Official Panasonic ST50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 164

That contrast level is extremely low. I can't imagine the set looking close to good with it set so low.

Personally I would just not watch that channel again for a bit and you'll see it go away after a few days I bet.

Don't game but i will agree with the power light being annoying are you listening Panasonic?

I will try your suggestion to avoid the channel for few days. Do you believe on playing the white slide or having a loop of 24 hours with a dvd in a loop ? Thanks

Thanks for the reply, really helpful.

Yeah I know, the break-in isn't JUST for IR, but to age it as well. But I'd rather age it naturally for a month or so then re-calibrate it. I don't see any point in leaving it on for 4 days running slides when I could just use it and age it as well.

Awesome about Dark Souls. Maybe I'll see you online... Praise the Sun!

Didn't really read why I said there should be no problem gaming did you?

I waited till after 100 hours to game consistently. But you should be totally fine. If you do get some IR, just vary content up for a bit. And don't start running blank slides and staring at them. If you can't see it during normal content who cares?

The slides do NOTHING for IR at all.

I would just vary your content that's all. Not sure I'd just leave it sitting there on one slide or a cycle. I think you'll be surprised at how fast it will dissipate.

Roger, I will.I keep my fingers crossed

No, unfortunately there is no control over the power LED in the TV menus.
However, look for an excellent product called "Light Dims"
I got a sheet of them at a Frys Electronics store cheap recently (also available online) and it has a sheet of 100 different shaped black stick ons for overly bright LEDs and numeric displays, reduces the brightness by 1/2 or more and doesn't look tacky.
Worked great for my ST50's power LED and also an overly bright clock/channel display on my HD-DVR too.
You can stack them if you want to dim it even further too.

Thanks. Found them.

I tried them but they seemed too warm for my tastes. I have the Disney WOW BR and the contrast/brightness settings were almost identical but it's the settings to "warm2" and some of the settings that push it to a very warm look. I guess it's a good starting point and I can tweak them to my liking. I'm guessing the D-nice settings were the result of a pro calibration?

Is there an "overscan" adjustment in the service menu? When I have my set (50ST50) set to "size 2" (as per Disney's WOW BR) some content (as far as I can tell, 4:3 only) has flickering scans across the top. My Vizio has has the ability to shift the image up or down a bit to push this out of view.

$2500 Cat toy... It come with a free TV!


http://www.avsforum.com/content/type/61/id/52349/width/350/height/700

Do you have contact info for Greg? He did a RPTV'S for me years ago and after seeing your pics I have to get him to do my ST50. Thanks.

http://lionav.com/new/?page_id=155

Quick cheap solution instead of the nasty residue electrical tape would leave, and looks better too @ http://lightdims.com/

D-Nice is an amazing calibrator. His custom settings are the best generic starting point, but the 100 hour panel prep is first required to get like result. Doing the 100 slides hours is a must for his settings to produce excellent results. They are also not the end of the story, just a great beginning place and then you tweak them for personal taste.

I have used them now on three Panny plasmas after the panel prep, with the intention of getting a pro calibration after 400 hours. His initial custom settings have served me so well, just haven't felt the need for a professional calibration yet.

If you do not do the panel prep, the Disney WOW should really help you if you are not happy with the pq. Dialed in, the ST50s are amazing pq.

Even if you follow the panel prep and put in D-Nice's custom settings, many enjoy tweaking the settings further by feel or with something like Disney Wow. But neither D-Nice's recommendations nor the Disney Wow treatment are substitutes for a professional calibration if you feel you just cannot get it right for yourself on your own.

The average American watches TV and games 35 hours a week. If that were me, I would go for a professional calibration. But I may put only about 10 hours a week on my set. I have a cheap Panny 37" Viera LED on about 18 hours a day in our kitchen for sound and quick looks (and to keep the dogs quiet) which is open to the den for 24 hour cable news.

Sounds like you might want to tweak the settings and pick up the Disney Wow for DIY.

32quattro . . . You might try the built in scrolling bar option (a white bar that schools horizontally to help reduce any IR, or to run frequently if you heavily game with a HUD of watch channels with static logs). On the remote, press "menu," "settings," "anti image retention," then "scroll bar." The white scrolling bar starts. (something like that.)

The white scrolling bar is one built-in option to help with the onset of or to assist in preventing IR. I would use it along side other cautions and options, not just as my only plan. A lot better than a static white slide or a looping movie. In fact, I would not use just one color slide, looping color slides maybe. But Panny built the scroll bar tool in because, like all plasmas, some ir from static images is a possibility . . . The trade off for a better pq than LED.

Also, on your Disney Wow disc, there is a tool called "Pixel Flipper," which is another solid tool for diminishing IR . . . You could add that to your fixes as well. A lot of people have great success with it.

With your IR problem from the static logo, I would put the scroll bar on when I stopped using the tv for the day, and leave it on all night long for a few days . . . . You might see a dramatic reduction in a couple of nights or more.

Don't worry about heat. Many of us do the panel prep for 200+ hours without turning it off. 8 hours a night will be no problem . . . Just like watching it for 8 hours a day, except you are doing this while you sleep with no tv viewing downtime.

Just another couple of ideas to add with your plan to get rid of the IR. Yeah, your logo IR might probably will go away with more hours of careful normal use, as Michael proposes; but some of us are more proactive in solutions just because it bugs us until it is totally gone.n

Seems the magic number on one of these sets is about 400 hours of being careful to prevent, reduce, or deal with some mild IR, and then not much to worry about after that. It is having having a case of IR and not dealing with it at all, passively or actively, that makes IR permanent. Some Temporary IR is just the nature of the plasma beast . . . But I find it worth it for short and long-term pq.

So far, I have and zero IR on my vt30 or st50. Sounds like yours can be dealt with, just going to take some patience.
Edited by Rhetor - 8/12/12 at 12:54pm

Thank you.

Stores are a bad place to try to compare pq, but it is all we have to go on sometimes. Retailers set them on Torch mode for selling (way over bright you would never use at home) or simply have people playing with the settings and get them way off for the next customer to view. You never are sure what you have until you get it home and set it up.

Both the VT50 and the ST50 are amazing pq when set up right at home. The ST50 is hands down (according to professional reviewers) the most bang for the buck. But, if you can swing the extra money and the tv is going to be the main tv in your HT or living room, then go VT50 . . . There are some features that make the VT50s worth the extra change. But, if you want the most bang for the buck! The ST50 . . . A few more features, THX mode in 3D and 2D, and better looking bezel, dual core processing for Internet apps, and additional calibration features, then pay the extra for the VT50.

Perhaps this thread will point you down the road a little farther information wise @

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1386141/official-panasonic-2012-lineup-and-information-thread-no-price-talk#post_21467390

and

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1412921/st50-vs-vt50-what-are-the-main-differences

Hope that helps in your decision. You can't go wrong with either of them. Again, the ST50 is the most bang for the buck with an equivalent pq with the GT50 and VT50.

Rhetor

Thanks for the post
the links you provided are very inormative...I've taken a week off the end of september and I will walk into best buy and get the ST or VT I cant seem to find any other options...
The nearest LED that has a uniform screen is the sony hx850 at near 2400dollars. Way outta price range...

The ST50 at my BB is not given source material it deserves...
I wish the stores would put more effort into showing off the Flat Panels..

Thanks

You are welcome.

Check out the price deal threads on here for the best price deal at the time on the model you are buying. If you are determined to bet from BB, they will often (always depends on the manager at the store) price match an authorized online Panny retailer if they can duplicate the offer on their store computer. Always worth a shot to save some significant $

Let us know what model you finall pick up.

I encourage you to consider doing the 100 hour panel prep right out out of the box, and then drop in the suggested custom setting. I have done it twice and nev had one IR problem or pq disappointment. It is a panel conditioning and quick do it yourself custom calibration . . . Not as good as a pro calibration, but I love the pq aI have and have not needed a professional calibration!

A Kuro to an ST? Be careful . . . You might get flogged on some threads!!!! :-)

I went from a 6 yer old 50" Pioneer Elite to the 65VT30 and now also the 50ST50 . . . In a bright room, the ST50 beats both of the others!

Thanks for the suggestion, but mpalmieri1203 has already posted a report in this thread which allowed me to add a link in the appropriate flat panel list.

People tend to go to the "Customer Reports About Their Professional Calibrations" thread for the links. I've always felt that more interested readers are in the owner's threads. The big problem is that I can't read all the owner's threads.

All PM heads up post about owner's reports that I miss are greatly appreciated.

What you're seeing is a carry over from the 'old" analog days of SDTV when all sets had over scan built in to hide that portion of the signal.

When you use Size = 2 you are seeing the entire signal (mapped dot for dot). If you switch to Size -1 that will cause about 5% over scan which will hide the edges of the signal.

Then you can switch back to Size = 2 (sharpest) for HDTV, Blu-ray, and DVD sources.

Gregg is a well respected calibrator. I tried setting my sharpness at 40 on my 60ST50 using the Sony Bluray secret menu sharpness graphic. 40 did some nasty things and even added some discoloration to the black and white graphic. He must have not noticed anything on your set that would take away from an accurate image using that high of a sharpness setting. Most of the settings I have seen for the 50 series have the sharpness at 0.

I had it at 0. He said to leave it between 35-45. It honestly looked worlds better than it did at 0. I have BDP790 and PS3. Both offer a similar picture. I'll take a few more pictures with live action this evening.

There's no edge enhancement or jaggies at at level which did surprise me. Leaving the sharpness at 0 left a much softer picture in comparison.

So I've had my 60" ST50 for around a week now. Haven't done any break in slides or setup, just some changes to the contrast and other basic picture settings. I put my old Samsung 46" LCD from 2009 up next to it and picture quality was clearly superior, but I've been noticing one thing - whites, usually text, has noise around it, making it look less crisp compared to the 46". I understand at the same distnace the 46" will look a little crisper due to the raw size of the screen, but I can still notice it at normal viewing distance on the ST50. Is this normal and something that will go away as the TV breaks in (and I tweak the settings)?

Pretty hard to determine what your issue is with out posting our settings. Have you used DVE or WOW?

If you haven't don't these things it's easy to understand why your picture isn't great. I posted my settings on the previous page. My set is sharp as hell. 65"

This is 10 feet back from the set. Sunset is blasting the TV still looks great, no glare. iPhone photos...





18" off the screen with iPhone.

Fios. These are for the people saying this TV can't do whites or the whites look grey.