Panasonic GT50 buzzing poll

60GT50 arrived a week ago. No Buzz. 26 years young.

55 " and no buzzing here

I have to go behind the TV and stick my ear against the TV to hear a faint buzz. 50" GT50 50-60 age group.

Age has nothing to do with it. I can hear better than a lot of people that are half my age. People of any age can have poor hearing or good hearing.

If you want to take a buzzing poll, forget about age and instead ask if any buzzing can be heard at various distances starting from say 4 feet to maybe 15 feet. Since this poll doesn't take distance into account, any yes or no answers are pretty useless because you don't know the distance they are from their TVs.

Also ask if the buzzing is coming from a defective or cracked power supply, or coming from a bad coil on one of the video boards, or coming from the front/center of the plasma panel itself. These are the three main causes of buzzing on a Plasma and they all cause their own particular type of buzz.

The bottom line is if you can hear it beyond about 4 feet, the TV is defective and needs to be repaired or replaced. My friend's ST50 started buzzing out of nowhere after several months of silence and a defective board was replaced under warranty in 15 minutes start to finish in his living room. He didn't ask what kind of board was replaced though, but it's the one that's in the upper right corner when looking at the rear of the TV. The TV is now silent beyond a few feet (as it should be, and as it was for the first few months).
Edited by RandyWalters - 11/29/12 at 6:31am

Actually its a well documented and proven medical reality that certain aspects of hearing are age related. This would have nothing to do with the low frequency buzz under question. The age dependence on hearing is at the highest end of the frequency spectrum and obviously the studies report "averages" but young people can hear high frequency sounds that older people can not. We are talking 14,000 to 18,000 Hz range.

I remenber a local news story about a shopping mall that was using (or planning to use) low level annoying high-frequency noise to drive away the profitless teens that just roam around and create chaos. The beneficial older customers aren't affected. Kinda like those bark-boxes they sell to make your neighbors dog shut-up at 2 AM

Interesting theory but the data shows the biggest problem group is the 30 - 40 year olds. This is 10 - 20 years past normal human auditory drop-off.

I think its just a result that 30 - 40 year old people just complain more about everything I know I did

I just can't take this seriously enough to participate. I agree with what Randy said. Maybe asking distance and average volume levels of the participant would be more revealing.

And I resent that it exists. Where is the ST50 & VT50 buzz poll?

I have owned 2 GT50s and the only buzz that could be heard was with the sound off and ear two inches from the screen, and still you would have to move your head around and listen real hard to hear the tiny little buzz.
Edited by sheshechic - 6/13/12 at 8:21pm

I think the idea of age factoring into the sensitivity to "buzz" comes from the Samsung line of plasmas, as I have seen evidence of it first hand. While it is true that many other things can damage your hearing at any age, there is absolutely age-related hearing loss in the high frequencies (on average of course, there can be exceptions). Anyway, Samsung panels produce a sound that might be more accurately described as a "whine", because much of it is sort of a high frequency hash of noise that sort of rides over a "buzz". It is the high frequency component that I believe is most irritating to the folks who have been complaining.

Thats not what Panasonic told me over two G20's and a GT30. All buzzed almost identically. Tech said all plasma's buzz, the end. Tech could not hear it. It drives me crazy. They finally gave me my money back, and what do I do but get another plasma (the GT30), which buzzes. I'm still quite bitter over the whole thing. I simply think everyone's opinion should be represented here. I now sit off angle with headphones. Yay Plasma. I effectively went through ~4 plasmas between entirely new units and complete board swaps. Nothing ever changed. Maybe years from now when I have an OLED, I'll drop it.

I indicated "No, and I'm over 60 years old", but my wife is 44 and she doesn't hear any buzzing on our 65GT50. Viewing distance is about 12 feet from the viewing area to the screen. The TV is six days old.

Agree that distance and volume -both of buzz and content- remain only valid variables.
I'm not sure why the resentment... I'd like to see polls for the ST50 too. I've just returned 2 ST50 55s due to excessive buzzing (from 10ft) with bright content. I was hoping the GT50 would have a bit more QC, but not so sure...

60ST50 here. Can't hear anything unless you're a foot away from the set, and that's being generous. It's seriously the quietest plasma I've ever had. I'm also someone that can't stand excessive buzzing, having returned countless Samsung sets. This baby is dead silent. Now if only I could get rid of all that DSE.

I'm 27 and hear mine buzz from normal viewing distance. It seems to buzz a lot louder when the scene has a lot of white in it. Is that normal? I've had it for a week. I tried plugging it directly into the wall (taking the surge protector out of the equation), but it did not fix the problem.

To confirm... my GT50 purchased last week has the same buzzing. Recognizing that a sample size of 3 is not statistically significant, it's still very hard for me to believe that this is not inherent in all of the Panny line...

My new 50GT50 is virtually silent - i have good hearing but i can only hear a slight mosquito buzz when i'm less than a foot from the back of the TV. It's actually quieter than the 46G10 it replaced (which i can't hear beyond two feet).

Received my 50" GT50 on Wednesday and there is NO buzzing at all.

Just bought a GT50 and it buzzes audibly from 8ft when the screen contains bright content. Close-up the buzzing is always audible. When accessing the internet apps overview (no sound from tv) the buzzing is annoying. Sounds like it´s pure luck to purchase one with barely audible buzzing. Picture is excellent but the buzzing is a no-go - sending it back. Question is what to buy instead? I´m convinced plasma is the right choice (and panasonic too) - is the answer to order until I hit a low-buzzing unit?

I would stick with the GT50 you have and have it repaired *if* you have no other issues like dead/stuck/flickering pixels, no vertical band/bands, no material dse etc. The reason why I say repair, if your set is otherwise good, as apparently from this thread the fix is a relatively quick one. If you have other problems with the set then you have to evaluate how tolerable they are. If you think you are not happy with other issues then swap for another GT50. You clearly like plasma and your only other realistic alternative is a Samsung E6500/E7000 etc and *those* have an even bigger issue with buzzing.

Hello Peter, wow - fast reply! Sounds like there are several issues with the GT50 - I´ve only noticed the buzzing until now - haven´t had the chance to play a blu-ray as I´m new to HDTV and will be buying new equipment soon. I´ve been playing hd-content via a wdtv-box (was connected to my old Loewe CRT) - the picture is great. Sound is sub-optimal - will be connecting it up to my surround system. Sorry to bombard you with questions - but do you HAVE TO run-in the GT50 (or plasma TVs generally)?
Thx and greetings from Germany,
Mark

I just re-visited this thread by accident. Mark, you will get faster responses in the "official GT50 owners thread"

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1403635/official-panasonic-gt50-series-discussion-thread-no-street-price-talk

Its grown to over 4000 posts, of which 20% are worth reading, 30% are repeats of the same questions, 30% raving from the lunatic fringe, and 20% side-tracked into non-related areas.

As far as breaking-in the set. Some people say yes some say no. I did not. I just started watching normal content out of the box. Others think that running full-screen color slides for 100 hrs is somehow beneficial. The 100 hr pre-aging is necessary if you are going to have the set professionally calibrated with electronic sensors. My personal thoughts is that the TV's PQ is good enough using either the THX Cinema mode or the Custom mode with settings published by C-Net.com that pro-calibration is not needed.

If you still want more info try the big forum; its much more active.

I guess there is something good that comes with getting older. Seems the 40 and younger have the buzzing issues.

I have a 65" GT50 and the buzzing is horrible. Have replaced all of the power supply boards so far with now change. I think the noise is coming from the coils on the video boards. I can hear the buzzing change with the picture brightness over the dialogue sitting 12 ft away.

I wonder if the buzzing is worse with the large panels because of the large current draw?

The picture is fantastic, but the problem and getting it resolved is pretty disappointing. I couldn't recommend this set to anyone who doesn't listen always at pretty loud volumes.

I've a 65" and can't hear buzzing unless my head is behind the panel and the room is silent. At my normal viewing distance, if I mute the volume, I can hear the Xbox if it's on. But never the TV.

Despite the repairs that have already been performed, your TV still has something defective inside.


No. Size has nothing to do with it.


Hooey. These TVs normally don't buzz loud enough to be heard beyond a few feet so just because yours is defective doesn't mean they all do it. Just get yours fixed.

My ST30 that I've owned for more than a year now was very quiet up until the begining of October. You would have to stick your head in the back to hear anything, it was a very faint buzz. One day I had noticed it had gotten louder, on the left hand side.

After reading a post on another forum I belong to, another owner of the same model, had posted the same problem. He called Panasonic and they acknowleged it, and sent a tech to fix it.

I did the same. They sent a tech out and he replaced the board screws on the left and the right side with longer screws and "lock" washers. Apparently a overlooked application in either the design or manufacturing process.

The screws were definately loose, and the the lighter the screen background the louder the buzz.

I couldn't thank that poster enough as my warranty was about to expire very quickly.

My St30 is now silent again.

Not age related at all.

Hope this helps someone.

cheers

Six months of perfect viewing......and it just started BUZZZZZZZZZING on thursday

shucks.... i gotta get this fixed or i'll punch a hole through the set.

Same thing happened on my friend's 60" ST30 last year - after several months of silent running it started buzzing out of nowhere. The buzzing was coming from a board in the upper right corner of the TV (as viewed from the rear). The repair man first tried tightening the screws (he said this is often the cause of buzzing from this board) but that didn't work so he replaced the whole board and that fixed it perfectly. More proof that excessive buzzing is a defect, not a normal issue.

60GT50 owner, I have to put my ears right up to and BEHIND the TV to hear any sort of a slight buzz. As has been said numerous times those that experience loud buzzing noise in front of their set much less at seated distance should have the TV looked at by a competent tech.

Hi Guys,

Great thread, but I have to think there is too much variability here to accurately compare these results. Off the top of my head I can see the following differences amongst users causing issues:

1) Plasma mounted on wall vs on stand - maybe a wall mount helps to block/diminish the sound given the proximity of the plasma to the wall?
2) Plasma located in a room with carpets/drapes vs one with hard floors and uncovered windows
3) People testing buzzing with no volume vs those testing with volume on
4) Some people testing on darker content vs those testing on bright or all white content (ie worst case scenario)
5) Ambient room noise (eg someone next to kitchen with loud fridge, someone with a loud PVR that is always on)

Any of these individually, or in combination, could easily explain differences in people's perception of buzzing. I think it's time this forum came up with an objective approach to testing buzzing, especially since this is a "science" forum. Going forward, I think any testing/reporting for buzzing should include the following:

1) Identify plasma installation - wall mount or stand, and if your room contains carpets/drapes that may absorb the sound
2) Turn off volume on the TV/Receiver. Testing should occur without any programming sound.
3) Turn off all other sources of sound in the room
4) Test primarily on bright content. Putting up an all white slide would probably be best.

Now, if someone was to do all of the above, should they still consider their panel defective if they can hear buzzing from more than a few feet?
Edited by Cipher - 11/28/12 at 10:18am

Yes.