Official Panasonic GT50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 153

What setting do you have your Darbee for satellite, BR, and gaming (if you game)? I just got the Darbee yesterday and played with it for a few hours with various sources. Although I do see a difference, I can't say that I'm impressed. The difference was very subtle with Directv. It was better with Xbox. And of course the biggest difference was with BR, but I had to turn the Darbee to HD-80, sometimes 90. It seems like most people have the Darbee at 50. But when I did that, the difference was barely noticeable. Any suggestions?

Using the cnet or even the thx cinema settings....the image is waaaay too dark, shadow detail gets lost. I boosted the brightness and it's much better, but the black bars in movies are not as dark.

Can someone tell me what a darbee is?

I have had a few months with this GT50 now, the 55 inch. Only used for heavy gaming basically. The image retention on this tv is very bad. Other then that the picture is great. I have faint ghosts of all the huds from almost any game ive played at decent length. They have not faded as ive played other content. Some of them are kind of dark too, but you can only really see them over solid light colors. Like a sky. When playing a new game I will mostly only notice it at the top of the screen when looking up at a sky area. Im not sure if this will improve with time as its only been the first few months. I did not have this issue on my G20 plasma , to this extent. I did get some image retention of the shotgun icon from gears of war on the G20 but when I played other content it eventually faded out, though it took weeks if not months. THis tv seems to retain almost any HUD.

Should I exchange this tv under the best buy warranty and look into the 6500 samsung model? I saw the burn in test where it apparently did not have this issue. If the black levels are worse then it wouldnt be worth it to me I dont think. This tv just passes satisfactory for me on black levels. I had another GT50 and even VT briefly, in the 65 inch size, and they both had these issues as well.

I am only interested in the best black levels as anything else looks faded to me. Cannot tolerate LCD or LED tvs.

Any feedback appreciated. If it will fade with time maybe I can deal with it. I just hate to think that each hud is a permenant damage. I put in long sessions on single games. They can be 4 hours or they can be 8 plus hours.

Got the G50 today. It's WAYYYY better than my old calibrated V10.
Colors are so vibrant and blacks so dark.

One things for sure..
Im not going to "break in" this model. I think it might of detrimented the V10 a bit.
Every minute watched is closer to some rising black or such nonsense.

Thanks

For that kind of torture I really think LCD/LED is your only option, like it or not. The accidental "burn in" observation from Cnet showed the Samsung did better overnight but continuous gaming over days, months, years is going to show up at some point on the Sansung as well. If you got the burn-in warranty from Best Buy, I guess you can just burn-and-return until you max out the benefit.

I had never heard of these LightDims, they sound awesome; Thanks for the link. I'll have to order a set of the originals. In the package, do they come in various sizes?

I just placed an order for a set of the 50% Originals. They'll come in real handy I think.
Edited by ATC7 - 12/5/12 at 6:46pm

Originally posted by walking beast


If the black levels are worse then it wouldnt be worth it to me I dont think. This tv just passes satisfactory for me on black levels. I had another GT50 and even VT briefly, in the 65 inch size, and they both had these issues as well.
I am only interested in the best black levels as anything else looks faded to me. Cannot tolerate LCD or LED tvs.


The GT/ST/VT have the best blacks in plasma that you can buy right now. Or you can pay a premium price for the Sharp Elite. Sounds to me like an LCD/LED is more for you since all you do is game heavily.

Any feedback appreciated. If it will fade with time maybe I can deal with it. I put in long sessions on single games. They can be 4 hours or they can be 8 plus hours.[/quote]



I had mine since April and game as well and don't have any IR. Hopefully it will go away for you but I don't game for more than 3 hrs, dude you need to get out more!

I've got a 50" GT50 on its way, and am a bit nervous about image retention - I play games pretty often, though I'm not really into marathon sessions or anything - except on the one time a week where I host an NHL 13 league night with my friends where we end up playing for around 3-4 hours. We each play a bunch of league games, so between going through the menus, selecting teams, and being in game, the same image will not be on the screen the entire time. The score overlay concerns me, but it does fade in and out depending on where the players are on the ice, which is a relief. My specific question is about the length of time it takes the phosphors to cool down after a static image has been on the screen for an unsafe amount of time? When and if should I be looking to take a break from the playing and how long should the break be before things have cooled down properly? I know this isn't an exact science and may vary from panel to panel, but I'm just looking for a general idea... I'm sorry if I'm not using the right terminology, as this is my first foray into using a plasma television.
Edited by TerminallyOdd - 12/5/12 at 9:13pm

The Web browser that comes with the TV is not very good (actually it is pretty bad) but I have used it a couple of times just for fun. For certain functions you have to log in via a keyboard that gets displayed on the screen. By sheer accident I have been able to get the keyboard on the screen which then enables me to use my Bluetooth keyboard. The problem is that I don't remember what button I poked or where I moved the onscreen pointer to get the keyboard displayed.

Any suggestions?

Thanks Latino and TPO. Im not sure if they are permanent or will fade in time. Looks like my only option for now is to just use the tv normally until it becomes a huge nuissance then swap out for another one. Im not sure if I use my warranty in 4 years from now, (when im ready to upgrade to OLED) if they will give me the value of the tv towards the OLED, since it wont be sold there anymore by then. ANyone know how that works? Ive also heard OLED may have worse burn in issues. So will have to see. Thanks

Where do I go to the settings for "theater"?? Also I'm not quite understanding the sharpness. I have it set to 0, but when you go to the other picture settings it's set much higher. Where do some of you have your sharpness set at on "custom"? At times the picture seems soft on 0 setting sharpness. I know the default setting for sharpness is 0.

Looking at this model. Question about the PC input. Is there an audio in for the pc input or is it just video? If so not sure I understand how to use it. My pc cable has the audio line built in for audio out from the laptop and my other TV's with pc input, they have a dedicated audio jack for the PC input.

OK I finally figured it out. But it was not worth the effort because my password was not accepted, even though I know it was correct. I decided to not pursue trying to log in for fear I would mess up my logging in via my computer.

Hello everyone! I got my GT50 55" about three weeks ago. It has been a great TV so far. I haven't really done any intense breaking in at all, I've played about 5 movies so far that fits the entire screen, but that's it. I can't tell if I have a bad TV o.o. So when I turn off the lights, turn on the TV and let it sit on the black screen with the blue text popping around moving on the screen, I can see that the text in the background, this goes for the input, and menus also. I can see the text after it disappears, but it only lasts for like 1-5 minutes. Is this normal or should I be worried? If I boot up netflix, or the internet apps, then I exit and go back to the black screen, I can see the text but again it only lasts for a few minutes.

I really enjoy the Darbee. To me one of the best ways to check it is to put the picture on hold and turn the Darbee on and off. I usually use a face with some slight wrinkles and I turn it on and off, when it's on I see the detail increase 10 to 15 %. For me the best setting is about 45%. I am on Direct TV also.

Interesting. The very first time I turned on my GT50 after my buddy had helped me wall mount it, I scrolled through a few OTA channels and then navigated through the setup menu – in total for maybe 5-10 minutes. Just before I turned it off I thought I caught a glimpse of IR in a white portion of the screen and I even said to my buddy “hey did you see that burn in?” (He missed it). I have MAYBE 10 hours of total run time on my GT50 in the past 2+ weeks, probably closer to 7 or 8 hours. In the dozen or so times I’ve turned it on, a good 25% of that time has been spent fiddling with the setup menu and options; the other 3/4 of time has been spent sampling movies from my collection. I have not picked up so much as a flash of IR since that very first time I thought I saw it. I’m actually very impressed with this plasma (my first). I have the pixel orbiter disabled as I’m pretty sure the cnet or black ops settings recommended it disabled for optimal picture. Thus far I’ve settled on a tweaked version of those picture settings. For the amount of time I spend in the setup menus (both TV, BD Player, and my old Pioneer amp with its archaic black & white menu) I haven’t been able to witness any IR whatsoever. I even watched maybe 10-15 minutes of a Canada vs Russia hockey game from the 2012 Vancouver Olympics on BD which had the score bar across the top present the entire time – zero image retention when I jumped back into OTA.

So it’s very interesting to hear about IR issues. I selected with THX Cinema mode out of the box for the first few times as I was navigating the menus (not even making adjustments, just learning them really). After that I tried out Cnet and then the black ops settings and then started to tweak those to my own liking each for TV/OTA tuner, BD HDMI, and my analog video input. My TV has had no dedicated “break in” whatsoever. The only thing I’ve done is avoid non 16:9 TV channels and to zoom 2.35:1 BD movies full screen but even still I’ve been guilty of watching lengths of the Dark Knight and Star Trek with the black bars.

Are you using the pixel orbiter? Also, what is your picture settings set to? (what has been your history?) If you are watching movies in a dark room I can't imagine you using an overly bright setting; that would be blinding.

The brief ghosting of menu text is normal on plasmas. Something about excited phosphors but I dont know all the science behind it. Image retention is a bigger problem. When you have that type of ghosting (its darker in my experience then the one that lasts a few mins) and it lasts for months if not longer. If you game heavily on the unit you will probably experience this, like I am. I also run the tv at 100 contrast and 50 brightness with no breaking in. I did the same on my G20 plasma though and did not have these issues. I had some image retention for a while but it went away when using other content for a while. This tv gets image retention on just about every game I play for a few hours. And it lasts very long. I am not sure if any of the HUD icons have faded off since I got the tv.

Some notes after owning the TV for a few weeks now:

1) Audio - During the first week, the audio wasn't particularly good. It sounded artificial. I think it was because the speaker drivers were still stiff. Sounded like the high and low frequencies weren't lined up. So, the sound was both thin and bloated at the same time. Imaging was way off. After a few weeks, the speakers started to sound fine, detailed and full. Nothing to complain about for sound coming out of a flat panel.

2) Picture quality - played with settings quite a bit during the first week. Used Cnet, Black Ops and my own settings. I was not happy with skin color with any of these settings. I finally settled on the THX setting and boosted the panel brightness (not the brightness) a bit. I didn't like the THX settings at first because it defaults to the Warm 2 color temperature which makes the picture look too brown. However, it's the only setting that produces a natural looking skin tone. Skin color using other color temperatures settings just look annoying to me. However, for animation, I much prefer using a cooler color temperature and using S-Curve for gamma.

3) Brightness - This is my first plasma. I had a Sony Z4100 which is a very bright LCD TV and a Sony HX800 which is a smoky dark LED TV. The GT50 is probably brighter than both of these TVs. I would say the brightness is more than plentiful on the GT50, however, I am ambivalent about the quality of the brightness. Sometimes, the TV looks like a big glass box with a big bulb inside sorta like a CRT. Perhaps this is because I am not used to having a glass like panel on the screen as opposed to a less reflective panel on a LCD/LED TV as those on m two Sony's.

4) Buzz - Yes, my tv buzzes a bit. I will give the customer service a call to see whether they can fix it. I rather not return the TV as there's nothing else wrong with it. Buzzing is either faint or undetectable most of the time. The buzz's volume would go up with it displays something bright and/or if you turn the brightness setting up.

5) Upscaling - picture quality using the built in Netflix app is spectacular. When watching Netflix with laptop as source, the picture quality is still very good but just a bit off in compared to the built in app. OTA pq is just good whereas poorer signals are not as well rendered on the GT50 compared to on the Sonys. SD upscaled to HD on OTA makes the video looks old/dated. HD signal (720+) picture quality is just so so.

6) Bluray off PS3 - I only watched one video, Davinci Code (the first one), on the PS3. This is probably the only time I truly see what this TV is capable of. The night scene at the Louvre really showed off how well the TV can render a balanced brightness and detailed picture quality even during very dark scenes. Makes me think that what I complained about the TV looking CRT like is something attributed to lower quality video source hence making the TV really picky about the source. Using the PS3 playing Bluray is the only time I can truly say I like the GT50 better than the Sony HX800.

7) Browser - It's actually not too bad. My initial experience is wasn't good at all as the browser crash each time I get on a web page. However, after a few days, I actually was able to get on my usual pages where I stream video off of. The usability obviously isn't as good as using a PC. Typing in search terms or URL is very frustrating. However, after bookmarking my fave sites, this made usability much more apparent. The browser still crashes from time to time but only probably 10% of the time. There are a few bugs though. Sometimes the video streaming navigation bar randomly disappears. This makes it not possible to maximize the video screen. And, ads on sites are a problem as it's very difficult to get the cursor on those small "x" to close them. Pop up ads can cause the browser to crash too. The built in browser doesn't open pop up ads, but, when they do attempt to pop up, it does cause some instability that leads to the browser to crash.

8) Form factor - I was actually more looking at the ST50. I got the GT50 only because it has a narrower bezel. My alcove can only accommodate a TV with 46.5" width. This TV is the largest that I know of that will fit in the alcove. So, I am very happy about this TV's lack of a bezel heft. The TV does have a bit of a retro look to it because of the thin metal frame around the bezel. Reminds me of an old Panasonic boombox from the 80s but in a good way. I like retro electronics. The inputs are off the the side which makes it harder for wire management, but you can get adapters to change the direction in which you can plug your cables in.

9) Ergonomics - Really getting used to the remote. Initially, I thought the remote is awkwardly geriatric looking. But, it's actually a pretty good remote. The web browsing experience is low but still pretty good for casual web streaming. I still need to hook a laptop to the TV when I get frustrated with the built in browser. I am not certain whether you can use just any PC AC cord to use as the AC cord that came with the TV has a locking mechanism on it. Menu navigation works great. I wish there's more than one custom mode for the video setting. And, I wish I could access the Pro settings for the all the other video modes.

Overall, I always thought plasma is better medium than LCD/LED when watching movies and sports, but LCD/LED gives better PC using experience. And, I never liked how much glare plasma screens give off as well as the overall form factor being bigger/thicker as well. The GT/ST50 models are very thin, so that's a plus. I never had a problem with plasma's lack of brightness as I usually leave the brightness settings to under 40% on my other TVs. I think the GT50 is a bit too bright. I think I prefer a smokier darker screen. And, I'd like to be able to use a non-warm 2 color temperature that still reproduces a satisfying skin tone.

Is the audio setting for "theater" under audio?? If it is I must not be clicking on something, because I can't find it. Thanks for any help!

My settings are in cinema, but I turn down the contrast, brightness, and color to 20. I have the pixel orbiter on. The TV is in my basement, which is very dim-lit. I believe it could be a possible ghosting issue. I have to look literally an inch away from the screen to notice it. I don't think I see any IR when I watch movies, everything looks good. I did notice one thing just now though. I was loading up a movie, and when that green screen pops up like (it says like the following preview has been approved for etc...rated R) On the left and right sides of the text there is a pinkish horizontal line I can see stretching to the end of the screen. I also noticed it when I was at the Netflix screen where you choose Netflix for kids or Netflix. Is this anything to worry about, is it defective?


Bigger image: http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo349/TomChong/_DSC0112.jpg
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo349/TomChong/_DSC0113.jpg
Edited by phichong - 12/6/12 at 2:44pm

Yes, the PC input has its own audio input. As I recall its just a simple headphone type jack and will therefore only give analog stereo type audio. This may be fine for many things but don't expect to get digital audio into the tv this way.

I can't see any problems in the photos; it's probably just my eyes. The green rating screen is probably the most notorious source of plasma line bleed ever created. The white lines don't stop where they are supposed to; they "bleed" to the edge of the tv. This effect can show up in other situations as well like you are suggesting in the Netflix splash LoGo. I have never seen a good explanation why this occurs and why it hasn't been fixed after a decade. If this is what you are seeing, it's 100% normal for plasma and is nothing to worry about.

Thanks. Can't see it on the picture.

You mean I can't do HD DTS MA 7.1 via an analog stereo jack?

Round 2: The replacement showed up today! Thankyou Amazon! This one's a keeper. I typically watch all my TV viewing with a Cinema setting that I tweek with my Avia disk. Thats was for a 2007 700U. For this unit I've decided on a strategy of running the original Evangelos slides via usb stick along with normal viewing content. For now I'm using THX Cinema and running the slldes also on this picture setting. I know the directions for prepping on the other site call for Custon picture mode but this is how I did it before and was very happy with the results. I realize that it may not age the pixels quite the same but since I prefer cinema viewing, Ill be OK. I have the Disney WOW disk along with the Avia disk to tweek to my hearts content after a week or so.

I am considering getting the 60GT50.

*Has newer firmware added adobe flash support to the browser yet?? I see older GT50 reviews reporting "no", but has anyone actually gone to the adobe flash website to recently find out? It will even tell you what version the TV supports.

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/find-version-flash-player.html

FYI... The 2012 Samsung and LG smart TV models both support Adobe Flash-10 which is better than nothing at all. The Samsung uses 10.1.105.7 and LG uses 10.1.105.6.

I find it odd how the CNET Asia Review reported flash support;

http://asia.cnet.com/hands-on-panasonic-viera-connect-62214877.htm
Edited by badabing - 12/7/12 at 3:29am

Just received my GT50 and so far, I'm liking it. It takes a bit getting used to coming from a Sammy LCD which was admittedly overly bright (I had the backlighting cranked up). The picture is just more natural and pleasant. My biggest problem so far, is with an Xbox 360 game I just tried, NHL 13. The ice is well, gray. I guess by the very nature of plasmas, displaying an entire screen of white isn't a strong suit, but it just looks painfully drab. It defaulted to game mode, but I tried cranking up contrast/brightness and going to other settings with not much luck. My friends and I play this game pretty frequently, so it'd be nice to modify some settings for this game at least to make things brighter. Any ideas?

Also wathching a KHL game on MSG and the ice just looks very gray. Also, the motion doesn't look too smooth. It looks like once the action picks up, everything blurs as if I were to pause it I would see two images of the player or puck for a split second, if that makes sense. Is that a product of the TV still being brand new?
Edited by TerminallyOdd - 12/7/12 at 11:03am

I've seen it too since I play both my PS3 and XBox on it. Its a continuation of a horizontal line when you have a box. You can see it when surfing with the built in browser, depending on the webpage. I think its normal and when watching movies from different sources its not there.

There are much better settings than Cinema such as THX Cinema. I am using Black Ops settings, you can search that name with google and gt50 to find them.
Edited by size14d - 12/7/12 at 10:58am