197 replies to this topic

[MLXXX]

This thread is primarily for owners to report their personal experiences with this model TV (and its bundled 3D Blu-ray player).

A general discussion thread for this model TV exists in the HDTV section of the forum at Panasonic Viera Vt20 Thread.

A best price thread for this model TV can be found in the 3D section of this forum at Panasonic Viera Th-p50vt20a Price.



Introduction

As regular readers will know, I have had the 3D bug/itch for some months.  I decided to take the plunge today with this relatively cheap but in many ways well performing TV.

Before buying, I had considered various drawbacks:

• A smallish screen size (50")
  
• A tendency for Panasonic Plasmas to flicker
  
• Fairly heavy (and expensive) 3D glasses
  
  
• Possible Panasonic floating black level issue (variable black level as a movie is watched that contains both dark scenes and bright scenes)
  
• Possible Panasonic rising minimum light level issue (rising black level over a period of months of operation)
  
• Possible power supply buzz
  
• Possible issues with smooth 24fps playback
  
• Possible motion artifacts with 50i television

(My perusal of AV Forum, and AVS Forum, had revealed many potential issues. You can also find discussion of these issues in the general discussion thread for this model, mentioned at the start of this post.)

I had also considered various advantages:

• Excellent 2D picture (this model TV has been compared to the Pioneer Kuro)
  
• Good 3D (minimal ghosting)
  
• The bundled 3D Blu-ray player (DMP-300GN) comes with a USB Wi-fi adaptor (which can be inserted in the TV)
  
• TV can access media files held on a home pc

The deciding point was price.  At around $2400, to get a 3D TV and 3D Blu-ray player, with the picture quality I could see and had read about, seemed a bargain.  (The set will probably end up being moved into a spare room to be used as a large pc monitor, and 2nd TV set. We use a 60" Sony SXRD as the main TV set.)


Preliminary impressions

No buzzing noise noticed.

The screen flickers when displaying 2D.  Nowhere near as much as a 100Hz CRT television but I notice it.  With HDMI input from my pc (1080p50), I found the flicker less after disabling Intelligent Frame Creation. I am very sensitive to flicker and others might not notice it.  Note: it is quite common for Panasonic (and other plasma panels) to have a visible slight flicker.

Watching the Australian 3D test transmissions I had recorded earlier this year of sport (State of Origin and World Cup), the 3D effect seemed to be best at a relatively distant viewing distance of around 3 metres. This surprised me.  It might be related to the relatively poor horizontal resolution of the side by side broadcasts (960 pixels per eye). Will comment further on viewing distance after watching other 3D material.

The Wi-fi media access works well, though only certain file types are accepted.  For example, the side by side MPEG-4 AVC sports video I had recorded off air had the extension ts.  This file was initially rejected, but when the extension was changed to mpg it played perfectly well.  [Of course I had to set the TV's 3D mode manually to side by side.]

One step I'll have to take soon is to record the the black level, so as to be able to track any changes as the panel ages.  (I'll need to use a camera, as my light meter isn't sensitive enough.)

Will post again after having spent some "quality time" with the new TV.    At this stage I haven't even connected the Blu-ray player! It came with a Panasonic Blu-ray 3D Demonstration Disc.  The TV came with two anime titles: Coraline and ICE AGE 3  Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Edited by MLXXX, 27 September 2010 - 12:05 AM.

[Grahameh]

Good idea!

[bmwman]

Hope we can get alot of info from guys with this tv on how they set theres up and what tips they have on setting ect. Im loving mine at the moment think it was a great buy

[MLXXX]

Grahameh, on Sep 11 2010, 07:45 PM, said:

Good idea!

To take repeatable measurements I've pressed into service a dim night light (small neon bulb with a transparent blue covering) to serve as a reference, perched on top of the set, and I'll be keeping a check on the exposure and aperture settings of the digital camera.  Over the next few months I should be able to detect any major increase in minimum light level of the panel. I'm using a test pattern in the form of a jpeg file that the VT20 is able to read as a photo using its wi-fi media access.

bmwman, on Sep 12 2010, 09:24 AM, said:

Im loving mine at the moment think it was a great buy

Ditto!


The VT20 has already been professionally reviewed many times.  For example, a detailed and positive review dated May 2010 can be found at FLATPANELSHD.

In my opinion, the P50VT20 is an outstanding plasma TV, with excellent shadow detail and rich colour. I have a few comments after using the set to view 2D Blu-ray movies with the supplied Blu-ray player, the DMP-BDT300GN, with an HDMI 1.3 connection:-

• The Function Menu of the Blu-ray player can be used to select "To Others" and "Setup".  In "TV / Device Connection", select HDMI connection, then set 24p Output to on.  If this is not done, the player does 3:2 pulldown and plays at 60i. 60i gives movies a slight judder, noticeable with rolling screen credits.
  
• The Blu-ray player is slow to load, typical of many other blu-ray players!
  
• If the Bu-ray player outputs at 60i, Intelligent Frame creation in the settings menu of the TV is available and if it is set to on, flicker increases, and movement is more fluid reassembling video rather than film. [With free to air reception of tennis I decided I did not like IFC.]  
  
• If the Blu-ray player outputs at 24p (recommended, see 1 above), 24p Smooth Film in the settings menu of the TV is available and if it is set to on, flicker increases and movement is more fluid. This removes classic 24fps jitter from scrolling screen credits. It also makes other motion smoother. Purists will refuse to use it.  Some people may like it, despite the departure from a traditional "cinema look" to the motion. To be conservative and guard against unusual artifacts this could be switched off.  It is unfortunate that Panasonic have been unable to implement this feature without an attendant increase in flicker.  The flicker is most noticeable with bright expanses in the picture. Note: some people will not notice flicker.
  
• My subjective comments on the various different viewing modes in the TV picture menu are as follows:
  • Dynamic - way too much brightness and contrast
    
  • Normal - crushed blacks (a  look of many CRT TVs in the past)
    
  • Cinema - pleasant but slight blue cast, and default colour a bit strong [To use this viewing mode, I reduced the picture colour setting from "50" to "43"]
    
  • THX [and default professional 1 and 2, only available if "Advance(isfccc)" is set to On] - very restrained, a yellow cast
  I found the cinema setting more pleasing than the THX setting.  It could be with my set that the THX setting is a little out of adjustment.  I may experiment with this in the future. At this point I am using "Cinema" with slightly reduced colour intensity.

Connecting to a PC for Blu-ray via HDMI

To use the Panasonic TV with a pc desktop, I connected via HDMI and in "Other Settings" of the 50VT20 used "Full" as the DVI Input Setting, as the desktop is not restricted to normal video levels 16-235 but uses the full range fron 0 to 255.  My home theatre pc uses Arcsoft Total Media Theatre as player software for Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. The software player produced similar judder on a Blu-ray at a desktop of 60.000p to the Panasonic DMP-BDT300GN player at 60i, and similar jitter at a desktop of 24.000Hz to the hardware player at 24p.  Picture quality was very similar whether playing the Blu-ray on the pc or with the Panasonic player.


Recorded TV from a pc or PVR

The Panasonic 50VT20 will read mpg files via ethernet or wi-fi networking. (Connecting via USB to an external drive is very restricted: the drive first has to be formatted and is then only readable by the particular Panasonic TV that formatted the drive.)  

3D performance
Works nicely with dim lighting.  This enables the 3D effect to be noticed without the distraction of objects in the viewing room being too prominently visible.  

Hope to report in more detail about 3D, later in the week.

[Grahameh]

What do you think about its handling of SD DVD? That is one area where Samsung has been said to be better. As I don't have any Blue Ray yet I will be watching more standard DVDs for some time.

[MLXXX]

Grahameh, on Sep 14 2010, 10:12 AM, said:

What do you think about its handling of SD DVD? That is one area where Samsung has been said to be better. ~

Do you have a link for that?

The Panasonic set displays detail very clearly when viewing pc text, or blu-ray movies, so there is a big drop in detail when watching standard definition tv or PAL DVDs. I find this normal. There's a big divide between off-air standard definition (around 720x576 pixels) and off-air high definition (around 1440x1080 pixels), though I know a lot of people don't consider there to be too much difference.

A lot of people like to think that a good upscaler can substantially bridge the gap between the 720 horizontal pixels of a PAL DVD and the 1920 horizontal pixels of a standard Blu-ray movie.  I am not such a person.

The Panasonic does deliver such a sharp picture that I imagine that artifacts in low bitrate standard definition TV would be quite obvious.  In fact I noticed that, watching part of a recording of Big Bang Theory on GO. GO! really could buck up the quality of what they broadcast.  They are using only 704 horizontal pixels and a video bitrate of only 2 to 3 Mb/s.

I'd say my Sony SXRD rear pro TV delivers a less harsh picture, more forgiving of artifacts, but its picture is not as sharp.

_______

A few technical comments on the packaged 3D anime movie Coraline.

I found that the p50vt20a display was defaulting to 60Hz 3D even though I had set the BDT300GN player to 24p output. This was creating a slight  vagueness in the 3D effect, and additional flicker.  The 3D effect was more "solid" and "soothing" when I manually selected 48Hz 3D in the TV.

I found there was a strain for my eyes to take in the 3D effect if I sat closer to the 50" set than about 2.7m.  However perhaps because the picture was very sharp (for the technically minded, a high MTF), I was not conscious of losing visible detail at this distance when watching Coraline. [It was really not an option for me to sit closer than 2.7m with the 3D glasses on. Whether this will change as I develop more familiarity with viewing stereoscopic displays I don't know.]

Fast motion of a character's arms gave a strobing effect, but I had noticed strobing at times at the cinema watching Avatar in 3D (when the camera was displaying a walking person's feet).  I am particularly conscious of flicker and strobing effects, more so than average, so I imagine that many people could watch Coraline without noticing any problem with fast motion. I haven't noticed any ghosting (seeing a double image because of cross-talk between Left and Right images), so far.

I do find 3D compelling and the Panasonic Viera TH-P50VT20A is producing this in my home: quite an experience!

There are only two sets of glasses in the package deal and at recommended retail of $199 for any additional set of glasses, some households might have to draw up a roster of different session times to watch the same 3D movie...      

Edited by MLXXX, 15 September 2010 - 01:59 PM.

[Owen]

Panasonics have traditionally failed SD resolution tests, the picture was soft and obviously lacking in detail. The cause is not clear but seems to be due to deliberate filtering with any 576i video signal.
The work around was to upscale SD externally and feed the TV a HD signal like 1080, this avoided the filtering and allowed a full SD res picture to be viewed.

As far as I know the VT20 does not have this problem.

[MLXXX]

Owen, on Sep 15 2010, 08:50 PM, said:

As far as I know the VT20 does not have this problem.

I can't report any adverse resolution issue with my 50VT20 displaying standard definition off-air, or DVD. The picture looks fine.

MLXXX, on Sep 15 2010, 02:36 AM, said:

[It was really not an option for me to sit closer than 2.7m with the 3D glasses on. Whether this will change as I develop more familiarity with viewing stereoscopic displays I don't know.]

Well my eyes have adjusted and I can now sit quite close to the screen when it's in 3D mode.

You do actually have to swivel your eyeballs slightly inwards or outwards to resolve objects clearly at different distances, whether in nature or when watching a man made stereoscopic display.  It' a human reflex.  This movement of the eyes outwards or inwards is known as  vergence.  It isn't the same thing as changing the focus of the eyes (or accommodation).

The act of swivelling the eyes in opposite directions (or disjunctively) with the extraocular muscles causes the detail of the left and right images on the respective retinas to "line up" optimally for the main distance of interest. Once the eyes are correctly "aimed", the brain can compare the positioning of the detail in left and right images falling on the two retinas.  If detail overlaps exactly, the detail must be at the reference distance of interest.  If the left image detail (on the retina of the left eye) is displaced to the left (compared to the detail in the corresponding position on the retina of the right eye), the detail must be more distant than the reference distance.  It looks further away to our brain.  If the left image detail is displaced to the right, that detail must be closer than the reference distance. To the brain it looks closer. [Of course the retina is exposed to an inverted image, when light passes through the lens of the eye.]  

A continuous adjustment of vergence would allow a continuous scanning for objects at different distances.  There is work to be done in watching a 3D movie, just as there is work to be done in real life in "looking around" at one's environment.

Bundled movie Coraline

MLXXX, on Sep 15 2010, 02:36 AM, said:

Fast motion of a character's arms gave a strobing effect, but I had noticed strobing at times at the cinema watching Avatar in 3D (when the camera was displaying a walking person's feet).

Since writing the above, I have seen references on the net to the fact that a stop motion technique was used to produce this animated movie, and also that the stop motion animation frame rate appears low at times (no doubt to save time when the movie was produced).  This now seems to me a more likely explanation for the strobing. The next movie I describe was produced with computerised graphics.

Bundled movie ICE AGE 3
An entertaining animation with appeal to children and adults.  With the 50vt20 3D display option set to 48Hz, I could see a very faint flicker at night, if I looked for it; but during the day I found the flicker pretty obvious.

Fast motion was moderately good most of the time (better than the stop-motion animation Coraline described above), but the opening scene involving paws desperately scratching at ice showed up the limitations of the 3D display.  Here is a comparison of the first minute of the animated film viewed from where the Blu-ray disc offers a menu selection of 2D or 3D:

2D version at 96Hz (24fps mono x 4 repetitions each frame

• 24fps panning jitter of snow capped fir trees distracting. [Much smoother if 24fps smooth is selected in "other settings".]
  
• Frenzied movement of the snout of the acorn obsessed Scrat (Scrat is a "sabre-toothed squirrel") sniffing at the ice is disjointed, but is acceptable viewing for my vision.

3D version at "48Hz" (24fps left x 2, 24fps right x 2; LRLR each 1/24th second. )

• 24fps panning jitter of snow capped fir trees not quite as distracting as the 2D version (perhaps because the picture is dimmer with 3D glasses on).
  
• Frenzied movement of Scrat's snout, sniffing at the ice, unacceptably disjointed and strobe-like for my vision. The animators may have had Real3D Cinema in mind which is a cinematic projection system that alternates between Left and Right images at 144Hz, i.e. 24fps left x3, 24fps right x3; LRLRLR each 1/24th second.

3D version at "60Hz" (3:2 pulldown, 30fps left x 3, 30fps right x 3; broadly LRLR each 1/30th second.).

• Noticeable panning judder of snow capped trees; i.e. an uneven jitter.  This results from creating 60 frames per second from a source of 24 frames per second.
  
• Frenzied movement of Scrat's snout, sniffing at the ice, disjointed but acceptable.
  
• Motion more generally: a little vague and flickery.

For 24fps movies I would express a definite preference for 48Hz 3D over 60Hz.  Although the motion can at times be more disjointed than with 60Hz 3D, it has a more solid look to it.  This is for 3D with its alternating of left and right images. [Note this is not the same as 48Hz 2D, with its repetitions of the same monoscopic frame image, which on some Plasma displays has been criticized as unwatchably flickery.  See for example: http://forum.blu-ray...tml#post3759990.]

Interference with other infra-red devices
The 50VT20 3D infra-red control signal can be picked up by the glasses off axis from the TV at a fair distance.  Unfortunately this control signal can jam the infra-red signal from other devices.  I found that a Microsoft infra-red keyboard had to be pressed very slowly to work.

Edited by MLXXX, 19 September 2010 - 02:21 AM.

[hman001]

i have had mine for a few days now but i am no picture analysing expert but im a bit underwhelmed
Problem is i still live in the dark ages and use foxtel digital. So the picture is just SD. The blu ray dvd's though look really good and really smooth with the motion. Decided to hook it up to the antenna and flicked one hd whilst and a nfl game was on and then the tv came to life. the colours were really good. Hopefully eventually i can get foxtel hd then i think i will be able to enjoy my tele.

[GP11]

hman001 .. have you tried using Scart to Component leads for your dig Foxtel box?
I bought the 50"V10 this time last year and SD Foxtel was very average.  While nothing like HD, the Component connection  did improve markedly the PQ on SD Foxtel. I still haven't got around to upgrading to HD.

Thanks for the thread and info MLXXX .. I'm looking at upgrading to the 54VT20 next month.

[Scott_S]

MLXXX, on Sep 13 2010, 04:11 AM, said:

...Connecting via USB to an external drive is very restricted: the drive first has to be formatted and is then only readable by the particular Panasonic TV that formatted the drive....

I just picked up a VT20 and have a question about this.  According to the link provided in the manual:
USB Info for 2010 Viera
only one USB HDD has been tested/certified:
Buffalo DriveStation HD-CEU2-A3 Series

I have not been able to locate much info on this specific HDD model, and cannot find a supplier in Australia.  I'd like to get a 2T HDD to attach.  Any clues from those who are using the "USB HDD record" function?  Thanks.

[philthomas]

Now when Panny VT20 has been crowned as the top HDTV this year in usa i'm more than convinced that my money will be well spent but after reading a lot of complaints on avforums, UK about 50 Hz issue (judder on panning shots) on PAL-DVD & HD broadcast i'm a bit hesitant to take the plunge. can you guys please confirm if our VT20 also suffer from this issue.

Edited by philthomas, 25 September 2010 - 06:48 PM.

[MLXXX]

philthomas, on Sep 25 2010, 06:48 PM, said:

Now when Panny VT20 has been crowned as the top HDTV this year in usa i'm more than convinced that my money will be well spent but after reading a lot of complaints on avforums, UK about 50 Hz issue (judder on panning shots) on PAL-DVD & HD broadcast i'm a bit hesitant to take the plunge. can you guys please confirm if our VT20 also suffer from this issue.

The 50VT20 default is IFC (intelligent frame creation) on. This will smooth panning jitter and rolling credits on a PAL DVD (or Blu-ray disc) or a free to air broadcast. It is a relatively mild algorithm compared with some, but will make a movie look more like a video.

A specific test I performed was with part of a PAL DVD containing horizontally scrolling text.  With IFC off, the jitter of the moving text was even, as it ought to be.  With IFC on, the text was smooth and more solid; so the IFC worked well in this situation.  I have commented on the effect on horizontal panning at the beginning of a Blu-ray anime, Ice Age 3, in an earlier post (#8).

What you may wish to investigate is your tolerance to flicker. The 50VT20 does flicker. And I believe other modern plasmas do too.

Scott_S, on Sep 25 2010, 02:04 PM, said:

I have not been able to locate much info on this specific HDD model, and cannot find a supplier in Australia.  I'd like to get a 2T HDD to attach.  Any clues from those who are using the "USB HDD record" function?  Thanks.

I would assume that the vast majority if not all USB HDDs on the market today would work. I suspect Panasonic are being very conservative in referring to testing/certification.

Edited by MLXXX, 25 September 2010 - 10:18 PM.

[MLXXX]

This evening, in response to a query raised in another thread, I shone an LCD torch at the right hand lens of a pair of Panasonic shutter glasses (TY-EW3D10W) whilst yesterday's AFL final was playing in 3D on my 50" Panasonic Plasma, and with the glasses continuing to operate.  I placed a white sheet of paper behind the glasses. The torch light (normally a daylight type of white light) that had passed through the lens looked very much dimmed and had a slight olive (yellow green) cast to it. [With the glasses not operating, the discolouration was much greater.]

Looking with the naked eye at the screen, the Panasonic TV at the cinema picture setting does not increase its brightness when entering into side by side 3D mode (i.e. there is no attempt to compensate for the dimming effect of the glasses).  In fact the brightness of the screen appears somewhat less, with the naked eye.  Looking through the 3D glasses, the 3D picture is much dimmer than the 2D picture, and has a slight yellow colouration relative to viewing in 2D, for my eyes.

To overcome these issues and give a more realistic appearance of daylight sports, the set can be operated at a higher picture setting, "normal", or even "dynamic" though dynamic will tend to crush blacks.

I'd suggest that any further comments on the discolouration issue be put in the following new thread: Tint Introduced By Shutter Glasses, does the display automatically compensate?

Edited by MLXXX, 27 September 2010 - 01:55 AM.

[philthomas]

[quote name='MLXXX' date='Sep 25 2010, 10:32 PM' post='1616842']
The 50VT20 default is IFC (intelligent frame creation) on. This will smooth panning jitter and rolling credits on a PAL DVD (or Blu-ray disc) or a free to air broadcast. It is a relatively mild algorithm compared with some, but will make a movie look more like a video.

A specific test I performed was with part of a PAL DVD containing horizontally scrolling text.  With IFC off, the jitter of the moving text was even, as it ought to be.  With IFC on, the text was smooth and more solid; so the IFC worked well in this situation.  I have commented on the effect on horizontal panning at the beginning of a Blu-ray anime, Ice Age 3, in an earlier post (#8).

What you may wish to investigate is your tolerance to flicker. The 50VT20 does flicker. And I believe other modern plasmas do too.

thanks very much for clearing my doubts. do you think this plasma is worth so much $ would you recommend any other TV which can match VT20 in terms of PQ. I watch a lot of footy and I guess our broadcast also works on 50hz like UK’s. I only watched avatar BD while having a demo and the PQ was flawless.

Edited by philthomas, 27 September 2010 - 04:42 PM.

[MLXXX]

philthomas, on Sep 27 2010, 04:40 PM, said:

thanks very much for clearing my doubts. do you think this plasma is worth so much $ would you recommend any other TV which can match VT20 in terms of PQ. I watch a lot of footy and I guess our broadcast also works on 50hz like UK’s. I only watched avatar BD while having a demo and the PQ was flawless.

Yes Oz TV is at 50Hz, the same as the UK. [BDs are normally mastered at 24fps [23.976p] and can be displayed at 24Hz (naturally giving even jitter, unless smoothed) or 60Hz (naturally giving an uneven jitter, or "judder", unless smoothed).]

Your question about recommending another TV may be able to be better answered by forum guru Owen, or others who keep a close watch on what's available in the market and have a good eye for PQ, but it's very complicated as how a set appears in a showroom may not reveal its best performance, or certain weaknesses.

__________

My interest when looking at the market recently was in good 3D performance.  The P50VT20A has no ghosting that I have been able to notice. It is relatively small (50") and light, and fairly cheap considering the inclusion of the 3D player. It suits my purpose as a 2nd TV set, that can display 3D.

Black level is good. And the picture is sharp, with rich colour. It displays footy perfectly ok.

The network media access is a little limited as only some file types are accepted.

There are doubts about flicker, particularly when smoothing (IFC) is on.  Unfortunately under the strong lighting of a showroom, plasma tv flicker is not always noticeable.  LCD sets, although they should be free of flicker, tend to be much more expensive.

Provided 50" is an adequate screen size for you, I don't think you would be unhappy purchasing this plasma set, but it is possible other makes (e.g. the Samsung PS50C7000 50" 3D Plasma) would also be suitable.

Edited by MLXXX, 27 September 2010 - 07:11 PM.

[philthomas]

MLXXX, on Sep 27 2010, 08:06 PM, said:

Yes Oz TV is at 50Hz, the same as the UK. [BDs are normally mastered at 24fps [23.976p] and can be displayed at 24Hz (naturally giving even jitter, unless smoothed) or 60Hz (naturally giving an uneven jitter, or "judder", unless smoothed).]

Your question about recommending another TV may be able to be better answered by forum guru Owen, or others who keep a close watch on what's available in the market and have a good eye for PQ, but it's very complicated as how a set appears in a showroom may not reveal its best performance, or certain weaknesses.

__________

My interest when looking at the market recently was in good 3D performance.  The P50VT20A has no ghosting that I have been able to notice. It is relatively small (50") and light, and fairly cheap considering the inclusion of the 3D player. It suits my purpose as a 2nd TV set, that can display 3D.

Black level is good. And the picture is sharp, with rich colour. It displays footy perfectly ok.

The network media access is a little limited as only some file types are accepted.

There are doubts about flicker, particularly when smoothing (IFC) is on.  Unfortunately under the strong lighting of a showroom, plasma tv flicker is not always noticeable.  LCD sets, although they should be free of flicker, tend to be much more expensive.

Provided 50" is an adequate screen size for you, I don't think you would be unhappy purchasing this plasma set, but it is possible other makes (e.g. the Samsung PS50C7000 50" 3D Plasma) would also be suitable.

Thanks, really appreciate your comment. 50 is the perfect screen size for me I’m basically after a good HDTV Plasma or LCD which gives the best 2D picture 3D is just a add-on for me and VT20 seems to fit the bill but the 50hz bug is a big blow.

[MLXXX]

philthomas, on Sep 27 2010, 10:32 PM, said:

... but the 50hz bug is a big blow.

Ignorance can be bliss...

After perusing some of the AVForum material, I started looking out tonight for colour artifacts in white lines on sports fields during rapid pans and yes I did see a white line on a gridiron field momentarily split into red green and blue. I was not video recording at the time so as to be able to play it back and inspect the phenomenon carefully.  Subsequently I've just noticed occasional indistinct fringes of colour.

This effect is described in post #50 dated 21-06-2010, 5:10 PM in the AVForum thread Panasonic VT20 Owners blur & pan shot issues - part 1 as follows:

Motion

With IFC off (I did this with all the sets that had this feature), you guys are right, to me it looks like some kind of phosphor decay issue, the lines are breaking down during quick pans. Instead of seeing a blurred white line which all the other sets showed, all the Panny plasmas did the similar things its just that the other panny plasmas showed the usual green phosphor lag thing. The Panny LCDs did not. Now on the VT20 and the G20 what you saw was the white line breaking down into separate green blue and red lines, indicating that the discharge speeds of the 3 main colours are different. quite simply, the same thing was going on elsewhere in the image, the ad hoardings in the background and edges around players. All the non panny plasmas (including panny lcds) were not doing this.

It will be a matter of personal judgment whether this artifact falls into the class of a curiosity, a minor bugbear, or a "show stopper".  For me at this point in time it's a curiosity.  I didn't notice it watching the AFL would-be-final on Saturday, though I daresay if I had been specifically looking for the artifact I might have spotted it from time to time.

I personally would rank flicker as a potentially more annoying issue.

[Scott_S]

Scott_S, on Sep 25 2010, 03:04 PM, said:

I just picked up a VT20.... only one USB HDD has been tested/certified:
Buffalo DriveStation HD-CEU2-A3 Series

Bought one from Harris Tech -- last one they had, so got a runout discount.  Good news is that its practically silent and works well, and the bad is the limitations of the inbuilt recording functions in the TV.  Still, for recording stuff "as you watch it" its great.  No loss of quality I can see, so I suspect its recording something like the transport stream.

[James Belsey]

Just picked up one of these at JB-Hifi in their 15% off promo, got it for $2123 including the extra glasses, 3D blu-ray player and movies

Can't wait to get it home and plug it in.

[nev2black]

James Belsey, on Oct 4 2010, 12:38 PM, said:

Just picked up one of these at JB-Hifi in their 15% off promo, got it for $2123 including the extra glasses, 3D blu-ray player and movies

Can't wait to get it home and plug it in.

Wow I am the same from JB Hifi and on the same deal.. Just got it set up now and I am doing the firmware update on the DVD player..

It is my first day with the set but I have noticed the flicker as well when playing TV and also on fast action DVD movies. Could anyone give me some advice on how to reduce the flicker as I am maybe conscious of it now.

I have noticed the flicker is least visible when having the picture set to THX (I believe this is without the panasonic processing correct?)

I have just tried the TV set to Cinema with med PNR and having the IFC on...

Any further advice is welcome.. Apart from the flicker it looks like a great set.  I am still yet to try the 3D movies...

[kingsmill]

I am looking for the Panasonic TH=P50VT20A user manual but have not been able to find a copy online. Can anyone point me to where I can download this manual.

Thanks,

[MLXXX]

kingsmill, on Oct 5 2010, 08:09 AM, said:

I am looking for the Panasonic TH=P50VT20A user manual but have not been able to find a copy online. Can anyone point me to where I can download this manual.

Thanks,

This situation seems to crop up regularly that manuals for certain models of TV are not available on-line in Australia for some time.  You could use similar manuals from other countries.  For example search Panasonic UK for the TX-P50VT20B.

Edited by MLXXX, 05 October 2010 - 10:43 AM.

[philthomas]

Just when I decided to get Panny VT20 this came up really confused now. http://news.cnet.com...20018722-1.html

[MLXXX]

philthomas, on Oct 9 2010, 05:19 PM, said:

Just when I decided to get Panny VT20 this came up really confused now. http://news.cnet.com...20018722-1.html

There's nothing in that article I find surprising; in fact it is somewhat reassuring that the 2010 sets use a less aggressive ageing adjustment to drive levels than the 2009 Panasonics, that will apparently still ensure reliable firing of the pixels many years into the future.  There's a long and detailed thread in the Flat Panel TV Screens > HDTVs part of the forum, Panasonic Plasma Time Bombs?. See for example comments from post #870 onwards.

I haven't seen any posts on AVForum about a cure for the 50Hz television issue I referred to at post #18 (white lines momentarily splitting into different colours in a rapid pan).  

Personally I find flicker a pretty significant issue, but I mostly notice it when using my p50vt as a pc monitor, not so much when using it for television or to watch Blu-rays.  Cheers.

Edited by MLXXX, 12 October 2010 - 12:19 AM.