Panasonic ST60s are shipping!

wonder when they come out in canada

Well technically the ZT60s "are shipping" too, but like your ST60, it's not shipping YET

But congrats, maybe you'll be the first AVSer to get one ! This time of year is so exciting

I am supposed to be recieving my st60 tomorrow from 10-2 have you gotten yours yet?

It's been two weeks now, how about that update ?

Just picked one up ( the 50 inch ) from Best Buy in Iowa last night. They had one on display and one in stock.

What did you buy? An S60, ST50 or ST60? BB doesn't show the ST60 available yet.

It was an 50ST60. They must have just got them in yesterday. It didn't show up on the web, but it was in their warehouse in the back.

Congrats! I think you're the first AVSer to get an ST60

Hope to have it set up tonight when I get it home and have a look.

Wut?? Why didn't you have it set up 5 minutes after getting it home??

I know. I was forced into hosting a basketball party in the man cave the minute I got home. On a different TV.

"Sorry guys, i just came down with a bad case of projectile diarrhea and i think y'all need to leave"

Good one!

Unfortunately, that wouldn't deter that crowd.

I am too impatient that way, I would be hooking up the tv as my guests were watching the game. Unless the tv I had was known to be almost as good and it wouldn't be much better. I'm upgrading form a 60"dlp mit to the 60" st60, there is no question in my case. I would have it set up before the delivery guy leaves my house. (I know you purchased locally)

OK. Just got the 50ST60 set up and running. My first initial reaction after watching a little basketball; very CRT like. I did not ever see the ST50, but this set definitely improves on other Panasonic plasma's I've seen. I can say it has a better picture, deeper blacks than my Pioneer 6070 plasma. Again, more CRT like is the best way I can describe. I'm not ready to say that it matches my other plasma; the Pioneer 6020. But for the money, this is a nice set. I should also disclose that I had purchased the 50S60 earlier, and then exchanged due to too much reflection on the screen. This TV is quite an improvement over that set. Better blacks, and of course less reflection in the garage it resides in. I only wish I got a bigger one.

Markjl

Thanks for the great review/description. I have one question for you. What do you think of the brightness on this plasma? Was it better than the S60? Just curious to see how the filter effects the general contrast/brightness of the tv. Last years models seemed a little dim to me.

psychod2

I actually thought it was brighter than the S60. I set both sets to "custom" picture mode, but did not do any calibration. The "normal" setting looks somewhat dim to me on both sets. We have a Panasonic 42S2 in my office at work, and I can definitely see the improvement in contrast, blacks over that set. I should point out that the 42S2 seems to be built a little stronger than both of the "60" series sets. I suppose that's the sacrifice to get the thinner profile.
Edited by markjl - 3/21/13 at 6:03pm

Jealous of all of you buying the ST60s right know! I have too wait tell my birthday in may when i buy mine! Even though its not that long from now its like being a kid in a candy store i want it know!

Is there any buzzing with the set?

There is. I wouldn't call it annoying, but it is there.

How do you think it would perform in a room that gets a lot of sunlight (though not direct)? Do you think there would be a lot of reflection? How is the sound?

Please verify with the community that 24p/96hz option is available

I think the ST60 will perform as well if not better than other plasmas that I have seen or own with a room full of light. I think it can hold it's own against LED. My experience with light and reflection in a room is if it washes out a plasma, it won't look that much better with an LCD or LED. Of course, a side by side comparison usually favors the LED at a brightly lit store like Best Buy. In fact, the display model of this set looked relatively dim in the Best Buy store compared to others. You just don't know if the other sets are set to torch mode, etc. In the end, the improved blacks of this set don't seem to sacrifice brightness. I'm also no expert on how it compares to last year's ST50. Initial thoughts are it's the same panel. The sound of this TV is just average. It's hard to fit much of a speaker in the thin benzel.

I'll have to check on that tonight and get back to you. That would be a nice bonus.
Edited by markjl - 3/22/13 at 6:55am

I'd also be interested to hear whether it has a true CMS (brightness, saturation, hue adjustments) for primaries (R, G, B) and secondaries (cyan, magenta, yellow). Last year's ST50 definitely did not have this feature, at least not on sets sold in NA.

Me too, from what I have read though, it has the same Pro controls as the VT50 from last year (for what ever thats worth.)

Got mine (50ST60) last week direct from Panasonic. Replacing a 50" Samsung DLP set (which I loved, but was starting to get the "white dot" problem and probably needs a bulb soon).

Compared to the DLP, the default color tones are pretty bad, everything has a greenish tint on the Standard mode. After calibrating it in Custom I'm a lot happier but still need some adjustment. The picture is a LOT sharper than the soft detail of the DLP, that takes some getting used to. I'm playing around with the motion smoothing, I prefer to keep the picture as close as possible to the source.

The picture is fairly dim and looks better in a darker environment, but it is neither too washed out nor too reflective in brighter light, it's still acceptable.

The DLNA feature is nice, but I miss the PS3's ability to search a video to a specific minute and start playback anywhere. But it does play MKV videos which the PS3 doesn't (ahoy maties, if you know what I mean, wink wink nod nod).

Can't comment on sound since I have it connected to a Yamaha RX-V473 receiver. I am having an odd problem in case anyone has suggestions: everytime I turn on the receiver and TV I can't get any sound out of the receiver at all until I turn it up to very high volume, but if I turn the receiver off and on again the volume goes back to normal. It doesn't happen if I just use the receiver by itself (with Airplay, etc.) so I'm assuming the problem is related to HDMI CEC/ARC between the TV and receiver.

Overall I am happy with the purchase. LCDs are BRIGHT but other than that I think Plasmas offer a better, more natural picture.

Still waiting 24p/96hz ?