Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ80U - Questions

[Halon451]

I bought one over the weekend. I'm very happy with the TV thus far, but part of my setup from before entailed a PC connection, which as it turns out - this particular model of Plasma is lacking in the 15-pin VGA input port.

So, being resourceful - I decided to go to CompUSA, pick up a video card that outputs DVI - and use a DVI to HDMI adapter cable, plug it into the TV's HDMI port, and all is good. Or is it?

I got to thumbing through the user manual of the TV, and came across a section where it states that "Use with a PC is not assumed". It didn't say that it is "not recommended", but it did fall under the 'Caution' and 'Care of this product' section in the manual.

I got it to work (prior to reading this), and the only problem is that I can't seem to get the output resolution of the PC to match the native resolution on the TV, (which is a 1080p set), without over-scan or under-scan. 1920x1080 doesn't work, which is confusing (plus makes everything too small to read from the couch anyway).

Just wanted to see if anyone had any input on this, if you would recommend or dissuade me from doing this...

I know from prior experience installing many a plasma TV in the commercial and television station environments that we ran computer based signals to Plasma TV's all the time, usually on pro and commercial line Panasonic Plasmas that had the option to swap out modules for other connectivity choices (VGA, DVI, RGBHV, etc.) Never thought anything from it - installed it according to the prints, calibrated the set, configured the data to be displayed (many of them with static borders left on continually - the Panny's were always chosen for this due to their resistivity to burn-in), and moved on to the next job.

This TV cost me a pretty penny (by my standards), so the last thing I need to do is hook anything up to it that will damage the display in some kind of way.

Help/Advice is appreciated on this...

 

[haraldo]

Everything that is straightforward with a PC is not... there's always something...

And just wondering, which video adapter are you using, and what Operating system on PC? XP or Vista or.... You're not a Linux guy like me are you

 

[Alex2507]

Glad to hear you got the Panny.
I can't help you at all with your questions.
I can say that I got a break in disc from here:

http://www.eaprogramming.com/

and I calibrated my 50PZ77U with an Avia II disc from Amazon. It sounds like you're way more knowledgeable about that whole thing but thought I would throw that in there to keep this from just being a congrats post. Congrats!

 

[Halon451]

Everything that is straightforward with a PC is not... there's always something...

And just wondering, which video adapter are you using, and what Operating system on PC? XP or Vista or.... You're not a Linux guy like me are you

Ah, running a basic 256MB Standard PCI video card made by Diamond. It's cheap, but will do the job I need it to do - no gaming or anything too graphics intensive, just internet, videos and music library, etc. OS is just Windows XP.

It's an older computer I brought back from dead - purchased around 2003-2004, crashed on me in 2005, and sat in my closet collecting dust until I rebuilt it last year and made it work again. By that time I already had a new Dell desktop and a laptop as well, so figured I would use it as a media source for my HT.

 

[Halon451]

Glad to hear you got the Panny.
I can't help you at all with your questions.
I can say that I got a break in disc from here:

http://www.eaprogramming.com/

and I calibrated my 50PZ77U with an Avia II disc from Amazon. It sounds like you're way more knowledgeable about that whole thing but thought I would throw that in there to keep this from just being a congrats post. Congrats!

I haven't seen the break-in disc before, but I do know the Avia II disc well. I don't have one on hand, so I'll probably grab it off the web, as you did. I've got an older calibration disc that is pretty much useless, but worked for my old setup. I miss having an array of test signal generators and test tones at my disposal...

 

[haraldo]

Ah, running a basic 256MB Standard PCI video card made by Diamond. It's cheap, but will do the job I need it to do - no gaming or anything too graphics intensive, just internet, videos and music library, etc. OS is just Windows XP.

It's an older computer I brought back from dead - purchased around 2003-2004, crashed on me in 2005, and sat in my closet collecting dust until I rebuilt it last year and made it work again. By that time I already had a new Dell desktop and a laptop as well, so figured I would use it as a media source for my HT.

Just wondering, what specific model of video card is it you have.
Could be many things, just wondering what exact card you have.

Let me check manuals and troubleshooting for that specific card........

 

[mike c]

i just bought one of these things for my father in law.

1) it's freakin heavy
2) you have to mount it to its stand (unlike the sony's that come out of the box mounted already)
3) it gives off a weird smell (like hot plastic) when watching for more than 2 hours

 

[bandphan]

what are the output settings of the video card? Ill put up the settings from my mitsu, which were funky to get it to match the native resolution, this afternoon..

 

[Halon451]

Just wondering, what specific model of video card is it you have.
Could be many things, just wondering what exact card you have.

Let me check manuals and troubleshooting for that specific card........

I have no idea, I'm at work right now and can't check - but it's a Diamond VC, with a standard PCI card slot interface. SB - something or other...

i just bought one of these things for my father in law.

1) it's freakin heavy
2) you have to mount it to its stand (unlike the sony's that come out of the box mounted already)
3) it gives off a weird smell (like hot plastic) when watching for more than 2 hours

Indeed it's a heavy item, and I was a little dismayed to find that I had to mount it to the stand once I got it out of the box, which was no easy task for me alone. I haven't noticed any weird smells coming from it - but sounds like the normal plastic smell you can get when you power up certain electronic components for the first time - the components inside (diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.) will emit odor sometimes when they first get current flowing through them, and as they heat up, but it should go away after a while.

what are the output settings of the video card? Ill put up the settings from my mitsu, which were funky to get it to match the native resolution, this afternoon..

The VC has just about every output resolution you can think of - right now, I think I have it set at 1366x768, which was about the closest I could come to matching viewability from across the room with an image that fit within the borders of the display. Setting it to 1920x1080 reduces the size way too much, and skews the image out of whack, which I can't figure out. The setting it's on now doesn't fill up the screen completely, which is one of the issues. I figured, setting it for a resolution that would match the aspect ratio of the TV and still be large enough to see from across the room would work, but apparently this is not so.

 

[Alex2507]

Halon,

I'm looking to get my sister in the OKC area hooked up with this TV. Would you be good enough to share where you got yours?

Thanks,
Alex

 

[Halon451]

Halon,

I'm looking to get my sister in the OKC area hooked up with this TV. Would you be good enough to share where you got yours?

Thanks,
Alex

Certainly my friend. I got mine at Sears actually - turns out BB and CC both had this model, and after deciding this is the one I wanted, looked at each of them, but they were both out of stock. Sears not only had them in stock, but were about two to three hundred bucks cheaper as well, so I lucked out. They're marked down quite a bit right now - from somewhere north of $2K on sale for $1600 at Sears.

 

[bandphan]

tweeter/sound advise have a good deal going Halon, try 1280x 1024 output and see what your scale is, im still on the road and trying to get back for the sotu event friday...Ill report back asap

sorry
scott

 

[mike c]

got mine at 6ave iirc through amazon

 

[Halon451]

tweeter/sound advise have a good deal going Halon, try 1280x 1024 output and see what your scale is, im still on the road and trying to get back for the sotu event friday...Ill report back asap

sorry
scott

I'll try that setting and see if it works, gracias!

 

[haraldo]

tweeter/sound advise have a good deal going Halon, try 1280x 1024 output and see what your scale is, im still on the road and trying to get back for the sotu event friday...Ill report back asap

sorry
scott

With a widescreen monitor, I guess 1280 * 800 is possibly correct