Purple Snakes, Magenta Banding on Panasonic Plasmas - Page 8

No way...I suspect that there a LOT more TV's without the problem. Just like the Sharp banding or Sony backlight issues you hear only from those that have the problem so of course it appears to be a massive issue.

Like any forum, this one is used for people to get together and discuss issues they are having. I mean, how boring of a thread would it be to have 10,000 people saying: "Yup, my Panny works great and Im very happy."

You know what I'm gettign at here....

And NO, mine does not have Purple snakes unless I'm watching a show where the content contains actual purple snakes....

Amo:

Here's hoping they fix this and you can reorder soon. When you see this plasma fed with a decent signal and calibrated properly you'll be glad you didn't defect to any other camp!

Shakini (Bob).

Cheers Shakini Bob!

I have got my eye on another model or two, but am hoping Panny can sort out the problem whilst the sales are on!! I have seen another telly - Hitachi 42PD9700. Saw it in a local shop with both digital terrestrial and HD footage and pic was truly spectacular. Anyway, thats a backup option. My eyes are on Panny getting a fix. Come on Panny - don't let us all down!

Amo

I understand your concerns but most of the sets are NOT affected by this. Like I said a few posts back, you're only hearing about the sets with isues.... not the thousands upon thousands of sets that do NOT have the issues. I got mine about a month ago. Perfect TV.

Dont wait around or settle for something less.... buy it. In the rare event that you got a bad one you can always swap it out...right?

FWIW, I have a 42" TX60U and have never noticed this problem.

Hi I would just like to say that I have a 42px60u purchased Sept 06 in the Toronto Canada area and I see the banding issue on some SD content,mainly on flesh tones. (peoples faces)I am hoping a firmware fix will do it not a hardware fix.

Guys,

Some good news.

Panasonic Japan has mentioned that they will come out with the fix by Monday and would meet me at my residence on Tuesday.

Please check attached images for the email transcript.

For people who feel that the purple snakes is not a real issue

Courtesy : Phil Read avforums

For people who feel that the purple snakes is not a real issue

Courtesy : Phil Read avforums

Never said it wasnt an issue. Read my post. I said that on this or any other forum you are likely to get a large ratio of people with problems.... thats what forums are for.

Again, should we start a thread that reads "My Panny looks great and has no problems"? I mean...what purpose does that serve? Noone is gonna read it and it offers little real information and therefore becomes a useless thread. Someone who does not buy this terrific set because of a few bad ones just doesnt make sense. There isnt a tv that doesnt have a few bad ones. See the Sharp & Sony threads, the Hitachi flicker thread, etc, etc. I bet the owners of thos bad sets would claim that all of those TV's are bad news too!

Not denying anyones problems, just trying to make the point that:

Internet Forums = A place to discuss problems, not gloat about how happy we are.

First of all most of the Panny lovers would never expect such a picture processing flaw especially when it's considered as the top rated HDTV standing tall alongside the PIO.

I probably know the answer to this (a resounding "no"), but could this imaging problem with either firmware / hardware also result in excess image-retention? I know there is an image-retention / image-burn thread, but I've seen so many posts with people having no problems with image-retention no matter what they put on their screens. I've seeing the purple snakes / ants and seem to have what I would consider moderate to high image-retention.

Is there any indication or thoughts that the picture quality and excess IR are related to hardware / firmware issues? I know I've already said I'm likely returning my set because of these 2 issues and going LCD instead, but I also agree that the picture, in general, is amazing.

Thanks.

It's easy to spot the difference between real troubleshooting and complaining just to complain. I said it earlier on...this is mostly just bashing.
If you have a bad set, stop whining and swap it out. It's not that hard to see it is bad.

igan all of those pictures are from one person and from those photos it looks like his calibration is way out of whack. Those pictrues look like oil paintings or something. I've said it before in this thread and even posted pictures of mine 42px60u. It does not exibit this problem.

Thanks lgans316, please keep us informed.

I agree this is more widespread, not just a few. Keep up the good work lgans316. A lot of us want to know the fix.

But, plenty of people have seen this issue. I recommend not going looking for trouble. However, if trouble finds you, it's not so great to be dismissed by people who don't see it on theirs. Panasonic is actually aware of this issue, and is sending 4 people to Lgans316 house, NOT "authorized service" people, actual Panasonic people to get this solved. Check out post #218, this IS an issue.

Check out this link:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=394430

Swapping out a set , depending on the circumstances can be inconvenient and expensive. It also may not solve the problem because the new set may have the exact same problem. If you have it, as mine does, which I still love by the way, it is obvious. I live in Manhattan and it is a real PIA for me to just swap it out. Plus I''l have to pay atleast $100 for delivery on a new, potentially just as problematic set. Real troubleshooting it is not returning it, but attempting to identify and isolate the problem, determine the scope and the impact and lastly working with the manufacturer to resolve the issue. When I called the US Concierge number the individual I spoke with was not even aware of this issue. However, clearly, it is an issue, and probably a manufacturing issue at that. I fail to see how this is complaining. If we were complaining we'd all be screaming at Panasonic to replace our sets immediately and writing about how much these sets suck.

You're 100% correct. Its not whining at all. My original intent was just to inform prospective buyers that they shouldnt avoid this set, or any other good set because there is an internet thread about a problem that affects likely a small population of sets out there. If we all used this logic then NOONE would ever buy ANYTHING because every TV make/model has a few bad ones out there.

I talked to a Concierge rep as well, and his comment was that in the 6 years he's been working with plasmas he's never heard of this problem. Makes me wonder if they even talk with each other, or log and compare complaints. There is definitely an issue that PART of panasonic is taking seriously, but those in the know don't seem to be sharing with other parts. My rep, also made some comment about issues in Europe don't necessarily indicate problems in U.S. due to different signals and such. Oh well, I figure I have a case logged and will wait to see what comes out of lgans316s situation.

Thanks Igans for the update. I really hope Panasonic are able to sort out the purple problem. Awaiting your update with fingers crossed.

Well, I have some of my own bad news to report. Last week I ordered a TH-42PX600U from Best Buy to pick up yesterday (they were on back order).

Of course, then I read about this issue here on AVS and pray my set won't have the problem. So I set it up tonight and watch Harry Potter GOF and sure enough I see a lot of purple artifacts, especially in the under water scenes. At first my wife didn't see it, but once I pointed it out, she saw them too.

This sucks. Of course I have no issues returning this set to Best Buy, but my options are to wait for a fix, or return within 30 days to exchance for a non-Panasonic 42".

Time to do some thinking.

-D

http$::/$picasaweb$.$google$.$co$.$uk$/$lgans316$/$PanasonicPlasmaPurpleMagentaBandingIssue$/$photo#s5007852916195735122
http$::/$picasaweb$.$google$.$co$.$uk$/$lgans316$/$PanasonicPX600PurpleSnakeIssueFlawedFix$/$photo#s5017895540549697266

Replace $::/$ --> ::/
Replace $.$ --> .
Replace $/$ --> /

The engineers are coming to my residence on Tuesday morning (JST) to apply the fix.
Hope that the fix works properly this time.

I've bought a th-37pv60 in Italy about 2 months ago and i confirm strong presence of purple snakes.
Cerpa62

Thanks for the posts and update.

I have been watching this thread with a lot of interest. I have a Phillips 50" plasma, and I have been living with bizarre colors for six months. There are so many bad effects that I no longer believe that any color I see on this TV is correct.

You can see some pictures of my set here.

My set has had its picture processor board replaced with no effect. Currently a new replacement plasma panel (including all its power supply and driver circuits) is on the road toward my local service center. I do not see this problem as likely to be display-related, but more likely something (including software) defective in the picture processing stage. I should know about the results of the panel replacement by Friday.

I encourage all of you--including those who have not seen this problem--to download the test files included with my pics and see what comes up on your screens. There is a color ramp included that should appear on your TV just the same as it appears on your computer. If that does not happen, please describe your results here--with pictures if possible. You can display the files from a memory card, USB memory stick, or a connected computer through any HD connection.

There was an early post in this thread indicating a narrow purple band showing up in a gray test ramp. That would be your snake when it appears in a normal image. And how do you get purple (red plus blue) when it should not be there? Well, that comes from an absence of green, so look for a dark band in the green test ramp.

The pictures I have seen in this thread look pretty much like the images on my TV. I am suprised by the focus on "purple snakes", when your pictures show large areas of inappropriate green, and skin tones demonstrate lots of green and red posterization--like on my TV. Do you also see streaks of yellow in cloud scenes? That would be caused by a blue drop-out.

Another thing to check. I can fairly well disguise the mis-colorization of my picture by selecting any auto picture mode. This is because: (1) the auto modes (like "Vivid", Rich", Multimedia") lower the brightness so much that about 25 per cent of the gray scale goes black, and there is no low-brightness detail; and (2) the auto modes also raise the color level so high that skin tones for all white persons turn a deep orange. There will still be some colored posterization, but it is fairly well concealed. I can totally swamp out the posterization by using a color setting of 100 (the proper setting is 22), but then every person looks like a character in a Simpsons cartoon. And of course everything glows.

I mention this because some of you who own the kind of TV that has shown problems for others, but have not seen it yourself, may be hiding the problem by overcooking your display settings. Like--to get a "punchy" picture. As a test, you can try setting the color to zero, and see if there is any colorization of the remaining black-and-white picture. When I do this with my TV, there is still plenty of bad colored posterization left.

Point taken. But your TV seems to suffer from clayish flesh tones and color inaccuracy. The Panny scores a perfect 10 in these areas. But the purple snakes in something that pops up with all type of feeds (SD/DVD/HD) especially when the background is white/grey/green/beige with dim lighting. If Panasonic claims that this is a feature and not a fault I would have simply lived with it. However they themselves have acknowledged this as a fault and are offering me a fix and as a consumer why shoudn't I accept it ? I have run the color pattern test with my Panny which exhibits purple circles on shades of white/grey/green and when there is a transition from dark to lighter portion.

I have the narrow purple band with a grey test ramp. I also noticed the "snake" on a movie "GIA," on DVD through HDMI in one scene, and a couple of scene's that had a purple tinge on the background walls, and one on Angelina Jolies face when she was dressed as a Geisha, and they had that scene in Black & White. Other than that, so far, I don't notice anything (knock on wood).

I am following this thread and the UK thread hoping for a fix, as you are, and many others especially in that long UK thread. Do you think it possible for this fix to be a simple firmware update, like the clay face fix was earlier on?

I picked up my 42PX600 earlier this week and I am happy with it. I had not seen this thread until earlier today. After reading some of it, I thought you guys were nuts.

I am currently watching the University of Minnesota vs Wisconsin Badger hockey game and I can CLEARLY see the problem. There is purple all over the left side of the picture. It is very easy to see.

Like many others, I will be watching for an update from Panasonic.........