Official Panasonic VT50 owners thread - Page 252

Just set up my 55vt50 and it is just sick could not be happier...dumb newb question here but what is safe to use to clean the screen?

I was watching tv tonight and I suddenly noticed some IR, or at least I hope it is. I have not had this problem until now. If i watched tv channels with real bad logo's there would be some IR for maybe 10 minutes. Tonight there was very apparent IR and it has not disappeared after 6-7 hours of television viewing. Eventhough I know the particular channel has not been on for more then one hour, even with commercials, so no logo on their all the time. It has become a bit less and running a the pixel shifter on disney's wow bluray. has anyone noticed an increase in IR/burn in sensitivity? Or could this be a panel fault that developed?

I made a YouTube video showing the buzzing noise of my 65" VT50. It is crazy loud first the first 10 minutes then dies down after that to a normal light buzz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYagAkU4o88&feature=youtu.be

Does anyone else share this same problem? Any luck fixing it? Panasonic already sent someone out to try to fix it, and they are saying that they want to try again to send someone else out to fix it.

Thanks!

for those of you who have this great TV... how is the WEB browser? I'm thinking of buying the Samsung series due to it's superior web browsing experience, font and flash capability... any opinions out there.

thx
P.

They may try to switch out some screws internally as the simple fix. They may change out your board as a more comprehensive fix. That is what Panasonic concierge service told me when I contacted them about buzzing on my very first set. Returned three of them for dead pixels and/or buzzing and the 4th and newest is virtually silent even on a white break in slide. On my very small sample size, sets manufactured July 2012 or sooner will have a good chance to buzz. From people I've spoken with, the newest manufacture dates of sept and oct have had the problem corrected.... So if your set buzzes and you can hear it while watching a movie, then have them fix it as it is defective.

Even on Monoprice, all cable are not the same.


If you want to carry 3D bandwidth, be sure to get the high-speed cables and not the standard.

There are also ones with Redmere technology, which essentially had a chip in each connector that allows for longer runs with thinner cords, however, it is directional...meaning one end is meant for the source and one is for the destination.

Again, look for the high-speed ones. They also carry 1080p if you have BD media. The standard HDMI's will only carry 1080i.

At lengths less than 20 feet, there are no differences in performance for any of the HDMI cables that Monoprice sells. The only choices you have to make for 99% of real-world HDMI connections are cable color and flexibility/thickness.

Got it. Thanks for the info. Good to hear the Panasonic will treat this as a defect and make things right.

Does the US version of the VT50 have the brightness cap in THX that the Euro version does?

Does the US version of the VT50 have the brightness cap in THX that the Euro version does?

Does the US version of the VT50 have the brightness cap in THX that the Euro version does?

Does the US version of the VT50 have the brightness cap in THX that the Euro version does?

Maybe you should call them and see if they are hiring for technical support.

High-Speed 15 footer, 3D, 1080p
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024004&p_id=3663&seq=1&format=2

Standard 15 footer, non-3D, 1080i
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024009&p_id=2529&seq=1&format=2

The specs for the standard indicate 1080p, so I asked the technical support folks and they said it was a typo....the standard can only handle up to 1080i.

 

Depending upon how you have the DirecTv box set up.

How did the ISF modes look before you zapped them?

They should have looked much better than all the other picture modes.

Just follow the screen cleaning instructions in the owners manual. I just use a new or fresh swiffer to gently remove any dust from my screen, then follow up with distilled water sprayed onto a good microfiber cloth and wipe very gently. Only clean the screen when the TV is STONE COLD after being off for a while - if the screen is hot or warm the quick evaporation leave streaks that can be hard to clean off and you end up rubbing too much and that can be hard on the coating. Doing it cold eliminates this problem.

Don't use any aftermarket screen cleaners as they may (and have) damage the delicate coating on the screen. One poor sap here ended up developing dozens of small crater in his coating after using a supposedly "safe" screen cleaner and it ruined his TV.

Well, not really (although I can see the confusion).

Your DirecTV is like every other set-top box from every other cable or satellite provider in that it can provide fixed output at 1080i. I mean that'd be like saying it has a power cord, too.

The issue was whether DirecTV itself transcodes the signal, and they don't.

Comcast, Cox, Dish, TWC, Uverse, Fios, etc. all will give you a set-top box that will take all your incoming signals, 480i/720p/1080i and output them at a fixed 1080i. That's just a standard feature.

That would probably explain it then. It does not appear the VT50 does all that great of job upscaling 720p. It was noticeably less sharp than the other TVs. I never noticed this before, and, in fact, the VT50 alsways seemed very sharp.

Michael

I don't know what the Samsung was set to, but the VT50 was set to THX mode first, and then THX Day. THX Day did seem a bit sharper, probably due to the higher contrast.

I'll check it out further.

Michael

But you are saying Directv does not do this?

Michael

My DTV HD DVR allows me to output any resolution I want, but by selecting native I get the best PQ.



Ian

Anyone else get Black Ops 2 on here?

There's a setting in the options to mess with the Active or Passive 3D settings in the game, but it won't let me select it because it says it requires a 3D Tv. Of course the VT50 is 3D, just trying to figure out how to get the Xbox to recognize this

Me too.

OK, so I missed one of the two cables non-high speed cable less than 20 feet that they sell. With nearly 100 high-speed less than 20 feet on the same page, it's an understandable mistake. And, everything less than 12 feet is high speed.

If a buyer picked completely at random, they'd have about a 2% chance of not getting a high-speed cable. As long as they are shopping in the normal range of 10 foot and under, a random pick would always result in a high-speed cable. So, yeah, pretty much every HDMI cable for normal use is identical in performance, and all you really need to do is decide on color.

Based on everything posted about HDCP and EDID issues, I'd say that a user is far more likely to run into a problem with the devices not letting them send 1080p than a cable problem.

For content that is originally 720p, I don't notice any significant difference between sending it to the VT50 at 720p and sending it at 1080p.

Now, for 1080p sources, there is a more noticable difference between sending the output at 720p and 1080p.

Hmm...I was talking about output from my media player, as it's easier to quickly change and has more control, but I just noticed that the DirecTV recevers (DVR or not) will never send 1080p unless the channel itself is 1080p, and that's only a few movie channels. So, the output is either 720p or 1080i. If you don't choose "native", that means that a 720p source goes through some serious conversion before it ever hits the TV, since there are more frames in 720p than in 1080i. If other STBs do the same thing, then "native" really is the only choice for the best picture quality on all channels, even if it slows down channel changing.
Edited by nabsltd - 11/13/12 at 7:55pm

This may be true, but having my Denon upscale doesn't seem to change the equation much.

No, DirecTV is the same as everyone else.

I've had my 65VT50 for 6 days so far and love it. Leave the color slides playing when not in use, but the wife invariably turns the TV off when she walks by it.

As part of BB Premiere Silver, I get a free ISF calibration. They had an appointment available for 11/21, but not sure if I would have 200 hours on it so I went with 12/29.

I know nothing about this calibration. Should I be asking for something specific, or is it an industry 'norm' that the guy will know what is required/requested? I would like to understand the calibration process better so I don't sound like a lady taking a car in for repairs... Any help?

Thanks!
Bill

Some HD channels broadcast purely in 720p - I think maybe ABC and a few other networks? Some broadcast purely in 1080i... so I would think choosing native would yield the least amount of steps it has to go through before being upscaled to 1080p by the TV. My Charter HD DVR only has options to choose 720p or 1080i from the box to the TV so I just choose 1080i for everything except SD channels and I choose 480i for them and let the set do all the work. Wish we had the option of choosing the resolution of the TV like some of the better CRT RPTV's had.

The calibration for these sets are all automated... they will just hook-up a laptop running their software along with a puck - either a colorimeter or spectrophotometer and the software communicates with the TV as it reads different patterns it places on the TV and adjusts different parameters inside the TV's memory according to what it reads. The whole process will probably take less than 45 minutes after he has everything connected. They may only calibrate the "custom" setting and leave all the others as factory default. If it were a independent ISF calibrator, they would probably calibrate other settings also, like the THX and THX day settings as well as the custom setting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TgZTU4sbMY0
Edited by Bamadawg_63 - 11/14/12 at 10:20am

This may be a bad question, but if an ISF calibrator comes in and calibrates the Custom, THX, and THX Day modes using the same equipment, will they then all be calibrated to the same standard and therefore identical? Or does the ISF technician have different industry standard targets for THX and THX Day modes?