Official Panasonic VT50 owners thread - Page 360

I dont notice it (yet) on tv watching but I have a feeling its probably gonna start. I havent contacted Panny yet,do you guys know what their warranty process is? Do i have to send it to them at my expense? Btw I did purchase straight from their site.
Thanks

They'll send a tech to your house. You won't have to send the TV to them.

They'll send a tech to your house. You won't have to send the TV to them. I bought my 65VT50 direct from Panasonic as well.

If your VT50 is sitting on the pedestal stand, then you're fine. If not, you have to take it down from the wall or stand. If the tech people offer to do it, they have no liability should the set be dropped. Should you have a 65VT50, it takes two to take it down and if you don't want to do it, there will be a charge for a second person on a subsequent visit. So either take it down yourself or pay them an extra service fee to do it.

Owner of a 55" VT50 set for the last two months. Amazing picture quality, much better with more types of content than my old Samsung Plasma. Also better blacks (obviously) and much less IR than the Samsung too.

Anyway, new weird issue that I just noticed. One one input (HDMI 2) when using custom mode there is a subtle but weird sparkle type dithering of red and green pixels when viewing a black screen. I know about the typical roving horizontal scan lines that normally exist which I assume to be the pre-charge of which panasonic is so proud. This is not that. This is random red and green pixel dither across the entire screen. It is very subtle, so much so in fact that I'm having a hard time getting a good exposure with my camera. It is enough though that the overall brightness of the panel is noticeably brighter from the normal viewing condition.

What is odd though is that it is not present in any other picture mode including the cinema and THX modes. Also, it is not present on the other inputs. It does not go away when the HDMI cable is disconnected, ruling out a source issue.

Has anyone seen this issue before? Does it sound like something that I should be worried about?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the replies.. Do they normally fix it at your place? Just the thought of people taking and handling my baby makes me cringe.

Yes. If its the panel they may have to come back with one to replace it. Too bad you cant return it. This may sound strange but I would put cartoons on the tv as much as you can when not watching it. Just be careful of logos so you dont get ir.
Edited by Bond 007 - 3/7/13 at 8:21pm

Watching spartacas tonight, And now its showing up on tv watching. I hope you guys have better luck. And thanks for the info, I will call them tomorrow.

Hi I am a proud, relatively new owner of a 55vt50 and I gave myself a scare the other night. In an attempt to access the service menu to check the hours on the unit, I became afraid of accidentally altering settings so I backed out of the process. How can I be sure I did not edit any settings? I only recall pressing 1,2,3,4 on the remote in attempts to navigate and never pressing the vol button. Is the Vol button the only button that can make adjustments in this menu? Should the settings remain at the default if the volume button is not pressed? I have many other questions regarding the unit as a plasma convert, but I will just take this one step at a time. Thanks in advance for the responses.

IMG_20130306_195252_906.jpg 1535k .jpg file IMG_20130306_201200_116.jpg 1306k .jpg file

Just put on some accent led backlighting,, Looks pretty cool. It looks a bit brighter in the photo than it does in person..

I have a similar set up. Mine look to be a little "warmer" white than yours however. That might just be the photograph though. Are yours a "cool" white?

I'm getting this tv(65") shortly and I have all my walls open(reno) and will have my av cabinet directly under my tv. I am going to have my Blue Ray, ATV etc. connected directly to my AVR. I am going to run and HDMI and two cat 6 cables in the wall from tv down to AVR. Should I run any others just to be covered? Thanks.

Ive seen weird green sparklies on a 7 year old samsung plasma, until it warms up. Whole half of the screen. Id get it looked at ASAP.

Vt50 en route, excited to join the owners club

THX cinema is what I've been using since I got mine at the beginning of February, very happy with this setting.

Why ethernet from TV to the AVR? You need to run ethernet cable from TV to your router or switch. And why two ethernet cables? The VT50 only has one ethernet port.

If all your sources are running through your AVR then just one HDMI cable from AVR to HDMI input of the VT50 is all you need. Remember that the HDMI connectors are on the left edge of the VT50, so your cable will need to be long enough to "curve around" and then go back down your hole in the wall to reach the AVR. So just be sure it's long enough.

Also, USB connectors on the VT50 are also on the left edge of the set, but they're very hard to get to if the set is wall-mounted and pushed back close to the wall. You might want to just get a M/F USB "extension cord", plug it into a USB slot on the set when you mount it, and run the USB cable down through the hold in the wall to where the AVR is... leaving the F-end open for possible future use to connect a USB drive or the special USB cable for charging Panny 3D glasses since Panny recommends using the USB connection on the set to do the charging, etc. I'm just saying if you do want to make use of the set's USB input, it will be tough when on the wall.

One good thing about THX mode is the colors are generally required to be pretty darn good. It helps a lot. Setting contrast and brightness with a test disc finishes it up.

If your AVR doesn't support an Audio Return Channel through HDMI, you might need an optical Toslink cable to bring audio from the VT50 down to your AVR. I use this link when I surf the net or if I were to use Netflix, Pandora, etc.

I would add a second HDMI cable, in case you ever upgrade to a source that can use split A/V. My BDP-105 blu-ray sends audio to my AVR and video to the VT50.

If you are mounting the VT50 on the wall, I would keep the composite video and audio inputs accessible - I use the video input for viewing stills off my digital SLR camera, and could use the audio as well if I were to hook up my camcorder. If I were to do this in the most sanitary method possible, I would run the yellow-white-red RCA cables in the wall, down to a nice wall plate with female RCA jacks like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Decora-Insert-Couplers-Yellow-301-3000/dp/B00749RLQ6/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1362761144&sr=1-3&keywords=rca+wall+plate

Above all, remember to put a large diameter plastic conduit in the wall, linking a recessed cable outlet in the wall behind the TV with one behind your cabinet. Put the largest conduit you can in the stud wall, and make it a straight shot between the TV and the cabinet. That way, you can easily feed additional cables between them in the future.

Cheers,
Paul

My router is in the AV cabinet. It was suggested I run 2 ethernet. No need? Right now I have a 5 year old Hitachi plasma wall mounted. But it is on a swivel type wall bracket so it come about a foot away from the wall. I really like it. Wonder of they make one for a 65"? Thanks for the recommendations. So leave the female end down through the receiver?

Thanks alot.

Based on the advice of mo949, Bond007, and ss3740, I was just about to pull the trigger on a Harmony 650 remote. I couldn't figure out how to program a macro into my old MX-500 to both turn on the VT50 and set it to a particular input. I decided to try one more trick last night, incorporating both delay and multiple iterations of the same command, and it worked! Here's the command string (note that I obtained a number of discrete commands for the VT50 at my local AV store)...

Power ON (discrete)
2 Second Delay
HDMI 2 Input (discrete) 5 times in succession
Additional commands for AVR, Blu-ray, etc.

You also need to remember to keep the remote aimed at the VT50, and hold the button down until the Smart Viera logo comes and goes.

So my hoary old MX-500 remains in service, and I won't have to listen to my wife complain about yet another new item showing up in the system (she has reached her tolerance level with both the VT50 and the OPPO 105). Well, I do have an ethernet switch coming to allow network connections to 3 different devices, but that will be hidden in the back where she will not see it!

Cheers,
Paul

You mean for the USB "extension cord"? No, I was thinking of just letting the F-end dangle open loose in the vicinity of the AVR. If you ever want to plug a USB source into the VT50 (or charge the Panny 3D glasses) you'd just connect the USB source to that open F-end of the extension cable in the equipment cabinet where the AVR is, rather than hunting around on the left edge of the set for the USB connector there. Believe me, if the TV is against the wall it's not easy to get to... unless your wall mount can be accordion'ed out away from the wall (which also ideally would supports swivel/tilt) which it probably will have to be for you to find that USB connector. Having a USB extension cord like this will be a convenience.

I suppose if you wanted to go the extra mile and be "neat" you could connect it onto a wall plate with the F-end connector exposed via the plate, down near your AVR so there would no dangling cable looking sloppy and unfinished.

None at all.

And the suggestion to have a second spare HDMI cable already connected to the TV and snaked through the wall down to the AVR area is also a very sensible and reasonable idea as long as you're in the wall. You never know, and you might as well future-proof yourself.

Do they make swivel mounts for plasmas 65". When I say swivel I mean something like this. This is similar to the one I have for my 55". I'm thinking a 65" might be top big/heavy for one of these.

http://www.wayfairsupply.com/Chief-Universal-PWRIW-In-Wall-Articulating-Single-Arm-Plasma-Mount-Up-to-65-PWRIW-U-L1562-K~CF1698.html?refid=GX21919349700-CF1698&gclid=COKTw4LV7bUCFZOe4Aod4kcA8Q
Edited by horsegoer - 3/8/13 at 9:43am

They were advertised as "cool white" "color calibrated to 6500k".. They look pretty good, but I feel they may need to be dimmed down a bit,, the kit i bought included
one long 139" flexible strip, and i used about 110''s of it.. I just ordered a dimmer from ebay..

I started with "cool white" from LEDBetter but later switched to their "warm white" LED strips. The nice thing about this setup is they come in strips and have 90" corner pieces to make a very clean implementation. Dimmer also included. At night the lowest setting is all I need. Thanks for getting back to me.

Congratulations.

There are many of them. And much cheaper. I wouldnt necessarily suggest this one but you get the idea.
http://www.mycablemart.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=4145

Many of the newer mounts are universal. The bolt pattern doesnt matter.