Needhelp: Plasma buzzing (Panasonic ST50) - When is it not acceptabel? - Page 4

I think it would be interesting for people to also list their specific setup & room details. I'm thinking these details as well as the person's sensitivity to these specific frequencies may play a roll. I have a -2 model GT50 & I too can hear the tv buzz,on brighter sceens while muted from my viewing location ~10' away. I can also hear the buzz sometimes with the tv volume on but typically at low level night time viewing (level set to 4 or 5).

Now mine is located in a small room ~ 12x13 & is wall mounted. I'm thinking wall mounting might make the buzz worse, as would a small room. I think ambient noise will also play a roll as I believe my room is typically pretty quiet. It seems that if the window happens to be open, the buzz is reduced a good amount.

I think peoples sensitivity can vary a good amount. I had an OPPO 83SE & now have a 95. I know alot of people said they could barely hear the 83's fan & alot say you can't hear the 95's at all. With both of mine, I could easily hear the fans from my listening position.

I tried to check the level of the buzz with a digital sound meter, but it wouldn't pick anything up above ambient noise.

The store I purchased from is a small, independent dealer. I've been meaning to go back & take a listen to their demo which is in a small, quiet room. I think that would give me the best solution to if my set is noisy or is considered normal.

Mine is on a stand, about one foot from the back wall. I had a 60ST50 which I exchanged for an 65ST50 and they both buzz the same (see I really don't think the percentage of buzzers is very low - based on some research I did on reviews at Amazon and also based on a poll on these forums, seems like the chances of getting a buzzer are not in the single digits). I can hear the buzz on pretty much any bright scene (not just white only) if there is no or very low sound volume. On a pure white scene, I can even hear the buzz over medium volume. My room is fairly big - 5.5 by 4.5 meters - and quiet.

I have had a ST50 for a few months now and during my research on figuring out what TV to buy, I read about some sets having issues with buzzing. I crossed my fingers and ordered one from an on-line dealer. It showed up and worked perfectly, with no audible buzzing from my listening position (around 12 ft away). Again, there were NO issues with buzzing…bright scene, dark scene, any scene. My hearing isn’t going bad, the room is the same, the settings have been the same (not ultra bright), it has always been wall mounted…nothing has changed.

Fast forward to yesterday and the set has started to make a significant, audible buzz clearly coming from the back of the top right corner of the set (when looking at it, mounted on the wall). The buzzing varies…the brighter/whiter the scene, the louder the buzzing and it is loud enough to hear at normal listening levels/volume and I am sitting at my listening position. I plan on going home tonight and making sure the set makes the same noise, no matter the source. However, I’m not optimistic about anything changing because the noise was present while I was playing the PS3 last night and was there again this morning while watching cable TV.

This level of buzzing is not normal. I have owned two other Panny plasmas and neither have had buzzing like this. It was not always present with this set…further proving it is not normal. For those of you who say it is normal, I’m guessing your set isn’t buzzing as loud as mine. If it is and you can live with it…then that’s good for you. Just don’t tell other people that buzzing at this level is normal because it’s not.

Of course I destroyed the TV shipping box last month after having the set for over three months with no issues. I’ll be contacting the on-line retailer to figure out what to do and hopefully I’ll get a service rep to come out to my house, tighten some screws, find and replace a faulty coil or something…we’ll see.

Your experience is not the first I've heard about a 2012 Panasonic PDP starting out quiet out of the box and then the buzzing suddenly appears out of nowhere. I have a buzzing unit (well I've had two now) right out of the box, but your issue makes me most uncomfortable with sticking with my GT50. I have a technician scheduled to come out this week to investigate my buzzer. But even if he/she is able to fix it, will the buzzing return a few months from now? At that point I'll no longer be in the 30 day Amazon return window. The picture on this thing is flat-out awesome, but the buzzing is an absolute deal-breaker for me. If necessary, I may have to sacrifice picture quality so that I have a "quiet" TV that doesn't interfere with my TV-watching experience.

As for my setup, my PDP is on its pedestal, sitting on a media console such that the TV is a little more than a foot from the wall. My room is average-sized for a TV room, with hardwood floors. With typical bright content I can hear the buzz from my couch 10 feet away. With an abnormally bright white scene, I can hear the buzz from 15 to 20 feet, off-center.

Sounds like yours is buzzing a lot louder than mine. I think people who say buzzing is normal are those with sets that buzz like mine, only audible with no or low volume and bright scenes. Now I'm not saying that's normal as I've not had a lot of experience with plasmas and also have read plenty of owners who say theirs do not buzz. But the buzz on mine cannot be heard most of the time and I guess that is why some are saying it's not a big deal. Another variable here is the owners tolerance level. I guess I can live with the buzzing on my panel, given that it's not audible most of the time but knowing there are units out there that don't buzz makes me unwilling to settle for a buzzer.

And your experience is somewhat worrying as it's not the first panel I've heard of that has started buzzing loudly after some usage.

I don't think that I'd have an issue with slight buzzing, only heard with no or very low volume. If that were the case, I wouldn't go to the hassle of calling the retailer and/or Panasonic, scheduling a tech trip, etc. The only reason I came to this thread this morning was to see if there was an easy cure to it that I could do myself, which apparently there is not.

Good luck to you, Caice, and I hope your tech doesn't say that the buzzing is normal...I don't know how well I'd handle that, in my situation. Hopefully if the tech does more than tighten screws, the fix will solve the problem.

Had a local technician come today. No offense or anything, just stating the facts, but he was an older gentleman. He didn't really do much besides observe the buzzing...which he seemed to have a hard time hearing. He did state that he's had other customer's with this issue. Made mention of a customer he's helping that claimed to have "perfect hearing". As well as mentioning plasma sets that buzz much louder to be heard from a room away. He also said that they all buzz to some degree.

Anyways, he decided to order a screw replacement kit for some sort of mounting bracket / plate thing that Panasonic recommends as the first step of troubleshooting the issue. He said if that doesn't quiet it down he would consider replacing some of the boards.

Update: I did come across cmay91472 posts about build dates and sets dated October 2012 or later not needing the screw replacement. I tried to communicate this to the technician and he decided to still proceed with replacing the screws. So chances are it will be a week+ till the screws get replaced. Which will unlikely solve it. Then another week+ to order boards to swap. Oh well, at least I can still enjoy my TV and try not to be so nitpicky.
Edited by UrbanConquest - 12/19/12 at 9:48am

I have a 65ST50 that can be heard buzzing with a bright screen anywhere in our basement rec room. With the kids awake and the volume on it is not noticeable. However, with ambient noise at a minimum the buzzing is obvious with a bright screen. My slide prep finished at 5 am Yesterday so I put a DVD on after entering D-Nice's ST50 settings. The Pixar bouncing lamp ID at the start of Finding Nemo produced audible buzzing over the low volume I had the TV set at. I was sitting about 10-12 feet away.

I bought one of the last three 65ST50's that Future Shop had in their warehouse (Canada) so I'm not sure if I want to start going through the hassle of exchanging the TV. I'm not sure what to do as I've only had it for a week.

If there are no other issues with it, I'd lean toward trying to get a Panasonic tech out to look at it before I risked returning it.

If anyone is getting a tech to look at their panel, I would try to see if they can get the tech to replace the boards, assuming the buzz is coming from them and not the power supply, should replacing screws fail. The tech that Panasonic sent to look at my panel only looked at the screws and after saying they are good said there's nothing else he can do. I've read a couple of reviewers say that replacing boards fixed the buzzing issue. Seems like getting a good tech is also a lottery much like getting a panel without buzzing

I just got off the phone with the local TV repair company that will be looking at my buzzing GT50 tomorrow. They indicated that the "parts" they had ordered have arrived, so I'll be curious to see what those parts are, and if they can solve the buzzing problem. I'll try to pick the brain of the tech to get his feel on this issue to see how common it is, in his/her experience.

Please do report back. And good luck.

I recently moved my TV stand away from my wall so I could get behind it for a better evaluation of the noise. Previously I thought my ST50 panel only buzzed on the top right and left corners of the panel, but now that I can get behind it I also notice it at the top middle area as well.

So if my technician is wrong in trying screw replacement first then from the sound of it it seems like we're looking at replacing a minimum of 3 (or more) boards. Sigh. If the repair process gets too close to my refund / exchange deadline I'm just gonna tell this local repair technician to take a hike. Heck, I'm more concerned about him screwing something else up with the picture quality while trying to repair the buzz issue.

It's all a gamble. I keep telling myself that at some point you just gotta take what you get and try to be satisfied.
Edited by UrbanConquest - 12/21/12 at 8:49am

I got a 50ST50 today. For some reason I really only notice the buzzing on OTA broadcasts, where bright scenes will cause a faint buzz. On Blu-ray Discs and Xbox games it's inperceptable. Go figure.

That's probably what I'll do (if anything). I've been trying to reassess how bad the buzz is and have had a hard time getting the house quiet enough to listen. If I have to try that hard for buzz it probably isn't a big issue. Of course that's easy to say now - if I'm in the middle of a movie and a bright, quiet scene is ruined by the sound of bacon frying I might change my mind.

I had a TV repair tech come out today to take a look at my buzzing 55" GT50. He was very knowledgeable and was happy to answer my questions regarding the buzzing, as he does have experience servicing this issue. Below is a summary of the information I was able to gather from him.

Panasonic has sent out two service bulletins regarding the buzzing on the 2012 units to their certified TV repair facilities. One of the bulletins involved a new screw kit, and those happened to be the "parts" that they hard pre-ordered for me based solely on a conversation over the phone. After removing the back panel, he checked the screws in the circuit boards. It turns out that my TV already "has the new secure screws." (Perhaps the -2 after the model number indicates units that have the new screws).

Looking at the TV from the back, there is one display circuit board on the left (a.k.a. SC board, according to the tech). On the right, there are two circuit boards, one near the top and the other toward the bottom. The upper right board (a.k.a SS board) "controls brightness" on the display. I'm not sure what the lower right circuit board is for. The power supply board is in the center of the panel.

The tech "shaved some junk" from the screw bosses that are used to mount the circuit board to the panel. All screws on all circuit boards on my unit were tight before he removed the boards to sand the screw bosses.

After re-attaching the circuit boards, we left the back panel off as we powered the TV on and played some colored slides. The buzzing was unchanged, so his efforts so far have not improved the buzzing. With the panel off, it is easy to pinpoint the buzzing coming from four coils on the circuit boards, two on the SC board and two on the SS board. The tech opined: "This buzzing is way too loud. The amount of buzzing present on dark images should be similar to what is heard on bright images. This is not normal."

The tech then called Panasonic and was told to order a new SS board (the one that controls brightness) as a replacement. I asked why not replace both boards, and the tech said that Panasonic indicated that replacing the SS board should be the only repair necessary, because it controls brightness. The replacement will hopefully be in next week, at which time the tech will try again to finally cure the buzzing with a new circuit board.

Apparently this was the third 2012 Panny PDP in my area that this tech had serviced that already had the new secure screws. In the first case, the TV owner decided to forego the replacement circuit board and simply returned his TV to Best Buy. The tech was unsure of what happened with the second case, as he was not involved in replacing the circuit board.

I'm going to give it a try with the replacement circuit board. If the new board does not quiet the buzzing, then I will be returning the TV to Amazon and looking for a different TV. The tech stated "my service team has been hearing more and more of the same comments from other plasma owners with this issue."

I have a march build 50st50 which buzzes, called panasonic they sent out a third party technician who replaced the screws on all the boards and swapped out a board which if i remember correctly he called the SS board. After these repairs there is no difference in buzzing at all so I dont know if a certain amount of buzzing is just normal on these sets or if there is something still defective. People on here are claiming that they only hear a slight buzz on a all white slide with their head behind the screen only and not from a few feet away, where as i can hear the buzzing sound on a all white screen even from a few feet away and the technician claims it is normal. So i dont know what to go by. I can hear buzzing on normal content especially on brighter images. If the volume is set to 15 and above its harder to hear but lets say a bright image is being displayed with no audio present in the video source then obviously the buzz is audible.

Yeah, at times I feel the same way. 95% satisfaction is still pretty good. I might have to accept mine since the retailer has run out of 65 inch ST50 and is offering me a 60 inch GT50 as a replacement. Not sure I want to lose 5 inches, I've really gotten used to 65.

Thanks for the detailed feedback Caice. Curious to see if the SS board swap gets rid of the buzzing or at least brings it down to an undetectable volume. Fingers crossed.

I'm pretty sure my technician will have to do the same, because I think screw replacement is the wrong direction. I'm just happy for the extended holiday return period with Amazon.

@2tvsonecup
I agree about the 95% satisfaction point, because it really is rare that the content allows for me to hear the buzzing. I crank my 5.1 sound up pretty good too, but I'm sure there are users here that don't have that luxury without disturbing others. Otherwise, the TV has been an awesome upgrade for me and I'm grateful for it. I guess when spending so much money on a product that we expect to last a long time, as consumers we want it to be perfect from the beginning.

I think the extra 5" of screen real estate sounds better in the long run vs the somewhat gimmicky advanced features of the GT line. My 60ST50 is already starting to shrink from getting used to it over the past few weeks. Maybe see if you can get Panasonic to arrange for a tech from another third party TV repair service to take a look. Hopefully there's more than one reputable outfit in your town. I don't see how they can give up so easily and not try swapping boards. If necessary, I'd hope Panasonic would be willing to send you a brand new unit.

My set is currently being replaced. The buzzing sound was a distraction during normal viewing at a normal volume. I didn't have Ice Age, but I tried a number of other blu-rays and TV programs. Bottom line for me was the buzz on my particular set was not something I was willing to live with.

I'm disapointed. How do you get Panasonic to replace or exchange your buzzing TV.
I called Panasonic about a month after I bought my TV. I noticed the buzzing when I watched the TV late at night with the Surround system off. I realized that it would fluctuate during light and dark scenes. I had my 65GT50 "repaired" twice by the same technicians that panasonic assigned both times replacing screws. No improvement. The tech tried to tell me that this was normal and since my TV was in a fairly plain room the sound bounced ad was amplified...BS. I went to a local showroom and they had the same TV and I could not hear the buzzing with my ear against the back panel. They said that they could see my TV if I brought it over, I don't want to too big, or send a tech over at my own expense. But since I have a case open Panasonic needs to assign them.
I called the place where I bought my TV, Paul's TV, and they said that if I had contacted them the first 30 days they would have exchanged it. Now I have to wait for panasonic.
I called Panasonic again, they said that my case was going to be "escalated" and yhat I should wait for a call...They said the same before Thanksgiving, all they did was send the same tech for a second time.
Some of the Board members had their sets replaced, what do I need to do or say....

Thanks

I dont want to live with the buzzing, I would be willing to pay the difference and go to VT if it would be better. I feel bad to have spent so much and not be happy.

So been contemplating buying the GT50 55 inch from amazon but it seems like buzzing is rampant problem in the Panasonic lcd .....does LG have a comparable pic quality to panny?

Meant to say plasma ...

1 - You should not have to settle for abnormal buzzing. It is ridiculous in regards to the randomness of how loud each Pansonic will buzz from set to set.... And yes if you have read my earlier posts, there are sets out there that are whisper quiet while others are so loud it drowns out normal listening volume.

2 - VT50s also buzz so it will also be totally random as to how loud it is.

From what you describe, you are one of the more fortunate if you only can hear it from a few feet away or no audio and what you are hearing is the normal buzz all plasmas make.

If you hear buzzing from over 10 ft away and or buzzing over normal listening volume, those are the sets that are truly defective.

Consider yourself lucky that the board swap did not make the buzz worse for you. Others in here are not so lucky.

Both the GT and VT offer perhaps the finest plasma image ever with the exception of the legendary Kuros that remain. Buzzing is certainly a consideration when buying a panel and LG will not make a set even comparable picture wise, but you'll have to decide in the end if the buzzing is tolerable for you or not.

Well, not sure I can count on Panasonic to fix the problem. I can call them and see if I can convince them to send another tech but even then I have no guarantee a different tech would be able to diagnose and replace the faulty part(s). So right now I either get the 60 inch GT50 and hope it doesn't buzz or stick with the 65 inch ST50 and try to get Panasonic to fix the buzzing or live with it. I have until Saturday to decide. I'm not going to another retailer because I'm getting a significantly better price (25% of the price from reward points that I can't use elsewhere) than I can get elsewhere. This has turned into such a major nuisance. I wish I was less anal about this stuff and more like my wife, who thinks I'm just wasting my time trying to get the perfect TV.

What kind of circuit do you guys have if your tv buzzes? Newer home, older home? It could be current draw. Try running tv with everything else off as a test. Friend suggested power line conditioner if it buzzes due to poor electrical circuit.

Your friend is wrong. Household electrical circuit condition has nothing to with excessive buzzing. The buzzing is not caused by electrical interference, it's caused by a defective component inside the TV. A line conditioner will do nothing to prevent it or fix it.