LG 50PA6500 and LG 60PA6500 Plasmas - Page 15

Bbc3, blAcks do not produce more heat than whites, a Plasmas maximum power draw is achieved on a white screen. Plasmas have likely become more power efficient regardless of brightness. Take a look at some cnet reviews to get an idea of where power draw falls once the tvs are calibrated to the same output.

i been happy with my lg pa5500 .do i need to update too and how do i update coz there is no Internet cable

I'm curious on the update too. Ironically, on lg's site, my tv (60PA6550) doesnt exist. That said I won't be using the software they released, but in the event they do release software for my model, I'd like to know the updating procedure. Thanks!I

The 430 watt number comes straight out of the LG manual. The 750w-1000w numbers come from Fry Electronics sale ads. I wouldn't pay $100 for a PSU since a 430watter goes for about $30, but if you're into gaming you probably wouldn't blink twice about spending that kind of money and having 3 or 4 LCD monitors.

Hi there: I think I bricked it because I turned it off before it was completely done. When I got the TV to recognize the file (but only by doing the keypress recommended on here) - it was not very straightforward.

I got the firmware update screen and progress bar. I left the room while the TV was updating and when I came back, the screen was black (I thought it was off), In fact it was still updating and I turned off the TV (you're not supposed to do this).

When turning the TV back on, I had horizontal Green and Purple fine lines and could only turn off the set by unplugging. No responses from remote or front panel buttons.
LG's system was down so they couldn't send a tech out.
So, I simply returned the set to HH Gregg and asked for a replacement. They exchanged it no problem (I still had all the original packaging).

Of course I am deathly afraid to do this again, but would rather do it during the 14 day return period in case it bricks my TV AGAIN....

has anyone else been successful? The release notes say that the 480i picture is improved (for non-HD sources) but the version is lower (3.01.06) than the one my TV has.
Strange, right?

I'm just glad I had a hassle free exchange to save my rear.

Agreed, I somewhat gathered the point he was trying to make however. Still it should be noted that the CONDUCTIVE type heat generated from a pc is not comparable to a Plasma television. There are some similarities to a minor degree ( power supplies, transformers, etc). But to be sure the poster is aware - WE are talking the heat generated at the point of the display, and expressly from the display. The heat comming from the power suppl is miniscule in relation.

PCs generate their heat from a multitude of sources ranging from the power supply to the CPU. Ever cranked up a P4 - 3.4 ghz processor without the heat sink and fan on? It will shut down in the first few seconds of boot from heat overload. Touch it with your finger at that time and it will take the skin off like a hot frying pan!! Most of your heat in PCs is at the point of the processing chips. This is not to say that it does not apply to televisions. For example, I DO speculate that the 240hhz LCDs require UP TO twice the power of the 120's just because of this processing going on at this chip. Therefore there could be a substantial elevation of temperature out of the back of these tv's due to same. But regarding LCD general power consumption. You will find the LCDs (Especially LED Driven) down as low as 12$/year on the ratings, and the 240 hz models of comparable sizes as high as 25$/yr. The new M series Vizio is a good example of this.

What I would like to see is a thread devoted to Televsionsion heat at the point of the screen. Perhaps folks even measuring the output with a gun or probe type thermometer up close. This would be valuable information. I would also like a better understanding of what type of frequencies are generated at the point of the screen, how plasma compares to LCD and LED LCD. And what are the various factors influencing what diffrenent screens are generating.

I would spculate that in Plasma technology - 70% of the total heat dispersed is generated at the screen. Whereas I am thinking the LCDs are more 50/50 or less...

You may be in the wrong thread for this. Screen frequency generation isn't really a topic of concern of interest for the vast majority of HDTV owners.

Also I have a IR temp gun I could point right at my 50PA5500 screen, however I don't feel that would be scientific enough to satisfy this discussion. Plus I don't have a comparable LED for a baseline reading. I will say the TV runs a bit warm if you put your hand around the back of it, however the screen seems close enough to ambient to to not be noticeable. I've had some LED TVs recently as well, the backs of those were cooler than the plasma, I have had LG and Panasonic plasmas recently, none of them were like older plasma where you could put your hand behind the set and really feel the heat coming off the displays like they had a toaster inside of them.

Yes, its just a point that I was making that a thread needs to be devoted to this.

And there is no doubt that regardless of end used settings, I suspect that these newer plasmas are putting off less heat from the screen. But the bottom line is that its understated. I GUARANTEE you I have paid for a TV over again through elevated air conditioning bills...

I have a 50PA6500 on order that should be here next week. This will be my first plasma so everything related to them is brand new to me.

Given the fact that the burn in/break in thread has nearly 130 pages and searching them has proved fruitless... can anyone suggest break in settings for this unit?

I see mention of break in slides/images so I assume there is something that comes on a disk or preloaded on the set that has some images that you can use while you are not physically watching the tv to accrue break in hours. Is this correct?

I have also noticed that this model does not support ARC. I have read posts on here about hooking an ARC supported sound bar up by running the components through the bar into the tv and also using the TOSLINK cable. I suspect this may get my volume control to work with the tv remote but it probably does nothing for turning on/off the sound bar. Am I correct in my assumption?

Thanks in advance for any answers. There is a ton of knowledge and answers on this site if you can only find it.

No. TV manufactures barely mention anything related to a break in period. There is a lot of bad stigma around plasmas with this stuff, no one would buy one if a Best Buy employee handed a customer a SD card and said "Play these slides for 100 hours before watching TV"

Just turn the brightness and contrast below 60 for the first 100 hours. The set keeps track of the hours for you. Menu-> Options - > Red button on remote.
After you're above 100 hours, then you can go nuts, just don't pause a game without a screensaver... Also, you can use the Orbital Shifter to move the picture every few minutes to avoid burn in.

I'm seeing pixellation on some cable tv HD channels. worried about olympics viewing. have cable box set to output 720p (as to not get conversion issues forcing to 1080i).

Wondering if a good HDMI receiver (Onkyo, Pioneer, Denon) will help by upconverting video to 1080p.

Any advice? Never seen this before with old Panny - shouldn't see AT ALL with Plasma. Thanks

Thanks for the answers thusfar.

I have seen some comments on particular sets being vulnerable to pixellation due to weak signal. I cannot remember if the PA6500's were one of them or not. The line that this set will be on is only split once so hopefully I will not run into weak signal pixellation issues. My old cable provider itself was prone to digital signal issues. Here's to hoping that the new owner (Time Warner Cable) is better in that respect.

I think most plasmas will make a bad signal look bad, it isn't really unique to LG. There are some settings you can fiddle with to try improving things from compression artifacts.

Since we put about 100 hours on the 6550 I decided to do the calibration with the Disney WOW disk. Interestingly, the TVs own calibration "TV Wizard" was very close to the settings determined with the WOW disk. The WOW disk also contained some stunning images that really make the TV shine. In fact, I would say this tv's picture is stunning.

Setting are:
Contrast 92
Brightness 53
Color 60
Tint 0
Color temp Medium*
Horizontal and vertical Focus are both 13

Everything else is left at the factory settings.

*I've actually set up three versions: In Cinema setting the color temp is "Warm" and I've set up Expert 1 to be "Medium" and Expert 2 to be "Cool". This way I can quickly choose a scheme that looks best for a given piece of media.

I'm now going to watch letter-boxed movies without worrying about burn-in. During the break-in period I've seen no evidence of IR or burn-in.

So far this set is exceeding my expectations.

what's the difference between the 50PA6500 and the 50PA5500? do either of these have 10 or 20-point grayscale controls and/or 2D CMS? how are the black levels on each? what kind of screen coating do they have and how well do they hold up contrast/black levels with significant ambient light?

no difference.there is 20 point.i am very happy with this plasma tv after the calibration .there was some dithering in the first 100 hrs but after screen slide show and calibration from amazon its gone.

i'm realizing I'm seeing "artifacts" because this TV is too good for my compressed cable signal.
the broadcast channels are not as compressed and the picture is amazing.
I followed the "Amazon" settings, and they are very true to life.
Will try a blu-ray this weekend.

(still in burn in period, have contrast and brightness at 60)

Just an FYI on power consumption, I have the 60" PA6500, I plugged in one of those killi-a-watt meters.

Consumption varies, depends on blacks and whites on the screen.

Color Wash mode: 320 watts.
Lots of blacks: dips < 300 watts
Lots of whites: up between 360 -400 watts.

In general, it fluctuates between 300-400 depending on whats on the screen.

The TV is one week old, I have 75 hours on it, still in break-in mode. Brightness and contrast below 70.

TV has been great, love it. No IR, no humming noises, no problems whatsoever associated with plasma TV's.

Only issue that may bother people is the screen is reflective to light and windows. Not a problem in my situation, there is a product called "blinds" that cover windows and reduce light from coming in the house.
Edited by fredk444 - 7/27/12 at 9:14pm

Has anyone calibrated this set with a meter? Perhaps someone has a link to a expert review? My current primary TV is an LG 42LK450 1080p 60Hz CCFL-LCD (with the S-IPS panel) and it's black levels are about .04 fL, which is poor. I know LG plasmas tend the have worse black levels than Samsung and especially Panasonic but how much better are they than my LG LCD? Also, does this set have a 2D CMS in addition to the 20-pt grayscale/gamma controls? How does it's picture compare to something like a Panasonic 50" ST50?

This goes back to countries, and states (I believe California is one), that outlaw the sale of plasmas because they are "power hungry". All I can say is that my power supplier has rated me a "1" on a 0 to 10 scale (with 10 being the least energy efficient). I've invested my money on dual pane energy efficient windows, solar sun shades, attic insulation, energy efficient refrigerator, CFL bulbs, high efficiency ceiling fans, etc. I'm using 58% less energy then a comparable house. My goal is to use 80% less than a comparable house. So why can't I own a "power hungry" plasma when table top PCs aren't being outlawed? In AZ. I pay 4x what I did in PA. My 68" fan hums in high speed. It's that or the high frequency whirring sound of smaller fans (fan wind noise).

It would be interesting to see how many BTUs are released by a plasma. And PCs, XBox360s, PS3, etc.

PS3 or XBox360 use about 200w: http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-356-1.htm
http://reviews.cnet.com/green-tech/tv-power-efficiency/
http://reviews.cnet.com/green-tech/tv-consumption-chart/

Newegg lists the Samsung UN60EH6000F as using 70 watts. hmmm. I bet that's in ECO/PS mode.

If power energy savings is what you [rhetorical] want then you want the smallest screen LCD HDTV available. Forget all about external audio amps and big speakers or cable or dish boxes or XBox360 or PS3s.

I just noticed that after my TV (60PA6500) has been on for a few hours, the top/rear of the TV towards the right and left sides, gets extremely hot. I mean so hot that it hurts to put your hand on those spots for a few seconds. This doesn't seem normal, anyone else experience this?

Thanks

could be room conditions also.. plasma can get pretty hot.. mine gets warm, but i can still touch it fine... my samsung 50" was hotter running than this 60"

I'm getting some pretty crazy amounts of dithering right now on my screen, extremely noticeable. I ran break in images for about the first 100 hours, up to about 140 hours now with regular viewing of Blu-rays. I tried using the settings on Amazon but I'm seeing white specks all over the screen when the camera pans. I'm sitting about 8' from the screen as it sits right now. I've tried tweaking the settings and everything but to no avail. What would be the first setting to change from the Amazon settings to reduce dithering?

Turn down the brightness setting. I think you'll get much better results using the Picture Wizard feature than by using the Amazon settings or any other settings posted by someone else. Each set is a little different and one person's settings do not usually transfer well to someone else's set.

I wholeheartedly agree! The picture wizard setting produced almost identical results as the Disney WOW disk. I'm getting good rendition in shadow areas, and getting nice whites also. Color balance appears very nicely centered.

Yes, same here, but not as extreme as you put it. Plasma normal.

Not sure if this was posted but if any of you bought this TV at Costco for $950+, it is now on sale for $899. Go get your price adjustment!! Got my $50 back yesterday when I brought in the receipt.
Some stores may make you return the TV if you are beyond 30 days but the manager at my local store said it was fine (I was at 37 days).

Still love this TV. We have had a lot of movie nights with it over the past month and it has NOT let us (2 kids, wife) down in the slightest bit.
I'm in the habit now of pausing things and turning on color wash before walking away, an annoying thing at first but now its second nature.

I bought mine at Costco last weekend. 849.99 Mine is the pa6550.

At this moment I'm viewing Olympic coverage on NBC via OTA reception. The PQ is phenomenal on my 60. I connection an optical cable from the set to my Yamaha receiver and the decoded audio is awesome.

Not sure how many hours on the set at this juncture but I suspect it's near 100. Brightness & Contrast still tuned well below 60 with Color at 48.

What was your original price? It was $1099 here minus $150 rebate putting me at $949, now there is a $200 rebate for $899.
Great deal at $900, even better at $850!