Panasonic VT20 Owners Thread

[Reds4ever]

Got my VT20d deliverd on Saturday 15th and installed on 16 morning. Could not all the steps mentioned in the forum as deewali purchases too precedence
thanks to the entire group.

Initial experiance:

(1) Tuned TV channels. the band sequence got slightly changed from the CRT i had previously. But was able to tune the channels missing in the old 15yr crt Akai 29" tv. regualr cable was full of grains but what to do certains channels like sankar and movies now are not in Tatasky.

(2) Tatasky connected via HDMI on AV1.

(3) Tatasky SD - Sun TV and English channels looked the best among SD. Filled the space without required zooming. others need to be kept in zoom 3 to fill all pixels without any bar.

(4) Tatasky HD 1080i - Man what an experiance in a 50 Inch. could not accept SD or regular Cable after watching HD. for a change the entire family only watched Discovery HD and Natgeo for a while. No tv serials to watch and cry

(4) Sound was pathetic. akai 29" with woofer was slightly better. again not tried much on settings. Looked like a drama effect. Need to give the sound to AVR. need to look at speaker option for regular TV watching.

Just did the following :

(1) Wall mounted between 3.5feet(base) to 5.5ft(Top). High wall mounting so that even on the worst case the refelction of ours while in the seating position should not be seen on the TV. Dont care for the visible wires.

(2) installation guys set the TV to dynamic mode with 85 contrast, 2+ brightness etc. I changed it to cinema mode it looked better.

(3) Could Not play:
blacknight and rihanna "mp4". Wanted t showcase the blacks to my family.
xmen firstclass xvid.biz - i too hearing this file for the first time.

Could play :
divx avi, Low quality.

(4) checked for usage hours - unsuccessful. Nothing apeared. hold volume - and recall 3 times. pressing recall was a bit slow. Need to try again.

(5) Set the default aspect ratio to zoom3 to utilise all the pixels.


To Do:

(1) Inverter upgrade from 800va -120amp(not sure on amp): there was power cut that did not allow the plasma to start on the inverter. Need to upgrade the invertor. Saw the specs to know that the TV consumes 495Watts . Dont mind at all. will be used thoughout the day as usual

(2) Blue ray player with 3d. Will buying a pana BD player make sense. "A region" player should play A as well as C. Thats what i heard from Pana guys. need to see.

(3) Content Needed:
(i) Need to subscribe for blueray title - does 70mm of big guys lend blu rays ?
(ii) Need to download blue ray and 3d rips. looks like mkv is my best bet as mp4 is not playing. suggestions please.

(4) Basic checks on TV and panel to be done ? Saw few minor mirrage kinda effect below the discover hd logo at the top. but very faint. nervous on the various cheks suggested in blogs. need to take them one by one peacefully to gain further confidence .

(5) Binding the AVR and TV. Have an onkyo SR506, onlyo 240w rms sub, pure acoustics front and rear speakers. REceiver support HDMI. need to see how to connect the AVR, TV and other units. May be have to procure more HDMI cable.

(6) AVR SR506 supports, DTS, Dolby digital , neo 6.1, All mode and few more. is it enough for blue ray player or an upgrade required ? suggestion please.

Please feel free to point out, if i have missed some important procedure for the initial hours.

Thanks..

sridublr,

congrats on your new TV!

For entering the service menu to check usage hours, make sure u keep the V- on the TV (not the remote) pressed while u press "recall" on the remote thrice.. i spent a little while pressing the V- on the remote instead of the TV for a few min before realizing the error.

Cheers!

 

[mad]

Any thoughts on how to improve the default mode. Movies from Tata HD come out with a plasticky feel. As if they have been shot with a cheap camera or are a low budget TV production. Any thoughts on this? Or how to fix it etc.

THX mode makes it look like fine. I haven't yet tried removing the cast as Blasto commented.


PS: I am looking for a region free DVD player, preferably with HDMI output. Suggestions. Even a locked player with links to how to unloack the same are fine.

 

[BLASTO]

Enjoy the TV guys.. And happy dewali.
Taking some time out off the forum.

 

[baijuxavior]

Got my VT20d deliverd on Saturday 15th and installed on 16 morning. Could not all the steps mentioned in the forum as deewali purchases too precedence
thanks to the entire group.

Congratulations on your purchase of the new TV.:clapping:

(1) Inverter upgrade from 800va -120amp(not sure on amp): there was power cut that did not allow the plasma to start on the inverter. Need to upgrade the invertor. Saw the specs to know that the TV consumes 495Watts . Dont mind at all. will be used thoughout the day as usual

Instead of a inverter upgrade to a 2KV online sinewave UPS. This will handle all voltage fluctuations and will be more future proof as you keep on adding AV products to your chain.

(2) Blue ray player with 3d. Will buying a pana BD player make sense. "A region" player should play A as well as C. Thats what i heard from Pana guys. need to see.

Buy a region free BDP is possible. Else buy a Region A player like Panasonic BDT 210. You can make it region free using enhanced firmware which you can buy by paying a small donation to the firmware group. An 'A' region player can handle region free movies. Almost all BDPs released in India are region free.

(ii) Need to download blue ray and 3d rips. looks like mkv is my best bet as mp4 is not playing. suggestions please.

You can convert mp4 files to mkv using mkvtoolnix in one minute. Use an older version like 3.0 for compatibility with your TV.

(5) Binding the AVR and TV. Have an onkyo SR506, onlyo 240w rms sub, pure acoustics front and rear speakers. REceiver support HDMI. need to see how to connect the AVR, TV and other units. May be have to procure more HDMI cable.

Does your AVR support audio over HDMI?

(6) AVR SR506 supports, DTS, Dolby digital , neo 6.1, All mode and few more. is it enough for blue ray player or an upgrade required ? suggestion please.

It is enough for your use. Eventhough Blu-Rays use HD audio like Dolby TrueHD, DTS HDMA, the player can send only the DTS or Dolby Digital core for older AVRs. You can also send surround sound as LPCM from the BD Player.

 

[illusion_heart]

Got my VT20d deliverd on Saturday 15th and installed on 16 morning. Could not all the steps mentioned in the forum as deewali purchases too precedence
thanks to the entire group.

Initial experiance:

(1) Tuned TV channels. the band sequence got slightly changed from the CRT i had previously. But was able to tune the channels missing in the old 15yr crt Akai 29" tv. regualr cable was full of grains but what to do certains channels like sankar and movies now are not in Tatasky.

(2) Tatasky connected via HDMI on AV1.

(3) Tatasky SD - Sun TV and English channels looked the best among SD. Filled the space without required zooming. others need to be kept in zoom 3 to fill all pixels without any bar.

(4) Tatasky HD 1080i - Man what an experiance in a 50 Inch. could not accept SD or regular Cable after watching HD. for a change the entire family only watched Discovery HD and Natgeo for a while. No tv serials to watch and cry

(4) Sound was pathetic. akai 29" with woofer was slightly better. again not tried much on settings. Looked like a drama effect. Need to give the sound to AVR. need to look at speaker option for regular TV watching.

Just did the following :

(1) Wall mounted between 3.5feet(base) to 5.5ft(Top). High wall mounting so that even on the worst case the refelction of ours while in the seating position should not be seen on the TV. Dont care for the visible wires.

(2) installation guys set the TV to dynamic mode with 85 contrast, 2+ brightness etc. I changed it to cinema mode it looked better.

(3) Could Not play:
blacknight and rihanna "mp4". Wanted t showcase the blacks to my family.
xmen firstclass xvid.biz - i too hearing this file for the first time.

Could play :
divx avi, Low quality.

(4) checked for usage hours - unsuccessful. Nothing apeared. hold volume - and recall 3 times. pressing recall was a bit slow. Need to try again.

(5) Set the default aspect ratio to zoom3 to utilise all the pixels.


To Do:

(1) Inverter upgrade from 800va -120amp(not sure on amp): there was power cut that did not allow the plasma to start on the inverter. Need to upgrade the invertor. Saw the specs to know that the TV consumes 495Watts . Dont mind at all. will be used thoughout the day as usual

(2) Blue ray player with 3d. Will buying a pana BD player make sense. "A region" player should play A as well as C. Thats what i heard from Pana guys. need to see.

(3) Content Needed:
(i) Need to subscribe for blueray title - does 70mm of big guys lend blu rays ?
(ii) Need to download blue ray and 3d rips. looks like mkv is my best bet as mp4 is not playing. suggestions please.

(4) Basic checks on TV and panel to be done ? Saw few minor mirrage kinda effect below the discover hd logo at the top. but very faint. nervous on the various cheks suggested in blogs. need to take them one by one peacefully to gain further confidence .

(5) Binding the AVR and TV. Have an onkyo SR506, onlyo 240w rms sub, pure acoustics front and rear speakers. REceiver support HDMI. need to see how to connect the AVR, TV and other units. May be have to procure more HDMI cable.

(6) AVR SR506 supports, DTS, Dolby digital , neo 6.1, All mode and few more. is it enough for blue ray player or an upgrade required ? suggestion please.

Please feel free to point out, if i have missed some important procedure for the initial hours.

Thanks..

Mate tone down the contrast /brightness settings to -50 for the first 100 hours so that you minimise risk of image retention and potentially burn in.....you can search for Break - in process in this thread itself, only adds to the overall quality of the picture...multiple approaches, adopt the process whichever you feel comfortable with....

 

[dishpk]

Does 50VT20 support / play MKV format files ?

 

[BLASTO]

Does 50VT20 support / play MKV format files ?

None of the panasonics support. Only samsung TVs support.

 

[amol12]

None of the panasonics support. Only samsung TVs support.

*30 (at least st30) does support mkv.

 

[illusion_heart]

Got my VT20 installed today, finally the installation guy and my time matched, box has been sitting since last wednesday...............

Installation guy tuned the channels....played with picture and sound settings..... couldnt let me touch the remote and stop him from doing his basic checks and procedure

Configured the professional 1 settings for watching any content during the break in period as shared by Kittu...

One he left i has to plug my POHD and watch AVATAR for few minutes which i did. Too early to say anything in detail but was just mesmerised. :yahoo:

Started the break in slides.....been running for couple of hours now....intend to complete 100 hours on priority and then some content and break in together for the next 100 hours....

Some details about my set:

Mgf date: Jan 11
Time check, 00:16 switched on 1 time.... did it as soon as the installation guy finished his demo...

 

[Autopsycho]

Just installed my VT20 myself as I wasn't going to mount it on the wall as yet. Started off with the break in slides and checked the usage, 1 count and 14 mins run time. Looks all good to me so far! Can hardly wait for the hundred hours to get by so I can do some basic calibrations and get on with the movies.

 

[giddavr]

Any thoughts on how to improve the default mode. Movies from Tata HD come out with a plasticky feel. As if they have been shot with a cheap camera or are a low budget TV production. Any thoughts on this? Or how to fix it etc.

THX mode makes it look like fine. I haven't yet tried removing the cast as Blasto commented.


PS: I am looking for a region free DVD player, preferably with HDMI output. Suggestions. Even a locked player with links to how to unloack the same are fine.

U have just bought a great 3D HD 50" TV. why in heaven would u want to buy a DVD player? u should be buying a Bluray Player if not a 3D atleast a regular 2D Bluray Player. Almost all the Bluray players from Samsung , Philips. LG etc sold in India can be made regionfree for Both Blurays & DVDs. And all Bluray players will play DVDs and upconvert them to 1080i/p.

buying a DVD player would be a waste of money

 

[naimesh]

Any info regarding 3D?
anybody has watched 3D content or still just checking out glasses?
what is your experience with 3D content?
please share...

 

[s_sachin]

I have been watching 3d mostly sbs mkvs using wdtv and it is good. I mean as good as any other 3d tv demo I have seen. Just seen pirates of the Caribbean 3d and I was impressed

 

[thebanik]

A query here, I connected my plasma to my PC through HDMI, and played some HD content but it looks to me that the playback is a bit faster on the plasma, though as far as sound is concerned it doesnt sound fast. And motion and sound are in sync but still there is the nagging feeling that the playback is faster, anyone else have seen something like this??? is it normal and there are certain settings which will fix it???

 

[s_sachin]

and i agree with giddavr , makes more sense to get blu ray player or better a media player than a DVD. The wdtv plays 3d files flawlessly

 

[sridublr]

Illusion_heart and Reds4ever thanks for the input.

Atlast got some time to spend with the TV and mostly the hifivision thread to understand the break-In procedure.

Got the Break-In slides working. initially my TV was not recognising FAT. then tried FAT32 and it recognised. Checked the usage hours till that time(10.33) and then started the break-In slideshow in torch mode. Ran the break-In slide from 11.45pm to 1.30AM. Then had to halt the proceure before sleep. notice that the screen was pretty hot.

Went thro' the Forum on these procedures.
For me Regular watching and break in have to go in tandem. Have planned to play BreakIn slides in the night and have set the TV in zoom3 for normal content to be watched by family. Also have requested the family to keep away from TATASKY for few days as the watermark always displays in the bottom right corner.

Hope i'm not doing anything wrong here.

 

[amol12]

Illusion_heart and Reds4ever thanks for the input.

Atlast got some time to spend with the TV and mostly the hifivision thread to understand the break-In procedure.

Got the Break-In slides working. initially my TV was not recognising FAT. then tried FAT32 and it recognised. Checked the usage hours till that time(10.33) and then started the break-In slideshow in torch mode. Ran the break-In slide from 11.45pm to 1.30AM. Then had to halt the proceure before sleep. notice that the screen was pretty hot.

Went thro' the Forum on these procedures.
For me Regular watching and break in have to go in tandem. Have planned to play BreakIn slides in the night and have set the TV in zoom3 for normal content to be watched by family. Also have requested the family to keep away from TATASKY for few days as the watermark always displays in the bottom right corner.

Hope i'm not doing anything wrong here.

Tata sky logo is transparent so it should not matter. Anyways, you can watch tatasky in zoom2/zoom3 mode depending on format of content. Almost all the logos disappear. I have been watching without any issues.

 

[mad]

U have just bought a great 3D HD 50" TV. why in heaven would u want to buy a DVD player? u should be buying a Bluray Player if not a 3D atleast a regular 2D Bluray Player. Almost all the Bluray players from Samsung , Philips. LG etc sold in India can be made regionfree for Both Blurays & DVDs. And all Bluray players will play DVDs and upconvert them to 1080i/p.

buying a DVD player would be a waste of money

I have a PS3, I need a DVD player to run suspect DVD's & VCD's etc that everyone keeps gifting my son.

 

[sanjay0864]

I have a PS3, I need a DVD player to run suspect DVD's & VCD's etc that everyone keeps gifting my son.

Why can't yhou play these "suspect" DVDs & VCDs on the PS3?

 

[satan]

A query here, I connected my plasma to my PC through HDMI, and played some HD content but it looks to me that the playback is a bit faster on the plasma, though as far as sound is concerned it doesnt sound fast. And motion and sound are in sync but still there is the nagging feeling that the playback is faster, anyone else have seen something like this??? is it normal and there are certain settings which will fix it???

Check to see if you have IFC (Intelligent Frame Creation) enabled. That could be the reason that motion appears to be faster. It's under Setup -> Other Settings (If I'm not Mistaken)

Got the Break-In slides working. initially my TV was not recognising FAT. then tried FAT32 and it recognised.

That is so strange. I had the exact opposite experience. My USB Pen Drive and an SD card, both formatted as FAT32 were not recognised. I had to then use an SD card formatted as FAT for it to work. Could be a "Cluster Allocation Size" issue.

Ran the break-In slide from 11.45pm to 1.30AM. Then had to halt the proceure before sleep. notice that the screen was pretty hot.

Yeah it runs pretty hot if you jack up all the settings to the top. Nothing to really worry about.

For me Regular watching and break in have to go in tandem. Have planned to play BreakIn slides in the night and have set the TV in zoom3 for normal content to be watched by family.Hope i'm not doing anything wrong here.

Nope nothing wrong in what you are doing. You've taken all the precautions necessary. Enjoy your TV

A word of caution; just make sure that the settings on all your inputs are set to Professional1 with the reduced Contrast and Brightness settings. You have to manually select your picture profile for every input.

If you are going to do any gaming, be certain to only use the GAMING profile, on reduced settings.