Official Panasonic TC-LXXET5 Owners' Thread

Don't own it, but here is corresponding euro thread for 47' model.
I considered it (still do), specs look great, but from those thread looks like Panny is lacking quality control, so those sets are hit or miss. A lot of people report banding and poor backlight uniformity.
Post you own review on it!

I owned the 55ET5 for about a month before I decided to return it. For the most part, I felt it was a good set, especially for those who want low input lag for gaming and can't deal with Plasma's issues. The problem was, as barber76 indicated, quality control. The backlight accross the top was very uneven on my set, and once I saw it I could not unsee it. Since then I have looked at the floor models of this set at Best Buy and Sears and now that I know what to look for they all seem to suffer from this to some degree. I am sure that there are some good mostly even sets out there but I wasn't willing to keep exchanging to find one as I had already been through two plasmas at that point and I'm sure Best Buy was getting annoyed.

My plan is to wait until late this year or early next year and try to score one of these (or a Sony 55HX850) at a discounted price. The tinting on my SXRD keeps getting worse and worse but I can deal with it until then.

Been in Frys today. They've had Panny 55ET5 and LG 55LM6700 playing John Carter side by side. Hard to explain, but picture on LG definitely looked more detailed. Oversaturated too, but more detailed. I made a quick stroll through the Panny settings, and found nothing suspisious, just default 'cinema mode' settings...
Call me blind, but I haven't noticed any banding / backlighting issues on ET5. I played pure white & different shades of grey patterns from flash stick. Btw, when I started to play pure black pattern, the set somehow detected it and in a few seconds simply switched off the screen. So I've got my pure black - literally.

As a side note - demo set of 50ST50 plasma (same store) on a pure white pattern looked like a traveler's suitcase - all covered in channel logos, residual menus etc.

Just got my L55ET5. Bought a P50ST30 just last september. But at some point 4-5 months ago something went wrong with the 3D. It still looked 3D, but something was just off. Alot of constant ghosting, a blur to most of the stuff in the background. Just not good at all. I just got Avatar 3D my favorite movie, a movie I waited so long to see in 3D again, and on that old set, I couldn't get past 20 minutes.

Could have paid for someone to look at it, sure. But I also was really excited about the idea of passive 3D. Such hassle free cheap glasses that are universal no matter what different brand TV you might upgrade to in the future. Now that I have the L55ET5, I can fully say, the 3D is amazing. Much better than my plasma, even better than when I first got it and I remember it actually being good. Pros and Cons

PROS
- 3D the best I have seen, for a bargain level TV the 3D quality is amazing with only minor ghosting every so briefly in some scenes, but quickly goes away and is very bearable.
- To me the image of this TV looks sharper and pops even more off the screen than my plasma. Probably individual preference
- PS3 games look better and even more impressive on this 55" even though it's 5" larger than my plasma
- Very good during high motion scenes. It's very hard for me to notice much blur at all.

CONS
- Black levels surprisingly good considering it's LED. But nowhere near the plasma. A bit above acceptable but having seen plasma, it can't be unseen.
- somewhat rarely, flashing. When it happens I keep looking at what could cause it, sometimes I see a came fire, or plasma bolts, but then the scene changes but it still flashes when it probably shouldn't.
- during screen transitions, you can obviously see it is side lit. I get most of the obvious light saturation coming from the top right corner. Yet during the actual movie and even in fairly dark scenes, it does not appear.


I'm wondering, can the CONs but chalked up to panel lottery? Is it possible to get an L55ET5 that has very minimal edge saturation or flashing? (yes I've updated)

My first L55ET5 had a strange blob on the bottom left that made whites look a little purple. Second one looked great but had a dead pixel in the middle of the screen. I'm getting my third one in today. If this one has an issue I'm getting a 60" GT50. My second one had very minimal flash-lighting. Even my first one wasn't bad. Though I do keep my backlight at 20. I do love the 3d on this tv and I think the picture looks great after tweaking it.
Edited by scupking - 10/19/12 at 7:44am

I think honestly you would be better served to go with the st50.. gt50 regardless, much better tv. I have a gt25, and it has been a great tv. I also own a Panasonic tc-l37e3, led tv, that I use as a secondary gaming tv since the input lag is very low on this set.

So just played around with my third one for a little. Found a dead pixel at the bottom left running the pixel test on Wow. Not a big deal since I will never notice this one. This one has more flashlighting on the left side then my last 2 but with the back-light at 20 you don't see it much at all. So for now I'm going to be keeping this one. I will play around a little more after I get out of work.

I'm noticing the corner lighting alot more now. Was watching Avengers in 3D (still amazed by the natural easy on the eyes theater like feel to the 3D) and during the early chapter dark scenes the flashlighting from the bottom left appears even during the movie. Before I had only noticed it during transitions and totally black scenes. I will play with lowering the backlight and raising contrast which I hear helps. But if not I hope I can get a replacement from best buy that is acceptable. I understand I have to just expect some edge flashlighting. But I can't have it be so bad that I see it during actual viewing.
Edited by Elrowyn - 10/20/12 at 6:46am

lowering the backlight it's much much less noticable. I'm starting to think I have probably one of the better panels so I'd hate to return it and waste my time getting a worse one. Just a bit dissapointed as the 32" EH5000 or something like that I had tried months ago had no issues like this flashlighting at all and it was an LED also. The 3D however is just so good I've decided it's worth it to go with this TV over my ST30 as a movie like 3D experience is my #1 want with this TV. It's just a bonus that PS3 games happen to look even MORE slick on this TV than my last year's plasma. From what I've read the black levels in the LG aren't so good so I'm guessing that overall this is probably the slightly better option than the LM6200. I find the black levels on this TV to be very acceptable, especially after you play with blacklight/contrast/brightness. You can actually get it pretty good.

Overall, if someone asked me. "I'm looking for a good TV for 3D blurays so 3D is most important" I would not hesitate to reccomend this TV for it's value, and impressive non straining 3D.

I picked up this set a few weeks ago and it is pretty good. I Have a few gripes:

• Thank god I have a home theater setup, because the audio is horrible
• I'm coming from a 9 yr old plasma, why does game mode look better to me? It doesn't appear to be so "framey" The motion looks better to me.
• HOW do I turn off the ads?

Ended up deciding to stick with the 50st30 for now. The flashlighting from the bottom left during dark scenes was just too much for me. So I'll just have to wait until some ultra HD LED with incredible blacks at an affordable price come out for my perfect 3D experience. As that might be awhile I'll just be happy with what I have for now.

I'm planning to pick one of these up on Black Friday. The reviews I've read on other sites from users (bestbuy.com, amazon.com, etc) seem to be mostly positive so I was a little surprised to see the number of issues people on the forums here have had. Is that just a result of the people on this site taking their home theater setups a lot more seriously than the average person and noticing things that might not bother the average person? I want something nice but price is a definite priority and I'm not excessively picky (I'm upgrading from a 22" Dynex so anything is going to be a major upgrade), as long as it has a good picture, the 3D is good (I don't care so much but my wife does), and it's overall solid.

Has anyone tried the Android app for the TV? We're planning on picking up a Nexus 7 and by Panasonic's advertising the app looks like it could be pretty useful.

Bought the Best Buy deal with the sound bar after all of the great reviews. Haven't received it yet. Like you said, BB and Amazon reviews said nothing but great things about this TV so I jumped on it as soon as I could. Also surprised at all the issues about this TV. Well I'll just have to see for myself when it arrives next week.

Bought this LED today, and so far I'm liking it. I turned off the motion picture setting, it just looked to unnatural to me. Otherwise, here are the settings I'm currently using (this is not calibrated, just to my eye for now). Does anyone know how to access the more advanced picture settings, or do they not exist?

Picture mode: Cinema
Back light: 80
Contrast: 80
Brightness: 54
Color: 38
Tint: -4
Sharpness: 24
Color temp: Warm
Color mgmt: Off
A.I. picture: On

Advanced Settings
- Motion Picture Setting: Off
- Black level: Light

Now that I had a taste of it for a few days and brought it back I kinda wish I kept it. The 3D on it was so amazing. Watching Avatar on the 55" passive LED compared to the 50" active plasma was night and day. Sure the plasma looks really impressive during certain scenes and it's full HD but the passive 3D looked impressive all the time. I had a smirk on my face the whole damn movie.

Didn't realize it was on sale online at bestbuy for $899 otherwise I would have bit. Now they are out of stock and probably won't carry it anymore. I am however keeping an eye on it on Amazon, hoping maybe they do a cyber monday deal otherwise just wait patiently until it comes down close to what bb had it for. For those of you who bought it and if you are going to use it for 3D. If you've never owned a passive 3D set be prepared to fall in love.

I decided to get it from Best Buy on Black Friday, actually ordered it from their website since I didn't want to deal with the crowds and waiting in line. It's scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, I'll post my thoughts on it here once I've had a few days to test it out.

I just got this TV at Frys for $899.

Anyone got a good adjust screen setting for this?

Thanks for your help!
Edited by chong67 - 11/24/12 at 1:04pm

I got one in the Amazon Lightning Deal at 12:30am on Black Friday. It's coming next Friday. I am really looking forward to it. It's replacing a 2 year old LG Plasma that has a nice black line through it.

I watch all content (incl. cable TV) through my HTPC.

On black friday I'm guessing?

Best Buy no longer carries this. However Amazon and Frys still do. When do you think I'll have to wait til to get this for ~$900? Maybe January?

After some research I decided to give this set a try, hit up BB about 12:30am Friday morning, managed to get the last one. It had an open box (nothing missing) so they gave me another $100 off for $799 + tax out the door. (not a return either) I've been running it since and I'm very pleased with it. Its in a bright room so we have it on Game mode at the moment, Motion Blur is off. The colors are very natural looking and the detail is very good. Not messed with 3D yet (no 3D content yet) but I couldn't be happier. Have until 1/24 to bring it back no questions asked.

You can do fake 3D. My cousin said its not as good as the real thing. I did take a look at it, but it was OK.

Anyone know how to get into the service menu where you can the Y G B color setting. Panasonic lock it out. I just wonder why.

I like the TV so far. I dont have good eye sight, so most thing are OK.

Something I didn't notice at first...ads? WTF Panasonic? The money I paid for the set is not enough? If there are ads on my TV I should get paid for them!

After a little research, I found out they are not the only one...shame on you manufacturers. At least its easy to turn off once you figure out how.

Yah, that ad is interesting. Viera thing.

The speaker are not so great especially for music. I was watching X-factor and the bass was like playing thru a busted speaker. I would not use it to watch movie.

Picture is great. The brightness is too bright.

I purchased this set during the Black Friday deal online from Best Buy. They delivered it yesterday, and I can tell you that it went back to the store within an hour. The flashlighting was so bad that I couldn't even watch the thing. This was my first LED, and now I'm not sure I am willing to take a chance on another one. I've got 1 plasma, 1 LCD, and a Sony SXRD projector, and this is by far the worst picture (after adjustments) I've seen. Truly disappointed!

TV arrived yesterday morning. I'm torn, on one hand the picture quality is excellent. Haven't had a chance to try out any 3D content but did try out the fake 3D and it was impressive. I'm not that interested in 3D but it did look really good for taking 2D content and making it 3D. The sound isn't that bad which I had read a lot of complaints about. That's not to say it is good but it doesn't sound any worse to me than any other flat screen TV I've used. But then there's the bad. The flashlighting is bad. When the screen is black it looks horrible, all four corners are much lighter than the rest of the screen and the further off center you are from the TV the worse it looks. It's noticeable in darker scenes, even in moderate light scenes it is slightly noticeable if you look closely. The darker the room is, the more noticeable it is. But if what is on the TV is brighter, the picture quality is wonderful.

I'm torn as to what to do, on one hand the picture quality is really good. But the flashlighting is not good at all. I'm tempted to return it and hope to get one that it is less noticeable on but on the other hand I wouldn't want to end up with a TV with worse picture quality because the picture looks so great other than the flashlighting.

Is flashlighting common on the panasonic sets? I just ordered this tv and now I'm a little worried. My viewing room is typically dark and this might be something I'd easily notice.

I dont see any back flashing. I am looking at it 3 inch away. It is pitch dark at the corner. Can you tell me a movie and at what number so I can look for it?

I am looking for any tweak for this TV from someone that got the tool.

The screen is too bright and I have to tone it down.

The speaker sound is alright. No different from other HDTV. We all want thin panel right? Well this is the sound you shall get. I solve this problem bc my computer is next to this TV and I use a computer speaker with subwoofer from my soundcard and that solves my problem.

Decided this set has to go back. We watched The Avengers and while the overall picture quality is wonderful, the flashlighting in the darker scenes is just too much. Also discovered that one of the HDMI ports doesn't work.

Also a couple minor quibbles with the remote. First, I don't see why Return and Last are two separate buttons, I've hit the Return button several times expecting it to return to the previous channel like the remote for my other TV does, only to remember it's a different button on this remote. Second thing is that there is not a Guide button on the remote. We don't have cable, just over the air, and being able to use the guide to see what's coming up next is useful. Both minor issues but still a little annoying.

Overall, if I can return this set for one with all the inputs working and a little less flashlighting, I'll be happy.