Official Panasonic GT50 Series Discussion Thread [No Street Price Talk] - Page 26

+1!

I have to tell you, I totally agree. I didn't think I would use that mode at all, but I was home sick the other day and just figured I would try it, and I was blown away. I just thought it was a gimmick and was very pleased to be proven wrong..

Okay everyone. After spending the last 2 months reading all of the ST threads I have decided to move here, the GT thread.

Why? I spent some time at Magnolia today watching Master and Commander via BD on a GT50. I was fortunate enough to be by myself in the isolated sound room with full control over the remote and lighting conditions within the room. Of course I took the time to navigate and familiarize myself with the picture settings menu, even the advanced functions. Mind you, this will be my first plasma purchase. The bezel seems thinner than the official website images and the pedestal fades from brushed nickel to black as you go back towards the screen.

Picture quality bit:

Stunning blacks, vivid colors and decent motion. The color accuracy was better than LED of course those shades of black were astonishing. I played around with the THX day and night viewing modes with both the ceiling lights on, off and at half luminosity. Pretty impressive I must add. The motion was the one bit I could not wrap my head around. Wish I could have spent more time adjusting the smoothness of the video. No IR seen and this set was not prepped with slides according to the saleswoman. Also I confirmed that this set has not been calibrated professionally and is right out of the box settings. The filter through me for a loop with direct reflection from the lights behind it coming from the rest of the sales floor. The jury is still out on the filter.

Oh, and this was all on component video not HDMI.

Any question? Feel free to ask.

Also sat in front of the Sharp Elite LED. Hands down best LED to date with Pioneerish looking black levels.

I figure anything the ST can do, well...the GT can do it better right?

Please prove me wrong so I don't have to do this again when the VT series comes available.

that's all you can contribute to the conversation...move along.

This is a hard decision, I have already returned 1 TV, and the TV I have now I am going to return (the 50" GT50).

So this third TV I buy, I would prefer to be the last. Returning can tend to be a pain.

After seeing how well the VT is performing review wise, it is hard to ignore.

I feel your pain dude... Ive decided im going to take my tv back and get another one. I can clearly hear the buzzing at 6 feet, and where my tv is on the wall the sound bounces off and comes forward even louder..

so I'll be on the 3rd one too!

I'm not sure this is true. Chad's review indicated the only reason to buy the GT over the ST is for THX bright mode. Others can confirm, but I've been following both threads since the beginning and I can't pick a winner based on user comments.

Randy thanks much for the confirmation of the sturdy stand, this helps a lot.

I may have missed it earlier in the thread, and if I did I apologize, but I just wanted to ask about gaming on here. I'm not worried about IR or burn-in, I'm more inquiring about the lag time. Does anyone game on the GT? Just curious to see how it is. I do a fair amount of gaming between MW3, NHL12 and NCAA Football 12.

I would think about the ST but I need the Bright Room mode because my living has a bunch of windows with natural light.

16ms is what has been reported.

I believe the 16ms is for the ST, but I could be wrong. Would that also go for the GT?

It should at least be very close, it's the same panel.

Maybe you should have taken my very brief advice...succinct but wise. You or whoever has a good thing in hand, and may in fact lose out in chasing "quality and a better thing." You said yourself that this was the best quality you've ever see (or something to that effect) and apparently you got a unit without flaws...now you ASSUME that you'll go back out there, after numerous people on here have suggested that it is a minefield (hit or miss on quality). But THAT would be providing "Mr. 43 entries, and now-an-expert" good advice, and after your inglorious response to me, I won't be offering any to you. A LOT of people would be better off if they had seen and followed my brief advice, chasing "better, better, best". So treat it with disdain if you like.

Yes, 16ms for ST. GT has more. I forget if it's here at AVS or over at HDJ, but others have tested that the GT has at least 30ms lag but a recent more accurate method showed 43ms. There seems to be unresolved debate about whether that makes a noticeable impact. Consensus seems to be no, except MAYBE for ultra hardcore gamers. They say humans are close to 200ms plus other network factors introduce more lag, so this small increment shouldn't be noticeable.

I'm just regurgitating what I've read. Hope that helps.

FYI, the VT is faster than GT. I forget, but I think close to ST 16ms lag if not identical.

For me, GT is where it's at! Sounds like THX modes are great (close to calibrated ST), and design is nicer. VT not as good as ST in some ways (brightness limited or something? Check hdtvuk reviews) Trying to decide 60" or 65" from 11 feet. Any opinions for me? I will mostly watch HD time warner cable and BlueRay discs. If I decide on 65", will wait for at least a 200-300 px drop.

I remember reading that test, too (I also don't remember if it was here or hdj--so hard to keep it all straight ), but was there a test of that nature with an ST? I'd be more likely to believe that if the GT was at 30 or 43, that the ST would be around there as well (or wherever the GT measures). I just don't see how they could be much (if any) different with all of the picture and processing options set the same, as it is exactly the same panel.

I'm pretty sure that a comparable test showed ST at 16 and GT at 30. The GT at 43 was a new, improved method. So, maybe ST is really closer to 30? Either way I'm sure it's not a big deal.

Thanks Chris. Good to hear from someone with experience. I have 2 little ones - one not even crawling yet, so I don't want to take any chances at all. Sounds like it might work, so I guess it's worth considering. I will bring in some TV wall-mounting experts to see what they say. Thanks.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help. That's what I thought but I wanted to ask just in case. I'll be playing on Game mode which I believe turns off most or all of the TV's processing which will bring the lag time down.

I'll be going with the GT because of the Bright Room mode, plus the (IMO) sleeker design and also the extra HDMI. Looking forward to getting the 60", hoping a sale/bundle will pop up in the next few weeks.

There's a lot more than that. First the GT50 has the 24K steps of gradation which is much higher than the ST50. Also for those that will be using the apps (such as myself...Netflix being the main one) the dual core processor makes a big difference. I've already played around with the ST50 and I had a D7000 and I can tell you first hand that maneuvering the apps and menus is very sluggish unless you have a dual core processor which is only available on the high-end Samsungs and the GT and VT Panasonics.

Of course the GT has the THX mode and I wouldn't discount that as some here have said that they can calibrate the ST50 to be as good as the THX mode, what for? At the end of the day the GT50 still offers higher capabilities as far as PQ due to the higher steps of gradation.

The GT50 also has 4 HDMI's and 3USB's and a PC input. The ST50 only has 3 HDMI's and 2 USB's.

Lastly it's personal preference but IMO the ST50 is just downright ugly. I hate the plasticy look and feel and overly shiny. The GT50 looks much more professional. Best Buy Magnolia displays the GT50 as will the VT50 but they keep the ST50 amongst all the other ordinary plasmas.

Lastly it's personal preference but IMO the ST50 is just downright ugly. I hate the plasticy look and feel and overly shiny. The GT50 looks much more professional.

I totally agree! Doesn't matter if the ST is a great deal, it's just plain ugly! Looks cheap. The GT and VT are clearly higher end looking.

D-Nice has stated that this is more of a marketing tactic than a real feature that separates the GT50 from the ST50. I asked that specific question before deciding between the GT and ST. On paper, I agree it sure does sound nice.

So the additional gradation doesn't make any difference in real-world viewing? I'd like to know because it's been very hard finding out any information on how this actually impacts the image.

yea because I clearly made myself out as a 'expert'.....

In regard to you not offering me any advice, I'm cool with that.

I, for one, have my pc and receiver cables behind my tv stand, as well as my power strip which I need to get to fairly regularly. So for me it is a real hassle trying to sneak past the tv with no swivel stand, when I could just swivel my D7000 in 2 seconds and easily make enough room to get behind it to access plugs, cables, power strip, etc.

Also, just because plasmas have a bright viewing angle doesn't mean viewing from an angle is ideal. Just the other day I had a friend over and from where he was sitting, he had a rather steep angle. Sure it was bright, but still it looked rather odd from such an angle. I wanted to swivel the set for him but couldn't without physically lifting the tv and carefully turning it for him. Clearly that's not ideal.

If you'd like to see what D-Nice had to say about the "shades of gradation" difference look at posts 501-504 on the following 2012 Panasonic Plasma thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...n#post21773161

Yeah right. Why would I buy a sound bar when I already have an $800 Yamaha receiver with 7.1 surround? As I said, for those times when it's late and I don't want the neighbors to call the police for waking them up, the tv speakers are more than adequate, especially for a small apartment like mine.

Thanks for that link. Very interesting. Was D-Nice talking specifically about the GT50's gradation not making any difference or just in general from what he's seen?

"which... btw only exists in Cinema mode."

I definitely wasn't aware of that at all. That makes the additional gradation rather pointless for those of us that would use custom or THX wouldn't it? Does that really mean in THX or custom mode the additional gradation isn't available?

I can tell you that I have only 125 hours in on my GT50 50", and there has been zero IR so far.

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you about hockey on the GT50, I will try to watch a game soon.

D-Nice and Chad B have both said the 24k gradation does nothing to improve PQ. It's just marketing BS. As for THX mode, we know that it comes with a gamma setting locked in at around 1.9 and it can't be increased. This is far too low(bright). I guess if you need 4hdmi ports then the GT50 is your only choice