Set-up and Use of the Panasonic PT-50LC13 - Page 4

Jesus Christ!!!!
Is that the biggest thing you have to worry about each day??? I wish that was at the top of my list of problems.
You need to be looking on the other AVS forum... Audio/Video Servants.

I'm still waiting for my tv to come but my stand is awesome and cheap. I would put the link on but it wont let me since I dont have enough posts. Go to ikea's website and search "tv unit docent". It will be the first item to come up.

Question- I currently use my xbox as my dvd player and I have read that if the tv has a good video processor, it doesnt matter if it's progressive scan as long as it has component outs. If this is true, Ill wait until the dvi dvd players dont have so many bugs to get a new one.

You can read here about DVD players:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...deInt=0&mpeg=0

That site doesnt answer my question... Has anyone watched movies on xbox with the PT-50LC13? How's it look?

My set was delivered on Monday and I'm very pleased with the picture quality!!! However, I'm having a horrible time trying to incorporate my Tivo into my HD setup. How I wish I could get Direct TV. Problem is my condo association has some kind of agreement with Dish Network making them the exclusive satellite provider. Not to mention the fact that my cable's free every month. All I pay for is premium channels. Hard deal to beat, but I'm banging my head against the wall trying to use my Tivo. Maybe I should just give up on HD and deal with the fact that I'm can only have SD if I want to watch recorded shows - but it's soooooo purty. I think I'm going to have to get a good S-video cable and just go back to my Time Warner DVR - argh!

Unless any of you have any bright ideas....

Does anyone know when those HD Tivo's are due out and if they will have more than one tuner????

ReplayTV (yes, I've considered it) does have progressive output, but still only one tuner. Whoa is me...

They are reportedly due out March '04 and will have 4 tuners: 2 ATSC and 2 DirecTV. There's a thread about it here:

HD DirecTiVo info from CEDIA

Owning the pt-40lc12, it's nice to see some traffic about these panny lcd's since there's got to be some commonality.

I looked far and wide for a stand and found what I needed in a Tech Craft MT400. I got it on Ebay for about $200 and it looks great and matches the TV perfect.

Also, I had gotten into the service mode and tried tweaking to get rid of the purple tinge in the whites and blacks. I was able to finally adjust it out using a black and white image and adjusting the color out of the grey's. Worked perfect.

These tv's need some initial tweaking but the reward is a really nice picture for the price. DVD's and some of Dishnets channels look absolutely gorgeous. SOme of the other channels look like crap, but it's not the tv.

I purchased the 50LC13 a few days ago and have been pretty happy with it.

Have any of you tried to hook a computer up to it yet? I have, and have gotten interesting results:

1) 1024x768 at 60hz does fine, both through the rgb (db15) ports and the dvi port.

2) 1260x720 at 60hz works through both the rgb port and the dvi port, even though the owner's manual says the rgb port only supports 1024x768 max. The problem I am having is that the computer image does not seem to fit the tv screen (taskbar and sides of computer image are cut off - maybe 20 pixels). At first I thought this was an overscan issue, but I get the same "cutoff" even when I do a split screen with regular video so that the smaller computer image is not even close to the edges of the tv. Certainly doesn't seem like optical overscan at least. I have tried this both with a Geforce4 Ti4200 video card (with dvi) and a Geforce2 MX video card (regular rgb out). Both of these had selectable resolutions of 1260x720 under windows XP.

It is interesting to note that when you press the information button with the 1260x720 graphics running into EITHER the rgb or dvi input you get "720P". If you have the graphics running at 1024x768 into the rgb port you get "XGA xx hertz" (where xx can be 60, 70 or 75). I have only been able to get 60hz working at the 1260x720.

Fonts seem easier to read at 1024x768 than 1260x720 for some reason, but if you change the font size this is not much of an issue.

I would like to run 1260x720 if I could only figure out how to get the whole image on the tv screen.

Have any of you had better luck?

flyboy909:

How did you get into the SM of the 40LC12?

I have the same problem with mine to but using the VGA connection only.
Did you notice any difference between the rgb and DVI connection?

Newmie

nope, no difference using either the dvi or rgb connection, though the dvi connection will not accept all of the resolution types that the rgb will.
The tv identifies both as 720P when 1260x720 is run into either one.

Try pressing split screen while you are running 1260x720 into your vga port and post your results. I am seeing the same amount of cutoff screen even when it has been reduced to the point where optical overscan should not be an issue.

I am wondering now if there really could be a way to get 1260x720 without any cutoff....

Is it 1260x720 or 1280x720?

Ordered the service manual for the PT-50LC13 today. It was pretty cheap, $13.69 including tax and shipping. It is back ordered for 4-6 weeks so unless somebody gets one earlier...

I didn't do split screen, but I did try aspect button (full, Normal...) and still no luck. I know on my 19 inch monitor if that happens I would just hit the re-image button and it would correct it. But I don't think theres such an option with the PT-50...

I did the XP plus fish tank screen saver and my cat was all over it .

Its ok with me as I can still get to my Programs menu and games, movies still look normal. Its more or less an issue with my desk top from what I can tell. I hope to have it hooked up to the internet by this weekend.

Newmie

sorry, 1280x720 (not sure where I got the 1260 from)

Update on the vertical resolution. I created a simple bitmap (in paint, lol) that has 720 lines (360 black and 360 white) with labels at every 100 lines. Putting this bitmap at full screen, I can see line 19 and 696. If I look up under the plastic bezel I can see at least two more lines on the top and bottom, so the plastic bezel on the tv is covering at least some of the pixels. Based on this, I belive I have a viewable vertical resolution of 678 pixels. On the plus side, Every line is visible, and after staring at the screen counting all 678 lines, I did not see one single bad pixel :-)

I have work to do, so am not going to bother measuring the horizontal resolution :-)

Lol, had to do 5 posts before I could put up a url with a link to the bitmap I made to test your vertical resolution. Now that I am a "heavy poster", here it is:

www.skyko.com/panasonic/test720.bmp

give me about 5 min to upload it to my server :-)

ND:YVO4, thanks for running that test. Did you try to do the PIP test with the bitmap? I guess it might be hard to see with the scaling, so you could modify your bitmap to contain a solid color like blue from lines 19 to 696.

Oh, and btw, to make the bitmap full screen, at least in windows picture viewer, put it in a file folder by itself and select "slideshow". This will put just the bitmap on the tv screen, at full size.

just did the bitmap in PiP split screen mode, and although it is hard to tell exactly, it looks like it is cutting off about the same number of pixels top and bottom if you count the 2 pixels that were hidden by the plastic bezel.

So....I can make out all 678 pixels...unless the pixel size changes, I don't see how there can be any more.

This really does not explain the PiP being also cut off unless panasonic knows their vertical resolution is really 678, and thus scales off that.

Anyone feel a bit cheated? :-)

I still love the tv though.


My eyes hurt.


Ok, time to upload that bitmap.

They might be doing that. I've seen some weird things on DVDs and TV when there is zero overscan.

How do I view a Smart Media card in this set. I put several jpg pictures on a SM card and tried to put it in the right card reader slot. The instructions list SM cards under the PC card column but the SM card will not fit in the slot. Is there a PC card holder that will accept Smart Media and other types of cards that you then put in the card reader slot?

You'll need to buy a Smart Media PC Card adapter in order to use Smart Media with this tv.

I ran the Avia disk, and found the red was pretty hot. Reducing color helps somewhat, but the red is still hotter than green and blue. The normal user menus don't allow adjustment of the colors individually. Does anyone know whether/how this can be done?

It plays SD card memory directly, or you can put your SM card in a PCMCIA adapter and put it in the other slot.

Shawn

When using the DVI connection for my HD931, it allows you to adjust the Red, Blue, Green colors individually. What's weird is does not have the sharpness adjustment when using the DVI connection.

Ok I now know how to correct the screen shift problem with 1280 x 720 res. So simple too ...

Select TV on the remote while your viewing your desktop, select Position and move your horizontal setting to the right.

And their you have it

newmie

DVI is probably bypassing the circuitry that would add sharpness. This is probably a good thing.

Newmie, does this solve the overscan problem?

mlandau, here's the sequence to get into the service menu of a 40lc12:

There are two different service menus. The first one is called
"factory adjust mode". You enter it from a powered on state by holding down the VOLUME DOWN button on the set itself and the RECALL key on the remote for five seconds. Apparently to get out of this you turn the set off.

To get to the actual service menu, when in the above mode, you hold down
the VOLUME DOWN button on the set itself and the SWAP key on the remote for five seconds. To get out of this mode back to the previous
state you hit RECALL on the remote.

At this point a screen like the user adjust menu appears which has various
submenus. One is called Video Adjust or something similar. That is where I made my tweaks to get rid of red and purple push.