Panasonic TH-50PM50U arrived today - Page 3  

Thanks to digitalson and others I managed to mount my Panny without any problems althought it took three of us to lift it and mount it. Also I liked the swivel mount since it allowed me to get all the cables connected. Speaking of cables I liked the Pio model since it had the cables at the bottom unlike the Panny which had them at the back. I am now looking for a 25ft component video and would like to know the best place to buy it. Today's project is to route the cables throught the wall. Appreciate any advice before I begin this endeavour.

Gongura,
I got my cables at monoprice.com. They work great, as far as I'm concerned. The price was great.

Just picked up a TH-50PM50u at Stupid Prices in Woodinville WA. for a really great price!!!

Be sure to check their stock periodically if possible.

Thanks to all on this site for your input and great posts!!!

gongura: I concur. I ordered HDMI cables from monoprice for 1/3 retail.

I was pleasantly surprised by the how robust these things are.

Arrived in two days...they'll get all my future business.

Monoprice prices are unbelieveable. I will take all your words for it. For the Panny I assume I will require the 3 RCA component video cable? (Monoprice had a 5 RCA component video cable as well). Please advice

Gongura:

If I understand your ? correctly, either the 3 or 5 component will work. The 5's will give you speaker connections to the monitor. The 3's are for video only.

What is the difference in the PM50U and the PX50U?

Basically the same unit without a tuner.

PX has a black bezel, the PM has a seal gray bezel. No PIP/No OTA. 1 HDMI input.

PQ is excellant

Are you for reals dskelto?!? I have one of those stores opening this weekend nearby. I will definitely check it out...

If you have a sears around you they will Price match the costco price plus give you 10% off the difference.. Best of all they give free shipping after rebate... But only a 90 day return policy.. Unlike Costco which has a lifetime return policy.. But can't beat the price...

Hmmm...I am not sure I can say the PQ is excellent. Not sure if this is after the first hrs or after ISF calibration but right now the PQ on my Panny sucks for all SD channels. It is 'good' for the HD channels and 'excellent' for the DVD. Can someone post the settings for HDMI, Component Video and Composite Videos or point me to the thread that already addressed this.

Thanks

gongura, i agree completely. i think im missing something here.

Gongura:

I replaced my Costco 4312 Pio with this unit. I, too, thought the Panny PQ "out of the box" was "dark" vs my ISF'd Pio.

Here are my settings on the Panny, at least for the first 100 hours. The colors are much more accurate on the Panny, but not as bright. I took me a few days to get used to the difference, although I now like the realism of the Panny better. Reds are much more red and less red/orange than the Pio. Greens are super.

I am not getting the Panny ISF'd as I believe the grey scale is closer to 6500k from various things I've read.

Here are my current settings calibrated using the INHD "Tune Up" and the Avia disc. I have the HDMI connected from a Comcast Motorola 6412 HD-DVR set at 1080i and 480p.

Pic Mode - Standard
Picture/Contrast +20
Brightness - 5, unless watching Law and Order/CSI +3
Color +4
Tint -4
Sharpness - 20
Color Temp Normal
Color Managment Off. This raelly needs to be set to Off for SD, especially for golf/football, etc. Really oversaturates green/blue in SD
Black Level light

My SD I believe is better on the Panny than the Pio, although still depends on the broadcast.

Randy Walters who posts on the forum says he gets better SD thru his S Video connection. I haven't tried this yet as I've been pleased with mine thru HDMI and Component.

Hope this heps.

Costco has the TH50PM50U in the store now. The display seems to pixelate when displaying action. I thought this was not supposed to happen with plasma tvs. Could this be a problem with this model, or is it just a bad connection or some thing? Any comments on this from any one who owns one of these sets would be appreciated. I would hate to get one home and have to pack it back up to return it.

Just to let you know I seen this on the FOX sports highlight that they were showing in the store. The other plasma sets next to the Panny did not have this pixelattion issue. That is what concerns me.

Roy

no problem with mine, watching men's downhill/luge on nbc, woman's freestyle, and ice hockey.

those dudes are flying at 80+ mph in downhill and luge.

Roy PM me the Costco price.....thanks

Hey everyone,

I'm new to the forum, and pretty ignorrant when it comes to these tv's. I am planning on picking up one of these tv's this weekend at Costco, but the thing I have been seeing on the forum is that it doesn't have a tuner. What does that mean, and does it matter if I will always have a cablebox anyway?

it does not matter if you have a cable box.

So I've had the TV for just over a week now and here are my impressions at this point. I've played with the settings some but in general am keeping things pretty low except when I watch 24 or something I really enjoy.

Component 1 is the DVD side of a DVD/VCR combo player. The quality of the player is a low end Costco Go Video unit. DVD's look pretty good, Star Wars III looks incredible. Haven't seen much else yet but the stuff formatted for 16:9 I am very satisfied with.

Component 2 - Astound Cable w/locals & HD locals, digital pack, HDTV channels HBO and Showtime. This is an adjustment because I have been a Dish subscriber for 7 years. Since Dish decided to rape their current customers who want to convert to HD by giving them the privilege of leasing their new 622 with an upfront charge of $300, plus the lease fee etc. I am changing over to Astound since I already have Astound for internet. Standard def locals played through the Explorer 8000 HD PVR cable box look horrible to fair. The interesting thing is if I run the locals through the VCR using composite video to the TV (currently connected into the Video 2 input) it looks much better, pretty much on par with the Dish standard def stuff I get. My conclusion here is the Explorer 8000 unit does something just horrible to the signal in combination with the Panny.

HDMI - currently not used. The 8000 unit has an HDMI out but I was told by the Astound rep it isn't supported. Might try it anyway though.

Video 1- component input from the Dish 501 PVR receiver. Only got standard def out of the unit (it doesn't support HD) but after a week my wife and I were starting to get used to it a bit. Definitely a step down from CRT TV in terms of image quality but I wouldn't take the TV back because if it.

Video 2 - component VCR input from the combo VCR/DVD unit. Videos look ok. Mostly my kids stuff and they don't care how stretched Barney looks. Standard def TV bypassing the cable box and run into the VCR looks just about as good as the Dish standard def stuff does.

Overall Impressions - Signal quality from the provider and how the receivers process the signal has a lot to do with the quality and your plasma may get undue blame for the image being portrayed. Olympics and 24 in HD for the first time last night was wonderful and the picture was great. The Panny is a keeper for this kind of stuff. I love hearing the Dolby Digital that accompanies the video.

The stretch modes are ok. I really can't watch anything in other than Just mode for standard def. Even 4:3 didn't look great. There is a huge learning curve for the consumer in understanding how the technology works together and why even in HD you can still get black bars on the screen if the show was shot in a particular format.

I'd love to hear any tips and tricks and settings you other owners are working through.

Ok, so am I really dumb...Do I need a tuner?

You only need a TV with a tuner if you are going to use an external antenna to get over the air (OTA) signals. If you are using cable, Dish, DirectTV etc. then you are supplied (in most cases) a "box" that has the tuners in it. There are a few other variations and exceptions but that's it in a nutshell.

So the answer is maybe.

Thank you GHWK...So if I can find the Panasonic TH-50PX50U at the same or lower price as the TH-50PM50U, I should probably get the PX then. I didn't think buying a TV was so complicated!

Ghwk and others who are using the Panny with a dish HD receiver (811). What settings do you use on the Dish for the HDTV setup? The 811 HD receiver has three settings480P, 720P and 1080I. Does it really matter if I use 480P vs others? Does the Panny have a scaler that optinmizes any video signal it receives to a single format (not sure if the 13xx by 768 resolution mentioned for the Panny is related to the 480/720 or 1080i formats)? I am still not happy with the SD picture even though I connected my dish reciever with a component video. The Pio 4304 I retuned had a much better picture :-(..I am hoping that after the first 100 hrs things may look better.

Finally how do I enter the Service Menu for the TH-50PM5oU?

I haven't gotten the chance to go to get a calibration CD yet. Is it worth it to do so? Also, what picture settings does everyone suggest for the break in period?

(the salesman at Costco told me that Panasonics were "immune" to burn-in because of some newfangled technology that is proprietary to pannys)

Is there any big difference in PQ between the TH-50PHD8UK and the TH-50PM50U I like the all black of the 8UK. Thanks.

is that a hsu surround sound system? or somethin else?

How much is this at costco's? over 3 g's still?

I got my Costo TH-50PM50U this week after a long wait. The shipper Becons said they tried to call me at some dud phone number and sent a postcard after 5 weeks. I had ordered it on the first available day (hour) and it said it shipped from Costco on Jan 11th.

Anyway, I got it this week and it's truly awesome. I've never had a plasma or any HD TV . I've got the Directv Tivo unit. I previously had the DirecTivo SD unit.

I find I can't get used to watching SD programming stretched out so I'm risking burn in.

Question: Can anyone tell me if I ever decide to return this to Costco, do I have to have the box it came in? I told my wife to make -sure- they leave the box when they deliver it, but to make a long story shorter, they took the box... Does anyone know for sure?

Thanks, Jeff.

Hi all. My first post, but been reading for a while.

I too scoured these posts like a psycho for months prior to purchasing and it has been day 5 with my Costco bought Panny TH-50PM50U. Here are my impressions and thanks for the advice:

HDMI all the way: HD Tivo and upconverting Toshiba DVD player with HDMI go through my JVC RX-D401S receiver which connects to the Panny via HDMI. Speaker is the Polk surroundbar with a Polk PSW10 subwoofer.

The setup looks slick as all hell mounted on the wall in slightly differing shades of silver. Yes, I know piano black is the new silver, but I really wanted a Panny based on the reviews, and I wanted Costco based on the return policy. Strongly considered the Pioneer Elite PRO 1130 HD 50" plasma.

I am controlling the setup via a Logitech Harmony 890 with the equiptment behind cabinet doors (the 890 has RF capability).

The TV was calibrated with the Monster ISF calibration video.

Overall, HD via Directv is stunning. SD is OK. DVD seems to suck...I think the problem lies with the DVD player upconverting, then the receiver upconverting as well.

No motion sickness with sports, no pixelation issues. Black levels are superb. Hopefully I can fix this DVD issue.

Calibration video was easy and accurate. I can give my settings out if needed.

The remote is a $300 piece of trash. Totally crappy logitech software for this unit. DO NOT BUY IT or you will have an expensive paperweight like me.

The sound quality is awesome from my audio setup. Obviously the Panny speakers are off.

Overall, after making myself crazy for months trying to decide what TV to buy, I am finally happy, at peace, and going to sleep at normal hours instead of perusing every forum known to man. The peace of mind with the Costco return policy is actually pretty important, I realized.