Disappointed with Plasma Viewing Experience

I recently got a Panasonic TC - P42X3, but I am really disappointed with all the artifacts I'm seeing just about all the time during motion. The image quality itself is superb, but whenever there is camera motion, parts of the screen get all pixelated and "dirty." It also happens a lot whenever a big "banner" comes swooshing onto the screen. Once I noticed it I started seeing it everywhere, and it is really ruining my viewing experience. Most of the time, except for screen size and still images (newscasts, etc.) it seems like a huge downgrade from my old CRT tv.

I went with plasma b/c I thought it was supposed to be less sensitive to this kind of artifact. I sit at about a distance of 8-10 ft. (42" screen), the room is a very dark room with no direct light on the screen (and most viewing at night anyway), I have played with the settings as much as it seems possible (can post exact settings later if anyone wants), and yet the pixelated motion blurring is still there. I compared to a family member's Vizio LCD, and while the picture isn't as rich as the plasma, there is *much* less noise of all kinds - hardly noticeable at all unless you really strain to see it, as opposed to being totally distracting.

Did I just get the wrong technology for me? I watch mostly movies & some sports and news, am really interested in good picture quality, so I thought plasma was definitely for me. I do like the better image quality of the plasma, but I don't think I can get used to all the pixelation all the time. Is it perhaps some setting that's still off, or that I'm sitting too close (no more room to back up, though), or something else I can adjust, or maybe something I can't do anything about (eye tracking, etc.)? Or should I just try to sell it and go with an LCD?

HD cable, thru HDMI cable. Same source as LCD that doesn't have all the pixelation, though.

I first started noticing these artifacts during the Superbowl, just for reference. Wouldn't that be a relatively high quality source? Thought they would use the latest & best cams, etc. I was really surprised to start seeing all the pixelation, esp. during the banners. Looked worse than watching on CRT for sure. I never saw anything like that at friend's for thxgiving games, etc.

Wow, lots of helpful replies here, thanks guys!

I have TWC, and off the top of my head, these are some of my settings, using "Custom":

Contrast: 70%
Brightness: 65%
Sharpness: 60%
Cable box: 720p
Video NR: On
Mosquito/Block NR: On

I started with lower contrast & brightness for a week or so, b/c I heard it's better to let the plasma phosphors break in more gently. Getting a really nice picture now, it's only the artifacts that are bugging me out.

As for this being lower in Panasonic's line, it still seems to me it shouldn't be worse than lower cost LCDs, should it? Plasmas I thought were supposed to be better technology in this respect anyway!

Thx everyone. Had sharpness at 50, just increased it temporarily to see if it would make a difference (didn't). Vizio is 60Hz. Will test DVD tonight. I watch at least as much TV as DVD, probably 75/25 in fact, so if LCD is giving less artifact with the same source, looks like I'll just switch to LCD. Thx again, appreciate all the helpful responses.

Thanks - I set it to 0, and it looks fine. It came from factory at 50%, so I thought that was kind of baseline. Going to keep it at 0, I think it helps.


Turns out I had 720p & 1080i selected, but I'm not sure if TV was going to 1080i. Didn't know 1080i mattered much, b/c I thought this TV could only do 720. I set cable box to "Auto," though, and now some channels say their status is 1080i. Seems like it might have made a small difference, but might just be psychological.

DVDs look amazing, btw. :-o


Good to know, thanks. Just knowing that this is basically normal and is b/c of the cable source seems to help, strangely enough.

Silly me - I thought when cable companies advertised "hi def," they meant they were actually delivering hi def! ;-)

This is confusing to me, and seems contrary to what most people have said here, and contrary to common sense if the cable signal, like you said, is compressed. Can you explain further?


Don't think I even have an OTA antenna anymore. Wouldn't I need a digital one anyway, or would tv convert signal?



That's interesting about the newer ones having more problems!

To your other question, no, actually. I find the problem more with complex images with lots of color, like for example when the camera pans a shot of faces in a crowd at a concert. Or for example anything involving motion over a brick wall is going to be a total mess. It's like there's too much info there for it to process and it starts pixelating and breaking up. Same with a lot of banners - or the NBC nightly news thing, that kind of information timeline thing that recedes into the BG during part of the opening - don't know if anyone knows what I'm referring to, lol.


Yeah, it might just be b/c I'm too close. 8-10ft is all I have to work with here, though - thought it would be enough, but maybe not.

Just to clarify - image quality is amazing. No complaints there. The only issue I have is all the artifacts when there is motion. I didn't see that on DVD, but haven't watched enough to get a good sample. if DVD is inferior to broadcast cable, though, then this is a really crappy technology, imo. Have to believe it's some other issue, or maybe just the TV is bad?