Official Panasonic 2011 TC-PxxVT30 Series Thread Discussion Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 200

Originally Posted by TitusTroy

...so anyone who says that IR is no longer a problem on 2011 sets is misinformed

Originally Posted by wcmartin

My 65VT30 manufacture date is Nov 2011. Have 2.2 firmware and eeprom 84.46. Have had set for two weeks. I'm noticing screen flicker (flashing) reqularly when watching hockey games. It's not the brightness fluctuate I have read about. Any ideas for fix? Is this an adjustment or service call to Panasonic. I have done the 100 hr and D-Nice calibration set-up. Flicker was there before the calibration set-up. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by ne0busin3ss

Hi,

During the first 100 hours -probably 55- 65%. The logo was always on during the shows, off during commercials, so it was not a constant on situation. The set seems fine for now, I can barely see any residual DC artifacts.

Originally Posted by mnjeepmale

Another thing not I noticed. When using Youtube in Vieracast I can't get the same content as searching from a pc. I even added a video to my favorites and went to the tv to try and play it, well it didn't appear. Is this app limited on the content or a parential setting that I need to adjust? Anything else I should be aware of with the apps on the tv?

Originally Posted by wcmartin

My 65VT30 manufacture date is Nov 2011. Have 2.2 firmware and eeprom 84.46. Have had set for two weeks. I'm noticing screen flicker (flashing) reqularly when watching hockey games. It's not the brightness fluctuate I have read about. Any ideas for fix? Is this an adjustment or service call to Panasonic. I have done the 100 hr and D-Nice calibration set-up. Flicker was there before the calibration set-up. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by BillP

I don't recall anyone saying that (permanent burn-in is another matter and is pretty rare with 2011 sets). The moral of the story is to avoid hours upon hours on the same channel if a static logo.

Originally Posted by Bluescale

I notice the same thing on my ST30. I believe this is related to ABL, but I'm not sure. To me it looks the same as a CRT that is set at a refresh rate that's too low. I only notice it on a scene when there's a lot of bright content, which is why I think it might have to do with ABL.

Originally Posted by kevin_mahaney

It sounds like an HDMI problem (shouldn't have to do specifically with ARC). Did you try switching cables, or trying different inputs on both the TV and Marantz (TV HDMI 1 to Marantz HDMI 2, TV HDMI 2 to Marantz HDMI 3, etc)? Make sure as many variables as possible are eliminated, it could be a very simple fix.

Originally Posted by Jigsore

Well, I found a deal on a 2011 Samsung 64D8000 and pulled the trigger. No matter what I did, my VT30 just had too many issues. The black level was not as great as I expected, the colors were too robust, terrible line bleed, jittery motion, but worst of all was the flickering screen. After an ISF calibration the problems were better, but still there.
...

Originally Posted by WiFi-Spy

What picture mode were you using?

Originally Posted by mvp2005fan

Glad you got something you can be happy with!

May I please ask: who did your calibration?

Originally Posted by nevea2be

Lately I've been noticing that during certain scenes I see a horizontal line right in the middle of the TV screen that doesn't match anything in the picture itself. I have seen others where there where blinds in the back ground and the person standing in front of them would have the lines matching the blinds running across their face. Any thoughts? I thought I read that someone else had the issue but no idea what came about it.

About my set: All different sources running (directv, blu-ray, streaming) using D-nice's settings. Had the set since Aug, Sept?

Originally Posted by Jigsore

Well, I found a deal on a 2011 Samsung 64D8000 and pulled the trigger. No matter what I did, my VT30 just had too many issues. The black level was not as great as I expected, the colors were too robust, terrible line bleed, jittery motion, but worst of all was the flickering screen. After an ISF calibration the problems were better, but still there. I am new to plasma, and have had rear projection and LED in the past, but the reports of deep black level drew me to the VT30. Since I have owned it I was always wondering about the "superior motion handling" of plasma technology, as my set looked like someone was dragging the picture across the screen, and with the motion smoother on it was totally unnatural. When watching a blu-ray in the right lighting conditions the picture was jaw dropping. Unfortunately the TV was too fickle, and would only look good on a Wednesday, between 2 and 4 PM, facing north, etc...

Part of the issue was with Comcast in my area. It is a pretty bad signal, and I was getting a lot of pixelation, and noise that wasn't there on blu-ray. Sometimes I wondered if the PQ was so high that it just amplified the problems with my signal, or anything that was not the highest resolution possible. This still didn't fix my black levels, or colors, etc.

So now after a few days with the Samsung, I will report that all is not perfect, but definitely the set I should have bought in the first place. With just some minor tweaks in the menu the PQ looks almost as good as my VT30 after a full calibration. The motion is much smoother, to my naked eye the black level looks almost as good, my cable signal looks a hundred times better, the 3D is almost perfect, the glasses are minimally a hundred times more comfortable, and most of all, and I can't stress it enough, there is minimal flicker! It is still there, but not even remotely close to as bad as the VT30. Now I feel like I am getting the benefits of plasma technology without all of the drawbacks of before.

Panasonic came out twice to look at my set and tell me that it is performing perfectly, and the flicker will be as bad on any PDP panel, so I believed them. The icing on the cake was a couple of weeks ago I had to go to the electronics store to pick up a laptop bag, and looking over the sales floor they had about a hundred TV's on the wall. Most of them were on "torch mode", but there was one in the bunch that was flickering like crazy. I thought, "hey, that set flickers as bad as mine. I wonder what kind of TV that is?" I walked over to it, and guess what... VT30. At that moment, I knew that change was inevitable, and I was so frustrated that I almost shelled out for a new Elite. Thankfully I took a deep breath, and looked for a good deal before pulling out my wallet.

So a few days ago, at the same store, they had one of their last D8000's on a really good sale, so I pulled up a seat and watched it for about an hour, played with the settings, etc. and now I have a VT30 for sale. Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see what the hype is about, but it is just not the set for me. For some reason I find it baffling that a man can live with an artificial heart replacement, but a television manufacturer can't make a TV set without issues.

Originally Posted by Andrew Sabin

Jigsore,

I can tell you I just got my 65vt30 calibrated on ISF mode and there is a huge difference between THX mode and ISF. The calibrated ISF mode produces much better PQ than THX. My calibrator spent 5 hours fine tuning ISF mode. They're limited adjustments available in THX mode.

I had the Samsung 64d7000 for a few days and it buzzed like crazy...I could hear it with the volume at a moderate level. Also the black level on the Samsung was not as deep as the Panasonic. The motion handling on both sets is comparable from my recollection. I notice no objectionable flicker on my vt30 (and I'm very picky). I do see the same line bleed on all Plasma, that's more noticeable on larger sets. The line bleed is rarely visible during normal content. Plasma aren't advisable as a computer monitor anyway. Everyone has their opinion, but I'd say both the Panasonic and Samsung are great plasmas. Properly calibrated in ISF mode, the Panny has amazing PQ. There's definitely no perfect TV...even the best sets like these 2 have tradeoffs. I don't know if I could live with the Samsung buzzing.

Originally Posted by Jigsore


My VT30 has the THX, and Custom modes calibrated, and I have tried every setting in the book, including turning the contrast, and brightness all the way down just to see if the flicker would go away. Unfortunately it didn't. And it is not something that most people see. My wife said that she couldn't tell what I was talking about, but the calibrator said he sees it too and believes the problem is with power supplies not providing enough juice to power the white levels of the display so they can maintain Energy Star ratings. To me that makes sense.

I have read several other posts, and articles where people have mentioned the same thing you said, "I am very picky", but I don't think it is a matter of that. I think it is something your eyes pick up, or don't. Actually, I feel like I was pretty lucky with the quality of the VT30. I didn't have any FBR, or buzzing, and after calibration the picture was amazing outside of the flicker. This Samsung is definitely not a perfect set, and it does have some issues like minor FBR, and the black level is not as good (although without a meter it is hard to tell), also, the build quality is not as solid, the stand is ugly, etc. Not to mention that I have had terrible quality control issues with Samsung in the past.

I really tried to overlook the issues I was having on the Panasonic, but in the end it just didn't work for me. If you don't see the flicker, you have a heck of a nice TV set. It has been pretty strange to try to sell this thing. So far everyone has said "why are you selling the Panasonic and buying the Samsung?" And then I tell them the truth about seeing the flicker, then they are not interested. Oh well. At least I can enjoy movies and TV a little more in the mean time.

Originally Posted by WiFi-Spy

It sounds like you are sensitive to phosphor based displays. Did you have any issues in the past while using CRT computer monitors?

Originally Posted by hhvdketi1

There was a whole section dedicated to this issue in 50GT30 review at UK AV forum. It is referred to as 50Hz bug.
There are also very active threads on the same forum that discuss the issue. Seems like everybady cares but Panasonic

Originally Posted by nevea2be

Lately I've been noticing that during certain scenes I see a horizontal line right in the middle of the TV screen that doesn't match anything in the picture itself. I have seen others where there where blinds in the back ground and the person standing in front of them would have the lines matching the blinds running across their face. Any thoughts? I thought I read that someone else had the issue but no idea what came about it.

About my set: All different sources running (directv, blu-ray, streaming) using D-nice's settings. Had the set since Aug, Sept?

Originally Posted by Bluescale

This sounds like line bleed to me. I see it most on the green rating screen preceding previews. The first time I saw it, I thought something was horribly wrong. Turns out it's a common phenomenon on some plasmas.

Take a look at the second photo on this page. It describes what you're seeing with the blindes exactly:

http://www.tweakguides.com/HDTV_10.html

Originally Posted by Jigsore

Well, I found a deal on a 2011 Samsung 64D8000 and pulled the trigger. No matter what I did, my VT30 just had too many issues. The black level was not as great as I expected, the colors were too robust, terrible line bleed, jittery motion, but worst of all was the flickering screen. After an ISF calibration the problems were better, but still there. I am new to plasma, and have had rear projection and LED in the past, but the reports of deep black level drew me to the VT30. Since I have owned it I was always wondering about the "superior motion handling" of plasma technology, as my set looked like someone was dragging the picture across the screen, and with the motion smoother on it was totally unnatural. When watching a blu-ray in the right lighting conditions the picture was jaw dropping. Unfortunately the TV was too fickle, and would only look good on a Wednesday, between 2 and 4 PM, facing north, etc...

Part of the issue was with Comcast in my area. It is a pretty bad signal, and I was getting a lot of pixelation, and noise that wasn't there on blu-ray. Sometimes I wondered if the PQ was so high that it just amplified the problems with my signal, or anything that was not the highest resolution possible. This still didn't fix my black levels, or colors, etc.

So now after a few days with the Samsung, I will report that all is not perfect, but definitely the set I should have bought in the first place. With just some minor tweaks in the menu the PQ looks almost as good as my VT30 after a full calibration. The motion is much smoother, to my naked eye the black level looks almost as good, my cable signal looks a hundred times better, the 3D is almost perfect, the glasses are minimally a hundred times more comfortable, and most of all, and I can't stress it enough, there is minimal flicker! It is still there, but not even remotely close to as bad as the VT30. Now I feel like I am getting the benefits of plasma technology without all of the drawbacks of before.

Panasonic came out twice to look at my set and tell me that it is performing perfectly, and the flicker will be as bad on any PDP panel, so I believed them. The icing on the cake was a couple of weeks ago I had to go to the electronics store to pick up a laptop bag, and looking over the sales floor they had about a hundred TV's on the wall. Most of them were on "torch mode", but there was one in the bunch that was flickering like crazy. I thought, "hey, that set flickers as bad as mine. I wonder what kind of TV that is?" I walked over to it, and guess what... VT30. At that moment, I knew that change was inevitable, and I was so frustrated that I almost shelled out for a new Elite. Thankfully I took a deep breath, and looked for a good deal before pulling out my wallet.

So a few days ago, at the same store, they had one of their last D8000's on a really good sale, so I pulled up a seat and watched it for about an hour, played with the settings, etc. and now I have a VT30 for sale. Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see what the hype is about, but it is just not the set for me. For some reason I find it baffling that a man can live with an artificial heart replacement, but a television manufacturer can't make a TV set without issues.

Originally Posted by Jigsore

Well, I found a deal on a 2011 Samsung 64D8000 and pulled the trigger. No matter what I did, my VT30 just had too many issues. The black level was not as great as I expected, the colors were too robust, terrible line bleed, jittery motion, but worst of all was the flickering screen. After an ISF calibration the problems were better, but still there. I am new to plasma, and have had rear projection and LED in the past, but the reports of deep black level drew me to the VT30. Since I have owned it I was always wondering about the "superior motion handling" of plasma technology, as my set looked like someone was dragging the picture across the screen, and with the motion smoother on it was totally unnatural.

Originally Posted by mgambarota

I have this same issue of jittery motion during pans on regular directv stations and while watching blu rays. Is this a common issue or do others have this same issue?

Originally Posted by Jigsore


My VT30 has the THX, and Custom modes calibrated, and I have tried every setting in the book, including turning the contrast, and brightness all the way down just to see if the flicker would go away. Unfortunately it didn't. And it is not something that most people see. My wife said that she couldn't tell what I was talking about, but the calibrator said he sees it too and believes the problem is with power supplies not providing enough juice to power the white levels of the display so they can maintain Energy Star ratings. To me that makes sense.

I have read several other posts, and articles where people have mentioned the same thing you said, "I am very picky", but I don't think it is a matter of that. I think it is something your eyes pick up, or don't. Actually, I feel like I was pretty lucky with the quality of the VT30. I didn't have any FBR, or buzzing, and after calibration the picture was amazing outside of the flicker. This Samsung is definitely not a perfect set, and it does have some issues like minor FBR, and the black level is not as good (although without a meter it is hard to tell), also, the build quality is not as solid, the stand is ugly, etc. Not to mention that I have had terrible quality control issues with Samsung in the past.

I really tried to overlook the issues I was having on the Panasonic, but in the end it just didn't work for me. If you don't see the flicker, you have a heck of a nice TV set. It has been pretty strange to try to sell this thing. So far everyone has said "why are you selling the Panasonic and buying the Samsung?" And then I tell them the truth about seeing the flicker, then they are not interested. Oh well. At least I can enjoy movies and TV a little more in the mean time.

Originally Posted by wcmartin

Did he say anything about pictur flicker when watching hockey games?

Originally Posted by nevea2be

That would be my blinds issue there. Thanks Blue! Have you or anyone else been able to have it corrected?

The article says "Some of these issues may be reduced over time on a plasma as the phosphors age" My set didn't do this before (that I noticed anyway) and it's not doing it a whole lot but is it a sign of things to come?