Official Panasonic PX75U / PX77U Owners Thread *NO PRICE TALK* - Page 199

Wow, "Vivid" the entire time?!
Way too bright, and I assume consumes a lot more power. Cinema mode is often cited as being the most accurate out-of-the-box.

As to your specific Q: I'm not an expert but I'd imagine that changing the settings today would have virtually the same effect as if you did it day 1 in terms of changing the PQ. Though I'm betting so many hrs of Vivid have reduced pixel luminance a bit more (i.e. accelerated aging), thus you might not set the brightness as low as if done on day 1. This is all just educated guesswork on my part.

The following I wrote when I first read your Q. It might be of use to you though it isn't directly about your Q:

A lot of people swear by their ISF certified calibrations. Others will say you can get by with one of the calibration DVD's like "Digital Video Essentials". I got that one and I found it rather confusing and hard to dial in. The Pannys are noted for being a little weak in available adjustments. A professional calibrator will play with all the hidden service menu options to optimize. But at a significant cost.

Cnet has a review for the similar 42-px77u, and their suggested settings are here and aren't much different than mine: cnet link

Last, having written all that, I'll note the following:
While there is an "accurate" setting, people's tastes differ. While watching a recent president's address, I flipped between the 5 networks and the difference in color between them was astonishing. So regardless of whether the TV is set "perfectly", what does that really mean if each network/broadcaster/cinematographer has a different view on what is "proper"?

But I would get it off Vivid ASAP!

Hi All,
I had too much time during break and I took all the settings posted and averaged them. Below are the range that was posted and I then averaged them to come up with these settings. It actually turned out nicely for me:

Cinema

Picture: (15-22) 19.85714286
Brightness: (0-15) 6.857142857
Color: (-5 - 1) -1.785714286
Tint: (-5 - 3) -1.214285714
Sharpness: (-30-15) -9.785714286
Color temp.: Warm
Color mgmt.: Off
Video NR: Off
Black level: Light

Can I pass through 5.1 using the tv's toslink output? I've read through the thread and I'm getting mixed answers. Here is what I'm trying to do:

I want to setup this TV with a HTPC. Currently I do get 5.1 through OTA cable. I connect the regular coax from cable to the tv and then use the toslink s/pdif out on the TV and put it in the receiver. It works fine.

I'm wondering if I can do the same thing with the htpc. I would take the hdmi cable on the HTPC ->TV and then the toslink would go from TV to my receiver. I just want to pass through DD/DTS 5.1. All my movies are in mkv.

From both my experience and reading here, I believe the answer is "no". The TV passes the native audio output from the antenna input, but not from any other input. All the others output PCM. I just checked with a DVD on HDMI and that's what it did (50px75u).

Anyone know if the "rising black levels" problem afflicting Panasonic plasmas affects our sets?

Just curious if this is a playback source issue or if it may be a previously recognized PX75U issue:

Over HDMI my screen goes black for 3-5 seconds at a time, maybe once an hour. It occurs on either the HDMI1 or HDMI2 inputs, and I've confirmed that it's not a cable issue. I have not yet observed this over Component cabling.

There's only one other possible cause, and that's the cable box itself. I can't test this without a second box, which I don't have, but I have confirmed that it is not a video stream issue since it doesn't black out when I rewind that section on the DVR.

Any ideas?

I was wondering the same thing as my TH42PX75U is 2 yrs old this month.

no rising black levels on mine.

Try turning off the CEC/Control over HDMI/VieraLink feature.

I think it has.

I have a TH-42PX77U. The picture quality has definitely degraded over the years. I am not a heavy tv watcher. Was careful to use the break-in DVD.

I first noticed it happening about a year into ownership of the tv... but I convinced myself that the changes I was seeing was simply a bad cable signal. Now that this most recent info has come out, I don't think that's the case any longer.

I own 4 HD tvs. A 50 in. Pioneer... the TH-42PX77U... and two small Vizio's. The Vizo panels aren't the greatest... but, as of right now, they have a vividness in color and a sharpness between colors (especially the blacks and other colors) that the Panasonic no longer has. My Pioneer was purchased the same time as the TH-42PX77U and it still looks beautiful.

In the end, the TH-42PX77U has been a disappointing purchase. If I had know --- I never would have bought it. I will never buy another panasonic product knowing what I know now.

Sometimes on my PX75U I will get red sparklies around objects on the screen. This happens on all inputs. It is very random as it has only happened 3 or 4 times in the last 7 months. If I turn the tv off then back on its all normal. Any ideas?

Or at least that is what is seems like. I have had the TH-50PX77U for over 2 years; and a month ago, I immediately noticed a change in the picture. In short, HD through antenna looks like SD, and SD through cable, DVD, or antenna looks a step below what it looked like from before. It is like the TV is downconverting the signals.

More specificly, it is like what you would expect if sharpness was turned all the way down. To try to counteract this, I tried maxing the sharpness, but suprisingly, I see hardly any difference from the minimum to maximum sharpness setting on the TV. I had never noticed this before, but I had never even touched the sharpness setting before either.

It also looks like the picture is washed out; all brighter in light scenes and then all darker in darker scenes. And its like I lost some contrast ratio. This would make the aliasing you would usually see in some night scenes in a gradually dimming sky, actually visible in peoples faces. This is where you actually notice the PQ detriment the most. It looks as if newscasters seem to have either painted their faces with makeup, or they are very-well created computer animations. It is like a very subtle solarization effect you see on some digital cameras that tries to give the effect that a photograph is actually a painting.

I used to watch HD with just the standard setting untouched. Now to make it somewhat bearable, I use cinema, and I knock down by 5 each from Picture, Brightness, and Color.

Has anyone had any experience like this?

The only cause I can think of other than it happenning by itself is that my 1 year old liked turning the TV on and off at the set. I searched for the "power button" on this forum, and I found that it is part of the service menu functionings. Specificly, it turns off the sevice menu when you hold down the power button. (By the way, thank you BruZZi for the information in navigating some of service menu.) So I wonder if it is possible she pushed it or held the power button in a way that reset some service menu parameters. Because all in all, if I had never seen HDTV before, I may actually have never thought anything was wrong with the TV, i.e. you can watch it like there was nothing wrong with it. You still get a picture, its just not the HD I was used to.

So, does anyone know of any further navigating through the service menu that may help? I already know how to get into and out of it, that 1 and 2 goes through the different submenus, and how to tell how many times it has turned on and off, and how long its been on. Does anyone know what the setting are supposed to be? Does anyone know of a service manual that exists so that I may diagnose and fix the problem if its just by adjusting some settings? The warranties expired, and I'm trying to avoid paying over $100 just to see what is wrong with it.

Thanks for any and all help.

I'm sorry. What I meant by when I said "aliasing" is what should have been refered to as false contouring. Again, on this matter, I know there was normally some false contouring with the TH-50px77u, especially where there was dark backgrounds. But after the changes in my TV as explained above, among other things, these false contours are showing up on people's faces.

Is there a fix to the Green vertical line issue? I had my 75u for 2yrs and now I have this problem. :-(

Hi, can anyone comment on ways to make the AUDIO on this unit better?

I have hooked up a LG BD550 blu-ray player, via HDMI to the unit. Problem is, I get a lot of booming audio. I have things set pretty neutral, but VOICES are a bit dim, and other what would be surround sounds are BOOMY!

I have the Blu-Ray player setup to pass 5.1 since I cannot get it to send only 2.1 or 2, but the TV just doesn't want to offer a REASONABLE sound.

I have owned a 50PX75U since three years ago. The picture at the time was impressive especially compared to the affordable LCD sets available at the time. The picture now is definitely a bit more washed out due to possibly higher black levels. My sister bought a 46 inch samsung LCD during the Christmas break and the blacks were almost as good with the exception of brighter corners. My brother got a Mitsubishi DLP and the black level was superior to the panny - almost bought one myself but the sales ended quickly before I had the cash.

I was tempted to see how a similarly priced plasma would compare so I got a PN50C490 720p samsung 3D set (package deal) from BB a few days ago at one half of the price of the panasonic and the picture is noticably better. Line bleed and floating blacks are now gone and the blacks are better which affect color saturation etc. Not sure I would buy panny again due to the floating and rising blacks- as for the samsung it does have its own issues like slight buzzing and limited aspect ratios.

I used to get the local channels in HD via QAM over the Comcast cable hooked up directly to my Panasonic. Now just SD channels come in. Works fine on my Sony TV in my bedroom - HD comes through fine by connecting comcast to the tv (no tuner box).
What happened the my Panasonic and how can I get it working again.
Thanks

Did you try a rescan? My guess is that Comcast changed the channels they carry the broadcasts on, perhaps to consolidate bandwidth. But they might have also lost the PSIP code. I've had this problem occasionally with my Panny where I lost a single TWC station which another digital receiver could find. If it is the PSIP code, you might be outta luck.

PX75U which shut itself down several times and gave 8 blinks (SS board(s) per manual). Unplugged and repowered - same symptoms.

Per advice from Pana tel support - pressed power button (TV) down for more than 10 seconds (remove any surge suppressor - per Pana tel support - there wasn't one).

The TV powered up fine, and has been working fine for a number of hours.

This seems to be some sort of reset - though I don't find it in the service manual.

Self check (per service manual) shows all OK, except SOS 08 in red letters (which I believe is the last service code the unit has experienced).

Thoughts?

Hey guys, I'm curious how big a fuze should I put this tv on? 15 or 20 amps? Thanks.

Are you talking about a U.S. household AC circuit to plug the TV into?

If so, then I'd recommend you talk to your local electrician as it depends on what else you have plugged into that circuit, the wiring, etc. FWIW, circuits should be on a breaker instead of a fuse. Also, you don't say which TV you have, but the TH-50PX75U draws about 500W at 120V.

Sorry I wasn't specific. Yes it's a US household, the tv will be on it's own breaker currently 15 amps.

Anyone else notice a buzzing sound coming from the back of the unit (not the speakers) when the volume is down, or off. usually after its been on for a while.
Is something about to "go"? Any tests I can run? thank you! I love this TV.

Pretty much all plasma TVs buzz, some more than others and some in worse places than others (search the Samsung buzzers from a couple years ago). My 50PX77U's buzz is pretty minor, mainly audible behind the set, and drowned out by almost any level of audio. Unless you're is loud enough to be distracting or has changed in character lately I wouldn't worry about it.

jeff

Thank you! Good advise as always here and you put my mind at ease.

A friend just gave me one of these sets and I'm going to use it in my bedroom. Can someone please point me to a post with suggested settings? I did a search but came up with 500 hits for settings. TIA

Look at post 5944:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0#post17813990

Great thanks!

Thanks again. I used the average of the values posted and the set looks a lot nicer. The flesh tones look a touch flat to me so I might play around with the settings a little.

Your welcome, those are good starting settings and you should adjust according to your taste. Also, I think the set changes over the years, and those settings were done when everyone had new sets.