ST50 Owners' Thread - First impressions, Reviews, Tweaks, etc.
- Thread starter just4kix
- Start date
Audiodoc
Well-Known Member
No don't open it yourself. I know it is easy but if there is any problem out of the box they wont entertain any replacement.
arnprasad
Well-Known Member
I too got my 50 incher today. The delivery guy insisted that he open the seal to show me everything is ok..whatever it means. so with his help managed to get the TV out and keep it on sofa...but scared to fix the stand and install it..so waiting for the panasonic folks to turn up today
Audiodoc
Well-Known Member
@arnprasad
What have you done with the kaput samsung. I just wanted to know if you are planing to trash it you may send its guts T-CON board as well as the main board to T-CON connector to me so I may do some DIYing on my kaput samsung 46 LED.
I am also planning to go for the panasonic plasma but holding my horses till diwali.
What have you done with the kaput samsung. I just wanted to know if you are planing to trash it you may send its guts T-CON board as well as the main board to T-CON connector to me so I may do some DIYing on my kaput samsung 46 LED.
I am also planning to go for the panasonic plasma but holding my horses till diwali.
arnprasad
Well-Known Member
Hi..got couple of offers for 10K and also a well wisher said if I can catch hold of some one senior at samsung - they can take it back and give me a big discount of 30-40%. So still not decided on what to do with it. May be if they can fix my panel for 20K..dont mind going for that option as well. My mom too wants a big TV for the first floor.
I will keep you posted.
I will keep you posted.
just4kix
Well-Known Member
Panasonic guys wanted to turn up at my home today for installation. But as I told them that I was in office and want installation to be carried out in my presence. Tomorrow, they will be back.
saikatbiswas82
Well-Known Member
@Audiodoc... I think panasonic is giving free HT with plasma TVs. I came to know about this offer from this forum only. I guess the HT price will be somewhat around 15K-16K. Which seems to be a good deal to me. I was informed that this offer is valid till 31-Aug-2012 (Thanks @just4kix for this information).
Do you really think that the diwali price drop will be able to match this offer? I really have no idea and that's why I am asking for suggestion.
Actually the answer to the above question will lead me to make a purchase decision (whether before 31-Aug or before Diwali
).
just4kix
Well-Known Member
@Audiodoc... I think panasonic is giving free HT with plasma TVs. I came to know about this offer from this forum only. I guess the HT price will be somewhat around 15K-16K. Which seems to be a good deal to me. I was informed that this offer is valid till 31-Aug-2012 (Thanks @just4kix for this information).
Do you really think that the diwali price drop will be able to match this offer? I really have no idea and that's why I am asking for suggestion.
Actually the answer to the above question will lead me to make a purchase decision (whether before 31-Aug or before Diwali
I took the tv plunge after being in the hunt for two years. The price never dropped during any season. At most there used to be a free dth offer. The price only dropped when new models were introduced.
Don't be too fooled by the free htib offer. These are probably non selling items that panasonic wishes to get rid of.
Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2
Audiodoc
Well-Known Member
I am waiting for the 65 inch plasma which are not available as yet so deferring my purchase. I am not interested in the HT system as I already have a 7.1 at home and a 5.1 Z5500 in my rented flat.
The panasonic sale manager told the 65 inch ST and VT models will be available around the first week of September.
The panasonic sale manager told the 65 inch ST and VT models will be available around the first week of September.
just4kix
Well-Known Member
The 65ST50 and 65VT50 will be released after exhausting the current 65VT30. That is what the dealer said. At 3.5 lacs apiece, the sales are not too hot.
Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2
Audiodoc
Well-Known Member
65vt30 was available on flip kart at 290k. The showrooms are selling for 320k. However I suppose the ST will be around 200k. The Panasonic regional sales manager told me that the same will be available in the first week of September.
just4kix
Well-Known Member
50ST50D - First Impressions
As stated in the title above, these are first impressions only. This TV has been universally praised and I may not have much to add. Hence I am not going to dwell upon many factors already written about - at lease not today. I am certainly not a video expert and could claim slightly biased opinions. Although I have a HD-Ready projector, this is the first time I am experiencing a Full-HD TV. Nevertheless all assumptions, impressions, over-boarding, criticism, errors are my own.
The TV was installed today. The guy arrived when I was out of home and by the time I arrived, he had already unpacked and attached the wall brackets.
I am going to wall mount it in my bedroom. But for the moment, it (the bedroom) does not have DTH cable running to it. Hence I just asked the guy to fix the wall mount but set the TV up in the living room on the pedestal stand. Here are some installation pictures:
After the TV was properly setup, I checked was the hours that were clocked using the SRV-Tool. I was overjoyed to see that the total running time was 39 minutes and TV was switched on 4 times (thumbs up to dealer "Rajesh Trading Company").
In the box:
The box contained the usual. Besides the TV, it had the remote+2 batteries, the desktop stand, 2 pairs of 3D eye active 3D glasses (Universal), Composite Cable Connector, and Component Cable connector. The wall mount came separately. Other countries do not offer a free wall mount. It would have been nice if an 1.5m HDMI 1.4 cable was included at the price charged/paid; hence taking a pint off.
Form Factor:
The TV is very slim. The actual panel is just 15 mm or so and thus can compare appreciably with the LED panels. My neighbour thought that it is an LED TV (without being turned on).
----------------------
All following observations were made on the "Normal" and "True Cinema" mode.
----------------------
Picture Quality:
I did not tweak the settings much except that I have reduced the contrast for most settings to 35 and left rest as they are. When the picture setting was "Normal", some of the soaps appeared too brightly coloured. When I changed the setting to "Dynamic" (Contrast=100), the picture became too bright for my liking and I turned it away immediately. This proves what most are saying - in the brightly lit showrooms, the picture setting appears much toned down because of ambient light. In my hall, I pulled the drapes across and dimmed the ambient light as much as possible. Under these conditions "Dynamic" is plain eye-hurting.
I have no reference of the PQ in any other LCD/LED/Plasma other than some friends/relatives. But whatever I remember, I think that the SD quality is very good when compared to others. Note that all my friends/relatives have LCD or LED TVs and they are 40" or less. We all know that smaller the picture size, greater is the clarity/quality. And I was quite skeptical when arnprasad reported yesterday that he was disappointed with SD quality on 50XT50. I had seen 50ST50 and 50XT50 in the dealer showroom for nearly 30 minutes and thought that SD is what it should be.
In SD, picture is soft as expected. Entertainment and Education/Infotainment channels were OK. Sports was mediocre. But most were atrocious in quality and intolerable to watch. Overall, I am satisfied with SD quality. Perhaps I am not critical enough.
HD DTH (1080i) Picture Quality is superb. I have no complaints here.
Blu-Ray Quality:
Next I connected my blu-ray player to the set and put on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I. I particularly wanted to test the dark (black) parts of the movie. The ST50 does not let down. I tested the "The 7 Potters" chapter. What appears smudgy/total black on other screens at home, revealed more details here. The experts have already said a lot on "black levels". I am going to do more tests soon and see how I feel.
-------------------
p/s. I have taken many other pictures of the TV in action. Alas! All of them are blurred by handshake. On the weekend, I shall try to take pictures using a tripod and then post.
-------------------
Overall PQ is excellent. Blacks are just superb as reported by experts.
Glare/Reflections:
When the drapes were open, there were reflections on the TV. But they were not too distracting. The ST50 has anti-glare panel and this helps as great deal. My window is 90 to the TV. When watching from the side, the glare was more apparent. When the drapes were drawn across, there was no issue. The reflection could be seen only when the TV was switched off.
There are two (incandescent) lights - one directly above the TV and other facing it. When both were switched on in the evening, the "True Cinema" setting became too dull. "Normal" was also a bit dull while "Dynamic" was too bright/gaudy for me. So I switched off the light above the TV and "Normal" was OK then.
3D:
The dealer gave me a copy of some 3D movies (.mkv) format such as Avatar, Puss in the Boots, Transformers 3, Tron Legacy, Smurfs, etc. The ST50 comes with the universal 3D glasses (RF sync 'ed) with the "Full HD 3D RF" logo. 3D is very good but my eyes started feeling tired after 1 hour or so. Tron Legacy's 3D starts when Sam enters the grid. I could not make out any cross talk as such. But I clearly see that 3D is not going to my cup of tea.
HDD:
I connected my 1 TB HDD to the TV. The TV took ages to read my HDD. The first time, I simply stopped after 15 min's or so. So my conclusion was that the TV's processor is very laggard. I thought that my disk had too many files. So I removed all non-video content. The disk now had all episodes of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (about 215 files) and 8-10 3D movies. Still it took over 10 minutes to read the disk. And every time you switch from USB to other source and then back to USB, the reading begins back again. This is expected as the TV is not a computer and does not have a cache. But I am quite disappointed all the same about the performance.
Tip: Use lower capacity disks and do not keep too many files in the disk.
Networking:
Connecting to the network in itself was easy. But my WPA2-AES key is 48 characters long and hence I had to spend over 5 minutes to key it in properly. The base software needed an upgrade; it did not show any internet content. The software upgrade took nearly 25 minutes on my 512 kbps connection. But once done, the Viera applications/internet were accessible. I did not try many - just browsed a couple of sites. Facebook application is slow to start.
Overall:
A first class TV. I would rate it as 4.75/5.
------------------
Please post your comments/questions. I may not (indeed I have not) covered all aspects just yet. I shall be happy to provide my views.
50ST50D - First Impressions
As stated in the title above, these are first impressions only. This TV has been universally praised and I may not have much to add. Hence I am not going to dwell upon many factors already written about - at lease not today. I am certainly not a video expert and could claim slightly biased opinions. Although I have a HD-Ready projector, this is the first time I am experiencing a Full-HD TV. Nevertheless all assumptions, impressions, over-boarding, criticism, errors are my own.
The TV was installed today. The guy arrived when I was out of home and by the time I arrived, he had already unpacked and attached the wall brackets.
I am going to wall mount it in my bedroom. But for the moment, it (the bedroom) does not have DTH cable running to it. Hence I just asked the guy to fix the wall mount but set the TV up in the living room on the pedestal stand. Here are some installation pictures:
After the TV was properly setup, I checked was the hours that were clocked using the SRV-Tool. I was overjoyed to see that the total running time was 39 minutes and TV was switched on 4 times (thumbs up to dealer "Rajesh Trading Company").
In the box:
The box contained the usual. Besides the TV, it had the remote+2 batteries, the desktop stand, 2 pairs of 3D eye active 3D glasses (Universal), Composite Cable Connector, and Component Cable connector. The wall mount came separately. Other countries do not offer a free wall mount. It would have been nice if an 1.5m HDMI 1.4 cable was included at the price charged/paid; hence taking a pint off.
Form Factor:
The TV is very slim. The actual panel is just 15 mm or so and thus can compare appreciably with the LED panels. My neighbour thought that it is an LED TV (without being turned on).
----------------------
All following observations were made on the "Normal" and "True Cinema" mode.
----------------------
Picture Quality:
I did not tweak the settings much except that I have reduced the contrast for most settings to 35 and left rest as they are. When the picture setting was "Normal", some of the soaps appeared too brightly coloured. When I changed the setting to "Dynamic" (Contrast=100), the picture became too bright for my liking and I turned it away immediately. This proves what most are saying - in the brightly lit showrooms, the picture setting appears much toned down because of ambient light. In my hall, I pulled the drapes across and dimmed the ambient light as much as possible. Under these conditions "Dynamic" is plain eye-hurting.
I have no reference of the PQ in any other LCD/LED/Plasma other than some friends/relatives. But whatever I remember, I think that the SD quality is very good when compared to others. Note that all my friends/relatives have LCD or LED TVs and they are 40" or less. We all know that smaller the picture size, greater is the clarity/quality. And I was quite skeptical when arnprasad reported yesterday that he was disappointed with SD quality on 50XT50. I had seen 50ST50 and 50XT50 in the dealer showroom for nearly 30 minutes and thought that SD is what it should be.
In SD, picture is soft as expected. Entertainment and Education/Infotainment channels were OK. Sports was mediocre. But most were atrocious in quality and intolerable to watch. Overall, I am satisfied with SD quality. Perhaps I am not critical enough.
HD DTH (1080i) Picture Quality is superb. I have no complaints here.
Blu-Ray Quality:
Next I connected my blu-ray player to the set and put on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I. I particularly wanted to test the dark (black) parts of the movie. The ST50 does not let down. I tested the "The 7 Potters" chapter. What appears smudgy/total black on other screens at home, revealed more details here. The experts have already said a lot on "black levels". I am going to do more tests soon and see how I feel.
-------------------
p/s. I have taken many other pictures of the TV in action. Alas! All of them are blurred by handshake. On the weekend, I shall try to take pictures using a tripod and then post.
-------------------
Overall PQ is excellent. Blacks are just superb as reported by experts.
Glare/Reflections:
When the drapes were open, there were reflections on the TV. But they were not too distracting. The ST50 has anti-glare panel and this helps as great deal. My window is 90 to the TV. When watching from the side, the glare was more apparent. When the drapes were drawn across, there was no issue. The reflection could be seen only when the TV was switched off.
There are two (incandescent) lights - one directly above the TV and other facing it. When both were switched on in the evening, the "True Cinema" setting became too dull. "Normal" was also a bit dull while "Dynamic" was too bright/gaudy for me. So I switched off the light above the TV and "Normal" was OK then.
3D:
The dealer gave me a copy of some 3D movies (.mkv) format such as Avatar, Puss in the Boots, Transformers 3, Tron Legacy, Smurfs, etc. The ST50 comes with the universal 3D glasses (RF sync 'ed) with the "Full HD 3D RF" logo. 3D is very good but my eyes started feeling tired after 1 hour or so. Tron Legacy's 3D starts when Sam enters the grid. I could not make out any cross talk as such. But I clearly see that 3D is not going to my cup of tea.
HDD:
I connected my 1 TB HDD to the TV. The TV took ages to read my HDD. The first time, I simply stopped after 15 min's or so. So my conclusion was that the TV's processor is very laggard. I thought that my disk had too many files. So I removed all non-video content. The disk now had all episodes of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (about 215 files) and 8-10 3D movies. Still it took over 10 minutes to read the disk. And every time you switch from USB to other source and then back to USB, the reading begins back again. This is expected as the TV is not a computer and does not have a cache. But I am quite disappointed all the same about the performance.
Tip: Use lower capacity disks and do not keep too many files in the disk.
Networking:
Connecting to the network in itself was easy. But my WPA2-AES key is 48 characters long and hence I had to spend over 5 minutes to key it in properly. The base software needed an upgrade; it did not show any internet content. The software upgrade took nearly 25 minutes on my 512 kbps connection. But once done, the Viera applications/internet were accessible. I did not try many - just browsed a couple of sites. Facebook application is slow to start.
Overall:
A first class TV. I would rate it as 4.75/5.
------------------
Please post your comments/questions. I may not (indeed I have not) covered all aspects just yet. I shall be happy to provide my views.
just4kix
Well-Known Member
Re: 50ST50D - First Impressions
Some pictures of movie HP7 Part 1. Note that it is taken with the "night mode" and there is a lot of camera shake (my camera does not have image stabilization).
The picture does not do justice to the actual picture quality. However black level quality can be seen, especially in the first picture ... please enlarge picture to view and do not view just the resized pic here.
Some pictures of movie HP7 Part 1. Note that it is taken with the "night mode" and there is a lot of camera shake (my camera does not have image stabilization).
The picture does not do justice to the actual picture quality. However black level quality can be seen, especially in the first picture ... please enlarge picture to view and do not view just the resized pic here.
Hi just4kix, congrats on the purchase! It's a great buy, I got the same one 2 weeks back, am loving the experience! I have two queries though, I am hearing about this offer on plasmas from Panasonic here. When did this offer start? Am I eligible for it?
Secondly, and more importantly, I'm seeing small floating dots on my screen in the dark areas when I examine it from very close distance(1/2-1 foot distance). They are only present in the dark areas and the bright portions of the screen are fine. When I researched online, I got to know that its a common phenomenon on plasmas and is known as dithering. But I just wanted to confirm from fellow plasma owners, specifically this model, if they are also experiencing the same thing.
Thanx
Abhishek
Secondly, and more importantly, I'm seeing small floating dots on my screen in the dark areas when I examine it from very close distance(1/2-1 foot distance). They are only present in the dark areas and the bright portions of the screen are fine. When I researched online, I got to know that its a common phenomenon on plasmas and is known as dithering. But I just wanted to confirm from fellow plasma owners, specifically this model, if they are also experiencing the same thing.
Thanx
Abhishek
akasmarty2003
Active Member
Re: 50ST50D - First Impressions
Congrats! just go easy on contrast & brighness for the first 100 hrs. and avoid static image (channel logo, black bars etc.)
Some pictures of movie HP7 Part 1. Note that it is taken with the "night mode" and there is a lot of camera shake (my camera does not have image stabilization).
The picture does not do justice to the actual picture quality. However black level quality can be seen, especially in the first picture ... please enlarge picture to view and do not view just the resized pic here.
Congrats! just go easy on contrast & brighness for the first 100 hrs. and avoid static image (channel logo, black bars etc.)
arnprasad
Well-Known Member
Re: 50ST50D - First Impressions
This is where I am getting confused. Some folks say keep it low, others say the new TVs are not that bad and hence you can watch it with bright contrast and color from day one..
This is where I am getting confused. Some folks say keep it low, others say the new TVs are not that bad and hence you can watch it with bright contrast and color from day one..
Hi Just4kix,
You might know about the concept of breaking in . Still posting this link so that others might benefit from this .
Got A New Plasma TV? Break It In Properly! - HD Nation Clips - YouTube
Please share your views on breaking in .
Btw thanks for sharing the pics. :clapping:
Eagerly waiting for more pics using tripod
Thanks,
Mihir
You might know about the concept of breaking in . Still posting this link so that others might benefit from this .
Got A New Plasma TV? Break It In Properly! - HD Nation Clips - YouTube
Please share your views on breaking in .
Btw thanks for sharing the pics. :clapping:
Eagerly waiting for more pics using tripod
Thanks,
Mihir
arnprasad
Well-Known Member
Basically he is cautioning about watching stuff with black bars whether up and down or on the sides. So as long as one is watching DTH or cable tv one should be fine. He does not talk abt setting low contrast..etc
plus he is saying that new tvs take care of most of these things and hence even if we dont do anything..so not necessarily a risk
plus he is saying that new tvs take care of most of these things and hence even if we dont do anything..so not necessarily a risk
just4kix
Well-Known Member
More pics for HP7 Part 1 (Blu-Ray):
The above two are slightly brightly coloured scenes from the movie. The pics are slightly overexposed. So once again pics do not do justice.
As can be seen, details are fairly clear in the above pic with dark background and shadows.
Pics of DVD (Love Actually) playing from Sony BDP (480p --> 1080p upconversion):
Notice that piano shows lot of details.
The picture below shows the panel from the side. Notice that it is very thin and compares very well with the LED's of today.
The above two are slightly brightly coloured scenes from the movie. The pics are slightly overexposed. So once again pics do not do justice.
As can be seen, details are fairly clear in the above pic with dark background and shadows.
Pics of DVD (Love Actually) playing from Sony BDP (480p --> 1080p upconversion):
Notice that piano shows lot of details.
The picture below shows the panel from the side. Notice that it is very thin and compares very well with the LED's of today.
arnprasad
Well-Known Member
do you pause the tv when taking pictures?
Follow HiFiMART on Instagram for offers, deals and FREE giveaways!
