FAQ & RULES LINKS_ Plasma & Panasonic Plasma FAQ - Read First! - Page 6

I just got a TH-42PX20 a couple of months ago and have recently hooked up a DVDO iscan HD video processor. I have a couple of questions.

1.What should I have the settings on the Plasma set to when using an external scaler?

2. The only way I can send the Native resolution (1024x768) is via the PC input on the FRONT of the display! (Poor engineering in my opinion). Do you think as far a picture quality goes I am better off sending an analog native resolution to the RGB (PC input), or send 1080i totally digitally through to the HDMI input? hope that makes sense.

3. Some movies and tv Channel have LOTS of little flashy pixals, especially durring scenes with flat color something I am sure everyone see sometimes. How do you reduce this? I notice by turning the contrast down it goes away, but then the picture gets a little dark. Should I calibrate?

Any feedback would help me sleep at night. thanks

Question about blackness on 42phd7uy. At night while I am watching a dvd with no lights on, the "brightness" of black scenes in movies bothers me. I thought the phosphors in the plasma don't light up when black is supposed to be showing up on the screen.

What are the issues on the 50PHD7UY??

Wild, uninformed speculation here, but...

Maybe Panasonic quietly switched to 7G panels in the middle of the 25 series production run. Such things are not unheard of. I never saw many claims about 7G improvements in PQ, only in longevity and burn-in resistance. The 7Gs had been alleged to offer a 60,000 hour half life vs the 6Gs' 30,000.

In November 2004, while 25's were still in full production, Panasonic issued a bulletin that rated their plasmas at 60,000 hours. No qualifiers such as "up to" or "most," just an unequivocal statement. It never seemed to make much sense for them to be building two different kinds of panels at once - in each of about five different configurations - especially at a time when they were selling the sets as fast as they could make them.

As for the 8th generation, we may be seeing the inevitable evolution in technology where the most significant quality issues have been largely addressed and emphasis switches from major improvements to maintaining existing quality while finding ways to reduce manufacturing costs.

Most plasmas are already very good and future improvements are more likely to be in small increments rather than dramatic, much as they have been in CRT's in recent years. On the high end, I'm sure the goal is to provide 1080 x 1920 pixel panels, but the mass market would be content with current quality at half the cost. Sooner or later that's where manufacturers will turn their attention. The Koreans seem to be trying to move in that direction. Maybe Panasonic is too, starting with 8G.

As I said, just unfounded conjecture, but from someone who has lived inside corporate executive suites.

Can someone tell me something about 3-2pll down or 3 3 Pulldown and our Plasma's? For some reason I just cant get my head around this. I have a TH-42PX20 and an external scaler. Should I have my DVD player, scaller or my Panny plasma set to something specific in order to make sure I am getthing the best pulldown?

sorry might be a very dumb questio.

how do we know which models have which glass though? i preordered the pd50u and if the pd50u and the pd25u have the same glass 7th gen then i might as well get the pd25u with the features i want, does anyone know for sure what glass panasonic is using for these models.

So I finally received my Panasonic 50PHD7UY last night and just set it up this morning. The picture looks awesome out of the box. I still need to pick up a calibration disc. Thanks to everyone for their input.

My question is what should my picture settings be for the first 100 hours.
Currently they are:

Picture 25
Brightness 0
Color 0
Tint 0
Sharpness 0
Color Temp Normal

I havent changed any of the original advanced settings.

After 100 hours what are peoples settings?

Cheers,

Matt

BruZZi,
I sent you a PM

Looks like that's the default "standard" setting with the sharpness turned down a little. I would lower the picture to something below 10 and change the color temp to warm. The color temp setting change is going to make the colors look a little off at first but the warm temp is closest to the reference 6500k and after a while you will adjust.

Thanks for the reply. The settings make it a little washed out, but Spider Man DVD looked great. Thanks.

Any advice on settings in another 98 hours of use?

Cheers,

Matt

matwags

try this posting and the one that follows it:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...89#post2233889

Thanks,

I had to copy and paste those to word and print them, so I can use them in front of the panel.

Matt

Does anyone know what the additional items in the 50PHD7UY's hidden menu are? Specifically the "Slot Power" and the "V. Installation" controls? I went into this menu to turn off the OSD, and noticed that there are two pages in this menu. It differs from the menu shown in Bruzzi's Plasma FAQ Page, that only shows one page.

Thanks,
Andy

These are guesses but...

Slot power seems like it controls the power to the input slots. Maybe you can turn them off and on.

V. Installation is probably some setting you have to modify if you have the plasma set up vertically. I'm more sure about this one.

I've used my 7uy for about 700 hours and I haven't felt the need to really change the settings much from the beginning.

Using DVE, I haven't had to change any of the settings too far from the mid range (i.e. 0). I have the following for DVD's which I use in relatively dim settings (about a 75 watt light bulb):

Picture 10
Brightness -5
Color 0
Tint 0
Sharpness 3
Color temp warm
gamma 2.2


Using color temp at normal with gamma at 2.2 - I had to adjust the color setting to get the colors correct with DVE. Using warm and 2.2 they are spot on at 0.

Help Please!
I have a TH-42PD25 and have been struggling for the past few days to program picture settings for watching HD, analog cable and DVD.
As far as I know the TV is supposed to store settings individually for each input.
However whenever I make changes to the picture settings with the antenna input these changes are getting stored for the DVD component input and visa versa.
The result is that every time I watch TV or DVD I need to play with the controls to get acceptable results.
Please let me know if any of you had the same problem and how you overcameit.
Thanks

Details of my connections are as follows.
I have regular basic cable with 3 OTA HD channels provided which is plugged directly into the antenna A connection. No cable card or STB.
I am running the connection to TV from my DVD player through component 1 input.

You have to assign a different setting to the input. You have cinema, standard, vivid, and auto. I use standard on the component and HD OTA, and use vivid on the OTA analog. I have changed the values for them. If you make changes to the "standard" one for example, it changes "standard" globally and every input set to "standard" will be the same.

I think I can get the best picture on "standard" so I use it for DVD and OTA HD. Cinema is just too soft a picture. I suppose I could get "auto" be ok, but I tend to just watch the TV in a dark environment so I like the settings to be constant.

hello everyone. I'm in the market for a plasma and was interest in 42pa25u model that can be found at Costco for 2199. is that a good buy??

I went to sear and saw the 42pd25u but for 2799. Is it worth getting the 42pd over the 42pa? I know this is probably a common question. If you guys can recommend any other model, I would appreciate it. I am looking to spend around 2k up to 3k for a quality plasma screen. I heard and read that panasonic use one of the best engine in the plasma market. I saw it today and was very impressive by it. If you guys can suggest or give me some ideas on what to get around that price range, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

also, currently I have the basic cable package from comcast which is basically just the local channel through the coxial input from the wall. I might upgrade to get more channel but at this time, I only watch a few channel. Also I play GT4 on playstation 2, do I have to be concern with burn in? i read as much as possible but there are way too much information and don't know where to start. I was initially looking at getting a LCD tv but for the same price of a 32 inch LCD, i can get a 42 inch plasma, hence the reason why i am going with plasma instead of LCD. This unit will eventually be moved into my bedroom once I buy a house. Thanks.

Allow me to be among the many that will tell you that Panasonic is releasing a newer model, the 42PD50U, which should start showing up in stores this week. Some people who pre-ordered have already received it. It has a MSRP of $2500, but if you are patient, you should be able to get it for $200-300 less than that.

The PD25U differs from the PA25U primarily in that it has a built-in ATSC/QAM tuner for OTA HD reception and a cable card feature allowing you to avoid using a cable box. The PA is a good buy if you don't care about the HD tuner and cable card.

In many ways, the new PD50U could be described as a stripped down PD25U, with fewer features but newer electronics than its predecessor at a much lower list price. Among the missing features is the cable card, so it you want that you might want to track down a PD25U, though they are getting hard to find. Some people have reported seeing them on closeout for $600 less than Sears quoted you.

If you don't care about the cable card or PIP (also missing now), the new PD50U would seem like the best buy, if for no other reason than it has Panasonic's latest picture circuitry. It does retain the ATSC tuner.

The replacement for the PA25U isn't scheduled for release before fall. Supposedly, it will list for under $2000.

As for burn-in (and lots of other info), go here:

http://216.180.241.242/~glaucob/forum/index.php?

Under FAQs, check the White Paper, Plasma Facts and Myths.

I posted a thread with this question but didn't get any replies, so I thought I would try it in the main Panasonic thread, in hopes that this is where the real Panasonic experts hang out.

My question: I decided to take the plunge and adjust the overscan settings on my new Panasonic TH-37PA20. I understand what the H POS, H WID, V POS, and V WID settings are for, but I'm curious about the _OF settings (HP_OF, HW_OF, VP_OF, VW_OF). What are they for?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Brad

wus up everyone, well I just pulled the trigger and got the 42pa25u at costco and I'm happy with it. It was a tough decision with the pioneer and the panny at costco but couldn't justify the 1000 increase from the pioneer.

My question is, if I wanted the option that the 42pd25u has, could I get it as a seperate unit or something? what does the extra feature do anyways? if anyone care to explain it to me, I would appreciate it.

Also one last question, do native resolution play a huge part in picture quality?? thanks for any info.

The ATSC tuner lets you receive HDTV and other digital programs over the air from your local stations using a good antenna. (A regular NTSC analog tuner can't receive HDTV.) You can add an external ASTC tuner later if you choose. They are usually about $300, but can be found from time to time for less than $200. They'll probably get cheaper in the future. You don't need one if you only watch cable.

The cable card eliminates the need for an external cable box. It's of value only if you want to avoid the box. You seem to have a box already, although you may need an upgrade to get HD and enjoy the full potential of your new set.

Your last question arouses more passion than anything else on this forum!

In my opinion, it does if you think it does. It certainly makes a huge difference on paper, but in the real world the difference is in the eyes of the beholder. Some people see important differences, some see almost none, while others see a difference, but not enough to justify a 40-60% cost differential.

Seems to me you have already answered it for yourself. You couldn't justify spending $1000 more for the Pioneer, which has higher resolution than the Panasonic you bought, so it didn't seem to make a "huge" difference to you. A lot of people agree, which is one reason more 42" ED plasmas were sold last year than all other sizes and resolutions combined.

I agree with the previous poster -- this is a question that is debated ad naseum elsewhere within these forums. One thing I will say about the Panny, though, is that you cannot feed it it's native resolution, which is really quite irritating because it forces you to use the internal scaler. For that reason alone I tell anyone that might ever desire to use an external video processor to steer clear of Panasonic.

This seems to run counter to my experience and those of others. Which specific panny's are you referring to and with which external source?

You can send native to panny plasma's. I am not sure about the commercial models, but I know with the consumer models you have to send it via the pc input on the front of the display...which really sucks.

I'm puzzled too. I get fine results from an iScan Ultra though a 42PD25U's rear component input.

If I remember correctly those are the H/V size and position of the picture under "ZOOM". I adjusted mine and it is one of the best features now to be able to take the 4:3 letterbox shows and zoom them to fit precisly into 16:9. A huge number of shows on SciFi are this way, especially all the new series like SG-1, SG-Atlantis and Battle Star Galatica.

he is talking native resolution i.e. 1024x768P. your iscan ultra does not send a native signal. Only the iscan HD or HD+ can send it.

On the HDTV consumer models (all of them I think) the component and hdmi on the back of the plasma can only accept 480i/480p/1080i. You can however use the VGA input on the front of the plasma to send any number of resolutions including the native resulotion of a 42 HD model (1024x786P). You have to live with a cable pluged into the front however.

can someone please help me with setting up the tv so that when I watch tv, i don't get the bars? also what is the best setting? when I watch a dvd, i get the black bar on top and bottom, is that normal? is there a way to change it? how do i change the zoom setting so that I can adjust it? well any help is much appreciate as the manual doesn't explain much.

Thanks for all the answer you guys have provide, I am that much more knowledgable with plasma

I'm referring to all of the consumer HD models. You can't send the panel its native resolution, e.g., 1024x768, except via the (analog) VGA input on the front panel, which has its own limitations. To what specific panny's have you had success sending native resolution?