In my break in period I used -10 for both C and B. I waited until 200 hours and now all is fine so far at +16,+14 even with computer use.

joel

Yeah... I have had mine on almost all day every day since I got it. I did a respectable break-in but now I just watch it how I want and I haven't seen anything retained yet.

I haven't seen that yet, I hope I don't. I was CBS with their logo for about 2 hours and I don't see anything.

I found the answer to my previous question (post #632). I realized I can adjust the zoom mode to make the black bars go away, however I don't really like the way the picture looks when it stretches the picture vertically. Do ALL widescreen DVD movies require an adjustment to the zoom mode to make them fill the entire screen?

Is the NBC logo bold or transparent? Within the first 10 hours of using my plasma, my wife watched 2 straight hours of the game show network and there is no sign of their logo being retained.

You shouldn't have to use Zoom mode at all to watch the Sopranos. Go into the setup menu on your DVD player and make sure the TV type is set to 16:9. DVD movies typically should be watched in the "Full" aspect ratio, although some movies (2.35:1) will still have slight bars at the top and bottom. This is normal and is explained elsewhere on this forum and on the internet, but 3" bars on the Sopranos indicates something's wrong somewhere.

The TV does remember the aspect setting by signal type, but it has one catch: With an HD signal (720p, 1080i, or 1080p) it will revert to FULL. It makes sense because HD signals are by definition 16:9 format so you should not need to have anything other than FULL. The problem is if you have an HD signal, but a 4:3 image.

The problem lies with your source (cable box, satellite box?). Ideally, you should set that to pass-through all signal types unchanged. And make sure the box isn't doing any aspect ratio changes. Some of these boxes want to only output 1080i, for example, to an HDTV. That's no good, because then the TV thinks every channel is in 16:9 HD and it wants to show it in FULL.

I have my cable box set to pass-through everything. Then it works very nicely. 480i always show in JUST. HD channels show in FULL.

Remember - If you have an HD signal (720p, 1080i, or 1080p) and you see side bars, they were not put there by the TV. With HD signals, the TV has no way of knowing that the image is not 16:9. To the TV, it is in 16:9 and the side bars are part of the image. With a 480i signal, then it does know that it is 4:3, and then it can handle it appropriately.

I said there were not any bars while watching the Sopranos...it filled the entire screen. The 3" black bars appeared while watching the Harry Potter DVD. Since then I did change my DVD player settings to 16:9, HOWEVER you say I should still be getting only slight bars, if any, when watching a DVD in "Full" aspect ratio...but I'm getting at least 3" bars and I'm in "Full" aspect. The Harry Potter DVD cover doesn't say what aspect ratio it is in so I don't know if its 2.35:1, but even if it is I'm getting much more than "slight" bars.

The NBC logo only stayed on for a couple of minutes, I have the screen set to picture=20 brightness=10 - I like a bright picture, I know thatg is bad, but I like a bright picture. Does this mean that after the break in period, it is going to be forever vunerable to burn in.

Reached the 100 hour mark (105 actually) on my new 60U. I have since upped the settings to:
Picture 10
Brightness 5
Color 0
Tint 0
Sharpness -5

I know for the 1st 1000 hours to have continued smarts on what I view, for example only 15% of my viewing time a week with material that has black bars. Just a quick question for my sanity, these settings at this point in time are okay, right? Thanks all!

audio out.

i am trying to pass the audio thru rca to my htib. i set the speakers to off on the tv but still cannotget it to pass souns - all audio connections are correct - i do get sound through other devices. Is there somewhere to select betwwn optical and analog out? am i missing something here?

hdmi from dvr is the source into the tv.

cheers

croikee, what color temp do you have your settings at? (warm, cool, or normal)

Or anyone else with opinions, why does no one have there settings at warm if that appears to be the standard as noted on the cnet review. Just wondering?

YOU WILL GET MORE RED WITH THE WARM SETTING. THE 60U ALREADY HAS A LITTLE RED PUSH AS IT IS. THE 5OU DIDN'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM.

I had same problem. Reset to factory default fixed it.

I have mine at Cinema, Warm, 5, 8, 0, -2 , -30 at the moment. Pretty nice.

Has anyone noticed any lip sync issue with th-42px60u? Mine seems to have this problem. Although the video lag is minor, it does occur for any source (dvd/OTA/dish) which makes me think my set has some problem. Thanks.

Is there a one or two button sequence in the remote that takes you directly to HDMI2 or HDMI2 from any input for the 60U series?
Thanks!

Joel

I have my color temp at normal. I fiddled around and thought this looked best, I may try the above combo though just to see. No harm in trying different settings out.

This setting was actually recommended above in a link to a review on the 50U, and I thought it looked best out of all the posted settings. I don't have a cali disk or anything at the moment.

So i take it these settings are safe then?

croikee, in the review that you are talking about. I read it also, it has the same settings as yours but the color temp they recommended was warm. Is that true?

Just got my 42PX60U last week. Installed, DirecTV, etc. All looks great! I tried the OTA antenna that they sell for $99, but got no channels, so I got them to take it back. Might consider getting my own. I have a couple questions I haven't been able to figure out:

1. I've tried getting into the service menu using the directions for the 50U's - hold "volume -" down, then hit the "recall" button three times. This does absolutely nothing for me. The tv doesn't react at all to this key combination. I've tried slowly hitting the recall button, quickly, etc. but none of it works. Are there updated instructions for getting in there? I really just want to know my hours right now. No plans on tweaking anything in there, yet...

2. I realize I might miss some local programming without an OTA antenna, but I'm not that concerned about it right now. What I WOULD be very concerned about would be missing NFL games when the season comes around again. Would I miss any games that are for local teams? I'm in the Sacramento area, and I wouldn't want to miss 49er and Raider games, for example...

This thread has been a HUGE help, so thanks to all who have contributed. And thanks in advance for your help with these two questions!

Eddie

[in TV mode]
TV/Video
#5

Anyone notice problems with dialogue being too hard to hear through the 50PX60U's speakers when the "surround sound" feature is turned on? I had a hard time hearing dialogue over sound effects the other night while watching Invasion. While watching Saturday Night Live the audience applause/laughter was about 3 times louder than the dialogue...it sounded like they were talking in a tin-can or they were too far away from their microhones. When I turned the "surround sound" feature off, the problem went away. In what situation is the surround sound feature good for?

Actually, the review I read had color temp as normal. Maybe a different review? I can find the link if you want, actually I think it was a page or so back?

Here is a question on this. We have 'vivid' 'standard' and 'cinema' modes. By default al have different settings. I'f I put 'standard' on the same EXACT settings as 'cinema' (all setings, color temp, EVERYTHING) is it the same exact picture? Or does cinema have something hardwired in that would change it a little?

I have these settings in my 'standard' setting. the 'vivid' one scares me like a plague. So we don't go there.

Dnamertz,
I get the same thing when listening to HD broadcasts that are in Dolby Digital and just using the tv speakers. My guess was it was trying to simulate surround sound by makeing it sound crappy

I use the tv speakers usually when i'm just lazy and watching standard. If I'm ever watching an HD boadcast that has 5.1, I turn on my souround system and turn off the tv speakers. Sounds fine this way.

I agree a little with High Gear. Between "standard" and "warm" warm is a little closer to 6500K where warm is a little too red and standard is a little to blue. After calibration of the tv with a warm color temp, however, I found that the picture was to red for our liking and pure white backgrounds from cable had a very noticeable yellow tint to them. The color is much better when watching a dvd so I may leave it on warm for dvds. I put the color temp back to standard for cable viewing. We are all used to watching displays that are way to blue anyway so its natural to prefer slightly blue over slightly red.

Your settings look overly cautious. I have 120 hours logged on mine. I've had mine set to the settings below since the 50 hour mark and I have not had any IR issues. When I watch SD I stetch or zoom to remove bars but when I watch DVDs I don't worry about the bars.

Picture:+18
Brightness:+5
Color: +2
Tint: -2
Sharpness: +5

Yeah the same here. I shut of the SS. I am still not sure what the AI option does. The description is vague.

The two examples I gave were both SD broadcasts, but I also muted the TV speakers and turned on my surround sound system until I discovered that the TV's surround sound setting was causing the problem.

What do you guys do about the on screen Channel Guide and burn in issues?

Whew!!! what a relief - READ THIS - a very good thread about burn-in, image retention and breaking in a new Plasma or LCD. I know a lot of you veterans have seen all this before but this is a revelation for a noob like myself. Since the last flurry of posts have been related to this subject maybe some of this info. will ease your mind a bit.