Official Panasonic VT50 owners thread - Page 312

Originally Posted by billjust 

Thanks for the fast response. I'm fascinated how it loses 5.1 in translation somewhere in the hand-off between HDMI and optical. It's obviously a limitation of the tv bringing in audio via HDMI since, as I mentioned, it's sending 5.1 to the receiver for its Netflix app (and I presume the other apps native to the tv). Has this limitation been documented somewhere?

Originally Posted by KGB173 

Where is the list again for calibrators in the SoCAL / Orange County area. I'm thinking of getting my VT50 calibrated later this year.

Originally Posted by billmich 

What is the stated purpose of not letting a TV be a 5.1 audio switching device?

Originally Posted by mo949 

probably a dumb question, but do you have the pixel orbiter enabled on your input you are having problems with ? each input has its own memory so maybe you have something enabled on one input mode that you don't on the other.

Originally Posted by JoelxD 

Hey guys, just want to report that Robert came out today as planned and we got both TV's done (at separate locations btw).

I am very satisfied with the work done. Couldn't be happier. He was right on time as scheduled and was extremely knowledgeable with his work and the way he executed it as well. His equipment was top notch and seemed very well maintained (up to date and serviced, etc..) at that. His knowledge of both TV's (and our BDP's) was superb.

From this experience and from the outcome I can honestly say I would highly recommend Robert Busch to anyone in the Bay Area looking for professional Calibration.

Originally Posted by chunon 


Glad it went well, I'd be interested in hearing your comparisons between the VT50 and your Sony 950. How do they look when both calibrated ?

Originally Posted by KGB173 

Where is the list again for calibrators in the SoCAL / Orange County area. I'm thinking of getting my VT50 calibrated later this year.

Originally Posted by scirica 

I lost the link, but find one of Turbe's posts or just PM him your display model and city and he will shoot you a list of qualified calibrators. Someone else may have that information handy as well.

Good luck!

P.S. I know that Jeff Meier makes trips to SoCal and he would be worth contacting for a schedule. His website is accucalhd.com

Originally Posted by 7thSeal 

Go to Menu- Setup- Advance setup and there you'll see Viera Connect Banner, turn that option off.

Originally Posted by JoelxD 

I was told by one of the moderators to combine these posts of my experience in a recent calibration service of my 2 TV's. This is to share with all owners of both TV's. Calibration was done by Robert Busch. Below are quotes from another thread of mine in the Calibration Forums. TV's calibrated were a Sony XBR950 (55") and a Panasonic VT50 (55"):

Hey, good question ! You know, I just didn't want to clog up this thread by giving out this info here and talking about it, but since you asked , now I can !

Regardless of what others may want to say about each technology these TV's use (the obvious Plasma vs LCD debates) both these TV's are just great sets out the box. (NOW IMO) Out the box the XBR950 looks a touch more "toony" and razor sharp like (not in a bad way though, its character just leans more that way out the box). Out the box the VT50 looks rather the opposite, and not so much in a good way (IMO) all the presets (Cinema, THX, etc..) either look too dark or too pushed and all with some sort of hazy colored haze over the pictures background (again, IMO), and its a rather "soft" picture. So thats what we're dealing with (just for a little precursor info).

When Robert came over (from the way everyone speaks about the VT50) I/we were expecting the VT50 to of course calibrate way better, easier (due to ISF mode) and then obviously look way better than the XBR950 too. Literally to a point where a few professionals (priorly) pre-warned me to not expect the XBR950 to ever calibrate and look like the VT50, cause it just can't. I could totally understand that, especially from seeing them out the box, and also understanding the 2 different technologies, etc.. So I was expecting that as well, and had accepted it.

Ok (extremely long story short) - lol, after calibration, both sets almost looked identical ! On top of that EVERY aspect I mentioned earlier about the "out of box" impression of both TV's totally went away and they both looked so "correct" and stunningly deep, rich with "pop factor". I was amazed (and others were too) from the XBR950 really. Only because we didn't expect it to look as close to the VT50. Color wise, they were spot on to each other. Other characteristics though were indicative of the sets though, for instance the VT50 has no "bloom" what-so-ever and its viewing angle is just the most excellent I've ever seen. Where-as the XBR950, if you are not looking at it dead center white text over a black background has "bloom" and once your off center, the color representation, contrast, shadowing, etc.. begins to deteriorate and badly.

That said though, and the point to all this, is, after calibration, IF you sat dead center in front of the XBR950, these sets looked ridiculously close to each other. Color, spot on for sure. So much that indeed, we both were very surprised and amazed. The VT50 IMO holds a SLIGHTLY better picture though when there is "hard light" in the background of a scene. It is slight, but the XBR950 makes it look slightly more washed out and the VT50 just holds it perfect to everything else in the foreground. Again, this is slight. And again, it is surprising how awesomely close to the VT50 this XBR950 looks once their both calibrated AND how awesome they both look period, compared to how they looked out of the box.

There actually has been a few scenes I've come across where the XBR950 looks better and presents the scene better than the VT50 even ! But again, they are ridiculously close to each other visually, and even spectrum wise as well from the gear's analysis. So Sony has really done something on this new XBR950 for sure ! The VT50, well man, its a VT50 doing what you expect it to do. The XBR950 is doing beyond what was expected. (if thats a good way to put it ?)

Originally Posted by sillysally 

Don't worry about it, 85% of the problems folks report are not really problems with the VT50. Just be careful with IR and after that its all good.
Slides are not really necessary, the only reason to use slides are if you are having a calibration done within a few weeks of getting your TV.
All you need to do is very full screen video without a lot of time spent on video with static images. imo I would rather use my new VT50 this way, rather than viewing paint drying (slides).

Yes you can become a DIY calibrator and end up with PQ that is best for your likes and dislikes, imo better than any pro calibrator can do, doing a normal ISF calibration.
But don't think that its easy and cheap, you simply are not going to get that good of results using just a calibration disc, like the WOW disc. You would need calibration software, a good meter, and learn how to use it. However even with this type of normal calibration you probably still will not best a really good pro, to do that you would need to add hardware like a Lumagen Mini 3D.

ss

Originally Posted by tetsu96 

Just got my 65VT50 the other day, loving the set so far. As far as a pixel for pixel mode go - if I use Size 2, disable orbiter, etc, I get what appears to be full screen content... but the screen seems offset to the left and top. On the AV Rec. 709 disc, one of the test patterns in basic settings shows a screen with a border, and that border only shows on the right and bottom of the display. A lot of content seems to clip a bit off the sides or top / bottom, but I see this particularly with the right hand side (and the left often looks like it may have a few more pixels offscreen while the right comes in).

Can the screen offset / position be edited in the menus / service menu? Is this something that could be configured after unlocking ISF modes?

Originally Posted by justindion 

Good review of both sets!! I want to know if you had a do over, factoring costs and the issues you may have had with the vt50 initally, would you have bought 2 vt50 sets , 2 XBR950 sets, or would you still prefer one of each

Originally Posted by nikolausp 

Can you please provide further detail on the things I bolded above? What exactly & precisely does "Just be careful with IR" mean? Specifically how long should be safe to watch things with static logos or black bars? Should I wait at least 100 hours before watching ANYthing with black bars, logos etc? Or, is say 2-3 hours at a time ok with logos, black bars, etc? After 100-200 hours, do I need to be as cautious with the IR stuff? Or should I flip channels back and forth every 15min for the lifetime of my TV?

I'm just confused, I see people say all the time to be careful about IR, but I don't know how long and how much I need to be careful. My 65VT50 gets delivered tomorrow, it's my 1st plasma. I'm a bit scared to even turn the thing on for fear of IR... lol. If I limit my viewing of black bars to 1 movie a night at most, is that considered being careful, or really uncareful? Does the answer to that question change in the first 100 hours vs after 2000 hours?

Will running the slides for the first 100 hours limit my chances of having IR in the future?

Any detail provided about how to best handle IR would be great. Also, I have now read all the posts in both this thread and the Settings thread.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by jh901 

Can I get a few wall mount suggestions for a 55-65"? I'd like to mount my 55VT50 and I may "trade up" to the 60ZT60 later this year. Appreciate any advice or experiences.

Originally Posted by JoelxD 

Honestly, if I didn't play so many video games and the exact ones I play and for how long I play them, I would go with 2 Panasonic VT50's. But with the IR we get from the VT50 that I constantly see, I most definitely wouldn't take the chance with a VT50 for my behavior. I pass out at 3am with a video game on pause a lot and wake up the next day.... When I do play, I play for sometimes literally all day. The games I play have wicked HUD's and several things that are on the screen constantly in the same place, etc..

I don't want to argue with the people that claim this would not be a problem with the VT50. I have both, I see what I see and I can assess a intelligent prediction from my personal behavior. We get IR of TV logos on the VT50 for only 1hr of watching it. Sure it goes away. But another always appears... and I don't want to deal with or fight that playing my games, whether it would turn into a actual problem or not. Thats not the issue. The issue is dealing with it over my precious video games. I wont take that at all. And games sometimes present content that will show the IR, unlike a normal movie or cable. If I see it one time for a second I'd flip.

That said.... I honestly also think the XBR950 presents video games and CGI movies/content better than the XBR950 once calibrated. It has a certain sharpness to it that really looks good on that material that the VT50 doesn't. So I am happy with the exact way I got it. The combination works perfectly.

BUT for a large living room, VT50 all the way -- The viewing angle on the XBR950 sucks compared to the VT50. Literally once you are off center, content degrades. The XBR950 is perfect for bedroom solo or two people dead center thing. Exactly how I got it.

So again... if I didn't play so many games and have my ridiculous rockstar behavior, I'd buy 2 VT50's - Cause the VT50 does indeed present real non-CGI material a TOUCH better and has a ridiculously KICK BUTT viewing angle.

Originally Posted by sillysally 

1st and foremost enjoy the great TV and great choice you made.

I have had three Kuro's and all three had IR because of the black bars, my 65VT50 has no IR and I have about 1500 hours on it, I got the VT50 last May.
I don't watch much broadcast TV so I can't say for sure about logos, 98% of my viewing is Blu Ray movies.

imo one of the biggest causes of IR (other than logos and black bars) is "blaze settings" like what you see in a showroom when they have a tv on display.

The best thing is to beware of IR but don't worry about it, if you start to see IR when viewing other source's (programs with no/different logos, movies with no black bars) then it time to run the sweep pattern (black/white) until the IR starts to go away. Remember one thing IR is not burn-in, its something that will go away over time.
IR can happen with 5 hours or 5000 hours on a plasma TV, its just that the more hours you have on the TV the longer it will take to get IR.

What I do is very my movies with and without black bars, and all so when I take a brake for a few I just simply turn on the sweep feature of the VT50. The nice thing with the IR sweep feature is that you can leave what ever you are viewing on and the sweep will over ride that image so all you see is the black and white sweep going across your screen. Then when I come back to view I simply hit the X twice on the VT50's remote and there I am back to what I was viewing. Such a simple thing you can do once you get into the habit, but remember that the sweep pattern will only run for 15 min, so be mindful of that.

If you are going to run slides, make sure there is somebody to check and make sure the slides haven't locked up. Use the THX night mode if you run slides, slides are unnecessary
if you very your source viewing.

ss

Originally Posted by DSperber 

As we speak I am in the process of getting my new 65VT50 mounted. Still not finished, but here's the current state of the Chief TS525TU wall mount I went with. .

Originally Posted by nikolausp 

Thanks so much for the kind detailed response, I appreciate it.

I'm trying to decide if I want to "risk" using the 65VT50 to watch NFL Football this Sunday, or if I should run slides on the TV for 4 days and watch NFL on my old 61" DLP this weekend instead. I guess I'm a bit worried that watching NFL football with the score bar and stuff at the bottom during the first 100 hours will be risky, but I'm not sure on that.

I'd obviously prefer to watch NFL on the VT50 if it's not an extra risk lol.

Originally Posted by jh901 

Good grief those Sanus/Chief products are EXPENSIVE! I want to either wall mount mine or perhaps stand mount, but I hadn't contemplated such extreme pricing.

Originally Posted by DerekinMerrick 

I just bought this tv for the football. Maybe it is a blessing it wont be here by sunday! So you are telling me I have to be scared of what I watch? That is crazy! What about video games?

Originally Posted by Mikedit 

My 65VT50 was delivered last night, looks great and I cannot hear any buzz at all. It is a November 2012 build. Input some settings I found here and played around a bit, so far it looks great.

Originally Posted by sillysally 

The best thing is to beware of IR but don't worry about it, if you start to see IR when viewing other source's (programs with no/different logos, movies with no black bars) then it time to run the sweep pattern (black/white) until the IR starts to go away. Remember one thing IR is not burn-in, its something that will go away over time.
IR can happen with 5 hours or 5000 hours on a plasma TV, its just that the more hours you have on the TV the longer it will take to get IR.

What I do is very my movies with and without black bars, and all so when I take a brake for a few I just simply turn on the sweep feature of the VT50. The nice thing with the IR sweep feature is that you can leave what ever you are viewing on and the sweep will over ride that image so all you see is the black and white sweep going across your screen. Then when I come back to view I simply hit the X twice on the VT50's remote and there I am back to what I was viewing. Such a simple thing you can do once you get into the habit, but remember that the sweep pattern will only run for 15 min, so be mindful of that.

If you are going to run slides, make sure there is somebody to check and make sure the slides haven't locked up. Use the THX night mode if you run slides, slides are unnecessary
if you very your source viewing.

ss

Originally Posted by sillysally 

Use your new VT50 and watch the Game on Sunday.
We are only taking about a chance of a little IR, if at all. Anyway there's always the sweep tool with your new VT50

As I said before, 1st and foremost enjoy the great TV,

I got my VT50 running the sweep right now, because I just got done running the new Calman beta software's 3D LUT cube calibration..

In the words of the great one," how sweet it is".

ss

Originally Posted by Shagz 

Heh, i am very anal when it comes to gear. My little story.

Day one i had this tv running slides with wife watching full screen movies via netflix for 30 hours or so on the thx cinama setting.

Day two bro came over, stayed overnight, we played an nba jam fest on the ps3. Around 6 hours or so(using the GAME picture setting). I did use the panny screen washer program in the settings at pee breaks and beer runs. It did not cycle through the full 15min not once.

Before i went to sleep I ran the washer for the full 15min cycle, then the slides (set back on thx cinema). Woke up a few hours later. Noticed the IR from the game, pretty bad. Didnt take a pic. Ran the 15min washer again. Then proceded to run the pixle jogger movie. that ran all day with late night movie watching from the wife. i had work. Overnight she played the jogger. After 20 hours of this, i was home from work. stopped the jogger. Ran the slides. noticed an improvement in the IR. Ran the washer completely then jogger, off to bed. woke up 6hrs later, checked on tv. Slightly better, but still very noticeable on a white screen. Jogger ran all day again, wife movies late at night once again, back to jogger overnight, i get home from work. IR is better than before. Ran washer full cycle. Tried just a whitescreen .mp4 over the jogger this time. Ran that all day. Home from work, IR from game almost gone, Ran the whitescreen.mp4 till i got up from work, game IR gone.

New Issue.
Since i had a the .mp4 was a movie loop. movie was a 1:00 .mp4. You can see the 00 in the upper right of screen. WTF!!! Ran washer on 100 contrast. 30 brightness (3) times in a row. Started to view full sceen movies for rest of the day. IR almost gone. Will just use the Panny washer from now on. I am not running any more looping movies. (funny that box pops up for like 20seconds and it retained in?, guess if it ran 1000 time it should,lol)

Yesterday i played NBA jams for about an hr on thx cinema setting. Ran the slides, you can see some of the game IR'd in. Ran the Panny washer. GONE.

This is my little story having this TV since Jan 11th. I have about 150 hours on this screen.

Questions? Comments?

Great TV. The IR stuff does erk me, but overall this is a top quality set.

Enjoy!!

Originally Posted by sillysally 

Use your new VT50 and watch the Game on Sunday.
We are only taking about a chance of a little IR, if at all. Anyway there's always the sweep tool with your new VT50

As I said before, 1st and foremost enjoy the great TV,

I got my VT50 running the sweep right now, because I just got done running the new Calman beta software's 3D LUT cube calibration..

In the words of the great one," how sweet it is".

ss