[antilaugh]

Hi guys, I've been lurking for a while, but finally felt the need to ask a question:


I'm about to splurge on a 50" plasma, and I thought I'd narrowed it down to the new Panasonic 700 that just came out. I'd previously seen it before right next to the Pio 1140, and it completely held its own. Not only that, but I slightly preferred the colors of the panny to those of the pio. People have been making too big a deal about the contrast ratio, if you want my opinion. I thought it looked amazing, and I had my heart set on it...


HOWEVER, a couple of days ago I went back to Best Buy to examine it one more time before ordering, and this time I thought to ask the BB staff if I could see standard definition on it. Boy, am I glad I did! As you well know, any SD picture looks like **** after seeing an HD feed, but there was something even more disturbing on the Panny screen -- a think fuzzy line of static at the very tip top of the screen. Yuck! I asked one of the BB employees, and he said all of the 700s ship in this condition, with the SD feed displaying this band of static at the edge of the screen. He told me "there's a way" to fix it by calling Panasonic and adjusting the screen somehow (I realize those guys aren't experts, so I'm taking this with a grain of salt). Needless to say, this is a serious deal-breaker for me. Can anyone who owns one of these models tell me if your set does this? I'm seriously considering buying the 1140 for this reason.


Yes, I know the new models are coming out soon. Unfortunately, we can't wait another month. I also realize that some guy named "dtrell" is probably going to be awful sore at me starting a new thread instead of adding this to the official one.


Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[tccweb]

The set was set to a 1:1 pixel mapping mode and you were catching a bit of the vertical interval. On SD feeds you want to make sure the IS overscan... I use to see the same thing with my sharp.

 

[HoustonPerson]

antilaugh,

I think tccweb is correct in what he is saying. I too, am trying to decide which TV to get, after so many bad purchases, and over and over again the Panny seems to be coming out on top. One of the things I do is read the manual to the TV. They are "online" at the Panny web site. If I recall correctly it talks about the "dotted" lines at the top of the pictures and says you will see that from time to time, and there is a "button" you hit to change it. Sounds good to me. (I have seen this a couple of times on my Mit's and Sammy DLPs too)

 

[antilaugh]

Thanks guys. I'm glad to hear it's not a problem. I really liked the colors on the 700u. Even though some are saying it's dim, I didn't find that to be the case at all. I thought it looked more realistic, certainly more than most of the LCDS, which I find really exaggerated. A lot of those TVs make it seem like you're on a hallucinogen of some sort. Haven't seen the 665 from Samsung, though.


What about everyone else? Has anyone had a real problem with the static line on their 700u?

 

[scubascrub]

I have had mine for 1 week with no problems at all. The tv can be set so bright i need sunglasses LOL. The contrast is just fine I have mine set to zero during the breakin and is bright enough even at zero. I love this set, the colors are incredible as is the 1080P using a PS3. Can someone post there settings please as I am not a expert. Thanks

 

[antilaugh]

I just got back from Sears. They too have the 700u. Although they didn't have any SD feed for me to see, they did seem to have some sort of HD loop running. To my chagrin, the 700 once again looked terrible! Is this just poor calibration on the part of Sears? I asked one of the associates if it had been properly calibrated, and he had no idea what I was talking about.


Please believe me when I tell you I'm not trying to slag on this Tv. I really wanted to like it. This time, I even thought that the 75 model (in 720p) looked much better than the 700. WTF? I tried playing with the settings and everything, but I couldn't get the Sears 700 to look anything like it did the first time I saw this model. I'm completely at a loss.

 

[CobraMR]

antilaugh,


I feel the same way you do. I also really want to like the 700u. I have been in the market for a 50-60 inch plasma for a few months now. I have been debating on the Pioneer 5070 and 6070 models. The picture is softer than other models such as the Samung 54 series. I really want a larger TV so I began looking at the Panasonic 50pz700u in hopes that if I liked it I would get the 58 inch 700u. My local Circuit City just received the 50 inch version last Wednesday. It is mounted right between a Panasonic 50px75U and Samsung 5054. I noticed as others have that the 700u is dimmer. Both the 75u and 700u were in the Vivid modes with identical settings ( I had the remotes). Of course I hate the "torched" Vivid mode, but I could not get the 700u to look as good as the 75u in any mode. I know the salesman so he gladly fed different material to the TVs (SD and HD from Direct TV). I also had the chance to see the 700u in a Best Buy this weekend when I went to visit my parents in another city. The 700u was by itself being fed the latest high definition DTS demo disc. Again, I was not impressed. As you said, the colors are very good. However, I do find the dimmer picture a issue. The 700u is noticably dimmer next to a 75u in the same Vivid mode. Where the 75u looks about right when in the Cinema mode, the 700u is darker and I am afraid it will be too dark for me in my home. The Picture setting maxes out at 30 and a more realistic setting of 21-22 just looks too dark to me. All of these observations, of course, are just my opinion.

 

[sma]

antilaugh, this may be a longshot since I do not know the default value of this particular setting.. but by any chance was the CATS setting set to "on" on the Sears set?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...post10501132


edit: see page 29 of the manual here:
http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPER...TH58PZ700U.PDF

Looks like C.A.T.S. might default to "off".... still maybe worth checking though.

 

[Dave1954B]

I thought I would offer this heads up for everyone.


I received shipment of a 50PZ700U from CC on Saturday (May 12). The television has a significant problem. It turns itself off after varying lengths of time. The longest that it has been able to stay on was less than two hours. At times, it has shut down after five minutes or less. The time it stays on seems to be positively correlated to how long it was off.


After it does shut down, it goes through a series of clicking sounds as if it it is turning on and off but without actually producing a screen image. The power light also only goes on briefly (or not at all) as that is happening. It will sometimes turn itself back on but only for a few seconds before again going off.


A few times, I have been able to get it to go back on and stay on right after this happens. However, it is usually necessary to wait awhile. It also seems to help to unplug the television before trying it again.


At first, it seemed that this was only happening when I had it tuned to the rooftop antenna. But it actually shuts down regardless of the source. However, the shutdowns while tuning to the antenna have seemed to occur after shorter times.


I had another hdtv set up in the same location with the identical connections for three weeks before the Panasonic was delivered. It had no problems at all.


I will say that the the 50PZ700U has a dazzling picture while it is on.


I'm stuck in a waiting game. CC is willing to replace it, but has no more units available yet. Panasonic contacted a local service tech but they have no literature or parts list for the television since it is so new. Meanwhile, I have a very attractive black box in my family room that works once in a while, for a little while.

 

[BBigJ]

Sounds like an overheating problem to me. This is panasonic's problem, not yours. Just play the waiting game and get a new unit.

 

[Dave1954B]

It looks like I will have a solution tomorrow. Circuit City finally has some more TH-50PZ700U's in stock and they will deliver a replacement tomorrow.


Panasonic actually did all they could for me as well. They overnighted two circuit boards to their local service contractor and a technician would have come out this afternoon to attempt the repair. But I decided that it made more sense to simply replace the television rather than to repair one that has an unknown defect.


Hopefully, the replacement unit will have no problems.