Panasonic ST30 Owners Thread

[BLASTO]

Do the below.

Press PC button and change to PC mode. If you have not connected PC, It will show you completely black screen.

Reduce the brightness one step at a time from 50. If you dont see any change in brightness change for a step, that is the minimum black the TV can produce. It ranged from 0 to -5 to -15 at different times to me (which is wierd).

When the set is new, the phospors glow after being switched off. Try swithing off the TV when it plays bright content you can still see it glowing in the dark (Some TIR also). Move to PC mode (black screen), wait for 10 seconds and switch and you wont see a thing. This will reduce gradually in 3-4 months.

Once the glow gets minimised, the grey will look more black. Complate black in dark room is still a dream for even kuros!!

 

[emailnagpal]

What the hell !

I am not able to decide whether to thank you for this thread, pics and review
OR
be angry at you for confusing me again...

I had decided to go for VT20 in the evening and now I am having second thoughts after going through this thread...

 

[Naveen_Reloaded]

Do the below.

Press PC button and change to PC mode. If you have not connected PC, It will show you completely black screen.

Reduce the brightness one step at a time from 50. If you dont see any change in brightness change for a step, that is the minimum black the TV can produce. It ranged from 0 to -5 to -15 at different times to me (which is wierd).

When the set is new, the phospors glow after being switched off. Try swithing off the TV when it plays bright content you can still see it glowing in the dark (Some TIR also). Move to PC mode (black screen), wait for 10 seconds and switch and you wont see a thing. This will reduce gradually in 3-4 months.

Once the glow gets minimised, the grey will look more black. Complate black in dark room is still a dream for even kuros!!

will try and report back ASAP

What the hell !

I am not able to decide whether to thank you for this thread, pics and review
OR
be angry at you for confusing me again...

I had decided to go for VT20 in the evening and now I am having second thoughts after going through this thread...

:cheers: same situation i was in, a week before... welcome to the club.. . Best thing is demo / compare both and decide.

 

[mad]

Should fire the one who came up with brown bezel for the VT20..

I actually like the brown bezel. Black is so boring.

 

[BLASTO]

I actually like the brown bezel. Black is so boring.

V and ST has brushed silver bezel. Its better.

 

[mandark]

I got my 42ST30D delivered on Tuesday.

Price: 69 K
What's Included: Logitech Cordless Keyboard, Scratch Card, 2 Years Extended Warranty.
Year Of Manufacture: July 2011 - Thailand
Year Of Import: August 2011
Set Condition: Brand New [not a demo piece ]

Installation was done by Panny guys... but pretty much ignorant.

Plugged it with my Panasonic DMPBDT210. SD Videos (DVDs) look good really good, but HD (blu-ray/HQ MKV or AVI) content really blows you away ^.^

Will be plugging it to my Denon 1911 later.

Currently I'm running it in "Cinema" mode. Can existing 42ST30D owners share their video settings?

 

[sunshine_vsk]

I got my 42ST30D delivered on Tuesday.

Price: 69 K
What's Included: Logitech Cordless Keyboard, Scratch Card, 2 Years Extended Warranty.
Year Of Manufacture: July 2011 - Thailand
Year Of Import: August 2011
Set Condition: Brand New [not a demo piece ]

Installation was done by Panny guys... but pretty much ignorant.

Plugged it with my Panasonic DMPBDT210. SD Videos (DVDs) look good really good, but HD (blu-ray/HQ MKV or AVI) content really blows you away ^.^

Will be plugging it to my Denon 1911 later.

Currently I'm running it in "Cinema" mode. Can existing 42ST30D owners share their video settings?

congrats mandark,

reduce contrast and other settings to half and use it.... make sure to get the 3D glass for this purchase...

Reg. ur DMPBDT210, where and for what price did you buy this bluray player, were u able to make it region free?

 

[mandark]

reduce contrast and other settings to half and use it.... make sure to get the 3D glass for this purchase...

Thanks. Any tips on preventing image retention?

Reg. ur DMPBDT210, where and for what price did you buy this bluray player, were u able to make it region free?

Got it from Amazon US for 10.5/- K.

It is Region A locked for Blu-Ray. Fortunately, 98% of my DVDs/BDs are R1.

 

[Naveen_Reloaded]

I got my 42ST30D delivered on Tuesday.

Price: 69 K
What's Included: Logitech Cordless Keyboard, Scratch Card, 2 Years Extended Warranty.
Year Of Manufacture: July 2011 - Thailand
Year Of Import: August 2011
Set Condition: Brand New [not a demo piece ]

Installation was done by Panny guys... but pretty much ignorant.

Plugged it with my Panasonic DMPBDT210. SD Videos (DVDs) look good really good, but HD (blu-ray/HQ MKV or AVI) content really blows you away ^.^

Will be plugging it to my Denon 1911 later.

Currently I'm running it in "Cinema" mode. Can existing 42ST30D owners share their video settings?

Congrats mandark ..

How did you check for the year of manf. and year of import ? where is it printed ?

yes as sunshine_vsk told , reduce them to 50% in the intial 200 or so hours. and avoid static image as much as possible.

 

[mandark]

Congrats mandark ..

How did you check for the year of manf. and year of import ? where is it printed ?

Year Of Manufacture is printed on the back of the TV.
Year Of Import in stamped on the body of the TV box/carton.

 

[sunshine_vsk]

Congrats mandark ..

How did you check for the year of manf. and year of import ? where is it printed ?

yes as sunshine_vsk told , reduce them to 50% in the intial 200 or so hours. and avoid static image as much as possible.

Also make sure the pixal orbiter function is set to "ON" for the 1st 200 hrs. i assume it will be set to "auto" by default. I saw ST30 in panny showroom which had run non-stop for 8hrs with channel logo and DTH logo and didn't show any sign of IR when switched off. Didn't get an opportunity to chk this on VT20 and V20 models as they were displaying a blu ray source.

 

[BLASTO]

Do the below.

Press PC button and change to PC mode. If you have not connected PC, It will show you completely black screen.

Reduce the brightness one step at a time from 50. If you dont see any change in brightness change for a step, that is the minimum black the TV can produce. It ranged from 0 to -5 to -15 at different times to me (which is wierd).

Yesterday, I noted the black level is high with much brigter gray. Did the above and observed that the brightness will not reduce for full black below +15!!

Something crazy is going on.. Can you guys post the numbers from your TV?

I did the firmware upgrade recently and Iam not sure if it has to anything with this.. Hold on for the moment and dont do the upgrade..

 

[Naveen_Reloaded]

Sorry for the late responce BLASTO. ?Have been running LAN cable from my router to my TV enclosing it with plastic pipes.

I did as you told and found that the black remains as such from +14 and below. I cant able to see any difference from there to negative side. I think thats the black it can produce.

But after 14 , there is grey creeping in and beyond that the whole screen change into some static cable TV input.. you know like he grains...and as i increase , the whole screen kind of looks very different , weird though..

Is that fine ?

 

[Naveen_Reloaded]

Thanks . It was 90K

Got A New Plasma TV? Break It In Properly! - HD Nation Clips - YouTube

They say modern Plasma are very rare to have a IR or Burn-in problems.. How true ? They also specify that panasonic are much better in handling IR

 

[Naveen_Reloaded]

Wish sensors were placed on top..

 

[skumar4]

@Naveen,

How is the picture quality with SD channels? I saw a demo of 42ST30 today and the SD PQ was pretty bad. The channel was played through TATA Sky.

do you use any AVR for upscaling?

 

[Naveen_Reloaded]

To be honest , in my place the cable channel is the most popular way to get TV channels , before i had dishTV , which was worse than my cable . So I am p.s used to low quality stuff a lot. So from my POV , SD quality is very good , better than my prev LCD.

since i aint exposed to any latest LCD / LED that much , I seriously dont know how well others fair..

MY AVR doesnt support any upscaling (onkyo 3200 HTiB)

But just give me 2 days , within that my ADTV HD will be installed . then it will be easy for me to compare..

 

[Naveen_Reloaded]

6. How do I know if my TV may have fluctuating brightness?
If your TV has a serial number that is lower than xx1215xxxx, then your TV will most likely suffer from fluctuating brightness, call Panasonic to get you a firmware update or an A-board replacement.

Got from another forum.

according to mine (just now found) , mine is a Apr 2011 and serial no is QN11260035

One source say tht pre-Aug models are affected, this source say it depends on serial no. So far i havent see any brightness Fluctuation ..

 

[BLASTO]

They say modern Plasma are very rare to have a IR or Burn-in problems.. How true ? They also specify that panasonic are much better in handling IR

That was till the TVs were 2D. The fast phospor in 3D models screwed up things a bit. They will come out of this mess next year may be.

 

[andre19]

That was till the TVs were 2D. The fast phospor in 3D models screwed up things a bit. They will come out of this mess next year may be.

hey blasto
I thought faster phosphors help to reduce IR by making the phosphor age quickly!! am i getting something wrong??
Also since the st30 is a 2011 model it will have better SD scaling than the vt20 right? or have Panasonic have kept the same pic engine???