Blog: I bought a new HDTV…and it`s not 3D

[Matt]

[quote=”shadymg”]
great point autoboy, what did you use to calibrate? I have the DVE Essentials & Spears & Munsil as well…or the free AVS HD 709?
[/quote]

Home Theater Magazine reviewed the G20 (same panel as G25, but the Best Buy exclusive model) recently and they post their tweaks.
http://hometheatermag.com/flat-panels/panasonic_viera_tc-p50g20_plasma_hdtv/index5.html

And Cnet is good about posting their settings too…
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-19410_102-0.html?threadID=393605&tag=rvwBody

[Mike Garcen]

yep, i looked at that before buying, but i’m pretty sure i’m closer than 10′ away from my tv, but it’s ok.

is it sad that a large part of the reason i wanted a 50″ was with Madden football so i could see more of the field? 🙂

[autoboy]

[quote=”Matt”]
[quote=”autoboy”]
No.  I consider a 50″ the minimum size for a main viewing room TV. [/quote]

Yep, don’t go any smaller… I love my 50″ for most TV watching, but when we watch a lot of HD movies (especially those in 2.35:1) I start to want a 58″/60″ plasma.

Even 50″ at ~10-12ft like most apartment living rooms your eye can’t resolve all the detail of 1080p (you can barely resolve the full detail of 720p at the size/distance), so you certainly don’t want to go smaller.

Here’s a good chart that’s been around the ‘net that I added different distance markers to.
[/quote]

thats why I went 65″ at 11 feet.  I don’t think any bigger would be much of a benefit, and HDTV of questionable quality is still ok on it.

People that come by to take a look, think its the perfect size.  After almost a year, I would agree.

I have the 65″ V10 Panny and it has the THX mode.  I’ve only used the THX calibration that comes with THX certified disks, but I just downloaded the AVS disk after seeing it on HDNation and I’m looking for some time to calibrate it some more.  Overall, I find the THX mode pretty dang good and I just adjusted the brightness and sharpness settings.  I prefer a sharpness set to 0 because it gives a natural look.

[jennyfur]

Enjoy it! I’ve been loving the 50″ Panny plasma I got this year so far. 🙂

[Anonymous]

I have the 42″ and 50″ from the previous generation S1 series. I followed the recommended burn-in and service menu calibration from AVSForum on the 50″ when I bought it (I had already been using the 42″ for about 5 months) and the difference is really amazing. Highly recommended, this link should get you started although of course you need to find information specific to the S2: [url=http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1221229]http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1221229[/url]

[Mike Garcen]

thanks for the link woolooloo, i’ve wasted countless hours reading that thread! also, i updated my blog with a picture…it arrived this morning!!! Anxious to get off work to play with it some more, but for now it’s a good start.

[mikinho]

And welcome to the forum woolooloo, glad to see a tgb regular over here.

[autoboy]

Cnet has a review up of your S2

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-viera-tc-p46s2/4505-6482_7-33972953.html?tag=rb_content;carouselMain

[Mike Garcen]

couldn’t help but chuckling when i read this user’s comment…”Went to 2 Best Buys and it was by far the worse looking TV on the wall out of the 50 or so on display.”

still surprising to see it at such a low rating, but hey…that’s one person’s opinion 🙂 i’m loving it so far (of course, i did upgrade from…well, you know :-P)

[Matt]

[quote=”shadymg”]
couldn’t help but chuckling when i read this user’s comment…”Went to 2 Best Buys and it was by far the worse looking TV on the wall out of the 50 or so on display.”

still surprising to see it at such a low rating, but hey…that’s one person’s opinion 🙂 i’m loving it so far (of course, i did upgrade from…well, you know :-P)
[/quote]

That’s the kind of person you can sell even a bottom of the line LCD to because it gets eye burning bright and has pumped up neon colors. And they’ve heard “Plasmas run hot” and “have issues with images on the screen.” They’ve never heard of black level or seem to notice the crushed highlights/lowlights, etc.

[Anonymous]

Good choice, I was also on ~$1000 budget last year and chose a plasma. IMO much better picture than an LCD.

[Mike Garcen]

i’m still obviously on the burn-in stages, but i normally watch tv at night anyways so having to turn the contrast and brightness down doesn’t bother me. stil super impressive.

and….playing madden on this is so awesomely awesome compared to my old 32″. not sure it makes me a better player, but i sure think it does something 😉

[mikinho]

For gaming I feel like past 32″ makes it more difficult.  At least for Call of Duty and other first person shooters.  That said 32″ is too small for the primary home theater TV.

[jennyfur]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
For gaming I feel like past 32″ makes it more difficult.  At least for Call of Duty and other first person shooters.  That said 32″ is too small for the primary home theater TV.
[/quote]
Hmm can’t comment on that one, my FPS are all on my 22″ computer monitor that I’m sitting 2′ from. However I play a ton of third person shooters on my 50″ TV and that’s not a problem, I like the size and it’s good for movies and such too.

[autoboy]

It isn’t the size that matters, it is the ratio of size to sitting distance.  My 24″ monitor from 15 inches is pretty dang big.  It fills 50% of my view.  It fills more of my view than the 65 from 11 feet.

For the slow paced FPS games I play, bigger is better.  Often times I’m shooting at something only a few pixels big.  And I’m pretty dang good at hitting those few pixels with a bolt action rifle.  You don’t know how to aim until you’ve only got one shot every 2 seconds.

[Author]

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