Official Panasonic VT50 owners thread - Page 170

Woot, my girlfriend just gave me the thumbs up to keep the Onkyo tx-nr818 AND I just talked the Directv guy down to $100 for an HR34 installed plus the HD NFL package. Happy days

I just recently got the NR818 as well, not cuz my picture needed tweaking. I just needed another toy. The XT32 on this thing is freaking amazing, blows the pio Elite's MCACC out of the water...literally! Coming back to the picture, I tried the edge enhancement and mosquito NR to low, and can hardly tell the difference....more of a placebo effect. GIGO stands true, with or without a top-of-the-line VP, Ive concluded. I'll just be keeping it for the audio nirvana it produces with my Paradigms!

Topper, any specific video settings you would suggest? I'm all ears.

Huh, I watched 3 Blu-rays using Zoom + Size 1 and they looked spectacular. I tried Size 2 but it stretched out the picture too much for my tastes. I didn't spend much time comparing the Full and Zoom aspects back and forth but I have 20/20 and Zoom + Size looks much better to me than a Perfectly Just Scan. I think I just enjoy the fact that it shows much more detail in the actors faces which gives me a theatre like feel. If more directors used the 1.85:1 cameras it wouldn't matter. Mel Gibson had the right idea with Apocalypto. Whatever camera he used was amazing because that Blu-Ray transfer is one of the best I've seen. almost as good as Avatar imo.


Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand why some people are so against letterboxing. I bought this TV so I could watch movies the way they were originally presented. The screenshots in this article does a good job showing what you might miss out on by cutting of the sides of those wide shots:
http://dvd.ign.com/articles/053/053556p1.html
And there's this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJhM3So4y8&feature=player_embedded
The sections on Lawrence of Arabia and Ben Hur are excellent.[/quote]

Those were the worst possible examples imo. I watched the first 2 Lord of Rings movies with Zoom + Size 1 and it seemed like every shot was perfectly cutoff. Characters faces were rarely cutoff and almost always perfectly centered in close up and scenes felt very intimate due to being able to see so much detail in their faces. I suppose if you are the type of person who focuses more on scenery then the characters than Zoom would ruin the experience but for me it adds to it.

Or maybe I should have just gotten the 65in. I promised myself no more than 2k for a TV though. I mean I didn't even spend that much for my PC setup and I have a fully gaming capable PC with a 2560 x 1440p monitor. (imported straight from South Korea of course) : )
Edited by Ice That Jaw - 7/30/12 at 5:35pm

Yeah, I had tried this onkyo once already more for the VP, but like you I found the vt50 did not need a VP. But I must say that edge enhancement on low was actually kind of nice on some content.

Are you asking about video settings on the Onkyo or the VT?

If the VT, yeah, mine! LoL

If the Onkyo, I would prolly use it simply to pass 1080p for my Directv.

As for my ps3/bluray player, I may toy with some things, but I want to verify that I can pass 24p directly without the AVR fiddling with it. If I can't I will make that input pass through.

Will post my impressions and settings later in the week. Thanks for the reply.

PS Try pausing a clean shot of a face (eyes specifically) and try Edge Enhance on low. You will see the detail sharpen over a period of about 3 seconds. I like doing that and going back and forth. It really does seem to make a bit of a difference.
Edited by TopperMcFly - 7/30/12 at 5:38pm

Different strokes as they say. I for one can't deal with zoom knowing that I am missing a large amount of intended picture. I have a hard enough time using the 95% over scan but use it when the outside noise is too much to bear. Again, different strokes.

I guess what I was trying to convey is that enlarging, zooming, or overscanning (i.e. Zoom and/or HDMI "Size 1") will/should produce inferior resolution as opposed to "Full" with HDMI "Size 2". Besides the resolution/sharpness degradation with overscanning (and/or zooming, etc) you lose picture information, which I realize does not seem to bother some people.

I am going to play around as well. Edge enhancement does improve perceived sharpness of stationary images for me, however, I feel with motion - not necessarily fast-paced motion - it introduces artifacts and actually makes it worse for me. At least that is my perception for now. I too am passing through blu-ray, for cable I am doing the up conversion/scaling within the AVR, and it seems to do a pretty good job. My HD content via xfinity (1080i) is looking better with the Onkyo - compared to my Pio Elite previously.

I wanted to see just how much of an impact Zoom has on the picture, so I loaded a calibration disc and put the Overscan pattern on the TV at Size 2. Size 2 fits a perfect set of 16x9 tiles on the screen. When you go to Zoom mode, you get 11x6 tiles on the screen, so in Zoom you only see 46% of the original image displayed. Someone smarter than me can tell me if my math is wrong, but I'm pretty sure I've got it right. We finally get TV's that eliminate the overscan of the past and you go the polar opposite.

The LOTR movies are a horrible example of what Zoom does especially in scenes like the Charge of the Rohirrim in Return of the King, and the Battle of Helms Deep when Gandalf comes over the ridge. The sense of scale is completely lost when you don't have the 2.40:1 OAR. It's not about not liking a more intimate image and preferring to watch the scenery go by. it's about the emotional perspective that the image on the screen provides you.

Your comment on 1.85:1 tells me you hate any sort of matting and use Zoom to eliminate it. Like Topper said though, to each his own I guess. Just realize that you're not just cutting off the sides. Since Zoom shows the exact center of the image, you're cutting off the top and bottom as well.
Edited by robnix - 7/30/12 at 9:07pm

What pioneer did u previosly have? im interested getting the sc61

I couldn't agree more. A few weeks ago I was considering jumping to the Elite, but in my opinion, for that price, I would want it to at least be better than the vt50 in every category. Sadly though it loses out in everything except black levels compared to the vt50. However, with bias lighting, the blacks look damn near absolute black on the vt50.

So I will wait and see what the 2nd Gen Elite has to offer and if I am still not satisfied with LED LCD tech, then I will surely just wait until there is an OLED of comparable size to my 65vt50.

Black level is better in ON/OFF contrast only and if you are watching a solid black picture the Elite is a sure winner. However, last I checked, we usually watch mixed content where ANSI Contrast is a representative measurement.

I think that is a good choice. I have the VSX-23TXH, which had the ABT-1015 for video scaling duties. The newer SCs have the marvell Qdeo which is a much better chip. The biggest upgrade that I feel I have made by switching out the Pioneer for the Onkyo is in the room correction. The MultEQ®XT32, in my opinion, is superior in every way imaginable to the MCACC in the Pioneer. Now I don't know what improvements pioneer has incorporated into their correction software in the 4 years since I bought mine, but setting the Onkyo right after the Pioneer in the same room with the same speakers was remarkably different. For that purpose alone, I would buy an Audessey equipped AVR - may I suggest the Denon 4311Ci (EE has them on special right now for 1350 shipped, just verified today). Having said that the SC series is no slouch, and it kinda boils down to personal preference. Hope it helps!

are u talking about the auto calibration differences?

Yup

I noticed a big difference on both the picture and the audio. THX on my set has a green push, Chad was able to get rid of the green push in ISF mode, I'm pretty sure the light output is greater as well. Another thing that I noticed that I am really happy about is that I see less dithering after the calibration. The settings on my AVR were all jacked up, I had a hard time hearing voices from the center. I'm sure I did all kinds of things wrong on the settings. I don't know anything about how to configure speakers in the AVR. I don't regret for one minute having Chad calibrate the TV and the AVR.

Done. Sorry about that!

i currently have an old sony receiver never used the auto calibration on it, just changed the levels according to what sounded good to me? am i messing up? is it always best to do the auto cal?

i currently have trouble hearing voices from the center as well, have you looked at your new settings recently and have you found out what the problem was with that?

What would be the best bluray content to test 24p on 55 tv50 ? any specific movies? I was thinking transformers and dark knight?

Thanks. That will make a big difference when readers come to your calibration post from the calibration report lists instead of through this thread.

New firmware is now available,don't know what it does,will find out after i return from work

For one thing, I can see that the Luminance controls are working! What the hell are we going to have to complain about with these damn sets? This latest patch will do absolutely nothing in terms of helping people that purchashed an Elite feel better about their choice. Isn't there enough pain and suffering in the world?

Great news!!! Looks like we have some work ahead.

How do you get the new software? Doesn't the TV notify you when new SW is available?
Edited by TWD - 7/31/12 at 5:27am

Click the big green viera button.

Went to the network button on the main menu and updated that way. So you are saying that if you click on the green Internet button, the tv will automatically check for updates and tell you that an update is available?

Seeing the discussion around the Size options...

Is is possible that the perceived differences in 1080i "softness" between the owners can be related to having the different Size parameters in place? Mine is "off."

kdg

Roomier S,

I have had the vt 25 since it came out and I think I have resolved the floating black issue on my set by doing this. I updated the latest firmware,set the black level to dark ,set gamma to 1.8 ,all in custom mode .Try and see if this works .My overall black level seems improved and by using 1.8 gamma I retained the shadow detail. My picture overall looks improved.

TopperMcFly, would your settings still work with new firmware?