Plasma, LCD, OLED, LED, best tv for next gen

I had a lengthy post typed up and the forum crapped out on me, so here are the cliffnotes.


- Finally ready to pull the trigger on a 60" S60. No go, they don't exist anywhere anymore. Crap.

- Budget is around $1,500 - looking at 55"-60" with at least 3 HDMI inputs. I have no interest in 3D, smart tv capabilites, or any other features like that. Just give me a big beautiful picture.

- Big fan of Panasonic plasmas. All the LCD/LED sets I've seen are unimpressive and overpriced. All seem to have some kind of dealbreaking issue whether it be vertical banding, edge bleeding, etc. I don't understand why plasmas are being phased out when this is the alternative. The only sets I saw that rivaled a plasma were all out of my budget and still weren't that impressive. I just went through the top rated LEDs on AVS and didn't really care for any of them.

- Looked into the ST60 but the lag issue kills it for me since this will eventually be my gaming tv when my 42" 85U craps out.

- The VT60 looks like my next viable option but now I'm starting to pay more for features I'll never use and people are complaining and actually returning this set because they all have some fan issue that causes the tv to make a "refrigerator whirring/buzzing" sound. I'm no stranger to plasma buzz, it's just one of the tradeoffs you make with that tech, but this seems to be more prominent than your typical buzz and for that kind of money I don't blame people for returning them for something else. I haven't heard it myself but it is apparently bad enough that Panasonic has attempted to address it in the newer runs of this model and still haven't corrected the problem.

- The ZT is another option but it's too expensive for features I don't care about.


So that's pretty much it. Even though I haven't been impressed by LCD/LEDs I'm certainly open to them. There have to be some older LED sets that were top of the line at one point with great PQ that have now been replaced with newer models. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I have a virtually perfect condition 60" ST50 that I'm looking to sell for about 1500, but the shipping would cost a bit unless you live in Colorado. Was manufactured Oct 2012, model TC-P60ST50-2.

I want to use the money to trade up to a different Panny for Christmas! :D
 
VT and ZT aren't just extra features. They offer considerably better picture quality with superior panels and filters.
For gaming and if you're using standard modes (ie: normal+game mode) image quality should be comparable enough. It's very good and with the gamut you'd expect albeit with a bit of interpolated dithering going on (not the best image the thing pulls out, mind you but it's the most lag free as I understand it), the thing really shines is when you turn on modes such as the cinema mode and look at the detail and stability upclose, the extra steps/subfields make a difference there.

It's pornographic, let me tell you.

I wonder how better it is for low framerate games and double image/judder, but I've been too afraid to test it, I know how my Panny G10 and X50 behave as well as the UT50's (that I sadly don't own) and fear I'll be sobbing for not having a 42GT60 in the game room afterwards. But I really can't.

I actually don't care much about the filter (well, seeing the VT60 was for the living room I paid the extra also due to the better filter) but my game room is usually dark and I like the glassy look providing it's not on a hugely well lit room a.k.a. natural light; I enjoy the free viewing angles more that way.
I have a virtually perfect condition 60" ST50 that I'm looking to sell for about 1500, but the shipping would cost a bit unless you live in Colorado. Was manufactured Oct 2012, model TC-P60ST50-2.

I want to use the money to trade up to a different Panny for Christmas! :D
Seems like a good deal for the european in me. Where do you see the manufacturing date?

If I ever go to US on vacation I think I'll come back with a few TV sets; I'm still in love with the never released in europe Sony KD-34XBR960's and the like.
 
Got my ZT60 calibrated by D-Nice this Saturday.

ibi6xXT5l4EcFH.JPG
 
Hey.I purchased this TV during black Friday.
Does the horizontal banding bother you?

It's viable in the second GoW pic, just below the top of the screen. My TV has a similar issue. I thinking about returning it, but don't want to test my luck and get something even worse in return.

There's a lot going on with the lighting in those picture that I took. The banding is there about a 3rd of the way down on the left side. For it to be really noticeable in every day use a solid, dark color has to appear for a sustained period of time. I can't see it when sliding through photos, playing games or watching a movie here and there. I've had to use MS Paint to put in a bunch of solid colors. A screen full of red and orange makes it noticeable. With other colors, green, blues, etc. you can barely see it.
 
I've had my Sony KDL-55W900A for just over a month connected to both my XB1 and PS4 and I couldn't be happier with it.
 
Got my ZT60 calibrated by D-Nice this Saturday.

Like, literally by D-Nice? Or, his settings?


VT60 is being delivered on friday! I can't contain my excitement. I want to run the slides, but I know I am going to be bad and just throw some fullscreen content on there. Ugh. PlasmaPeopleProblems
 
I just watched Pacific Rim on my broken-in and CNET-settings 65VT60.

MOTHER. OF. GOD.

Oh, the movie was pretty cool too, Guillermo del Toro knows his kaiju movies and he really nailed it with his monster picture. But enough about the movie, this fucking TV.

THIS. FUCKING. TV.

I have a pretty long movie backlog too, tomorrow it's going to be Star Trek Into Darkness. I heard it was kinda meh but I think this TV can make anything awesome at this point.
 
If you are used to the plasma or PC whirring, then you won't mind getting the VT60.

If true then it sounds like a non-issue but if even the plasma guys at AVS are whining about it then it seems like it'd be considerably louder than that.

VT and ZT aren't just extra features. They offer considerably better picture quality with superior panels and filters.

You're right. Like I said, that was the abridged version. I addressed that a little more in-depth in the previous post but basically, for my situation, the diminishing returns aren't worth the price for me.

They did?

Supposedly models built July or later had padding added to the fans to keep them from making noise but apparently there aren't many of those models in stores yet and the few people who do have them say it helps but it's still audible. *shrug*

I have a virtually perfect condition 60" ST50 that I'm looking to sell for about 1500, but the shipping would cost a bit unless you live in Colorado. Was manufactured Oct 2012, model TC-P60ST50-2.

I want to use the money to trade up to a different Panny for Christmas! :D

Fair price but it's at the top end of my budget and like you said shipping would be killer. Good luck selling though.



As of right now the VT is my top choice but I'll probably shop around a bit more. I'm not really in a hurry.
 
I just watched Pacific Rim on my broken-in and CNET-settings 65VT60.

MOTHER. OF. GOD.

Oh, the movie was pretty cool too, Guillermo del Toro knows his kaiju movies and he really nailed it with his monster picture. But enough about the movie, this fucking TV.

THIS. FUCKING. TV.

I have a pretty long movie backlog too, tomorrow it's going to be Star Trek Into Darkness. I heard it was kinda meh but I think this TV can make anything awesome at this point.

I find myself watching movies I'd normally not sit through just because the encode is amazing. Watching a lot of dark films. Sin City is the ultimate plasma black level demo.
 
So, Gaf tell me for a 32" is the W650A better then the Samsung UN32F6300. Both are similar price. Help me gaf, which is better I need to know.

If your budget allows it, the 42" version of the W650A is much better for gaming than the 32" version : the input lag is twice as low (source : hdtvtest).
 
Anyone using the VT60 with an Xbox One? The Xbox logo on the top right of the dashboard is creating some horrible IR...
 
It definitely is an issue, I can tell you that.

Did you just hook up your VT60? After 100+ hours of evenly aging the screen using break-in slides, IR usually should fade very very quickly. Enable pixel orbiter on your gaming input, and use the scrolling bar for the full 15 minutes to get the Xbox logo to go away. IR was noticeable and a bit annoying for the first few weeks with my ST50 but I really don't see it anymore now that it's been used for over 1000 hours, and the primary input is attached to a Windows 7 HTPC with Firefox usually open all day.
 
Did you just hook up your VT60? After 100+ hours of evenly aging the screen using break-in slides, IR usually should fade very very quickly. Enable pixel orbiter on your gaming input, and use the scrolling bar for the full 15 minutes to get the Xbox logo to go away. IR was noticeable and a bit annoying for the first few weeks with my ST50 but I really don't see it anymore now that it's been used for over 1000 hours, and the primary input is attached to a Windows 7 HTPC with Firefox usually open all day.

Nah, I'm beyond the 100 hour point now. Been using it for a month now. IR doesn't fade overnight; it always requires clearing through scrolling bar or other content — and usually takes up to an hour.

Pixel orbiter is engaged too. Doesn't seem to do much, though. Whilst all IR eventually clears, the Xbox logo doesn't, irritatingly.
 
Nah, I'm beyond the 100 hour point now. Been using it for a month now. IR doesn't fade overnight; it always requires clearing through scrolling bar or other content — and usually takes up to an hour.

Pixel orbiter is engaged too. Doesn't seem to do much, though. Whilst all IR eventually clears, the Xbox logo doesn't, irritatingly.

Do more break in slides with different colors running overnight and I'm sure the Xbox logo will be gone, I can remember some frustratingly long-lasting remnants as well but the more you age it, the less noticeable it becomes. If you are still in the same boat after 400 hours I would be extremely surprised!
 
Do more break in slides with different colors running overnight and I'm sure the Xbox logo will be gone, I can remember some frustratingly long-lasting remnants as well but the more you age it, the less noticeable it becomes. If you are still in the same boat after 400 hours I would be extremely surprised!

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a go! Never used break in slides before. Everything up to this point has just been normal content. Do you recommend any good ones?

Most people I've spoken to have said permanent image retention is well and truly dead, which is comforting. Hopefully as you say, it'll eventually vanish.
 
If your budget allows it, the 42" version of the W650A is much better for gaming than the 32" version : the input lag is twice as low (source : hdtvtest).
And it doesn't make any difference. I have the 32" and it's absolutely awesome. If there is a lag somewhere, it's definetely not noticeable.
 
Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a go! Never used break in slides before. Everything up to this point has just been normal content. Do you recommend any good ones?

Most people I've spoken to have said permanent image retention is well and truly dead, which is comforting. Hopefully as you say, it'll eventually vanish.

These ones: http://www.calibrationforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=939

The VT60 calibration settings in that thread say that they require controlCAL, but can actually be inputted manually if you open the settings in a text editor I believe.
 
Nah, I'm beyond the 100 hour point now. Been using it for a month now. IR doesn't fade overnight; it always requires clearing through scrolling bar or other content — and usually takes up to an hour.

Pixel orbiter is engaged too. Doesn't seem to do much, though. Whilst all IR eventually clears, the Xbox logo doesn't, irritatingly.

How high is your contrast? And which mode are you using?
 
My last plasma before the VT60 was an entry level x50 broken in via normal use taylored for gaming. I noticed a clear difference between the pre-400 hour mark and the moment it hit 500 hours. 100 or even 200 hours of normal use certainly doesn't put it past the initial break-in period whereas 100 hours of artificial aging should do the trick.

Within normal use, with 100 hours you've certainly still not aged the phosphor enough, try and break it in via D-nice slides for 100 hours or so, sparingly and when you're not playing/using it. Also, you didn't mess too much with the brightness, right? Also, don't use the dynamic mode, in case you were. For as long as it is within the initial period of use one should leave the settings mostly untouched.

On my VT60, haven't been able to catch any retention on it and I've seen movies with bars on it, but panels can vary a little perhaps I was just very lucky. So far it's the most immune to IR plasma I've ever had though.

Best of luck.
 
How high is your contrast? And which mode are you using?

It's on 40, IIRC.

My last plasma before the VT60 was an entry level x50 broken in via normal use taylored for gaming. I noticed a clear difference between the pre-400 hour mark and the moment it hit 500 hours. 100 or even 200 hours of normal use certainly doesn't put it past the initial break-in period whereas 100 hours of artificial aging should do the trick.

Within normal use, with 100 hours you've certainly still not aged the phosphor enough, try and break it in via D-nice slides for 100 hours or so, sparingly and when you're not playing/using it. Also, you didn't mess too much with the brightness, right? Also, don't use the dynamic mode, in case you were. For as long as it is within the initial period of use one should leave the settings mostly untouched.

On my VT60, haven't been able to catch any retention on it and I've seen movies with bars on it, but panels can vary a little perhaps I was just very lucky. So far it's the most immune to IR plasma I've ever had though.

Best of luck.

Hey! Been meaning to reply to you! I've since calibrated my plasma through various discs and the Xbox One cards. It's sitting on Contrast:40 and Brightness:-30 IIRC, and I'd never go back to Dynamic, so thanks for the advice!!
 
So, Gaf tell me for a 32" is the W650A better then the Samsung UN32F6300. Both are similar price. Help me gaf, which is better I need to know.

I'll be getting the Sony for my bedroom (PS3 & X360 mostly). Don't know or care about the F6300. The Sony is just plain gorgeous!! I currently have a Pioneer Kuro Elite for gaming/movies.
 
It's on 40, IIRC.

Hey! Been meaning to reply to you! I've since calibrated my plasma through various discs and the Xbox One cards. It's sitting on Contrast:40 and Brightness:-30 IIRC, and I'd never go back to Dynamic, so thanks for the advice!!
Hi! using calibrated settings during the break-in is really not recommended, which is why a lot of "recipes" for break-in recommend the settings you are to input for the break-in and the settings you are to input afterwards. They want to predict/control every step of the way.

Shouldn't be that harmful providing you're careful, but seeing most settings are meant for TV's out of break-in period and their behaviour changes a little it really doesn't hurt to wait a while before sticking them up (what I mean is, professional calibrator staff won't calibrate a plasma straight out of the box, but if they did their initial calibration and the one done after initial use would be different); the trick is, of course, not knowing how much it'll improve or one might be tempted to crank it up nonetheless.

In regards to my plasma and IR, I just said I weren't able to catch retention on mine yet, but then I remembered it's christmas and the thing had to endure a 12 hour stress test today during break-in period so I went and checked. I have the AXN HD logo stuck and I'm cleaning it via artificial break-in now (alternating between Pixel Jogger and D-Nice slides).

Turns out retention on it, at least the current kind, unlike any plasma I owned before is nor really visible on 100% white or 100% black, but easy to spot over a mid-grey background (via D-nice slides). Anyway, it's very light at this point, but I can certainly imagine gaming for a long time on it could leave some IR. I'm testing now how fast it is to cleanse.
 
Hi! using calibrated settings during the break-in is really not recommended, which is why a lot of "recipes" for break-in recommend the settings you are to input for the break-in and the settings you are to input afterwards. They want to predict/control every step of the way.

Shouldn't be that harmful providing you're careful, but seeing most settings are meant for TV's out of break-in period and their behaviour changes a little it really doesn't hurt to wait a while before sticking them up (what I mean is, professional calibrator staff won't calibrate a plasma straight out of the box, but if they did their initial calibration and the one done after initial use would be different); the trick is, of course, not knowing how much it'll improve or one might be tempted to crank it up nonetheless.

In regards to my plasma and IR, I just said I weren't able to catch retention on mine yet, but then I remembered it's christmas and the thing had to endure a 12 hour stress test today during break-in period so I went and checked. I have the AXN HD logo stuck and I'm cleaning it via artificial break-in now (alternating between Pixel Jogger and D-Nice slides).

Turns out retention on it, at least the current kind, unlike any plasma I owned before is nor really visible on 100% white or 100% black, but easy to spot over a mid-grey background (via D-nice slides). Anyway, it's very light at this point, but I can certainly imagine gaming for a long time on it could leave some IR. I'm testing now how fast it is to cleanse.

I'll check that out, thanks. To clarify, when you refer to IR, are we talking reversible after a long time or permanent?
 
I'll check that out, thanks. To clarify, when you refer to IR, are we talking reversible after a long time or permanent?
The reversible kind, the permanent being denominated burn-in and the very hard to cleanse being persistent IR.

I don't even think I had to cleanse it, on the X50's initial run I only cleaned IR if it was a bit severe between uses and I sure didn't run the scroll bar until it was all gone, I remember playing through Tales of Vesperia and clocking it in at 80 hours with brightness on 42, HUD's were quite bright and detailed so I could make out HP bars, party avatars and stuff like that over a black screen, I didn't clean it throughfully to the end so it just stayed there. Once it hit the proper aging it was suddenly gone; just like IR vanishes now my latent "debt" also vanished.

The only thing to watch for should be not making it too "deep" and defined, think of it as something of an opacity thing, if it's more than 50% by all means do fight back, if it's 20% or so... it's fine and just a little of excited phosphor in there, deep retention is harder to cleanse (the persistent kind) yet persistence during break-in can be a very normal thing, but know it shouldn't be once the panel ages enough, I'm mostly doing it now just to ensue it ages faster so it also becomes a non-issue faster.


So far my impression is that the VT60 is certainly less prone out-of-the-box to IR than the X50, but after today's result I can see it's definitely still on it's first hours of use, seeing how my X50 responds much better to IR as of now than the VT60 (trying to clean IR on it is besides the point, change channel and it's gone).

EDIT: checked the slides now and IR is almost cleansed; roughly 1 hour passed so I got to say that's not bad at all (I never bothered cleaning the IR on X50 via slides though, only used the scroll bar on hours on end so that might introduce a few nuances), anyway it's certainly behaving better than my X50 did, and thats a good prospect seeing how the thing behaves now. (I actually really like that cheap ass plasma)
 
Well, I watched Star Trek Into Darkness on Christmas Eve on this 65VT60. No problems to report, just glorious image quality from hell to breakfast. I could probably retire from going to movie theaters at this point, I get a true cinematic experience in my living room minus the seats and the popcorn with something that is almost entirely unlike butter on top.

It feels like they had about 3 movies worth of ideas which they tried to fit somewhat messily into one movie to make Star Trek Into Darkness. And then the whole thing got kinda dumb at the end, it doesn't seem like they really knew how they wanted to end it and suddenly there was a fistfight while flying through a city on a ship for no apparent reason, like it was the final boss of a video game or something. I really did enjoy it though, while it's true this TV makes every movie a hundred times more awesome I think I would have enjoyed it anyways on a crappier TV.

If it's plasma & not Panasonic, it's not worth it.

And yet it is the Samsung plasmas which have the least IR and therefore would be the best for gamers if you ignore the problems they bring to the table.
 
I'm so happy right now. Picked up a "cheap" KDL-55W905A on the sale today, got one of the last sets in the store. Just set it up and there are 0 dead pixels and no obvious banding (to me) except for some slight darkness along the edges. I was getting really paranoid after reading around on forums and such. I guess it's easy to get the impression that problems are a lot more common than they really are. I see some red tint from the sides but it's well beyond the angles of my couch.

Had an old 40 inch Samsung before, my god this thing is huge in comparison. The only problem right now is that the stand is so low that I can't fit my PS4 under the TV and I can't really keep the centre speaker in front of it anymore. Gonna need to shuffle things around a bit.
 
I got a LG 55ln5200 hooked up to the PC. Should I set HDMI to PC and use game mode as well? PC is set to RGB Full and TV is Black Level Auto.
 
I could probably retire from going to movie theaters at this point, I get a true cinematic experience in my living room minus the seats and the popcorn with something that is almost entirely unlike butter on top.

I was at the theatre last week and was like, wow theatre black levels suck. Speaking of, I'll welcome black hole levels of blackness when OLED or whatever is baked, but my Panasonic is "black enough". There's some illumination with all the lights off by growing up on CRTs they were the same way. All I want is deep blacks with not light bleed, clouding, non-uniformity. Finally a TV as good as my Trinitron in terms of PQ.
 
yeah you really need to do the XD digital projectors and/or 3D projection to get your money's worth in theatres anymore. Unless it's a movie that benefits from just being super huge.
 
I was at the theatre last week and was like, wow theatre black levels suck. Speaking of, I'll welcome black hole levels of blackness when OLED or whatever is baked, but my Panasonic is "black enough". There's some illumination with all the lights off by growing up on CRTs they were the same way. All I want is deep blacks with not light bleed, clouding, non-uniformity. Finally a TV as good as my Trinitron in terms of PQ.

Which Panasonic do you have?

I have the V10 from 2009 I think, it suffered from the rising black levels and I can def tell it's bad compared to when I first got it. The creeping lowering of the VT60 prices is making me really want to get one now and not wait another 3-4 years to pick up a really nice quality TV.
 
Which Panasonic do you have?

I have the V10 from 2009 I think, it suffered from the rising black levels and I can def tell it's bad compared to when I first got it. The creeping lowering of the VT60 prices is making me really want to get one now and not wait another 3-4 years to pick up a really nice quality TV.

I would just get a VT60 and be done with it. Waiting for OLED is like waiting for Godot.

The black levels on my 65VT60 are such that the black bars above and below the movies basically blend into the black frame.
 
Actually I have a 29", 720p, LCD Samsung TV. I am thinking on buying a 32" or 39" (cant be bigger because it serves me as a PC monitor), 1080p, LED Samsung or Sony. You guys think I'll se a huge difference?

I dont plan to get an Plasma, because I dont like too much the idea of how it works to configure a good image quality. OLED its just too expensive and hard to find.
 
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