Needhelp: Plasma buzzing (Panasonic ST50) - When is it not acceptabel?

If you turn down the brightness does the buzzing go away?

If I heard any buzzing from my listening position with the volume at normal listening levels for a news program I'd return it w/o question.

Just run the brightest "break in" slide with the TV in Custom mode, Contrast set at 85%, with Panel Brightness set at Mid. You should not be able to hear any buzzing beyond a few feet in this situation.

Here are a few other related threads for reference:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1415500/panasonic-gt50-buzzing-poll/30#post_22640394

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1397245/official-panasonic-st50-series-discussion-thread-no-street-price-talk/7230#post_22629362

Yes man, it's absolutely normal. If you want to show the repair guy the buzzing sound just put a full screen episode of Family Guy on and mute the speakers then during dialog un-mute them, you'll hear it loud and clear. You'll be frying eggs in no time. I've hung out with about 6-7 ST/VT's in the last three months, everyone of them buzzed during bright scenes. It is completely normal. You could return yours and get one from heaven like Randy did but I've heard those are on back order.

Do you honestly believe that a leading Japanese TV manufacturer would design a TV with an annoying audible buzzing sound that can be heard from your couch during quiet scenes in a movie ? That would be preposterous, but there are some people here who have abnormally loud buzzers and they actually believe that it's normal and they just suffer with it instead of insisting that it be fixed. I've set up over a dozen Plasmas for people and know many others who have existing Plasmas and have only come across a few that buzzed abnormally loud.

Excessive buzzing is a direct result of a defect plain and simple. Finding and/or fixing that defect can be challenging but there are tons of people here over the years with all brands of Plasmas that have been successfully repaired and the excessive buzzing was eliminated.

The reason the dealer is telling you that it's normal is probably because they don't want to deal with it.

As Randy pointed out, there has been a lot of discussion on this lately. I've kind of been staying out of it since there can be a lot of frustration around the issue, as already seen above. So, before I get accused of having poor hearing or not being able to distinguish ambient noise from the TV, I'll just say that I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I'm just offering my experience.

I have all wood floors (sound travels a LOT in my house) and have now had the TV both on a stand a couple feet from the wall and wall-mounted. Under normal operation (just watching TV) with sound muted, I have to put my ear toward the back of the TV to hear an actual "buzz". At my normal listening position (11'ish feet), if I pause on an all-white screen and have sound muted, I think I can hear some faint electronic hum but I can't tell if it's the DVR or TV - either way, I have to concentrate on it. If I have the XBOX360 on, still with sound muted, I can hear it "whirring"/"humming" and it covers the previously mentioned "faint hum". Under normal circumstances (i.e. the sound isn't muted) from my normal listening position, I haven't ever noticed the TV/DVR, even during quiet scenes. If the XBOX is on, I can rarely hear it during quiet scenes.

A lot of people go looking for issues and consequently find them. Whether or not that means they have a faulty TV...I dunno. But I've read several instances (Randy's friend included) of people having an audible buzz, getting a repair (tightening screws, replacing a board, or whatever) and having the issue resolved. If you can hear it with the sound on, from 12 feet away, I'd do something about it - no matter what other people think. For people that sit 12 feet away but can only hear it with bright screnes and the sound muted, it might be worth having checked out, but I'm not sure I'd risk an actual return or exchange in that case.
Edited by Wolowizard - 12/11/12 at 8:41am

I'm with you on this feeling. I'm on my second unit after returning the first to Amazon due to the buzzing, and the second unit buzzes exactly the same; I can easily hear it from 10+ feet away. If the Panasonic tech tells me that the buzzing is normal and cannot be corrected, then I'm simply returning my GT50 to Amazon for a refund and will be exploring other non-plasma options.

I'm a 60ST50 user whose set also buzzs, but still debating whether I want to request an exchange. My disappointment in all this is wondering why in the hell is this defect allowed to get through to the end consumer. This seems like not only irresponsibility on behalf of the manufacturer but also deception. The reality of it all is that Panasonic is willing to test their luck with consumers betting that they won't hear this buzzing problem. Just like they do with sets that have banding, green blobs, etc---ship em out the door like nothings wrong with their fingers crossed. Hoping most everyday, joe schmoe schmucks will be captivated by their new super duper oversized shiny televisions and won't take notice of potential defects. It's like a game to them. We might as well be doing the quality control for them. I'd assume if they invent the technology I'm sure they can test that it functions to standard before they sell it.

So to conclude yes, Randy I do believe big businesses try to get away with taking advantage of consumers. I'm not saying the TV was intentionally designed to buzz, but this consistently experienced "defect" seems like it's some unfavorable result of the design. Obviously, TV engineers would love for their designs to be as quiet as a hummingbird, but maybe it's unfeasible at this time, or maybe they had to make sacrifices for better PQ? I have no idea. I just know that the quality control on these things stinks all across Panasonics lineup as well as other manufacturers. That's too big of a test sample to overlook any fishy intentions of wrongdoing or the misconception that plasma display panels shouldn't give off a high frequency like buzz. Whether defect or design flaw, this still looks terrible for the reputations of the manufacturers that attempt to get away with selling products with such issues to consumers.
Edited by UrbanConquest - 12/13/12 at 7:58am

I'm in the same boat. I'm on my second ST50 that buzzes the same as the first one. Clearly audible from 12 feet away when displaying bright (not just all white) images. Even when watching with normal sound volume, there are passages in shows that have very low or no sound at all and bright scenes. It's those passages that are clearly audible and distracting. For example, watching Frozen Planet, in some passages, I can hear buzzing getting louder then softer, louder then softer, all in the span of 15-20 seconds. Very annoying. What I find very puzzling is that this is my second panel from a different batch (I'm assuming so, first one was from October, second from November) and it buzzes pretty much the same as the first one. Given that this has been the experience of others as well, it would indicate that a sizeable number of these panels do buzz. Yet, there are owners who say they experience no buzzing from more than a few feet away. So is this a case of panel lottery, much like it is with screen uniformity in LEDs? A Panasonic tech is coming tonight to inspect the buzzing. I'll let you guys know what he says.

You're not being picky and you are within your rights to demand a TV that can't be heard from your couch.


If the repairman tries to tell you that it's normal to hear buzzing from your couch then tell him you want a 2nd opinion. There are tons of these units in people's homes that are quiet, and it cannot possibly be within acceptable spec to hear excessive buzzing from anywhere near a normal viewing distance. Three of my four Plasmas are silent beyond a few feet away, the fourth is my oldest and is starting to get a little buzzy in it's old age. I'm already planning on giving it to my elderly mother-in-law who is hard of hearing

Last year when my friend's new 60" ST30 was being delivered we powered it up to check to see if it had a picture and immediately heard a minor buzzing sound from more than 6 feet. Friend assumed it was normal, but i insisted that it's not and the driver agreed that it's too loud. We refused it and the driver took it back. His replacement came the following weekend and was virtually silent - it could only be heard with our faces almost against the screen and was a little louder with our heads behind the rear panel. It was a keeper. I spent the next several hours rewiring his whole setup and integrating his new Onkyo AVR and set up his surround sound speakers - all while the TV was running a slideshow of HD Wallpaper images. I could only hear a little buzzing while i was behind the TV and nothing from the edge of his coffee table or from his couch.

Several months later he called and said his TV started buzzing. I went over, buzzing was indeed audible from his couch where it had not been before and it was coming from the upper right corner of the rear of the TV. Some days later when the repairman visited (i wanted to be there for this but was unable to) he first checked all the board screws but they were all tight. He said loose screws were an issue this year, but determined that "a coil had gone bad" on the upper right board so he replaced the whole board, and the TV was back to being virtually silent again just as it was when it was new. Last i heard the TV is still quiet and working fine.

But there have been several people here who have not been as lucky. Sometimes the technician is incapable of diagnosing where the buzzing is coming from, or the replacement board buzzes about as bad as the original one, or the replacement TV buzzes as bad or even worse than the first or 2nd one. Sometimes it's the a bad power supply that's causing the buzzing. Sometimes it's even the panel itself that's buzzing and no board replacement will fix this (was a very common defect on Samsungs a few years back). This has been going on for years and there are dedicated Samsung Buzzing and Pioneer Buzzing threads that were very active 2-4 years ago - but most people either had their TVs repaired successfully or the replacement TV was quiet. Some guys had their TV replaced 3 times with the 4th TV finally being quiet.

We are in the exact same situation. Both my units were from different batches as well (April 2012 and October 2012 builds), but they buzz the same. Others have surmised that the '-2' suffix to the model number cures the buzzing, but I can confirm that is not the case as my October built unit is a '-2' and buzzes the same. So far I have been unlucky in the panel lottery, but based on my experience the odds of receiving a quiet unit are worse than 1 in 2.

I was planning on calling Panasonic today (again) to schedule a tech to visit, so I am VERY curious to hear what he/she has to say about your buzzer. Please keep us posted!!

I have had an October -2 version in the ST50 as well and it buzzes. Can be heard from 12-14 feet away. They TV's are flawed in other ways too like the vertical stripe on the right hand side that has been on all three of my Panasonic's(2 VT's and a ST). Also patchy kind of greenish tint on grey slides when set to Warm2. Most recent ST50 has bad DSE or some kind of darker vertical lines all across the screen. I just don't believe that you can get 3 tv's in a row that have the vertical line or lines and yet some people say they don't have them, same with buzzing and other problems. I just don't think they really care what is going out the door anymore. I am getting a Samsung 64E8000 delivered tomorrow which is supposed to be the king of buzzers but we will see, if the screen is more uniform than the Panasonic's then I will be happy(as long as buzzing is within reason).

So today a Panasonic tech guy came to look at my buzzing TV. Here's what he did and said: he removed the back cover just to make sure that the buzzing isn't coming from loose screws (he said some of the earlier panels had this issue but Panasonic had taken care of the problem in the later ones, I guess the ones with -2 at the end of the model number). Nope, the screws are good. He then said that the buzzing on my panel is completely normal for a plasma, and that all panels buzz pretty much the same with larger panels maybe buzzing a little louder (as long as the buzz is coming from the circuitry and not caused by a vibrating board). This last claim of his matches my experience. But then there are those who report no buzzing from anything like a normal viewing distance. Argh, I am not a happy camper right now.

Buzzing is definitely normal on all plasmas, especially during white scenes. I don't belive there are peeps with 0 buzz on a white screen. It is something that fades over time though. The couple Panasonic plasmas ive owned buzzed but did lessen over time. The buzzing isn't really noticeable during normal viewing.

Agreed.

Actually, I hear buzzing then easily and consider it normal.

See, you make me wonder if I shouldn't demand a service call. But I find it hard to believe they'd find or fix anything. Incidentally, while I can hear the buzz in the scenario described by Vinterbird, I don't recall hearing buzz during a movie. I suppose there are scenarios where I might, but I've yet to come across one.

I have the gt25. I had some buzzing noise when I got it. they replaced the HDMI board or something. that seem to get rid of the buzzing.
have a panasonic service person come and take a look.

Jacob

Well your experience is very disappointing, but not all that surprising. I suspect the same answer from the tech when he takes a look at my panel; if that is the case then I think I'm returning it to Amazon for a refund and will continue my research for an acceptable new TV. There are certain scenes where the buzzing is beyond obnoxious and I just chuckle to think that this is "normal" behavior for a consumer-grade TV.

So 2tvsonecup, what do you think you are going to do? Did the tech even offer to replace any of the circuit boards from where the buzzing is originating?

This makes me wonder. I have an '08 Panny pdp and just got the 65GT50. If they both buzz, I cannot hear it at all, even with my ear plastered to the rear of the panel and no matter what is showing on the screen, hockey and all. All I can hear on either panel is the whoosh noise of fans. Thing is, I can hear my Comcast DVR (fan and HDD) from my listening position ever so slightly when TV volume is muted and it's late at night (HVAC and fridge not running). Maybe, if both pdp's are buzzing, it must be in a frequency range that is not audible to me. My wife concurs and hears no buzzing from the TV's as well. Odd

Likely do a 2nd exchange. I hate to do it but knowing that so many experience no buzzing from normal viewing distance is pushing me to attempt to get lucky with the 3rd panel. The tech said the buzzing is normal so he did not offer to replace anything.
Edited by 2tvsonecup - 12/14/12 at 12:56pm

Highly doubtful. The buzzing frequency (60Hz) of all panels should be within the range of human perception.

Indeed, hence my post. I think some just don't buzz. I should have just said that instead of my round-about reply

edit: btw good luck if you decide to try another
Edited by jbdan - 12/14/12 at 12:42pm

I traded in my st60 twice and all 3 buzz the same. Panasonic just messed up when they designed it. Some test group probably showed that most people didn't mind it and they sent it through even though you would have to own it to fully realize how annoying it is. Hopefully they fix it on the newer models. I had to get used to it for awhile and it gets easier but still irritates me sometimes when I'm trying to enjoy a movie and a long quiet scene with the right colors to crank up the buzzing comes on and drives me insane for a couple minutes. Kind of messes up the moment and takes you out of the movie. Anyone that doesn't hear it is lying or has hearing problems.

You nailed it with this post. Bright dialog only scenes are not what this thing was tested on in the labs or it would have been pushed off the table.

I need to correct myself. I just realized this is an st50 thread but I have a 60" st30. I guess they didn't fix it on the newer models! Maybe next year?

That depends on you. What bothers you more? Occasional buzzing that you get used to after awhile or or crappy viewing angles/motion blur/less realistic colors?