Official Panasonic UT50 Series Discussion Thread - Page 26

i got my ut50 on friday,this is a great plasma in my opinion.

I haven't personally toyed around with the UT yet, but i can't imagine the UT performing any better in the input lag department in comparison to the U. Usually the bottom line sets that do less processing fare better with input lag.
And don't ever listen to somebody that's basically raving about their set and saying that they don't notice any lag, because it's pure BS. ALL HDTV's have input lag, small or large it's there regardless.16ms is the lowest it goes and panasonic are typically the ones to deliver in that range. I'm used to gaming
on a CRT as well, and i'm very very picky when it comes to this entire lag HDTV ordeal. I'd love to see some pro lag tests....The ST50 apperantly isn't too hot, ranging in the 30-40ms range. That doesn't cut it 'at all' for me....Why does gaming
on an HDTV have to be such a pain in the ass? Why can't somebody just invent a device that gets rid of it all?

My bet is that the lower end Panasonic 720p X5 performs the best....But whocares when the resolution is 1024x766...it won't resolve true 720p properly for Wii U games....For Bluray/dvd content on the other hand that fixed resolution is good enough for me.
But for most of the people on here, not a chance hehe.

Found out that Crysis 2 actually moves the HUD up/down/right/left a little as you move, so it's safe to play it some during break in

I'll be happy to share but at the moment I'm not totally happy with what I came up with. After messing with the SM for a few hours last night, I was able to improve gamma and color temperature but couldn't do much to improve Green primary. It's not very noticeable with normal content though.



I'm still working on it. I found this UT50 harder to work with. I certainly don't have a lot of experience but I recently played with the SM on an ST30 and an X3 and their behavior was a lot more predictable. BTW, here's something extra I didn't ask for. It took me a few hours of watching normal content to get rid of it. Fortunately, it was not burn in. I do think Panasonic needs to acknowledge the problem and fix it.

Need some help again. 55" ut or 50" st for the same price. Which should i get? Both 999

Depends where you're going to put it. If it's a room with a lot of light, get the ST50. If you do most of your tv watching at night, I would suggest the UT50.

It will be in a room with an 8 foot wide window that i can lower the blinds on. I do watch more intently at night, and casually in the day.

Did you try the sm settings i posted,they came from a review calibrated uk UT50 at avforums.com. They look excellent to me,definitely better than default and richb's but i'm curious to how they look on a graph. You could try them and see if they get you any closer. Here they are.

WARM DEFAULT
R-Cut +9
G-Cut -2
B-Cut +2

R-Drv -2
G-Drv -1
B-Drv +4

HDTVTest.com(UK) did a review for the 'ST50' and here were the input lag results for gaming >

"We were a little worried that the much-touted new motion-driving algorithms in the 2012 Panasonic Plasmas would slow down responsiveness and result in immersion-killing input lag. Fortunately, gaming performance is excellent, clocking in at just 16ms in the “Game” mode – one of the smallest results we’ve ever measured, and consistent with the rest of Panasonic’s non-top-end HDTVs (the more expensive models tend to have a little bit more lag).

Interestingly, the “Game” mode still benefits from the improved motion quality that we talked about earlier, but selecting it temporarily blacks the panel out, indicating a speed-optimised drive mode. One thing to mention for completeness: unlike previous Panasonic plasmas, the “Game” picture mode is 60hz-centric. This makes sense, since nearly all games (even now in Europe) are output in 60hz. Users should take care not to select the “Game” mode with 24p Blu-ray material, because it introduces obvious motion stutter, coarse gradation, and skipped frames. We can’t think why anyone would do this, but be careful.

As a result of the qualities we discussed in relation to film material earlier, the ultra-low input lag, and the very high motion clarity and quality, gaming was a blast on the Panasonic TX-P42ST50. The only complaints we envisage regarding it could be from users who are very sensitive to phosphor trailing (we noticed some mild red trailing with certain colour combinations), and users who find that the high motion clarity of a Plasma TV reveals judder due to the low frame rate of most current-generation console games (30fps).

I went with the 50" ST50 since it has 3 HDMI ports (UT50 only has 2 HDMI) and the ST50 has the pro settings in Custom mode that improves the picture quality with easy self calibration due to being able to set the gamma and a custom white balance.
The ST50 also adds a simple web browser feature to the Viera Connect.
The ST50 has the anti-reflection screen filter if you use the set near any lighting, the UT50 lacks that.

However if you don't need the filter like in a dark and light controlled environment, no screen filter with the UT50 does give a wider vertical viewing angle - the horizontal viewing angle is not different between them.
For me I notice less contrast in the picture if I stand up a few feet away from the 50ST50, but its fine sitting on the couch where my head is the same height as the center of the screen where it is sitting on my TV stand. From a distance of 8feet+ it looks fine standing up too.

So these seem to be thee' ultimate Input Lag tips.


1. Set it to Game Mode
2. Turn off gimmicky additional features (Smooth Motion, Dynamic Contrast ect)
3 Always plug Your HDMI or Component cable into the TV itself and 'not' the receiver since it 'can' add additional lag
4 Switch HDMI or Component to 'PC mode' which may actually help in some cases.
5. Hope for the best.

In other news, I'm just going to score the Panny 42" 720p X5 to replace my current 42" LG Plasma for my other room and 'then' get the 50" UT in late Nov before the Wii U launches.
With the X5, I'll get a brighter image(Vivid and Game mode do the trick apperantly), deeper blacks and 16ms Lag(er...For the UK model that is) in comaprison to the LG. $549 CAD. I'm pretty hyped!
1024x766 is perfect for now. Besides, Wii games are only 480p and i tend to watch mostly DVD's(70's/80's horror movie freak hehe) with a splash of Bluray here and there at around 9 feet away eye distance wise.
Shall be mine in less than a week.

I haven't completely past the break in point, but last night I tried a 720x404 mpeg and no oil painting effect. However, I don't remember if I have my receiver set to upscale or not, and this certainly seems like it might be an upscaling issue. Have those with the oil painting effect tested whether or not it's caused by video upscaling in the UT50 by comparing it with a receiver doing the upscaling?

Mine looks great with RichB's SM settings. Can you put your current numbers as opposed to just +/- ? Since we don't know what your originals were. A couple of my original settings were slightly different than RichB's.

Question: I'm currently watching 4x3 content in Full or Just mode, but after breaking in the TV for a while is there a way to watch 4x3 content without grey bars on the sides? I'd rather have black bars, but I don't know if that is something that can be changed? Not sure if it's the UT50 adding the grey or if it's my Panasonic Blu ray player though.

I thought Panasonic always had the option to go black or grey. I can't stand watching or playing 4X3 games with grey bars on the sides of the screen. that's how it is on my current LG and for it breaks the experience.
Wonder if the X5 does 'grey' only as well

I have the x5 (US model), and it has options for the bars under Setup> Anti-Image Rentention. Choices are Dark, Mid, Bright, and off. I have mostly old media (PS2/DVD), and it looks really nice on this TV.

Wow, an X5 owner in the AVS forum, now that's a rarity.
I'm dieing to know how the input lag performance is on this set. HDTV.uk.com said it last years 'X3' was16ms(Thee' lowest it can get), but does this apply to the US model?
as far as bottom end 720p Plasma sets go, based on last years models the samsung D450(which also sported a nasty filtered picture with terrible brightness) was definitly laggy and clunky feeling, while the LG(Clearer picture, brigher ect) was just beyond awful. lol
Panasonic is my last resort basically. How are the black levels too btw? Hopefully somebody knows how to access the service menu so i can turn the auto dimming off as well.

Thanks for the replies! I actually did just find where to change it. I didn't expect it to be in the image retention section. So is it actually better to have it be grey bars since that's the default?

I have my PS2 hooked up with component connection through a Yamaha receiver outputing HDMI, and with tight rhythm games like Taiko Drum Master and Dance Dance Revolution it feels like there is a VERY, VERY slight lag...but with fighting games, shooters, things like that it isn't noticeable at all.

I'm coming from a 27" CRT, and the black levels on the X5 are really good to me. The black bars on movies almost disappear into the bezel. It is definitely made for nighttime viewing as the screen is pretty mirror-like in full daylight. Don't know if there is any way to access a service menu, but as far as I can tell the auto-dimming isn't that agressive.

My settings are:
Picture Mode: Custom
Contrast: 75
Brightness: 60
Colour: 30 (most people would hike this up a bit, but I think it gets a little red blush any higher)
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 0
Temperature: has the option of Normal, Warm, and Cool...no Warm 2 or anything like that. I keep it Normal.
All that other nonsense: OFF
Edited by Elmekia - 6/25/12 at 12:15pm

I would leave the grey bars, as I do think it helps wear the panel more evenly, especially if you watch a lot of 4:3 content.

RichB's were for a 42" and mine were different aswell because i have a 50" but here are my defaults and changes.

warm default

R-cut 80 +9 = R-cut 89
G-cut 80 -2 = G-cut 7E
B-cut 80 +2 = B-cut 82

R-drv FF -2 = R-drv FD
G-drv F0 -1 = G-drv EF
B-drv 7F +4 = B-drv 83

Thanks for sharing this. This is my first plasma, can you point me to some instructions for dealing with the service menu. I don't want to screw anything up.

Sent from my HTC VLE_U

If you press a wrong button you can ruin your tv so be very careful in there. There's a "check hours" sticky thread over at high def junkies dot com in the plasma section. Scroll down a bit to the 2011's yours should be similar.

I think there's a thread here somewhere.

You can go here http://elektrotanya.com/ and download your service manual(or one similar) which will have other settings explained.

Just my opinion but entering the service menu without a meter and software is pretty much pointless chances of having the same default settings as someone else are pretty small. Greyscale varies pretty widely from set to set. If you do decide to venture there just make sure you record your default settings before changing anything.

Go to youtube and search "Service Menu Adjustment for Panasonic TC-P54G25" Watch that video as it is all you'll really need to navigate the sm and adjust your wb,you'll have to unplug your set to get out of the sm instead of hitting exit on the remote as stated in that video.Go by that video and you won't harm anything and also remember to write down your defaults in case you don't like the changes so you can always go back.Also i tried various settings for wb from ST50 to RichB's and a few others and i kept going back to default until i got the uk UT50 wb settings. They may not be perfect but i feel they are definitely better than default and all the rest and look excellent to me,no more green tinge and colors appear more natural especially skin tones. Worse case is try them and if you don't like them revert back to default. I love them but as soon as Tarzan posts his i'll give them a try aswell and see if i like them better.
Edited by pcgeek543 - 6/25/12 at 1:39pm

And your other settings? Custom/Standard/Vivid; Contrast; Brightness, Sharpness, etc etc etc.

Well, after reading all 26 pages of this thread, I order a 55UT50 on Saturday from Abt Electronics out of Chicago, IL. They ship to KY for free and there's no sales tax on my purchases. I also order a new Sony 3-D Blu-ray player. Ordering this TV was a hard decision for me. I was actually checking it out at BestBuy for a friend of mine who calls me when ever he needs something in home entertainment. He knows I'm all "into" this stuff (always has been.) Anyway, I have a 4/5 year old Sammy LN40A550 LCD with a matt screen. I used settings from an AVS member name Clicq to "calibrate" my set. With the Sammy you could set everything on your own. Very good custom menu. So once I "calibrated" my set the PQ was fantastic! I have Dish HD, but even the SD channels had a great PQ. I received many compliments from Dish techs and Insight techs (local cable company before I switched to Dish.)
But we needed a second TV because my wife has been driving me crazy watching all those damn "reality shows" on Bravo. But I didn't know what to do...I been wanting a larger TV, but I just love my Sammy. I debated about just keeping my Sammy and buying a 32" Vizio for her to watch, except I really, really, wanted a larger TV. So after seeing the 55UT50 at BB, and reading through this forum, I decide to move the Sammy to the front room for the wife to watch, and get the 55UT50 for my TV room. This will be my first plasma, and I'm really looking forward to it. If it's half the TV my Sammy is I'll be very satisfied.

Oh, BTW, my buddy got the 55UT50 last week and is thinking of returning it because it doesn't have that "pop" like an LCD! I know his taste, and that he's "technology challenged" and I had told him to in the beginning to get this Sammy that was an LED, but the salesman at Abt was telling him how much better the UT50 was, and also it was $100.00 cheaper. He wanted to know which set I felt was a better set, and I told him that the UT50 was IMO, but I still told him I think he would prefer Sammy because he likes that LCD "brightness" and that the plasma offers more of a true picture look that many people find "dull". (Using the settings from Clicq on my Sammy, my picture had this natural look, not the "in your eye" artificial "pop" look.)

I fill you all in when I get my UT50, which should be by Friday!
Ghpr13:)

They are posted in the UT50 settings thread,but i guess i'll post them here aswell. They are pretty much PathofNeo's settings.

Cinema or (Custom with HDMI content set to Graphics) All other settings disabled. You can also put hdmi content to auto in custom and color at 43 if you want a little extra or more vivid color and brightness pop *kind of reminds me of an lcd* *HDMI Content type has zero effect in Cinema Mode* *wb settings for warm in the service menu are the same for every picture mode (vivid,standard,etc...) and adjusting wb in service menu changes the wb in every picture mode*

Cinema
Contrast 78
Brightness 52 any higher and i start to see dithering or pixel dance
Color 48
Tint 0
Sharpness 0
Color Temp Warm2

Custom
Contrast 76-83 your preference
Brightness 56 any higher and i start to see dithering or pixel dance
Color 48
Tint 0
Sharpness 0
Color Temp Warm2

I do have one concern about the 3-D. I have a 4yo Onkyo AV receiver. I have the audio from my Sammy & my Blu ray player connected via Toslink optical. Since I don't run my video through my receiver, will I be OK with "full 3-D?" My Onkyo only has HDMI 1.3.
Thanks for all replies,
Ghpr13:)

I have noticed that cable hdtv does not look all that pristine on this tv. I have tried swapping directv receivers, turning on and off native resolutions and no matter what I can see less than stellar HD. It's not every channel and it's not dependent on source. Some 1080i looks good as does 720p, but some don't. To explain what I see...I will be watching Harry Potter on HBO which is 1080i. On bright scenes it looks great. As soon as there is any shadow (less than white, more than black) in the scene, it's smudgy and you can see the pixels big time. Is this just not very good with tv? Everything seems pretty perfect on blu ray and PS3. Is it because this tv is bigger than the 32" lcd? I wouldn't think so because I have had other large plasmas and cable never looked this bad.