Official Panasonic VT50 owners thread - Page 235

Thanks - I ordered this one today.

The Sony 790 is another one. There are four OPPO models with dual HDMI outputs, but they are twice or more than the price of the Sony and the Panasonic players.

You can read about all of them in their respective owner's threads here at AVS.

To my knowledge, there have been NO reports of ANY 50 series' black levels rising.

Due to the overwhelming requests, here are my settings. These are the originals for my display and seem to perform far better than the corroborative Flavor 2 settings that I had previously posted. These will get your color extremely close. As far as everything else, your results will vary. These are being posted for those that asked for them. I am not interested in anything but fulfilling those requests.

As per usual, I have included both a Word doc as well as an XML version if you wish to upload via ControlCal

Topper out

TopperRevE-Flavor1.xml 3k .xml file

Topper Day Night Rev E Flavor 1.doc 21k .doc file

I had grabbed these before they disappeared and they work very well on my 55VT50. I did lower the contrast and brightness a touch (4 and 2, respectively), but that probably has to do with the fact that this TV can put out so much light compared to my previous CRT.

Even if these settings aren't truly "calibrated", they are a far better starting point than any of the default modes. "Cinema" and "THX Cinema" aren't bad, but both seem too dark to me, and I have a fairly dark room (basement with only about 60 watts of ambient light nornally). I think "THX Bright" really should only be used if the sun is shining on the panel, as even with 600 watts (halogens cranked full pointing at white ceilings), the picture looks washed out, while Topper's settings still look good.

Thanks for posting them again.

Weird. I don't find THX Bright "washed out" at all in a room with moderate ambient light. I like it for a lot of content, even in the evening, when we're sitting casually, cleaning up from dinner, watching regular TV.

I am torn between this LCD XBR HX950 and the Panasonic VT 50 Plasma. I called two local high stores and both claim that i will be very disappointed with the 950 compared to the VT50 for multiple issues. One of them being motion blur since i mentioned I watch a lot of soccer games. I then called one of the well know company that post a lot on this site and they said the same that i will be the VT 50 was superior over the 950. Thoughts?

The simple fact is that there is not 1 LED or LCD on the market that can compare with the best of plasmas. This is Panasonic's best to date, actually it's the best plasma on the market today at any price point. The only LED that comes close to the VT50 in blacks is the new Elite (Twice the price) and the VT50 still beet it in the shootout. Especially if your into sports, on the LED you'll be dealing with lots of Halo's and Motion Blur.

I have also heard about Motion Blur on the Sony but have not found any info on this.

I agree, i too have the same impression as yours; THX Bright is the best for my sun-drenched apartment where sun hits the TV sometimes as it sets.

Topper's custom settings seems a bit bright to my eyes and I found myself resorting to THX for most part once the sun goes down.

What it is, you will see a blurred-out of focus halo around fast moving objects or players. Some people can deal with it, I for one can't. I also hate the SOE (Soap Opera Effect) that those sets create. Yes it looks 3 dimensional, but it makes movie's all seem as if they were shot with a home video recorder. The bottom line is at this point in LED technology, if you are a true videophile, you won't be happy...

My settings are designed as 24/7 in my particular case. The contrast and brightness as shown in my settings are as high as one can go without deteriorating the black levels signifigantly. For night viewing these setting can be dialed down. My ISF Night settings are the same as my day settings with only the brightness and contrast dialed down.

My goal is to provide accurate color with good light output. It is far easier to tone down the brightness and keep everything else somewhat in check than the other way around in my experience.

I am at 800 hours and I have noticed on two different occasions(wow moments) where the colors have become noticably better(not in connection to firmware updates). I am curious if owners with more hours logged are seeing a continuing improvement. I find it hard to believe a pretty picture like this can get any better. Also, I am a very satisfied Sony 790 owner. The build quality is a little flimsy, but, hey, it's got Sony guts. Best sub $250 do it all player IMHO, I loved the panny bt-500 picture, build and sound, but it did not meet my internet conectivity needs(4 year old daughter/netflix).

Sorry if this has already been addressed but couldn't you set up custom mode for night time using mid panel brightness, then just switch to high panel brightness for daytime?

As an example, when watching MLB network, their CG of the scores that pops in above their ticker has a solid black background using Topper's settings. Switching to "THX Bright" turns that noticeably grey. Also, the default for "THX Bright" is "Warm 2", which gave the Yankee home whites a yellowish cast. Switching to "Warm 1" fixed that, so even if you use "THX Bright", that might be a good adjustment. Basically, look for anything that should be absolutely black, and you'll see that "THX Bright" makes it not quite black. Since one of the great strengths of this TV is the blacks, I wouldn't recommend anybody use that mode if they can avoid it.

It appears that "THX Bright" uses a gamma of 2.0, as switching from 2.4 to 2.0 on Topper's settings gives a look that is similar to the defaults for "THX Bright". Adjusting contrast to match makes the two settings very close to my eyes, at least as far as greyscale is concerned. Maybe you could try starting from "Custom" and set everything to match "THX Bright" and then see if the gamma change gives you the same kind of look in your room. The advantage is that it opens up the "Pro" menu, which has at least 5 really important but quick to change settings (Black Extension, Gamma, Panel Brightness, Contour Empasis, and AGC) that aren't otherwise available.
Try the switch sometime and see what it does. There's a little more intensity, but it's not really that significant. AGC has a much larger effect on the way this set looks compared to the room lighting than panel brightness settings. If you have a room that doesn't vary much in illumination, AGC should be off, but if the room goes from complete dark to bright sunlight, it might be better to turn it on. "THX Bright" seems to be trying to boost overall luminance (thus the similarity to changing gamma) instead of just increasing contrast and brightness.

BTW, does anybody know of a way to switch the "Picture Mode" more quickly than entering the menu? It's a real pain to compare changes to this setting, since it is one of the few that doesn't hide the menu and just show a bar for quick switch. Likewise, if you go in and change "HD Size" on all picture modes to be the same, then switching between them at least doesn't move the picture around, butt there is some unchangeable setting in "Game" that causes the display to go completely black for a moment as you switch to/from it. Since I'm trying to compare "Custom" and "THX Bright", I pass through "Game" and a lot of differences get lost when your eyes see that black.

I will be having my Plasma calibrated later this week by a "level 2 certified" ISF calibration company. I understand the day/night modes and that there is a seperate setting for the 3D mode. My question to you experts out there is for any advice or items I need to watch out for during the calibration to make sure all items are being done correctly. In our initial conversation, when I brought up the ISF modes for 2D and 3D, it was indicated that the numbers obtained from the 2D calibration could be used and inputed into the 3D mode with some tweaks. Is there a whole seperate process that needs/should be run to calibrate the 2D mode from the 3D mode or will most values transfer between the two modes (i.e. transfer the vaues from the 2D calibration to the 3D calibration setting and then tweak those)? Curious about what the forum recommends. Thanks.

I will have my own VT50 professionally calibrated next month. I have asked for a day time, night time, 3D, and B&W calibration. Initially, I had some ghosting problems in 3D mode. I had to contact Panasonic and a local authorized repair shop came out last Friday and looked at it. The solution was to replace the video board on the VT50, however, it was expected that the VT50 be on its pedestal stand or that it be taken down - which I was not informed of until he showed up. This had to do with liability which I understand. The repair person offered to help me take the VT50 down off of its mount, but neither he nor his company would be liable should the set be dropped. The next option was to pay $128 for two persons from the repair shop, that would then be liable, to come out and then do what had to be done. I looked at some 3D stuff, especially Titanic and Tangled, and the ghosting had decreased and that was with about 100 hours worth of breaking in the plasma. I then cancelled the replacement of the video board and will go about another 100 hours and see what it looks like. In the meanwhile, I asked the person who will do the calibration what would happen to his calibration should the video board be changed out after his calibration. His answer was that he didn't know what settings were stored on the video board and that the set might have to be re-calibrated should the board to be changed out. I asked the repair person about the VT50's FW update and his answer was that it would not affect calibration.

Did you try setting it to 48 Hz to solve the crosstalk issue?

Yes, lose too much in detail and brightness at 48hz. For me, what I saw was unacceptable.

I really haven't used the 3D features much on my 55VT50 so I'm curious about others experiences. Last night was my first serious exposure, other than a couple of test spins. I plugged the new Avengers 3D blu-ray disc into my Panny DMP-BDT210 3D blu-ray player that is hooked to my (3D compliant) Pioneer Elite VSX-32 AVR via HDMI and then output to the 55VT50 via HDMI. When the AVR was set to process video (at 1080p) the image was horribly blotchy with iridescent colors. I turned off the processing and all was well. I suppose I could have changed the processor's (Marvell Qdeo) setting to output 1080p/24fps, but I never checked this since I had company wanting to view the movie. This setting always seemed fine for 2D blu-ray, U-verse HD, and SD DVD viewing. I found out later that the "Auto" setting would likely work for all sources. Anyways, the 3D looked good but very dim, so I went to the VT50 picture settings and changed it from "Custom" to "3DTHX Cinema," and then a couple others, which all seemed too dim. Finally I tried Vivid and SHAZAM! What a gorgous picture! Very bright, great looking natural colors and supper crisp detail. I noticed little or no blur during action scenes and no sign of crosstalk (Although, being a newbie with 3D I'm not 100% sure I really know what that is). I played with another BD player setting from a pop-up menu, under 3D settings that goes from +4 to -4, which I think advanced and/or recessed the depth of stuff on the screen, and settled for -3, where the depth of things/people in the foreground and background seemed reasonably natural. The VT50's 48Hz setting wasn't better than 60Hz and 96Hz flickered so I stuck with 60Hz. All-in-all, I was very happy with the presentation of this film in 3D. :DI plan to experiment more with various settings on the BD player, AVR, and VT50, but I'm curious if any of you have any advice and/or any particular settings for 3D viewing that you feel are a must, or seem to work best for your configuration?
Edited by Roxme - 10/3/12 at 2:10pm

Today I installed my new 65VT50 after moving my previous plasma, a Pioneer pre-Kuro 50" 720P model, downstairs for less often use. Boy, I always thought the picture was good on the Pioneer, and it is decent, but this new set with just minimal set up to THX Cinema is giving me so much more detail, with sharper colors, that I will be enjoying some old movie favorites all over again. I have no 3D experience but will give that a try when the new 3D player arrives in a couple of days. I almost bought the new Sony 65HX950, but at the last moment decided to stay with the plasma technology since I'd had a good seven years with the Pioneer and it still gives me good service. Had never seen the VT50 series in person, and just took a chance that the reviews I read were accurate, and fortunately they were.

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Thomas J Norton settings
2D ........................................... 3D
Picture mode Custom .................................................Custom
Contrast 79 ................................................100
Brightness 57 ................................................. 57
Color 45 ..................................................43
Tint 0 0
Sharpness 10 ................................................ 10
Color temp. Warm2 .......................................... Warm1
Color mgmt. Off ............................................ Off
C.A.T.S.: Off Off ........................................... Off
Video NR Off ........................................... Off
Pro settings
Color space Normal ................................... Normal
W/B high R -2 .............................................. -7
W/B high G +1 .......................................... 0
W/B high B +5 .............................................-7
W/B low R +6 ............................................. +15
W/B low G -4 ............................................-5
W/B low B +3 ........................................0
W/B Detail Adjustment * ......................................(*)
Hue, Saturation, Luminance ** ..................................(**)
Black extension 0 ........................................... 0
Gamma adjustment 2.4 ..........................................2.2
Panel brightness Mid .......................................High
Contour emphasis Off ......................................Off
AGC 0 .....................................0
Gamma detail adjustment Default ...........................Default
Screen format As needed .................................As needed
HD Size As needed-See text .................................As needed
HDMI/DVI RGB Range Auto ................................Auto
Advanced picture
3D/YC filter Off .................................................................Off
Color Matrix (component only) As needed ....................N/A
Block NR Off ...................................Off
Mosquito NR Off ................................. Off
Motion smoother Off .....................................Off or Weak
1080p pure direct Light ..................................... Light
3:2 pulldown Auto ....................................... Auto
24p Direct in 96Hz ...................................... 60Hz
Pixel Orbiter Enable ......................................... Enable
4:3 side bars Mid ........................................ N/A
3D menu
Auto detect 3Dt ...................................Auto 1
3D signal notification .................................... On
2D>3D depth ..........................................Medium
3D adjustment ......................................Off
Left/Right swap ......................................Normal
Diagonal line filter t ......................................... Off
* W/B detail adjustment (3D settings in parenthesis)
IRE 20 30 60 70 80 90 100
Red gain 0 (5) 0 (2) 0 (-1) 0 (-1) 0 (-1) 0 (3) 0 (4)
Green gain 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (-1) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (0) 2 (3)
Blue gain 0 (0) 0 (-1) -2 (3) 0 (2) 0 (1) 0 (1) -1 (-5)
**Hue, Saturation, Luminance (3D settings in parenthesis)
R G B C M Y
Hue 0 (-5) 8 (-5) 3 (0) 2 (-44) 2 (-15) 2 (30)
Saturation -11 (3) 2 (-15) -1 (0) 1 (0) 2 (25) -1 (0)
Luminance 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)

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pd: the 3d settings looks good in my 55vt50..enjoy
Edited by ledesma53 - 10/3/12 at 10:25pm

Good the hear. Thanks for the report.

Michael

My advice to both of you is to use professional calibrators who can provide references. The best place to get those references is here at AVS.

Personally I would have my doubts about a calibrator who doesn't know what the effect on a calibration would be if the video board was replaced.

Hello,

I have an issue that is starting go on my nerves. When I watch TV, I need to have 16:9 overscan turned on, or it won't fill the screen on all channels. However, if I then switch to for example HDMI1 and use the same picture mode, the setting is carried over (it's per picture mode and not per input).
This means that if I use for example THX Cinema on both inputs I EVERY time have to go into the menus and switch it back and fourth (since I obviously don't wan't overscan on my HDMI1 input, which in this case is a HTPC).
Why would you want something like an overscan setting common for all inputs, even if it's the same picture mode? You can't replicate the THX modes in any of the other modes either.

[/whine]

I don't have this problem you have.. I find overscan is rarely needed... but.....

With a Harmony, you could simply turn on overscan when switching to HDMI 2 and turn it off when switching to HDMI 1 -- or vice versa.

Just got my 65VT50 up and running!

A few comments:
WoW am I glad I went with 65"! It looks perfect from about 11'.
I just put it in THX Cinema and I can't believe how bright it is, even in my sunlit living room! I seriously do not understand anyone saying this TV isn't bright enough!
The glare is a total non-issue, and I have white walls.
Anyway, I'm super happy and I'm going to sit back and enjoy! Thanks to everyone who helped me make my decision.

I am about a month in to using my Harmony One with my vt50 and onkyo receiver. I never experienced this luxury before, but its pretty much the best thing ever invented. Highly recommend it to any new vt50 owners who upgraded other HT components as well. Needed to do a little more research on the syncing with Apple TV, but other than that its a breeze to setup and use.