ST50 Owners' Thread - First impressions, Reviews, Tweaks, etc.

[bbops1]

Hello guys,
I am new here and I have been bitten by the plasma bug.

I am in a fix over the Panasonic 65ST50 and samsung 64E8000. I know both are on their way out as new models are stepping in. I have quotes of 190K and 178K respectively. I did check the AVSforums and others and found both are equally well rated. I am more interested in PQ rather than software driven features. I look foward for your opinion here as most of you own either one and have in depth knowledge. I have been reading most of the threads and find very good opinions and article's.

My personal opinion after managing to see both the displays i felt the Panasonic had the upper edge ( may be the guys who showed me samsung did not do a good job )

thanks in advance and hope to contribute to this forum in future.

 

[just4kix]

You can't go wrong with either. I know this is not bring any help but that's how it is.

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2

 

[bbops1]

tks just4kix

Well the panasonic dealer told me the panel comes with 3 yr warranty and I found no such info on the website. Samsung gives just 1 year warranty. If this is true I may go for panasonic.

 

[just4kix]

Panasonic plasma TVs do come with 1 year warranty on full TV and 2 years extended warranty on panel.

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2

 

[bbops1]

I am surprised and happy for you. In my case, the TV takes a very long time to read the HDD. I tried many options:

- removed all content other than movies from HDD
- put movies in root directory
- moved movies into separate folders
- added back all files and documents removed in step 1

The TV took the same time to read. As I deduced, the TV tries to read each and every file and checks whether it is media file and then after scanning thru the entire set of files, displays all the "playable" files. The TV displays all the files in a sequence and not by folder.

Perhaps, my firmware is old.

Maybe if you turn the video preview off it will be faster. I did notice the difference when this option was turned off. I too have the same model but the 65" version. It reads my 1TB HDD without much fuss, takes a minute or 2, I guess. My HDD is full and has all types of files and the file system is NTFS.

 

[bbops1]

Thank you.

If there is a lot of light in the living room and it cannot be controlled, then I will advise you to go for HX850 instead.

Plasma TV consumption is on the higher side; nearly double of LED. Plasma TV typically consumes 60% of its rated power. The rated power is for full white mode. In the full dark mode, the consumption is only about 20%. LCD panels always consume the rated power. Having said that, let us assume the following:

Average running time of TV per day = 6 hours
Panasonic 50FT50 consumption (rated at 425W) = 255W
Sony 46HX850 (rated at 120W) = 120W
Rate per kWH = Rs. 5
Service Tax = 12.36%

GT50 consumption units per month and monthly amount with tax = 46 kWH ==> Rs. 258.43
HX850 consumption per month and monthly amount with tax = 22 kWH ==> Rs. 123.60

So, if power consumption is as issue to you, you should (once again) go with HX850.

Heat Issue
Heat generated from plasma is very much overstated. My ST50 is very new and at the moment is running for nearly 7 hours every day. It was purchased on 22-Jul and installed on 25-Jul. It has completed 97 hours till yesterday. If you go and stand next to the TV, and TV has been running for a considerable period of time, it feels a bit warm. Can it replace as a room heater on the cold wintry nights? Sadly, no.

Little more to be added on this subject -
Cost of the TV. You should compare the LED to plasma cost difference for similar panel size. Example when I compare the cost of a 65" LED to plasma the difference is more than a lakh. If I put this saved money in an FD the interest earned would pay for the extra power consumption for the whole year and so on.:clapping:

 

[just4kix]

Little more to be added on this subject -
Cost of the TV. You should compare the LED to plasma cost difference for similar panel size. Example when I compare the cost of a 65" LED to plasma the difference is more than a lakh. If I put this saved money in an FD the interest earned would pay for the extra power consumption for the whole year and so on.:clapping:

Yes. That is another factor.

 

[shanmune]

Little more to be added on this subject -
Cost of the TV. You should compare the LED to plasma cost difference for similar panel size. Example when I compare the cost of a 65" LED to plasma the difference is more than a lakh. If I put this saved money in an FD the interest earned would pay for the extra power consumption for the whole year and so on.:clapping:

When we say "the extra power consumption", even that extra is almost insignificant. At least I haven't seen any increase in my power bill. So you won't be required even to pay 1/10th of that interest.

 

[just4kix]

When we say "the extra power consumption", even that extra is almost insignificant. At least I haven't seen any increase in my power bill. So you won't be required even to pay 1/10th of that interest.

If anyone looks into the deep recesses of this thread and in particular my comments, somewhere I have posted actual meter readings. I have experienced no increase in power bills since the purchase of this TV.

 

[Dirac]

If anyone looks into the deep recesses of this thread and in particular my comments, somewhere I have posted actual meter readings. I have experienced no increase in power bills since the purchase of this TV.

For me the surprise went to a different level. My bill came down when I replaced my sammy led running in standard mode with my st50 running in normal mode.

 

[just4kix]

For me the surprise went to a different level. My bill came down when I replaced my sammy led running in standard mode with my st50 running in normal mode.

Actually my bill has also home down.

 

[Audiodoc]

TV and cfl lighting hardly contribute 10 percent of the electric bills. It is the air conditioners, geysers, hot air convectors and heating equipment in the kitchen that are the actual burden! Class A audio equipment running 24x7 may contribute a decent amount.

 

[krish199]

May sound silly but anybody have tried Viera Remote for either Android or iOS to use with Panny Tvs? I got a UT50 and I have not able to add my TV to the device list of Viera Remote. What is the tweak/setup I am missing ? I tried all possible means before posting this.

 

[just4kix]

May sound silly but anybody have tried Viera Remote for either Android or iOS to use with Panny Tvs? I got a UT50 and I have not able to add my TV to the device list of Viera Remote. What is the tweak/setup I am missing ? I tried all possible means before posting this.

I have tried the Android app with my Samsung Galaxy 2. The app worked and is OK but I did not find it any great and hence uninstalled it. It works with DLNA and networking. Your TV and smartphone needs to be on the same network.

 

[Ghostrider]

Hello guys,
I am new here and I have been bitten by the plasma bug.

I am in a fix over the Panasonic 65ST50 and samsung 64E8000. I know both are on their way out as new models are stepping in. I have quotes of 190K and 178K respectively. I did check the AVSforums and others and found both are equally well rated. I am more interested in PQ rather than software driven features. I look foward for your opinion here as most of you own either one and have in depth knowledge. I have been reading most of the threads and find very good opinions and article's.

My personal opinion after managing to see both the displays i felt the Panasonic had the upper edge ( may be the guys who showed me samsung did not do a good job )

thanks in advance and hope to contribute to this forum in future.

Hi,

I just got my P65ST50D delivered today and am enjoying the same, i had to choose over VT20 due to tech issue and got it replaced, infact first i got VT30 as replacement which again caused vertical lines within few days and post complaints and online research finally decided to go over ST50D.

I see that some calibration is required, so would request some experts on their comments and calib details for 65ST50D

Cheers...

 

[Dirac]

Hi,

I just got my P65ST50D delivered today and am enjoying the same, i had to choose over VT20 due to tech issue and got it replaced, infact first i got VT30 as replacement which again caused vertical lines within few days and post complaints and online research finally decided to go over ST50D.

I see that some calibration is required, so would request some experts on their comments and calib details for 65ST50D

Cheers...

Congratulations. Just use true cinema mode with brightness tweaked to -5.
You will get the most accurate settings.
St50 is praised for best out of box settings of true cinema mode.
Brightness set to -5 in this mode removes slight yellow tinge and makes each frame look like a portrait.
Best of luck.

 

[vakharia]

Is True Cinema to be used in the initial 200 hours?
I read something about not using these modes initially. Does pixel orbiter get disabled in these modes? Or maybe I mixed this with Game mode?

 

[just4kix]

Is True Cinema to be used in the initial 200 hours?
I read something about not using these modes initially. Does pixel orbiter get disabled in these modes? Or maybe I mixed this with Game mode?

I did use 'True cinema' in first 200 hours but only to watch movies. Even today, I use this mode to watch movies only and nothing else. For DTH, I use the 'Normal' mode tweaked for best results in my room.

 

[Dirac]

Re: Panasonic PxxST50 Owners' Thread - First impressions, Reviews, Tweaks, etc.

Pixel orbitor is not disabled in this mode I think.
I used to use normal mode earlier. But I saw a considerable difference when watching youtube. The images were more sharper.
Yesterday I reduced the brightness from -5 to -6 taking a dark scene from the movie Legion.
In 24fps the images became more sweeter.
Brightness is the killer of PQ in a plasma.

 

[vakharia]

I have also used Cinema and True Cinema - mostly needed when viewing dark scenes. For all others, including DTH, Normal with contrast set to 35 and brightness to 0 is fine.

Also, my STB has been set to 1080i@60Hz. The default was 50Hz and it did not seem good to me.
I have now set my Raspberry Pi also to 60Hz.

I don't have BD or DVD player so no 24 fps.