Panasonic TC-P50S1

I'm going to get one of these (new) in less than 3 months, I'm already tied into it. I'm getting it for $999.

My knowledge regarding specific televisions is limited, does anyone have any advice to offer regarding this set? I've been reading it has limited video setting controls making it difficult to calibrate.

Congrats on the soon-to-be new set, Seth! I have the G10 version of that size and really like it. I'm sure that I'll be calibrating my set with Avia in the next three months, and I'll let you know if I learn anything from it. I think that the S1 and G10 have the same available setting changes (although I don't entirely remember).

Cnet stated that it lacked color tempurature settings, as well as a RGB setting. They also stated the greens looked to neon and red was a little off from what it's supposed to be (they supposedely where unable to correct the imbalance). Maybe Cnet is stupid?

I also looked at the V10 series, and that's a sexy looking display.

Perhaps not stupid, but maybe more critical than you will be.

What led you to the S1 model as your choice?

Adam said:

Perhaps not stupid, but maybe more critical than you will be.

What led you to the S1 model as your choice?

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The price, as well as the option to utilize a layaway program.

Seth=L said:

I'm going to get one of these (new) in less than 3 months, I'm already tied into it. I'm getting it for $999.

My knowledge regarding specific televisions is limited, does anyone have any advice to offer regarding this set? I've been reading it has limited video setting controls making it difficult to calibrate.

Click to expand...

Congrats Seth. May I ask you a few curious Q's to begin with?

What is your current TV? How much are you getting it for? How good is this lawaway program (details)? Thanks. You are tied into it already, meaning, there is no backing out? (in which case, why worry?).

I agree Cnet is particularly stingy, and most particularly with color accuracy. They've even banged up Pioneer plasmas, and JVC PJs because of that. However, I own a JVC, and I understand what they are talking about. There's not much I can do about inaccurate greens, outside of basic calibration, and a tweaking here/there to compromise for it.

In any case, I think it's an excellent value. C'mon, it's a current Pana plasma.

My current tv is a Sony KDL-46W3000 (46" 1080p LCD). I'm getting the Panasonic for $999 + tax. There is no layaway fee, and it lasts 90 days. If I don't pay it off in 90 days they charge a 10% restocking fee (which is about $107). The retail outlet is ABC Electronics.

My advice would be to take it out of the box, put it in "Cinema" picture mode with "Warm" Color Temp, use it for the recommended 200 hours or so and then bring in an ISF technician to do a full, professional calibration.

The S1 plasmas lack detailed user picture controls. CNET is spot on with their review, which is to say, that, overall, the S1 plasmas look very good, but they are not perfectly accurate when it comes to colour rendition. If you only stick to the user controls that are available in the menu system, there is no way to make the colour rendition accurate. An ISF technician can go into the locked "service menu" and adjust the display to be more accurate than the user controls will allow.

If you don't care about 100% accurate colour and just want to enjoy a good-looking image, then just stick the S1 plasma in Cinema mode, set the colour temp to Warm, do a quick run through a THX Optimizer (available on any THX certified DVD or Blu-ray...think Pixar movies, Star Wars, etc) and just enjoy your good looking TV! If you want to eek out every last bit of possible accuracy, then bring in an ISF technician and pay the $300-$400 fee because there is no way to get the same level of accuracy on your own

Best of luck!

Ok, Seth I hunted around in the AVS owner's forum. Lots of folks are applying SM offsets to get much better skin color. No more "sunburned" looking people. Green improvement, let alone black improvement, doesn't seem to be as commonly cited, if at all.

The guide that most people seem to be using, and referring to, is by someone named "mistah_g". Here is a pdf dl for the guide, at least that is what one poster had linked after some searching.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=28SRA7GZ

I *think I remember* someone might have said that his recommended settings are for "normal" temp, and not warm. Some people seemed to have missed that part, switched it to normal, and then were very pleased (for they were disappointed before).

Of course there is unit to unit variation, and furthermore, someone might have implied that even the default settings could vary.

mistah_g's guide isn't the only one that was cited. Lemme look some more. Can't find after a moment's try... mebbe later, I'll try again.

One interested consumer noted that CNET mentions less than ideal deinterlacing, particularly with film/24, but they did say it was hard to notice. OTOH, this consumer threw in the Spears/Munsil test and said it looked great. He also said the following:

Hey guys, I'm no calibrator or videophile but I just learned a little tidbit of info. I have a calibration disk that has an Image Cropping test. The Size 2 mode in the Advanced Picture setting passes the test, the Size 1 mode does not. I have no idea what this means in regular TV watching or if it's even discernible to most people (probably not), just passing on the info to those who care. From the user guide it says that the image cropping pattern is designed to show how much of the image encoded on the disc is visible on the screen. Size 1 didn't show all of the info on the screen, Size 2 did.

Someone educated him on saying to use Size 2. Size 1 can be used for bad looking channels with visual noise at the borders.

A different consumer said that he passed all black and white reference tests, but in order to so, he needed super white as on in the PS3. IIRC, funnily enough, this setting might have caused some issue when running through an Onkyo 805, but I can't remember what exactly. Oh, this crazy world of AV.

Thank goodness we have folks here that really know their TVs. Thanks a lot FR and Jostenmeat.

I have the V10 from this year. If you have an S1 professionally calibrated, it would look as good as mine (if I had mine calibrated). There are fewer user controls but the service menu calibration will get things in shape.

Most of what you are missing between the S1 and V10 is useless. I got the V10 specifically for the 96Hz mode for playing BDs encoded at 1080p/24. A good player will do a good enough job at pulldown to make it a moot point.

I also agree that reviews of TVs are really picking nits. Almost all brand name TVs are pretty good these days.

Jim

Seth=L said:

Thank goodness we have folks here that really know their TVs. Thanks a lot FR and Jostenmeat.

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lol. Uh, well... FR knows his TVs. I've just become extremely efficient and masterful with search engines (within thread, subforum, forum, across many forums + google). I mean, how do you think I've amassed such a depository of useless AV information?

thanks though, anyways...

In any case, I'm grateful for the skills used and knowledge received.