Official Panasonic PX60/600 Tweaking, Settings, Issues, Technical Thread! - Page 239

The cost of the drop amps. Not only have I been there and tried that, but, I even swapped TV's between the PX60 and the other that DO WORK.

So, it's just an unfixable PX60?

I was just thinking of bypassing the two splitters. Seems simple and inexpensive too me.

Just a waste of time.

That's what I've been trying to tell you. Unless Panasonic comes up with a fix (which I find highly unlikely since they told me to GFMS 18 months ago).

This is what Panasonic said after an exchange of several e-mails. LOL!

"Thank you for your response.
This TV do not have the QAM Tuner, Once you Scan your channel, all the program that is support and Provided by your cable provider is what you should get, going directly into the TV, from the wall outlet.
If we can further assist you please call the Panasonic Customer Call Center at (800) 211 7262. Our hours of operation are Monday thru Friday 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. and Saturday ? Sunday 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. Eastern Standard Time."

Your response came from a BIGGER A$$hole than I spoke with. Now it doesn't have a QAM tuner?--LOL

Now they're changing the specs. See here: http://shop.retrevo.com/m/search/apr...m=393956&rt=sp

With that kind of a response, I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry. Thankfully you don't have to use their "non-existent tuner" but still, it's a feature you paid for. I would have expected more out of company like Panasonic. Heck, Toshiba is still supporting their HD DVD players and that medium has been dead for three years.

They knew the tuner had a problem 18 months ago when I spoke with them, but they NEVER tried to tell me that it didn't even have a QAM tuner since I've been watching the "few" channels that come in....but then drop away and show up at the WRONG channel address. Even the ATSC tuner section has a few problems.

Having searched this thread back before I found my fix, they apparently knew about this 3+ years ago.

From what I remember, my 37" px60u has the old QAM64 tuner. When your cable company, and mine, "rearranged" their digital channel selection, our tuners do not have the bandwidth to receive them. They are simply out of our frequency range. To receive these channels we are need the newer QAM256 tuner.

If Panasonic was aware of the problem 3 years ago and they had a fix, why wouldn't they have told me 18 months ago? Why did they JUST tell BIGA$$TV that the TV didn't even have a QAM tuner?

If you found the "fix", would you mind telling me what that is?



That's definitely NOT the problem that I have. Time Warner uses the same channels for regular broadcast stations that match the local ATSC channel numbers (2-1, 4-1, 5-1, 7-1, etc.) and NEVER changed them. While there are channels in the higher frequency range, the free broadcast stations are not on them. They intentionally left them in the lower range so that people with plain basic can get them without a cable box. The problem appears to be the way the quadrature angle is decoded by the tuner, which is why it works "on occasion".

I already did but that was apparently before you re-joined the thread. POST #7126 > http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post20340976

Note that I have a TH-58PX600U, if that makes as difference. I don't know what the difference is, but the FW update fixed my tuner issue. Serendipity? Maybe but that's one heck of a coincidence. I had wasted hours previously trying to get it to map the channels unsuccessfully. Something it at least did in part, when I last ran it basically to get the major networks' QAM channels to use with the split-screen function (not available on the 60, or so I understood).

I'm guessing that the 600 and 60 have the same tuners, so I do wonder about this. BAT stated he needed to use a different FW update ( no surprise there ), so is there a FW fix that Panasonic didn't bother with for the 60s? The recent poster noted that some (all now?) cable systems require a QAM256 tuner to receive all of their channels, so now we're talking a potential hardware issue.

Again, I don't know. I luckily solved my issue, posted that here in hopes of helping others and that's all I can say about that.

Actually, there is a tuner difference. In addition, if I recall, the PX600 (which was more expensive) had a dual tuner and might have even been a different brand. Is that correct? That's why Panasonic just didn't want to BOTHER to correct any problems in the lowly PX60's.

I just don't know if the tuners are different or not. Actually that seems like it would have been an odd engineering choice as mfgrs usually try to use as many of the same components as possible in the same line, however, the 600U has CableCard capability (I've never utilized it) and FAIK that may have required a different QAM tuner, so you're probably correct. The specs list NTSC and ATSC/QAM tuners for both models and nothing more, so not much help there.

I don't think there are dual tuners. Split-screen function requires using two different inputs and if there were dual tuners, then I think you would be able to watch two different channels from the RF input and you cannot.

I've never tried the ATSC tuner. The closest transmitter is over 50 miles from me and the rest put me in the ultra to deep fringe areas of reception. I've been tempted to put up an antenna (actually I would need a combo) and rotator on more than one occasion but that would be a few hundred dollar experiment as a self-install just to find out what I could actually receive and then I'd probably be into an amp/etc. with a couple of other TVs to feed. Trees, hills and likely multi-path plus the fact that I watch little in the way of broadcast TV have kept me from pursuing this. CableTV is just too easy. If I ever decided to dump cable, who knows? Actually with what I read searching this thread re: tuner issues, many felt sensitivity was a problem with these tuners (600U v 60U, I'm not sure now), so that might even be a further issue complicating my chances for OTA reception.

When the early Panasonic QAM tuners first came out there was a lot of information about the different brand tuners they were using as well as the differences in sensitivity. If they were exactly the same, then the firmware updates should be identical. From memory I thought that the 600 had a dual tuner, but I might be confusing it with another model.

At this point in time I've made adjustment in what I use the PX60 for and I have nearly 60K hours on it and it still looks okay so I can't complain about the tuner.

FWIW I'm trying to look into this a little further with my 600U, but if you know that the 60U has a QAM64 tuner, then the 600U probably does have a different tuner. At present I am basing my assumption on nothing other than the fact that my cable STBs are indeed QAM256 based and my 600U is tuning into channels on both ends of the spectrum. Not very scientific but my curiosity is piqued.

Wow, so there could be differences between identical models with different tuners then?


Yeah, this whole discussion is kind of a sidetrack for me too as I rarely use the TV's tuner. Though I like most of the bonus features and use some occasionally, a stripped down "pro" version probably would have given me everything I really use on a day to day basis.

Latest e-mail from Panasonic (obviously now written by someone who speaks English):

Thank you for your inquiry. I apologize for the misinformation that was provided in the previous post. In some cases, the firmware updates do not take affect until the TV has been reset. Much the same way that Windows often requires a restart after installing new software.
Please follow these steps to reset your TV:
1) Ensure the TV is ON.
2) Press & hold the VOL - button ON THE TV, and the SLEEP button ON THE REMOTE, simultaneously, for more than 5 seconds. The screen should display "Self Check".
3) Unplug the TV for about one minute
4) Plug the TV in, turn it ON, and perform the First Time Setup as per the Operating Instructions.

I followed the instruction. All this does is reset the TV. No help for the tuner. So, I had to redo the input labels and redo the picture and audio settings. BTW, if anyone wants to try the reset, it's the -vol button you hold down. I found this out by trial and error.

Just an FYI for everyone with a 600U.

I have had a Panasonic TH-50PX600U for several years now and a I am supremely happy with it.

On the day before Valentine's day of this year, it lost its ability to switch to the TVGOS screen. This happened overnight while the TV was turned off. Anything I would try to get the TVGOS function to display would fail. It would act as if I never pushed the GUIDE button at all and the TVGOS feature never existed.

This led me to do a master reset on the TV but it didn't help any. TVGOS was still gone.

I did check in the TV's menu system in the "About" category to verify the TVGOS firmware version but it showed BLANK. The set's other firmware versions showed correctly however. Just the TVGOS firmware was gone! The TV acted completely normal in all other respects.

So, I gave Panasonic Tech Support a call and spent hours with 3 different technicians to no avail. I reloaded all of the TV's most recent firmware available from Panasonic numerous times but it never made any difference. They couldn't even guess as to what could be the cause of my bizarre problem. In the end they suggested I take it in for service. I really didn't want to do that.

To make a long story short, seeing as how I am electronically inclined, I decided to take a look at the Panny's service manual to see if any mention was made of TVGOS, but there was no reference to it. I did find that the most likely board to contain the TVGOS firmware was the DT Board (Handles tuner functions). I found a used one on eBay for an insanely cheap price, so I took a chance and replaced that board.

REPLACING THE DT BOARD SOLVED MY TVGOS PROBLEM.

As soon as I powered up the TV after the board replacement, I went and checked the TVGOS firmware version, and it was displaying properly. All TVGOS functions worked perfectly once again.

Since TVGOS firmware occasionally gets updated automatically while the TV is turned off (in addition to the normal Guide data), I suspect that it accidentally erased the existing firmware and there was no way to reload it.

Sorry for the long-winded, dry read. Just thought I would share my experience with others.

Glad to hear you were able to solve your problem. As I'm cable dependent, I never use this function. When the TV Guide channel on Charter actually had a TV Guide, I did set it up and it would update. Now my TVGNetwork channel is some lame kind of entertainment and/or infomercial channel so it no longer does. Not a loss to me, as I have the cable guide. The TVGOS is still there, just doesn't do anything.

You have me curious though about the above statement. Are you saying that the firmware updates through the TV guide channel?? As in Panasonic provides updates to that network?

No, the way I understand it, only the TVGOS firmware occasionally gets updates automatically via the TV Guide data stream embedded in one of the broadcast channels.

The only way to update the various Panasonic firmwares is via the SD card slot. The files can be found on Panasonic's support site.

They don't have a firmware file posted for the TVGOS function however, as I later found out.

I think I understand what you're saying now. Yes, I've done the FW update through SD. Again, congrats on your fix!

Hi group,

I realize that this thread is VERY old with 234 pages and has gone dead since May, so I wanted to try to revive it and ask a question.

I've got a TH-50PX60U that is starting to get some age on it with 12,000 hrs. of operation and have noticed that the image has definitely degraded since the initial "wow" calibration that I started with 5-6 years ago. This deradation is certainly to be expected, as I understand it the brightness and other changes are going to occur as the set approaches 60,000 hrs. (half brightness).

So, what changes have you made as your display's image has started to degrade? Can you folks post your re-calibration settings with sets that have 12,000+ hours? I lost my DVE DVD, so looking for setting recommendations.

Thanks for your inputs!!! And Happy Holidays!!!

The only thing you can really do is recalibrate it. I have at least as many hours as you on my 50PX60U and it can STILL run rings around the lousy Sony LCD with LED backlight that was a "discounted" replacement for the defective 60A2020 SXRD units that Sony sold.

Also, it's been said before, but, I'll say it again, you CAN'T use someone else's settings and expect to get proper results. No two units are identical. Other than actual color calibration settings, you can easily adjust everything else with one of the MANY calibration discs out there. There is even a free one that's discussed in detail on this website. So if you don't already have one, I would suggest downloading the free one (it's a burnable ISO file) that's available. There were two versions, one for an HD-DVD player and one for a Blu-ray player. Either one can be burned onto a regular DVD.

I've had the TH-42PX60U for about 5 years. I'm still very impressed with the PQ of this set but had my first little scare this morning.

This is a bedroom TV and it's used morning/evening and a bit on the weekends. I've always noticed a bit of image retention but it always goes away after a minute or so. I've been careful to watch everything full screen. It gets used a lot to catch up on the morning/evening news. Therein lies the problem. Our only local news station in HD is WHIO. And they ALWAYS have their stupid crawl at the bottom of the screen. After watching over an hour of regular programming (crime dramas, etc.) last night, I noticed a ghost image from WHIO's crawl graphic was still visible. Needless to say, my heart sunk.

This morning I got out the old break-in DVD with all the colored slides and ran it for a couple hours. The image persistence finally seemed to disappear. I don't know if I'll be watching the same news station consistently from now on.

We've had our TH-42PX600U for 5 years, and the image retention I see after watching 4:3 material last only a few minutes. I've never noticed it w/ a crawl or any other static image.

Doug

Actually, I think he was asking what picture settings you guys are using/changed since the beginning.

I actually have the SAME TV with the same hours. I use a "slightly" modified version of the accepted settings for the time.

I have increased my brightness a notch. I'll post them later. TV is not in front of me, but will be on Wednesday when the 65VT30 goes back. (The VT30 is 3D, no not that 3D, I mean --- Dim, Dark, and Dingy)

I have IR on the 60U from TiVo's white "smile" (SDUI), FNC logo has left a "blur/shadow", also a "blur/shadow" from the green bar. But you can only see them with white or gray screens.

Overall, I've been happy with the 60U. Just not BIG enough anymore and blacks are terrible(always were). No NOT black "level". I'm talking everything black is just......straight black, no definition between blacks. The VT30 was vastly superior in this respect. After having a 65inch for a few months I could EASILY go 80. It's easier to go bigger than you might think.

what ia wrong with your VT30, and who did you buy it from -- that would allow a return after a few months....

Thanks, Techman, I downloaded and burned it and it worked like a charm through my PS3 player. I can't believe how much the settings have degraded in 12,000 hrs. My white level was at +22---now I have to max it out at +30 to get the best white levels. Doesn't sound too good---I know that this is a CERTAIN sign that the display is approaching it's 50% reduction in light levels--the indication that the set is worn through it's useful life. I KNOW that the original specs call for 50-60,000 hrs. before 1/2 brightness is gone---hmmm, hate to see this because this set BLOWS THE DOORS off my other HD set (Magnajunk).

Is there a thread or link anywhere for a burnable .iso file that will play on a Samsung standard progressive scan upscaling DVD player? I need to try to recalibrate the Magnajunk and this disc won't play on the Samsung which is connected to set

THANKS for your help!!