Panasonic V20 Owners Thread (Settings, Problems, Impressions, Questions)

[pseudophile]

a. Name the source.
b. Name the source file.
c. Is this playing off the USB port?
d. Are you saying an LCD is better than a Plasma when it comes to motion?
e. Have you tried watching the same on an LCD.

The source are tata sky and my DVD player.
The source file - my DVDs.
This is not being played off the USB port (Dont understand why that should matter though)
I am saying that do not get confused by the 600mhz subfield vs the 120/150 mhz refresh rate that the LCDs use. They are not the same. The 600mhz does nothing to help the motion
I have watched the same DVDs on my friends 40" sony ex500. The slow pan shots are much smoother and dont judder. The fast panning is not as blurry.

 

[vramak]

The source are tata sky and my DVD player.
The source file - my DVDs.
This is not being played off the USB port (Dont understand why that should matter though)
I am saying that do not get confused by the 600mhz subfield vs the 120/150 mhz refresh rate that the LCDs use. They are not the same. The 600mhz does nothing to help the motion
I have watched the same DVDs on my friends 40" sony ex500. The slow pan shots are much smoother and dont judder. The fast panning is not as blurry.

Your friend is probably watching movies the wrong way and you're watching it the way it's supposed to look.

Read through the 'LCD/LED Motion Blur' part of this post to understand motion blur, judder and 600hz sub-field drive better.

http://www.hifivision.com/television/11578-choosing-hdtv-whats-important-whats-not.html

 

[arun_chak]

Ram (vramak),

I checked my tata sky hd with Gamma (S-Curve). My eyes didn't like it. Looks like it changes the contrast. Color saturation looked unnatural. I liked Gamma(2.2). Do you think I am missing something?

 

[akasmarty2003]

alot of Panny 2010 plasma owners in UK have reported their inability to handle motion at 50Hz video input. i'm a bit concerned as a future VT20 owner as our VT20 is almost identical to UK's here is the link: Panasonic VT20 blur or multiply on a pan shot - AVForums.com

 

[pseudophile]

Your friend is probably watching movies the wrong way and you're watching it the way it's supposed to look.

Read through the 'LCD/LED Motion Blur' part of this post to understand motion blur, judder and 600hz sub-field drive better.

http://www.hifivision.com/television/11578-choosing-hdtv-whats-important-whats-not.html

Read your post vramak. Thanks for the theory lesson. Interesting read.

I think only movie theatres are capable of playing movies the way they are suppose to be.

It doesnt matter whether the display is playing the movie its suppose to be or not. What matters is how it appears.
Dont know if my eyes are sensitive or not but all I know is that I do see the problems on the V20. :sad:

Going by the link that akasmarty sent this problem is faced by many others too. I know the link is for VT20 but if you read further you will see the problem exist for v20 owners too

 

[vramak]

Ram (vramak),

I checked my tata sky hd with Gamma (S-Curve). My eyes didn't like it. Looks like it changes the contrast. Color saturation looked unnatural. I liked Gamma(2.2). Do you think I am missing something?

S-curve gamma works best for lower quality sources. At least that's what I feel. I don't know about Tata Sky HD. If 2.2 gamma looks correct for you then use it. What looks good for you is what matters most.

S-curve gamma means that the extreme white details and extreme black details are clipped. This should theoretically (and as far as I've seen practically too ) work well for low quality sources like 700mb divx files because extreme black and white details will be poor in such files.

 

[vramak]

alot of Panny 2010 plasma owners in UK have reported their inability to handle motion at 50Hz video input. i'm a bit concerned as a future VT20 owner as our VT20 is almost identical to UK's here is the link: Panasonic VT20 blur or multiply on a pan shot - AVForums.com

Read your post vramak. Thanks for the theory lesson. Interesting read.

I think only movie theatres are capable of playing movies the way they are suppose to be.

It doesnt matter whether the display is playing the movie its suppose to be or not. What matters is how it appears.
Dont know if my eyes are sensitive or not but all I know is that I do see the problems on the V20. :sad:

Going by the link that akasmarty sent this problem is faced by many others too. I know the link is for VT20 but if you read further you will see the problem exist for v20 owners too

These AVForums guys are talking about interlace artifacts. 1080i WILL show interlace artifacts especially in pan scenes. 1080p won't show such motion artifacts and that's the only advantage 1080p has over 1080i.

Pseudophile - If your DVD player is capable of outputting 24hz then switch it on and then switch on 24p smooth film on your V20. If it doesn't have 24p output, then switch on IFC on your V20. Doing either of these will reduce judder to an extent but this certainly is not the way movies should play. EDIT: 24p smooth film setting will give correct results. Only IFC will give artificially smoothened results. The next time you watch a movie in a theatre, notice how much motion blur and judder movies themselves contain.

And one more thing - try pausing during a fast pan scene. You'll notice that the paused frame itself will be very blurry.

 

[arun_chak]

S-curve gamma works best for lower quality sources. At least that's what I feel. I don't know about Tata Sky HD. If 2.2 gamma looks correct for you then use it. What looks good for you is what matters most.

S-curve gamma means that the extreme white details and extreme black details are clipped. This should theoretically (and as far as I've seen practically too ) work well for low quality sources like 700mb divx files because extreme black and white details will be poor in such files.

Oh okay will try to check low quality source.

 

[idlebrain]

Owners of V20. Please give your feedback on Flickering Issue in V20. How much it has effect on HD material like Blurays in 24p Mode. Again will 60Hz and 50Hz matters on Flickering problem?

 

[KiranB]

Owners of V20. Please give your feedback on Flickering Issue in V20. How much it has effect on HD material like Blurays in 24p Mode. Again will 60Hz and 50Hz matters on Flickering problem?

flicker? oh yeah... this baby shines at it. It flickers like a candle in the wind.

but then again, TV flicker is very debatable and 80% of the people either cant see it or adjust their eyes to it.

the best advice is to go check out the display yourself and check how it appears to you. (Its driving me mad).

give yourself around 30 min when auditioning the TV and audition with all the sources. The brand shop guys usually have all diff sources and you can carry some movies in your pen drive to check how they play on USB.

 

[shredder]

Hey vramak, those pics demonstrating the black levels on the Samsung Plasma were really good. Just as a matter of curiosity could you take similar pictures to show the black levels on the V20, since everyone is raving about the black levels on this plasma.
Thanks in advance.

 

[vramak]

Hey vramak, those pics demonstrating the black levels on the Samsung Plasma were really good. Just as a matter of curiosity could you take similar pictures to show the black levels on the V20, since everyone is raving about the black levels on this plasma.
Thanks in advance.

Oops! Didn't notice your post. I'll post the images on Sunday or Monday when I get my camera back.

By the way, I've adjusted the settings again. Looks like white level (or contrast level) will pass calibration tests for a wide range of values. Now, I've readjusted the settings with higher contrast level. These are the settings I'm using now...

Mode: True Cinema
Contrast: 78
Brightness: 4
Colour: 40
Sharpness: 10
Advanced Settings->Gamma: 2.6

With these settings, the picture has loads of 'punch' but still retains detail. Try out these settings and see if you like them. With these settings tho, there is a bit of image retention that becomes noticeable when viewing a black image from up close in a dark room. But it goes away within 1-2 minutes of watching fullscreen content.

 

[frankmehta]

I powered up the TV for the first time at my new home last night, connected Tata Sky HD (HDMI), plugged in the PS3. AND BOY!!! WOOOOOOOW!
This is DEFINITELY the best display I have EVER EVER seen. Period. No calibration. No hanky panky with the normal settings. I have set it to normal mode with contrast set at 5 and the brightness at 0. All modes like vivid colour, intelligent frame creation and eco mode OFF. Absolutely SUPER.
I am glad to have bought this tv and I thank all you guys for your stellar advice to pick up this television. I am in half a mind to buy a 42V20 for my bedroom too. But have NO space to fit it, since it's going onto a cupboard door.

A small review on Tata Sky HD + Panasonic 50V20:
There are just two channels on Tata Sky HD, which is National Geographic HD and Discovery World HD.

The HDMI cable used was the one that came with the STB and it's of ok quality. Entry level stuff. I have better MX HDMI cables (gold plated) and I will be connecting them soon.

Both channels have very good resolution (read: NOT artificially upscaled) and I have set them to 1080i mode from the STB. I have half a mind to set it to 720p, since I feel it will be much better, because that will let the AVR hardware do the upscaling/interlacing, instead of the box hardware, which must be decidedly inferior to the wizardry in the television. Also, of note is the fact that I haven't yet connected the Denon AVR 1910 between the TV sources. I am quite sure that there will be a perceptible difference in the upscaling done by the ABT Anchor Labs chip of the Denon rather than the entry level chipset in the tata sky box.
Now, I watched about 4-5 hours of TV yesterday. Some of it was at contrast 60 ( stock normal mode) and some of it was in burn in mode (contrast 0-5-10). The source content was NatGeoHD, DiscoWorldHD, Dark Knight blu-ray via PS3 and 8MP images via CD again from PS3.

Let me tell you that WHATEVER was the contrast, the reproduction of images in BOTH channels was mind numbing. The details, the correct amount and colour temperature of images, both static as well as moving was pretty much as real as I expected it to be. Black levels were a colossal improvement over my Sony W series 40 incher, and motion and pictures never felt more natural and never looked better. Soft balanced colours, without overpowering each other and lifelike images. Amazing!!! The over-awing 50 inch size also looked fantabulous in the hall, since the viewing distance is well below 14 feet.
I didn't do any critical viewing (which I won't be doing much regularly anyways) and I was happy with what I saw. I didn't see any judder, and no floating blacks or any such anomalies. Even if I did see something wrong, I didn't register it, since I don't have the aspiration for 'THE PERFECT IMAGE'
I am happy with the TV and the scrumptious quality it dishes out.
I hope this beautiful TV lasts the way I expect it to. Hope to have some great moments with it.
Cheers guys! Thanks again!

 

[arun_chak]

Congrats dude,ofcourse this is the best in its class. Welcome to 42V20D club
Also try to see some blue ray movie. You will be awe stuck

 

[csczero]

I powered up the TV for the first time at my new home last night, connected Tata Sky HD (HDMI), plugged in the PS3. AND BOY!!! WOOOOOOOW!
This is DEFINITELY the best display I have EVER EVER seen. Period. No calibration. No hanky panky with the normal settings. I have set it to normal mode with contrast set at 5 and the brightness at 0. All modes like vivid colour, intelligent frame creation and eco mode OFF. Absolutely SUPER.
I am glad to have bought this tv and I thank all you guys for your stellar advice to pick up this television. I am in half a mind to buy a 42V20 for my bedroom too. But have NO space to fit it, since it's going onto a cupboard door.

A small review on Tata Sky HD + Panasonic 50V20:
There are just two channels on Tata Sky HD, which is National Geographic HD and Discovery World HD.

The HDMI cable used was the one that came with the STB and it's of ok quality. Entry level stuff. I have better MX HDMI cables (gold plated) and I will be connecting them soon.

Both channels have very good resolution (read: NOT artificially upscaled) and I have set them to 1080i mode from the STB. I have half a mind to set it to 720p, since I feel it will be much better, because that will let the AVR hardware do the upscaling/interlacing, instead of the box hardware, which must be decidedly inferior to the wizardry in the television. Also, of note is the fact that I haven't yet connected the Denon AVR 1910 between the TV sources. I am quite sure that there will be a perceptible difference in the upscaling done by the ABT Anchor Labs chip of the Denon rather than the entry level chipset in the tata sky box.
Now, I watched about 4-5 hours of TV yesterday. Some of it was at contrast 60 ( stock normal mode) and some of it was in burn in mode (contrast 0-5-10). The source content was NatGeoHD, DiscoWorldHD, Dark Knight blu-ray via PS3 and 8MP images via CD again from PS3.

Let me tell you that WHATEVER was the contrast, the reproduction of images in BOTH channels was mind numbing. The details, the correct amount and colour temperature of images, both static as well as moving was pretty much as real as I expected it to be. Black levels were a colossal improvement over my Sony W series 40 incher, and motion and pictures never felt more natural and never looked better. Soft balanced colours, without overpowering each other and lifelike images. Amazing!!! The over-awing 50 inch size also looked fantabulous in the hall, since the viewing distance is well below 14 feet.
I didn't do any critical viewing (which I won't be doing much regularly anyways) and I was happy with what I saw. I didn't see any judder, and no floating blacks or any such anomalies. Even if I did see something wrong, I didn't register it, since I don't have the aspiration for 'THE PERFECT IMAGE'
I am happy with the TV and the scrumptious quality it dishes out.
I hope this beautiful TV lasts the way I expect it to. Hope to have some great moments with it.
Cheers guys! Thanks again!

Congrats ! Post some Pics dude !! :thumbsup:

 

[illusion_heart]

I powered up the TV for the first time at my new home last night, connected Tata Sky HD (HDMI), plugged in the PS3. AND BOY!!! WOOOOOOOW!
This is DEFINITELY the best display I have EVER EVER seen. Period. No calibration. No hanky panky with the normal settings. I have set it to normal mode with contrast set at 5 and the brightness at 0. All modes like vivid colour, intelligent frame creation and eco mode OFF. Absolutely SUPER.
I am glad to have bought this tv and I thank all you guys for your stellar advice to pick up this television. I am in half a mind to buy a 42V20 for my bedroom too. But have NO space to fit it, since it's going onto a cupboard door.

A small review on Tata Sky HD + Panasonic 50V20:
There are just two channels on Tata Sky HD, which is National Geographic HD and Discovery World HD.

The HDMI cable used was the one that came with the STB and it's of ok quality. Entry level stuff. I have better MX HDMI cables (gold plated) and I will be connecting them soon.

Both channels have very good resolution (read: NOT artificially upscaled) and I have set them to 1080i mode from the STB. I have half a mind to set it to 720p, since I feel it will be much better, because that will let the AVR hardware do the upscaling/interlacing, instead of the box hardware, which must be decidedly inferior to the wizardry in the television. Also, of note is the fact that I haven't yet connected the Denon AVR 1910 between the TV sources. I am quite sure that there will be a perceptible difference in the upscaling done by the ABT Anchor Labs chip of the Denon rather than the entry level chipset in the tata sky box.
Now, I watched about 4-5 hours of TV yesterday. Some of it was at contrast 60 ( stock normal mode) and some of it was in burn in mode (contrast 0-5-10). The source content was NatGeoHD, DiscoWorldHD, Dark Knight blu-ray via PS3 and 8MP images via CD again from PS3.

Let me tell you that WHATEVER was the contrast, the reproduction of images in BOTH channels was mind numbing. The details, the correct amount and colour temperature of images, both static as well as moving was pretty much as real as I expected it to be. Black levels were a colossal improvement over my Sony W series 40 incher, and motion and pictures never felt more natural and never looked better. Soft balanced colours, without overpowering each other and lifelike images. Amazing!!! The over-awing 50 inch size also looked fantabulous in the hall, since the viewing distance is well below 14 feet.
I didn't do any critical viewing (which I won't be doing much regularly anyways) and I was happy with what I saw. I didn't see any judder, and no floating blacks or any such anomalies. Even if I did see something wrong, I didn't register it, since I don't have the aspiration for 'THE PERFECT IMAGE'
I am happy with the TV and the scrumptious quality it dishes out.
I hope this beautiful TV lasts the way I expect it to. Hope to have some great moments with it.
Cheers guys! Thanks again!

Congratulations mate....enjoy your display and share your experiences with us

 

[viper_]

@frankmehta
congrats on the purchase mate!! would love to know how do you find sd viewing on the tv as compared to a crt? just abt to purchase a 42v20 and would have already done so, just a little skeptical if i'll enjoy watching dth (tatasky) as much as i currently do on my crt. really don't wanna ruin it.

would love to hear from all v20 owners (42" & 50") abt their experiece with sd viewing as well.

 

[vramak]

Hey vramak, those pics demonstrating the black levels on the Samsung Plasma were really good. Just as a matter of curiosity could you take similar pictures to show the black levels on the V20, since everyone is raving about the black levels on this plasma.
Thanks in advance.

Check out this thread - http://www.hifivision.com/television/12294-panasonic-v20-black-levels-illustrated.html#post169676

 

[dijeesh]

@frankmehta
congrats on the purchase mate!! would love to know how do you find sd viewing on the tv as compared to a crt? just abt to purchase a 42v20 and would have already done so, just a little skeptical if i'll enjoy watching dth (tatasky) as much as i currently do on my crt. really don't wanna ruin it.

would love to hear from all v20 owners (42" & 50") abt their experiece with sd viewing as well.

i picked up 42 v20 on 15th Aug.

Since then i am using this for Dish DTH sd and some DVDs.

I must say that the sd perfomance is really good, i had my apprehensions about sd perfomance,but v20 returned good clarity.

The max res i tried is 576i.That was awsome.Waiting with my fingers crossed to see the true perfomance of my panny when i play a 1080p video.

All the best and thanks.

 

[frankmehta]

Guys, which WiFi dongle works with the Pana V20??? I tried the one that comes with the Xtreamer but that didn't work. Anything special required?