Official Panasonic ST50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 57

I guess if you want two separate modes for day/night, then the GT50 would work better for you.

Yep.

I hate to admit it but user reviews for the gt50, and professional reviews as well, indicate that it there areas where the gt stands out, as it should be. That is not to say that the ST isn't an excellent value, it certainly is. However, one must balance needs and desires. What that means for me is sacrificing something like 4+ inches or flexibility because the price is the same.

The tv that this is replacing had loads of flexibility since it was an LG with 2 expert modes. I really dislike the fact that Panasonic denies that sort of flexibility to NA consumers, I mean really dislike it. I guess that's one more desire that I have in addition to size. I have been suppressing it and it resurfaced when I became disappointed today, granted Chad's review probably helped too.

Well... just writing about it has been a cathartic and it's clear what I should do. Thanks for asking Skro.

On the ST50 you could use Cinema for night mode and custom for day mode. That is how I set it up for my calibration clients last year with the ST30s.

I plan on getting the 60GT50 over the ST50 for two reasons: I like the looks of the GT better; the ST just looks too "plasticy" and for the THX Bright and Cinema modes. I really like the extra picture mode choices. I am hoping to eventually have it calibrated so that I can use the THX modes for day and night and custom calibrated for B&W with the appropriate color temp.

I have a question on the web browser. I tried to watch survivor ponderosa on my ST50. Did a google search, went to the website and was told that I need adobe flash to watch the episodes. Tried to install flash and I get a (006) error. Connection test was successful, updated the software & set the clock but still cannot watch the episodes.

Any suggestions. Tried again last night same exact issue. (006)

Lightbulb: Do I need a Viera account? I do not have one. Could that be it? Thanks for any help.

I have a 3 year old Runco 50HD plasma with brand new Vivixx3. I had the hdmi in for repair (I tripped over the hdmi cable), so I tried out a just released Sharp 60LE847U. As good as LCD has come, and love the 60", after several weeks, I miss my Runco, which I will pick up on Monday. I will miss the larger screen size. The new larger Runcos are just too expensive, so after reading about the new Panny GTs, has got me thinking. Any x-Runco owners here that switched to the new GT or ST series? I am very impressed with the new Panasonics.

Where did you try to watch it at? Maybe there is an app that will help you watch? I say this because someone posted about it on the GT50 thread, maybe you could benefit from that post? See post 431: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post21929868

Yes I did read that. I tried to watch it right on CBS's website. I was told that I need flash installed first. I could not get flash installed. When I clicked on the install link that is when I got the error. Not even sure which browser Panasonic is using or if flash can be installed.

hmm did the 2011 panasonics support flash in the browser?

Back to the black bars blending into the bezel issue. I was watching a movie the other night with a lamp on, and the bars seemed to blend in with the bezel quite convincingly. My original reports were with a completely dark room.

Bottom line: the ST50 has very deep black levels. Whether or not the black bars appear completely black is going to depend on the environment and your own subjective experience. If you're that concerned about it you can pony up $5000 for a Sharp Elite. Otherwise, I think they'll satisfy 99% of people.

Dern! I'm so hoping that this is going to work for that type of viewing.

Do you have all the updates?


Edit: I just posted the question about flash on hdj and hopefully the panny insider will provide a solid answer. I have seen the question posted in several forums but I've not seen an answer which doesn't mean that it hasn't been answered, I just can't find if it was.

Yes, as far as I know. I'll give it another go tonight.

Good to know that it works in the 2011 sets.

I don't think that's true, I don't think there's a full web browser in the 2011 sets. I was just at Panasonic and I don't see it for 2011 and don't recall any chatter about it last year either.

Two questions about the ST50:

1) Is the ST50 as bright as the GT50? I have been reading many comments that the GT50 is brighter than the Samsung E series this year - is that also the case for the ST50? I just want to make sure if I go with the ST50 that the set won't be dimmer than the GT50.

2) Are there separate settings for 2D mode and 3D mode? I understand the GT50 has separate THX modes for day/night that the ST doesn't have, but does the ST50 at least offer separate settings for 2D and 3D? That seems very important to me since obviously the glasses affect color and brightness and require separate modes.

Got my 50" about an hour ago and have been playing around with it. WOW. This thing BLOWS AWAY the LG LM6700 LED TV I bought 3 weeks ago. That thing is going straight back to the store!!!

The blacks are AMAZING! Color is ridiculously good. The reason I wanted to get rid of the LG was because when I played NBA 2K on xbox360, there was so much motion blur that it just made my head hurt. But on the ST50, there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO motion blur, ZERO lag. It's a gamer's dream TV I love it!

The only thing I dislike is the plastic casing that wraps around the screen's edge. I just wanna rip this thing off. I have no idea why Panasonic put that thing around the screen. But it doesn't affect the amazing picture so I can live with it.

The build date on my TV is February. There is a slight buzzing noise but barely noticeable unless I'm close to the TV. Anyways, here's a quick shot I took with my iphone (BTW, I'm using D-Nice's non-prep settings. I don't have the patience to run slides for 100 hours.)

Got St50 today
Since my break in video will be here tommorow, I will play some HD videos from external disc. This plasma break in thing is making me nervous

1. No matter which yoom I try (format 2 from usb) there is 0.5 cm black screen at the edges. I guess this is normal since no aspect ratio can stratch picture to the TV frame border?

2. I can not choose orbiter seting if watching from USB. This OK?
3. What settings do you keep for the first xxx hours? True Cinema, contrast at 0, sharpnes at 0... Anything else?

Regards.
m.

Great! Thanks for sharing the pic and feedback.

I'm torn on the break in slides myself. I'm 50/50 right now with leaning towards the break in, but may also just use the tv a week and then calibrate it afterwards.

[quote=Tamakin;21930863]Got my 50" about an hour ago and have been playing around with it. WOW. This thing BLOWS AWAY the LG LM6700 LED TV I bought 3 weeks ago. That thing is going straight back to the store!!!

The blacks are AMAZING! Color is ridiculously good. The reason I wanted to get rid of the LG was because when I played NBA 2K on xbox360, there was so much motion blur that it just made my head hurt. But on the ST50, there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO motion blur, ZERO lag. It's a gamer's dream TV I love it!

The only thing I dislike is the plastic casing that wraps around the screen's edge. I just wanna rip this thing off. I have no idea why Panasonic put that thing around the screen. But it doesn't affect the amazing picture so I can live with it.

The build date on my TV is February. There is a slight buzzing noise but barely noticeable unless I'm close to the TV. Anyways, here's a quick shot I took with my iphone (BTW, I'm using D-Nice's non-prep settings. I don't have the patience to run slides for 100 hours.)

I picked up a 55ST50 from Best Buy on Monday and my attitude about the break in slides has been this. I still use the TV as normal in the evening (just avoiding certain things like 4:3 and particularly bad network bugs) but while I'm asleep and at work I'm running the slides.

I figure the end result will be pretty darn close to running the slides 24/7 and it's not really inconveniencing me. For me, the slides just give a safe way to accelerate putting 100hrs on the TV and getting it settled in.

I'm wondering if this is just as effective. I'd love to hear from D-Nice. My wife will have a hard time believing we can't watch our new tv for 4 days. I could run slides all day long while we are at work, and then in the evening we could make sure to watch only programs that fill the whole screen.

Is this a valid way to go about it, or am I not getting anything out of the slides if I also watch regular content during the break-in?

D-Nice's prep slides are only to age the set evenly, the same way his reference set was aged to eliminate as many variables as possible. You don't have to run the slides if you don't plan on using his settings. But if you are, for the best results possible, follow his guidelines to a T. Even if you follow everything to the letter, the results won't be perfect. His settings were never meant to replace an actual calibration... just to provide settings better than the presets.

You don't need to hear from D-Nice, but you might.

His instructions are clear, and if you do an advanced user name search, he wrote about it extensively within the past two weeks.


You will not get the most out of D-Nice's settings if you don't follow his instructions. Nothing is stopping you from using his settings, but it would be polite if you always point out that you didn't follow his instructions if, in the future, you want to comment about the results.

Of course you could hire him to calibrate your display. Then it wouldn't make any difference how you spent the early hours using your display.

Eagerly waiting he arrival of my 60st50.

I'm doing the panel prep. It will be hard not watching it, but you only have the chance to do it once

Right. It's not going to be perfect no matter what unless you get it calibrated due to panel variance and whatnot.

My main intent is to age the set as evenly as possible during these first 100 hours, but I'm not going to stress over not watching it either.

I can then use D-Nice's settings as a starting point and make any further adjustments depending on room and personal preference. At the end of the day, it's about making the image on the screen look the best to me anyways since it's my TV.

Example, I used D-Nice's settings on mine, and the black level (contrast) was off when I ran the calibration BD. It was damn close, and certainly good enough for most consumers, but there is still room to improve by a true calibration.

Just what is the difference between the G50 Series and the ST Series? Is it worth the extra money to move up the the G Series?

Just got my St50 about 3 hours ago, this tv looks flat out amazing! But have ran into an issue, the tv can't read my xboxs' HDMI signal. Do any of you who own the tv have to do anything special to read the signal? Ive got my fingers crossed hoping you did cuz all the HDMI inputs on the tv work with my ps3 and blu-ray player, and the xboxes HDMI signal can be read just fine on the Sammy in the living room.

Just got my 60st50. Coming from a 40" Samsung LCD, this thing is massive! I played dark night out the box and it looked great! Just need to get rid of the SOE.

Running the slides now. No green blobs or banding. It does buzz on the white slide and it's noticeable 8 feet away in a dead quiet room. I have another tv running while the st is running the slides. I can't here the buzzing when normal tv volume is on.

Can't wait to get the 100 hrs over!

I saw some questions anout the height of the stand to the bottom of the screen. For the 60", the verticle distance from the top surface of the stand the bottom edge of the screen is 3.5 inches.

The bottom surface of the stand to the bottom of the screen is 3.75 inches. My tiny center channel just barely fits

can anybody post a picture example of how deep the black levels are.

Just got the 60" St50 today.
Going from the Sony 40 CRT tank to the Plasma.

1) Watching hockey in HD. The brightness shifting definitely is happening & it is definitely not camera flashes or anything I had ever seen on my CRT.
As the screen pans and you get more Ice filling the screen, the full picture will get brighter in 3 different levels ( almost like you were shifting the brightness levels)
Will this ever be fixed, as it might drive me crazy enough to return the TV??

The pic looks great though, still need to try the D-nice settings.
I do get a bit of weird motion effect in some scenes, almost like when widescreen is altered to pan and scan ( if that makes sense to anyone)