For those interested in postponing their HDTV purhcases to the second half of this year...
Panasonic seems to have achieved quite a few improvements and most importantly fixes to issues plaguing their 2010 and 2011 sets namely floating blacks and rising black levels (if the below link to HDGuru is anything to go by)
While another forum did hint at the floating blacks issues being fixed earlier last month there seems to be more definite news coming on the black level front
Panasonic Proclaims Higher Picture Quality and Kuro Like Blacks for its 2011 Plasma TVs | HD Guru
We could also expect an overall improvement of contrast ratios by about 40% on the VT30 initially confirmed by Panasonic officials and D-Nice last month close (to about 3700:1) . This is achieved by a combination of increased luminous efficiency and lower black levels. While measurements vary depending on the method used this seems quite a reasonable number.
Also while the blacks of the ST30 measured by Chad B are higher than that quoted on HDGuru it is important to note that his measurements of black levels are generally 0.003-0.004 ftl higher than other calibrators' measurements.
A black level of 0.02 ftl on the VT30 without the floating blacks and black level rise makes it really close to a 2nd generation Kuro. I however hope we do not have any additional issues this year (issues that Panasonic strangely manage to incorporate each year generally while trying to find a solution/improvement to a previous year's issue/fault/feature) . I also hope they manage some of the banding issues that were noticed on previous sets.
They did a very good job with phosphor trailing last year and considering the even faster phosphors i am sure no one is complaining.
I am sure more reviews in the coming days would give us a better picture though
Panasonic seems to have achieved quite a few improvements and most importantly fixes to issues plaguing their 2010 and 2011 sets namely floating blacks and rising black levels (if the below link to HDGuru is anything to go by)
While another forum did hint at the floating blacks issues being fixed earlier last month there seems to be more definite news coming on the black level front
Panasonic Proclaims Higher Picture Quality and Kuro Like Blacks for its 2011 Plasma TVs | HD Guru
We could also expect an overall improvement of contrast ratios by about 40% on the VT30 initially confirmed by Panasonic officials and D-Nice last month close (to about 3700:1) . This is achieved by a combination of increased luminous efficiency and lower black levels. While measurements vary depending on the method used this seems quite a reasonable number.
Also while the blacks of the ST30 measured by Chad B are higher than that quoted on HDGuru it is important to note that his measurements of black levels are generally 0.003-0.004 ftl higher than other calibrators' measurements.
A black level of 0.02 ftl on the VT30 without the floating blacks and black level rise makes it really close to a 2nd generation Kuro. I however hope we do not have any additional issues this year (issues that Panasonic strangely manage to incorporate each year generally while trying to find a solution/improvement to a previous year's issue/fault/feature) . I also hope they manage some of the banding issues that were noticed on previous sets.
They did a very good job with phosphor trailing last year and considering the even faster phosphors i am sure no one is complaining.
I am sure more reviews in the coming days would give us a better picture though
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