Just got my first Plasma! Just a few ???

[BDS23420]

Originally Posted by fredreed

I have heard nothing but bad things on plasma's. I would have stayed away from buying a plasma and would buy a Led TV instead. The plasma inside the tv will only last about 2 years and then you will end up buying another tv. My advice return the plasma and go with The Led.

if you really think that then you should be on these forums... plasma is the best tv if you love to watch movies or play games! you cant beat the colors on plasma. Sure go ahead and buy LCD or LED and get those awesome red skin tones! if all for it...but if you want the deepest blacks and broghtest whites and every color looking the way they were meant to be then get plasma!

Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi

So this Saturday I bought a 55" Panasonic Viera (TC-P55GT31) and WOW! Already love it.

I have a few questions being a first time Plasma owner only because I wanna do it right with this set.

- What should I put the display settings on during the break-in period? So far I have put Contrast at 50 and the brightness at 48, is that acceptable enough or should I go lower?

- Should I be gaming on this set during the break-in period? I played a little bit of Skyrim and Killzone 3 last night. I turned off all the HUD options for Killzone 3 so only the crosshairs remained. With Skyrim the only object that stays on screen the entire time is a compass of sorts at the top but with that game I switch in and out of menus often so its never on screen for longer than 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Even when its broken in should I be wary of gaming for more than a hour or two at a time?

- Without having to hire someone to come and calibrate my TV. Are there any direct links to pages on websites that have good calibration settings specifically for Panasonic Plasma TVs? Of course I will tweak it to my taste but it would be nice to have a "jump off" point.

Anyway. I love how this set looks and performs (even at the low settings for break-in) and can only imagine how good it will look when the dust settles. Any help would be great guys and if there are some threads already made for this sort of thing if someone could direct me to them I'll just close this one down and get my read on.

ObiWanShinobi

- Use your own eyes, no one can tell you what settings to put your tv at. I used some settings that were on the boards but then after I saw them I had to change them a little to make the colors look the way I wanted them too!

- Hell yea play games! you bought a tv dont let these guys tell you DONT PLAY GAMES UNTIL THE 100 HOURS IS UP! its a myth....I bought my ST30 in March of last year and have played games on it since I opened the box! I was exactly like you when I bought mine very causous and asking a lot of questions, and I finally realized that I am the best person to answer my questions! just set it to what I like because I am the one watching to tv not anyone else!

- Like I said before You are the best person to decide what the picture looks like!!


Have a great time with your TV!!! and post some pics! and welcome to the wonderful world of plasma!!

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi

One thing that is good about the lifespan of this TV is that it won't be getting used on a daily basis.

Please don't be concerned with any of the BS being spewed by that guy. ALL displays these days have a typical panel lifespan of 100K+ hours before the panel can only output half the brightness it could when new. You'll be updating the set LONG before you even reach half that number. My bedroom plasma was purchased in 2003, and it's still going strong nearly 9 years later.

[BDS23420]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

Please don't be concerned with any of the BS being spewed by that guy. ALL displays these days have a typical panel lifespan of 100K+ hours before the panel can only output half the brightness it could when new. You'll be updating the set LONG before you even reach half that number. My bedroom plasma was purchased in 2003, and it's still going strong nearly 9 years later.

yea I agree!

My ST30 I can watch for 8 hours a day for 30 years and it will still be fine! dont believe any of the BS man...

[ngkf7]

Congratulation! You won't be disappointed. Panasonic plasmas are beautiful. I've gotten so Mcg enjoyment out of my 50" VT25 over the past 13 months and am constantly blown away by the PQ.

I used the breakin slides posted on the AVS forum and if you really care, that is always a good route to go. Then read up on settings for various picture modes if you don't professionally calibrate it.

When I was using the slides, I would still watch the tv, just with very low contrast and brightness, so it seems you have the right idea going.

Also, don't listen to the moron that posted about never buying plasma, they have an incredibly long lifespan.

[ObiWanShinobi]

Originally Posted by ElliesDad

Addendum: Why wouldn't you watch cable programming on your Viera? Very view channels now maintain a logo on-screen (for obvious reasons). Even having a cable music service on for extended periods (with song identifiers popping up) isn't a concern if you turn down your contrast...

The biggest reason? I don't have cable going into that room lol but even if I did I don't think I would bother with it. Its actually rare I find anything on cable worth watching anyway and since I have Netflix on a variety of sources (PS3, XBox 360) theres no reason, at least not for me and my personal tastes.

I wanna personally thank everyone in here (minus one) for helping me out. I'll be sure to check out those websites about the slides and ill keep on keepin on with what I'm currently doing which seems to be going in the right direction.

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi

I wanna personally thank everyone in here (minus one) for helping me out. I'll be sure to check out those websites about the slides and ill keep on keepin on with what I'm currently doing which seems to be going in the right direction.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by fredreed

I have heard nothing but bad things on plasma's. I would have stayed away from buying a plasma and would buy a Led TV instead. The plasma inside the tv will only last about 2 years and then you will end up buying another tv. My advice return the plasma and go with The Led.

Wow... what an idiot... There is only one reason to suggest LCD or LED over Plasma. And the reason listed above is certainly not it. The only reason to suggest LCD or LED over Plasma has to do with viewing conditions. Plasma has better quality consistency if the viewing room is guaranteed to be 100% dark every time it is used. LCD and LED are more consistent at providing quality image with varying amounts of light in the viewing area during operation. And, EVEN THEN, Plasmas have gotten much better at solving this issue in the last 5 years or so even though they aren't quite as good with it as LCD and LED sets yet.

ON TOPIC:

Anyhow. ObiWanShinobi, There are 3 pieces of advice that I always offer my friends and family when they get a new HDTV when it comes to settings:

#1. TURN OFF THAT IDIOTIC SMOOTHING FEATURE! I know it's called "Motionflow" on Sony sets, but I can't recall other brands naming of it. It's the setting that makes everything look like it was filmed with a handheld camera by an extremely amateur film crew.

#2. When adjusting SHARPNESS, make certain to immediately drop it to ZERO first. Then, very slowly inch your way up 1 value at a time... even jumping back and forth at times to compare the immediate values on either side of the current value. I find that a misplaced sharpness value is worse for ruining an image than a misplaced contrast value.

#3. EVERY OTHER SETTING VALUE AND CHOICE should be adjusted based solely on what your eyes see. Every human eyeball sees things differently. And, every human brain follows suit. What looks good to you is what matters most. I've seen a few people get professional ISF calibrations done who think it looked terrible. They felt it was a waste of a couple hundred dollars as they had to change all the settings afterwards anyways.

[Blu Doon]

Originally Posted by fredreed

I have heard nothing but bad things on plasma's. I would have stayed away from buying a plasma and would buy a Led TV instead. The plasma inside the tv will only last about 2 years and then you will end up buying another tv. My advice return the plasma and go with The Led.

Is there anyway to ban Jackwagons like this from the forums or better yet from this site. Sorry had to rant.

BTW congrats on getting your 1st plasma
I love my plasma and hopefully you will too

[ObiWanShinobi]

Well I watched a couple of 3D movies yesterday for the first time.

Drive Angry 3D - the 3D was really good but I DID notice on several occasions a green outline around some objects that stood out about a quarter of an inch. is this whats referred to as "ghosting"?...its not that big a deal but it had me curious.

Avatar 3D - the 3D in this is flawless as is the overal picture quality. I saw this movie in theaters in 3D and the Blu-Ray version destroys it in every aspect. simply incredible films can look like this at home. I wish EVERY 3D film would get this treatment.

[ry35an]

Originally Posted by fredreed

I have heard nothing but bad things on plasma's. I would have stayed away from buying a plasma and would buy a Led TV instead. The plasma inside the tv will only last about 2 years and then you will end up buying another tv. My advice return the plasma and go with The Led.

Wow, time warp. What year is this 2002?

You shouldn't believe everything you hear and most importantly don't repeat it.

You're dead wrong on all counts. I've had my plasma since mid 2009..funny, I still see a picture on mine. Maybe I got lucky?

[Glacialpath]

Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi

Well I watched a couple of 3D movies yesterday for the first time.

Cool didn't realize it was a 3D TV. In my last job we had 3 TX-P50VT20B in the UK which I helped set up for our quality asurance checks. Unfortunately the company wouldn't pay for the ISF calibration even though my co-worker was fully qualified and had the gear to do it.

There should be settings for 2D and 3D.
The Colour, brightness, contrast and other general picture settings are just one for both 2D and 3D.

I'm sure this is already set but find the 3D settings menu and make sure the 3D detect setting is on auto as some 3D is the left eye (full picture) and the right eye (50% of the left eye pic) is slightly to one side and the glass's make it look like one pic. Some 3D pics are 2 different pictures next to each other or one on top of the other. This is shown in the 3D set up menue.

Not sure why you are getting the green hew round the image but we refered to Ghosting loosly as still being able to see both images at once with the glass's on (I think thats what most people are refering to also)

You of course are welcome to just set the TV up to what best suits your eyes. I used to do that. One slight problem is every movie, game or TV program is authered/broadcast different and the optimum settings from a set up disc will give you the closets look of how the director intended you to see it, if that what you prefer and I'm sure you wouldn't have asked if you didn't want to know.

Definitely turn off Inteligent Frame Creation (not always visable in the settings menues, depends what you are viewing and I have forgotten what brings it up). Its only there to try and make up the 24th frame. Someone decided to put things out at 23. something FPS to cater for the difference between NTSC and PAL. Just the industry saving money. You should get a smoother pic with out it. No jurckyness.

Make sure the firmware for your TV is up to date if you didn't know you can up date it.
I forgot, Sharpness was only put on NTSC TVs to help with the lower res picture than PAL in the old days. There should be no need for it at all for 1080 Res but you might want it for any DVDs you watch.

Sorry its long.

GP

[Mrbrownst0ne]

Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi

So this Saturday I bought a 55" Panasonic Viera (TC-P55GT31) and WOW! Already love it.

I have a few questions being a first time Plasma owner only because I wanna do it right with this set.

- What should I put the display settings on during the break-in period? So far I have put Contrast at 50 and the brightness at 48, is that acceptable enough or should I go lower?

- Should I be gaming on this set during the break-in period? I played a little bit of Skyrim and Killzone 3 last night. I turned off all the HUD options for Killzone 3 so only the crosshairs remained. With Skyrim the only object that stays on screen the entire time is a compass of sorts at the top but with that game I switch in and out of menus often so its never on screen for longer than 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Even when its broken in should I be wary of gaming for more than a hour or two at a time?

- Without having to hire someone to come and calibrate my TV. Are there any direct links to pages on websites that have good calibration settings specifically for Panasonic Plasma TVs? Of course I will tweak it to my taste but it would be nice to have a "jump off" point.

Anyway. I love how this set looks and performs (even at the low settings for break-in) and can only imagine how good it will look when the dust settles. Any help would be great guys and if there are some threads already made for this sort of thing if someone could direct me to them I'll just close this one down and get my read on.

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Congrats dude!.. i got my 55 inch gt30 on 5th of the january 2012. I am a huge huge blu-ray disc collector. i spent about a whole day to find the most amazing calibration to watch movies on blu-rays. The thing is almost every single thing needs different calibration.. for example when i am watching HD cable provided by videotron, i need to go to a different calibration or else it wont look that good. Anyway which mode r u watching your blu-rays on?. Maybe i can make your blu-ray movie experience better.

[ObiWanShinobi]

I got some pics up of my mini mancave. Love the GT30, the picture is incredible and easily blows away any other TV I've ever owned. SUPER satisfied.

I know my mancave isn't much but currently I live in a 2 bedroom condo...AND I'm married lol. One day I'll have a house and a proper mancave but until then this will have to do.

[hienesey]

Nice pics!

Are you sticking with the THX setting or did you use some custom settings? Also, have you messed with the 48hz setting? I think it gives 3d content more depth when you turn it on.

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi

I got some pics up of my mini mancave.

Where?

[ObiWanShinobi]

Click on my name and look under my public profile. They should pop up there

[ObiWanShinobi]

Originally Posted by hienesey

Nice pics!

Are you sticking with the THX setting or did you use some custom settings? Also, have you messed with the 48hz setting? I think it gives 3d content more depth when you turn it on.

I'm using custom settings. I wasn't happy with the way things looked in the THX setting...looked washed out to me

[Mrbrownst0ne]

Originally Posted by hienesey

Nice pics!

Are you sticking with the THX setting or did you use some custom settings? Also, have you messed with the 48hz setting? I think it gives 3d content more depth when you turn it on.

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r u talking about the 24p direct in?

[hienesey]

Originally Posted by Mrbrownst0ne

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r u talking about the 24p direct in?

Yes

[max190]

Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi

I'm using custom settings. I wasn't happy with the way things looked in the THX setting...looked washed out to me

Congrats on the P55GT30. I have the same TV. I see you are using the custom settings.
Have you by loaded the Custom 2.1 firmware?