Official Panasonic ST50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 34

it could be interesting to see if and how it's visible on normal content viewing...

is it only visible with grey slides or during normal use too.

Hey everyone, I bought the 55" ST50 from amazon and am expecting it soon. I'm a little nervous because it is my first plasma, I've always owned LCD's. People are talking about buzzing which concerns me. Someone else mentioned that this new filter that makes it better for bright rooms is making the picture softer in games, I game a lot so that would suck. I also saw CNET's review where they basically said the 3D is weak for this model, has anyone tried it yet? In the 2nd or 3rd page of the manual they talk about image retention, I thought plasmas were immune to that now. Please, anyone who owns this model can you touch on this stuff and whether you've noticed these faults yet? I apologize, I did not read every post in this thread, it is too long.

Its visible to some extent on all content thus far, especially if I know what I'm looking for, but only particularly eye-catching with the various grayscale slides.

Mine buzzes pretty noticeably on whites (can hear pretty easily in a silent room from ~8-10 ft away) but is quiet on darker colors. Can't touch on the rest of your questions.

Thus far what content have you viewed on the set aside from slides?

The 3D is weak? How did you come to that determination from the Cnet review?

Katsmeier raved about the thing except for one part where he mentions they weren't as impressed with the 3D and that it showed more crosstalk than competitor models. He also said it wasn't a deal breaker and the 3D is "pretty good". This looms large with me because unlike others that see 3D as a gimmick it's actually important to me.

15 minutes of 2d animated content, streamed via Netflix.
15 minutes of Inception via Bluray disc.
15 minutes of Breaking Bad, streamed via Netflix.
Rest of time spent with the slide loop since yesterday evening.

The band is visible throughout, but if I sat someone down with normal content without pointing out the flaw, I'm not sure they'd be able to detect it immediately. I think most people would be able to see it with the slides, however.

So this is a really nice plasma. D-Nice's settings are "arresting" with low (or no) lighting. Is it even possible to get this set to pop a little more for daytime viewing? I sure hope so. Really don't want to go back to an LED-LCD (but would if that's the only way to get bright daytime image.)

I also took into consideration that said that it was very much like the VT30, that the other sets he stated he compared them to were only slightly better, and that, at the time of the writing, he had not yet to written a review of a Samsung or LG (is there one as of this date?). I don't view this as week, or at least won't until the others have been tested and reported on.

From the reviews I've read, the best experience for 3D has been passive and I suspect that you're totally against that tech.

Passive is the same as what you get in the theater right now, and i'm never impressed when I go see a 3D movie in the theater. This is my first 3D tv so I can't comment on active 3D yet but it definitely sounds like a more advanced tech.

Edit

I can't comment on that but I do know dlp uses active 3D, not passive.

Yep. I know

Since 3D is important to you, I suggest you get out there and take a look through both passive and active glasses, at LCD/LED and Plasmas before buying.

if it's not a problem, could you take an image where the fault is visibe in normal content? just to see how it affects a normal scene....thanks

The buzzing on mine isn't really noticeable, it does pitch higher and lower during certain colors but to be honest it was never as bad as last year's Samsung I tried. So far no image retention and I didn't use break in slides and I game a lot.

Gaming is fine, the filter doesn't soften the picture. BF3 looks really good, I would say the only bad thing for gaming is that the ST50 doesn't seem to have a good Just Scan aspect ratio which when I had Samsung was what I used. Actually any other ration than H fill, size 2 is garbage imo. No input lag is detectable and I don't use game mode.

The 3d was where I was most disappointed as it is important to me too, that is why I decided to get another TV after my first 3d tv, the crosstalk was terrible on my first and it is bad on the ST50 as well. I am actually exchanging my st50 today for the E7000 Samsung to see if the 3d is better. Also, I tried a LG passive last year and it had really good 3d if using a 3d blu ray, but if you try On Demand content it is god awful which is one reason I didn't keep the set (plus plasma is just better )

The only other thing that has bothered me a little bit is I think Dithering is what they call it, but it is where you see a snowy/grainy look on the picture where to me it looks like you can actually see the pixels firing. It can be annoying if you look for it and it is less noticeable on better signals, but still annoying.

Try turning down the brightness to see if it helps.

Thanks for everyone's input/advice. I have 30 days to play with it, within 30 days amazon will take it back with no shipping or restocking fees. Except for the 3d I am expecting to be impressed though, I am coming from a 2008 sharp lcd, so everything with the st50 will be compared to that. Regarding crosstalk, i've read that it is subjective, i've read that some content is worse than others and i've read that some displays are more prone to it. Is it a combination of all these things or just one?

checked out 55" st50 at BB.

2D loop. so not much to watch. 3D glasses not turned on, so could not check that out. don't care about it anyway.

note: I am a total newb.

that said:

it was not hot. I felt heat. I put my hands all over the screen. there was heat. but it felt negligible. I felt no concern.

the picture was bright, clear and pleasing. I noticed no buzzing.

I plan on buying a 50". (not available yet at BB store. don't know about BB online.)

Any thoughts? What am I, chopped liver?

Maybe you will have to wait until both models are available to a good sized group and owner threads have been started.

Passive is what you get in the theater, period, but it bears no resemblance to the passive used in home TVs by LG. They have almost nothing to do with one another, to be honest.

The theater passive is a different enough technology from either the active or passive in-home technologies.

To say in-home active is "more advanced" is kind of nonsensical. (The reason RealD isn't in your home is because it's too expensive to implement; it's quite a bit more advanced than what's in your TV in many ways.) Theater 3-D is much more forgiving with respect to head movement and location in the room. A lot of active home systems suffer from some or a lot of "crosstalk" which is a huge negative.

Then there are passive home system's like LG, which cut resolution a ton (bad), but offer a powerful depth illusion (good).

It's fair to say there are tradeoffs all around and people will have their own preferences.

I am also waiting for some reviews of the GT50 although I'm about 95% sure I am going to get one just because I like the looks of it over the ST50. Also the THX modes won't hurt and could give me the "Day" and "Night" options I want.

Many specs are mostly marketing tools for the manufacturer. Contrast ratio is a prime example of spec that has lost all meaning. I don't have any idea what the specs you listed would mean in a bright room. My guess is that there won't be a significant difference in brightness between the two models. That's a guess not a prediction.

The only way to be sure of getting a lot of brightness is to go LCD or find a way to dim the viewing room a bit.

Thank you. I think I'll be able to view one and compare it to the ST50 this week.

Can any ST50 owners give their opinion about the built in media player? How well does it support mkv's and such? Thanks!

i just don't get it, whats all the fuss about brightness? How bright do you want it? I have an ancient Panny 42pwd6uy in a bright room with double sliding doors on the right side and the TV is plenty bright in the daylight. Are you trying to get some tan while you are watching TV ????

on thread subject .. sitting 10' from TV i'm looking to upgrade my old 42 to 50st50.. Local BB still has non in stock, but as soon as they do i'll have to check it out and hopefully play with settings...

just pulled the trigger on a 60 inch ST50 from Amazon. So pumped.

The one thing I do not like about this TV is the silver stand. Does anyone think I could paint it black and make it look good? If so, any ideas on what kind of paint to use to make it look OEM-ish and not like a 1st grade art project?