The Official Panasonic UT50 Settings/Issues Thread - Page 7

I think I still prefer 60Hz for for 3D. I know that 48Hz for 2D regular viewing has too much flickering, I don't remember if I liked 48Hz more or less. Anyway, does anyone have any tips for watching 3D for avoiding headaches and eye strain? I really like 3D but I get eyestrain pretty easily. I've noticed it helps if I try to only watch what would be in focus as if it were 2D.

Thanks Neo, I think you said that creates a little more depth, is is less? I can't remember now.

That's possible, I've never noticed overlap but maybe that's because I don't think I've ever paused on 3D. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Another good tip for 3d is to enable motion smoother as it helps 3d by keeping fast moving 3d scenes and objects in focus and adds a little extra dimension. I honestly hate motion smoothing but i do use medium for 3d and while motion may look a little fake it does add a lot to the 3d experience. I read on multiple 3d tutorials at different sites that some kind of motion enhancement on any tv should be turned on for 3d. Makes me think that maybe the only reason the UT50 has the tech and the U50 doesn't is because the UT is a 3D panel.
Edited by pcgeek543 - 10/21/12 at 9:34am

I like medium to strong. For instance in Prometheus where Holloway and Shaw brief the crew with the pictures of the cave drawings,they are completely unreadable as the camera moves right except when motion smoother is set to strong. Just something i've been playing with and reading about. Weak doesn't do enough to help the 3d,it doesn't reduce blur enough to make the 3D objects stand out from the background in fast moving scenes until medium. As for the 3d setting you'll always have overlap as that is what stereoscopic 3d is,but you're only supposed to see it with the glasses off lol. When you adjust 3d setting you are just moving the top layer in one direction so objects on the other side will overlap or underlap because we have ghosting,we should be able to adjust the 3d setting to the max either way and see no ghost or double image. Also whenever you adjust the 3d setting from 0,for every 1 pixel adjusted you lose 2 pixels of data,one on each side. From what i've read most ghosting is a problem with timing of the tv and eyewear. Panasonic probably can't fix it because it most likely has something to do with whatever the problem is of why 48hz still flickers. That is just my opinion but it seems probable.
Edited by pcgeek543 - 10/21/12 at 2:37pm

I played with changing 3D to +1 and -1 but I'm not sure if I really noticed a change or not. Setting motion enhancement to weak made a big difference for fast paced blurriness. Can 3D be calibrated separately for white balance or does it just use 2D? I did use the test disc to increase brightness, and I left contrast the same because I thought it was too bright when I increased it.

Yes,but i would leave it to 0 anyway because moving it in either direction on the UT50 just transfers the ghosting to the other side. I really wish panasonic could fix ghosting with a firmware update. How is the VT50 at 3D?
Edited by pcgeek543 - 10/21/12 at 8:17pm

Yeah

I got a 50ut50 for a steal at Sears recently, with an eye to replace my 7-year old Panny TH-50PHD8UK plasma (780p). The latter, using the out-of-box "dynamic" picture setting, has given me a lush, warm, detailed and satisfying picture for all 7 years. I just felt that technology improvements and 1080p should give me a better picture, right?

Wrong. I have both panels set up side by side. I cannot, using any of the settings described on this forum, get the new panel to look as good as the old one. The colors, by comparison, are more muted, colder, and don't "pop." It's pretty stark. have done both HD cable signals and blu-ray (Oppo) signals. Not even close.

Any recommendations? I am at the point of returning the new panel. Is it possible that an artificially-warm image has tainted my ability to assess a faithful image???

Thanks for any comments or help.

That is a definite possibility. Quote by PathofNeo speaking of the UT50 in the UT50 discussion thread. "The pictures I posted are side by side with my Pioneer 9G Elite. It isn't inferior to nothing." The pictures looked identical.

Are you using Cinema mode and Warm 2? The combination of those to picture settings, as well as disabling all picture "Enhancements" will be close to D65. However, if your current 7 year old Panasonic has never been calibrated and you set everything to what you like and not a truly calibrated picture, then our setting might not look good to you. If you prefer a more vivid picture, there's nothing wrong with that, everyone has their preference. Our settings are attempting to replicated D65, do you know how your settings compare?

I am using your posted settings, and alternately those of PathofNeo. I am sitting here right now, looking at a high def tv feed on both panels. The old panel has far more warmth (clearly more red) and way more luminosity. The old panel truly has a "dynamic" picture that has depth and presence. I am not a video guy, so d65 does not mean anything to me , except I know It references a neutral standard.

Changing to the built-in "vivid" setting on the 50ut does not improve the situation...it just results in a ghoulishly bright image that still lacks the warmth of the old panel.

maybe I have become addicted to a red-skewed picture. All I know is that my old panel looks better than 90 % of the TVs I see in other homes.

It may be possible you are seeing a difference in gamma between the two tvs. Looking at the calibration report, the UT series might be considered a bit on the washed out side of things.

Is your old set on Vivid?

Dude, I am no expert - and I am not trying to be insulting or condescending - but if you've been watching a TV on its "out-of-the-box Dynamic" settings for seven years, then your subjective appreciation of brightness/contrast/color scheme could be tainted. If your old Panny's "Dynamic" setting is like most other sets, then you've been staring at a spotlight for almost a decade!

Turn off the lights, and put in something like Prometheus ... that's when my UT50 started making my jaw drop.

Also, does anybody have recommendations for DVR/cable box settings? Such as, should you have your Box output 1080p instead of 1080i, or turn the Box's sharpness settings down, etc.?

I agree with your assessment. For your cable, I would set it to 1080p because that's what your TV is, also it won't limit any incoming signals. Although isn't HD TV 720p anyway? If it's digital I would think sharpness at 0 would be best. Some calibrators say 0 isn't always right and that it depends on the device. Some devices might soften the picture below a certain value. But unless I read otherwise, I would have 1080p and sharpness 0. I don't have cable though (much to the surprise of every DirecTV salesman at Best Buy or comes door to door), so someone with cable might have a different or better suggestion.

Depends on the channel. Pretty sure Fox and maybe abc are 720, cbs and nbc are 1080i.

Hello everybody,

I bought the TX-P42UT50E (europe model) today and hooked it up directly.
Picture/image quality is perfect, like many of you say, it’s really natural and detailed.
But about the “black is black” or better said, black should be black.
I set the tv to True Cinema, Gamma up to 2.4, contrast to 66% ( the europe model goes to 60, so it's set to 40.
When I turn the tv off, the screen is black, but when I turn it on, it becomes a bit dark grey. It is uniform, but it’s just not black anymore…
Is this a setting? Or just the plasma screen that always lit up a little bit?? I red a review on HDTVtest.co.uk, where they measured the amount of light when the screen is totally black: 0,009cd/m2... They say this is the best/lowest value on the market compared to must more expensive models...
Or am I too sensitive for this issue? for me, black need to be totally black. I watch movies in a complete dark room, with jsut a tiny LED-design lamp in a corner. I like horror movies, that's why I prever to watch in a totally dark room...
Does the TX-P42ST50 not have this due to it’s Neoplasma/Infinite Black pro screen? Thinking of changing it for that one, but only if it's usefull.

Regards,
Benjamin

Have you set the brightness properly? If not, use a calibration disc like the one in this thread and adjust it 'til you see the flashing bars at 17 but not 16. After adjusting brightness see how you like it. Contrast sets the brightess brights but not the darkest darks.

I have seen many panels that have been adjusted "too hot" -- orange faces, red tints, yukky overall. I have seen this a lot in the show rooms and in some homes. My old panel on "dynamic" is nothing like that. So, taking the above advice, I turned out the lights last night and watched my newly-acquired Blu-ray disk of Prometheus side by side on both sets. On the old set, the characters have a lovely little flush in their faces, and the colors of the planet are deep and awesome. On the new set (50UT)....the faces are cold, neutral, and bluish (using the optimum settings listed in this thread).

I do recall, years ago, using the old Avia disk to adjust the old panel...it could be that those persistent settings have given me a well-balanced picture. But...I am not kidding...watching NFL in high def...watching our local high-def news feed....looking at ANYTHING....side by side, the old panel far, far outweighs the 50 UT. The new panel goes back tomorrow. I guess one part of me is wondering why 7 years of technology and a higher resolution could not get closer to a picture that I know is of high quality.

I'm sorry to hear it's going back. If' you've tried all the above mentioned settings then I think the only other possibility, besides you simply not liking the picture, is that the white balance out of the factory is just way off.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I've been playing with the brightness setting. With a totally dark screen (no signal input).
And when I turn it op positive (e.g. +5 /+6 /+7) you can see that the overal screen becomes clearly more and more grey (awefull haha).
Going down from 0 to -3/-4/-5/-6 etc. doesn't make the screen any blacker then it already is at 0.
But when I go down again while a picture/image is present, you can see the picture going down.
This picture was from a "dvd calibration disc", a guy in a black suit with a black shirt which was slightly less black then his suit.
With the brightness at 0, you could almost see no details/difference between the suit and the shirt. When I turned the brightness up, I started to see details in his shirt, his suit and the kind of fabric used... Could some other settings been influencing the picture?
Will it help when I set the brightness at 0 or -2, and then turn the contrast up? Didn't see any big differences yet...

Regards,
Benjamin

Benjamin, it's important to check every settings in your sources too. If everything is set correctly (i.e. black level must be in the 16-235 range, often called "limited" or "light"), you can try adjusting the gamma setting, which will reveal more or less shadow details, even if at the expense of overall perceived depth. I also own the 42ut50e european, and I find the default brightness setting with 2.4 gamma to be perfect for blu-rays and for videogames using PS3 as the source (i reccomend again the limited setting for black level), but if you find to lose too much detail, then keep gamma at the default 2.2 value. Also keep in mind different sources such as tv content may need different tweaking.
As for your question about black level, this is actuallt the best you can espect today from any tv on the market. Yes, a full black screen actually still appears (dark) grey in a pitch black room, but non one stares at a no signal screen for his own enjoyment, I think . An almost black screen but with some picture on it will already give much more perception of black. All in all, it 's still miles better than ANY lcd on the market; if you ever owned a lcd bigger than 32" you would know for sure that a black screen in the darkness not only would look a way lighter grey than your plasma, but also would be affected by horrible unevenes and white patches and if you like dark movies you definitely don't want this. I understand many people could have even too high expectations after hearing of "inky blacks" and so on, but trust me you can't get any better than this, at least until oleds are deployed.
The St50, performs identical to the ut50 in a dark room, could be a bit better in a (very) bright enviroment but delivering a slightly duller picture imho due to its louvre filter. If you are used to watch your tv in the dark, I think you made the right choice for the ut50.

Here are my settings for the euro model, could they be useful to anyone:

Mode: True Cinema
Contrast: 46
Brightness: default
Colour: default or -1
Sharpness: 0 for 1080p, 1 or 2 for 720p, 2 or 3 for 480/576i-p
Gamma: 2.4
All other things: Off


Just for curiosity, which TV do you come from, Benjamin?

Last night, I turned the old panel picture settings back to NORMAL, to see if the boost provided by the DYNAMIC setting was the cause for the better picture, compared to the 50UT. The change did tone down the luminosity of the picture to a level closer to the 50UT...but the colors on the 50UT still seem washed out by comparison. Who knows....maybe I did indeed get a bum set. Oh well...