Panasonic Viera Tc-p50v10 50" Plasma Hdtv - Tips And Tricks Thread

[Owen]

what picture settings is everyone using at the moment? I know it will be different for everyone due to viewing enviroments and number of hours on the panel but lets give it a whirl anyway!

I havent bothered doing too much tweaking with mine as yet.

For regular TV (foxtel):

Pic mode: Normal

Contrast: 70

Brightness: between -2 and 0 depending on time of day

Colour: 46

Sharpness: 0

Cinema Colour: off

Overscan: off

Everything else as default

Blu Ray

Pic Mode: THX

Contrast: 70

Brightness: between -2 and 0 depending on time of day

Colour: 43

Sharpness: 0

Everything else as default

There is only one standard for video, free to air, Foxtel/Austar, DVD and Bluray all use the same standard and the only setting on the Panasonic that comes close to the standard is THX, “Normal” will not provide accurate colour so I am curious why you would use it.

It would be helpful if “Normal” could be calibrated correctly, then it could be set up for day time viewing and THX set up for night time, but as far as I know that’s not possible.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Owen

[Owen]

Only thing I don't like is that surfing the net, on an LCD it is much better, 60hz on LCD is alot better than 60hz on a plasma, I usually require 75hz on CRT monitors last time otherwise I get headaches haha.

Plasma like CRT uses Phosphor which needs to be regularly “refreshed” to maintain light output, if this is not done often enough flicker will be noticeable.

LCD’s are sample and hold type displays, they do not need to be “refreshed” to maintain light output and therefore flicker is impossible at any refresh rate, 60Hz looks the same as 6000Hz.

Still running in the TV though which is taking awhile. Hope to break it in soon as I really want to turn up the contrast and brightness lol

Contrary to popular belief there is no real need to “run in” a modern Plasma, the “Contrast” control should be set no higher than necessary for the viewing environment for the life of the set. If you feel the need to turn the “Contrast” up above about 90% you should consider an LCD as driving a Plasma panel that hard is not ideal and will make the panel prone to image retention and possibly burn in if you are careless. This applies even after the set has been “run in”.

The “Brightness” control sets the black level of the display and is completely irrelevant to burn in or image retention risk, it should be adjusted for best blacks and shadow detail depending on the viewing environment.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Owen

[twotribez]

Plasma like CRT uses Phosphor which needs to be regularly “refreshed” to maintain light output, if this is not done often enough flicker will be noticeable.

LCD’s are sample and hold type displays, they do not need to be “refreshed” to maintain light output and therefore flicker is impossible at any refresh rate, 60Hz looks the same as 6000Hz.

Contrary to popular belief there is no real need to “run in” a modern Plasma, the “Contrast” control should be set no higher than necessary for the viewing environment for the life of the set. If you feel the need to turn the “Contrast” up above about 90% you should consider an LCD as driving a Plasma panel that hard is not ideal and will make the panel prone to image retention and possibly burn in if you are careless. This applies even after the set has been “run in”.

The “Brightness” control sets the black level of the display and is completely irrelevant to burn in or image retention risk, it should be adjusted for best blacks and shadow detail depending on the viewing environment.

Thanks for that, I usually have contrast at about 60 to 65 with brightness around 50, this is what I am comfortable with. I didn't know brightness did not make a difference. I will turn this up immediately lol.

[Ramskii]

This isnt really a tip or trick but didnt really want to start a new topic for it. Looking at purchasing this tv for the bedroom on the weekend. Will be watching from 2.5m away so pretty much perfect for blu-ray etc. My concern is about the heat it will generate though. Should i be worried especially in the summer months with this tv for a bedroom location? At the moment there is a 32inch LCD which is fine. For heat that is not picture quality

[andys]

This isnt really a tip or trick but didnt really want to start a new topic for it. Looking at purchasing this tv for the bedroom on the weekend. Will be watching from 2.5m away so pretty much perfect for blu-ray etc. My concern is about the heat it will generate though. Should i be worried especially in the summer months with this tv for a bedroom location? At the moment there is a 32inch LCD which is fine. For heat that is not picture quality

My V10 is in a pretty small room & I've never had any issues with heat. While you can feel a some heat being generated from the front of the screen (if you stand right in front of it), the back of it runs pretty cool. From 2.5m away you shouldn't have a problem.

Andys.

[eceting]

Hey everyone,

I've had my v10 for about 5 months now, and it's been great!

However, recently whenever I turn it on, it always asks me to update my channel list.

Has anyone else experienced this problem??

Ed.

[Lickster]

Hey everyone,

I've had my v10 for about 5 months now, and it's been great!

However, recently whenever I turn it on, it always asks me to update my channel list.

Has anyone else experienced this problem??

Ed.

I sort of had that issue when I first got it - not every time but now and then. I had a faulty HDMI board replaced and when I watched the techo set it up again I noted he tuned into all channels. I didn't do analogue when I set up originally and it hasn't done it since.

Try going back to setup and retune the lot.

[Volvi]

Your absolutely right Owen, .. spot on... cant argue with this at all.

It still doesnt change what I said before.

BTW Beach Boy, have you heard of any development/answers for oz panels with yellow/greenish THX tint as is my unit? (Manuf. Sept.2009)

[diesel]

However, recently whenever I turn it on, it always asks me to update my channel list.

Has anyone else experienced this problem??

Hi ed. This is not a problem. It's just the TV telling you that a new channel is available - I think Perth is now getting TVS. Just select "Yes" or whatever it is to allow it to do an automatic channel scan and it'll update your channel listings to include the new channel.

There's discussion of this in this thread

Perth's Community TV channel WTV has started test transmissions today.

At the moment its colour bars and scrolling text . the text consisting of WTV and their phone number.

Edited April 16, 2010 by diesel

[Robbylion]

Hi,

At night, when watching a blue ray movie with "black" bands on top an bottom of the screen, do you actually see them black?

Mine look quite grey, no matter how low I set the brightness or contrast... and now I found there is a known issue of rising black levels on these units... Although I can't be completely certain that the blacks got lighter with time, it seems not possible to go beyond a greyish color for blacks

My unit was bought in september 09 and built in august, with an early firmware i think. I will try to get into the service menu to get the hr count. It did not see an intensive use, I must admit I am a little disappointed at this stage.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Robbylion

[DeeVee]

Robbylion

You seem to be the first person to visually recognise the loss of black. Were you watching in a darkened room at the time? Do you usually watch in the dark? (this will accentuate the grey look). How did the Blu-Ray look? Were you aware of a loss of clarity in the dark scenes?

I'm not trying to interrogate you, however there are a lot of assumptions and opinions floating around this issue. I'm keen to hear about actual first hand evidence.

Thanks

[Robbylion]

Hi DV,

Well, as I said I am not completely certain the blacks got greyer, or if they were always like they are now, simply due to the fact that I always left the factory settings as they were.

Randomly, yesterday, on a dark screen looking grey, I tried to turn the brighness down and was quite shocked that at the 0 setting I had the same 'darkness' as say, -20!

This is not only during BD playback (as sometimes the black bands are actually grey), also during playing games with black backgrounds.

The conditions I am viewing this very noticable in complete darkness (night) i.e. without ambiant lighting.

Because I never tried to push the brightness down in a dark environment, I am not sure whether the "grey blacks" I have are normal or not.

With this post I don't want to "feed fire", but I just want to check if is normal on other V10 sets: do you actually have black, blacks in complete darkness?

I could go in a shop to check but then I won't be able to be in complete darkness...

Edited April 29, 2010 by Robbylion

[diesel]

I found on my older PX600 that the "Cinema" setting resulted in the black bars on movies looking much greyer than if I had it set to "Normal"

I settled on Normal for some devices and Cinema for other, and found that by tweaking the PQ settings, I was able to get the bars looking much more like black than the grey they were when I first got the screen.

[Owen]

Its normal for Panasonics black to look grey in a dark room, not even a G9 Pioneer Kuro could do black in a dark room and the Kuros are much darker than the Panasonics, 6 to 18 times darker.

The Pioneers are much darker under ambient light as well due to good screen filtering.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Owen

[dwids]

Have just got my 50v last week and am very impressed. My first 1080p display. I find THX mode the best PQ for Blu-ray etc.

I have a Popcorn A-100 media player (HDMI) and am not sure how to get it to play nice with the Pana in THX mode. The Popcorn has a few video config options, including:

Video Output (Auto, 1080p 50Hz, 1080p 60Hz...plus 720p etc)

Framerate Sync (None, NTSC/PAL, NTSC/PAL/24p ...)

I've noticed with THX mode and the Popcorn FS at NTSC/PAL/24p, some HD MKV's get the slight judders. Video Out was set at 1080p 60 Hz.

I put the player back into VO=Auto and FRS=NTSC/PAL and it seems to have gone away.

Does this surprise anyone...and any tips for the settings on either device? Thanks

[diesel]

I thought 24p material is supposed to have judder, especially in panning scenes.

[Thornton Melon]

I was thinking that with so many people having recently bought the Panasonic VIERA TC-P50V10 50" Plasma HDTV

that a thread for tips and tricks might be useful ?

Hi Larry,do you have a TC-PV10A or TH-P50V10A,which is what mine is ?

Just curious.

Cheers

[Thornton Melon]

I was thinking that with so many people having recently bought the Panasonic VIERA TC-P50V10 50" Plasma HDTV

that a thread for tips and tricks might be useful ?

I have a Panasonic TH-42PX600A and a new TH-P50V10A and having compared the FTA picture on both sets I personally think the older 720P tv is better.

I have tried hundreds of settings on the P50V and it still appears not as good as the TH-42PX.

At least the new one looks great with Blu Ray.

Maybe they don't make them as good as they used to.

Cheers

[MavDTV]

I have a Panasonic TH-42PX600A and a new TH-P50V10A and having compared the FTA picture on both sets I personally think the older 720P tv is better.

I have tried hundreds of settings on the P50V and it still appears not as good as the TH-42PX.

At least the new one looks great with Blu Ray.

It's a problem that has been often mentioned re the V10, G10 etc. The SD FTA picture is particularly blurry/soft - http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=81340&st=60

They handle HD FTA better but the current Panas are really more geared for Bluray playback.

[diesel]

It's a problem that has been often mentioned re the V10, G10 etc. The SD FTA picture is particularly blurry/soft - http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=81340&st=60

The PX600 also suffers from the same over-softening with SD FTA. It's not restricted to the newer Pana TVs. They have been doing it for years.

[Owen]

I thought 24p material is supposed to have judder, especially in panning scenes.

Film source is supposed to have 24fps “jitter”. Judder is the result of displaying 24fps content at 60Hz and is due to the uneven 3:2 frame sequence.

Judder and jitter are quite different but to the inexperienced eye they can look similar.

[diesel]

Thanks for clearing that up Owen.

[Eth Nick]

It's a problem that has been often mentioned re the V10, G10 etc. The SD FTA picture is particularly blurry/soft - http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=81340&st=60

They handle HD FTA better but the current Panas are really more geared for Bluray playback.

Yeah i'd say this as well. My older TH-42PV60A does display SDTV sources more convincingly. Upscaled content is similar, but proper HDTV/Blu-ray looks much better on the 58V, providing you sit close enough.

[Eth Nick]

Film source is supposed to have 24fps “jitter”.

I don't understand why people think this is a bad thing. If anything, it's more apparent at the cinemas. Take it away, & you get that video look, which is awful when watching films.

(I hope we're referring to the same thing here, Owen.).