Official Panasonic UT50 Series Discussion Thread - Page 7

Originally Posted by pcgeek543

My UT50 took about a week before it started looking nice. I watched contraband the first night i had it and the picture looked pretty bad with what looked kind of like banding and detail loss In dark scenes,now a couple weeks later it looks perfect.

Originally Posted by bamajeep

I've had mine right at a week now and I love the picture. I've been using the settings that pathofneo came up with. I'm not sure if it was just me not having proper settings on prior tvs, the panel aging some, or a combination of those, but I didn't fall in love with it until the past two nights. Great colors and blacks.

Originally Posted by PathofNeo

edit--> I may have to update my review. Some users are having vertical lines/bars on their sets. I haven't seen this on my 42UT50 and will look for it (although hate too) on the 55. I didn't notice it right away but I'll catch it when I calibrate. This could take the uniformity down a notch..but to my eye so far it's no comparison to the blobs of the past. Nothing is ever perfect but I can sympathize with those with lines on the screen. I should remind you that Kuros are notorious for having DSE and it's noticeable with white backgrounds during pans. It's nature of the beast that's I've learned to deal with so hopefully if I spot a line it'll be a similar unpronounced situation.

Originally Posted by bamajeep

I've had mine right at a week now and I love the picture. I've been using the settings that pathofneo came up with. I'm not sure if it was just me not having proper settings on prior tvs, the panel aging some, or a combination of those, but I didn't fall in love with it until the past two nights. Great colors and blacks.

Originally Posted by jsnyder82

Yeah, me too. It's only really been the last week or so where I've truly come to love this tv. I still can't believe how deep these blacks are, especially for a tv that isn't advertised as having any sort of Infinite Black panel.

Originally Posted by jsnyder82

The thing I'm most curious about is the 'oil painting effect' as I like to call it when viewing 720p material on the UT50. It's hard to describe what I'm seeing, probably because I've never seen anything like it before, so I'll probably have to post some pics.

Originally Posted by PathofNeo

First of all your panel most likely hasn't aged properly yet. From what I recall on my previous plasmas (including the Kuro) was the same way. 720p tv caps had somewhat of an oily picture. A) It's the source and B) it will improve over time. Plasmas in general can be described as an oil painting versus the digital over-processed *somewhat artificial* look of LCD. <---There I just stereotyped both technologies *oops* but as you said no tech is perfect and each will have their own characteristics. The over-processed look of LCD will be exaggerated using high bitrate 1080p sources. The painting look of plasma will be exaggerated with less than stellar sources. This is by virtue of design from my experience. But unlike the digital nature of LCD, that that oil painting look will improve, but probably not vanish. This is another tradeoff (like lack of 96hz) that I will take to get a true to source 1080p picture that is unrivaled by anything near it's price tag.

Much like the vertical lines ppl are describing you just have to remember Panny has accomplished a lot this year and there's bound to be things like this to pop up. But you go trading in this set for another and you'll discover a whole different batch of anomalies. Give it a few more months of regular viewing, and realize it's plasma trait. I should add a strong plasma trait. I noticed the same thing your talking about with both of my Kuros (4270hd and 5020fd) and I'd say 50% of the effect went away in a year. Our mileage will vary on this panel. I would say what your talking is a con to plasma but not con to your particular panel as source has a lot to do with it. It'd be interesting if you had an alternate way of getting that content to your set. You'd probably notice a difference.

edit---> Upon second thought I read your comment about PS3 gaming. Now I've come to the conclusion that your settings need adjusting or either you have a defective panel. For starters I'm not seeing any lines on my set (but could still be as I haven't spent a lot of time yet) but you shouldn't have a problem with games, including PS3 which defaults to 720p most of the time. I know I hated that too with my Kuro years ago. I forced upscaling with the 360 to 1080p and 9 times out of 10 it looked better than the PS3 version due to the lack of that upscaling chip that Ken Kutaragi SHOULD HAVE INDCLUDED IN EVERY MODEL. (what a blow to us videophiles lol) I'm a PC/PS3 gamer too and I'll post settings in a couple days when I get around to it and maybe that'll help you out. But to my knowlege plasmas shouldn't have that painting look with a modern game (720p/1080i/p). I will check this for myself with the 55" I got today. Hopefully the glasses come and I'll calibrate both 3D and Game Mode this weekend.

Are you still within return period at Amazon? Because they won't hassle at all. Sounds like you got one from the batch with lines. If that's the case you'll want to return it and buy from Paul's before their sold out. That's where mine came from and it has near flawless uniformity, and generally you notice these things fresh out of box.

Originally Posted by SeauxCrazy

My parents just purchased this television last night 50" but we are having issues with brightness. While watching the basketball game last night through DirectTV the brightness was fluctuating from really bright to medium to dark, then flash to real bright again. I've turned off CATS but still having this issue. When watching television shows, you don't notice it too much because the scenes are constantly changing, but during basketball and the baseball game where the lighting/scene is consistent its very noticeable.

I've done some research on this and it seemed to have been an issue in 2011 Panasonics but excellent comments on this tv and other 2012's so I'm confused. Should we return it to Best Buy to try another one since we are within our return period or is there some setting I'm overlooking to battle this. It makes watching sports unbearable imo, there is nothing subtle about it.

Settings are default, minus CATS being off.

Originally Posted by SeauxCrazy

My parents just purchased this television last night 50" but we are having issues with brightness. While watching the basketball game last night through DirectTV the brightness was fluctuating from really bright to medium to dark, then flash to real bright again. I've turned off CATS but still having this issue. When watching television shows, you don't notice it too much because the scenes are constantly changing, but during basketball and the baseball game where the lighting/scene is consistent its very noticeable.

I've done some research on this and it seemed to have been an issue in 2011 Panasonics but excellent comments on this tv and other 2012's so I'm confused. Should we return it to Best Buy to try another one since we are within our return period or is there some setting I'm overlooking to battle this. It makes watching sports unbearable imo, there is nothing subtle about it.

Settings are default, minus CATS being off.

Originally Posted by QuiGonJosh

This may be a channel issue. Was it just on that channel? I know my ABC HD channel on both of my plasmas has this strange brightness fluctuation. I don't see this on any other channel except ABC.

Are you in Standard mode? Standard mode will fluctuate brightness regardless of whether CATS is turned on or off. I've already watched a basketball game on mine, and didn't notice any fluctuations on Cinema mode.

Originally Posted by SeauxCrazy

It's not a channel issue because it was also happening on NBATV last night as well.




YES, never tried any of the other settings. Weird how Standard still fluctuates with Cats Off.

Would you suggest that I put it on Custom and use some of the settings in this thread? or wait until it gets broken in to use them? I'm nervous about IR for them, they're elderly and don't really understand IR and Plasmas and Burn In. Just hope I didn't make a mistake getting this tv for them instead of an LCD or LED with no need for 'upkeep' haha.

Originally Posted by jsnyder82

Yeah, I would suggest either Cinema or Custom. Personally, I have mine on Cinema. It just looks the best to my eyes. And I wouldn't worry about IR, as long as you can teach your parents to stretch 4:3 content. It's fairly common to get a little IR every now and then, but you have to try pretty hard to actually burn anything onto the screen.

Originally Posted by SeauxCrazy

I really appreciate everyone's help on this, I'm REALLY new to Plasmas, but have been intrigued by them while searching for my parents. Back when I bought my Samsung 46 120hz LCD tv, Plasmas were so frowned upon, but they seem to have fixed a lot of the 'myths' I've heard in the past.

So the tickers at the bottom of ESPN, etc and Channel logos are nothing to worry about with this television? I know not to leave a still image on the screen lol, but it's the little things that would bother me.

Originally Posted by pcgeek543

I bought underworld awakening 3d tonight and a little over halfway through I started messing with the settings and I put it in 48hz and in 3d there was no flickering even when I looked without the glasses and it looked way better,way smoother and clearer than 60hz. It was pretty shocking. Will someone else try it as I'd like someone to verify it.

Originally Posted by PathofNeo

For the individuals that are seeing lines on their sets... a couple ppl in the VT50 thread with this problem are claiming that it's going away. Combine this with users here falling in love with it as it ages makes me think the UT50 like anything else NEEDS a good break in. Especially before a proper review.

Originally Posted by pcgeek543

I bought underworld awakening 3d tonight and a little over halfway through I started messing with the settings and I put it in 48hz and in 3d there was no flickering even when I looked without the glasses and it looked way better,way smoother and clearer than 60hz. It was pretty shocking. Will someone else try it as I'd like someone to verify it.

Originally Posted by PathofNeo

...Really hoping the glasses come in today. I can imagine it being smoother at 48hz since 24 frames will divide evenly combined with the reduction of flicker. You've got me anxious now.

If it's indeed smoother using 48hz in 3D mode then this really is a 'whiz bang tv' since it already handles 2D motion phenomenally. Correct film cadence with 3D will be icing on the cake.

Originally Posted by jsnyder82


It's definitely smoother, but this being a Panasonic 3D tv, there seems to be no shortage of crosstalk. I watched Tintin, and played some Killzone 3 and Halo Anniversary, and even after adjusting the 3D, there's some undefeatable crosstalk. So I would definitely agree with CNET that the 3D on this TV is just passable.

Having said that, the quality of the 2D picture more than makes up for that.
And by the way, I have noticed the vertical bars fading slightly, so yeah, I think this particular panel just needed a little more breaking in than most.