Official Panasonic ST50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 258

Thanks for the quick replies. I feel I understand these settings better now. Playing with these adjustments and experiments with my different sources did reveal differences in pic quality. By my eyesight, I think that 48 Hz looks better than 60 when sending 24p from my Oppo. Just watched both Fantastic Four movies (which have lots of fast movement and some nice outer space motion/starfields). The difference was pretty minor, but 48Hz was just a tad prettier I thought.
Also, I found a "just" setting. It's accessed by the format button. But man did that make things look fugly. "Full" looks to be my best option.

No worries. I have commented on an earlier post and do not want to sound like a broken record. There are members that have IR and buzzing issues and that is unfortunate for a panel that produces an outstanding picture.

These issues are certainly in the minority. I have not had any indication of IR on my ST50. We know a plama can buzz, I hear a quick "zzzzz" on screens that are nearly 100% white and are broadcast in SD.

On the other hand, I can watch full movies and sporting events with absolutley no buzz at all.


Enjoy your set.

My favorite thing so far is recording,on my dvr, older movies that I loved and watching them in HD on this set.
I like recording off HDNet because they have really good quality on their broadcasts.

My son and I have been watching a lot of Clint Eastwood movies and they have never looked better.
The good the bad and the ugly
Pale Rider
High Plains drifter
Dirty Harry
Unforgiven
Fist full of dollars and a few dollars more

I have been blown away with just how good some of these look, especially the ones recorded in the 60's. Again I really have to say that what stands out more than anything else is the detail and clarity of human skin. Peoples faces look amazing and lifelike.

Watched Tombstone last night with my wife and it looked pretty dang good too.

I agree !!!

Don't forget - The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Just got an ST50 and I have a question. I'm currently using cinema mode and if I turn the brightness up to 55 I start to see some sort of noise on a completely black screen. It goes away when set to 55 or if set above 60. I figure it might just be the pixels but I'm not sure.
Edited by Raikirik - 12/11/12 at 3:06pm

I have now done the panel prep have hooked up the tv to my computer over HDMI via receiver. There is a black box around the resolution within 1080 P and it seems like the receiver and the computer both think they're showing 1080 P correctly but the box will not go away. I have tried setting the aspect on the tv to Full and overscan 2. Surprisingly enough overscan 1 actually reduces the bars (bigger image overall). Ps3 via the receiver seems to work fine though. Any ideas? I watch things mostly via XBMC so this is frustrating.

Computer is a Zotac Zbox Ad-02 running Debian.

Edit: it seems to work fine for 720p just not 1080p.
Edited by MarsianMan - 12/11/12 at 4:11pm

Thank you for this. I was wondering too.
I did not see specifics anywhere on the Amazon ST50 pages.

Turn your contrast down buddy. I have mine set to the mid 80's in cinema mode.

Turn down your contrast buddy. I have mine set to the mid 80's in cinema mode. No IR what-so-ever!

... the new size rule is to get the biggest set you can justify...so 50" in your case.
50ST50 gives you amazing $999 TV set on Amazon.
You might consider the Panny LED ET5 for passive 3D but it is not as good for sound, gets a more average rating.
Also throw in LG LED passive 3D sets and Samsung 50" plasma sets to the mix, but you'll have trouble meeting $1000 price mark I think.
The Samsung Plasmas tend to be 50 and 60 inch (no 55) so in the 50" size Samsung competes with Panasonic.

I use cinema and have never experienced the issue you are describing while watching basketball--actually just finished watching the knicks make an amazing comeback against the nets:cool:. I have had the 55st50 for about 3 months now. Proud owner:)

Update: after finally flipping over to the directv 3D channels, the advanced 3D settings un-grayed and the pop out effect was present. What threw me for a loop was on the first night that I had it, I flipped over to HBO which was showing the matrix. The TVs 3d content notifier popped up, and I enjoyed a decent 3D experience. For Pirahna (Showtime), I manually kicked the 3D in, so I'm assuming Pirahna was not actually presented in pure 3D on Showtime, but rather forces converted by my manual selection.

FTR, my high expectations for this TV are being exceeded. The variance in picture I can create is unparalleled by the Sammys that I tinkered with. I don't miss my LED whatsoever due to being able to create those poppy images with a few settings tweaks.

With that said, i bought this for the pic quality inherent to plasma, and DNice's settings really separates this TV than any other one that ive seen in person (except my friend's Elite, if im being fair).

I've had no issues with burn-in, cross talk, buzzing, signal noise, etc...and I'm watching this thing like a hawk (as my 30 day no questions exchange period is almost over).

The only gripes I have are that I wish I had more custom pic modes, and I haven't quite dialed in hockey quite yet. Hockey accounts for most of my viewing when they're playing. While I'm not unhappy with what I've seen from DVRd games, I feel like there's room for improvement in the uniformity of my whites (in hockey and commercials for that matter). I have them dialed in pretty well on the vivid setting; however, I'd prefer to get my custom mode to capture similar whites, so there'll be no need for mode flipping when they resume. The flow and detail of the game pic are superb.
Edited by taylord22 - 12/11/12 at 11:38pm

game. Mode is usually measured a little bit better. Input lag is a little bit lower. However there seems to be no good settings lying around for game mode. I send nice on custom because not only does it the look. The best it gets no ir when. Play games in d nice settings why fix what's not broke right

Thank you for suggestion, my contrast is set to 76 in custom, I don't think its overly bright.

How much of a minority are we talking here? 10%? 20%? 49%? Do you have any hard numbers from panasonic about their return rate? I'm glad you have had no issues with your set.

I'm sure some people who bought a ford Pinto had no problems with it and thought it was the best car they ever owned.

I bought 2 panasonics plasmas before this one, and never thought I would be this disappointed about their quality control.

You have every right to be upset. Hanging about here to bash the ST is not going to help anything though. Have you returned the last one and decided what else to buy instead?

I am now outside my return window. I have read many posts on the vt thread, gt thread and this one and I don't believe I am the only person who has been critical about QC. Perhaps a happy thoughts only thread is in order?

I am sorry to hear that. Yes there have been many people critical about QC and rightfully so. All posts are welcome of course. But if you post the same complaint many times I think you can see the difference. What is Panasonic doing to help you?

We would probably need an Act of Congress to obtain their return rate for bad panels. Panasonic ships many 1000's of panels worldwide and have been doing so for quite a few years. I cannot see how they would be able to operate if 50% of the sets they produce fail and must be returned.

It is unfortunate that quality control for many different products has gone down and that is an issue we all ive with. Now, if you are past the return - what now?

Hold Panasonic to fire until they repair to your satisfaction.

My calibrator used some different settings for 3D. He educated me in detail about how the lower brightness, plus impact of the Panasonic glasses (they are not neutral with regard to brightness which is obvious and we all knew that, but neither are they neutral with regard to color). The lower light output in 3D mode and glasses impact mean that the eye's response to the colors is different (layman's terms, below a certain APL/brightness, we need to goose up the color in order for it to look "correct" and normal).

A quick way to summarize the difference in settings:

he pulled sharpness up from 0 to 10.
he adjusted the COLOR control.
he increased contrast to 100 (since contrast is effectively white brightness and overall light output and the loss of some highlight detail is acceptable in order to get closer to the right brightness and color when in 3D mode).

Below are the official settings. Use these as a comparision for the 2D settings I posted, rather than as an absolute recommendation, since all panels differ.

Picture Mode Custom 3D
Contrast +100
Brightness +58
Color +56
Tint 0
Shaprness 10
Color Temp Cool1
CATS Off
Video NR Off
Color Space Normal
WB High R 0
WB High G 0
WB High B 0
WBLowR 0
WBLowG 0
WBLowB 0
Black Extension 0
Gamma Adjustment 2.4
Panel Brightmess Mid
Contour Emphasis Off
AGC O
HD Size Size 2
Mosquito NR Off
Motion Smoother Off
Black Level Light


fyi he was suprised we didn't need to increase the panel brightness in order to get decent light output but was glad that was the case

It's really a matter of what to optimize for -- text or programs. For a while I had sharpness up to 20, and felt it created few problems but definitely made things look clearer.

My calibrator pushed me towards zero and after extended viewing, it definitely feels like it's more transparent to the source. Some sources are better that others, so: That's not always a good thing, since some sources look subjectively better with some sharpening, but it's really a judgement call. Like turning up the subwoofer 5 db or 10db in order to get the real "rumble" effect.

Since my panel measured extremely close to rec 709 after calibration (not just at the extremes, but across the board for color temp and for color space) it felt contradictory to my OCD to deviate at all from the purest more accurate representation of my sources.

But on a bad cable HD show, it's clear I'm suboptimizing on ways to clean up the picture.

Thanks for the informative response. I will leave mine at 0 as the PQ is nice and I don't want to add any distortions/errors. Having sharpness at 0 is similar to having temperature at Warm 2, in that they both provide an overall more accurate picture, but at some expense. For the former you lose a bit of text clarity and for the latter whites seem a little brownish, although that may be subjective. I'm used to a more normal color temp which makes whites more white (maybe slightly bluish), though not necessarily more accurate, so I have to get used to Warm 2.

It's called dithering. All plasma have it, look it up .

Did he calibrate the greyscale in the service menu? I am surprised to not see any adjustments in your custom settings.

EDIT: Never mind. I just saw your 2D settings and he adjusted the greyscale there. I wonder why he didn't do the same for 3D? He's one of the best of the best, so he knows what he is doing far better than I do!
Edited by HD-Master - 12/12/12 at 10:48am

No IR or buzzing on my 60ST50 yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.

point taken....service coming friday

A few questions:

1. Is it better to use HD SIZE 1 + Pixel Orbiter for gaming, sports - maybe during the first few hundred hours? I could then use HD SIZE 2 after the few hundred hour mark. Does the pixel orbiter really do anything to reduce chance of IR? What about lowering contrast to reduce chance of IR. I have it set at 76 for normal viewing.

2.. For gamers, after how many hours did you start gaming regularly?

3. I know it's recommended to have the TV calibrated after a few hundred hours. I already ran D-nice's slides and input his reference settings, but plan to use the AVS HD 709 and GCD (Gamut Calibration Disc) to see if they yield a better picture. Should I wait until I reach the few hundred hour mark or could I calibrate now and then again when I reach the few hundred hour mark? For those that ran the slides + D-nice's reference settings and then used a calibration disc, which settings were better, D-nice's or the calibration disc's?

4. In addition to full screen HD programming did any of you run 1920x1080 HD Wallpaper images via usb to age the panel faster? So far I've watched a few blu-rays and full screen HD programming, but it's slow going. Is animation better for the aging process? I would assume that varied content would be better than looping a single blu-ray over and over?

If/when you keep something static on the screen, like a sports score or ticker, then the pixel orbiter might reduce the severity of IR. I don't use it myself, but if you really hate IR or are paranoid about it, then you might as well use the orbiter. There is no way that I would ever lower contrast below my desired level just in hope of avoiding IR. I really have no idea how effective that is, but I wouldn't do it regardless.


It really doesn't matter -- especially if you are planning to calibrate without using a meter. Color will change over time, so if you own a meter, then you'll want to check the TV from time to time to see how much it has drifted (the color temperature will get warmer as the TV ages). But personally, I would perform the first calibration immediately after hooking up the TV. If you aren't going to be using a meter, then it really doesn't matter when you calibrate. There is very little that you will be able to do -- basically just set the brightness, gamma and sharpness. AFAIK, none of those will change over time on a Panasonic plasma. So you can set those at any time, and you shouldn't ever need to change them. The white balance settings are really what need to be altered as the TV ages, but you won't be able to set those very accurately by eye.

I've had my set a few weeks and I game on it regularly... I use the "game" mode and I don't usually play for more than an hour or two at a time. I haven't noticed anything (IR or burn in). I didn't do a 100 hour break-in or anything, but I've left the set on during the day a couple times (when I'm working at home) and had full screen HD shows running during that time, just to be safe.

As for IR or burn in, I don't know how paranoid I need to be and how long I need to worry about it. I really don't want to 'baby' this set (it's a TV for pete's sake!), but I'm a little concerned because of some of the Amazon reviews I've read and some of the comments I've read on this board.

mine was doing the same thing, but it was nice and crisp once i changed the output from my dvr to 720p instead of 1080i. I have Fios. Picture quality looks the same with sharper text.
Edited by Jonhern - 12/12/12 at 4:54pm