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New TV.. Need advice

Jay A. Kelley

Jay A. Kelley

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Hey My friends, help me out here

I want to buy a new TV for the house. I HATE this new 120hz refresh crap.. So that does not matter but I do like a nice picture, and 24p native support. Size 50"-55"

Not looking to break the bank, but I'd like a nice TV..

Any advice?


Jay
 
Jay and Kennan,

Have a look at these by Panasonic: TC-P50ST50 or TC-P55ST50. These are mid-tier models as I recall and are much less expensive. They also have built-in wifi which is great to watch Netflix and such. Saw the 55" for sale online around $1,200.00. I've hooked up my Mac mini and run both of these at 24p which is fantastic. Had to learn how to set up the computer to run that way, but now that I know how, it's great.
 
I have a Panasonic GT50 series plasma monitor and I highly recommend it for 24p material. Its the same panel as the ST50 series but with the color management adjustments like the VT50 series. The VT50 series has slightly better black levels according to specs though I wasn't able to tell in the horrible in store lighting.

For 25p material, without turning on the frame interpolation features to the max the image jitters quite badly so I would not recommend it if you live in PAL land like me and want to hook it up to your edit suite. Color wise its really quite amazing for a consumer monitor once adjusted. My understanding is that the 25p or 50hz jitter applies to all ST, GT, and VT50 plasma monitors.
 
Jay A. Kelley said:
Hey My friends, help me out here

I want to buy a new TV for the house. I HATE this new 120hz refresh crap.. So that does not matter but I do like a nice picture, and 24p native support. Size 50"-55"

Not looking to break the bank, but I'd like a nice TV..

Any advice?


Jay
Click to expand...



Jay: I don't know if you would be interested in a used one but I have a friend that was head of the Panasonic Regional Service center here before it shut down and now his company gets most of their warranty work. He had two of these monitors that were part of their loaner program. Originally list $4995 and basically the same as the broadcast grading monitor of the same era. (Manufacture date July 2010) I bought two of them for $475 each but really only need one, so would sell one for $475. The flaw is they have a black horizontal line near the top of the screen. As you can see from the pics, the line is in the black of the letterbox on widescreen movies like Blade Runner. It isn't even that obvious on a lot of things as you can see from the picture of the RAMS game (it's there - if you look closely it is just above the "sports:" in the fox sports bug) and you can see a little better in the NFL live pic. I didn't care too much because I am using in my edit suite for color grading and wanted a plasma with all of the adjustment menus, gamma curves, and the scalar bypass which takes the input pixel for pixel.

cnet originally gave it 4 1/2 stars (not higher mainly because of the high initial price) but downgraded later based on newer, cheaper panels.


http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-viera-th-50vx100u/4505-6482_7-33497895.html

Panasonic TH-50VX100U Plasma HDTV


A new generation of plasma displays. This Premiere Plasma Display has a 40,000:1 Contrast Ratio that features a wider color range than HDTV standards by 120%. Also features 6,144 steps of gradation & 18 bit process, 16 adjustment menus including 6 gamma preset curve & memory. Included accessories include Remote Controller, Batteries, Fixing Band, AC Power Cord, Operating Instruction Book.

Shipping might be an issue, but it's probably still a pretty good deal. (and I would also offer this to any local Florida REDUSERS)
 

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Michael Hastings said:
Jay: I don't know if you would be interested in a used one but I have a friend that was head of the Panasonic Regional Service center here before it shut down and now his company gets most of their warranty work. He had two of these monitors that were part of their loaner program. Originally list $4995 and basically the same as the broadcast grading monitor of the same era. (Manufacture date July 2010) I bought two of them for $475 each but really only need one, so would sell one for $475. The flaw is they have a black horizontal line near the top of the screen. As you can see from the pics, the line is in the black of the letterbox on widescreen movies like Blade Runner. It isn't even that obvious on a lot of things as you can see from the picture of the RAMS game (it's there - if you look closely it is just above the "sports:" in the fox sports bug) and you can see a little better in the NFL live pic. I didn't care too much because I am using in my edit suite for color grading and wanted a plasma with all of the adjustment menus, gamma curves, and the scalar bypass which takes the input pixel for pixel.

cnet originally gave it 4 1/2 stars (not higher mainly because of the high initial price) but downgraded later based on newer, cheaper panels.


http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-viera-th-50vx100u/4505-6482_7-33497895.html

Panasonic TH-50VX100U Plasma HDTV


A new generation of plasma displays. This Premiere Plasma Display has a 40,000:1 Contrast Ratio that features a wider color range than HDTV standards by 120%. Also features 6,144 steps of gradation & 18 bit process, 16 adjustment menus including 6 gamma preset curve & memory. Included accessories include Remote Controller, Batteries, Fixing Band, AC Power Cord, Operating Instruction Book.

Shipping might be an issue, but it's probably still a pretty good deal. (and I would also offer this to any local Florida REDUSERS)
Click to expand...

Michael, if Jay is not interested, please put me on the your list.
I will take it.
Would you check with the ground shipping to Seattle sub. 98052 how much it will cost me.

somphane
 
depends on the features you want, and how long you want to keep the tv.

i'm a big proponent of plasma, but they have the least life, and have issues you have to keep an eye on. losing brightness over time, burn in, etc. but i still feel it has the most natural brightness and color rendition, with every deep black levels.

if you are gonna go the LED route, i highly recommend paying the extra $$$ and going for local dimming LED over edge light. you get a lot of ghosting with fast moving images with edge lit LED. local dimming solves a lot of those issues, and of course has the black levels. but you'll have to tweak the contrast/chroma more because they come out so hot out of the box.

panasonic used to be a major leader in plasmas, but their consumer electronics department has been kind of dropping the ball as of late, and their profits have been reflecting it. especially their tv division. not enough innovation with the product nor the performance they should be having. they used to be king of plasmas, but I've been finding that samsung plasmas have been outperforming them over the past 2 years. which is ironic because i'm pretty sure the display from samsung is made in panasonic factories...

but samsung is one of your best bets for a home tv. most full featured, lower priced than the competition and great quality. the rest is just looking up reviews, and seeing the features you might want out of it.

i believe sony makes some of the best local dimming led tv's

if you want lcd for whatever reason, samsung is also a great choice, but so is LG. I think LG are the only ones making a passive 3d tv right now, if that sparks your interest at all.

and all tv's can have their 120 and 240 hz turned off. most blu ray players will only play in 60 hz. if you want a more true 24p playback on your blu ray movies, i know for a fact a ps3 can be set to that, while some blu ray players do a conversion so I'd look into that too. there's a lot of stuff out there, doing really wonky stuff. so like any piece with anything, lots of research should be done.
 
I have an ST50, it easily has the nicest image I've ever seen from a plasma. I wouldn't hesitate on pulling the trigger for a second one. The only thing that could be a downer is the number of inputs incorporated into the set compared to similar priced televisions.
 
Jay A. Kelley said:
That's a sweet deal michael.. Is this a TV or a monitor? Does it have it's own sound?
Jay
Click to expand...

Jay It is a monitor in that it doesn't have it's own speakers - but it does have built in sound and amp, you just have to hook up some external speakers with the same type of connections you would have on the back of a stereo receiver. I use some old bookshelf speakers I had around.

Inputs are: four HDMI, a component and a computer. It uses plug in modules for the inputs so two more modules can be added. If you needed more HDMI I could grab another from the other monitor - each module has 2 HDMIs. It also has RS232 for computer control. Comes with a normal IR remote.

I can turn power on and off with my DirectTV remote but not sure about volume or other controls on that.


It weighs 83 pounds and I need to see about a good box for shipping. I saw a bunch of boxes in his shop but I'm not sure what my friend has available.

A quick look at UPS rates say 99 pounds to Seattle was about $120 (for somphane) and $110 to St. Louis.

It doesn't normally ship with a stand (It was an extra $350 or so) but I have one from a different model that works. Stand is about 15-20 lbs. YOu won't need it if you plan a wall mount.
 
Jay, here's a link to an inexpensive TV (to last until the 4k displays are affordable). This model comes in 48" or 55". It says it is 240 Hz refresh rate but I don't notice any difference in the shows I watch. The only thing I notice (watching over-the-air content) is that some local channels have better broadcasting equipment. The resolution is so good that you notice the quality of the picture immediately. But there are many settings and I've only had it up since yesterday, so I'm sure there is a soft setting to take away those artifacts. 100,000 to 1 contrast ratio and 350 cdm2. I could not find the response time on any spec sheets but I watched a little football and that seemed to perform o.k.

http://www.amazon.com/LE48FHDF3300Z...arranty/dp/tech-data/B007EM7NES/ref=de_a_smtd
 
Panasonic Plasma. VT50 if you dont mind paying $$, if you want to save a few the T30 or T50 are also great sets. You wont be disappointed with either.
 
+1 for the Panny GT/VT models. They're THX certified, meaning they can be calibrated very closely to a broadcast monitor. The ST isn't THX certified, but is still an excellent panel from what I've seen. LG also has/had a very nice looking THX certified model plasma (9500, I think?) that had some very impressive calibration tools built in (bars, test patterns) but that was only what I saw from a few minutes of digging into the menus at a Fry's.
 
Might not help but I still think the kuro 151 or 111 are still the best. You can find them on eBay. expensive though.
 
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