Panasonic 50v20d black levels problem.

[shredder]

This disappearing effect by shooting with a camera can be obtained for any plasma, quite easy actually.Just the right exposure and Shutter speed is needed.

Right you are. The "disappearing effect" as you put it, depends on the camera settings. In fact, in my review of X20 I had taken pictures with a Canon S3IS and, if you can take the trouble to search for the post, you will also see that the blacks merge completely with the darkness. I am sure the V20 pics which show the disappearing act (come to think of it, I think they were Frank Mehta's pics of his V20 playing The Dark Knight blu ray) are also because of the camera. V20 will not disappear into the dark. This was confirmed by vramak, who owned a 42 inch Samsung plasma before getting a V20. He had taken similar pics of the TV displaying a black image and in the pic, the TV was invisible. He however mentioned that this was because of the camera settings and to the naked eye you could see a faint greyish glow.

 

[indiglo]

so it's that CRT r Best at Black Levels then,as perceived by me!...plasmas more or less fall in the same category..Lcd/led having the worst!

 

[adder]

so it's that CRT r Best at Black Levels then,as perceived by me!...plasmas more or less fall in the same category..Lcd/led having the worst!

Do take a look at local dimming tvs, at dimmed zone then go black,granted at pixel level or if the image occupies both a dimmed and non dimmed zone they loose to the kuros and panasonic VT series.

There is also a new upcoming kuro lcd(sharp-pioneer) whose performance is unknown but carries a huge price tag.

My old Sony CRTv of 1996 does disappear into the dark,but the newer CRT of 2007 introduced as WEGA 2.0 which was meant for developing countries like india ,china and SE asian countries( have a outsourced picture tube which doesn't look like previous year wega which was Made in japan)you can make it disappear into the dark but at the cost of shadow details.

If i remember correctly my samsung CRT monitor used to disappear in the dark,since i keep a completely black back ground in desktop with my current viewsonic TN lcd panel which has black level of the same league as IPS panels can faintly lit up the room but my crt used to be black.


So there are some CRT which can and some that can't.

 

[indiglo]

Thanks bro, good that someone else also thinks/feels the same!

 

[vramak]

Thanks bro, good that someone else also thinks/feels the same!

CRT displays do completely disappear in the dark when displaying a black image. But once you start displaying something, like say text, on the black screen you'll start seeing big halos around the non-black areas. So that pure CRT black isn't that useful.

To OP: I don't think any current HDTV disappears completely into the dark. Try watching a night/dark scene on your HDTV and then watch the same scene on your laptop. Try watching the same night/dark scene on different TVs and then you'll be able to appreciate V20's blacks. Deep blacks can be appreciated only while watching dark scenes.

Some more tips

- on your PS3 turn RGB setting to 'limited'. Setting it to 'full' will crush shadow detail as V20 I believe isn't compatible with RGB full mode. Don't fret about it, as all bluray movies use a 'limited' gamut. Only PC output uses the full gamut.
- on your V20 set gamma to '2.6'. Doing this greatly improves white detail without sacrificing black. Oh, and use true cinema mode.

 

[indiglo]

CRT displays do completely disappear in the dark when displaying a black image. But once you start displaying something, like say text, on the black screen you'll start seeing big halos around the non-black areas. So that pure CRT black isn't that useful.

Never ever connected my ex "29"Philips "CRT tv to any htpc & i cannot positively confirm what u say about text getting halos.. but whatever i played in videos,it performed extremely well within its SDTV Limits,black levels(what i understand by it) being EXTREMELY satisfactory to make me contented.I have enough respect for that Crt tv,which has Now retired(Not died out, still very much works with its ever brilliant alive pic,but sadly i have upgraded to a Fhd plasma)

Also i had a Professional Grade Viewsonic P97f 19" CRT Monitor ,which could do more than Fhd(2048x1536) ,but i never saw any halos or hardly any distortion while displaying text,videos or for matter just anything...it was simply exemplary studiograde imo & black levels simply outstanding. Its also currently retired (but still very much working,meticulously maintained as brand new even w/o a spot),replaced with a Fhd+(1920x1200) 16:10 TN LCD monitor, which i think is but inferior to it,except that it saves the eyes!

So,coming from CRTvs & Monitors with highly positive experience, i have yet to come to face with newer gen display tech that surprasses them in the core p.q,...mayb the future of OLED,SMOLED,etc,etc still holds all the correct expected hopes!