Official Panasonic TC-LXXET5 Owners' Thread - Page 2

Well any of you actually following this thread know my story. Owned it, brought it back, missed it on black friday, then wanted it again. Just a heads up it was $899 at Frys.com yesterday and they still have it in stock today. Price match it while you can. Finally I have my baby back. I went with an open box item just because I could have them demo a bluray and check for flashlighting right there before I bought it. The snarky guy at the store knew I returned mine a while back gave me some lip the week prior. I thought maybe this is the same one I returned but the flashlighting in the lower left corner is SO minor, even with backlight on 100 and contrast on 100 you can barely notice it.

So I got the TV I absolutely love back, with much much improved minimal flashlighting, and for $350 cheaper than last time. I think it worked out well.

And I've been reading some comments here. Yeah it's funny the Avengers 3D is the exact movie that made me return the first one. On the lower left corner during dark scenes the flashlighting was painfully obvious. Expect SOME minor edge lighting but if you get a good panel it will be more uniform and not as noticable. It's just something you have to accept if you want to enjoy the low cost and INCREDIBLE 3D this set offers. If you get one with painfully obvious edge FL don't be affraid to bring it back. And tell them you understand it's to be expected, but your set just had it real bad.

Anyway now that I have my dream TV at my dream price. I cannot WAIT until Finding Nemo 3D tommorow.

Well, I took another chance on this set. I got the Best Buy $899 special, and hoped for the best. They delivered the set on Friday. I was trying to be very positive, since I liked a lot of the features on the set from my first time with it. Just luck of the draw, right?

Unfortunately, the screen uniformity on this one is worse than the one I tried earlier in the year. There are two very visible "flash lights" that are about a handwidth in size coming from the top edge of the set. The first is about 1/3 of the way across the screen, the second is about 2/3 across. On brightly colored content (blue skies for example), this is very obvious and distracting. There is faint vertical "band" descending from these areas that also shows during the same content (anything bright, again, a blue sky is a good way to see it). Finally there is a faint horizontal band of some sort that goes across about 2/3rds down the screen that shows up in some content. The result of these defects is a very pronounced "dirty screen effect" when the camera pans/scrolls around. The gaming mode still has that wierd vertical banding on glowing/blooming lights but I was prepared to deal with that in exchange for the low input lag.

I realize that any edge-lit LCD will have some uniformity problems. I can deal with minor clouding or corner flashlighting. If that's all there was it wouldn't bother me at all. And these problems aren't obvious in the majority of viewing or gaming so when I explain the problem to people they look at the set and think I am crazy. However, every time there is an outdoor shot with a bright sky or the camera pans around it's extremely noticible to me and very disappointing.

To be honest I'm a little heartbroken. I'm so sick of looking for a decent 55" gaming TV. The Best Buy delivery guys basically said "you again?" when they drove up so I'm sure they are sick of dealing with me and I hate returning stuff but this has to go back. Wish I could do plasma but I tried two and that's out of the question due to flicker/buzzing. At this point I'm ready to just fork out for the Sony 55HX850 but of course Best Buy is sold out now. Ugh.

Apologies that I didn't see this thread before I started a new one ranting about my experiences purchasing a 47" ET5 and the DMP-BDT320 Blu-Ray player. You can read my other post if you want to see the full story, but, basically, I had a hard time getting the picture to look good and was never able to get decent sound from the TV. The picture looks good now and I've ordered an external amplifier and speakers that should help with the sound. So, while I'm still annoyed that I had to go to all that trouble and expense when it should have worked right out-of-the-box, I'm okay with the TV now.

My remaining problem is that the TV's remote doesn't work to control the Blu-Ray player and I don' t like the player's touch-pad remote. I'm considering returning the player to get one with a regular remote, but only want to go to the trouble to do that if the TV's remote will correctly control the new player. Does anyone have the ET5 and a Panasonic Blu-Ray player (with a real remote) that can verify that you can control the player through the TV's remote?

Thanks.

Edit: I received the Panasonic SC-HTB20 "Audio System" today and it works ... sometimes. I hooked it up using the HDMI "ARC" connection on the TV. I went through the menus to enable Viera Link and, usually, I can control the amp's volume using the TV remote. And, usually, it works when I change inputs on the TV. But, often it doesn't produce any sound or it doesn't work until I use it's remote to change the input.

It appears that the "Viera Link" functionality isn't working right. I'm going to try replacing the HDMI cables, even though I have decent ones, just because I can't think of anything else to try. If I can't get it working soon, I'm sending everything back.

Edit Again: New cables didn't help. Viera Link doesn't work. Panasonic support is no help. UPS is coming tomorrow to pickup the TV. Blu-Ray player, and speakers for return to the seller.

-- Roger
Edited by jadebox - 12/18/12 at 12:57pm

Is flashlightning on the dark scene, instead of black it is dark grey?

From what I google, I think that is it.

No, that could be clouding, bad viewing angle, or just plain bad black levels.

Flashlighting is when you can actually see the light spilling out from the edge or corner of the panel. Usually this is in a cone shape, like light coming out of a flashlight, hence the name.

I am watching X-Factor USA last night there are alot of spotlights and flash everywhere.

Sometime when they shoot at the four judges, the background would be dark black with great contrast.

At other times, the background would be dark grey.

I wonder what type of problem is this?

I might pause at this screen and look at it on my computer and my projector too. I had it recorded on WMC.

I have not seen any cone type of flaslight on the screen.

I've had that, in really dark scenes it's like the panel couldn't make up it's mind. It would sort of strobe, but slowly flashing the blackness into a brighter grey, back and forth. But it only happened in a very dark scene in uncharted 3. And I don't think the lighting effects are very good in that game.

And as my main purpose for this TV was for bluray 3D, I am willing to put up with the few faults the TV has. As a good quality 3D movie like Men in Black III just has my jaw to the floor, I enjoy the 3D on this TV so much.

I got my TV up on the wall yesterday and I am really happy with the result. Yes, there is some minor light leaking in the corner when there's 4:3 content, say during a commercial, but during normal scenes it's not visible at all. The colors and "pop" are amazing. I've had a plasma since 2007 and I might be a convert. It's certainly a lot better in my bright living room. While there are some reflections still it's so much better than my LG plasma was (not to mention as the kids said "yay -- not more black line through the middle!").

I guess I am just not the videophile I thought because it looks fantastic to me set to 'Cinema' with the backlight turned up to 40 from 25. I am very, very happy.

I watched my first movie on this TV last night. VERY depressed. The black levels were terrible. I tweaked a bit while watching, but everything that should have been black was greyish-blue. My old Sony KDL-46S3000 blows it away in this respect. I'd hate to return this since I got in on the Black Friday Best Buy deal. The ST50 is 50% more at $1200. Can someone recommend the best calibration settings for movies, or the best calibration BR? Or is it a lost cause: this set has great 3D and lots of great features, but poor black levels? Thanks for any advice.

I'm away from the TV right now, so I don't recall the specific settings I used, but I was able to get it to look good. Black is still a little gray when watching in the dark, but that's my preference, not the TV's fault, I think.

Anyway, there's an "Advanced" menu (it might be under "Settings" instead of "Picture") which has a "Dark Level" or "Dark Mode" option which will probably make a big difference on what you are seeing. There's also a setting that automatically changes things based on room lighting. I think you'll want to turn that off at least until you get everything else right. Also, of course, if you have the backlight or brightness up too high, then blacks will be gray.

-- Roger

The black levels shouldn't be that bad. Not greyish blue, I would atleast have the geek squad come out and look at it (if you got a warranty like you should). I can tell you I've had a panasonic plasma so I can compare. For an LED the black levels are actually pretty good. Not plasma good, but definitely LED good. So maybe something is wrong with your panel.

I can tell you, for videogames I play in GAME mode with back light at 80, brightness at 42, contrast 90, color 42, I set "black level" to "dark". There are only 2 options, dark and light, and never use light if you want any sort of contrast at all. Even at at that vivid brightness I still get pretty good black levels in my games.

And for movies I sometimes even watch in vivid mode and still get nice blacks. When putting settings to cinema the black levels get even better.

So it's one of 3 things.
-you do not have black levels set to "dark" in the advanced picture setting
-there is something wonky with your panel
-you are just a videophile with a very keen and picky eye and I'm just much easier to satisfy

oh and that's a good point by Roger. Make sure you turn OFF the setting that has it adjust the brightness based on room lighting. I think it's called CATS but don't quote me. Just read what it says in the picture menu. Always have that off. If you check the things we've told you, you should beable to fix it, or atleast have a better understanding of why it is the way it is.

Have noticed no Flashlighting on ours. Not tried every HDMI port but the ones I have work fine. Very happy with this set so far.

anybody try to hookup a sound bar using the audio out and be able to play mkv files with dts from a usb stick? Most sound bars decode dts, question if the tv passes the signal through..

I have mine set to 'Cinema' and I turned the backlight up to +48. I think it looks great. Even my wife commented how realistic it looks. Blacks look, well, black to me. The picture looks stunning. Maybe there's something wrong with my eyes?

My new TV arrived last night. Haven't had much of a chance to test it too much yet but the picture looks much, much better. I have one problem, though. When I connect my Blu-Ray player to either of the first two HDMI ports the TV doesn't recognize that it's there. Connected to 3 it works fine. I had a similar problem with the first TV, it recognized the Blu-Ray player connected for like a minute, then stopped and after that I ended up moving it to the third HDMI port and it worked fine. Am I missing something here?

Overall, the black levels are so much better. There is no noticeable flashlighting when sitting in front of the TV. If you're way off to the side or standing up it's a little noticeable but even then it's better than the last TV I had. I changed it to the vivid setting just to see how it would look and even then the flashlighting was not really noticeable. I turned the CATS off like others have mentioned and tried switching the black level setting from light to dark but it made the picture too dark and took out the details in the darker parts of the image. I'm watching the Lord Of The Rings Blu Ray right now with the picture mode on Standard and the picture looks excellent. Going to play around with the settings more later but just flipping between the defaults Standard looked best.

Have only had the TV on for a little over an hour so it's still early but I'm so much more happy with this set than the last one based on what I see so far.

do yourself a favor and watch a 3D movie on it. It has a great picture yes, but 3D the best feature on this TV.

I have this TV since the day after BF.

I have no problem with blacklight. Try to look for it but cant find it. I sit a little off center.

When watching music show like X Factor, I put my high quality computer speaker(subwoofer n speakers) next to the TV. My computer is the DVR using WMC.

My L55ET5 is scheduled to be delivered on Saturday, and I'd love to have a soundbar bought and ready to hook up immediately. (I'm hoping to enjoy the new set, with proper sound, for the Seahawks-Skins game on Sunday!)

Here's where I need help from those of you that already own this set: I'm afraid that if I buy the soundbar before the TV is in place, I'll find out too late that the bar I bought doesn't fit with the set. I would appreciate any help with the following:

1. The TV will be on its stand -- so how much room do I have to work with between the surface of the table and the bottom of the screen? From specs, I'm guessing I've only got about 2 inches to work with , or maybe 3 if I don't mind the sound bar blocking the bottom frame of the set. Is that accurate? Can anyone give me a more accurate measurement?

2. I don't want the soundbar to block the TV's ir receiver. Can somepne please tell me where that is located? If it is bottom center, I'm afraid that I'm in trouble.

Finally, if anyone has soundbar recommendations for this set or any other relevant thoughts, I'd be glad to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

Anyone? ... Bueller? ...

anyone have a recommendation for a mount for this set? i have the TC-L55ET5. so far so good on the picture quality...

There's about an inch and a half from the top of the stand (which is about half an inch thick) to the bottom of the TV, or about three inches from the stand to the lower edge of the screen. The ir receiver is bottom center.

Returned my Vizio M3D470KD yesterday as the vertical banding was killing me when watching football. The other problems with floating black panles that were there because of its smart dimming feature. I keep looking at Panasonic ET5 series due to the high marks on amazon and others. When I go see in it in person at Best Buy, Costco and others the images look jagged, or aliased. I tried tuning one in frys and got it pretty toned down but it still seemed to have artifacting at times along the edges of objects and type. I know the source has a lot to do with it but even on some HD signals it was bad. Anyone that owns one of these give any feedback? Does it clean up when tuned even more or is there always some jaggies on SD and 720 sources?

Thanks

Thanks very much, rise9 -- I appreciate the help.

In the meantime, however, I decided that I just can't compromise on the sound. No sound bar for me. I'm going to do it right with a quality 5.1 system, properly installed. It will cost a ton more, take me weeks (months?) to accomplish, and be a pretty major hassle. But once it is up and running, I'll be watching loud and proud.

I ordered the 55" version of this great TV. From what I understand, there is NO "auto aspect ratio". So, my question is: If you're watching network TV where different shows/commercials are in different formats, do you have to manually keep switching aspect ratios? For example, if you are watching a show in HD and then the news comes on in SD, does it fill the screen to 16x9 proportions? Or does it display at 4x3. I want to watch shows in the native format that they are shown in: like 4x3 or 16x9. I don't like that stretch and fill the screen stuff. So,

Just wanted to check back in and mention that after having it a few weeks, I am loving my L55ET5. Picture is superb, no problems at all. I may not be discerning as many of the regulars here, but we regular joes may be under-represented here. I love this forum, but reading these threads it is sometimes easy to get the impression that all of these sets are horribly flawed, making it hard to pull the trigger on a purchase. Anyway, my experience with this set has been great. Thanks to everyone here for all the help!

Noobio

While I agree I'm easy to please and some people are too picky. There are obvious flaws that can bother even the easy to please. My first set had such terrible and obvious flashlighting from the lower left corner that I could see it in even normal lighted scenes I just couldn't deal with it. I got lucky and my second set's flashlighting is so minor that even in dark scenes the light is so spread out that it's not as painfully obvious.

Please forgive me if this question sounds ridiculous, but is there any way (setting) to show a much smaller picture on my L55ET5? That is, can I play movies or TV on, say, just the middle 32" (diagonal) portion of the screen, leaving the rest black?

No.

There is no flaw on my TV. Anyone wants to buy it? I think I got the perfect set. No flash light. No jagged edge.

My PC is my DVR. So I am always watching it on 1080p with my WMC.

One thing is that if you want to watch music show, you might need a little sound upgrade. You want it thin right? So every thin TV set will have this weak BASS audio problem.

Since I use my PC, I just put the PC sound set on my TV and it sounds great.

Buy this TV. Its worth the money at $899 for a smart 3D TV with wireless too!
Edited by chong67 - 1/18/13 at 5:10pm