The Plasma Reliability Thread (Poll Included)

[just4kix]

My ST50 plasma is only 3 weeks old, I haven't seen any problem as such. There used to be a very mild IR of the smart vierra logo only at the time of switching on the TV, but it disappears in few secs. Any way I am using my plasma only for watching movies (DVD and USB sources) as the ST50 display often makes me enter a state of trance. I continue to watch the Tata sky SD channels on my most loyal Trintron CRT anyway ....

That is not IR. The circuit that displays the Viera logo does not fully turn off and that leaves a persistence of vision of sorts. I sometimes get the issue, and sometimes (most of the times) not at all.

 

[shanmune]

That is not IR. The circuit that displays the Viera logo does not fully turn off and that leaves a persistence of vision of sorts. I sometimes get the issue, and sometimes (most of the times) not at all.

ok.. Now I remember you mentioning the same in some other thread. Thanks for correcting me on that ..

 

[Dirac]

I am owner of Panasonic P50ST50D for over seven months now, and clocked over 1500 hours. I am happy to report that I faced no major problems till now. Apart from the issues mentioned in the poll, a few more issues have been reported such as colour banding, dirty screen effect (DSE), motion judder, etc. There was a one incident on my TV about IR. It happened when I switched off the STB and forgot to switch off the TV. The words "STB" were displayed on the TV for considerable period of time - nearly 2.5 to 3 hours. After I came back, I was dismayed to see the words faintly etched on the screen. I ran the TV vertical anti-IR scroll bars for two nights and whenever possible switched the TV to "TV Input" mode instead of standby. I am happy to report that the traces of IR vanished after the first night itself - I kept the second night for making sure. There are some who fared much worse, did not follow safe-care methods and some were downright unlucky to get bad TVs.

I have only positive things to say about ST50. Actually, I do not say bad things about any TV (FMs, please do correct me if I am wrong). I feel that it is not up to me to be a critic. I can only report what I saw and felt. If there was something bad about my TV (or any other AV equipment), I will say that it is my piece that is behaving like this and that. It is for others to judge whether that is a generic issue, good or bad.

The only negative thing I would say about plasma TVs in general is the amount of heat generated. Now it is not like that the room will feel like you are sitting next to a furnace - but it does become warm. I purchased my TV in July when Summer was over in my city. Summer is now approaching and maybe in May, I will really know about the "thermonuclear" effect.

For a complete review, please read the following posts in the thread ST50 Owners' Thread - First impressions, Reviews, Tweaks, etc.:

[post=389531]50ST50D - First impressions[/post]
[post=391598]Updates after one week[/post]
[post=391772]ST50 Remote[/post]
[post=393809]Streaming HD mkv files to ST50 via DLNA[/post]
[post=394275]ST50 Power Consumption and Heat Issue[/post]
[post=398159]The 2012 Panasonic 3D glasses[/post]
[post=446244]Plasma TV and the high power consumption argument[/post]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
Four things come to my mind quickly..
1) Plasma is the 4th state of "matter".
2) The very early Universe was in a state of plasma
3) Plasma physics is very hot.
4) ST50 is the best affordable plasma.:licklips:

 

[longshanks]

HD Played on the Pioneer Kuro.

 

[VSG12777]

I have the LG 50PJ560 720p plasma that I purchased in July 2010. In the beginning, there was some temporary image retention, but not anymore. The IR issues used to be only for a few seconds. I have a split 2 ton A/C in my hall and we don't find any "heating" issues as mentioned by others. Maybe the TV does get warm, but it doesn't affect us in any way. We are usually seated about 14 feet or so away for watching. We use the TV for at least 1-2 hours every day, and a bit more on weekends. I play different sources - DVD rips, blu ray rips both 720p and 1080p, HD DTH content and DVDs.

When I did demos before selecting this plasma, I was thinking of spending an extra 3 or 4k to get the LG 50PK550 plasma which was very popular at that time. However that one being a full HD panel, when I played the same HD source on both, I found no difference in PQ at a distance of 8-10 feet. Plus, the PJ560 had lovely side mounted speakers producing very good sound. The PK550's sound was absolutely flat. Even now, LG has a model with side mounted speakers.

I believe too, that OLED would be the next PQ king after plasma, which could take a couple of years to become affordable for us, especially at sizes like 50 inches.

 

[echo77]

1 of the 2 burn in votes does not even have a plasma. The other one had Pogo channel logo burn-in.

 

[Dirac]

The other day I was comparing HX850/ST50 with a probably 720p video "wonders of earth" on youtube.
When an avalanche is shown racing towards you, ST50 was very natural and convincing giving a touch of three dimentionality.
HX850 served up a bright and clear picture. But when the snow races down the mountain , there was the pixellation killing the effect. I was always reminded that I was watching a TV.
ST50 immersed me into the beauty of the nature though without reminding me constantly that I was watching a TV.:licklips:
Now if I had to trade reliability(if it is really a concern with plasmas) with the natural TV experience, I would gladly accept the later!!

 

[just4kix]

1 of the 2 burn in votes does not even have a plasma. The other one had Pogo channel logo burn-in.

Is that right? Ha! Ha! Don't we know it all who that person is. This person suffers from juvenile deliquency. Only job is to trash one brand or technology. Such votes can be safely ignored.

Further, out of the 17 votes (counted so far) reporting IR, 90% had temporary IR which went away after taking anti-IR measures. That brings the total of "No issues" to over 90%. This proves that IR is highly overrated issue. Yes. It exists. But not something that is going to disturb the peace of mind.

 

[vakharia]

I am interested to see results for "the LED/ LCD reliability" poll where the following are covered:
1. Backlight bleeding
2. Motion judder (for 400 Hz and lower)
3. Banding issues
4. Other issues (please provide details)

Of course, this should be a separate thread somewhere.

 

[shanmune]

I am interested to see results for "the LED/ LCD reliability" poll where the following are covered:
1. Backlight bleeding
2. Motion judder (for 400 Hz and lower)
3. Banding issues
4. Other issues (please provide details)

Of course, this should be a separate thread somewhere.

Yes, I understand your point where any prospective user should now which one is more reliable before he/she can finalize. I completely agree !!!

I am comming from a different point. Though most of us are aware of the points that I am going to put here, I only want to re-iterate it again.
Are we trying to see which is more reliable ? That is - reliability of Plasma vs reliablity of LCD ? I personally think one shouldn't debate on LCD vs Plasma on the grounds of "reliability". Reliability is nothing to do with any particular technology. It is more to do with the manufacturing quality of the panels, be it LCD or Plasma. There are enough number of instances where both LCD and Plasma TVs are running trouble free for more than few years. Also there are few instances where both LCD and Plasma panels developed problems.
What I am trying to saying is all those problems/issues were mainly due to the manufacturing quality and not anything to do with a particular technology (of course I am not talking about the problems arising due to the extreme abuse of the sets as just4kix pointed out). I guess most of you agree to this point.

In fact Plasma TVs are in there in the consumer market even much before LCD and it got well matured over a period of time. If I remember correctly, during one of my official trips to US in 2006, I used to see only Plasma TVs in gaint consumer stores like FRYS/Walmart stores. So Plasma has been there for a very long time for the technology to get well matured. Now, LCD is also there for a quite period of time and it's technology progressed/matured very fast as bigger companies put most of their investment there. So in that way, I cannot see LCD vs Plasma debate in terms of reliability. If some one is doing that, then the person is biased either to LCD or Plasma. Though there exists problems like temporary IR (in case of Plasma) or Light bleeding (in case of LCD), they have been greatly minimised over a period of time. These are inherent problems of any technologies. As we all know, no technology is perfect including God's own creations. Nothing is free of problems/issues as all have some limitations. Hope I am not souning philosophical here ..:lol:

What I conclude is - Reliability is more to do with the quality of the panels manufactured and nothing to with any particular technology.

 

[Dirac]

these images look stunning. this is no doubt due to the black levels. my question is that I am seeing these images on my galaxy s3 and these images look almost real. does this mean that amoled screen in my phone can compare to plasma and that too to kuro?

Amoled screens are super sharp and fluid. They consume lot of power too.
All is fine until the image size gets bigger.
Many times we have seen small screens with small pixels rendering a sharp image.
Come to >=42 inch and all hell breaks loose. Did you ever see extensive motion stabilization circuits on smart phones? Or did we ever worry about refresh rates on the Samsung galaxy phones? I have the very first Samsung galaxy and I keep wondering at the colors/brightness/fluidity of the youtube videos on it.

Bigger TVs is a different ball game. That too fixed pixel panels is even tricky.

 

[MaheshN]

I have Panasonic ST30D which was the replacement of V50D which was the replacement of Samsung 42inch. Samsung and V50D succumbed to vertical lines within one year of usage. I have connected the ST50D to a UPS (Microtec 1000VA) and am keeping my fingers crossed, no issues so far. My personal experience with plasma T.Vs has been pathetic, the ones i used have succumbed to vertical lines within one year.

 

[longshanks]

does this mean that amoled screen in my phone can compare to plasma and that too to kuro?

Of course the OLED screen in your phone is superior in terms of back level and contrast to any display on the planet and that included kuro.

 

[Moviela]

I have a Panasonic VIERA TC-P55ST30 55-Inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV I purchased through the EPP in September 2010 for $ 960 (Rs 52K.) Panasonic was out of stock for the 3D glasses, and supplied the newer rechargable version 3 months later.

The rechargable version had a feature that allow a person sensitive to 3D eye strain to watch 2D with the glasses so the rest of the viewers could watch 3D.

The TV arrived with a wireless dongle making it easy to connect to my home network and laptop. It also connects to my G SIII phone seamlessly.

I use a Toshiba DVD player, Sony VHS and Betamax VCR's, and Panasonic 250 blu-ray player. The TV also accepts 3D from Panasonic point and shoot cameras.

Out of the box the picture was set to dazzle. I calibrated the screen to highlight brightness of 15 foot-lamberts, and was able to track to density 3.0 in the blacks.

My room is climate controlled 24/7 and has truman cell/carbon filtration to eliminate dust and odors. I have no issue with excessive heat. The TV is resting on a table 50cm from the wall to allow adequate air circulation. I find a small lamp (4 watts) behind the TV casting dull light on the wall behind the screen makes it easier to see all the details on the screen in a darkened room.

I did not "season" the panel with any slides as the Panasonic engineers assured me that the Infinite Black 2 series did not need it.

I have not found anything adverse to this display. It comes on, works with a variety of inputs, and displays a professional quality picture. It is so good, and large, it does expose the shortcommings of VHS tape and poorly mastered DVD's. Some streaming from YouTube is so low resolution it is almost unwatchable. Better to watch that on a handheld device like a phone.

Life of PI in 3D was as enjoyable as in the cinema.

People need to treat the electronics with loving care to get a long life from them. Clean power is a must, and nowadays with online UPS systems so cheap, there is no reason to lose a TV to crap power. The climate has to be controlled in the room too. 22~23 C at Rh 45~55% will extend the life of the equipment and be more comfortable for the viewers.

Panels now are rated at 100,000 hours to 50% brightness, but they won't last two years if they have poor mains voltage or if after watching in an aircon room you switch off the air and throw open the windows. Water will condense on all the cold surfaces inside the TV leading to corrosion and rust.

In conclusion I see no reason not to own a plasma screen. The teething pains of first generation panels have been resolved. Prices of LCD (ccfl or led) and plasma are very close, so it boils down to which works better for you.

 

[vkirti]

Hi,

I have a 50" LG PK 550 bought in 2010. It was the replacement for a 42 " Samsung plasma (2009 model, forgot the model no). Use it for viewing HD content via a STB & Blu ray. The picture quality of both these TV's is / was great. Had to replace the samsung because of a vertical line in the panel and upgraded to a 50 ". IR on the LG is a major issue and a particular problem are the channel logos. I have a persistent IR of a Channel logo (Colors HD) which we don't even watch, I guess it was accidentally left on that channel by visiting relatives. It disappears or becomes very faint upon running the color wash but seems to reappear magically in very light background colors. Also needed to have the power board / circuit replaced as I was having high voltage issues and the TV, Blu ray player & the STB all had issues with their power circuits one after the other.

On the whole I love the TV and would only replace it for a better and bigger plasma.

 

[shuv]

Using two plasmas.

1. Panasonic 42G10D bought in October 2009. Running perfectly. Do get TIR but thats a given.

2. Samsung 50C550 bought in June 2010. Again, zero complaints except TIR.

 

[Redflag]

Bumping the thread.

 

[prosenjit]

x30 in parents place and in a friends place
e400 in 4 friends places
e490 in a friends place...

all 42/43 inchers..no 50..



btw all friends live nearby...and i am the av guy in office,.hehe.....,so any issue is reported to me first....(plus they went for plasma by my recomendation)



............no issues whatsoever....

 

[Bharath2481]

Have been a proud owner of the panasonic V20D since 2011 no problems at all ......

plasma tv for the perfect picture !

 

[longshanks]

Some kuro screen shots posted by a french gent in AVS, enjoy!




This is from DVD BTW