FAQ & RULES LINKS_ Plasma & Panasonic Plasma FAQ - Read First! - Page 36

Planning on mounting my new 42px60u on the wall this weekend.
I see four spots that look like "caps" on the back of the tv. They are in the general location that I would suspect the mounting brackets to go.

Do you simply 'pop' these off to reveal the mounting holes?
Just want to make sure before I go messing around...I didn't see any mention of the locations in the manual.

Just pop the grey caps off. They have little notches in which you could put in a flat-screwdriver and leverage them out.

Thanks!

Does anyone know if the audio output on the 42px60U outputs whatever is coming into the tv from all other inputs, ie HDMI or composite etc? Could this output be run into a receiver for surround sound from whatever source is playing thru the TV? I'm trying to figure out how to get surround sound from three possible sources ie the cable STB, DVD player, and VCR to my receiver without daisy chaining the outputs of each box and running one cable to my receiver.
Thanks

Question for you 50 8UK owners. Do any of you have 2 DVI cards in yours? I'm thinking about ditching the factory installed card in slot 2 and replacing it with either an HDMI card or a DVI card (I already one DVI in slot 1). I'm also wondering if it matters which card I get...I know HDMI is 12 bit and DVI 8 bit, but really, does it make a difference?

cpcat,

As far as what I am seeing with 720p:

A little less PQ than 1080i but in no way a bad PQ. The HT article implies an SD like image using 720p. (I was just watching a 720p broadcast and it might be on par with 1080i )
Could you elaborate again about what you are seeing on your px50 and how you have it hooked up?

Edit: I have a 720p shot of FOXHD in my gallery. Is that what you see also?
(I know the settings are off....I was still tweaking).

Will be hooking things up tonight (hopefully before 24). I've read that HDMI isn't much different than component, but at the cost of HDMI cables from Monoprice.com, should I just order 2? My main question:

To hook up an SA8300 box and DVD, is it best to go straight into the TV, component 1 and 2, or best to go into a receiver, then one to the TV? If I go to the receiver, will TV sound come out of the TV if the receiver is not turned on? (this is a "for the wife" question, she hates doing anything more than pushing the power button). Will not add receiver and 5.1 for a few weeks (or days), but just need to know what the best approach is.

I also have read a bunch about burn-in and calibration. I've seen "normal" brightness settings posted anywhere from -6 to +10. I calibrate, then reduce that by how much for burn-in? I'll be watching mostly HD locals, do I worry about gray bars during commerials, or is there a setting like zoom that removes them (but doesn't effect the HD picture)?

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, just too many threads to read...

Hi
I cant seem to turn the color of the side bars to a lighter color. I made a change to the "side bar adjust" menu, and it now reads "mid", but it still is black. Also, I cant change the aspect on the set. When I hit the aspect button, "full" appears on the screen, but I cant change it. Any help would be appreciated.

I have my HR10-250 and Denon dvd running hdmi into my denon avr 3806 amp and hdmi out to the th42phd8uk.

Panasonic's design does not permit changing aspect ratios on HD input. (I'm assuming the commercial models are the same in this regard as the consumer versions. It's been awhile since I looked at them, so I may have forgotten something, but someone will quickly correct me if I did. )

No doubt you are running the HD10-250 at 1080i or 720p, which the TV sees as HD and won't let you change. You are probably upconverting your DVD signal, too, which gives the same result.

You could make the changes on SD material by sending it to the TV as 480 from either source, if it bothers you enough to make the change whenever you go from SD to HD programing and back.

With SD stations, you could also stretch the HR10-250 output to fill the screen by using the "ratio" button on its remote. It will still give you the black bars on 4:3 "HD" signals, though, as these are broadcast by the stations and the receiver "sees" them as part of a 16:9 signal. More and more stations are using a color pattern rather than black bars in this situation, but most still use black.

Costco sells repackaged Sanus Tilt mounts under a different brand names called Simplicity (customer service number goes straight to Sanus) in store and a few others online. Prices are very similar to the e-bay prices and far cheaper than the big boxes. Easy to install if you keep in mind that the included instructions are awful and might give you wrong info on drill bit sizes (and the customer service guy, yes guy, is not very knowledgeable). Mine was also missing a couple of washers. Worth the $ saved though.

Got my 42PX60U set-up last night, awesome with SA8300 HD stations! Quick question about "Just" mode. Can that be set as default mode? It's great for watching SD content, but if you turn set off and back on, the SD channels show up as 4:3 (or Full mode). Just mode is almost good enough for all SD and HD content, it actually gets rid of station logo in most cases. Wife hates using 2 remotes, and I want to make sure she watches SD in Just mode during burn-in.

Speaking of remotes... I have the SA-8300 remote programmed for TV and DVD control, and seems to work well with common tasks. Only thing it lacks is the aspect ratio button, is there any way to program a key for that? I tried programming the TV remote to control the STB, but can't even get the program guide to come up, so using the STB remote seems to work best.

My TH-42PX60U does not remember the aspect ratio that I set it to on the TV (coax in) input. It always defaults to FULL. Even when I change channels, it immediately switches to FULL on any digital channel.

For all other inputs I have (S-Video from DishPVR, Component from DVD), it remembers the last used aspect ratio.

I am assuming that you want to use JUST on HD channels only as a safety precaution during the breakin period, right? Because you are losing a lot of the image viewing HD content in JUST mode (as you noticed, with the station logo disappearing). It is similar to going Pan&Scan on a 16:9 DVD.

Break in: I used a Plasma Window aquarium scene DVD to break in the first 100 hours of the set (with all picture settings at 0).

HD Quality: Good. I can't calibrate it because I don't have a DVD going through a digital connection. I know it's not quite right (Standard picture with Normal color temp, all settings at 0) though. This is through a SA8300HD.

SD Quality: Decent to crap. All depends on the station, and there is a lot of variation. Right now I have 4:3 stretched and upconverted to 1080i by the SA8300HD. You cannot change aspect ratio via the TV on a digital signal, which I believe you can with the NEC.

DVD Playback: Finally did the AVIA calibration on my component input last night. DVD source is a Toshiba SD3650 (I think that's the model #). The settings I had before were WAY off. I tuned the color setting down from what I calibrated due to it looking a little too saturated. Going to use the "steamed rat" method and the Spider Man DVD to do some visual calibration. With these settings I made a previously crappy DVD (Sound of Music) look decent (and this DVD has a horrendous transfer let me tell you). I think my final settings were/are: Picture 6 or 7, Brightness -17, Color 0, Tint 0, Sharpness -15. The calibrated color was 2.

I think I'm losing some black detail with these settings, however. Everything was calibrated using reduced lighting conditions, just 1 incandescent lamp about 10 ft away from the screen.

It remains for me to try a player with HDMI out and a Faroudja DCDi chip to see if I can get better decoding/signal processing than what I have now. Considering testing out a Dennon 1920.

That's about it for now.

Also consider the OPPO OPDV971H with DCDi by Faroudja. For $199 its a great little up converting DVD player that will more than suffice until HD-DVD/Blu-Ray becomes the common standard.

I may be missing something, you say you don't have a DVD going through a digital connection, but you say you have your DVD player going through component.. isn't that digital? "You cannot change aspect ratio via the TV on a digital signal", what do you mean? On my 42PX60U there's an aspect ratio button, can change it in the 8300 or on the TV.

Most of my SD is good at 4:3, and most isn't bad in "Just" mode. Anything under channel 6 is terrible. I have most of the settings at zero, except picture at +5, and black level "light". I had it on dark, but couldn't tell what was going on on 24 last night.

I have an old 2 disk Toshiba player I tried this morning through component (wouldn't even accept my DVD+ burn-in disk). Doesn't look too good, but I think I need to manually mess with it's output settings. I don't believe the Toshiba smart enough to output the correct resolution on its own. I think I'm going to try my Panny E80U recorder with it instead, or just go buy the OPPO upconverting unit.

I just printed out the first message of "SA 8300 Tips and Tricks" http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post4682052, and the SA 8300 Set-up Wizard Users Guide from the SA web site (not sure why I didn't get any documention with the box), so I'll be trying a few more things tonight.

Sorry if I wasn't clear guys. The cable box is going to a DVI card in slot 1 and the DVD is going in via component. I was under the impression that component input is analog, not digital, but I could well be wrong about that.

I have an Aspect button as well, but I'm pretty sure you can't fill the screen with a 4:3 image from the TV itself. So, if I set my SA8300HD to do 16:9 wide screen and to sidebar the 4:3, I don't think I can hit Aspect and do Just or Zoom to fill the screen with the 4:3 picture. I will double check this tonight. You can do this with a component connection however.

I know about the Oppo player, but what I want to do is to get a player, try it, and if it's not much better to return it. I guess I could do that, but with mail order it's a bit more of a hassle. Also the Oppo is silver, which I can't stand (cable box ruins my nice black aesthetic ). They really need to make a black case for it.

600U's are available! Mine is shipping the next couple days - try calling the factory

Thanks for the great info

I have a 500U, but the following instructions do not work for me? I am trying to locate the hours of use, but holding down the volume - button on the plasma just lowers the sound and then nothing happens. please advise.

PD50U / PX50U / PX500U.. :


..Hold Down the " Volume (-) " button ON THE PLASMA
..Press the "RECALL" button on the Remote Control 3 times
..Press "1" button twice on the remote to select "OPTION".
..Press and hold the MUTE key on the remote for 3 seconds.

..TIME ...= Hours of Operation (Hex Numbers)
..COUNT = How many times the Plasma was powered on


..Switch off the power to exit the service menu.


Quick tip by jasonbanks to covert the hours in hex to numbers:
In Windows, open CALC (calculator). Click View, and set it to Scientific mode.
Select Hex, enter the number then click Dec.
It will convert it to a number for you.

I set my SA8300 to passthru--I like letting the panny do the conversions. Have you tried passthru?

42pwd8uk

How do you set the 8300 remote//tv to passthru?

I just got a TH-50PX60U... are there some standards calibration settings out there that I can start with... I searched but was overwhelmed with results that weren't what I was looking for...

I appreciate any feedback or pointers in the right direction

You press "settings" twice and scroll down until you see Picture Format, can set Pass-through there.

Hi, all. Need some advice. I have a th-phd8uk. I did something really stupid: hooked up an a/v receiver to the same speakers I have hooked up to the internal built-in amplifier of the plasma. Input was only coming from the a/v receiver, but I heard a pop. I suspect I blew the internal amps in the plasma. Does anyone know if there is an internal fuse that can be replaced or where I can obtain replacement internal amps? Thanks.

Sam

Help for newbie.

Hi All, I have abeen a long tiem reader but have only recently managed to get to a stage when I can take the plunge into a new plasma.
I have the option of either a TH-50PV600M or a TH-50PHD8UK. Commercially they will cost me the same so no headaches there.
Woudl liek to know from al the guru's out ther as to which would be a better buy in terms of PQ. We do not have HD braodcasts here and by the time I get back to Canada, I am sure technology would have moved on quite a bit.
I plan to use the Plasma as my main viewing device but also have a Panasonic PT-AE900 projector mounted in the ceiling for movie nights.
Plasma speakers are not important as I am using a Denon AVR3802 with an Oppo DV971H upconverting DVD player right now with soema great Mirage and Polk Audio speaker sina 7.1 set up.
I am also looking to upgrade to the Denon AVR4306 and the new Oppo D970 player.

Any pointers and help would be greatly appreciated.

Roop

I am thinking of getting 60U or 600U (50"). Does anyone know if Ez sync feature works with non-panasonic A/V system. I have an old Sony HTiB and I would like to postpone purchase of any HTiB.

Or is it really hyped and should not be relied on??

Your the first person I've come across that prefers 1080i over 720p. You do realize the difference between a progressive scan picture and an interlaced?

with the 60u, should you have the STB set to 1080 or 720?

I have a 8300. Tried setting it to all outputs (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i), then just to 1080i. I saw no difference. I may set it to 720p and 1080i, does no harm leaving it on both.

I have the 8300 HD DVR also with my 42px60u (native 768). When I set the STB to 720, I think there is an overscan issue becuase I see a thin horizontal black and white line sometimes on top of the screen (most noticable on FoxHD). But when I set it to 1080, everything is fine.

Any input?!?