Just Got My 65" Vt20 3d Pana

[Doug Bull]

I just purchased the 58 inch Vt20a from Retravision for $3790 and it included the bonus 3D player and bonus glasses.

I also bought 2 extra pairs of glasses for only $298 ( a saving of $100 )

Delivery is tomorrow.

Retravision Mornington has a sale on all TVs and equipment at cost price plus 5%.

The free movies were never available on the 58 & 65 inch Vt20A.

The movie package is still going on the other 3D models and are packed in the carton.

I'm an LCD man, so will I be happy with Plasma? We will soon find out.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Doug Bull

[Cooksta59]

Cnet review of the 65Vt20 Here

[bradp51]

At the moment I am tossing up between the Samsung 63 in and Panasonic 65 inch plasma. I just saw both side by side at HN at Campbelltown and the Panasonic had deeper blacks and perhaps more natural skin colour.

I do not see $1200 difference in price though. Samsung is much thinner. Pana has more presence and looks bigger and of course it is 2 inches bigger. I do not like the bezel as much on the Pana.

At Bing Lee prices were 3500 for Samsung and 4800 for Panasonic

I did not even ask price at HN

Had another look at both of these yesterday. If price is left aside eg not counted then are their any great differences in both these sets?

Is there any features on one or the other that is important ? Such as intenet connectivity. I want to make a decision before the current promo ends on 31 Oct.

Any help appreciated.

cheers

[pietro1503559499]

Cnet review of the 65Vt20 Here

From that review:

"For example, during our testing we noticed a diagonal mesh effect that didn't appear on the 50-inch. Apart from that, the 65-inch version is better in most ways."

I haven't noticed this...has anyone else?

[bradp51]

Had another look at both of these yesterday. If price is left aside eg not counted then are their any great differences in both these sets?

Is there any features on one or the other that is important ? Such as intenet connectivity. I want to make a decision before the current promo ends on 31 Oct.

Any help appreciated.

cheers

Back to HN today and looked with my wife at the two side by side and my wife gave the better PQ to the VT20. Ch 10 SD FTA was running on both and then later some promo BD material.

My wife then saw the LED Samsung LCD "Oh I like that much better why don,t you buy one of those."

Panasonic gives a bigger screen look due to the bezel and the extra 2 inches of course.

Has anyone wall mounted one of these beasts yet and if so what mount did you use.

cheers

[pietro1503559499]

Even though my 65" only has about 50 hours use I played the DVE Blu-ray last night to get an idea of the calibration.

For the THX setting the Brightness and Contrast were spot-on. The Colour was extremely close and would only be bettered by fiddling with the individual colour settings I would say. I set the Sharpness at 60 (default 50) which still seemed fine looking at the test pattern. I think maybe I like extreme sharpness which may result from many years of owning Trinitron CRT TVs.

It would be great to get Aaron from Avical but I don't see that happening where I live.

[B-Force]

Even though my 65" only has about 50 hours use I played the DVE Blu-ray last night to get an idea of the calibration.

For the THX setting the Brightness and Contrast were spot-on. The Colour was extremely close and would only be bettered by fiddling with the individual colour settings I would say. I set the Sharpness at 60 (default 50) which still seemed fine looking at the test pattern. I think maybe I like extreme sharpness which may result from many years of owning Trinitron CRT TVs.

It would be great to get Aaron from Avical but I don't see that happening where I live.

Really that much sharpness. I've toggled it up and down and can't tell the difference (although I haven't broken out the DVE disk yet - TV has probably on 30 hours on it).

From some settings I've seen, by people who have used a puck to calibrate the screen - your right most settings are fairly close to THX - although most of those had sharpness at 0.

[duster]

I have found with the THX setting there is no overscan. While not as fussy as some I just leave it on cinema for convenience.

[CCRider]

Even though my 65" only has about 50 hours use I played the DVE Blu-ray last night to get an idea of the calibration.

For the THX setting the Brightness and Contrast were spot-on. The Colour was extremely close and would only be bettered by fiddling with the individual colour settings I would say. I set the Sharpness at 60 (default 50) which still seemed fine looking at the test pattern. I think maybe I like extreme sharpness which may result from many years of owning Trinitron CRT TVs.

It would be great to get Aaron from Avical but I don't see that happening where I live.

50 hours already Pietro Time to switch it off and go for a walk and get some fresh air

[pietro1503559499]

50 hours already Pietro Time to switch it off and go for a walk and get some fresh air

I must be enjoying it a lot. And I am.

[pietro1503559499]

Really that much sharpness. I've toggled it up and down and can't tell the difference (although I haven't broken out the DVE disk yet - TV has probably on 30 hours on it).

From some settings I've seen, by people who have used a puck to calibrate the screen - your right most settings are fairly close to THX - although most of those had sharpness at 0.

The default for Sharpness in THX is 50. Not sure what you mean by a puck.....

[Pfeff]

Well I've been using the test colours off the AVSforum settings thread to break in my 58" and have about 150 hours up of which 100 were the colour screens. I had Aaron calibrate our LX508 and there is a slight variation on the colour settings using the DVE disc. It's pretty close though and of course Aaron set it up for the same location I now have the VT20.

At first I thought the calibrated Pioneer was a little too much colour. But when I compared peoples complections and facial colours, and so on, I realised that they were spot on. It was just that for years I had gotten used to having a cool setting on my TV. It was just conditioning. Looking at the Kelvin scale, it is amazing who warm reference settings are, yet numerically they are quite high in comparison to incandescent light. Just shows you how conditioned we become by our preferences.

I agree that THX is amazimgly close to perfect. So I used the THX settings for Professional 1, then adjusted from there. The contrast is spot on at 50 for my room, Brightness is 0, I have lifted colour to +4 (to fix the red), and adjusted white balance to 0, +1, 0, -1, 0, -7. This gets the green as close to right as I can without many more hours of tweaking. I have adjusted Professional 2 to the same but with a tad less contrast and colour which seems to set the TV right for a fully dark room.

For the couple 3D movies I have, I use Dynamic with some tweaked settings to take out the saturation.

And I also prefer less sharpness. All my settings are at 10. There is no degradation of picture and remove any chance of halos.

Handy thing the DVE disk. Running the test patterns and the demo videos with the commentary is very useful in getting the TV just right. If I understand it right, S models don't allow ISF calibration and not sure about V. These alone make the VT worth a little extra. And now that Foxtel is about to start a 3D channel, and more titles on the way, you never know we might see more value in having a 3D set.

Edited October 27, 2010 by Pfeff

[B-Force]

I have found with the THX setting there is no overscan. While not as fussy as some I just leave it on cinema for convenience.

When you go to the Pro 1 settings for the first time it should be the same as the THX settings (from what I can remember) - then you can turn on overscan and leave the rest of the THX settings as is.

I would prefer to have overscan off but unfortunately PlayTV gives me black uneven boarders so I have to have overscan on to get rid of these.

Here is a review and some settings for the VT20 (and VT25) -

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subac...p;id=1274347515

pietro - a "puck" or "spyder" is the item you put onto your TV screen, monitor etc. to calibrate it. Professionals use it. I use one to calibrate the computer screens at work for colour. Same can be done for TV screens but you have to connect the device to a laptop.

Here's an example (first one in a "google" search) http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-ht-s3tv.php

Hope this helps.

Edited October 27, 2010 by B-Force

[pietro1503559499]

pietro - a "puck" or "spyder" is the item you put onto your TV screen, monitor etc. to calibrate it. Professionals use it. I use one to calibrate the computer screens at work for colour. Same can be done for TV screens but you have to connect the device to a laptop.

Here's an example (first one in a "google" search) http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-ht-s3tv.php

Hope this helps.

Interesting, thanks.

[bradp51]

Interesting, thanks.

Hello,

I just bought one of these today. Can anyone advise me of some pro calibrators. I am in Sydney.

cheers

[HillsTas]

Hello,

I just bought one of these today. Can anyone advise me of some pro calibrators. I am in Sydney.

cheers

Brad,

Use the THX setting, it is pretty close to perfect!!

Cheers

Dave

[Pfeff]

Hello,

I just bought one of these today. Can anyone advise me of some pro calibrators. I am in Sydney.

cheers

I agree the THX is very close. But after your set is run in and you do want an ISF calibration, call Aaron. Here's his details. I think he must have calibrated more members' Pioneer Kuros than anyone else. For those outside Sydney, Aaron also travels interstate from time to time and did mine in Brisbane on one of his trips.

Aaron Rigg

CEDIA CCI (Certified Instructor)

ISF Instructor - Asia Pacific

HAA Certified Audio Calibrator

Avical Australia Pty Ltd

Ph. 0402 407 368

http://www.avical.com.au

[pietro1503559499]

I agree the THX is very close. But after your set is run in and you do want an ISF calibration, call Aaron. Here's his details. I think he must have calibrated more members' Pioneer Kuros than anyone else. For those outside Sydney, Aaron also travels interstate from time to time and did mine in Brisbane on one of his trips.

Aaron Rigg

CEDIA CCI (Certified Instructor)

ISF Instructor - Asia Pacific

HAA Certified Audio Calibrator

Avical Australia Pty Ltd

Ph. 0402 407 368

http://www.avical.com.au

Was there enough difference in the result to justify the cost?

[Pfeff]

That's a good question.... The following comments are in the context of if I knew then what I know now!

When I first got the Kuro (replaced a Sony KDL-40V2000), I set the picture settings purely on what looked about right to me. I also tried some of the settings from this and AV and AVS forums. When it had a few hours on it I purchased a DVE Calibration disc. Setting it up using that meant there was more colour saturation than I formerly used. I was also aware that ISF calirators could access some settings that I couldn't, or that's what I believed. Still unsure about the settings, chose to have Aaron calibrate my Kuro. Cost was in the high $300s if I recall correctly. Unfortunately I was travelling on business when he came to Brisbane so I did not get to watch or talk with him. When done, I thought it too was too much colour. But using the filter in the DVE box, I confirmed the settings were correct. I have to say that this also must be taken in the context that many programs have too much colour, may be warm, could be blue, depending on what the director wanted the picture to "feel" like and so on. In reality, most natural pictures looked brilliant. So I have concluded that over the preceeding years, I had become accustomed to inaccurate colours and contrast.

With all that as a preamble, with the VT20, as many including myself have said, the out of the box THX is very close to the same as my calibrated Kuro, and I only made very minor adjustments using the afforementioned DVE disk. So I will not be having the VT20 ISF calibrated because I can access the advanced settings and enable the two professional settings to use and set up myself. But I now have the advantage after having the Kuro calibrated to "know" what is correct and what should be reference type settings. I also know a lot more about the various enhancement options than I did with the Kuro. Most of this has come from the forums as the manuals are all pathetic (at least the Pio and Pana ones) at explaining what each feature does and it effects. Some of the explanations are simply devoid of any detail about how the picture is altered and consequences of the available settings.

I think the experience of having a professional calibrator in to set up an ISF capable TV is worth serious consideration, unless you really have a good knowledge of the feature set and you have some accurate method of setting up you own TV. Certainly, you simply must at a minimum use a calibration DVD like my DVE disc.

At the end of the day, while your eyes could be the judge, reference calibration of some type is necessary because the standard out of the box settings as good as they may be do not take into account your room light and reflections....

Hope this puts some perspective on your question.

[bradp51]

That's a good question.... The following comments are in the context of if I knew then what I know now!

When I first got the Kuro (replaced a Sony KDL-40V2000), I set the picture settings purely on what looked about right to me. I also tried some of the settings from this and AV and AVS forums. When it had a few hours on it I purchased a DVE Calibration disc. Setting it up using that meant there was more colour saturation than I formerly used. I was also aware that ISF calirators could access some settings that I couldn't, or that's what I believed. Still unsure about the settings, chose to have Aaron calibrate my Kuro. Cost was in the high $300s if I recall correctly. Unfortunately I was travelling on business when he came to Brisbane so I did not get to watch or talk with him. When done, I thought it too was too much colour. But using the filter in the DVE box, I confirmed the settings were correct. I have to say that this also must be taken in the context that many programs have too much colour, may be warm, could be blue, depending on what the director wanted the picture to "feel" like and so on. In reality, most natural pictures looked brilliant. So I have concluded that over the preceeding years, I had become accustomed to inaccurate colours and contrast.

With all that as a preamble, with the VT20, as many including myself have said, the out of the box THX is very close to the same as my calibrated Kuro, and I only made very minor adjustments using the afforementioned DVE disk. So I will not be having the VT20 ISF calibrated because I can access the advanced settings and enable the two professional settings to use and set up myself. But I now have the advantage after having the Kuro calibrated to "know" what is correct and what should be reference type settings. I also know a lot more about the various enhancement options than I did with the Kuro. Most of this has come from the forums as the manuals are all pathetic (at least the Pio and Pana ones) at explaining what each feature does and it effects. Some of the explanations are simply devoid of any detail about how the picture is altered and consequences of the available settings.

I think the experience of having a professional calibrator in to set up an ISF capable TV is worth serious consideration, unless you really have a good knowledge of the feature set and you have some accurate method of setting up you own TV. Certainly, you simply must at a minimum use a calibration DVD like my DVE disc.

At the end of the day, while your eyes could be the judge, reference calibration of some type is necessary because the standard out of the box settings as good as they may be do not take into account your room light and reflections....

Hope this puts some perspective on your question.

Anyone know of a place where you can get the standard Panasonic 3D Glasses cheaper than the $199 rec retail ?

cheers

[pietro1503559499]

My 65" has now done over 100 hrs and I have no regrets at all about getting this set.

I have seen only fantastic blacks, no crushed blacks. In fact I'm not sure what crushed blacks look like as it seems faultless in reproducing black, and the shadow detail is marvellous. I've seen none of the phosphor trails I've seen mentioned, nor the other numerous faults I've seen discussed in various fora.

I'm still using THX with a couple of minor tweaks and will do a final calibration with the DVD Blu-ray, but don't expect many changes.

[neil23]

My 65" has now done over 100 hrs and I have no regrets at all about getting this set.

I have seen only fantastic blacks, no crushed blacks. In fact I'm not sure what crushed blacks look like as it seems faultless in reproducing black, and the shadow detail is marvellous. I've seen none of the phosphor trails I've seen mentioned, nor the other numerous faults I've seen discussed in various fora.

I'm still using THX with a couple of minor tweaks and will do a final calibration with the DVD Blu-ray, but don't expect many changes.

just wanted to know if you used any special settings to break your set in -D-nice's- or whether you used regular tv

cheers

neil

[pietro1503559499]

just wanted to know if you used any special settings to break your set in -D-nice's- or whether you used regular tv

cheers

neil

Used a combo of the slides and video, Blu-ray and TV.

[neil23]

Used a combo of the slides and video, Blu-ray and TV.

which slides, d-nice',s or another, and did you find it straight forward to use re. changing system menu options and the like.

i only ask because ive got a 54inch being delivered and am considering just letting it go on normal tv for the 100 hours

cheers again,

neil

[CCRider]

My 65" has now done over 100 hrs and I have no regrets at all about getting this set.

I have seen only fantastic blacks, no crushed blacks. In fact I'm not sure what crushed blacks look like as it seems faultless in reproducing black, and the shadow detail is marvellous. I've seen none of the phosphor trails I've seen mentioned, nor the other numerous faults I've seen discussed in various fora.

I'm still using THX with a couple of minor tweaks and will do a final calibration with the DVD Blu-ray, but don't expect many changes.

Totally +1 I have this set at home on trial and for BR the pq is stunning. However very dissapointed with the way it handles FTA content which is the majority of my viewing

Edited November 6, 2010 by CC Rider