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Considering switching from Samsung to Panasonic, but concerned about IR. Does the GT50 have a...

post #1 of 20
2/3/13 at 6:59am
Thread Starter 
I've downloaded the GT50 PDF manual and I couldn't find this answer.

I've owned a D7000 for 18 months and I've never encountered any IR. The D7000 broke and needs to be replaced and I tried to replace it with an E7000 twice, but got I buzzer, swapped it, and got a second buzzer, so I'm considering swapping it out for a GT50. I'm concerned about some of the IR posts that I've read on the 2012 Panasonics.

I'm worried about someone pausing my Tivo for 30 or 60 minutes or so and leaving the same image on the screen. Sometimes the phone rings and you pause and you forget to come back for a while. It would be annoying to have to turn the TV off every time this happens. Does the GT50 have a screensaver?

The Samsung screen saver kicks in after 10 minutes, but only when a SmartTV App is running. It won't kick in on a paused Tivo show. But my D7000 has never even had a hint of IR dsepite pausing shows here an there. Sometimes I'll play a video game for 3 hours in a row and I've never seen any IR. No issues from blurays with black bars on the top or bottom either. How much more do I need to worry about IR with the GT50 than I did with the D7000?
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post #2 of 20
2/3/13 at 4:59pm
Thread Starter 
Is pausing a show more of an IR threat, or is it more about impact of logos or HUDs on the screen during sports or video games?
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post #3 of 20
2/3/13 at 5:34pm
I don't have any personal experience with the set, just going by what I've read.

Pausing a show that has no hard logos, etc. probably wouldn't be as bad, but you still wouldn't want to do it for an extended amount of time. If the CNET accidental burn-in test is any indication, Samsung might have the edge in terms of IR resistance. It will vary from panel to panel of course, but some GT50 owners claim they have no IR issues, while others have gotten IR after only a couple hours, sometimes less. The set will always become more IR resistant as it ages, but it seems like IR is hit or miss on Panasonic displays. That's my interpretation at least, but in reality sets that are more prone to IR might only make up a slim margin. Personally, I decided to go with the GT50 anyway, I don't think you can beat Panasonic's overall picture quality.
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post #4 of 20
2/4/13 at 11:02am
Well, I can tell you I have a GT50.... loved it....until I started seeing ir. I literally have 1 more day to return it and am reluctantly thinking of doing so. The IR is from a news channel I watch. I watch it an hour in the morning, noon, and evening. Give or take. I don't know if IR is from a single occurance or from cumulative viewing of the same channel with a logo or banner. Either way, I can see the news logo/header faintly on other shows where there's a light or solid color background.

Having a tv with great picture quality is nice. Oh yeah, unless there's IR. Its like having an itch you can't scratch.rolleyes.gif
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post #5 of 20
2/4/13 at 12:59pm
Thread Starter 
Yikes...sorry to hear that....that's what I'm worried about. I know know which is worse...a buzzing TV or a TV with IR issues. At least with the buzzing, I can turn my speakers louder. smile.gif
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post #6 of 20
2/5/13 at 6:03pm
A tivo will not pause for 30 min. And why worry about 10 people talking about "IR" when 500 others claim none.
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post #7 of 20
2/6/13 at 6:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by adone36 View Post

A tivo will not pause for 30 min. And why worry about 10 people talking about "IR" when 500 others claim none.

Well, not sure that its a 10:500 ratio. But sure, if you really want a Plasma then why not try it. I would go easy on it at first then push it to its limits before the return window to make sure it will hold up to your (worse case scenario) viewing habits.
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post #8 of 20
2/6/13 at 7:18am
I am someone that went from a Panasonic 60ST50 to a Samsung 60E6500, then BACK to to the ST50. I can tell you the ST50 i just plain better than the E6500 in straight up PQ. Blacks/Contrast is better and my original reason for swapping out the ST50, the Image Retention, is *nothing* in comparison to the buzz that came out of the Samsung.

Yes there is very slight DSE, and rare line bleed, and flicker on Netflix - but they are well worth the trade off for way inkier blacks (noticed the difference as soon as i fired up the 6500) and absolutely quiet operation. The E6500 did infact suffer from IR as well, its not completely immune - i did not baby sit it as much as the ST50 but you can always fix IR by running bars/noise/white background for an x amount of time. Buzz is there forever and always.

ST50 > 6500 (and 7000) i've found.
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post #9 of 20
2/6/13 at 7:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ed3120 View Post

Yikes...sorry to hear that....that's what I'm worried about. I know know which is worse...a buzzing TV or a TV with IR issues. At least with the buzzing, I can turn my speakers louder. smile.gif

If any TV buzzes beyond a few feet then something inside is defective. My GT50 is silent at 1 foot away while displaying the brightest white slides so this should be considered normal operation. There is no need to drown it out with the TV's speakers; if you get a buzzer then return it, replace it, or repair it. Many owners here have had theirs repaired successfully, or had a buzzer replaced with one that is completely quiet.

Of all the 2012 owners that post here on AVS, only a small percentage of them are reporting persistent IR while the vast majority are not. I watch 4 hours of local news every day (2hrs AM, 2hrs PM) as well as sports and a LOT of Speed Channel on the weekends on my 6 month old GT50 and any IR i get goes away within minutes of changing to a different channel or different content. I also get zero IR from having the settings menu up on my screen for several minutes. I do believe that some peoples' panels are out-of-spec and are getting abnormally persistent IR, but they seem to be in the vast majority.

Consider taking Kevreh's advice and pick up a Plasma from someone with a good return policy then run it through it's paces for 2-3 weeks and see if it gets stubborn IR or not.
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post #10 of 20
2/6/13 at 7:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RandyWalters View Post

If any TV buzzes beyond a few feet then something inside is defective. My GT50 is silent at 1 foot away while displaying the brightest white slides so this should be considered normal operation. There is no need to drown it out with the TV's speakers; if you get a buzzer then return it, replace it, or repair it. Many owners here have had theirs repaired successfully, or had a buzzer replaced with one that is completely quiet.

Of all the 2012 owners that post here on AVS, only a small percentage of them are reporting persistent IR while the vast majority are not. I watch 4 hours of local news every day (2hrs AM, 2hrs PM) as well as sports and a LOT of Speed Channel on the weekends on my 6 month old GT50 and any IR i get goes away within minutes of changing to a different channel or different content. I also get zero IR from having the settings menu up on my screen for several minutes. I do believe that some peoples' panels are out-of-spec and are getting abnormally persistent IR, but they seem to be in the vast majority.

Consider taking Kevreh's advice and pick up a Plasma from someone with a good return policy then run it through it's paces for 2-3 weeks and see if it gets stubborn IR or not.

Out of curiosity, when you watch local news is it the same channel, and do they have a "bold" or "subtle" logo/header? My problem was with MSNBC, which has a white header with black text (that actually persists through news shows). This is more bold than the logos that are a lot more subtle.

In general, I'm sure that the boldness and contrast of the logo, header or whatever plays into this.

If the IR on my GT50 went away like yours did the tv would still be in my living room. rolleyes.gif
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post #11 of 20
2/6/13 at 8:33am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by adone36 View Post

A tivo will not pause for 30 min. And why worry about 10 people talking about "IR" when 500 others claim none.

If you pause a Tivo on a prerecorded show (not live TV), it will stay paused indefinitely.
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post #12 of 20
2/6/13 at 8:36am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RandyWalters View Post

If any TV buzzes beyond a few feet then something inside is defective. My GT50 is silent at 1 foot away while displaying the brightest white slides so this should be considered normal operation. There is no need to drown it out with the TV's speakers; if you get a buzzer then return it, replace it, or repair it. Many owners here have had theirs repaired successfully, or had a buzzer replaced with one that is completely quiet.

Of all the 2012 owners that post here on AVS, only a small percentage of them are reporting persistent IR while the vast majority are not. I watch 4 hours of local news every day (2hrs AM, 2hrs PM) as well as sports and a LOT of Speed Channel on the weekends on my 6 month old GT50 and any IR i get goes away within minutes of changing to a different channel or different content. I also get zero IR from having the settings menu up on my screen for several minutes. I do believe that some peoples' panels are out-of-spec and are getting abnormally persistent IR, but they seem to be in the vast majority.

Consider taking Kevreh's advice and pick up a Plasma from someone with a good return policy then run it through it's paces for 2-3 weeks and see if it gets stubborn IR or not.

I'm already on my second Samsung from Amazon. I wonder how many times they will let me return a TV.

My fear is that I won't notice the IR until it is too late and I can't return it. Is IR always more drastic during the first 100 hours? I.e. if there is no IR in the first 100 hours, is it safe to say that there will never be IR issues?

Also, Panasonic claims that IR is never something covered under warranty, so I'm not sure that it can be returned if it has IR.
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post #13 of 20
2/6/13 at 9:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ed3120 View Post

I'm already on my second Samsung from Amazon. I wonder how many times they will let me return a TV.

My fear is that I won't notice the IR until it is too late and I can't return it. Is IR always more drastic during the first 100 hours? I.e. if there is no IR in the first 100 hours, is it safe to say that there will never be IR issues?

Also, Panasonic claims that IR is never something covered under warranty, so I'm not sure that it can be returned if it has IR.

IR tends to be worse the first hundred or so hours. I'd run slides over night and while at work to blow through the 100 hours or so as quickly as possible and then start using it normally to test for IR and other problems while in the return window.

If you like watching ESPN or other static logo/ticker channels for hours, do so and see if you get stubborn IR. If you play video games for hours, do so and see if you get stubborn IR. If you do and can't live with it, return it and go with an LED/LCD.

I did that with my UT50 and after 2 weeks decided I couldn't live with the buzzing on bright scenes (had them send a tech who replaced screws and called it normal) and IR from long ESPN and gaming sessions and ended up going with a 55" Panny ET5 LED set and love it. But maybe you'll have better luck with plasma, or your usages aren't as prone to IR issues as mine or so on. The picture on the UT50 was great (other than with the blinds open during the day), but I couldn't live with the buzz, or IR worries since watching ESPN and playing games is probably 2/3rds or more of my TV usage.
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post #14 of 20
2/6/13 at 9:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevreh View Post

Well, I can tell you I have a GT50.... loved it....until I started seeing ir. I literally have 1 more day to return it and am reluctantly thinking of doing so. The IR is from a news channel I watch. I watch it an hour in the morning, noon, and evening. Give or take. I don't know if IR is from a single occurance or from cumulative viewing of the same channel with a logo or banner. Either way, I can see the news logo/header faintly on other shows where there's a light or solid color background.

Having a tv with great picture quality is nice. Oh yeah, unless there's IR. Its like having an itch you can't scratch.rolleyes.gif

That is why I took back my GT50, I saw IR after only 30-60 mins of watching the History channel and then on another local sports channel.
I didnt want to risk it getting worse, so I just took it back, my old plasma never had IR at all, plus I game a lot and dont want to risk getting burn in.

As for buzzing all plasma's buzz to some extent, as long as you cannot hear it past 5-8ft with the sound at a normal level, its fine. Sure some people get lucky and dont hear buzzing, but my old plasma and the GT i returned both buzz a little esp during super white scenes but I could only hear it if the TV was muted

Also if you are going to pause the TV for a long period of time , just turn the TV off while its paused.
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post #15 of 20
2/6/13 at 9:09am
I either have bad luck getting loud buzzers, or I'm just very sensitive to hearing it. I've tried plasmas twice--the 55 UT50 last month and a Vizio several years back. Both times I could hear buzzing from 8-10 feet over dialogue in bright, quieter scenes. And both times a white slide with no sound on was audible from 15-20 feet away.

In any case, I'll never go with plasma again. Between the luck with/sensitivity to buzzing and IR problems due to watching hours of ESPN and long gaming sessions it's just not the right TV technology for me. And I post that just so others with similar usages see that and not all the posts from plasma lovers saying that IR isn't an issue anymore. It is if your viewing involves lots of static images and not enough mixing of content. Hopefully OLED or some other tech comes along that can match plasma PQ with no proclivity for buzzing or IR. Until the, some of us will have to give up better PQ for peace of mind with no buzzing and no risks of IR for those of us who only watch a few channels that have tickers etc. for long stretches and play long gaming sessions.
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post #16 of 20
2/6/13 at 9:31am
Thread Starter 
The problem with switching to an LED is the price difference between a 64"/65" LED vs a plasma is pretty dramatic. I was very happy with my first plasma (D7000), but it broke due to an unfortunate accident. It had zero IR (I never did anything to break it in and I watched/gamed whatever I wanted on it). It never buzzed either.

That's why it's really disappointing that 18 months later, I can't just buy a TV at the same size and price and not have to worry about IR and buzzing. I just want a TV that is as good and defect free as my D7000. I feel like IR is telling everyone what they should be watching on TV, which is unfortunate. We should be able to watch whatever we want. If we play a game too long or what our favorite channel all day, the IR-related solution is to not play that game or switch to another channel. I've never owned a TV in my life that controlled my viewing habits. smile.gif
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post #17 of 20
2/6/13 at 9:36am
True--at least if you want a full array LED set and/or need 60"+. I'm not a videophile at all, so I was fine going edge lit and don't really need bigger than 55" since I can only sit 8 feet or so back from it.

I got the Panny 55" ET5 LED for $899 from Amazon (got price adjustment to a Frys.come sale price). I had paid $849 for the 55" UT50, plus $38 for t2o pairs of Samsung 3D glasses (the ET5 comes with 4 pairs--uses passive tech rather than active) that I returned when I exchanged the TV. So the price difference for me was negligible thankfully.

And yes, I'll NEVER own a TV that I have to change my viewing habits for. Any TV I buy must work for my viewing habits, not the other way around. I primarily have DirecTV for sports, and I watch ESPN for hours. Will be on ESPNU pretty much all day today (already been on several hours) while working from home and watching national signing day news in the back ground. When I get sucked into a video game, I want to be able to play all night with no worries. If a TV can't do that without IR or other issues, then I don't care how good the PQ is as no amount of better PQ is worth not being able to use my TV the way I want to.
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post #18 of 20
2/6/13 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
A Samsung tech just took a look at my buzzing E7000 and told me that the buzzing is normal. I'm defintely considering trading it in for a GT50 now, but this IR thing worries me. Most people say they have no problem, but some people persist that their IR is stubborn and won't go away. I don't know what to do. I'm tired of swapping out TVs already. smile.gif
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post #19 of 20
2/8/13 at 7:21am
I had a 60ST50 and exchanged for a E6500 because of IR. As soon as i fired up the Samsung i noticed the not as inky blacks and was disappointed - then the buzzing started (which i could still hear at 9ft over decent audio). After 2 weeks of trying to get used to it - i went back to the ST50 and am super happy i ended up with the better display. Blacks are better, and is near silent on normal operation. You can manage IR - buzzing you cant.
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post #20 of 20
2/8/13 at 1:17pm
Where did you get the ST50?

I'm looking for the 60" version, replacing a Samsung 58" C7000, that broke just prior to 2 years.
Samsung sucks.
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