Official Panasonic 2012 Lineup and Information Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 53

Gotcha. Most places I've been they tend to have a BD player showing a movie.

You live in a better world than I do. The distribution systems can be crap.

The BD player must also be setup to output 24fps mode, since usually the default is 60hz. Then the TV has to be setup for 96hz mode too.

Would the 24fps mode of the panny be greyed out if the input isn't progressive?

I have a question on the Netflix app on these Panasonic Smart Vera TVs:

Does the Netflix have a SEARCH (and add movies to queue) feature?
Does the Netflix app have a SUB TITLE feature?

Thanks.

Yes on search and yes to subtitles if the movie supports it.

hi everybody,
actually i am new in plasma technology. i have Panasonic TC-P50ST50, so please is there anybody tell me what is 100 hours or 200 hours breaking time for plasma. and if i play the breaking dvd for 100 hours or 200 hours whats gonna happened after that.

Thanks Cyadip

Depends on whom you speak to. at the least, you'll have a panel that is evenly aged, & will be ready to apply D'nice's settings w/ some hope that they are correct for your set.
perhaps you will uncover some Infant Mortality Glitch before your return policy expires.
Also, the pq on your panel will change over the first several hundred hours - hopefully for the better - so it makes sense to wait before paying for a Pro calibration.

fwiw, prefer to use sd card for the slides instead of blue-ray. Less chance of somethng going wrong.
Disclaimer: while we run slides to help aging along, we also use other full-screen material AND will watch the odd Widescreen movie while still 'aging' the panel.
Good luck with your new set!

Hey everyone,

Yes I'm another one of them trying to figure out *which* Panasonic plasma to get. So let me outline my situation and I'd absolutely appreciate any/all information/advice anyone can give me.

1. So I'm choosing between a 60 inch ST50 and a 55 inch VT50.

2. I can get the Calman calibration software and hardware. As I understand, this is the biggest difference between the VT50 and the ST50? So if I got the calibration package and calibrated the VT50 myself, would it be far better than what I could do through the typical menus in the ST50?

3. Say I didn't get the calibration software and just used the typical menus on the ST50/VT50, would I essentially be able to get the same quality?

4. All in all from a pure hardware specification, does the VT50 stand out far above than the ST50? If so, does that hardware difference translate into just better picture quality?

I hope I gave anyone who reads this a good idea of what kind of TV purchaser I am. I appreciate any advice anyone can give me.

Thanks!

^^^

Not saying that you should get the ST over the VT but IMO you should not discount the extra 5 inches. I think in the long term you might be better served by the 60 over the incremental increases in features or PQ that the VT would afford. I've recently gone to the 60 and I think I would never go below 60 in the future. It's really easy to get used to the extra size.

Have you considered the GT50 at all? I know it's not available in all markets but it might be suitable for your needs. I've seem them priced very closely to the ST from some dealers and they do offer some nice features especially if you're not sure about getting your set professionally calibrated. Other features not withstanding, THX Day and Night modes alone on the GT50 were well worth it to me.

We have the GT50 here as well and if I was to consider that, it falls in the price range where I'd get the 60 inch version. Though looking through all the threads here, the majority seem to say that it's better to just get the ST50.

Or is that really only the case if I was to get a professional calibrator for the ST50? How good could I get the picture quality by using the menu settings for the ST50 and GT50? They have the same outside-of-service-menu settings, right? I totally know I'm gonna get a panasonic plasma... now it's just trying to find the right one!

Yeah I believe the menu settings are the same between the ST50 and the GT50. The main difference is the GT's THX Day and Night modes; they're spectacular IMO (comparing them to the single THX mode from my G15).

If you're getting the set calibrated though, I'd say the ST50 might be a better choice (if you can make do with one less HDMI input and the drop in shades of gradation from 24.5k on the VT/GT to the ST). Also the bezels are different. This is subjective of course but I didn't care for the bezel design on the ST, the GT's bezel looks really sharp IMO.

Hmm. I'm coming from a 46 inch, so going up to 55 will be nice and obviously 60 would be nicer. But I think at the end of the day, I'd love better picture. The question is... for someone like me, would the picture quality be much better on a VT50 in comparison to an ST50?

I'm actually okay with an uglier tv too. Though the THX modes you mention sound nice. Is it possible to tweak the settings on an ST50 to achieve the THX modes on the GT?

That's a good question. My guess would be yes but whether you can do that on your own without a professional calibration is the real question. Another note, how important to you is having two separate modes, one for night and another for day? I'm not sure how well you can tweak the other modes on the ST but my understanding is there is only one custom mode which means you'd have to choose whether to make it a day-viewing mode or a night-time mode. The GT has two THX modes, one for daytime and one for night.

Yeah I hope someone can drop by and sort of give an idea how far I can push each (st,gt,vt) by myself with the possibility of using calibration hardware/software on the VT.

I basically always close my blinds when I use my tv. So it's typically dark in my room, but obviously some light makes it through in the daytime. If I decide to get an ST, I might even hold out for a price drop for a 65 version...

One more IR question (sorry). I'm actually shopping for 2 TVs simultaneously right now.

There is a concern on the one set that closed captioning might cause bad IR.
Since most captions appear in the same bottom portion of the screen as text in black boxes, you'd think the same area will be continually covered by black (like watching all letterboxed movies).

Anyone have experience or suggestions?

Well IR doesn't happen instantly. It takes a steady image remaining on the screen long enough for the screen the retain the image. Closed Captioning changes every second as text changes every second in a movie. You're worrying too much over something that really isn't serious. Keep in mind you WILL experience IR at some point because that's the design of Plasma but it goes away after watching other content. You won't even notice it's there unless you put on slides displaying a static gray or white screen. You shouldn't really see it with normal TV viewing.

Think about this, your eyes work exactly the same as a Plasma screen. If you stare long enough at a bright image then shift your eyes either left, right up or down you will see that image retained in your retina. After several minutes it goes away.

I'm saying though that if you watch all programs with CC turned on, there will always be black boxes in the same area.

Except for DVD/BD's which don't use the black boxes (unless they only have CC instead of true subs), pretty much all programs watched on that set will include subtitles and the associated black boxes in the same region.

I've seen the area where the closed captions appears to move around, not always the same spot.
Also from what I've experienced, the 2012 Panasonic plasmas don't seem to get IR from black areas like side, top/bottom black bars.
The IR susceptibility seems to be from bright white text and logos if they stay in the same spot for a period.
The only IR I have seen for example has been from the bright white text of the menu system, like the word "Menu" in the upper left corner.
Haven't seen any IR at all from black areas.

I guess I'm just remembering CRTs in public areas where closed captioning had been left on so long the bottom portion of the screen shows true burn in.

The idea of plasma image rention makes me twitchy, especially if can turn to burn in over time.

Thanks.

The VT and GT will perform similarly in THX mode. The VT has the advantage of having the ISF modes for more precise calibrating and can achieve slightly better grayscale and color accuracy.

I believe sheshechic said that the VT50's filter makes the picture very slightly dimmer in a brightroom, but will probably retain black levels slightly better.

You might as well get the ST50 then.

THX modes are good if you're not getting it calibrated and they are good options for day and night viewing. Aesthetics, features/inputs also might give you reasons to get a GT50. But ya, after calibration, the ST and GT will perform the same.

Wow so many model numbers. I guess you expect everyone to know what TV you're referring to? . Is the VW95 a car?

Huh? Go read some reviews. The VT50 is ranked as the best picture quality of the year and Cnet called it the best plasma ever made second only to the Kuro.
Panasonic is NOT like Samsung putting the same image quality into every model and just shaving features on the way down.

The ST50 and GT50 calibrated are identical though. The GT50 is only useful if you have no money for a VT50 and no intention of getting your ST50 calibrated (or you need a 4th HDMI input).

Buy a VT50 and see for yourself. At least one review, that I can recall, said that the improvements were slight, The VT50 is better in some areas but only slightly and about the same in other areas. And some may not like the overall effect of the slightly better filter. I owned them both. At the time the 55VT50 was slightly less money than the 60GT50. IMO, it wasn't worth the loss of those 5", I expected more. Had it been calibrated I may or may not have realized my expectations, however I liked the GT50 so much that I kept asking myself if I really needed a professional calibration to be happy.

The red text is messing with me. lol

The main advantage of the VT50 is the ISF modes...they allow you to really dial in the picture. However, the ST/GT are already very good without the 10pt white balance/gamma and color management system in the VT50 so the differences are fairly minor and would be hard to notice unless you looked at them side by side.

Yep.