Official Panasonic ST50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 139

Thanks for checking!

RATS! Best Buy just marked down the price on the 55ST50. So any of you who were lucky enough to buy it in the last 30 days should go get that savings. Of course, I bought mine on 6/21.

Ok, I am wondering what the best course of action would be in this situation.

I am about 88 hours into the slides. I slept for about 4.5 hours. The slides were running fine before I went to sleep. When I woke up, I was greeted by a notification box on the screen. I don't remember what it said because I quickly started to run the slides again.

What exactly should I do? I have no idea when the slides decided to stop playing of course. Should I run the slides for an additional 4.5 hours over the 100 planned hours? Should I only do 2 hours? How important is it to be THAT close to the 100 hours?

Thanks guys!

Could you post a link to the slides you are talking about

Check the first page of this thread to see how to get to the slides from D-nice.

[quote name="Frankie1588" url="/t/1397245/official-panasonic-st50-series-discussion-thread-no-street-price-talk/4140#post_22240109"... am about 88 hours into the slides...... How important is it to be THAT close to the 100 hours?...[/quote]

Left more detailed reply on that-site-that-shall-not-be-linked-to...

But, in short, probably more important to be closer to 150 hours.
And possibly well beyond that - although we don't run Exclusively Slides during our aging routine

Thanks for your reply Dierkdr! I commented on the "other" site

How is the 50st50 for gaming lag wise and pq wise?

Have a quick question for the owners of the ST50 series who have it hooked up to a PC.

Does this plasma accept PC resolutions via DVI to HDMI input?

Examples of PC resolution are like 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1366x768. I mainly plan to use it as a display for the HTPC and some older games have fixed resolutions which cannot be changed. I can't find any information on it in the user manual. Yes, I realized plasmas aren't that good for static images/PC usage, but that's why I've waited so long for the prices to drop.

I would be happier with the Panasonic Professional line, but the prices on those are still sky high. This year Panasonic has done a decent job on a bezel so it isn't so horrible that I'm interested in the consumer line. I think the GT50 has a VGA PC input, but I don't like the bezel on it and don't want to spend extra money for features I don't need.

I have very general question about this tv. I am moving into a new house soon with a very open, very bright living room with white walls and lots of windows. This tv is getting great reviews, and is right in my under 2k budget range. I saw one on display at best buy though, and the screen looked terribly dim in the bright store. It didn't help that it was right next to a Samsung LED that really popped with vivid brightness. So I really want this tv, but am petrified about it looking terrible and washed out during the day.


Is this tv really bad in bright rooms? If so, does anyone have any suggestions for a good LED in the under 2k range at an approx. 60" screen size?

The biggest problem for me with the GT50's styling is that silver stripe that runs along the bottom of the bezel. It may look better in person, but I think it looks distracting. We all have our preferences though. The THX modes wouldn't matter to me much, but the 4th HDMI input would be nice!

I am doing the D-Nice 100 hour breakin procedure to prep for calibration settings. This is my second ST50 as the first had a banding/line problem. The pure red jpeg looks orange (it looked more red on the first ST50 I had and way more red on my computer). Anyone else experience that? It has one day to go - I thought perhaps it would get more 'red' due to the 'red shift' that supposedly happens but it still looks orangey.

Your display needs some calibration.

Hello All ST50 owners, I'm looking at purchasing a 50" or 55" ST50 in the next few months but wanted to ask what some of you liked about the TV and why you chose it? I've read a number of different thread and articles but I think the best way to get information about the ST series is to ask current owners. One of my main questions is about pictures settings. I've read that the TV is a little limited in what users are able to adjust. I will most likely use the AVS AVCHD Calibration Disc to set the color, brightness, and contrast when I get my new TV and wanted to make sure that the options are available to do all this? Is there a blue filter mode (I know at least certain Samsung LCD TVS have) to adjust tint properly? I was also wondering if the HDMI ARC worked well? I would expect the GUI for apps like Netflix to be better than my Sony S580 but would definitely want the audio going to my receiver and not the TV speakers. Does the TV Perform well with this kind of setup? Another settings question I was wondering about was the 600 Hz sub refresh rate, does this make the picture motion look abnormally fluid? I remember being at Best Buy a couple years ago when LCD TVs were coming out with 120 Hz and 240 Hz refresh rates and thought the motion seemed off, which I didn't like. It felt like there was something strange about how the content moved but I couldn't point my finger at it. I know most everyone says to turn off any image processing features such as dynamic black levels (I hate that setting), can all that stuff be turned off? I hate when bright scenes suddenly get brighter and dark scenes get suddenly darker because the TV senses a change in the brightness.

My last question is why would I want to choose the ST50 over the UT50? I have no problem waiting longer or financing a more expensive TV, but I also like saving money when I can. I've looked at the compare sheet on Panasonic's website and they look the same for the most part besides the ST50 having "Pro Settings" and having twice as many grayshades. In terms of picture quality and performance I would naturally assume the ST50 is the better TV.

Thanks for any help, I'm really getting excited about getting my first big screen!

Thanks for the reply Randy, but I don't see any PC resolutions listed at all in the E-Help Manual. Page 42 of the E-Help Manual is the Internet services "VIERA Connect" Network settings page. The closest thing I can find is Page 23 listing the HDMI video resolutions. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing?

*Edit* I see the resolutions listed on the GT50 E-Help Manual, but I'm looking for information on the ST50 via HDMI.


Yeah... The older consumer sets had that limitation as well. I don't know why they do that as VGA can accept beyond 1080p. The professional line has no problems with that. I know some of the older models don't play nice with PC resolution via HDMI and won't display a thing. But at least the GT50 has a VGA input so it's guaranteed to support up to 768p PC resolution.


Exactly... That silver stripe ruins it for me. For some reason, I just hate silver trim/two tone. I'm just obsessive about the bezel. I don't like the clear plastic either, but the bezel is much better than the older consumer models. I took a look in person and the UT50 seems to have a weird lip/chin thing sticking out underneath, guessing it's the speakers.

For the price of a Panasonic Professional 50" PF30 + stand, I can buy a 60" ST50.
Edited by SleepyBum - 7/22/12 at 11:15pm

Well it was mentioned early on, by myself included, that the ST50 appears somewhat soft. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first since I was coming from a 42" 720p Panny. It doesn't always appear soft though. Here are some comments by SiGGy from the VT thread:

I don't believe this is a 1080i issue as I've noticed it on 720p content as well. There doesn't seem to be a consensus from the VT thread as to what is causing it either. I'm using the same STB that I used with my prior plasma and I'm feeding the signal directly into the TV and letting it do the scaling. To be honest, I haven't noticed any issues while watching film based material. I only see it with live broadcasts or material on video (e.g. news, sports, late night talk shows, etc.)

SiGGy's comment about high contrast and bright scenes is interesting. This is what I've noticed as well. Outdoor sports such as baseball or games in brightly lit arenas look great, but talk shows where the background is mostly dark (e.g. Jay Leno) appear soft. If a really bright light shines on someone though (like when a band is performing) it looks good. As SiGGy said, one minute it can look great, the next it looks soft. This is what makes this issue somewhat maddening. Although the picture does look soft, it does not look bad. It's frustrating though because you know the picture could look sharper.

I'm not sure what the solution is or if there is one. I've tweaked with the settings a little bit and I'll probably do so a little more. In the VT thread, some people claim that running the source through an AVR and outputting 1080p to the TV resolves the issue, while others said it made no difference. Comparisons were done between the Panny and other sets using the same source. One person said the other set was sharper, someone else said the other set was just as soft. Maybe someone will come up with a solution for this, but for now I'm going to try to not worry about it and just enjoy my set.

So... How do the st50 perform for gaming lag wise and pq wise. Not casual gaming I mean hardcore gaming like 3 hours a day

Where/what page exactly can I see Dnice's slides+settings?

He posted them over at high def junkies. You'll have to join to access the threads.

Hey all, first of im from australia

I have purchased a P50ST50 (along with SC-BTT750 blu ray player/audio system). Im a tad anxious after doing a bit of reading on this site and high def junkies. I want to make sure i have the best settings for the plasma from the start and also minimise any potential for image retention and burn in.

From what i read D-nices settings are for north america model only and the 100 hr panel prep seems extreme for an amatuer like myself. Im not looking for picture perfect just good settings. I will follow common sense recommendations to minimise risk of burn in that i have read. What settings should i be aiming for and whats a free or cheap calibration tool if this is a must

Thanks in advance for any replies. Its 10:20pm for me here so calling it a night. Will be back on in about 22hrs time after a nights sleep and a long, long day of work
Edited by Alchemist023 - 7/23/12 at 7:20am

Just shy of 48 hours into the slides. At least now I'm at work for the majority of the day.

I know this has been asked before, but I recall seeing different answers. I've been running the slides non-stop. The set is sitting on top of our new media stand in the middle of the living room with plenty of room to breathe (not near the floor and not near any walls) and I'm keeping the A/C set so the room is 74 degrees (normally I let the temp go up to 78 when we are at work). Do I need to let the TV rest at all given this setup?

One other question, none of the slides appear to be pure white. There's one that's a very light grey, but I don't see any pure white. Am I missing something? I pulled the slides from D-Nice's post on the first page of the other community.

Totally agree, in a black room I don't see anything but picture while using my GT50, nothing but gorgeous picture.

At first sight I didn't like the plastic strip around the ST50 either. Seriously looked hard at the GT and VT but after reading everything about the gorgeous PQ of the ST I said screw it and bought the ST. Have had it since middle of June and it has been nothing short of amazing. And have never even noticed the plastic once.. It's pretty much a non-starter for me now.

Finally got done with the break in yesterday.

I am amazed at how much better it is than the GT30. The black levels are great, the gamma being better is definitely noticeable and the colors seem so much more..full I guess is the word.

I've just ordered a pair of 3d glasses...Does anyone have settings for 3d picture? Or do I use the same settings for D-Nice's 2d settings?

Happy customer here.

To anyone who streams media to their ST50,

I was trying to use PS3 Media Server (works fantastic on the PS3/360), but this was terrible on the ST50. I was getting discouraged thinking I was not going to be able to use this TV for streaming. It was incredibly slow even over ethernet.

I then did some searching and found that many people recommend the media server titled Serviio for the Panasonic TV's. This was working great, but it did not support any of my .AVI files. I ended up doing more searching and found this post:

http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3152&start=30#p40495

I put that profiles.xml file into my program files->config folder for Serviio.

Now everything works great and reads all the formats I have! Streaming is extremely smooth even over WiFi which is great! I hope this helps some others!
Edited by Frankie1588 - 7/23/12 at 11:04am

Yeah the daytime/nighttime modes would definitely be helpful if the TV was in a room that gets a lot of sunlight. This is my bedroom TV which only has one window which is usually covered anyways. Room is almost always very dark. I would most likely spring for the GT50 if it was going in a bright room.

Does the GT50 have a different base too? I heard some people talking about the gradient stand on the GT50. Not sure if its different than the ST50.

Once your calibrated you'll need to adjust brightness within the 3D settings. Also be sure to use the generation 3 Panasonic glasses. They are tinted green and I believe
The 3D image is slightly purple. These work together to provide accurate picture color. At least that's how my calibrator explained it to me.

Thanks for the response.

So the picture settings are about the same with a bump in brightness?