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General discussion

Panasonic 50PZ800U = Perfection

Jun 2, 2008 1:22PM PDT

I hooked this TV up to the Panasonic BD-30 Bluray player and WOW its amazing it looked so lifelike, the colors and accuracy are great on the THX picture mode.
It looked better then the 50pz700u that we have on display and it was ISF calibrated.

panasonic has really steped up this year, but I would like to see how it compares to the 50pz85 with a calibration done, the 50pz85 with calibration is still a few hundred dollars cheaper and Im not sure how good it will look compared to the 800.

Gabe

Discussion is locked

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You have to find the link to...
Jun 4, 2008 7:36AM PDT

the blog a few days ago when he listed the TVs he would review.

I don't have time right now, but if you can't find it, I will search when I get home.

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Ctuy, what did Panasonic say?
Jun 18, 2008 8:14AM PDT

You said you emailed them and they recommended the 800? What did they say? Personally, I'm going to hold off on Blu Ray. There are only about 600 titles available on it versus 90k plus on standard DVD. I bought an Oppo 981HD upcoverting DVD player on the picture on that through HDMI is, really and truly, almost as good as I'm getting through my Comcast 1080i HD cable (through component cables, alas).

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800U & blue ray
Jun 18, 2008 8:24AM PDT

I emailed them back to find out the reason why they recommeding 800U but they did not respond.

Blue Ray---what do you mean only 600 titles?

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Oppo 1080i vs. BluRay
Sep 21, 2008 1:07AM PDT

Jacktorious,

I too have an Oppo 1080i upconverting DVD player. I have mine connected to my Sony 55" SCRD via HDMI. Right next to my Oppo, I have a Sony PS3 also connected to my Sony via HDMI, but it's pushing 1080p/24 when it plays BluRay discs. I've done A-B comparisons between the two, watching the same title and scene, and without a doubt, the BluRay is better than the upconverting image. The Oppo absolutely looks great, but the BluRay image is on a completely different level. It's not even a comparison. I wouldn't let the shortage of BluRay titles keep you from enjoying a stellar picture.

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2 questions
Jun 13, 2008 1:24PM PDT

I recently purchased the pz 800u and like the darkroom calibrations provided by cnet http://reviews.cnet.com/9602-12576_7-0.html?messageID=2510890

I was wondering if there is a prefered calibration fo light room settings as i would like to switch between the THX mode for darkroom settings and a custom mode for daytime.

Also when connecting the pc through hdmi in full mode i noticed a black border and inch around the entire set. Im worried that this will cause burn in around the edges and would like to know if there is something i can do to get the oc to fill the entire screen. (format - zoom and the other settings dont fit the display properly only full..)

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1 Question
Jun 18, 2008 7:16AM PDT

My black border issue has been resolved. Still wondering if there is a recomended daytime/lighted room setting that i can set in custom mode.

Appreciate any help

thanks,

sooni

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1 answer
Jun 18, 2008 7:33AM PDT

I don't think that there can be a "recommended daytime setting" because, by definition, the recommended settings are what most closely tally to the ISF specs and those are all for dark room. To put it another way, back in the picture tube days if you turned up the contrast too much you would get brownout, which is when the image is so overcharged that it overflows the straight lines, like coloring outside the lines in a coloring book or trying to force 1.4 gallons of water into a gallon bucket. Know what I mean? These recommended settings are how you can adjust your user picture controls to where the result most closely approximates the various kelvins and footlamberts and whatever that are the "standard". The recommendations, therefore, are more scientific, more like video "engineering" and less like opinions. Right? We're not saying "hey, Dave K, you have better taste than me--so how would you set the TV up?" we're saying "hey Dave, you have access to calibration materials and know how to use them, so what can we do to our TVs to make them look professionally calibrated without having to pay a professional calibrator"? See what I mean? "Recommended daytime setting" is almost a contradiction in terms, calibration speaking, since all the source material is mastered to be seen in dark rooms. All you could get would be an opinion, which is ultimately just a matter of taste, and not, as it were, CALIBRATION.

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blu ray versus SDVD
Jun 18, 2008 8:44AM PDT

Ctuy, I just meant that there's virtually nothing to watch on Blu Ray compared to the huge backlog of regular DVD movies. Plus, I don't want to get used to the picture quality of Blu Ray when everything I want to watch isn't on BR. I'm not saying Blu Ray isn't better, just that there's virtually nothing to watch on it. Plus, the head of the ISF is already saying that the future is going to be set top boxes where places like Netflix are all set up with their entire catalogue and it's like pay per view. There's already a Netflix box out but the quality is horrible. However, it will get better!

Now, back to 800 vs. 850.....

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Dark room settings - 50pz800u
Sep 21, 2008 12:24AM PDT

I tried to enter the recommend settings, but I have 2 issues. The MPEG NR is not greyed out and HD Size is greyed out.

What do I need to adjust in order to see to same menu items?

If it matters...input is through HDMI 1.