Official Panasonic UT50 Series Discussion Thread - Page 70

but there arnt many other forums catering to this tv like here. I want to ask something else as well, the white balance, is that something one should modify? Dont tell me that option is unavailable too. When people post their settings here other than brightness and contrast, i dont understand the rest so im assuming it has something to do with white balance. One more thing, do people prefer to use its built-in media player? I want to play mkv files and wondering if I would need a wdtv live or a blu-ray with such capablities to do that.

Save yout $$$$. Buy a Disney WOW blu Ray for Amazon for about $25.00 and you can make your wife happy and convince her that you are really a pro techie. The WOW does a good job and you can put the saved $$$ toward a decent AVR.

I think you're right. Just got the TV set up and wow it does look good. I don't see how it could look better. Although the presets seem odd. Why is cinema brighter than standard? Sometimes I notice reflections, but only if I really try and only as long as I remember they are there, and only as long I use it with the lights are on that we used to keep for the old tv. Kinda disappointed in only digital audio out as we have really old shelf system we used as extra speakers and now we can't, and kinda wish it had a third hdmi for the xbox. I did try out the xbox with fallout new Vegas and the difference was very noticeable I could actually see things in the night that I didn't notice ever before.

Opened our Harry Potter Deathly Hollows part 2 blue ray. booo black bars, but put in the Pushing Daisies blue ray and must say that was amazing. The show was colorful before, but this set really made a difference.

Had to turn off motion smoothing cause that was horrible to watch.

So noticed a huge difference in xbox 360 Fallout New Vegas and Pushing Daisies for sure. Thinking Blade Runner blue ray or Fifth Element When my wife gets home from the gym.

So far was very pleased.

On a side note The delivery guys asked why I was getting rid of my old tv and I hadn't unhooked anything and I said I can't make it turn on and said I was going to throw it away.the one guy got so super excited like he knew something I didn't and offered to install mine and set it up for the old one. Oh well. this one is much better

Standard mode meets energy star requirements basically worthless

Why does it look the best?

Vivid terrible

game is good for games.

Cinema seems too bright.

Dial down the contrast in cinema then

oh yeah

Was thinking of picking up a 55ut50 to replace my 50 g20 panny plasma from 2010. The ut50 doesn't have some of the options that the g20 does, such as thx mode and whatnot. Would this tv be comparable or better picture quality wise than the g20? I love the picture from the g20, but it's tempting to upgrade in size and add 3d for these prices!

White balance is adjustable in the service menu. If you're without a hardware colorimeter, you'll be shooting in the dark adjusting the white balance. You have a good chance at making color temperature worse. Some of us have colorimeters and we post our settings that others use. I advise against users using others' white balance settings, but some say they see an improvement so to each their own.

A standalone media player will be much better than the TV's media player. The 2012 Panasonic plasmas have a poor scaler. I use a WDTV Live and the scaler is of noticeably higher quality than what's found in the 2012 Panasonic plasmas.

Well, after a week at the repair depot, panasonic declared my 2nd 55st50 a bag of crap. They authorized the dealer to exchange it. This unit had 2 vertical bands near the right bezel and 2 more fainter ones near center left. They were very noticeable during slow and fast pans. This unit which was an Oct. build had, what I can only describe as horrific IR. I will not bore you with the details, but even after 1500 hours, the IR was insane.
I shared my tales of woe with the dealer, and he told me I could get any set I wanted with my credit. He let me play around with all the models and I spent a few hours in his store. I was so fed up with IR that I seriously considered an LCD set, but after playing around with models in my price range, I couldn't do it. The only ST50 he had was a display model which also had a vertical band near the right edge but not as bad as mine. Still, I was not going to chance it again.
I was able to get a new 60ut50 and enough money left over for a nice sound bar. So far everything looks great. Even though it has some screen reflection, I am happy to be rid of the AR filter. It never won me over.
I am using Anikuns cinema setting and they look very good. Once the panel ages abit I will try the white balance.
Edited by Frank Spizzirri - 2/13/13 at 8:14am

Frank sorry to hear of your troubles. I too was considering the ST50, but couldn't pass up the 50UT50 at the price it was at and I am very pleased with the results. I have over 250 hours on mine and have applied the setting from Anitun and the picture is fantastic. I was watching Skiyfall last night on Blu Ray and wow is all I can say. Good luck with your new UT50.

I suggest you buy a HDMI splitter from Monoprice which will allow extra inputs into a single HDMI port as a cheap way to go if you need ports. It is remote controlled. More expensive.....get a nice AVR and some decent surround
speakers.. You can get at least 4 in with one out. Your Xbox will be good on a HDCP connection. While you are at it Monoprice has 90 degree HDMI right or left port adapters for a couple of bucks so your HDMI cables don't come straight out the back. The Panny has their 2 HDMI ports so close togeather you need one adapter that goes in one direction and a second that goes in another for ease of connection. These adapters are really handy for wall mount..

Picked up a 55" from Costco today for $699. Replaces my TH-46PZ80U that will transition to playroom duty. Looking forward to dialing it in with Skyfall tonight.

You got it for $699 and not $749? Did they come down in price or did you manage to make them price match somehow? I got my 55" on Saturday the 9th, and it was $749. I had returned my 50" to Best Buy because they didn't have any 55" left for the $699 they had advertised a few days before. Let me know, would like to get $50 back..

Yes, they are 699.99 now at Costco.
I was in there yesterday with my wife and saw the price change.
I happened to have my receipt, but the line at the customer service desk was long and we had other things to do.
I'll be gettin' my $50 price adjustment from them tomorrow !

Me too!!

Question. I have Wii U connected to Denon 1613 connected to Panny 50ut50.
This setup has bad overscan on the Wii U system screens.
Are there any settings in the ut50 that allow you to fix the overscan?

Go into the menu and find the aspect adjustments. Put it on Size 2. It defaults to Size 1 which has 5% overscan.

Thanks!

What version of the PS3 do you have? Do you have the original 'phat' version or the slim?

The original PS3 phat model cannot bitstream the HD audio codecs to the AVR, it will only decode it and send it as LPCM. This was because of a hardware limitation with the HDMI chip. In the newer slim PS3 models it can bitstream the HD codecs with no problem. All models however can bitstream the core DTS and DD without issue. I have the original phat model and whenever I play a BD with either DTS-MA or TrueHD, it will decode it before sending it out to the AVR.

Most PS3 games that I know of doesn't use the HD codecs so they will usually bitstream with no issue.

alright i gave up and decided to return my 50ut50 TV. Motion and panning result in jerky picture regardless of the source. I have tried the dish dvr, ota hd tv, blu ray, even the youtube app right there on the tv. Picture is stunnign when two people are talking. But if they start walking, I can't see them until they stop. I'm mnow once bitten twice shy on plasmas, large tvs, panasonics, and buying online in general. If anyone actually returned a ut50 or another tv for the same reason, and got something else they are happy with, please let me know what you got.

On the plus side, Amazon is giving me a full refund on the TV as well as the 3D glasses I bought extra with return shipping.

Your asking in the ut50 thread for ppl to recommend a different non-plasma TV?

Sorry about your bad experience.
However I can say that my 50ut50 does none of the things you described.
With mass manifacuring and long distance shipping involved sometimes ppl get unlucky with bad units.
Most ppl in this thread will say that the ut50 gives you the best TV bang for the buck value on the market right now.

+1. If you're not too opposed to the idea, I would suggest an exchange in hopes that you get a better one. LEDLCD just didn't compare for picture quality when I was looking.

I agree, this tv has far better picture, even at 60", than my LG LED 65" 3D...but, if you gotta go LED/LCD, stick with PANASONIC :D

I returned my 55UT50 due to buzzing and IR issues and got the Panny 55" ET5 3D LED set and have been super pleased. But I'm not a videophile and all and really don't care that much about PQ stuff like black levels,motion blur etc. so my opinion probably isn't relevant to a lot of people on a site like this. The plasma PQ was better I'll admit, but I care much less about that than I do being able to leave it on ESPN all day long, or game for 6+ hours without worrying about IR and not being constantly annoyed by buzzing on bright scenes as my ears just seem to really tune into that buzzing frequency as I've heard it on every plasma I've been around.

Folks on this thread and tech support have convinced me the issue is most likely related to the processor on the specific TV I have. So, I am going to give it a chance by first getting a replacement. If it does not work out on the second piece, I will pretty much write off Plasmas and Panasonics for ever, but considering how much people love this TV, and how noticeable my problem is (my wife can see it too), it is very unlikely that every TV does this because someone would have noticed and mentioned it.

if there is one thing i dont like its the buzzing for sure. @cloud9ine, the motion is supposed to be smooth and not jerky as you say but there is no perfect panning picture wont be on this tv because of odd refresh rate i guess and even cinemas have it all wacky because thats just the way it is. Why not tell us a specific scene that you tested it on so we can see for ourselves? It sounds like though thats its an issue with your unit since stuff like that shouldnt impact your viewing experience no matter what unless its very noticeable. Have you messed around the Frame intelligence setting thing? The one that controls the frame smoothness?

I get the choppy motion also and have noticed it for some time, I just set motion smoother on max and so far perfect; off, low, or medium I see it. Will keep on testing.

weird thing is game mode ( i see nothing, but lag from my internet service provider not the tv) it is off and unavailable, they must be doing something else in the other modes, but it does not bother me.
Edited by dfran1 - 2/17/13 at 9:40am

Amazon said they don't have any in stock anymore, so they will just give me a full refund. Just as well. I'll chug along on my 37 inch Vizio for a few weeks until some other good deal comes along.

dfran1, I would use the motion smoother if I were insensitive to the extreme artifacts it adds. One thing I will say is, Panasonic's motion smoothing algorithm lacks something that Sony has working right. As to game mode, I think it is just grayed out because enabling it would add delay between when the game console sends video info and when it shows up on TV, which may be unacceptable for fast response games.

I love the blacks of Plasma, but I love being able to watch TV without this nagging me in the back of my mind all the time.

PS: I enabled 24p output on my BluRay and played some AVCHD content I recorded on my Canon camcorder and there was no choppiness at all. I am more sure than ever that it is not the individual piece defect.

What's the frame intelligence setting? Is this something in the service menu? I have tried everything in the user accessible settings.