The Official Panasonic U50/54 Owners' Thread - Page 14

Why do you think you need to update the firmware? Firmware updates are only to update the internet apps, but since the U50/U54 doesn't have internet capability there is no need to update the firmware.

Hey guys just got my Panasonic VIERA TC-P50U50 50-Inch recently and picture quality is GREAT from about 5-6 feet away but close up I can see all these green pixels in the blacks fluctuating if I am watching a widescreen movie where there are BLACK bars up top but I even notice while the picture is playing. Is this normal for plasma? Do your plasmas also do this? I never have had a plasma so not sure if correct. Would it really still be going on while the picture is playing? Someone told me "Most Plasmas have this on by default, it's the anti-burn in feature. I know on my Samsung Plasma you can turn it off but I wouldn't advise it."

I'm ready to buy a new family room tv and I'm pretty much stuck between this Panny U54 for $549 at Sam's or an LG 50pa5500 $549 /50pa6500 $599 elsewhere. I cannot make up my mind! I do have the Panny tcp46X3 in my room which I love. I just watched Dark Knight Rises blu ray copy shshshshshsh, looked amazing after I got the picture settings better. Any input?

My X3 does this but if you watch it it'll clear up during some scenes. I think it comes down to the input content signal, cos during some movies it's nonexistent and others it's everywhere. Green n red snow like dots in dark scenes, yes?

go with the panny!

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-tc-p50u50/4505-6482_7-35149658.html?tag=posts;msg5350751
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/lg-50pa6500/4505-6482_7-35145445.html

/\ This. I mux mkv files a lot and even my Panasonic blu ray player doesn't like mkv/DTS. Usually have to convert to ac3/aac and sometimes if your downloading you'll get a bad mixed file. Like the DTS is bad or the mp4 plays but skips a lot.

I like the LG because of it's picture options galore but the Panny just has a damn better picture compared to any. Blacks are BLACK.

And as far as the 48hz flicker on the panny, there's two things about it that I have noticed. I always use it, and after a short time you don't notice it and it's more noticeable when viewing from the side. And it is more evident with brightness, turning the brightness down pretty much gets rid of it.

Indeed, on like my cable box it barely shows up in some blacks, but with blu-ray it is all over. Any idea why though? And I just want to make sure this is a common thing for this TV and I am not going crazy!

The new Muppets movie was on high def cable today, I run my tv in 720P since 1080i is pretty worthless. I didn't see a single bit of dithering, I had to be a foot or two away to notice even a little bit in shadows. Watching Dark Knight Rises with a bitrate of 11mbs it would be perfect in one scene then dithering everywhere in another. I use the Monster Ultra 17gbs Hdmi cable from the blu ray and a regular Hdmi from the cable box. I think it's possible it's just a source problem.

NDKDY81 Good advice on the 48Hz flicker . I like my TV's and projectors on the dark side. I like to have my rod cells (gray scale only in low light) working along with the cones cells (vivid colors). That way there is really good shadow detail that you can see. Crank up the brightness and you think its the TV that is losing the detail, but its also your eyes. Overly bright TV displays overdrive the rod cells and you lose some visual sensitivity. Lower light is better. Once your eyes adjust to the lower light, you can see more detail on the picture. That is why dedicated home theaters are dark and why commercial theaters are dark...so you can SEE more detail. Besides, bright light, just like loud sound, is bad for the long-term sensitivity of your senses. We did not evolve with brightly lit caves after sundown....just the flicker from a fire and that looked (and still looks) pretty wonderful.

From my experience the optimal brightness for the optimal viewing experience is when the room's ambient light, including the light from the display is so low that the room virtually disappears and you are left with a display that radiates light into the room such that the displays bezel and most of the room is nearly invisible. Your psychological immersion is not broken by the distraction of surrounding objects. The ideal light is the level that gets you to see the picture and only the picture, not video artifacts that distract you, and so you become fully immersed in the film, sporting event or program you are watching. It is the same HYPNOTIC effect as staring into a beautiful fire with hot coals. You can produce the theater effect in the home comparable to the theater and even superior to the theater (you don't have to illuminate the aisles for safety) but it has to be done with a very dark room and a darkened display. Start dark, let your eyes adjust (give it 5 minutes) and increase brightness slowly, stubborn to give in to any increase. Make your eyes wake up and see. Just like in Avatar. You can make a plasma deliver the immersive experience of a frontal projector, but you have to eliminate excess light and get the room to stop distracting you. When you hit the optimal level, you will know it and never go back to a room with a light on.
Edited by Panoppolite - 11/22/12 at 6:28pm

DIYGUY: Regarding horizontal lines: Reset the vertical control. Its close to the "edge". Remember how cathode-ray used to roll sometimes? That's the vertical hold not holding. When you see those horizontal lines on the top of the display on a Panasonic Plasma, it means the vertical hold is off center and needs to be adjusted.

Hmm it could be a cheap HDMI problem. I always buy generic 3 pack ones. Does it really matter which HDMI I buy for blu-ray you think? If so link to one you have?

Plasma is an older evolved technology that is still evolving with brand new improvements. LCD/LED is a relatively new technology which is cheaper to set up manufacturing plants and cheaper to make. Plasma factories costs billions of dollars and the reason they are "thicker" is because there is more to it. The "thinness" of LCD and LCD/LED is a marketing ploy to try to get the public to reject plasmas. Plasmas have a 600Hz data processing sub-field while most LCD/and LCD/LED have a 60Hz or 120Hz sub-field. That is why they don't handle motion as well. Plasmas have a color spectrum in the billions of colors and gray scale about 6,144 shades which gives hues and shades to colors producing a depth effect not seen in the majority of LCD and LCD/LED TV's except where they have electronics designed to produce it artificially. However, the color gamut issue with LCD and LCD/LED displays still exists. All you need to do is watch an animated feature and you will see that the LCD based televisions will not produce multiple shades of a color on an animated bears fur while a plasma may produce 4 or 5 different shades on the bear's fur, giving a "depth" to the bear's fur that is missing in the LCD display. A passed ball in football and cameras panning down field almost always has LCD displays displaying artifacts and unable to stay up with the display signal...too much data because they are 1/10th to 1/5th as capable in handling the throughput as a 600Hz plasma.

Sales people in retail stores often spread the false information that plasma is dead. The principal reasons are many: they were directed to say that by management because there is a larger markup to be made with an LCD TV. They have more LCD/LED stock on hand. They think because some companies left plasma that the technology is done, but with the exception of Pioneer, the other companies did not actually manufacture their plasma TV's...they farmed the job out to one of the big three. LG, Samsung and Panasonic have invested billions in this technology and they will force LCD and LCD/LED to drop prices (as they are doing right now, this year). Plasma TV's costing $500 can best LCD/LED's costing $800 in picture quantity and match them all the way to $2000. The energy issue is really a non-issue and plasmas TV's do last longer because they are based upon phosphors emitting light just like cathode ray TV's except plasmas have many more phosphors in them (the "plasma" part). Plasma purchasers tend to be more knowledgeable and more difficult for sales people to deal with, with a lower markup and a lower commission for the sale. Its no wonder that sales people say that plasma is dead. Plasma is the superior technology. I have a Panasonic Plasma, a Vizio LCD, an AOC LCD/LED monitor, a Panasonic LCD frontal projector and an Hitachi LCD frontal projector. LCD projectors are better than LCD TV's because of the way they are designed. In flat panels. plasmas are less expensive and beat LCD/LED displays in every way except total light emitted. That is because LCD/LED displays have back lights to enhance their light output while plasmas have no need of a back light to artificially make them appear brighter. LCD/LED also make themselves appear blacker when there is no signal to give the impression of the ability to produce an inky black which is another gimmick to mislead the buying public that an LCD/LED display can be as black as a plasma when they cannot unless they turn off their back light to misrepresent blackness. LCD/LED have a limited color gamut that is around 82% of the color spread available and they have a smaller gray scale and are unable to produce as many shades of color. In spite of these deficiencies, manufacturers of LCD/LED charge more for an inferior product that sells pretty well to an unsuspecting , less informed public.

Recently, my wife and I were in a store and I asked her to pick out the best displayed picture in a row of televisions all displaying the same signal. I advised her that brightness was not an indication of a better picture any more than a photographed illuminated under a brighter light was a better photograph. I suggested that she look for color accuracy, color shading, complexity of color, contrast and a depth of field as opposed to a "flat"" display that appeared to be an animation of a live environment that was missing its own natural depth. She gradually eliminated one display after another and arrived at her final choice: a 50" LG plasma...the only plasma in that line of displays. Satisfied that an untrained viewer, unimpeded by sales person pressure, was able to tell the difference, I then put back all the descriptions and prices of the TV's that I had hidden from her view so that other customers could tell what they were looking at. Pretty smart lady, I was quite proud of her ability to discern video quality and knew for certain that nothing other than a plasma would suffice. And why not, when superiority costs less.
Edited by Panoppolite - 11/22/12 at 11:01pm

I've heard the cable doesn't matter and I've heard the opposite. One thing that makes sense to me is bandwidth drop when running a rolled up 6-12' cable as apposed to a 3' one. I bought a Monster Cable package that had their Ultra series hdmi cable, a surge protector and screen cleaner for $50 (the cable alone is a $100) and I did notice a difference when I switched it out from a 6' generic cable. It had a clearer picture and deeper colors. It's hard to figure it out with cables though because so many make them now and claim theirs is better and all the marketing hype (more expensive means better?). Wish I was more helpful.

hi

just wondering what tv settings do i use to running d-nice's slides?

If you're talking about Evangelo's break-in slides (they're not D-Nice's), then he recommends you use Custom mode with all the settings at their factory default for 100 hours. Set your slideshow speed to Slow.
Edited by RandyWalters - 11/24/12 at 5:04pm

Just bought this tv yesterday at Costco for the incredible price of $499.99. I previously had a 42 inch TH-C42Hd18. I'm really missing the anti-reflective coating that tv had. I live in a apartment with 2 windows. Seems like I see every damn thing reflecting in the screen that my older panny stopped or dulled. Since there isn't really a better tv for the price I'm going to to keep it but I want anti reflective coating.

Thanks for the informative post Panoppolite. I feel even better about just purchasing the 60u50. It's backordered but hopefully it will be in stock soon from Panasonic.com.

I just sold my Mitsubishi 65" 65C9 DLP hoping for a nice deal on an LCD or plasma and finally decided on the Panny plasma. I would have been able to get the 65" Vizio LED for $300 more but went with quality picture over 5" more diagonal.

Hi all,

I just purchased this set over the weekend off amazon. I will be primarily using it for playing games and watching bluray's on my PS3. It won't be hooked up to cable, at least for now. How necessary is this break in period? Cause I dont have any other content to run to the TV besides video games and Bluray's. My main question is what should I set the display settings in my PS3 to(RGB, full, limited, Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr Super-white(hdmi), deep color output, ect)?
Edited by tim86 - 11/25/12 at 1:19am

rgb, limited and for blu rays y Pb/Cb

full causes black crush even when setting hdmi black level to light on my set.
as far as break in...just watch a lot of hd content and leave the pixel orbiter on.
I run a screen wash every couple hours for five minutes or so...had my set for about a week now and love it!

Thanks to all for the recent Costco price reduction alert. I purchased the U54 two weeks ago for $599 and today Costco did a paper return and repurchase for the $499 price.

Picked up the 60" from Sam's Club yesterday.

I had a 40 dollar coupon which brought the price of the TV down to $758! Such a good deal for a freaking 60 inch tv of this quality.

I'm going to run Evangelo's break-in slides in between normal viewing like I have for a couple of my older Pannys. Not sure if it's still completely necessary, but it's so easy to do, I'm going to to stick with 'em for the first 150-200 hours.

I've been looking for a 46-50 inch LCD, but from reading CNET's comments and this thread, seems like it may make sense to switch to the TC-P50U50. A chance to acquaint myself with some new terms: DSE, Banding, Line Bleed. Would somebody please tell me the pedestal dimensions?

Thanks!

EDIT: Just read the stand is 10.5" deep, so now I just need to learn its width.

EDIT2: Given a screen width of 46.7", I'm estimating a base width of 17.6", could someone please verify that for me?
Edited by TrevorS - 11/25/12 at 3:23pm

Is there any difference between D-Nice's slides and Evangelo's slides? What should the break-in period be?

Congratulations on purchase price. I paid $549. This Panasonic is a STEAL!!!

For the users that don't need internet capabilities and all the BS Bells and Whistles. $499 for a 50" Plasma with close to same picture Quality a last years VT30 can't go wrong!!!

I love the richness of color, blacks, clarity etc.

This set is best value with best picture in it's class.

No, D-Nice was using Evangelo's slides himself, so it's all the same...

As far as the break-in period goes, I think it's anywhere from 100-200 hours. Though keep in mind the D-Nice thread I believe you're referring to is only designed for a specific handful of older panny tv sets. That doesn't mean running the break-in slides won't be beneficial to our U50s, but it not like you have to follow D-Nice's instructions to a tee. You're not going to be using his picture settings, so whatever you feel like doing for a break-in will be better than nothing.

For my break-in I'm just using the custom setting at default. The only change I'm making is having the contrast at 100 for the slides. I'm just going to run the slides whenever I'm not watching tv or playing video games during the day, and then I'll let them run over night while I'm sleeping. I'll keep that up until I hit 150 hours or so, and then I won't worry about it anymore.

My P50U50 pedestal measures 17.0" wide.

Thanks dude, much appreciated!

Now, I just need to wrap my head around this image retention thing. I used to view a lot of broadcast 4:3, but since Comcast went digital, everything appears to be either LBX or 16:9. Guess between broadcast and movies, LBX is what I most need to be careful of, complication being I really prefer to view OAR. Do these sets get much more forgiving of 4:3 and LBX after 100 to 200 hours?

I got the TV more than a month ago for $599 at Costco. Very happy with this set so far. Yesterday (11.25.), it took some effort but had the price adjusted to $499. With that I also bought the Costco extended warranty for $30 (at $599 it is $60) since I was within 60 days of purchase. For that price ($30 or 6% of the purchase price) why not have the piece of mind.

Even at $599 this TV is a steal, at $499 it is like walking down the street and seeing $100 bill on the ground. You pick it up. Just like this TV if you need one at the seize. No wonder all the Costco's here were sold out.