The Official Panasonic UT50 Settings/Issues Thread - Page 21

Thanks to everybody in this thread for their work and generosity in sharing! Especially PathOfNeo and anikun07.
I am expecting my TCP55UT50 this Friday, and am excited to get it up and running. This thread has been an incredible resource.

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to plasma tv's, so for those out there like me... I've made some notes summarizing recommendations from this thread, in sequential order. I could certainly use some confirmation or clarification from the experts here though! Feel absolutely free to correct, clarify, debunk me!
(I apologize in advance for the giant post, but I hope it helps others. And of course I take no credit for any of this; essentially all of it was cut and paste from earlier posts in this thread. I work in the health care field, and I hope this serves as something like a "progress/summary note" to bring people up to speed from this giant thread, and hopefully highlight some areas where others might be confused like me)

1) check runtime in service menu (personally, because it seems like stock is getting low, I'm a little paranoid about getting a floor model or returned set, if that's even possible?)

2) Breaking in the set - The idea here being to let the phosphors settle in for calibration. It seems that there is some controversy whether this is necessary, and whether it ultimately makes a difference... but my impression is that most people (at least here) do recommend it for at least the first 100 hours (and avoiding very high contrast during this time), and here are some suggestions of how to do so:

3) Calibration - this can be done manually with DVDs +/- colorimeter, or by copying settings that work for other people (although this may not be optimal for your individual set and environment), or by hiring a professional calibrator

For those who are adventurous or sticklers for optimization, you can venture into the service menu for further tweaking as follows (although this may void the warranty? not sure if the latter would also be true if you hired a professional calibrator?)


Recommendations for connecting a PC:

The recommended PC settings for TV are YCC 4:4:4 (16-235/limited) output and 0-255 for video playback. This ensures that all desktop programs and such run native at 0-255 but will be converted to 16-235 when being sent to the TV. With PCs connected to TVs a compromise has to be made somewhere for color space/range, and this is a pretty good one.
If noticing blurring, try: HDMI HD Size is set to 2, sharpness is set to 0, and anti-image retention pixel orbiter off

Picture Mode: Custom
Contrast: 85
Brightness: 56
Color: 48
Sharpness: 0
Tint: 0
Color Temp: Warm 2
CATS: OFF
Mosquito NR: OFF
Motion Smoother: OFF
Black Level: DARK

Non-Standard
Graphics
HDMI Size 2

Edit: added instructions to check runtime
Edited by jywc55 - 1/19/13 at 7:31am

I've been enjoying my Panny with Anikun's settings for a week now and everytime I watch something I want to come back here and thank him for for his wonderful input.

I watched PROMETHEUS in 3D last night and couldn't be happier.

It's people like Anikun and Buddha that make the internet so great.

Thanks guys!

Damned trigger happy laptop!
Edited by Baron Blood - 1/16/13 at 9:41pm

Glad you like it!

After a week of using my new Panasonic P60UT50, I have to say that I am very pleased but not completely blown away yet. I know I need to give the TV some time to "break in" as it were and it needs to be properly calibrated for my living room. I just started using Anikun07's picture settings which are definitely a step in the right direction though I need to watch something in 3D since that's the part of the set I feel the least impressed with right now. It might just be the movies I'm watching but the picture looks very dark and just doesn't pop when watching 3D.

While adjusting the settings I came across an interesting "glitch" that I wonder if it's common or not. If I hold down the left or right arrow keys on the remote to change a particular setting on the TV, the sound from my Denon receiver suddenly gets louder. This completely throws off the sound on my receiver to the point where the dB I would be comfortable listening to a movie at is now not loud enough (or too loud in some cases). I've gone from listening to my movies in the 25-20dB range to the teens. Why on earth would my Pansonic remote effect my Denon receiver?

3D is a bit darker in general, and especially with the glasses blocking some light.

You can change the picture settings for 3D. When you're on a 3D channel or movie, just pop up the custom picture setting and it will have (3D) next to it. You can change those--i.e. up contrast and brightness from what you use for 2D--and it will only affect 3D content as the TV will still use the regular Custom settings for 2D content.

Note tha'ts for the US model.

I've had my 55" model for about a week and a half now. I love it other than the buzz being a bit loud at times on bright scenes. I called Panny and they'll send a tech out to check it out. It has an April build date and some posts indicated they updated some screws on the board that had a tendency to come loose in later build dates, so I'm hoping there's some simple fix to make it a bit quieter. Just waiting on a call back from the department that schedules appointments.

That said, it isn't super loud--just louder than other plasmas I've been around and noticeable during bright commercials or bright quiet scenes in shows or movies sometime. So I'll definitely keep the set even if the buzz can't be reduced. It will be alleviated in terms of how noticeable it is when I move out of this condo and into a house (hopefully this summer) as I'd be sitting further back and able to have the sound louder.

i too just bought a 55ut50 and im happy with the PQ but not sure i can live with the buzzing. i think i also might have gone to big which might make the buzzing louder than normal for me. im sitting 9 feet from the 55" screen. i guess i will give it another couple of days before i decided to return or not.

Nine feet from my 50" has audible buzzing on only the rarest occasions.

thanks, maybe it is worth returning it in hopes of a less audible buzzing.

With the volume turned all the way down and with my UT50 displaying a bright scene or blank white screen, the buzzing can be heard until I get about 5-6 feet away. This is what I consider normal as my other plasma is the same.

in your opinion, would you think the buzz from my 55" sitting 9 feet away is not normal. trying to get a idea if its worth going through the return game or look at other options. thanks.
Edited by jfeva0049 - 1/16/13 at 3:04pm

It's a shame custom is so far off gamma because it looks a lot better than cinema. I'm watching Cars right now and in custom Lightning McQueen is the proper red. In cinema he is a dull reddish-orange.

Even in the darker scenes of Avatar things just look better in custom.




I have never tried entering the service menu on a TV but I do consider myself knowledgeable when it comes to technology. I build my own computers so I should be able to do this right? I'm just afraid of causing damage somehow by forcing the panel to display something it wasn't meant to if that makes any sense.




Jfeva0049, I would keep the set for a few more days and see if it continues to bother you. When I bought my first plasma the buzz annoyed the heck out of me but now I don't even notice it at all except on the brightest scenes.


If you still are not happy with it after a a few days I would return it for another one. At least give the UT one more chance.

I do have ambient noise of an aquarium air pump and external filters and computer fans, and over than I never hear the TV buzzing, but they are quiet enough that I never have trouble hearing movies at reasonably volume levels. If you can hear it from 7-10 feet during normal viewing then something is wrong. If you can only hear it on bright scenes with low audio and it's reasonably quiet, I would think that's acceptable, but if it seems really loud then I would say it's abnormal and exchange it. But if you exchange it, you could get a TV with a different set of issues you don't like and might have to exchange it 'til you get one you like.

I just applied Anikun's settings. It definitely takes away the haziness I was seeing with Cinema and reds seem much more natural. The greenish tint is toned down as well. Is it alright to leave Contrast at around 76-80?

Contrast- 76
Brightness- 52
Color- 50
Tint- 0
Sharpness- 20



Default values were as follows:


R-Cut= 80
G-Cut= 80
B-Cut= 80

R-Drv= FF
G-Drv= FF
B-Drv= 80

All-Cut= 80
All-Drv= FF


50" UT50

jywc55:

Thanks for the summary post. That answered many of my questions.

I sit about 8' back from my 55" and hear buzzing sometimes over the audio in bright & quiet and quite loudly if muted and displaying a white slide. I'm having Panasonic send a tech out and see if it's something they can fix or replace.

Amazon is sold out so an exchange is probably not an option from them. I love the picture and the buzz rarely bothers me when actually watching stuff so I could live with it for the $850 I price if I had to. But I'm hoping the tech can quiet it up some. Even though I just got it from Amazon, it has an April 2012 build date and I read in another thread that they swapped out some screws inside with new ones with lock washers in later builds so I'm hoping that may be the case with this (i.e maybe a loose board rattling some rather than just buzzing).

I bought the 60 and I've yet to hear any buzzing.
But my laptop is in the room seeding all the time so it may be drowning out any noise if it's there.


MetallicH, I found Anikun's 3D settings perfect for 3D viewing with the glasses.

You contrast ratio is lowered and overall not as bright, but you can set it to what you want. Those were also your warm default settings, right? I think those are what mine were too. Contrast is our main setting for output luminance.

please let me know what they say when they come out, you seem to be the closest to my set up. thanks. during the day for me its not a problem, but the tv is in my man cave and i spend most of my time in there at night when my family is already asleep. so needless to say there is almost zero ambient noise in the room.

Anikun, thanks for the reply. Good to know the contrast value is still adjustable. I was concerned that lowering it too far from your settings might make things look off from the intended result but it looks fantastic! Those values were recorded after changing to Cinema mode and selecting Warm in the service menu. I was surprised to see that our sets shared the same default values too and it seems like the 15G panels are made with close tolerances.



EDIT: I forgot to say a huge thank you for sharing these settings with us. The time, effort and money that was spent to get them is very much appreciated!
Edited by therealjustin - 1/17/13 at 12:30pm

Well just reserved my 60UT50. I was unsure if I wanted to deal with line bleed or not on another plasma. But after having a 60 inch LED for a week............I miss plasma ! LED just looks bad to my eyes. If 90% of the time the picture looks great and line bleed crops in. Thats a tradeoff Im willing to make at this point. Rather then dealing with a picture I'm not satisfied with 100% of the time. Why do TVs suck so bad now a days ? I have owned/traded 7 in the past year. The only ones I have truly liked the picture on was Plasmas. Unfortunately line bleed ticked me off. Now I know, a consistently bad LED picture bugs me even more lol. Too bad my ST50 was faulty or I would still have it. They are sold out permanently around here now. But from what I have read, the UT50 is a comparable set. One thing that concerns me is PathofNeo disappeared after getting his 60UT50.........Did things not turn out to well with that set ? Has he changed his feelings on the UT line ?

Edit: BTW anyone consider having this one pro calibrated ? Is there anything they can squeeze out of the service menu we just dont have the tools for ?
Edited by AAcesUp - 1/17/13 at 11:52am

I just want to give my monthly thank-you to Anikun and Buddha.

Thanks again guys- TV looks great!

Very nice summary post one of the best ones I have seen

Anikun, on your 3D settings for Cool you have your default value for All-Cut listed as 80 with a reduction of -1 with a value of 75 as your end point.

Is this correct? The default on my set was 80 as well but reducing it -1 brings it to 7F and not 75.

Hi. Could you please explain how you can find the runtime in the service menu? I know how to get into the service menu, but I can not decipher where to find the runtime. Thanks

Sorry, I think that's a typo. It actually should be zero because it changes to what your lowest ~Cut value is.

Nevermind! I found it somewhere else... For those who are curious, here are the instructions for UT50:

1. enter the service menu (SM) - hold the Vol– button on the TV and simultaneously press INFO on the remote three times. Continue holding Vol–. The blue service menu should appear.

2. Press 2 on the TV remote.

3. Press OK on the TV remote.

4. Press the down arrow (▼) on the TV remote until you highlight “PTCT”

5. Press the right arrow (►) on the TV remote.

6. Hold MUTE on the TV remote for three seconds. That cell will display two numbers: the runtime and number of time the set has been turn on.

7. To exit, hold the Exit or Return button on the TV until the set turns off.

I went back and checked and because I changed the All-Cut value the other settings were off too. I redid the changes and now the All-Cut is at 75(it lowered after I changed R-Cut). I also rechecked my Warm settings to make sure I hadn't fiddled with them somehow and they are spot on.





I was in the service menu for approximately 4-5 minutes with a nature blu-ray playing in the background. After exiting the service menu I could see a bit of image retention where the menu was because it was a cloudy sky shot, but within 20 seconds of the video playing all traces of it went away.

Yeah, my service menu is usually up long enough for some IR on the black screen but is gone pretty quick, too.

Hey everybody,
I've had my TCP55UT50 for a couple of days now, primarily trying to break it in with:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4gE_Xez-fQ
- pixel jogger http://www.avsforum.com/t/1406663/pixel-jogger-break-in-improves-pq-plasma-lcd-led-tv-the-only-way-for-diy-users-only
- mixed content, avoiding anamorphic bars

Overall I am quite happy with the PQ despite having not done any calibration yet (using Standard mode), and I know it's still early-goings for my panel, but I feel compelled to mention a couple of gripes:
1) My primary annoyance is what appears to be posterization as mentioned once earlier in this thread... I know that earlier in this thread it was suggested that it was due to the content rather than the panel, but there didn't really seem to be any final word on it.... Reading around the issue on the web these past couple days, it seems to be a more common/generalized problem with plasmas than I had realized during my pre-purchase research, unfortunately... So far I have only been using content played via USB (still waiting for HDMI cables to be delivered to hook up a borrowed PS3), so I know that I should certainly test different content before being concerned that this is a defective set... but I was hoping to hear from others: 2) My only other concern is a graininess (almost looks like scales or bubbles) primarily noticed in some but not all dark scenes. I suspect it may be coming hand-in-hand with the aforementioned posterization, but I'm not totally sure yet. I've read some suggestions regarding reducing sharpness to fix this, but I haven't noticed any difference when doing that. Again, I hope that calibration will fix this too... but I wonder if this is something to be expected?