The Official Panasonic U50/54 Owners' Thread - Page 6

Man, it's weird getting adjusted to a TV with more accurate color than my last. I'm watching a soccer game and the field actually looks the right shade of green for a grassy field. From my PX80U TV, the grass always liked slightly yellow-ish in color. Same goes for a lot of football games I've watched. Also, the skin tones seem to be more accurate as well.

I'm still trying to perfect the best adjustment for Brightness and Contrast.

Another settings question here. My main input for my pu54 is a ps3 and I notice on games I can never get it calibrated correctly. For example on mass effect 3 calibration you're supposed to adjust the settings until you see a figure in both a white box and a dark box. If I have full range rgb set on the tv, I can only see the figure in one box or the other, I can never see both no matter how I adjust the game gamma or the tv settings. If i set the rgb to non-standard then I can see both. I was under the impression that with a great contrast ratio this shouldn't be an issue. Anybody else has the same problems as me?

First you need to make sure you are using the correct HDMI range on your PS3 for whatever the TV is set to. The PS3 output has options for Limited and Full range HDMI. Calibrate the TV first (Disney WOW disc or similar), THEN check out the sliders in games.
Edited by ocellaris - 7/16/12 at 3:57pm

Just to double check, non-standard range is the same as full?

I have a U54 and I'm enjoying it and running some slides as well. I'm new to plasma so I hope I'm doing something right with this stuff! My question is this...after 100-200 hours can I feel free to, say, watch two letter-box movies in a row, so four hours straight of letterbox content WITHOUT risk of any permanent burn in? Stretched content drives me nuts, so if it's true I have to watch stretched content to be safe, I will take this TV back - no matter how great the picture is...and it IS great!

Alright. I think I've finally found a happy place for Brightness and Contrast thanks to going back to the DVE. After going back and fourth between the picture being a little too dark, to being a little too intense. It seems dropping Contrast (while in Cinema mode) down to 89 allows me to go up a little in Brightness to 57. It's been a few days and It's still giving me a picture just bright enough. Yet the picture has just the right combination of pop without the eye fatigue of a too-high contrast.

The color is still looking better and better as my eyes adjust.

What are your other settings?

Oh, sorry:

Cinema

Contrast: 89
Brightness: 57
Color: 49
Tint: 0 (every single one of my calibration discs seems to support the color and tit settings)
Sharpness: 12
Color Temp: Normal (though most recommend Warm1, Normal is my personal pref)
Color Mgmt: Off
C.A.T.S.: Off
Video NR: Off

Aspect

Screen Format: Full
HD Size: Size 1 for Cable/Size 2 for DVD & Bluray
* The rest grayed out.

HDMI Settings: Default (didn't even touch those)

Advance Picture

Block NR: Off
Mosquito NR: Off
Black Level: Light
3:2 Pulldown: Auto
* The rest grayed out.

Very cool!

I bought a U50 at my local best buy on sunday. I calibrated the set using WOW. I just have one question pertaining to viewing 24p content from a PS3. I know this set can only support 48hz and 60hz when viewing 24p content. My question is, is it better to set my ps3 24p output to "on" and let the tv do the 3:2 pulldown to 60hz and then stretch each frame into the 600hz refresh rate. Or is it better to set my ps3 24p to "off" and let the PS3 do the 3:2 pulldown and letting the tv strech the frames into the 600hz. Or better yet, how can I get rid of 3:2 pulldown completely? What would you recommend? Feel free to correct me on any of this. Im pretty new to tv tech, but im a very technical person and I learn quick.

I have my contrast at 82 and color at 47, everything at 50% seems great, Light Black and Screen fit 2. I like Custom mode for everything, Cinema maybe for movie but gets cloudy. Keep it simple.

This TV ROCKS, the best buy folks said I am going to miss the differentiation in blacks on the on the U50 vs the GT and VT series as mine will only display one type of black. What a bunch of ********.
They also have a chart claiming 600 field of focus vs 2500 with UT50 and up, LOL.

I am starting to believe that these models are all the same except for filters, speakers, stand, bezel, one sheet of glass etc.

If you don't need 3D or Smart ( which I can get with Blue Ray or PC ) go UT 50, if Plasma is in bright room get ST and so on....and so on. You could get the VT so mentally you would feel like you got the best if that turns you on and have the money to waste

I prefer normal too, you can always bump up the color. U54 has plenty of color at 50%. I actually backed off to 47 and could go lower for a natural look. Warm 1 is cool too.

I am really struggling with this set. It gives me 95% of what I want (don't need the "Smart" features, don't care for 3D). The missing 5%, and maybe it is more than 5% is the non-glare filter.
Has anyone else traded the u50/54 for the ST or VT because of the filters only?

Do you have the U54 in a bright room or lot of lighting? Then glare filter may help, I guess. The specs I research before I bought compared U54 to VT30 last year minus bell and whistles. Processor and SOG 6144.

I just don't see big difference in picture Quality in dark room between u54 and vt50. THX modes are marketing BS, and shades of graduation/focus field drive 2500. Not worth the extra 1500 dollars.In my opinion.

Try changing lighting a little.

The problem, which I completely did not see coming, was that I have my television situated so that I can view both from the living room and the kitchen prep area. The very next morning after purchase I was greeted by a complete mirror reflection of what was going on in the front yard while standing in the kitchen. My previous panel, a 42-PX60U apparently has a decent anti-reflective/glare screen or filter because I have never once complained of reflections in the room. In fact I have always pooh-poohed the detractors of plasma due to glare in bright rooms. Now I know what they are complaining about.
I don't have a problem with the viewing in the actual living room itself, just when viewing in the kitchen (which would be almost impossible with LCD ). I have to decide if the extra $350 upgrade is worth it for the ST50 over the U50. Considering you can get the 3D, the 2500FFD and the smart crap for about $150 more in the UT50, I guess I am looking at paying about $200 for a marginally effective anti-glare/reflection screen.
Although, there are several used ST50s in the Amazon Warehouse Deals tempting me with their $864 price tag with free shipping and returns.

Hey guys,

I've had the U50 for a few months now and I have a few questions for you fellow owners:

I've read up and noticed that a few others are noticing some slight IR... It typically goes away for me, but I have a little bit of vertical banding (mostly on the right side, not sure why) and was wondering if any of you have noticed that as well?

Also, how about line bleeding? I typically can't notice it, but whenever playing video games and scrolling through the menus I can definitely tell. (MW3 while waiting for an online game.. or the Warning screen at the beginning of a movie) I'll try to get a picture of it up here soon for those that aren't aware of what I'm talking about. Anyway, do any of you experience line bleeding with your set? I LOVE this TV and it's well past the 30 day return/exchange at Best Buy. Is this typical of plasmas? (I have had multiple LCD's and this is my new Plasma set) If it isn't typical is there anything that can be done?

The vertical banding isn't too big of a deal, and it's probably my own fault... But the line bleeding is driving me nuts. Should I just put up with it? Or is there anything I can do?

Also here are my personal settings... I have it in a typically rather dark room (I leave the curtains closed during the day while watching TV)

Picture Mode: Cinema (Even on custom there is a bit of loss of shadow detail during bright scenes)

Contrast: 74
Brightness: 54 (To remove the slightly clouded blacks on Cinema)
Color: 50 (Have gone down to 48 at times... Still playing around with this)
Tint : 0
Sharpness: 0
Color Temp: Warm 1
Color Mgmt, C.A.T.S Video NR: all Off
Aspect: Full Size 2
HDMI/DVI RGB Range: Nonstandard
Content Type: Graphics
Advanced Picture:
Mosquito NR: Off
Black Level: Light

Thanks to anyone with any input! This thread has definitely helped as a guide (along with AVC HD) for calibration.

I notice that some HD Channels are better than others. Sports I have same experiences, some camera work is better than other. EX: Lighting at ballparks, how the cameraman focuses and adjusts their camera. Movie contrast levels. Color adjustments from different channels and quality of signals from their outputs. Is this my U54 not performing well? I think it's the output from signal or broadcast I am watching. This is normal. Will a Higher quality plasma flagship model make it better? Not Sure. Doubt it.

I think folks may think it's their TV. HD really improves the nuances of Television experience. My first HD TV is U54. I know there is a lot of models and companies. Plasma vs LED. Sammy vs Panny vs LG etc. I think they are all relevant.

I think other than Bezels, 3D, Focus Fields, Smooth feature, Fast Motion technology, Dual Core, 3XD, etc. all these sets are comparable and at give a good quality picture. I think by not having these features won't net you a worse picture.

I bought the U54 because I am not into 3D or smart tv. Did not like the LCD bright picture. I like more of a CRT pic with HD.

Interesting how many think buying a UT over U models is going to net a SUPERIOR picture, and a FLAGSHIP model is going to absolute best with standard 2D viewing. Maybe it will be 100%, 50% 25% or 5% better. I had GT50 vs U50 and did not see big change.

Maybe I will get the VT50 55" and compare to U54, will it net a better picture in 2D on the same channel or HD movie? Maybe I will try cause the GT was not worth the extra $1000, the VT would be an extra $1500.....

Too many choices, think U54 is solid but.....am I missing the flagship?.

I am having a similar experience with my U50 as well. Every mode except cinema has some sort of shadow detail crushing effect. My U50 also has what I consider a good amount of line bleed as well, to the point during some movie scenes it will look like people become transparent and will have horizontal lines going through them. I have 2 other plasmas here, and the U50 is the worst offender of them all, I too was hoping this would fade over time, but It doesn't seem to be getting any better with age.

I'm not sure what vertical banding is exactly, but the right side of my screen does have what appear to be a series of thick streaks running vertically, looks almost as if the screen is just smudged on the inside.

Yeah that's sort of what I meant as far as the vertical banding. I don't know exactly how to describe it but it's slightly noticeable if a solid color is up. I notice it the most watching baseball games so far. They are Brewers games though and possibly it's just their crappy HD equipment.

It is a shame though about the line bleeding. My isn't very noticeable when watching movies thankfully, but I will get the occasional scene where there is a little bit of discoloration on people's faces.

As a note though for gamers, I've done a bit of input lag testing with my crappy camera... I'm not a pro (really, I just used it to compare my other TV's) or anything with it, but I could tell that there wasn't a difference in input lag between cinema and game. Not sure how accurate it is but I got something like 32ms/2 frames (compared to about 135ms with my old 42" LCD even on game and PC mode). While I know that's not perfect or like some in the past from panasonic which were 16ms, I find it very responsive. In timing sensitive games like The Show or MW3 I feel 100x better than before.

ok, I have a very weird issue on my brand new u54 from costco. on the left side of the screen the picture seems to be adjusted just a hair breadth to the right. basically you can see a very thing couple of pixels from top to bottom (if you look very close ) where it looks like the plasma's black background. basically what I'm trying to say is that the picture is just EVER so slightly shifted to the right. the right hand side the picture goes all the way to the bevel while on the left you can see a hint of "background". in aspect settings switching from mode 1 to mode 2 (overscan on) tends to get rid of it.
Edited by wormraper - 7/29/12 at 9:55pm

I'm sure the U50 is extremely simular to my X5 aside from the 1080p resolution.
Based on what i've noticed Movies 'only' look good in cinema. Forget about Game and Vivid Mode. Yet Costum i find has a slightly
brighter picture with a slightly less milkier gamma....but then again, shadow detail crushing seems to be in full force but the worst
thing of all is the crazy amount of video noise or whatever it is going on. It's insane. Even at 0, during most scenes
noise is present everywhere in the background and faces almost have this unrealistic distorted oil painting effect going.
I think there's some sort of integrated undefeatable edge enhancement going on that panasonic plunked in the X5 to make up
for the lack of resolution.

Cinema is the only way to fly for film.
here are my current settings which i'm sure are identicle to the U50's.

Mode: Cinema

Contrast: 97
Brightness: 59 ( I tend to switch between 56-59, i'm still not sure where to stick it)
Color: 50
Hue: 0
Sharpness: 4

Color Temp: WARM
Color management: OFF
Noise reduction: OFF
Black Level: Light
CATS: OFF
Screen Format: FULL

I had no issues with my U54 for for over 100 hours of use, no IR, no buzzing, nothing. Great TV so far. I will report any issues if I can help.

Custom Mode

Contrast 82
Brightness 47
Color 50
Sharp 50
Warm1

When I do Blue Ray usually run 24p and cinema mode

All Good, this TV was a steal!

That could possibly be the Pixel Orbiter.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "cinema" mode just a title for pre set settings? Meaning it doesn't actually change anything in a way a movie looks/plays?

For example, if I put the same contrast, brightness, color, etc settings in the "custom" section, wouldn't it be the exact same as cinema?