS3 and Xbox hooked up to my S30. I used your setting in cinema mode TV looks sick.

Thanks for the defaults Newyears1978.
It looks like each TV's default are different, perhaps the results of factory calibration.
I calibrated a friend's S30 and that too had totally different defaults.

I'll try to tabulate and draw some conclusions, but it appears that the defaults are to be guarded safely, as using someone else's defaults wouldn't be a good fit.

Warning to all that play with Service Menu settings, make sure you record your defaults before mocking around.

Awesome, thanks. My burn in time ends in about 2 hours..so looking forward to setting things up..but as you said since defaults are different, calibration values may differ as well...so I'm unsure what settings to use.

I will use Cinema default until you come back with some possible conclusions or solutions.

Thanks for all your help.

Just picked the 50 inch up...anyone got good/starter settings

I wanted to thank you for simplifying it down some and putting the info in one spot. 2hrs and counting lol did notice that it looks like it is brighter on the left/right sides of the screen almost like bleed thu like and LCD has. Anyone else having issues like this?

You're welcome, I know how frustrating it was for me starting..had some people here not helped I'd still be stuck!

My 100 hours just ended..woot.

I didn't notice any bleed like you mention...sometimes I thought I saw like color varation bars or something..but its hard to say...the images seem to play tricks on my eyes.

Most the issues seem to only show on solid images..not actual picture/tv/etc.

Can you post a shot of the "bleed"?

How can you tell how many hours or on your panny?

I wish you luck but suspect you will encounter no luck. Please do post what happens.


Ok the buzzing I was not really aware of while in the room to the point I couldn't get over it by any means. The pink blob thing though is weird. It's not something you notice all the time. Buy when it's there, wow do you notice it. Each set I'm sure is different though so I suspect some do some dont. I may deal with it simply because the price was right and its a bedroom tv. Maybe I will try to watch an hour on each night up to the return date.
It is a sweet tv for $899 though.

The heavy pink tint on the left side of my screen makes that side 'look' darker than the right... does that count?

Lucky guy I am still going. I did notice however for new people starting this

Be sure and set your settings while in the Viera Tools if you set it outside of that once you go into Viera tools it will default to Standard, or at least it is on my TV (I am not sure if I have the latest firmware it was made in December 2011 but I haven't put internet on it yet). I will see about getting pics it might have been doing it because it was semi cold first time being on in about 12hrs.

I hope doing 2hrs with standard settings didn't hurt the TV but heck I didn't know other then I kept saying man that isn't as bright as it is with the Roku screen.

And Sage ROFL No man I think you are still head of us all with one said darker lol....

Also has anyone used Netflix on theres? how does it run? I am trying to decide to buy the wireless adapter for the TV or buy another roku let me have some opinions.

Sorry Dodger Nation
I don't have any settings for Game mode.
I don't think you need any calibration tools for it, as calibration is usually done to get the most natural color reproduction, which would not be the case for Game mode, which requires Vivid, high contrast, high color setting.

I suggest you play with the settings (not service menu) so that it's pleasing to you (this is just my opinion)

As for Cinema mode, you say it looks sick.
I suspect you mean sick bad and not sick good.
Would you care describe what's sickening about it so that we could try to help out?

I tend to like Cinema mode, except I generally don't like "Warm" setting so I changed that to Normal and moved the other bits a bit.

Not sure why but with Cinema mode all the screen dooring seems to be gone..or at least faded.

Any other mode and that dithering is really visible (up close)...but Cinema mode...it just looks much better. Still need to get it tweaked...not worrying about it right now..I have other issues.

I wanna link to my other problems just in case anyone in here is keen on USB cables, HDD's, PS3's...as this one is driving me nuts:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0#post21613210

I think you should stick with Cinema defaults, which to me is the closest to a good factory calibration unless you get a meter and do a proper calibration.

I'm unable to draw any conclusions based on the data I have so far.
each TV's default factory settings are different.
I assumed that's because each TV is pre-calibrated at factory.
if that is the case, the calibration is not consistent.

looking at my pre-calibration readings, and comparing it to my friend's pre-calibration readings (both measured using a calibrator), you can clearly see that, mine had High reds and low blues, whereas my friend's had high blues and low reds.

Granted not too far off, specially mine, where Delta E values were consistently under 10 (pre-calibration)

these are my SM offsets which brought my Delta E values under the desired 3
R-Cut +7
B-Cut +5
R-Drv -0F (hex, which would be 15)
B-Drv +3

I just tried Netflix and it worked flawlessly. I needed to do a software update so I went ahead with that. It has the best HD picture compared TIVO, Xbox 360, Sony BDP and a PS3. The audio, unfortunately, is only stereo.

I've been following this thread as it develops and it's really interesting to see the service mode defaults roll in (I'll document the other temperature settings when I get a spare moment to give you a full sample). I must say the variation is more than I would have expected, however in the same respect I must say that overall I feel good about applying the offsets. I think I must have miscalculated your R-DRV offset, but for me -7 looks pretty nice and at this point its such a gut shot I'm not sure whether to play with it or not lol. Biggest thing I've noticed is that it's removed that overly red feeling that the Warm setting gave me for Cinema mode.

I'm just curious -- where did you get your color meter? I've heard of folks using Blue Filters too, not sure if that'd be a cheaper alternative... can you or anyone else offer insight? The OCD part of me is just screaming at me to play with these service menu settings further

Thanks, I think I might stick with the Cinema setting, and tweak those slightly to my liking. It seems to look good enough without risk of messing something in SM up. Will require more testing but so far..seems to look pretty good.
I'm not having and green blob or brightness flickering or any other issues that I can tell either so that's good :P

PS3 looks pretty sweet as long as I'm not 1ft from the TV, lol ;P