Official Panasonic UT50 Series Discussion Thread - Page 61

good point on the console over heating issue! thanks.

Just bought a Panasonic TX-P50UT50B from Curry's £600, very happy with it so far, colour is sensational, it smashed the Samsung E550 in the showroom and input lag is showing 270ms on Human Benchmark.com http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/ which isn't that shabby. I sold my LG 47LW450U because it was averaging an unplayable 305ms.

Hello, my parents on vacation and they have a TC-P50G25 here in their place. I'm thinking of upgrading to the UT50 while they are out. Is this a noticeable upgrade? Is there anything they are going to miss from their old TV? maybe feature-wise or quality wise? Seems to me that the UT50 is just the newer version of the G25 right?

Thanks in advance!

I cant decide between getting this model or the Samsung PN51E550. Just happened to stumble across this model and its considerably cheaper than the Samsung model.

Amazon has the 50" now for $599.99

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-VIERA-TC-P50UT50-50-Inch-Plasma/dp/B00752VKFK/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I would have saved $100 if I waited two weeks.

EDIT: Wait when I click on the link it says the price is $799.99. By that pricing I saved $100 by ordering it two weeks ago. (Amazon also puts a banner at the top of the page reminding me that I bought the TV set two weeks ago.)

EDIT2: The link I get also says that it is $799.99 + $199.98 shipping "Only 1 left in stock. Ships from and sold by Q1C1." So by that logic I saved $300 since I got free shipping.

Can anyone confirm if the price is $799.99 or $599.99 when you click on the link? I have read that Amazon has variable pricing based upon your "cookies" in your browser for Blu Ray movies. I have not heard about this for other items. I would be curious if they are quoting me a higher price than someone at some other computer...

Or did the $599 price just get them a flood of orders and now they are virtually sold out? I am curious...
Edited by ProfD - 1/15/13 at 6:31pm

Obviously you are not a prof of shopping at amazon.com. The $599 price was only sold by amazon, and by the time you clicked it, they are already sold out (I was able to grab one though . now the prices you see are from other sellers in the marketplace but not amazon themselves.

No, I'm not a Prof of Amazon.com (thankfully). I was curious about the Amazon cookie pricing that I heard about recently though.

Look at that, someone bought the $799 + $199 shipping 50UT50 from Amazon.
Edited by ProfD - 1/15/13 at 8:45pm

In the Currys showroom they sat side by side and had the same demo playing, it was raining on one scene and the rain wasn't visible on the E550. In the E550 thread there are copious amounts of bad comments re: brightness pops, buzzing, IR, cracked screens, amongst other things..

I'm glad someone got one for that price.

My UT50 just broke the 80 hour mark and while looking at the AVS709 slides I noticed a small bright spot about the size of a quarter. It's located about ten inches from the right side edge and just about in the center of the screen. It is really only noticeable on the dark gray slide which seems normal as most people report banding after seeing their set display this particular shade. Even here though it is just slightly lighter than the surrounding area.


............................................................


..........................................>O


.............................................................

I noticed with my TV when I open Windows Explorer by panel gets darker and when I close the window it gets brighter. ABL?

I picked up the TC-P50UT50 from Best Buy for $699 last weekend and I am very pleased with the picture. The blacks are great. I have a 2008 46" Panny that looked great and this set blows it away. It shines once you dial in the settings. I'm lucky that I can darken my family room to reduce reflections. I have seen several reviews of this set that say that it has a great picture, but you have to have patience when calibrating the picture and that is true. I will be getting this professionally calibrated once I reach the 100 hour mark. incredible!

Shoot........I bought some coloured cellophane and stuck it over the led's. All great ideas usually already exist.

I popped into Costco yesterday and saw the 55UT50 for 800 bucks. If I had the money, I would have one hanging on my wall today.

Posted earlier about my first 50UT50 having a stuck pixel, exchanged it and got a pixel-perfect one. Applied the WB settings in the service menu and now the skin tones are much better. If you're feeling adventuresome please wander over to the UT50 settings page and try adjusting the WB. This set easily has the best picture of any FP <$1000!

yeah that costco deal is the one i got, plus 5 year warranty for $60. the deal was to good to pass up.

oh em gee, i just had my first experiences with what i've now come to learn is called "lens flare". i watched battleship and then star trek 2009 and i thought for certain my tv was broke or the picture had messed up in some way, lights/blue streaks were literally going through the people's heads (and lights are so insanely bright at times/and glow)... extremely annoying.

then i watched hit and run and i didn't notice that many things so i was like, what the!

finally i come to find out it's some kind of problem with the actual movies themselves and not the tv. (i think???)

they really should warn you ahead of time on the blu-ray or something... i mean it's so distracting i had to turn star trek off mid way through.
no to mention i was panicking thinking my tv was messed up.

i don't remember ever noticing this on my older television, however which is odd.

anyone know if there's a way to limit it on this tv? i tried messing with brightness/color/sharpness, etc... but nothing helped all that much.
i'm assuming others must've ran into this as well?

Guys, I'm looking to purchase a new basement gaming TV to replace a 2006 Sony SXRD. Love the current prices of the 2012 Panasonic plasmas and primarily researching the P50U50 and P50UT50. It's not our main TV so no need to spend extra on the ST or GT versions IMO. Only differences I see are:

U50: no WiFi, no 3D, 600Hz Sub Field Drive
UT50: WiFi ready, 3D, 2500 Focused Field Drive

We don't even use WiFi on our main, family room TV (our Bluray players have WiFi anyway) and don't plan on doing any 3D, so basically comes down to PQ. Any noteable differences or are they basically the same?

The director of Star Trek, JJ Abrams, pointed lights at the camera on purpose to produce lens flare. It's what he wanted you to see

What you were seeing is called "line bleed" it can't be defeated by any settings and is a side effect of a plasma panel. Even the higher end sets suffer from this to some degree. It is the only thing that keeps plasma from being the undisputed king of display devices IMO. If line bleed didnt exist then neither would LED/LCD lol

CNET says that the PQ of the U50 is not as good as the higher end Panasonic plama's
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-tc-p50u50/4505-6482_7-35149658.html

But CNET also says that the PQ of the UT50 is as good as the PQ the higher end Panasonic plama's
"When viewed side by side in a black room there is very little to separate the UT50 from the ST50"
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-tc-p50ut50/4505-6482_7-35153392-2.html

For these reasons I went with the UT50.

I hooked up my Cisco 8742HDC cable box to my UT50 tonight and the difference between 1080i and 720p is quite obvious. At least when I'm within 3-4 feet. There is a noticeable oil painting effect or as someone else called it "clay face". It reminds me of a photo with too much noise reduction applied to it in Photoshop. If I sit in my normal seating position which is 7.5 feet away the picture looks a lot better. Things are not quite as sharp as 1080i/p but it isn't terrible either.


My 2009 U1 plasma has no such problem and in fact makes 720p content look better than 1080i sometimes.

PathofNeo also owned a 42" UT50 and a 50" VT50, he sold the VT50 for another UT50.

So the implication is that a UT50 = VT50 ? Don't think so

Key being in a dark room if that's your environment you're good, no way a Ut50 outperforms a VT50

Surely he's not implying that a UT50 = VT50. But after owning nearly every panel under the sun (minus Sharp Elite) I came to the conclusion that the VT50 was only marginally better at a much higher cost. Mind you I also had D-Nice calibrate my UT50, VT50, and Kuro at the same time (in the same room) last September. The difference in blacks in null between the UT50 and VT50 as they were both equal. You can dispute all you want but even D-Nice agreed that they were pretty much the same when he calibrated them and if he's reading this he can chime in and call me out but he can't. What makes the ST-up series special is the fact they have a gamma slider. If it wasn't for this I would argue what's the point other than slight accuracy in color. I posted pictures pages back in this thread of my UT50 side by side my 9G Elite'd Kuro post calibration and what you see isn't a facade.

I haven't posted here in awhile but try to keep up to date and it looks like anikun07 is still doing his thing so great job my man! Since then I picked up a 50UT50 to go along with my 42 and 60UT50. I got the 50UT50 for 2 reasons... the price is too good to ignore and the fact that this year Panny is dropping the U/UT and the entry level is the S series with no 3D and no 2500 focus field drive. This tells me it's bottom end and the next step up probably has the louvre filter. So folks still on the fence better stock up fast! I don't think there will be a proper replacement for the UT50 for another couple years (if ever) before OLED hits and becomes affordable (probably 3-5 years). I wouldn't take anything but an low-middle grade OLED after they iron out the bugs at this point beyond my UT50s.

I also plan to re-schedule D-Nice after I fully break in my new one so probably within a couple months and depending on his schedule. I tried my hand at calibrating, but he absolutely nailed my VT50 and Kuro perfect and shot the 42UT50 with steroids that I didn't think was possible so I'm going to have him come over and repeat the process on all the UT's. After that I'll have a treat for you guys and post full settings including what he did in the service menu for every panel. If you recall, the last time he came I specifically asked him to calibrate the 42UT50 with gaming in mind. Well that was my mistake since I no longer have the VT50 and this time I'll have it done correctly. I'm still going to have him calibrate with gaming in mind but also FILM.

Thanks for having patience with me.

I won't argue technical lab specs but viewing real world content the UT50 has more punch to the picture than the VT50 IMO. Less contrast, but also sans the louvre filter so it makes up the difference. The gain in correct gamma and color wasn't enough to convince me to keep the VT50. Even then, after my sets were calibrated all three looked incredible in my dark room and was basically a dejavu feeling of staring at 3 seemingly identical moving pictures. I don't test or watch tvs during daylight so I have no room to talk here (the UT would probably lose bad in this challenge). Opinions vary and nobody's right or wrong.. it's all about what looks good to you.

Before I confuse newcomers.. when I say "sans the louvre filter" I mean just that. The UT50 lacks the anti-reflective 'louvre filter' that makes the ST-up models a more appealing choice with light present. I never really bought into it since my VT50 wasn't that hot in a bright room either. There are still reflections on the ST/VT models and they both wash out in bright rooms compared to LCDs so I never understood the hype behind these so-called filters. It's true that it deflects light coming from above.. but damn what a cost in PQ to block that overhead light. I described early in the thread that the louvre filter is like some vasoline substance smeared across the screen unless your front and center (looking dead on). But as soon as you move just slightly up or down I can see the picture dim and it reminds me of the problems DLP had. This is 2013 and we shouldn't have to suffer like this. Playing the Wii and Kinect is almost out of the question unless the display is mounted high.

But that isn't the real (or only) reason why I condemn it. It fails for me because it takes away some valuable contrast that the ST/GT/VT series have. What good is better contrast ratio if you slap an aggressive filter on these 'high contrast' models that dim or dullen the screen. Yes side by side my UT50 was actually brighter in a dark room than the VT50 under any circumstance. Bright in a good way as It had more punch (not LCD blown out of proportion bright). Don't confuse this because I'll never own a standard or LED backlight LCD again. So in actuality the crippling (or hiding/masking) of contrast due the filter also means that blacks just didn't appear as inky as one without the filter. So even though the UT50 has less contrast (or technical jargon they shove down your throat) it doesn't matter because the anamorphic bars for instance have more PUNCH. How on Earth do anamorphic bars have punch? I don't know but they just seem deep like an abyss on my UT50. The blacks in demanding scenes have more PUNCH. The picture is not only punchier but cleaner. So this raw unadulterated punch from the lack of aggressive filters means that even a lowly UT50 makes films like The Dark Knight and Sin City wet your pants. I'm not saying the VT50 and Kuro won't either.. but IMO UT50 is the current king. <--- my goodness I can see the line form a mile long right now to throw a pie in my face and call me stupid lol

I think I need to youtube a 1080p vid of my Kuro next to the UT50, although the general rule is to never go by pics or vids since it's only capable of what your monitor can display.

Looking at the 60u54 from sams club or the 55ut50 from costco. is there a big difference in pq between them is the ut better, because that is the impression I am kind of getting from reading these threads. I do not need the apps or 3-D however if the pq is better it will help me make up my mind. Thanks for any input!