Reposting after correcting typos and other stuff.
Eventually, after some struggle you can tune it to very nice picture. "Technology" is new, but application is weird.
HORRIBLE PRESETS. Bad, VERY 'narrow' Picture Quality controls! SD card Ultra II/FAT32 NOT detected by tv (what? it supports only old and slow cards?)
Posted 4 months ago - Finally! After struggling for a week It appears that I was able to adjust settings to more so manageable levels. Factory settings are horrible! Total of 5 ways to watch this plasma hdtv trough selecting one of these presets [Standard/THX/Game/Custom/Vivid], and only 3 of them are usable - Standard, Game and Custom. Other looks like some drunk was fulling around and created these "presets". This is new generation VERY bright and sharp plasma. But what Panasonic 'engineers' did to calibrate image settings - is really bad! Even CNet reviewers for 50" G10 plasma saying the same, that this TV controls are "skimpy"... Being politically correct, they not blasting Panasonic for this 'tart', and they(CNet) should be more specific, because this is very important "detail"... Other setting of this tv are very good and input detection is very quick and nice. It almost too obvious that Panasonic was trying to compete with higher end and more expensive Pioneer Kuro Elite plasmas. Panasonic did pretty good job... But again, to me major shock was to discover that I cannot change image to make it lighter and to display midtones. All detail in midtone range is lost - and tv displayed rich black clot where should be more detail. This especially bad for BlueRay movies - they are oversaturated. Watching Hancock BR disk in so called "THX" preset does nothing good, just makes picture more muddy. Any attempt of adjustment of THX preset is useless. So, after playing with this thing for a week, and watching HD programs with good HD content on Air antenna (I have here 17 good channels, and quality of uncompressed HD is way better than cable TV), playing BR movies and regular dvd's, also playing AVCHD video from my new HD camcorder Sony CX100 burned on DVD and played via my Sony BDP-BX2 BR player - I found best settings for this TV and want to share this findings. It could be more disappointed people over there... So,here what you can try: 1. BEST and Brightest - STANDARD preset: - Contrast = +84 - Brightness = +100 - Color = +38 - Tint = -3 - Sharpness = +75 - Color Temp = Cool 1 - Color Management = ON - C.A.T.S. = OFF - Video NR = Weak - x.v. color = AUTO - Mosquito NR = ON - Black Level - LIGHT 2. To remove excessive yellow cast in video I use GAME preset which I changed to: - Contrast = +76 - Brightness = +100 - Color = +38 - Tint = -3 - Sharpness = +85 - Color Temp = Cool 1 - Color Management = ON - C.A.T.S. = OFF - Video NR = Weak - x.v. color = AUTO - Mosquito NR = ON - Black Level - LIGHT 3. For movies with less saturated color/contrast I use CUSTOM preset, changed to this: - Contrast = +100 - Brightness = +85 - Color = +38 - Tint = -3 - Sharpness = +75 - Color Temp = NORMAL - Color Management = ON - C.A.T.S. = OFF - x.v. color = AUTO - Video NR = Weak - Mosquito NR = ON - Black Level - LIGHT Now, image is acceptable, but still it feels that this TV can do MUCH better, if someone will hire specialist with calibration tools. But I feel that I paid a lot (1189 delivered) for this TV and I'm not going to spend 300 more... So, ... yeaaah ... if price goes down closer to 1 Grant it is worth considering. Picture(video) is smooth and pleasing to eye, because is not blazing bright. Video is VERY sharp and detailed, NO visible jagged edges and pixels even at 10' distance. I'm watching it from 14' and 46" screen feels more like 50". So if you cannot afford LED backlit LCD TV's, this plasma is pretty good deal. Could've been perfect if not gross mishap with picture adjustment controls! So, you all - people who praising this plasma for 'deep blacks'n - you have no idea, that you are missing on average 20% of details in picture, because "rich blacks" are FLOODING all midtones where are lots of more subtle details. If this plasma is adjusted (calibrated) correctly - you will be amazed even more! :] Other thoughts: - X.V. color support. Important to me, my CX100 records HiDef video in this mode, so it is nice to have feature. - SD Ultra II/FAT32 card is not detected by tv. So, it is accepting only old and slow SD cards? I do not have those... I'll pass on this feature. - After reading reviews about screwed 24p mode, I'm not even touching that... - Do not care about VGA PC slot, this is SO yesterday, so Panasonic should not even include that. Laptop/Desktop connected to any HDMI port (you need to have DVI port on your comp and appropriate cables) looks good in full 1920x1080. - Takes 500+ watts of power, that's 2x than LCD's. Whatever... ALSO, I'm thinking getting this little (a bit ugly) and very promising device - Ultio[...] to store all my AVCHD movies and play them on this plasma. Reportedly, this thing is playing basically ALL popular audio/video formats! Will see.
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