Official Panasonic ST50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 303

CRAZY QUESTION--- I hesitate to even post it here but figured what the hell? I can't seem to get any feedback anywhere else. May as well see if anyone has experienced this and could give me advice. So I am having a problem with my eyes watching certain content on my 50" st50. I got the tv 3 months ago or so and had an old school crt 32" before this so obviously night and day.

I can't seem to watch ANY widescreen content without getting a headache. Which sucks as most movies use this format now. Also lower quality material 480 and such and basically all my old avi files give me the headache as well. Even some higher quality full screen stuff 780/1080 affects me this way, but this is rare and I can't seem to determine which content gives me this reaction. Mostly I am ok with 720 and 1080 full screen stuff --tv shows downloaded or FULL SCREEN movies and regular tv content (I do not have cable just an antennae to pick up local stations). It is strange and does not seem to be the fault of my eyes and this tv or the closeness to it (I am about 8-9 ft away) as I CAN watch some content with no ill affects whatsoever.

This really sucks as I love the tv but instead of broadening what I can watch getting this tv has actually limited what I can view dramatically. Any thoughts? Anyone heard of this problem?

Can anyone tell me if the "24p Cinema Smoother Fucntion" detailed in this pic is just the "24p Direct in" setting found in the advanced picture settings menu?




The photo is from panasonic.com.
I'm trying to figure out if the GT50 has a smoothing function that the ST50 does not. I'm trying to reduce visible judder on my ST50.

This review is what got my interest:

"The GT50's main step-up over the ST50 comes in the form of two THX picture presets for 2D and a third for 3D. It also has a couple more esoteric PQ-related extras, namely double the "shades of gradation," a 24p smooth mode (not to be confused with a higher refresh rate)," facial retouch" and "pure image creation."

Is there a feautre on the GT50 that the ST50 does not have in relation to judder smoothing?

Also, if I have other questions about the ST50 is it proper to post them in this thread or would it be better to start a specific new thread?

I'm having a problem with motion juddering and I predict a lot of troubleshooting over the next few weeks. It's bad enough that I'm considering returning this TV while I'm under the 30 day period.

Post questions here.

That sucks! I used to have a similar problem with an old DLP projector, but i know it was the motion blur that i would get with that projector (cheap and old). it has actually shyed me away from projectors ever since, which i know is not accurate.

I would say go see an eye doctor and see what he has to say. I can't think of why this TV would cause that.

I have a 65VT50 and a 60ST50 and have not had any problems watching them in 2D. I did try 3D a few weeks ago and did get a headache that evening, but don't know that it is related...I have 3 younger kids!

Through technical evaluation and logic I can only conclude that it was most likely the children.

So I've noticed alot of people suggesting Super-white be activated on the PS3, however, when I activate it and then try to test the constrast level on the contrast level test on Disney WOW all the stars which are supposed to be invisible, become visible. In fact, the only way which I've ever gotten them to cover up is by setting the contrast to 100 on high panel brightness! Obviously I didn't leave it as that and just turned super-white off. Anyone have any input on this? Thanks.

The contrast test on the WOW disc is notorious for being strange. Other than that it is ok.

So yes I have gone to a larger, much nicer, Plasma screen, and sit in the same position as my 32" screen (approx. 8-9 ft. away) my st50 is 50" as stated. I DID (as did my wife) indeed think it was the close proximity, although this does not seem overly close as I read through others' sitting situations but, I realize, everybody is different. But why than can I watch even ANY material without incident if in fact I AM to close to tv for my eyes?

So seemingly I can watch most HD content full screen 720/1080 without incident. Seemingly ALL letter-boxed material (widescreen-black on top and bottom), which is MOST movies these days, gives me this headache. My avi's (which are mainly SD quality) and seemingly most SD content be it on tv, saved files or netflix, per say, gives me the headache. I only mentioned the occasional HD full screen headache because of this years Superbowl it was messing with me Although I did watch many, many other games throughout the season without any headaches and found this ridiculously strange. DVD or Bluray if letter-boxed gives me the headache. Also, a little aside, I CAN go to the movie theater and do not experience these headaches. I say seemingly on all this because obviously I have not watched every movie or show known to man, nor checked everyone of my old DVD's or avi files to see what happens to my head. Thanks for chiming in and trying to shed light on this very frustrating problem of mine.
Edited by rojimmy - 3/5/13 at 9:57am

Thanks for the input. This really sucks as I thought this would open up a new world to me and in fact it has diminished it considerably. I WILL go to the eye dr. just to check and maybe get some advice. It just seems strange that my eyes would be able to do some things fine but others give me the headache. I hear you with the 3d, sometimes in the theater when I go with my son I experience the headache although I generally avoid the 3d version if at all possible. I have not tried that yet on this tv, don't have the glasses and am a bit scared of the headache.

Have you tried moving farther away from the set. I did this when I went from 47" to 60". At first, I was sitting 8ft from the 60" but this felt way to close so I moved by couch back to a 10ft seating distance and this is perfect. Now that I am used to the size, I am considering moving my seating distance closer.

I don't have a ps3 or the wow disk but I tried the "maximizer" on disneys BRAVE and the THX optimizer on The INCREDIBLES I also could do nothing in the contrast adjustment to make any of the white bars invisible. I'm running a panasonic bdt220 blu ray any thoughts?

Its because of ABL Automatic Brightness Limiter, on a full white screen the set will dim the whites. This happens on all Plasmas afaik - What you wanna do is use another reference pattern that uses a smaller percentage of the screen - something like 10 or 14%. On normal content obviously the whole screen wont be white - and correct contrast will show a full brightness white. Many ppl are used to the overlightly blinding white ice during hockey games when viewed using and LCD, so the plasma might seem really dim or yellow. You can set the Color Tone to a more cooler setting like Normal, and some ppl say that its more accurate on our plasmas cuz watching actual hockey shows that the ice isnt 100% and can be kinda dingy with lots of texture and color.

For my ST50 i think once i got a smaller reference, the brightness ended up around 77

There is nothing wrong with that distance for a 50" HDTV signal. You might want to try two or three feet further back to see if it helps in your case. You might also want to look into a medical eye exam if you haven't had one for a long time.

The source material and room lighting might be to relevant variables. A totally dark viewing room can cause eye strain.
There is absolutely no reason that I can think of where the black bars used for films with an aspect ratio wider than 1.78:1 would cause eye strain unless you are having some kind of uncommon eye problem.

Thanks, this makes sense. I guess once I get my Display pro it won't matter since I'll be calibrating to 35 or so fTL anyway. So then, it is IS advisable to set Super-white to on, correct?

I wish I could unfortunately I have a small room and am at my max distance as is.

Thanks for continued input. I WILL go to eye dr. just to check it out and maybe get some advice its only been like 1-2 years since last visit. On last visit I did get a new prescription for my glasses but it was really minor. I do not view in totally dark room. I am real curious/stumped by the damn widescreen situation and it is driving me crazy. I have not been able to watch a movie pretty much since I got the set and indeed that was a main reason for buying the set. I can't believe that I am wanting for my crappy 32" CRT back but this is a miserable situation.

This is my last idea. You may be shifting your eyes back and forth because, without thinking about it, you don't want to miss anything on that bigger screen. Moving further back might help you if that's what is going on.

Good luck.

Hello everyone! I just got my ST50 65in about 3 weeks ago and so far I'm loving it compared to what I had originally. I do have a question though. Ever since I first turned it on I've noticed that the screen itself is very dark. But this is my first plasma and because of this I'm unsure if it's just me and that's how they are or what but even my wife noticed and asked if it can be fixed. I have gone through all the picture settings and adjusted everything multiple times. Even the advanced settings but have found nothing that actually brightens the screen. The picture quality is amazing and seems very accurate other than the fact that everything just seems so dim. Another thing is I'm also comparing this to my Macbook Pro because I have my computer's desktop streamed to the ST50 via Apple TV most of the time. Anyways, does anyone have any suggestions? Like I said I've gone through all the settings numorous times trying to fix this but haven't had any luck. Maybe that's just how plasma's are but to me it just seems weird. My laptop screen is so bright and easy on the eyes but when I look at the same desktop when transferred to the TV it's so dark. And it's not the black levels either because I've adjusted that and still nothing. Ok, thank you for listening and thank you in advance for any advice you may have!

A quick question about using the D-Nice slides for 100 hours. I have the slides downloaded, I made sure Picture mode is custom, my question is this: D-nice mentions “Slideshow settings” and this list 7 categories settings, are these setting in the ST50? If so how do I get to these setting, I’m sure I’m missing something simple but I don’t want to start slideshow until I am sure I have everything setup correct.

Thanks

I would try checking the gamma adjustment in the pro settings on the ST50 and see if changing that will get you the screen brightness you prefer. Also if you are using your MacBook Pro for streaming to the ST50 a lot, you may want to check the display setting in system preferences on the laptop and make sure the resolution is set to the closest one for the ST50 (not sure if 1920x1200 is still the highest on macs) and you may want to click on the color setting and re-calibrate the laptop, though not sure how this will affect the PQ on the display. Getting a calibration disc like WOW and adjusting the ST50 settings first may be a good place to start before doing anything. Just some suggestions.

They are the settings for a slide show the menu will appear once you hit the red button to start a slide show in the USB/SD menu

Had mine 2 weeks and I don't know if I can keep it. My girl was on it last night while watching MTV "it's too dark" and I can't stand how "fuzzy" the picture seems sometimes. I had to play withy settings on my blu-ray and receiver just to get some sharpness. How is your sharpness?

Bigg thanks for the help greatly appreciated. I have started my 100 hour run.

Hi, I'm in the market for a new HDTV, and after lots of research, have decided on the Panasonic ST50 (55"). The catch is that it's a discontinued model, so they're clearing it off the shelves and it's getting harder and harder to find.

I found a few at Paul's TV for $997, but these were the floor models (store display). Is it worth pulling the trigger on?
If I want to stick with a Panasonic plasma, my next best option is the Panasonic GT50 at 60" for $1697. For some reason, all other stores that have a new ST50 in stock have them for around $1700 also, so the P60GT50 is essentially the same price for a better TV.

Should I get the store-display 55" ST50, or just splurge and get the new 60" GT50?

What settings are you currently using?

That sounds like a pretty solid deal on the 55ST50 to me, I would just make sure that there are no issues with it. Just the basic stuff, make sure the bezel has no cracks, no dead pixels, no image retention, etc.

I got my st50 for 1099 bnib at abc warehouse (don't know if that's in your state?) but $997 BUY IT! If it has issues bring it back

I tried d-nice... Panel prep and non prep and cnet. My girl liked game but it was not good to me and seemed to crush black. And as I said with my denon video enhancer it looks ok and even better with my bdt220 blu-ray set to fine but I feel I shouldn't have to do all this for a little crisper picture. Frustrated cuz it's a deal on one of the best sets out but as of now I'm on the fence with 2 weeks left of my 30 return period. Hate to take it back if there's a way to get it right. And can I buy the wow disc anywhere in person or do I have to order it? Thanks