Pana 65inch - Worth A Look!

[Owen]

No, I’m deadly serious mate, in my not bright viewing environment at a 3 meter viewing distance, the 70” looks the same at 6’ viewing height as at 3’, any difference in brightness is completely insignificant and only barely perceptible.

The brighter the environment and the brighter you run the display the more viewing angle limitations come into play.

[drsmith]

I agree that vertical viewing angle is not an issue when seated with eye level near the centre horizontal axis but based on your analysis above, your unit is somewhat different to mine (Lamp: low power, Iris: min).

Given the above, is there any particular reason why you chose to limit the height of your stand to 400mm ?

[AndrewWilliams]

I'm yet to be blown away by my 70 inch SXRD yet. It's only been turned on for about 4hrs and while the picture quality is good, it's still slightly grainy - even at 3 metres back. I'm running it via the Sony HD STB and perhaps the material I've watched hasn't been True HD. Certainly a good TV but as I said yet to be blown away. I'm looking forward to hooking up my PS3 when I get it because Free to Air really isn't doing it for me.

As somebody else mentioned, the default picture settings don't even come close to doing the TV justice. Depending on how skilled you are at adjusting the various settings, it may take a fair bit of tweaking to get something that blows you away. If you're not very confident at doing it yourself but still want top notch picture quality then a professional calibrator is the only real option. At the very least, you should have a calibration DVD.

It took me a few days of sussing out the settings before I had something that looked realistic and probably a couple of weeks before I manged to get the colours looking very accurate.

Check out '9AM with David & Kim' on TEN HD - it's just about the highest quality HD material you'll get from an STB.

[PersianImmortal]

Why don't you use a pure digital movie such as one of the Pixar digital cartoons (e.g. Invincibles)? That way at least you know any grain is not due to the disc. Of course it won't prevent compression artifacts, but it will allow you to tweak down the grain effect and get the colors right.

[Owen]

I agree that vertical viewing angle is not an issue when seated with eye level near the centre horizontal axis but based on your analysis above, your unit is somewhat different to mine (Lamp: low power, Iris: min).

Given the above, is there any particular reason why you chose to limit the height of your stand to 400mm ?

Must be something unusual with my setup or environment because I have a great picture from crouching on the floor 30cm height to standing at 1.8 meters, I just can’t see what the problem is.

I purchased the 390mm high stand before I purchased the 70” SXRD. The intent was to put the centre of the screen at eye height when seated and also put the centre line of the screen as close as possible to the height of my speakers for best imaging. I also don’t like looking up or down at the screen.

I am going to break the 1.8 meter high Magneplanar flat panel speakers out of moth balls and see how they go.

The frontal area of the pair of Maggies is greater then the screen area of the 70” SXRD, so it’s going to be a very visually imposing combination, not at all girly friendly.

The Maggies have a massive sound stage in keeping with the size of the SXRD, but they need room to breath, so it will be an interesting experiment in my small room.

[drsmith]

Must be something unusual with my setup or environment because I have a great picture from crouching on the floor 30cm height to standing at 1.8 meters, I just can’t see what the problem is.

Must be.

I purchased the 390mm high stand before I purchased the 70” SXRD. The intent was to put the centre of the screen at eye height when seated and also put the centre line of the screen as close as possible to the height of my speakers for best imaging. I also don’t like looking up or down at the screen.

I have mine on a sub 400mm stand to overcome vertical viewing angle issues. This too I decided prior to purchase as I saw it as necessary requirement and with subsequent viewing in both light and dark environments my view on this has not changed.

Are you going to post a pic or two of the SXRD with the speakers next to it ?

How are your mods to the SXRD itself going ?

[MikeAusDTV]

For the SXRD Sony recommend a horizontal viewing angle of +/- 60 degrees and vertical viewing angle of +/- 30 degrees.

[Psycho!]

Well I finally got to see the SXRD (a 60 inch one) Sony in the same shop and lighting conditions with the Pannasonic 65" only but a few feet from it. I watched a lot of stuff. Both running some Hi Def stuff ect...some FTA etc...and to me the Plasma won hands down. I had been told by Owen in the past that the Pannas black levels wern't that good but to me it looked bloody fantastic.

I guess its like speakers and wine, what one person thinks is great might be ordinary to another. Of course the cost is a big factor for many people but the Panna defineatly was the winner to my eyes in the vision stakes. I dont kow if the Sony guys had not set it up properly but the SXRD had that 'gauze' overlay look to it most the time.

I asked them if they had had any of the power down issues that some members of this forum had suffered with their 60" SXRD units and they looked at me blankly stating that their unit had been running pretty much continuosly for weeks and weeks without any probs.

my 2 cents worth..

[AndrewWilliams]

I doubt that staff in a shop would notice a TV resetting once per fortnight...

How was the lighting in the room? Evaluating displays in a bright room is like drinking wine out of a paper cup. As Owen mentioned, the default settings on the SXRDs are appalling compared to the default settings on the Panasonic.

[Psycho!]

Well the lighting was pretty good actually, dimmed but not overly dark. It was at Video Pro in Brisbane and towards the rear of the shop where they have it nice and intimate whilst they rip huge amounts of cash out of your wallet. hehe I guess a nicely tweaked SXRD would definteately compete but based on the small amount of time I had with them the Panny certainly impressed.

BUT..... I tell you what did absolutey blow me away, in another shop on the west side of town I saw one of the new 52inch Bravia Sony LCD displaying some 1080p King Kong footage. It wasn't a blu ray but rather running straight from a device that was hard drive driven, i think it was a KISS video scaler??..but my god, I havent seen anything like it. The detail in the skintones and textures of every blade of grass and moss on Kong's Island looked simply 'real' ...three dimensional...in the part where the savages are doing their big dance chanting thing there is the part where the little girl all covered in mud slowly raises her hand and outstretches her arm towards the jungle and Kong domain....honestly there were about six of us watching it and most commented that it was unbelieveable clarity in the image...you could have sworn that you could have reached out and touched her hand. You could see the fine detail in the dried and crusted mud on the actors arm ...really spooky ****. I havent seen anything like this before..

very impressive.

[Roderick]

Where do people use displays like these? If you're going for home theatre, I'd say a front or rear projection setup is a better idea. On the other hand, they're probably too big to hang on a wall. Anyone own one?

I think most people are like me, in that they want their lounge room to double as their home theatre. In this situation a projector is less versatile than a large plasma or LCD. Projectors, of course, are no good for casual daytime viewing in a brigthly lit envirionment.

A projector is great in a purpose-built home theatre room, where you go to watch a movie from go to wo. However, only a minority of people go to these lengths, and would rather have a large screen in the lounge, where they can duck into the kitchen to wash up during the TV ads, etc. Our large-screen LCD is ideal for daytime viewing of TV or DVDs.

Saw the 65" Panasonic running the high-def demo material some time ago in HN. Very impessive indeed, but the wife would take a lot of convincing to install a screen this big. She even objected to the 40" Sony LCD I ended up buying (but secretly loves it, now) .

The Panasonic Bluray demo material has a lot of scenes with black backgrounds. No doubt this is to show off the good contrast ratios availible in this HD plasma. Also shows off the great colour generated by this panel.

The replacement for the Sony LCD may well be a screen like this, but a lot cheaper, I would think .

Rod

[Psycho!]

What Roderick said ^^^

In our situation we were going to have a dedicated room for theatre in one particular building design, but then we changed our mind on the plans and the new design didnt really have a room we wanted to sacrfice for just a home theatre. The house is contempory in design and with large open plan living areas that flow into each other, I can see the wifes point of view when she said she wanted something that can be a part of the decor, and also be accessible for a bunch of friends to sit arround in the big living area, watch a movie, the big sports events etc.. not in a closed room in the dark. And after seeing that the Panny looked so awesome + it will fit into a recess we are having purpose built into the wall, it will look fabulous in the environment. Even thinking of matching some discrete on/in- wall/ceiling Hi Fi speakers as well to keep all the AV tech out of the way and not 'in your face' so to speak.

We have had a big floor standing surround system for a few years and I think we are 'over' the bulkyness and room footprint they can take up ect.. We have seen some pics of people's home theatre set up on various sites and man some of them have so much hardware on display in front on the floor, you can hardly see the bloody viewing screen..i think some people get carried away. Actually I think some people are displaying their components more than the asthetic of a well designed media environment.

[50mxe20]

Even thinking of matching some discrete on/in- wall/ceiling Hi Fi speakers as well to keep all the AV tech out of the way and not 'in your face' so to speak.

Have a look at Foxtails set-up. He has in-wall speakers (Earthquakes I think). As do a few others. I installed in-ceiling Focals for the rears. Very unobtrusive. High WAF.

[souljah_adam]

Some mighty fine topic hijacking going on here... I thought this started out about the panasonic 65".

I guess 99% of us(including me) have no hope in hell of affording such a beast(or justifying the cost).

Especially since there is newer models due out later this year and the price isnt budging like the smaller 42" and 50" models.

[50mxe20]

Some mighty fine topic hijacking going on here... I thought this started out about the panasonic 65".

I guess 99% of us(including me) have no hope in hell of affording such a beast(or justifying the cost).

Especially since there is newer models due out later this year and the price isnt budging like the smaller 42" and 50" models.

Yes you are right. Sorry. I should have sent him a PM.

[Roderick]

In our situation we were going to have a dedicated room for theatre in one particular building design, but then we changed our mind on the plans and the new design didnt really have a room we wanted to sacrfice for just a home theatre. Etc...

Yes, I'm pretty sure this is the norm for most people, dwegner1.

We actually have a rumpus room that would make an ideal home theatre, now that the kids have departed. But I have gone with the lounge room solution, despite this. Don't really like the idea of a darkened room that looks like a minie Roxy Theatre, complete with Art-Deco motifs, and ugly floor standers, etc.

Big hi-def screens like the 65" Panasonic, or the 52" Sony X you mentioned, are making the lounge-room theatre a real alternative to the dedicated home theatre. There's really no need for a dedicated room any more, and even $18,000 is cheap compared with the cost of a HT extension to the house! My subwoofer looks like a coffee table, and my surrounds and rear speakers are ceiling mounted. Might not satisfy a hard-bitten audophile, but it's good enough for my casual listening/viewing habits!

Just make sure your wall niche for the big screen is well ventilated dwegner1. Might need a fan of some sort.

Sorry about the hijacking of the thread, souljah_adam, but I detect some interest in the topic. New thread needed in the HT subforum, maybe

Rod

[50mxe20]

Big hi-def screens like the 65" Panasonic, ..........

Sorry about the hijacking of the thread, souljah_adam, but I detect some interest in the topic. New thread needed in the HT subforum, maybe

At least you mentioned the screen in the topic heading!

[taksan]

This 65" Panasonic is interesting because despite being a 1920x1080 display, it does not accept progressive input at this resolution (according to the specs). They tout it as the Blu Ray display of choice and with much of sales hype surrounding Blu Ray being about the 1080p nature of the content (inspite of how it is processed in the player at 1080i anyway, a story for another day), it is a surprise to see this beheamoth of a thing doesn't take 1080p!

Kind of makes you wonder how young this model isn't or how rushed to market it was. I am sure it is nonetheless impressive and I'd own one but for the price tag.

Matt

That is not true the Panasonic TH-65PV600a that we are talking about here accepts and displays in native mode true 1080p signels at both 50hz and 60hz through both HDMI and component imputs. It can also accept 1080/24p signels and display them as 1080/50p.

[Drizt]

It can also accept 1080/24p signels and display them as 1080/50p.

Isn't that useless???

That will just introduce judder like a BluRay player outputing at 1080p/50.

If it ouput at a multiple of 24 (eg. 48Hz, 72Hz, 96Hz, 120Hz) then it would eliminate judder.

[taksan]

Isn't that useless???

That will just introduce judder like a BluRay player outputing at 1080p/50.

If it ouput at a multiple of 24 (eg. 48Hz, 72Hz, 96Hz, 120Hz) then it would eliminate judder.

I had a look to see if this is the case and .....

No judder and I mean none at all was evident from a Sony XDCAM-HD feed at 1080/24p .

So I'd bet its actually displaying it at 48Hz.

In fact the picture from the raw feed direct from the camera was probably the best quality moving image I've ever seen ....

[Owen]

The Panasonic Bluray demo material has a lot of scenes with black backgrounds. No doubt this is to show off the good contrast ratios availible in this HD plasma.

What good contrast ratios ?

You need to get out more mate, the 65” has worse blacks and contrast then the Panasonic 50” Plasma which in its self is nothing special.

So much for high end performance.

Maybe the next generation will be closer to the mark.

Sorry to be so negative, I actually really like the Panasonic 65”, but blacks are its Achilles heal.

[Roderick]

What good contrast ratios ?

You need to get out more mate, the 65” has worse blacks and contrast then the Panasonic 50” Plasma which in its self is nothing special.

So much for high end performance.

Maybe the next generation will be closer to the mark.

Sorry to be so negative, I actually really like the Panasonic 65”, but blacks are its Achilles heal.

It's all relative, mate, as Einstein said! The CR of the the 65" HD Pana plasma is a lot better than my LCD TV .

Rod

[Owen]

An LCD is not much of a yard stick now is it.