Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

What PANASONIC PLASMA for Europe?

Kim Frank

Kim Frank

Well-known member
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
524
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
44
I read a lot about PANASONIC PLASMAs (mainly the 12 Series) for Color grading on this Forum but am a bit confused wich one is the best buy in Europe. Also what connection is needed? Can I feed it through the Grafics Card or would I need something like Blackmagic Decklink?
 
I have the 50" 11 series and love it. You should know that in order to get the best performance you will need the Dual hd-sdi input module. Unfortunately it cost as much as the screen. There has been some discussion about the ability of hdmi to deliver true 10-bit quality. AFAIK that is not possible. I can tell you that the 11 series w/hd-sdi is a great monitor. The 12 series should be as well. I don't believe that would differ from NTSC to PAL
 
Thank you...
But I can't find the right ones. Theres so many different discriptions.
VIERA Plasma, VIERA NeoPDP, P50, PF11, PF12, E, UK...
I just don't know what all that means. There is not written 12 Series, theres all that strange codes... Anyone can help? I thought there would be a really good one for about 1500,-
 
isn't the consumer one meant to be better in contrast ratio with the new panel compared to the 12 series? think its the VT25 and you just go HDMI in so you avoid getting the outrageously priced HDSDI board as HDMI 1.4 supports 10bit RGB
 
Jeff Kilgore should post a PLASMA STICKY given this question comes up almost every month.

Viera V25 is the new flavor of the month and firmware updates will soon enable HDMI 1.4 which WILL support 10 bit.

Talk to Jeff. He has spent at least a 1000 hours researching Plasma displays :)
 
The VT20 is exactly the VT25 but without ISFccc and a RS232C port.
Seems like the 25 will be out in sept
 
Panasonic's models are very confusing between regions. In the USA, the VT20 is available only in 50" size and does not have ISFcc or serial port, as Paolo points out. It seems the UK has a VT20B series, which comes in both 50" and 65", and it looks the same as the VT20 in the USA, but I don't know if it has the ISFcc or RS232, it seems that it doesn't - just as the USA VT20 does not.

Given what is available here in the USA and Japan right now, I personally would not buy one of the "pro" monitors. The latest 1080p "pro" models are the PF20 series, these are replacing the PF12 series. Panasonic never released a PF12 in the 50" size for some reason. Instead of calling the new ones "PF13", they are calling them PF20 as a reference to their new interface for input boards, which is called Slot 2.0. Totally dumb because it's not like the industry needed another spec called "Slot 2.0". What this means is that the new interface modules are not compatible with older 12 and 11 series displays, as the old interface boards are not compatible with the new displays.

To use the 50" panel as an example, the PF20 has a street price of about $2800 and the HD-SDI input module has a price of $2400. Panasonic has given us integrated HDMI on the new "pro" panels, but be warned, they have crippled it!!! It now supports 10bit input, but does not support 24fps or 23.98fps input! If you want those frame rates, you must use DVI (and limit yourself to 8bit) or buy the HD-SDI input board, which costs about as much as the display itself.

The 50" TC-P50VT25 model has HDMI 1.4 support, but can take 10bit and 12bit input over HDMI 1.2a and later interfaces. It supports 23.98 / 24 fps. Going rate for it around here is $2450 delivered. The AJA Hi5 3G HD-SDI to HDMI converter can be had under $600 and it does a wonderful job of feeding the display from the RED Rocket or Kona3 cards or other HD-SDI source.

VT25 also does 3D. The PF20 pro models do not support 3D without the purchase of yet another module, which Panasonic has not yet released. Which may be of interest for those of you thinking of working with 3D content.

I'm not sure who to ask for specifics on Euro models. I tried to look, but the info is pretty confusing from here at the moment. It seems they originally announced VT20 and V25 models for Europe, but I see a VT20B series for sale. Paolo may be right and the V25 or VT25 for Europe may still be yet to come.

Of the pro panels, there are some good deals out there to be had on 11 and 12 series models. 11 series has been discontinued for some time and are still very capable. They're not as cool as the latest models, but still good to work with. The 12 series are excellent and pretty much the same except the black levels are not as good as the new panels and the phosphor response isn't as fast. The latter response time is a double-edge sword to some extent. We don't see the latent images, streaking, etc.. But we see more flickering with 24fps material, even when run at 96Hz.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Panasonic's models are very confusing between regions. In the USA, the VT20 is available only in 50" size and does not have ISFcc or serial port, as Paolo points out. It seems the UK has a VT20B series, which comes in both 50" and 65", and it looks the same as the VT20 in the USA, but I don't know if it has the ISFcc or RS232, it seems that it doesn't - just as the USA VT20 does not.

Given what is available here in the USA and Japan right now, I personally would not buy one of the "pro" monitors. The latest 1080p "pro" models are the PF20 series, these are replacing the PF12 series. Panasonic never released a PF12 in the 50" size for some reason. Instead of calling the new ones "PF13", they are calling them PF20 as a reference to their new interface for input boards, which is called Slot 2.0. Totally dumb because it's not like the industry needed another spec called "Slot 2.0". What this means is that the new interface modules are not compatible with older 12 and 11 series displays, as the old interface boards are not compatible with the new displays.

To use the 50" panel as an example, the PF20 has a street price of about $2800 and the HD-SDI input module has a price of $2400. Panasonic has given us integrated HDMI on the new "pro" panels, but be warned, they have crippled it!!! It now supports 10bit input, but does not support 24fps or 23.98fps input! If you want those frame rates, you must use DVI (and limit yourself to 8bit) or buy the HD-SDI input board, which costs about as much as the display itself.

The 50" TC-P50VT25 model has HDMI 1.4 support, but can take 10bit and 12bit input over HDMI 1.2a and later interfaces. It supports 23.98 / 24 fps. Going rate for it around here is $2450 delivered. The AJA Hi5 3G HD-SDI to HDMI converter can be had under $600 and it does a wonderful job of feeding the display from the RED Rocket or Kona3 cards or other HD-SDI source.

VT25 also does 3D. The PF20 pro models do not support 3D without the purchase of yet another module, which Panasonic has not yet released. Which may be of interest for those of you thinking of working with 3D content.

I'm not sure who to ask for specifics on Euro models. I tried to look, but the info is pretty confusing from here at the moment. It seems they originally announced VT20 and V25 models for Europe, but I see a VT20B series for sale. Paolo may be right and the V25 or VT25 for Europe may still be yet to come.

Of the pro panels, there are some good deals out there to be had on 11 and 12 series models. 11 series has been discontinued for some time and are still very capable. They're not as cool as the latest models, but still good to work with. The 12 series are excellent and pretty much the same except the black levels are not as good as the new panels and the phosphor response isn't as fast. The latter response time is a double-edge sword to some extent. We don't see the latent images, streaking, etc.. But we see more flickering with 24fps material, even when run at 96Hz.
Click to expand...

See? Jeff "Plasma" Kilgore is the man!
 
Thanks Jeff...
It seems the US VT25 here in Germany is called VT20
http://www.panasonic.de/html/de_DE/...a+TV/TX-P50VT20E/Übersicht/3579606/index.html
it's the 50" and 2599,-€
I am planning to go The Davinci Resolve Mac Route what requires a blackmagic Decklink extreme 3D. Would I be able to feed the Panni through that?
I can't seem to find the 12 Series for Europe. Anyone knows the European equivalent?
I'm not really in the need for 3D and would love a less expensive soloution, if possible in Full HD and 10 bit.
 
Also on the site there is talk about the new G13 Generation13 Panels - but the VT20 doesn't have it...
Then there is just talk about 24p - am I missing something -wouldn't I need 25p?
And there ist a series called CHT custom home Theatre
http://www.panasonic.de/html/de_DE/...ater/TH-50VX100E/Übersicht/1998697/index.html
but I can't find a section about Pro Panels like on the US Site.
Honnestly Im getting more and more confused...
 
If it helps. I'm in the UK and I purchased the Panasonic TXP42G20B model. It supports 24p but I'm not sure of the HDMI situation as yet - I'm still messing. At the moment I'm just sending the video out on the second head of the card. It appears to calibrate to a certain extent but I can't guarantee what is being sent over HDMI and how consistent it is.

But it is a budget consciouss set-up as the Plasma was about £850.

I'm still not sure about what output to go with yet ...
 
Here in the USA we have the G20 and G25 series which are the ones below the VT20 and VT25. They're about half the price, don't offer 3D and they don't have the same AR filter on them. Nice monitors though, the ones here accept 10bit over HDMI. USA models accept 24fps input, but only do 3:2 pulldown and not actual 24fps scanning. So not a good choice here. Might be different in the UK, since you guys with PAL already have 25P anyway.
 
Thanks Jeff.

A quick one; is it correct that using the HDMI (Sending the overlay/VMR to the second output) from the graphics card is probably not good enough to calibrate with?

I get okay results but am conscious that HDMI from the card to the monitor can't be guaranteed to accurate.

If it's that's the case would purchasing an HD-SDI based NVIDIA be the way to go or you seem to mention the Kona card often.

Thanks.
 
I just Bern in a shop and looked at the GW20 at about 1500,-
could be the same as you're mentioned G20...
But Jeff wasn't one of the big advatages of the pro models the extra menus for calibration. How is it with your VT25 does it have as many controls or how do you overcome this
 
Hi,

Allmost 1 year later... have you found the good Pana model in europe ?

I'm in France, and I'm looking for the same thing : The cheapest but good solution to get Color grading in 10bit on this plasma :
- Which european model ?
- Which card (HD-SDI) to obtain 3D view (even if I know I have to grade in 2D)
- Which affordable solution to calibrate this Plasma

And... do you have any tip or workaround to get bests resluts ?

Thanks !

Vinc'
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top