Home Theater Forum and Systems banner

First Review: 2012 Panasonic VIERA TC-P50ST50 Plasma HDTV - Discussion Thread

99K views 142 replies 39 participants last post by  Robert Zohn 
#1 ·
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/images/Panasonic_ST50.jpg[/img]

2012 Panasonic VIERA TC-P50ST50 Review - Discussion Thread

For the full review: Click Here!

Summary: I've been viewing our ST50 for the past few days I have not noticed any green blobs or fluctuating brightness. I've enjoyed watching this TV with quite a bit of varied content, DIRECTV, BD, and lots of streaming. Today I invited my very good friend Ed Johnson to do the calibration and take all of the measurements.

Download File: View attachment ST50_Calibration_Day_Mode_40fL.pdf

Regardless of the reliability of this review I'm anxious to do our Shoot-out so we can compare all of the panels next to each-other and determine who truly makes the best display. Mid April we're doing a mini pdp 2012 Shoot-out event with Samsung's E8000 series, Panasonic's GT50 and LG's PM9700. Let the games begin!

Hope you enjoyed my review. Any questions or comments?

-Robert
 

Attachments

See less See more
5
#62 ·
Excellent review! Very much on target to our review and D-Nice's findings. 2012 is a great year for PDP picture quality performance.

The UK is very lucky to have more calibration controls. Wish we had the same adjustments.

-Robert
 
#63 ·
Greetings Robert

Thank you so much for your review. :T

I was wondering :paddle: if you would be willing to conduct an input lag test on the ST50? The input lag test of the European model conducted by David Mackenzie puts it at a mere 16ms. I know they European/USA models differ in some areas and would like to know if input lag is one of them. Again, thank you for the review.

LB :bigsmile:
 
#66 ·
I'd be happy to do so. I'll post the results here by the end of next week.

-Robert

thanks so much for everyone that has posted and answered questions on this post on the panny 55st50. i purchased mine today and will have it tuesday next week. the decision to purchase the set was made on the reviews of this forum. i will post my thoughts on my new panny once i have it set up. i do have a set of questions concerning the tv. with this set i will also be purchasing a new blue ray 3d dvd player. my question is...is it really necessary to do so? i live in st albert alberta just outside of edmonton and lately all the local big name video stores are being closed. blockbuster is gone. rogers video gone etc etc. with the new smart tvs with online content for renting movies are dvds actually going to the wayside? i am not a big fan of purchasing movies. also i have a surround audio system in the basemet with my 5 year old sharp lcd and dont want the hassle and expense of a new surround system for my new panny. what is a reasonable choice for a soundbar as they are called now. i realize they cannot produce 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 as the the dvds are intended. what is a good choice for this purpose. hate to have the great video and not follow it up with sufficient audio. cant wait for the nhl playoffs on the 55st50. :D
Congratulations!

-Robert

I spent more time with one of these today at a local Fry's. It was set on Vivid and I left it there, so take this with a grain of salt.

On the one hand, when it could take advantage of the better brightness, it was apparently brighter than the older plasmas and it was a clear winner. When the ABL kicked in hardcore, it was no brighter than any other plasma and still, well, just not impressively bright -- even set in Vivid.

I felt like it would be unfair to characterize anything going on as "fluctuating brightness" but it's certainly true that when the screen goes heavily white, the overall brightness drop is sudden, noticeable and sometimes jarring.

Nothing like this occurs on my older plasma. Of course, my older plasma never gets especially bright either and sitting alone in my living room, I only find it dim during a sunlit afternoon.
Hi Mark, happy to see you here and glad you posted this. :wave:

ABL, (Automatic Brightness Limiter) is built-into plasma displays to protect the power supply. ABL is much more aggressive when the display is in the Vivid mode. If the TV was in the Cinema mode or professionally calibrated the ABL circuitry would be tamed down considerably.

-Robert
 
#65 ·
I spent more time with one of these today at a local Fry's. It was set on Vivid and I left it there, so take this with a grain of salt.

On the one hand, when it could take advantage of the better brightness, it was apparently brighter than the older plasmas and it was a clear winner. When the ABL kicked in hardcore, it was no brighter than any other plasma and still, well, just not impressively bright -- even set in Vivid.

I felt like it would be unfair to characterize anything going on as "fluctuating brightness" but it's certainly true that when the screen goes heavily white, the overall brightness drop is sudden, noticeable and sometimes jarring.

Nothing like this occurs on my older plasma. Of course, my older plasma never gets especially bright either and sitting alone in my living room, I only find it dim during a sunlit afternoon.
 
#73 ·
Anxious to see how well the VT50 does/measures.

I wish our 4 year old 58" Panasonic plasma would die, since I have no place to put it to make room for a 65" VT50. My wife loves our current display, and it would be tough to sell her on getting a new one otherwise.
 
#74 ·
I'm with you bro.

I have a 4 year old Pioneer plasma that was not looking that good. Figured I'd get the calibration software and that D3 colormeter and learn how to use it on that display. Unfortunately, after stumbling around a bit, I got it looking extremely good. One of those "oh man" moments. Hard to justify buying a replacement. and oh by the way, I did the same thing on the Mercedes. Drives better now than it ever did and I'd like to replace it. Maybe somebody will run into it. lol
 
#79 ·
Hi natsume. LG's new 2012 60PM9700 is a traditional plasma display.

No one makes a TV utilizing Sony's "Crystal" full back-lit LED technology. What Sony showed at CES was a prototype of a full back-lit LED display that is a concept only and at this time is not planned for production.

We're evaluating all of the 2012 displays to determine which models will make it into our Flat Panel Shootout event.

-Robert
 
#87 ·
Hello Robert. Can you please re-measure your ST50? D-Nice re-measured his and got .0028. I would like to see if yours lowered also. Thanks.

Jeff
Will do, by the end of next week.

-Robert

(repeating my post, as I'd really like a response if possible!)

Interesting, I was informed that the 2012 BT glasses were going to be BT only.

Any chance you can test these 4th gen glasses on a 2011 Panny set, as well? If they truly work with IR, I would imagine there's a decent chance they would work, and since I've read there will only be one more manufacturing run of the 2011 3rd Gen IR glasses, going forward with the 4th gen glasses (on the 2010/2011 sets) would be a great option!
We'll be checking again with all 2011 and 2012 glasses by the end of next week and we'll report back on HTS.

-Robert

Robert,

Look forward to the shootout.
Thank you. Me too!

-Robert

Greetings Robert

I'm sure you are busy organizing the 2012 shootout so I'll make this quick.

Spoken in my best Seinfeld voice: When.. are you going to test.. the input lag.. on the S T 50?

Thanks again
LB:bigsmile:

...ok, i'll stop :hissyfit: now ...
Also end of next week and I'll post the results on HTS.

-Robert

You can expect a VT50 review very soon, perhaps even over the weekend:rubeyes:

Thanks, we look forward to your review! Steve Withers did a great in-depth review of the UK's TC-P50VT50-B 50Hz EU model last week and it was excellent!

-Robert

^^^ Are you in the US ?
Yes it's a UK model. Only the EU and Asia gets the 50" VT50. The photo is a 50" VT50-B. Plus the USA launch schedule has stayed the same since my Panasonic contacts gave me the 55" and 65" production dates at CES in early January 2012.

The North and South American VIERA TVs are assembled in Mexico and we'll getting one before the the national release so it can make it for our Flat Panel Shootout event in late May.

55" VT50 are scheduled to ship the week of 5/14 and one week later for the 65" VT50 series.

-Robert
 
#90 ·
^^^ That is a TC-P50VT50 box then ? ( I should have asked before )

I have never seen that photo before the other day and I see no marking on the box besides Panasonic and 50". I realize there is no TC-P50VT50 being released in the US. I guess besides the fact that I asked "where are you located" I should have asked what model is the unit too..... my bad.......

I thought for sure I saw different dates on your website right after CES in early January, so I did some hunting and found this post below from 01-20-12. If the dates did not get pushed on the VT50, as you note they did not, I am not sure what happened then with the dates being different on your website then compared to now.

from VALUE ELECTRONICS

- TC-P55VT50 (1st Allocation 09/04/2012)
- TC-P65VT50 (1st Allocation 16/04/2012)

- TC-P50GT50 (1st Allocation 05/03/2012)
- TC-P55GT50 (1st Allocation 12/03/2012)
- TC-P60GT50 (1st Allocation 07/04/2012)
- TC-P65GT50 (1st Allocation 07/04/2012)

- TC-P50ST50 (1st Allocation 12/02/2012)
- TC-P55ST50 (1st Allocation 17/02/2012)
- TC-P60ST50 (1st Allocation 07/04/2012)
- TC-P65ST50 (1st Allocation 07/04/2012)

- TC-P42UT50 (not stated)
- TC-P50UT50 (not stated)
- TC-P55UT50 (not stated)
- TC-P60UT50 (not stated)
Chris, thanks for posting you very nice reply. The OP referenced the display as a VT50 in his post.

Regarding the dates you posted can you please provide the link. I think these came from an article I participated in at CES, where I listed the actual first production dates. The actual manufacturing dates, whereas the dates I list on my site are the actual shipping dates. Panasonic builds all North American displays in two plants in Mexico and it can take up to 3 weeks to propagate through to dealers showrooms.

I don't list the launch dates on my main site, www.valueelectronics.com and on my Panasonic 2012 dedicated site, www.TC-P65VT50.com which was launched at CES just after I left my key dealer meeting with Panasonic's top brass does list the availability dates. We also built a .pdf data sheet on the VIERA Connect 2012 displays.

Thanks!

-Robert
 
#92 ·
I don't think those dates came from my site as they are in the EU style of writing dates and we use the standard USA format of the month first followed by the day and then year, e.g today's date would be written in the USA as 4/09/12 and in EU 09/04/12. A cut and paste would have resulted in the USA format being posted. I have very slightly changed the dates of a few displays, but the date changes were very minor and were based on tweaking the production schedule, amount of pre-orders we have booked and the actual in-transit time to us.

You are correct that Panasonic would love to have the VT30 series out as Samsung is enjoying some early business on the E6500, E7000 and E8000 PDPs. IN fact, we may see one slightly earlier allocation, but it will be very constrained.

I'm hoping to one flown in from Mexico for our May 19 -20 2012 Flat Panel Shootout event.

-Robert
 
#95 ·
Yes thank you Natsume for posting David Mackenzie's VT50 review. Fantastic review, very detailed and accurate!

-Robert
 
#97 ·
Congratulations on your new 55" ST50! I'll ask our calibrators if they will permit me to post their calibration settings.

FYI, I have noticed the final calibrated settings to vary more than expected from ST50 to ST50. So if you want the best calibration and do not want to have the TV professionally calibrated I suggest a good calibration disc. For those who have not yet purchased consider buying the TV already broken-in and professionally ISF calibrated. The main reason is that even if you love the pq you will not know what you are missing and what your beautiful ST50 is capable of.

-Robert
 
#99 ·
Since we were successful in getting our full blown Flat Panel Shootout scheduled very early this year, (5/19-20/12) we decided not to put as much time into the mini-pdp evaluation. We just had an in-house mini-review of the ST50, GT50, and the E8000. These beautiful panels calibrate beautiful and look very similar pre and post calibration.

Hope to have many HTS members attend our 8th Annual Flat Panel Shootout event next month.

-Robert
 
#101 ·
Sorry we did not record our pdp evaluation.

-Robert
 
#104 ·
hi,
this is some pictures of DT50 vs ST50 european models from a french store, we know that pictures are not very representatives of the real PQ, but the ST50 seems to have the upper hand:clap:
How can we tell? Were both sets calibrated to the same standard and what was that?

Thank you for your effort to be informative. Personally, I like the ST50 and just bought one from Robert. It is very difficult, however, to make the comparison above without knowing more about the conditions, and screen shots do not really show very well what the sets really look like. The also cause the thread to take longer to load and are annoying, IMO.

I will be happy to post my calibration results once the set is burned in and I get to calibrating it, but my initial impression is that it is quite good, even with just a visual ballpark adjustment.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top