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Official Panasonic GT50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 194

post #5791 of 9028
1/23/13 at 1:51pm
Calibration Questions:

I currently have an Xbox 360, PC, and cable box going though a receiver and then receiver out to TV. My PC has a CableCard going through MediaCenter and I really use that more than the cable box since I can record shows and watch through my xbox or watch live TV through there also. Last night I noticed that the TV picture looked different when viewed through my CableCard source (PC or XBox) than it did when viewed though the cable box.

My questions are: Can a professional calibrator calibrate my graphics card (since there are color adjustments and settings) to look good when displayed on my GT50 panel or do calibrators only make adjustment settings to the TV itself?

If so, is the additional charge usually much more?

Thanks for the insight.

As a side note: I was actually planning on using my tax return for a nice calibration on this set since Chad B said he will be in my area end of January or February but now the IRS won't even start processing returns until Jan 30th...That's sooooo upsetting. Now, I have to see if I can still swing it in time without the return.
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post #5792 of 9028
1/23/13 at 3:10pm
Is there a need for calibration on this TV? If you don't do it, does it make a big difference to the naked eye? I read it runs 300-400 is that accurate
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post #5793 of 9028
1/23/13 at 3:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amindu View Post

Is there a need for calibration on this TV? If you don't do it, does it make a big difference to the naked eye? I read it runs 300-400 is that accurate

Yes you will see a difference whether that is worth it to you only you can decide. I'd say more towards the upper end of that range.
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post #5794 of 9028
1/23/13 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amindu View Post

Is there a need for calibration on this TV? If you don't do it, does it make a big difference to the naked eye? I read it runs 300-400 is that accurate

I am relatively new to this, but I have done a lot of reading on this site and in this thread so I will give you my opinion and I'm sure others will chime in. Since you have the GT model and it has both THX cinema and THX brightroom both calibrations have been said to have been very very good, probably as close to a pro calibration as you can get. There are calibrations on this thread that have been done by HD – Master, CNET, black ops. I am currently running HD – Masters warm 2 settings and they are very very good. I am very pleased with those settings. Your questions about Pro calibration and pricing is somewhat accurate depending upon what type of calibrations are done as they can do just TV calibrations and also audio calibrations if you really want to get in depth. Some have said they are a bit better for your specific conditions but I'm not really sure though. As I said, someone else may chime in.
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post #5795 of 9028
1/23/13 at 8:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amindu View Post

Is there a need for calibration on this TV? If you don't do it, does it make a big difference to the naked eye? I read it runs 300-400 is that accurate

It does make a difference, but not a big difference if you have taken the time to apply one of the listed settings then make some tweaks to fine tune your individual set. A pro calibration is the best way to pull the maximum capabilities out of the set if you fell you need to. In many ways its like paying a good mechanic $400 to increase your mpg from 28 to 30.

If you have money to burn, go for it. I would not do it based on value.
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post #5796 of 9028
1/23/13 at 9:46pm
Chad B's geek buster calibration at $200 is an absolute steal. His calibration in custom mode and service menu adjustments was in another league from what I was able to do with thx cinema and spears and munsil. It totally passed the wife test, first thing she said was "wow that is amazing".
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post #5797 of 9028
1/23/13 at 10:53pm
Thank...that made my day/week/month/year! Lmao!!
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post #5798 of 9028
1/23/13 at 11:18pm
What is your problem? Chad clearly does excellent work as evidenced by myself and many others. No need to put down others work just to shill your own calibration.
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post #5799 of 9028
1/23/13 at 11:42pm
Some of you guys just need to go ahead and whip out your dicks and have a size contest. Or you could stop whining and complaining and insulting.

Calibration is either worth it to you, or not. There are some extremely good settings here and other places. The THX Bright Room is probably close to as good as it gets for a bright room. Cinema is very good. I don't doubt that there's a noticeable different between some of the settings posted and a calibration, but for $400? I'd be better served buying a very good bluray player and a receiver with upconversion. Then I'd want a sub. That would be much more noticeable than the $400 calibration. Once you're maxed out on speakers, sources, all that (and for some of you apparently.... drapes.....), then maybe the calibration becomes worth it. There's no way you can "go wrong" unless you don't have the money for it and you end up not eating for a few days. It's just a matter of whether it's worth it or not.

edit: I am getting some pretty bad IR, but it seems to be fading faster and faster as I run these slides. I've probably watched 4 hours of sports, and run the slides for 45 or 50 hours. I would definitely recommend running the slides when you're not watching. The last thing you want is serious IR. People everywhere say that if you run the slides, 150-200 hours is the point where you stop having to worry about IR. I'm sure on some sets you don't have to worry at all, but better safe than sorry.

Also, the entire 1.5" vertical stripe on the right of the screen is slightly darker than the rest of the screen. I just noticed this yesterday... You don't notice it though unless you're looking straight at it, and I rarely look straight at the very right edge of the screen. Motion obscures it anyways.... I guess this is the cost of buying a used TV. Amazon will give me my money back, but I like the TV enough that I think I'll just deal with it. It won't be 5 years before I'll want a new shiny 4k Telly anyways.

Oh and also, on the buzzing. My set does buzz slightly, but if you don't have one, think of it more as the sound of a very small electrical motor running at low speed. It's a very soft sound, easily lost in distance. If you hunt, the difference between stepping on tall grass and a dried leaf. They both sound loud to you, but the sharpness of the leaf carries much, much further. Don't worry about the buzzing. I'll agree with alot of the guys here; if it bothers you in any normal viewing, even during dead silences, then it's abnormal. You shouldn't hear it at all from 8 feet. If you do, return or get it repaired. Even if you could hear it from 8 feet, statistically, you would still be fine, because most dead silent screens in movies are not filled with white; they're dark screens, the shifting of scenes to nightime, or whathaveyou. Pure white screens are usually cloud or sunshine filled, and mostly are filled with music. So even if I had a bad buzz, it wouldn't be all that bad.
Edited by Porteroso - 1/23/13 at 11:53pm
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post #5800 of 9028
1/24/13 at 4:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by HD-Master View Post

I use an HDMI splitter from my AVR to my GT50. So HDMI 1 is set to Custom with my Day settings, while HDMI 2 is set to Custom with my Night settings.

Thank you, HD Master.

Is there a cable manufacture I should consider useing or staying away from or are they all about the same in regards to quallity?
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post #5801 of 9028
1/24/13 at 5:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trebor Pyn View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by HD-Master View Post

I use an HDMI splitter from my AVR to my GT50. So HDMI 1 is set to Custom with my Day settings, while HDMI 2 is set to Custom with my Night settings.

Thank you, HD Master.

Is there a cable manufacture I should consider useing or staying away from or are they all about the same in regards to quallity?

Stay away from the overly expensive brands like Monster. With digital it either works or it doesn't. I'd go with Monoprice. Great price, great quality.
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post #5802 of 9028
1/24/13 at 7:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Recstar24 View Post

I believe you have to send 4:4:4 color space as well for 1080p pure direct.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iain- View Post

Quite right.

However that colour space has to be Y'CbCr4:4:4 or else 1080P Pure Direct will ignore it. It won't process RGB 4:4:4.
This information is based solely on what I had read at that point. As such it's only partially correct.

Now that I have an actual machine to use I will revise that statement and say 1080P Pure Direct will work well with either Y'CbCr4:4:4 or RGB4:4:4 as I tested it last night.

BTW, it's a bloody brilliant setting option to have and was worth all the effort to get my new GT50. cool.gif
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post #5803 of 9028
1/24/13 at 7:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Porteroso View Post

Some of you guys just need to go ahead and whip out your dicks and have a size contest. Or you could stop whining and complaining and insulting.

Calibration is either worth it to you, or not. There are some extremely good settings here and other places. The THX Bright Room is probably close to as good as it gets for a bright room. Cinema is very good. I don't doubt that there's a noticeable different between some of the settings posted and a calibration, but for $400? I'd be better served buying a very good bluray player and a receiver with upconversion. Then I'd want a sub. That would be much more noticeable than the $400 calibration. Once you're maxed out on speakers, sources, all that (and for some of you apparently.... drapes.....), then maybe the calibration becomes worth it. There's no way you can "go wrong" unless you don't have the money for it and you end up not eating for a few days. It's just a matter of whether it's worth it or not.

edit: I am getting some pretty bad IR, but it seems to be fading faster and faster as I run these slides. I've probably watched 4 hours of sports, and run the slides for 45 or 50 hours. I would definitely recommend running the slides when you're not watching. The last thing you want is serious IR. People everywhere say that if you run the slides, 150-200 hours is the point where you stop having to worry about IR. I'm sure on some sets you don't have to worry at all, but better safe than sorry.

Also, the entire 1.5" vertical stripe on the right of the screen is slightly darker than the rest of the screen. I just noticed this yesterday... You don't notice it though unless you're looking straight at it, and I rarely look straight at the very right edge of the screen. Motion obscures it anyways.... I guess this is the cost of buying a used TV. Amazon will give me my money back, but I like the TV enough that I think I'll just deal with it. It won't be 5 years before I'll want a new shiny 4k Telly anyways.

Oh and also, on the buzzing. My set does buzz slightly, but if you don't have one, think of it more as the sound of a very small electrical motor running at low speed. It's a very soft sound, easily lost in distance. If you hunt, the difference between stepping on tall grass and a dried leaf. They both sound loud to you, but the sharpness of the leaf carries much, much further. Don't worry about the buzzing. I'll agree with alot of the guys here; if it bothers you in any normal viewing, even during dead silences, then it's abnormal. You shouldn't hear it at all from 8 feet. If you do, return or get it repaired. Even if you could hear it from 8 feet, statistically, you would still be fine, because most dead silent screens in movies are not filled with white; they're dark screens, the shifting of scenes to nightime, or whathaveyou. Pure white screens are usually cloud or sunshine filled, and mostly are filled with music. So even if I had a bad buzz, it wouldn't be all that bad.

Hi Thanks for the thoughts...what exactly do you mean by running slides, what is slides?
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post #5804 of 9028
1/24/13 at 7:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacNThorens View Post

I am relatively new to this, but I have done a lot of reading on this site and in this thread so I will give you my opinion and I'm sure others will chime in. Since you have the GT model and it has both THX cinema and THX brightroom both calibrations have been said to have been very very good, probably as close to a pro calibration as you can get. There are calibrations on this thread that have been done by HD – Master, CNET, black ops. I am currently running HD – Masters warm 2 settings and they are very very good. I am very pleased with those settings. Your questions about Pro calibration and pricing is somewhat accurate depending upon what type of calibrations are done as they can do just TV calibrations and also audio calibrations if you really want to get in depth. Some have said they are a bit better for your specific conditions but I'm not really sure though. As I said, someone else may chime in.

Hi where do you find these settings by the different folks you mentioned? Is it easy to do, or are you going into the ISF back door menu to make those changes?, thanks
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post #5805 of 9028
1/24/13 at 11:18am
Dude...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Recstar24 View Post

What is your problem? Chad clearly does excellent work as evidenced by myself and many others. No need to put down others work just to shill your own calibration.
Dude! Nobody is saying anything bad about chad anymore. This whole thing is hysterical.
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post #5806 of 9028
1/24/13 at 11:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Levine View Post

Dude...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Recstar24 View Post

What is your problem? Chad clearly does excellent work as evidenced by myself and many others. No need to put down others work just to shill your own calibration.
Dude! Nobody is saying anything bad about chad anymore. This whole thing is hysterical.

You happen to be the only one finding any humor in your juvenile and snide remarks.
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post #5807 of 9028
1/24/13 at 11:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iain- View Post


This information is based solely on what I had read at that point. As such it's only partially correct.

Now that I have an actual machine to use I will revise that statement and say 1080P Pure Direct will work well with either Y'CbCr4:4:4 or RGB4:4:4 as I tested it last night.

BTW, it's a bloody brilliant setting option to have and was worth all the effort to get my new GT50. cool.gif

What benefits have you noticed for actual viewing content? The only difference I have spotted is in spears and munsil with some of the chroma tests, the one that is supposed to show Moire there is none with 1080p pure direct, and the other chroma tests are excellent as well.
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post #5808 of 9028
1/24/13 at 1:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amindu View Post

Hi Thanks for the thoughts...what exactly do you mean by running slides, what is slides?

Slides are these. Just jpegs of green/blue/red/white in different shades that age the phosphors evenly. You can run them as a slideshow, and they'll run till you stop it. Also when you run them, make sure you don't have brightness/contrast turned up too high. I'd put the video setting on standard because it's pretty dim. No idea if it makes a difference, but some people say it does.

To be clear, alot of people have posted pretty good evidence that running slides doesn't really "break in" the TV any better than just watching it, but for me, the value is getting to the point where I can watch espn for 3 hours then watch a movie, and not see any IR, as fast as possible.

http://www.hometheatershack.com/break_in_images.zip
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post #5809 of 9028
1/24/13 at 2:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ASiani View Post

I currently have an Xbox 360, PC, and cable box going though a receiver and then receiver out to TV. My PC has a CableCard going through MediaCenter and I really use that more than the cable box since I can record shows and watch through my xbox or watch live TV through there also. Last night I noticed that the TV picture looked different when viewed through my CableCard source (PC or XBox) than it did when viewed though the cable box.

Yeah PCs have a slew of color calibrating options. Windows 7 and the ATI console has all sorts of options.
Also note that computer monitors need calibrated too.
I've used my Eye-1 on my computer monitor more than my TV.

Still amazed Newegg was selling those Eye-1's for $25 earlier this year. I paid $125.
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post #5810 of 9028
1/24/13 at 6:10pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Porteroso View Post

Slides are these. Just jpegs of green/blue/red/white in different shades that age the phosphors evenly. You can run them as a slideshow, and they'll run till you stop it. Also when you run them, make sure you don't have brightness/contrast turned up too high. I'd put the video setting on standard because it's pretty dim. No idea if it makes a difference, but some people say it does.

Actually when you run the 100 hour slideshow D-Nice says to use Custom mode and leave all the settings at their factory default. It's ok to run the panel bright when running slides, kinda like searing a steak. It doesn't hurt it, and gives better results within the 100 hour period. Running it dim greatly prolongs the process and doesn't age the panel nearly as fast.

Quote:
To be clear, alot of people have posted pretty good evidence that running slides doesn't really "break in" the TV any better than just watching it,

That's pretty much true, but there is probably some variance by the time the 100 hour mark is reached. But there's no real way to quantify that variance so it doesn't really matter anyway.

Quote:
....but for me, the value is getting to the point where I can watch espn for 3 hours then watch a movie, and not see any IR, as fast as possible.

It's been stated many times by ISF Calibrators here that breaking the TV in (either by running the slides or just watching content) does virtually nothing to prevent or reduce the chance of the panel getting IR. These guys would know - on the "broken in" displays they calibrate they have menus open for various periods while making their adjustments and are very familiar with the amount of IR they may or may not cause, and they also know how long the panel has been aged before they started the calibration. If they say they see no evidence that breaking a panel is reduces the chance of getting IR, that should be good enough for us. I didn't even break my GT50 in - i just put it in Custom mode with Contrast about 85% and watched TV and sports and Speed Channel normally from day one, and my particular panel doesn't get anything close to persistent IR.
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post #5811 of 9028
1/24/13 at 6:18pm
hello. finally got a chance to do some test viewing with BD - dark knight rises. This time around I used HD-Master settting. Overall the picture looks great, but perhaps my expectations of 'inky black' were set too high coming from my cfl samsung lcd. On this movie, I can see the blackbars during the non-imax scenes and can clearly see a difference between it and the bezel. I can tell just as much as my old LCD. Also there are moments during the opening credits where a black screen is show and its not disappearing black. Did I miss configure something or did I just expect something out of line by reading too much about 'inky blacks'?

Also, I noticed that even though I can see I am passing a 1080p signal, the 1080p pure direct option is greyed out in the menu. I am not sure what hte setting is for right now (i will read up on it), but I figured I should be able to coming from a BD disc. Am i doing something wrong?

Lastly, for 24p - do i need 24p content? How can I tell? Is it on the disk jacket? I read that it flickers too much, but just wanting to test it out on this beast of a TV.

TIA!
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post #5812 of 9028
1/24/13 at 6:42pm
Okay hdmaster.....-4,0,+4,+7,0,-1 is superior. Those are your not quite newest night settings. Let me know when you tweak again :-)

I haven't tried the warm 1 tweak yet I'll give it a go next week. Thanks as always for sharing
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post #5813 of 9028
1/24/13 at 7:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amindu View Post

Hi where do you find these settings by the different folks you mentioned? Is it easy to do, or are you going into the ISF back door menu to make those changes?, thanks

HD-Masters is about 5 pages or so back from this page, I think you can do a search for them. You can also search CNET for their settings on the GT50. The settings are very easy to do...you push the menu button on the remote >> picture mode >> switch to custom and enter values and voilà! I think you will see instructions in the back posts.
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post #5814 of 9028
1/24/13 at 7:33pm
A link to my settings is in my signature as well.
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post #5815 of 9028
1/24/13 at 9:18pm
Hi guys,

Is it possible to connect a source device to the TV via HDMI and pass multi-channel audio from that device to an AVR using the HDMI ARC connection?

In other words can a device such as a PS3 of an ATV be connected to the TV directly via HDMI but have the TV pass a DTS-HD bitstream to an AVR via the ARC connection? Or is it just limited to 2-channel?
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post #5816 of 9028
1/24/13 at 10:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RandyWalters View Post

Actually when you run the 100 hour slideshow D-Nice says to use Custom mode and leave all the settings at their factory default. It's ok to run the panel bright when running slides, kinda like searing a steak. It doesn't hurt it, and gives better results within the 100 hour period. Running it dim greatly prolongs the process and doesn't age the panel nearly as fast.
That's pretty much true, but there is probably some variance by the time the 100 hour mark is reached. But there's no real way to quantify that variance so it doesn't really matter anyway.
It's been stated many times by ISF Calibrators here that breaking the TV in (either by running the slides or just watching content) does virtually nothing to prevent or reduce the chance of the panel getting IR. These guys would know - on the "broken in" displays they calibrate they have menus open for various periods while making their adjustments and are very familiar with the amount of IR they may or may not cause, and they also know how long the panel has been aged before they started the calibration. If they say they see no evidence that breaking a panel is reduces the chance of getting IR, that should be good enough for us. I didn't even break my GT50 in - i just put it in Custom mode with Contrast about 85% and watched TV and sports and Speed Channel normally from day one, and my particular panel doesn't get anything close to persistent IR.

I believe you, but on my panel, I have gotten very noticeable IR. The first thing I did when I got it was watch the second half of an NBA game. That maybe lasted an hour, and then I went straight into running slides. 6 hours into the slides, I still had the IR, though it had faded some. I ran them all that night, and the next day the IR was gone. I recently watched a full NBA game, and the IR was gone after about 2 hours of slides. I know because I am paying close attention to my panel. I'm within the period that I can return it to Amazon, and because of a different issue, I'm considering it. I wanted to see how much better IR got after around 150 hours of slides, then make my decision.

If the issue of the aging of phosphors is an issue, and I think we all agree it is, then it would make sense for IR to be reduced with age. If the phosphors are brand new, and you have a logo, especially a solid color logo, it would mean that for (relatively) long periods of time, other phosphors would not be aging while the rest of the panel would, which would give you IR, in that the aged phosphors would be slightly different than the unaged. Many people in the 200+ hour range claim that they never have to worry about IR at all. Some like you say they never did. I think it is panel dependant, but it would make sense for some panels to have reduced IR with age, because of the nature of phosphors and their color reproduction with age. I'm surprised that an ISF calibrator would claim differently, because they're the ones that want the panel to be aged before calibration, or is that not correct? If it needs to be aged, that means the color does change. If the color changes with age up until some point when it doesn't change much anymore, then there would be a difference in color between aged and unaged phosphors, which would give you IR.

Also, the reason I said to not run the panel very bright, is that the website that runs the slide link that everyone here uses says that. Or maybe I read that on hidefjunkies. I have no idea, but I read somewhere that someone thought that running slides without amping everything up is best. Again, I don't know, and that could very well be false. At the time, it was the only thing I had read on the subject.
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post #5817 of 9028
1/25/13 at 2:20am
For anyone thinking about using Panasonic remote control apps for their displays or blu-ray players save your time, their garbage. That is all.
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post #5818 of 9028
1/25/13 at 2:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvthefloyd View Post

For anyone thinking about using Panasonic remote control apps for their displays or blu-ray players save your time, their garbage. That is all.
Works great for me. What's the problem?
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post #5819 of 9028
1/25/13 at 3:01am
No on button for the GT50. No off button but shake function to make the off button appear. Spotty connectivity. Slow connectivity. Different apps for different Panasonic products all of which have the same asinine design and poor functionality.

I just think the Japanese are playing catch up on software dev. Culturally they've always had a bias against software.
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post #5820 of 9028
1/25/13 at 4:55am
I am running the Viera remote app / iPhone and it works great. It controls just about everything on the GT50 and 220 BR that I need it to .
I can throw anything from my phone onto the screen - photos, video, web browser.

But I dont use my phone for my primary remote so any missing features are no big deal. I use it more as a remote I can use anywhere in the house (no line of sight needed).
Its all running thru our wifi.

On the other hand... I cant get the Panasonic Theater 2012 app to recognize any of my equipment.
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