Fluctuating black levels on Panasonic TH-P42V20D

[santanusinha]

I don't want to ruin it for the already owners, but this should act as a note to the potential buyers.

I noticed some black level fluctuations on the P42V20D plasma screen while watching some movies. I give the accounts of the incidences below:

1) Book of ELI: DVD upscaled using Sony DVD player. In one of the night scenes, the whole screen (both movie area as well as the black bars at top and bottom) changed black levels to a lighter shade suddenly.
2) The Prestige DVD upscaled from Sony PS3. In one of the night scenes the black level decreased (brightened) suddenly all over the screen as in the previous instance. I rewinded the DVD, black levels became normal before the scene. At the same scene the black level fluctuation occurred again.

In both these instances, the black level decreased once we got to a brighter scene. It seems that the V20 suffers from a bug somewhere that is triggered by some special dark scenes.

Coming from a strictly CRT background I was a little taken aback by the lack of total darkness on the screen even in the darkest situation generally. Having come to terms with that and accepting that this is a part of the plasma technology, these random(well deterministic in a sense) fluctuations in the black level will take some more away from the viewing pleasure. This is an issue that may be visible to the careful viewer, specially those that love to watch movies in completely dark rooms.

Otherwise the picture quality, color balance/saturation still seems rock solid on this. Also, the brightening is by a very minuscule amount, but obviously, the pictures loose some depth during that time.

I did not notice similar problems on any purely HD content that i saw ( Planet Earth BDs, Avatar BD, Saving Private Ryan BD nd PS3 games), but that may just be coincidental.

It would be nice if others can corroborate on this. Otherwise I have to assume that i have a faulty set and act accordingly (it would be difficult to make the service buffons understand the problem though). Now, I noticed on AVS forums that post april 2010 US G20 don't have this problem, so is panasonic dumping the older infinite black panels in India packed in a V20 body?

-Santanu

 

[plasmoid]

I don't want to ruin it for the already owners, but this should act as a note to the potential buyers.

I noticed some black level fluctuations on the P42V20D plasma screen while watching some movies. I give the accounts of the incidences below:

1) Book of ELI: DVD upscaled using Sony DVD player. In one of the night scenes, the whole screen (both movie area as well as the black bars at top and bottom) changed black levels to a lighter shade suddenly.
2) The Prestige DVD upscaled from Sony PS3. In one of the night scenes the black level decreased (brightened) suddenly all over the screen as in the previous instance. I rewinded the DVD, black levels became normal before the scene. At the same scene the black level fluctuation occurred again.

In both these instances, the black level decreased once we got to a brighter scene. It seems that the V20 suffers from a bug somewhere that is triggered by some special dark scenes.

Coming from a strictly CRT background I was a little taken aback by the lack of total darkness on the screen even in the darkest situation generally. Having come to terms with that and accepting that this is a part of the plasma technology, these random(well deterministic in a sense) fluctuations in the black level will take some more away from the viewing pleasure. This is an issue that may be visible to the careful viewer, specially those that love to watch movies in completely dark rooms.

Otherwise the picture quality, color balance/saturation still seems rock solid on this. Also, the brightening is by a very minuscule amount, but obviously, the pictures loose some depth during that time.

I did not notice similar problems on any purely HD content that i saw ( Planet Earth BDs, Avatar BD, Saving Private Ryan BD nd PS3 games), but that may just be coincidental.

It would be nice if others can corroborate on this. Otherwise I have to assume that i have a faulty set and act accordingly (it would be difficult to make the service buffons understand the problem though). Now, I noticed on AVS forums that post april 2010 US G20 don't have this problem, so is panasonic dumping the older infinite black panels in India packed in a V20 body?

-Santanu

Hi Santanu,
Thanks for pointing this out.I have heard a lot about this...also some color banding problems(have you noticed?).Is this as bad as the dimming in LED TVs...was planning to go in for the v20...now in serious doubt :sad:

 

[musik_manz]

I was also tempted to buy V20.At last opted out.Is Panasonic draining us out for last two years?

 

[pseudophile]

Your post is two days too late santanu.

Placed my order on Sunday.

Is it really that bad?

V20 owners waiting for your posts.

 

[santanusinha]

Your post is two days too late santanu.

Placed my order on Sunday.

Is it really that bad?

V20 owners waiting for your posts.

Don't be disheartened. It's not that bad at all. Only for the extreme videophile will this be a minor nuisance. During Book of Eli and The Prestige, both me and my wife were watching. Only I noticed it, that too, i think, because I am still looking out for imperfections in the set. I can bet 90-95% of the people who buy this will never notice this at all.

Enjoy your TV, Panasonic has indeed hit the nail on the head in most departments. It is a good buy and a good decision. Compared to LCD/LED this is still FAR better overall. Put in the AVATAR BD in and LED and this one side by side, you will see that pictures on the LED look over-sharpened. On this set it looks absolutely smooth and almost have a 3-D like feel. Really, it is that good!! Frankly speaking, I am quite happy with the set myself. At this moment of time there is no other set comparable to this one, so you went for the best option, and I don't see any reason to regret that.

Besides, this looks like a software issue. Maybe it will be fixed in some future firmware update.

As Anthony Hopkins once pointed out in the movie Fracture: "Knowledge is pain.."

-Santanu

Regarding color banding read: http://www.hifivision.com/televisio...eup-launched-india-post156028.html#post156028

 

[vramak]

Haha! I got my V20 y'day and I noticed color banding, green dancing pixels and floating black levels almost immediately.

But the problem was with my PS3 settings and TV settings. Once I fixed them both, I got rid of color banding and green noise (dancing pixels). I do notice floating black levels even now and I think it's very easy to notice the black levels shifting especially in the black letterbox bars. In the dark, Ward-C scene of Shutter Island, you can almost constantly notice the letterbox bars becoming grayer/blacker.

But seriously, I won't consider this a deal breaker considering how much the good things overshadow this minor problem.

 

[santanusinha]

Haha! I got my V20 y'day and I noticed color banding, green dancing pixels and floating black levels almost immediately.

But the problem was with my PS3 settings and TV settings. Once I fixed them both, I got rid of color banding and green noise (dancing pixels). I do notice floating black levels even now and I think it's very easy to notice the black levels shifting especially in the black letterbox bars. In the dark, Ward-C scene of Shutter Island, you can almost constantly notice the letterbox bars becoming grayer/blacker.

But seriously, I won't consider this a deal breaker considering how much the good things overshadow this minor problem.

bought the shutter island DVD day before yesterday ... haven't seen it on the TV yet...

I agree that this is not a dealbreaker issue, and the overall visual experience is quite satisfying...

 

[vramak]

Coming from a strictly CRT background I was a little taken aback by the lack of total darkness on the screen even in the darkest situation generally.

That's true though. Even I was expecting the TV screen to disappear into the darkness when displaying a fully black image. But, the TV does light up my dark room even when displaying a fully black image. Comparatively, a black image displayed on my previous TV, Samsung B450, would light up my dark room so much that I won't need to switch on the lights to walk around the room or fetch a remote from somewhere. V20 is much much dimmer than that but still it doesn't disappear into the darkness like my Sony CRT does.

And, btw, floating black levels is not a problem inherent to plasmas. I've not noticed any such thing in Sammy B450. European V20 which has infinite black pro panel also suffers from slightly floating blacks as said in reviews.

 

[santanusinha]

That's true though. Even I was expecting the TV screen to disappear into the darkness when displaying a fully black image. But, the TV does light up my dark room even when displaying a fully black image. Comparatively, a black image displayed on my previous TV, Samsung B450, would light up my dark room so much that I won't need to switch on the lights to walk around the room or fetch a remote from somewhere. V20 is much much dimmer than that but still it doesn't disappear into the darkness like my Sony CRT does.

And, btw, floating black levels is not a problem inherent to plasmas. I've not noticed any such thing in Sammy B450. European V20 which has infinite black pro panel also suffers from slightly floating blacks as said in reviews.

No use reading about the V20 models elsewhere, the panels for V20 here are the ones used in G20 models (the infinite black panels .. not the pro ones). It was reported on AVS forums that post April 2010 G20 panels are not having the floating blacks issue, that is what i mentioned in my post.

I concur that, Floating black levels have nothing to do with plasma. For all it matters, it looks like a bug in the DSP stack. In the best case scenario, this may be fixable by a s/w update. On the worst case, it is a bug in the hardware itself and will not be fixed.

- Santanu

 

[n_thacker]

In my new house, i was initially considering to buy LG50PK550 full HD. Heard of problems in it as few of our members pointed out. Then decided to go for Panasonic but here also seems there is a problem. Never ever heard of such problems in our Normal CRTs. Or is it that since its decades old technology, that it has been perfected LOLZ!!

Now am confused which technology i should got Plasma/LCD/LED.

Nikhil

 

[sub]

Hi

I would suggest you to zoom the content to full screen for the initial 100hrs of break-in period which i do on my LG 42PJ350R and keep your settings between 40 and 50 and black level low, it may not be visually appealing initially but you get used to it after sometime and Plasma needs this kind of pamparing for long healthy life.

Hope this helps

Regards
Sub

 

[santanusinha]

In my new house, i was initially considering to buy LG50PK550 full HD. Heard of problems in it as few of our members pointed out. Then decided to go for Panasonic but here also seems there is a problem. Never ever heard of such problems in our Normal CRTs. Or is it that since its decades old technology, that it has been perfected LOLZ!!

Now am confused which technology i should got Plasma/LCD/LED.

Nikhil

+1 for plasma

 

[hemantsadhwani]

Dear Shantanu & vramak,

I have bought the TH42V20D yesterday. I have taken the demo in the Panasonic shop in Bangalore and it performed amazingly. First I had bought LED LCD LH90 from LG and picture quality was amazing. For some reason I had replaced, LED with V20D and I'm pretty disappointed with the performance.

My problem is:- I have AirTel HD STB connected to the TV. Very frequently I see the fluctuating pixels or blur objects. I feel they are majorly on the White, Black & Green color objects. I have tried tweaking with the P-NR and Vivid color but still they come. As I understand you also have the same problem of fluctuating Green and White which you have resolved with setting. Please provide some help to configure the TV.

Thanks in Advance for the inputs!!

-Hemant