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Panasonic Pz Series Group Buy


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I can get the 58inch for less than 7000 as it is. with room to spare so no group buy unless significantly better

What? Nice random post about a model thats not even included in the GB....

EDIT: email sent.

Edited by kgb
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**UPDATE**

Pricing is pretty much finalised - you will be very happy with the price points reached and additional warranty available.

NB: GB pricing not available on the 58" and 65" as these are special purchase - apologies.

I am waiting for some final confirmations from my contact - I will be looking to collect everyone's details and provide them to my contact at which point he will call you to advise of the sale process. Payments will be via Credit Card only - there maybe a surcharge on AMEX cards due to the low price of the TVs. Delivery pricing is still TBA so this is the one remaining question mark (retailer is located in Sydney - large national chain).

PLEASE register via email using the WIKI page as per below - DO NOT PM me as my PM inbox is already full. A special email has been set up for this so please use it.

Thanks

Derek

Group buy WIKI - http://pzgroupbuy.pbwiki.com

Edited by mrmaxwell
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Delivery pricing is still TBA so this is the one remaining question mark (retailer is located in Sydney - large national chain).

... being a large national chain, might there be the possibility of picking up the display from a retailer near by (or shipped from a closer retailer)?

(Oh ! email sent :) )

Edited by lordvader
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Anyone know if this will do 1080p over VGA? Only does 1080i over component (my 360 doesn't have HDMI). I can't see 1920x1080 in the list of resolutions it supports over VGA (852x480 @ 60 Hz (31.5KHz), 1366x768 @ 60 Hz (48.4KHz) apparently) but was wondering if it might actually do more than that but it's just not listed...

Can't see any info on the website on which version of HDMI it supports either, and it's a shame it doesn't sound like it supports 24fps? Anyone got any further info on this?

I really want a 50" Plasma but I do want to be able to plus in 1080p via an analog connection and I do want 24fps... but I doubt I can afford a Pioneer.

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Is this panel HDMI 1.3 and can it process 24fps?

thanks

blairy

A google search (i love google) came up with the following information:

Crutchfield is reporting the HDMI is 1.2a, but a few people have called/emailed panasonic and been told HDMI 1.3 - make of that what you will

The 24fps issue was easier to answer:

no. (in a word)

hope that helped!

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A google search (i love google) came up with the following information:

Crutchfield is reporting the HDMI is 1.2a, but a few people have called/emailed panasonic and been told HDMI 1.3 - make of that what you will

The 24fps issue was easier to answer:

no. (in a word)

hope that helped!

How important is the 24fps?

I was close to buying one of these but if its missing something ill keep looking

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According to here they do play 24fps..bloody confusing!

http://whathifi.com/forums/t/3921.aspx?PageIndex=2

Good spoon here

http://whathifi.com/forums/t/3921.aspx?PageIndex=7

Re: Panasonic 24fps customers need to know

Well... I happen to believe that Andy's reply, as elaborate and serious as it is, only confuses this matter further... As a new user, let me start by telling you all a bit about myself: I am a danish ISF/JKP certified calibrator/installer, and Lumagen distributor in Denmark. I'm quite active on danish forums, and have been discussing this very thing quite a lot lately. I know what true 24 Hz playback looks like, and I know what it looks like when the display gets it wrong. It actually bothers me when I see 24 Hz played back at 60 Hz, I'm used to seeing movies played back at the correct framerate. I believe I'm capable of evaluating whether a setup actually plays back the movies at a true multiple of 24 frames or not.

However, I also believe that there are two sides of this discussion: 1: Does the Panny's do "true 24 Hz" or not, and 2: How big of an issue is it if the display plays back true 24 Hz or not. First things first: I've tested 1080P/24 on various Panasonic displays, including the latest batch of PZ70EA and PZ700, plus the new 37" LCD (whatever the model number is). These models, like the PX70's etc, does accept a 1080P/24 input, but they do _NOT_ display them at a multiple of 24 (48, 72 etc). They do introduce 2-3 judder, and inputting 1080P/24 from a PS3 looks _exactly_ the same as inputting 1080P/60 from the same PS3 - whereas in comparison a Pioneer is noticably less juddery when inputting 1080P/24. Whatever some people may think about the importance of 2-3 judder, the Pannny's do _not_ get rid of 2-3 judder, even though they accept a 24 Hz input. Just because they accept the signal, doesn't mean that they actually display it correctly. I don't agree with Andy that converting 24 Hz to 60 Hz is a demanding task that one shouldn't expect a display to do - on the contrary, framerate conversion is something a lot of cheap displays do, i.e. converting 50 Hz to 60 Hz, avoiding the need of driving the panel with different framerates.

Now, the second part of the issue here: How much does it matter. Well... If you're not used to watching true 24 Hz, to most people it's not an issue. This doesn't mean they won't gain a benefit from getting rid of 2-3 judder, it just means they don't know what they're missing. However, I do believe that compared to whatever issues most flatscreens have with picture quality, this is a rather small issue, and it doesn't change the fact that I believe that the Panny's are the best value outthere, even with 1080P/24 material. I just don't think anyone is helped by trying to hide the fact that they don't to it properly. I'd rather see reviewers say it like it is: They don't do it correctly, whether it's an issue or not is up to the viewer. I'd certainly hate to see anyone buy a lesser quality LCD with true 24 Hz capability, just because I said the Panny's don't to 24 Hz properly.

About the experience with showing a bunch of screens to 1500 people: I've recently done a show displaying an LCD with 60 Hz playback for about 2-300 people. Of these, most said it was the best picture they've ever seen, at least from an LCD. 3 people during the weekend mentioned seeing judder. Once again: I do believe that if I had the possibility of actually demonstrating the difference, I believe at least 90% would say that the difference is noticable (I've done this before), but if you don't tell people what to look for, in the relatively short amount of time at hand, most people would be so impressed by the overall picture quality of these sets, that they wouldn't notice the minor issues.

In my opinion, even though I often stress the importance of 24 Hz capability, I do believe that it's being given way too much attention, compared to the extreme _errors_ in color performance (i.e. color decoding, primaries, grayscale), gamma, black/white levels etc. that almost all displays exhibit. Consumers have much more important issues than 720P vs. 1080P or 24 vs. 60 Hz to worry about - the problem is that they just don't know about these issues, mostly because they are much more difficult to comprehend. If the public showed the same awareness, and the same demand for the manufacturers to do things properly, in the case of displaying proper colors, gamma etc. as they do about resolution and framerate, people would be getting way better picture quality from their sets. Right now, not _one_ set outthere is capable of truly displaying SD and HD colors correctly. Less than a handful is close (i.e. Pioneer and to a lesser extent Panny), and that is only after calibration. All others are way off, to varying degrees. This should be getting _much_ more attention from consumers, because this affects the picture quality of both SD and HD sources a whole lot more than 24 vs 60 Hz, or differences in resolution. In my opinion, a TV set that doesn't display HD with the correct colorspace, correct color decoding and correct white balance, is no more "true HD" than a set that doesn't display the full 1080P resolution. Who ever said resolution or framerate is more important for having "true HD" than color? If HD isn't displayed with accurate color, IT'S NOT HD!

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THE ANSWER

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Well, finally, we've some clarity on the matter. No point beating about the bush: the email from Panasonic's Customer Support team is correct. When displaying 24fps content, Panasonic TVs do so by converting it to a 60Hz signal (ie by converting those 24 frames into 30, using 3:2 pulldown). They do not – to be extra, extra clear – show 24fps at 48Hz or 72Hz.

This is the official answer, and hopefully provides some closure: it was supplied to us (after much emailing) by a very helpful Panasonic Product Manager, Steve Lucas.

So where does that leave us? With a portion of egg on our faces, no doubt. Those of you who read my previous (long!) post on this subject will recall that I said the following:

"Now it's feasible that they're accepting a native 24fps signal and performing a real-time conversion to a supported frame rate, such as 30fps, of course it is. I just consider it incredibly unlikely."

And later on, in reference to the demo-room gallery of flatscreens, I added:

"The alternative possibility is the notion that the Panasonics are all performing a real-time video conversion to a frame rate they can understand."

Now I'll freely admit that I was skeptical about that possibility, as were my colleagues. Still, at least I also said that I was trying to be completely open-minded. Good job too – because it seems that Panasonic has managed to pull off the "incredibly unlikely". The sets we've tested really can deliver real-time frame-rate conversion to a level of quality that I and others had felt beyond them. So now you know. And in case you're wondering why we weren't able to get to the bottom of this earlier, the simple answer is Panasonic itself – specifically, the European arm of the company that we deal with – wasn't convinced its sets could handle 24fps (because as we've long established, support for that content isn't mentioned in the specifications). When we tested the sets, we tried it, and it worked. But according to Steve at Panasonic – who has subsequently confirmed our findings, by the way – that came as a surprise!

Anyway: what practical impact does all this have in the real world? Well, as I and others have commented, it's not reason enough to dismiss these fine TVs. The core point to my mind is that they can accept the native 1080p/24 content from high-definition discs AND deal with it in a way that almost all viewers (and posters) have found to be perfectly acceptable. Those of you who have seen early HD DVD or Blu-ray players attempting to pull off the same feat (and failing dismally) will appreciate just how impressive and significant that is. And – to go back to the point I concluded with in my earlier post – for what it's worth, I can't see judder. And whatever the relative worth of the 1500-strong consumer sample that saw the sets in action at our show, it seems a lot of others feel the same way.

AV Precision – who made an excellent series of points, by the way – commented he'd like to see reviewers "say it like it is: they don't do it correctly, whether it's an issue or not is up to the viewer". Fair enough, and that's how we'll approach things with regard to these Panasonic sets from now on. And Beanncheese added, usefully, that "it looks like (whether they display) true 24fps or not, Panasonic PX/PZ sets display Blu-ray very well, with judder (or not) almost invisible for common people." That, for me at least, is the bit that really counts.

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How important is the 24fps?

I was close to buying one of these but if its missing something ill keep looking

How long is a piece of string?

Being able to display native 24fps is nice to have with the Pioneer Kuro being one of the few panels to do this, but it really is a subjective matter - I think the PZ series Panny's are the best bang for buck around. I would love a Kuro but cannot justify the additional $3-4k to purchase. The picture thrown out by a 50" PZ Panasonic in 1080p is incredible and I love it - do I notice the 3:2 pulldown being internally processed by the TV? No. Maybe you will...but I seriously doubt it.

In forum land people tend to get caught up in speeds-and-feeds and as soon as a product is 'missing' a feature it should be written off. If in doubt do yourself a favour and head down to your local retailer and ask to see the Panny hooked up to a Blu Ray or HD-DVD player...you'll then have no hesitation to join this group buy.

(FYI: The PZ series accept 1080p/24fps signals but carry out 3:2 pulldown for conversion to 60hz for display)

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Hi guys

Id like to throw something in that I need clarity on please.

I have been reading about SYNC problems with panasonic plasmas and I would like to know the issue and what can be done to remedy it? I will be using my plasma with a surround sound setup and the last thing I want is any sync issues with movies or anything.

Any ideas guys?

Also, Mrmaxwell, do u have prices yet? Have sent my email for info.

thanks

regards

Justin

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How long is a piece of string?

Being able to display native 24fps is nice to have with the Pioneer Kuro being one of the few panels to do this, but it really is a subjective matter - I think the PZ series Panny's are the best bang for buck around. I would love a Kuro but cannot justify the additional $3-4k to purchase. The picture thrown out by a 50" PZ Panasonic in 1080p is incredible and I love it - do I notice the 3:2 pulldown being internally processed by the TV? No. Maybe you will...but I seriously doubt it.

In forum land people tend to get caught up in speeds-and-feeds and as soon as a product is 'missing' a feature it should be written off. If in doubt do yourself a favour and head down to your local retailer and ask to see the Panny hooked up to a Blu Ray or HD-DVD player...you'll then have no hesitation to join this group buy.

(FYI: The PZ series accept 1080p/24fps signals but carry out 3:2 pulldown for conversion to 60hz for display)

Yes, Pana PZ will be able to accept 24fps signal. But if for some reason you have more expensive Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player that have more superior processing chip, it will be better to set the output as 60fps. This way, the 3:2 pulldown is done in the player itself.

I second you mrmaxwell, it is a very subjective matter. They need to see how a properly displayed picture looks like, before they are able to see the differences. My advise: kill your curiosity. It will cost you more money. In this case, ignorance is virtue :) Once you know the differences, you will always spot it straight away. There is no going back.

I have been in this path (and still in this path), and the road to picture quality excellence is long and costly.

The processor that able to do 3:2 pulldown CORRECTLY and CLEANLY on 1080P signal without introducing any processing error (such as image artifact, combing, resolution loss) etc are very expensive at the moment, and for the price, this Pana doesn't have this superior processing capability.

Pio Kuro, which accept native 24FPS, choose to do that because it is cheaper path (compared to superior processing chip, but still way more expensive compared to Pana solution).

This also explained why the new Fujitsu AVIAMO plasma will even be more expensive than Kuro, due to their more sophisticated picture processing engine.

Just for info, to do this processing correctly and ALMOST perfectly, you need to shell out around AU$3000 AT LEAST to get standalone image processor such as DVDO (by Anchor Bay Technologies) and HQV Realta (By Silicon Optix). Yes, it is that expensive :)

That's why I choose Kuro, as this represent the compromise I'm willing to make on the road to perfect picture...but as I said above, your mileage may vary...

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