I wish Pana can come up with a better panel design. They are so good with their plasma tech, and hope they can do better design for their TV as well.

A further update on the performance of the 50U20.

I calibrated another set yesterday. I would like to confirm that the black levels of this set that had about 670hrs on it was about 0.023ft/L. (As reference, the V20 had about 0.009ft/L (pre rise, post rise I would guess 0.015ft/L), a Kuro 8G was about 0.008/0.009ft/L high age, a 9G Kuro is about 0.001ft/L, Sammy with Cinema Smooth on are 0.04ft/L, without are about 0.02ft/L).This is not too bad. This is for a 23.976fps signal. I believe this black level with the 50Hz signal should be similar and a 60Hz will have slightly lower black levels.

The black levels are best in TrueCinema mode and the proper brightness setting is either at 0 or -1. Anything less will lead to black crush, anything more will have elevated black levels (u can actually see noisy blacks when its set higher). I could get a windowed pattern of 37ft/L for peak white with no white clipping in TrueCinema. I could not get it any brighter. In Cinema mode, I could not get it above 30ft/L. For TrueCinema, the contrast was about 70+.

TrueCinema mode has the best colour reproduction with colour control around 52-53. Gamma was around 2.1. This is so much better than Cinema that had a wide colour gamut (innacurate colours) and a lower gamma of about 1.8-1.9. In actual viewing, True Cinema had the pop post calibration. Greyscale was alos better before calibration for TrueCinema. Greyscale calibration was done in the service menu.

Sharpness was set to a minimum but u need to switch off overscan in the setup menu and use 16:9 to get proper pixel to pixel matching. Using Just overscans 2.5% and with overscan on, u could lose up to 5%.

I think this set post calibration is value for money at the prices that it was going for recently. The TrueCinema mode is the scene stealer in the U20. Colour reproduction has never been this good in entry level Pannys before. The older S10 did not have this last year.

Thank you very much for the super detail report. Unfortunately, most of it are Greek to me but I appreciate it nevertheless. So far, I am very happy with 50U except for the reflection issue. Dim the light, draw the curtain and the color naturalness is jaw dropping good. The human skin tone are to die for and I doubt Sammy/LG can match it for naturalness, even though I have never seen one in residential house. I have only seen them in showroom setting and those don't count.

Anyway, I will go back and try out your setting of True Cinema/Brightness 0 or -1/Contrast +70.

Thanks.

Indeed. Havent done that yet, I might do that tomorrow! I was amazed at its first impression, I didn't really play to win, was really looking at the graphic

it produced!

Indeed, what I have in mind as well. But after I done all that, I think it is money well spent indeed. Still learning to appreciate all the Pana goodness

(the Greek part) but so far, my eyes are appreciating them bit by bit. Playing videogames will never be the same again!

I am not sure whether it was psychology or not but after using the 50U for about 300-400 hours, I noticed:
1. the picture quality seems to be getting better.
2. the panel seems less hot.

As the phosphors overdrive duration reaches, the picture noise reduces. It shd stabilize at abt 500hrs and then u won't see any improvement after that. Keep in mind that the black level increases will still happen.

This increase in black levels is inherent to Panasonic Plasmas or it does it happen to other main stream brands as well?

How bad does it get to lets say in about 2-3 years time? Does it keep increasing or will it flatten out..?

Thx!

This post has been edited by welwitchia: Feb 14 2011, 03:05 PM

No its not normal to other brands. For the 2010 gens, the black level stabilizes at about 2000hrs or so. The increases are sequential small increases.

The 2009 models, had faster increases and higher mostly stabilizing at about 1000hrs.

99% of the people owning them will not notice the increase... Its more apparent in dimly or dark rooms.

And if i remember correctly, CNet's long-term test results shows that even after that, Pana's black levels are still superior to the other brands that do not suffer from this "defect".

From the calibrations I hv done, this is correct. The V and the VT offer one of the blackest screens u can get even after the increases the black levels are close to the older 8G Kuros. I am pretty sure the VT30/V30 for 2011 will improve on the black levels and surpass the 8G Kuros for sure. It is my real hope that it surpasses the black levels or equivalent to the 9G Kuros and th fix the other problems.

The Sammys are pretty good but the Cinema Smooth bug spoils it pretty badly. There is some indication that Sammy fixed the bug in 2011 models, so this year will be fun with better blacks from Sammy as well.

Thanks for the clarification. I have a 50" Sammy C6500 but if the V30s are good, I might switch back to Panny again.

Hi Anfieldude,

I have been using my 50U for >8 months now. As advised, I select the TrueCinema Mode for the desired black leve ie. 70 Contract / +-1 Brightness / 0 Sharpness and the expectation turned out good. Since there is no option to to select Cool Color Mode, the color seems quite tinted / warm.

I suggested those who do not like warm color to switch to GAME Mode as the Cool Color / Blue Background / Black level are more pronounced. After reading your post and tested the TrueCinema mode, I now prefer to stay at the GAME mode as this provide the best Piq for my eyes i.e. 55 Contrast / 3 Brightness / 0 Sharpness / Cool Color Mode. I am using default setting only.

The Normal / Cinema mode are too dull and the Dynamic is too bright / over contrast.

Game mode and Cool colour mode will yield a white of about 8000K and not close to 6500K colour temperature. However, its ur set, u're welcome to adjust the settings as u wish.

bro anfield,

just wondering if the sharpness setting of 0 is better than the default of 50? i tested it at 0 awhile ago and didn't see a drastic difference.

so does this mean that sharpness setting of 50 is unnaturally sharpening the picture?

If u r watching BDs from what I hv seen its best if closer to 0. Again, it depends on how far u r sitting from the display. Turn sharpness up until u can see artefacts on test patterns. That shd be more than ok for BDs.

For SD material, sharpness around 30 seems ok.

anyone here use the wireless LAN adapter for V series TV? Can i use normal USB wireless LAN adapter from brand such as Dlink, Cisco ?

Got my Valentine's gift from ASTRO today ! Just kidding. They installed ASTRO BYPOND this afternoon. Impressed with the HD programs. For those still trying to decide, my recommendation is just do it ! Go and get a Pana 50" V20K and ASTRO BYOND. You will be amazed at the bigger screen and HD programs, bringing your TV viewing enjoyment to new levels.

Plan to get either a blu-ray player or BR-media player later.

What about the contrast? gonna set 70 for contrast but should the Eco mode(CATS) be turned on at all?

i notice that the CATS dims the screen quite a bit when watching with dim lighting.

CATS shd not be turned on if u want good PQ...