Official Panasonic VT50 owners thread - Page 344

Someone is confused, and they are likely confusing the maximum load permitted on a branch circuit by the National Electrical Code (which is 80% of the branch circuit rating) with the rated capacity of the branch circuit itself. That has nothing to do with any characteristic of the surge protector itself; the same "80%" rule would apply to a cheap power strip with no surge protection, or even the total load of all connected devices. So yes, don't exceed a continuous 1920 watts on that 20-amp branch circuit, but not because of the surge protector.

Help with VT50 65 buzzing with light screens.

I've spent many hours reading this site. I know many say they have a bad buzzing and others can only hear it if they are within a couple feet of the set. I took delivery of my first panel last Sunday. While watching hockey, looking at the channel guild,etc. it had a loud buzzing sound, which was very distracting even with my surround sound at a pretty loud volume, and I sit about 17 feet from the set. I called Paul's, they came came out gave a listen, explained that all plasma's buzz, but swapped it out any way on Wednesday. After returning from work later that day, I settled in to test it out and the new one is even worse. I have my set in a tv cabinet so I thought perhaps it was causing some acoustics which in effect amplify the buzzing.

Then I found something interesting. I have a Denon-4310ci receiver which takes signals from a Cox cable hi-def box, Denon blu-ray transport then a single HDMI cable from the receiver to the tv. The Denon has a chip that can upscale 1080i from the cable box to the tv. I can choose 1080p or 1080p24 for the output format. If I choose 1080p24 AND I set the Panasonic to either 48 or 96 on the 1080p24 setting, the buzzing goes away. Mind you if I go and put my ear to the set I do hear a slight hum.

This makes me wonder if there are really two types of buzzing with light screens. The very loud one that almost makes it un-watchable , has a cycle to it where it cycles between loud and soft approximately in 3 second intervals. The hum that I hear when I'm on 24p at close range is constant, and I can't hear it from my seating position.

If I could watch all content at 1080p24 I would just leave it there, but sports and news, etc. are un watchable at that frame rate.

For what it's worth I had a Samsung 950 that was in there before with no buzzing issues so I don't think it is my equipment. As a final test I turned off the cable and receiver and just ran Netflix through the Viera net and it had the cycle buzzing as well.

I love the blu-ray picture and would love to keep it.

Is it possible i just got two lemons?

Finally, I'm no electrical engineer, so can anyone explain why the buzzing would go away if I use 1080p24, with the TV set to 48 or 96 (60 still buzzes)?

Thanks in advance. I couldn't find this specific issue on this forum.

I don't disagree with that; I posted to see if anyone might have an idea of whether I can rule out the TV entirely or not.

I read on the gt forum that the gt doesnt handle 720p inputs very well. Should i set my dish box to 1080i or 720p. Not sure whether the vt has the same issue

Just an update for anyone who's followed my story.

I ended up returning the second VT50 in the 30 day Best Buy time period (which resets every time you return/replace). The 3rd VT50 showed up yesterday. This time I carefully explained to the delivery guys that the first guys dropped the set and the second guys had it horizontal and turned it on when it was cold. These guys were very good about placing it onto the prebuilt base (not mounting it until I'm happy with it) from the last set and not turning it on because it was quite cold to the touch due to low temps outside.

The guy recommended I let it acclimate and wait 30 minutes, but I had work to do so I let it acclimate to the room for about 8 hours. =) When I turned it on and set up the prep slides, I noticed no dead pixels. I keep going back to it to check for pixels that may get excited, like with my second set, but so far I haven't seen any pop up.

Additionally, this set gave me the first time setup prompt, which neither of the previous two sets did. This makes me think that those two were repackaged as new while this one really is new.

One last thing I've noticed is a much reduced audible buzz from behind the set compared to the other two sets, particularly the second. I'm very happy about that.

Now I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that the set makes it through the prep period without losing any pixels after which I'll head straight to Costco to get a SquareTrade extended warranty. =)

Thanks for those of you who gave me valuable input and here's to hoping that this will finally be the set to which I can relax and start enjoying movies with!

In retrospect, I'm pretty happy with Best Buy's 30 day policy. I certainly have put it to good use. Those of you considering buying a set may want to put some weight into the replacement policy before they purchase one. I know I would have been a less-than-satisfied VT50 owner had I retained either of the first two sets I received.

I recently purchased a 55 inch vt50. I love this tv but am having a issue. While watching looper on blue ray, I noticed in dark scenes with a light in the background I get a blue streak that goes across the screen. Has anyone else had this problem? I just had the tv swapped out for a new panel and it does the same thing. I have also noticed this while watching cable, so it's not the blue ray player. I'm wondering if there is a setting I need to turn off or if a calibration would help. This picture is the worse I've seen it.



Thanks for your help

Well I have to say...my ir problem has gone away! Completely! I played a full hour of cod blops2 on wiiu followed by 30 minutes of minecraft 360 version. Fully expecting ir I put on the scrolling bar to find....absolutely nothing! I guess it just needed to age a bit before gaming. Got about 150 some odd hours on it now. Happy happy, joy joy!

Google ¨lens flare Looper¨This is part of the film itself. Here is some text from a review: " There are only two elements that cause for vibrant colorization: wealthy characters and lens flares – both of which are directorial decisions. Upperclass clothing, possessions and locations are about the only objects that warrant bright colorization in the dingy, rusted and corroded world of this unfriendly future. In the eleventh minute of the film, we get our first big lens flare. (Don't worry, there aren't all that many compared to a Michael Bay movie.) These flares cause brilliant horizontal streaks of bright whites and oversaturated blues and purples. I initially assumed that this was an error that came about during the transfer to Blu-ray because I didn't remember noticing it during my theatrical screening, but Johnson references it during his theatrical commentary (which is different from the Blu-ray commentary and was recorded long before the Blu-ray existed. I will explain more about it in the special features section). Almost all lens flares carry this oversaturation of color as they are meant to."

Hope that helps.

I just purchased a 65" VT50 from Paul's and am awaiting delivery, can't wait for it to arrive . Was just reading the comments about the buzzing, especially on white screens.

I also have a Panasonic TC-P42G10 which does buzz, especially when there is a lot of white on the screen. It used to bother me, but now I barely notice it. The set is in my bedroom and when listening on low volume you can really hear it, but otherwise I don't really notice it. I think it must be common with Panasonic Plasma's or maybe all Plasma's.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents

I'm not a fan of the buzzing, but I haven't let it bug me. I'm very sensitive to "noise" as an audiophile and I hope that the 2013 plasmas are quiet.

I have to strain to hear the buzzing on my wall-mounted VT65. And like others, it only buzzes on the brightest of scenes or slides. Not an issue at all for me and I'm crazy picky about ambient noise in my listening environment.

Thanks for your responce. I guess it's normal. Ill look more into it. It seems odd they would want that effect to be so harsh across the screen

I know there are quite a few in this thread that own the Onkyo 818 Receiver. I didn't have much luck in that thread so here goes....

ARC DOESN'T WORK!
I am not quite sure what I'm doing wrong but I can not get this TV to pass audio back to the receiver. I've gone over manuals for both. I have HDMI 2 connected to MAIN OUT on receiver. Per Onkyo manual I've set all ARC settings to ON including HDMI Control(RIHD), Audio Return Channel to AUTO. Set input to TV/CD. Audio selector for TV/CD says ARC. I than turn on netflix/youtube/antenna sources on the TV then hit VIERA LINK, set speaker output to "home theater" and get a message from TV "Please check settings and connections on HDMI devices." I should also note the "VIERA link control" is greyed out as well as "Back to TV" Please someone help me. This is driving me absolutely crazy. I also can't get the receiver to auto. switch to Bluray input when I pop a movie in. Maybe something is defective with my receiver?

This has got to do with the unit searching for the resolution. I had this happening as well. Pioneer said to limit the units choices. Specifically to 1080p in my set up.If you are on cable then that should work for you.
Please post back results if you haven't gotten this figured out already.

although not wall mounted, I have a similar experience. I had to go out of my way to discover what the buzz was all about If I mute the tv and find a bright screen I can discern it.

If/when you get tired of fighting with it you can use a digital optical cable from tv to receiver and accomplish the same thing.

The instructions about accessing the set hours and number of times the unit has been turned on in this thread were extremely helpful, so I wanted to say thanks to all the knowledgeable people who take the time to post detailed instructions on these forums. I used the fantastic instructions in this thread to discern that the new VT50 I received yesterday was actually in fact...new! It had been turned on twice (both by me which I could confirm) and had 23 hours when I checked it which matched perfectly with how long I had been running the prep slides on it.

It feels great to have been the first person to actually turn on the set (which I'd already guessed given the immediate setup prompts). Neither of the two sets I'd received previously had prompted me for the initial setup which had left me feeling like maybe they weren't really brand new. With what the delivery guys at Best Buy seemed to imply yesterday, these sets may be sold as "new" to other customers provided they have all the original packing and everything appears in good shape. So I think the first two sets that I received which had minor problems were probably returned for those very same reasons. I believe they probably repack them and keep shipping them to new customers until they get delivered to someone who doesn't notice the imperfections or care to return the TV.

In retrospect, this is bothersome since I thought I was receiving a brand new set at the time even though I wasn't in all likelihood. Thank goodness for that 30 day replace/return window! Now I know for a fact that I received a brand new set with my third delivery and my mind is significantly more at ease as I know I'm prepping the TV first before anyone else has touched it.

If it wasn't for you guys here, I never would have known for sure. So I just wanted to give another shout out and say "THANKS" to everyone here who enlightens the rest of us who may not be as knowledgeable about these televisions. I also wanted to spread the word of my experience so that you guys who are receiving new sets remember to check the hours used/times turned on yourself (if you care).

But with optical you are limited to 2.0

Only from external sources, internal sources like the tuner and the streaming apps will play in 5.1 if available.

Just wondering if anyone did any external hard drive tests, specifically regarding Bluray backups?

I have copied a 1:1 Bluray movie to an external hard drive and plugged it directly into the VT50. When I navigate to the VIDEO menu on the TV, I do not see the full folder format of the movie. Instead, the only thing I see is a STREAM folder. In here you have literally 100's of files, one of them being the largest movie file, which you can click on and playback will begin. Note, this is not always the case as some movies have 2 large files.

Is there a way to have the Bluray play as it would offa the disk i.e. show a menu, select extras, main movie etc?

I did click on the first file in the folder and as expected, it jumped onto the next in sequence however, this was rather annoying as I had to sit through and watch 10 or so warning messages in 10 languages, then 10 different start intros etc. The ultimate killer in this mix is 3D Blurays, there is no way to play them back of an external drive - you click on the largest file and all you get is 2D.

I would be interested in hearing your findings. Thanks,

The only way you'll get menus is with a Blu-ray player or media player that supports them (which most of the new ones don't). I've never seen any TV support menus. So if you want to play the files as you have them get a media player. I suggest heading over to the networking media player section of the forum and selecting one from those that will play full be-java menus.

Have any of you ever dealt with Panasonic customer service?

They are the worst. I've never encountered a less knowledgable group at any other high level company. My calls were usually routed to a call center in Jamacia where each and every time I got a rep who didn't know the answer and gave me attitude.

I've had my VT50 for a month now an called them three or four times. The questions were pretty simple. For instance, I wanted to know why HDMI in at DD 5.1 was coming out of the optical at PCM 48. They had no clue. Another time I asked if I could set the custom settings once for all devices, instead of separately. They didn't even understand what I meant.

If in the future another company makes a television equal to the Panasonic I would by it over a Panasonic. There is no excuse for customer support who don't know there product.

I phoned Sony the other day with a question about a 5 year old receiver and they knew the answer immediately.

I'm done ranting.

Regarding this HDMI ARC/optical cable discussion, is anyone else having problems with Skype app sending audio through the optical cable to a receiver? All the others apps work fine, even 5.1 audio is perfect, but Skype audio only works through TV speakers. Any ideas?

Not making excuses for them by any stretch but just an observation. In my experience the receiver support has nearly always been more technically proficient than tv support. And I mean all companies that I have dealt with. Then again things are changing. TVs didnt used to be nearly as technical as they are now.

True enough
Will apps/tuner ever go higher than 5.1?
7.1 ?
And if so , can the ARC HANDLE IT?

I've never called Sony about a TV so that may be true. I can't imagine that any support would be this bad. It's as bad as asking a blue shirt at Best Buy a question. Actually it's worse.

ARC supports all lossless formats as well as 3d. As do most modern avr's. My PS3 gives me a 7.1 signal on some Netflix apps but I doubt that the movie is in 7.1. I suspect the PS3 is "faking" it.

Ouch! Thats bad. I hope I never have to deal with them. AVS is a much better place if you just want technical information.

My one experience calling Panasonic was for a technical issue with the first VT50 we bought. Took about 10 minutes on the phone to get setup with local service, got a call about an hour later to setup the appointment.