Spoonsey Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Baz;108261 wrote: You would have made money on this bet. I asked at HN the other day and they had the 58" on their system at 6999. This happens to match their price for the Samsung B850. Any opinions on that TV versus the V10? Or should I start a new thread for that? (forum newbie) I'm interested to see what will happen to the pricing of the Panny 58" PZ850 once the 58" V is released here. I popped into HN Mt Wellington earlier today and they can do the PZ850 for around $6,300 (bearing in mind that it's a $10k RRP panel) but surely this will have to come down considerably if the new V is going to be priced at around $7k? As far as I'm aware the V will trump the PZ in every category so you would be a fool to buy the PZ unless it's well under $6k...in fact it would need to be closer to $5k for me to choose it over the (apparently) superior V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafman1553552676 Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 mikeesnz;108174 wrote: It is a great improvement over my 4 year old PV500 I love the picture on my PV500 for DVD, so it's great to hear I can expect improvement when I upgrade. Holding off as am house hunting - not sure whether the move will suit a bigger plamsa or (hopefully) projector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mycenius Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 JB's currently are doing 'deals' on the G series 50" (previously $3,998) - make an offer... They have new specials due this week - I suspect indicative of what's gonna happen with the V series coming out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakley_nz Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 mycenius;108327 wrote: JB's currently are doing 'deals' on the G series 50" (previously $3,998) - make an offer... They have new specials due this week - I suspect indicative of what's gonna happen with the V series coming out... I think it's priced accordingly to battle the samsung 850. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docdanz Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Hi there. After umming and ahhing for several weeks and progressively getting talked into setting my sights higher (initially looked into X10 then got persuaded to go full HD i.e. S10, then decided the G10 had much better picture, then thought that THX mode would be the best) I splurged out on the 50" V10 and am very happy with my purchase. My thoughts? Fantastic PQ with excellent colours and contrast (to my plasma noob eyes). Good blacks and really nice styling. I paired it with a Panasonic BD60 and have been really impressed, especially with the BD60's DVD upscaling. The difference between a standard DVD player and the BD60 playing DVDs is much greated than the difference between the BD60 playing DVDs vs Blueray discs to my eye. The disappointments? Well, as mentioned by other posters, it is the lack of customisability. Nowhere is this seen more than in THX mode. A lot of the advanced features special to the V10 seem to be disabled in THX mode, and I'm not just talking about advanced colour conrtols (which as a noob, I am a little cautious of in any case). The thing that annoys me most is that the THX picture is significantly more jerky than the standard picture (Normal and Cinema modes). It seems that the "intelligent frame creation" mode that is available under other settings when viewing normal frame rate sources is not available in THX mode - it appears to be permanently set off. This gives quite obvious jerkiness to my eyes which is not visible in Normal and Cinema modes. Admittedly the latter modes are almost hyper-smooth but I like this effect. Likewise when viewing 24p sources (changed the setting on my BD60 for this), the TV changes the option in other settings to "24p smooth film" rather than "intelligent frame creation". In Normal and Cinema, with this on, it is fantastic but this option is not there when THX is selected. THX is once again jerky but I don't think it is as much as when viewing a non-24p source. I'll have to do a few more experiments to confirm this. I can see why they would limit colour/contrast/whitebalance settings on THX mode but why limit frame rate/smoothness settings? Panasonic's attitute to the V10 in NZ is like Mercedes or BMW selling high end models that can't get out of first gear. Grrr.:mad: So all in all very happy. I think I will customise the Cinema mode to get the colour/contrast/etc approaching the THX levels and then I have the option of smooth motion features. Oh, and by the way, don't hate me but I got it for $3499 at Harvey Norman Dunedin in the Labour weekend sale (including 4 yrs interest free). I had been looking at them there for several weeks and went in once I had decided on the V10. The salesperson told me he would find out what the best price they could do was (I was getting a whole package of things) and he came back and said $3799, at the same time another salesperson was just changing the sale sticker price from $4499 to $3499. Apparently a call had come in from Panasonic that the RRP was dropping and hence the sale price should drop too. Needless to say, I didn't wait to see whether there might be a mistake. Cheers, Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakley_nz Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 congrats on your purchase. Have you 'break-in' your set yet? otherwise you'll get IR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docdanz Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 oakley_nz;108350 wrote: congrats on your purchase. Have you 'break-in' your set yet? otherwise you'll get IR. Yes. I did at least 100 hrs of breaking in slides on SD card (before I lost count of the time! Probably more like 150 hrs) I didn't realise that this was for IR though. Thought it was all for settling in the phosphors so that you could callibrate it properly. In any case, I feel like now I can start experimenting with settings. Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikees Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 wallop;108256 wrote: Mikeesnz does your freeview guide sometimes skip tv 1 if you loop through the channels? Mine goes from tv2 to 100 (freeview hd demo). Also do you have a white dot in the top left corner when watching tv 1 or 2? Mine does that with non-hd material on those 2 channels. All other channels are fine so I'm guessing it's something to do with the transmission. This jump on freeview does not happen to me & I do not see a white dot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallop Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Sorted out the epg skipping and the white dot on the screen, user error For the epg there is a setting where you can turn the channels on or off and the white dot was because I was watching tv in THX mode. Glad I did'nt return the tv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curiousgeorgenz Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 docdanz;108348 wrote: Oh, and by the way, don't hate me but I got it for $3499 at Harvey Norman Dunedin in the Labour weekend sale (including 4 yrs interest free). I hate you. Heck for $3499 and 4 years interest free, even i'd go for that! Ludicrous price/offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakley_nz Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 $3499 is a fantastic deal. considering that the 58" is starting @ 7k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz1553552744 Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 wallop and mikeesnz, do you get the same problems as docdanz when playing back 24p in THX mode? Or do you not use 24p? Any jerkyness would make me think that the refresh rate is not 96Hz. Any Panasonic experts (employees) out there who can confirm the refresh rate on 24p for the NZ V10? Like some others, I am not worried about an ethernet connection or advanced pro settings, but for me the 24p playback does matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonsey Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Baz;108512 wrote: wallop and mikeesnz, do you get the same problems as docdanz when playing back 24p in THX mode? Or do you not use 24p? Any jerkyness would make me think that the refresh rate is not 96Hz. Any Panasonic experts (employees) out there who can confirm the refresh rate on 24p for the NZ V10? Like some others, I am not worried about an ethernet connection or advanced pro settings, but for me the 24p playback does matter. +1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonsey Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 docdanz;108354 wrote: Yes. I did at least 100 hrs of breaking in slides on SD card (before I lost count of the time! Probably more like 150 hrs) I didn't realise that this was for IR though. Thought it was all for settling in the phosphors so that you could callibrate it properly. In any case, I feel like now I can start experimenting with settings. Dan. Dan - if you haven't already heard of it, I've found this to be quite a good tool for calibration: http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-benchmark/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docdanz Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Spoonsey;108523 wrote: Dan - if you haven't already heard of it, I've found this to be quite a good tool for calibration: http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-benchmark/ Cool, thanks. I'll check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docdanz Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Just to confirm, I have done a lot more watching and can fairly confidently say that the flicker is visible in this order of intensity from most to least: THX non-24p source > THX 24p source > Normal/Cinema 24p source with "24p Smooth Film" on > Normal/Cinema non-24p source with "Intelligent Frame Creation" on. I should also say that the flicker is much less obvious when I sit at my usual viewing distance (approx 2m) and probably only bothers me when watching non-24p source in THX mode. The other three combos above are acceptable to my eyes albeit increasingly spectacular as the smoothness increases. Interesting that "Intelligent Frame Creation" mode actually beats the "24p Smooth Film" mode (but only just). It is also more clear to me that the THX has these modes permanently set to "off". If I turn them off in Normal/Cinema modes then the flicker is identical to the amount in THX with the same source. I am betting that the "24p Smooth Film" mode is actually marketing talk for a 96Hz mode (or possibly a functional 48Hz mode). I wouldn't have a clue how they work the "Intelligent Frame Creation" mode. I might call Panasonic NZ and find out (and complain about these features being disabled in THX mode - I see no reason why this should be). I'll let you know how I get on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallop Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Baz;108512 wrote: wallop and mikeesnz, do you get the same problems as docdanz when playing back 24p in THX mode? Or do you not use 24p? Any jerkyness would make me think that the refresh rate is not 96Hz. Any Panasonic experts (employees) out there who can confirm the refresh rate on 24p for the NZ V10? Like some others, I am not worried about an ethernet connection or advanced pro settings, but for me the 24p playback does matter. Baz, don't use 24p so can't help I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz1553552744 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 wallop, thanks for the reply. I think I may try calling Panasonic myself to 'try' and find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikees Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 I don't believe I see flicker, but I sit 3.8m away from the TV. In THX mode when playing a blu ray movie the "other settings " don't show 24p as it does for non THX, so it hard to know for sure if 24p is on. I am currently using cinema mode with 24p on. I think I like it better than THX. I will play with some setups next week eith the S&M discs that came with the Oppo. The manual for 24p smooth film has off, mid , max but I don't see this as an option in any setting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz1553552744 Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Just as a slight aside, I was in Appliance Shed (North Shore) today and saw the PZ850 58" (as a First) at a couple of dollars under $4k! That is a lot of TV for that price. If I wasn't more keen on the V10 I would have jumped at that. If you're not bothered by the 24p issue and it not being THX, this looks a good deal to me. I think they only have 1 or 2, but obviously Panasonic wants rid of the old model before the V10 arrives in a couple of weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonsey Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Baz;109009 wrote: Just as a slight aside, I was in Appliance Shed (North Shore) today and saw the PZ850 58" (as a First) at a couple of dollars under $4k! That is a lot of TV for that price. If I wasn't more keen on the V10 I would have jumped at that. If you're not bothered by the 24p issue and it not being THX, this looks a good deal to me. I think they only have 1 or 2, but obviously Panasonic wants rid of the old model before the V10 arrives in a couple of weeks. Wow. Considering it started it's life as a $10k panel that is impressive. I posed this question to a bloke at HN (i.e. what will happen to the PZ850 pricing once the V series comes out) and he reckoned they probably wouldn't be able to move any more from the $6,400 price they currently have it listed at. To my mind this seemed crazy given that you'll be getting a far better panel with the V series for only $600 more than the PZ850 (perhaps less if you can do some haggling). IMO that Appliance Shed pricing is bang on. Wonder if HN would match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakley_nz Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 exactly, for $600 or less why not just get the V series? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakley_nz Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 btw, the V10's are up on the Panasonic website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonsey Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 oakley_nz;109358 wrote: btw, the V10's are up on the Panasonic website. Oooooh...luverly! I see that the 54" Z is there too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz1553552744 Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 It seems that at least there has been more effort made in describing these new arrivals. THX even gets a mention this time. However there is still no mention of 24p playback at 96Hz, even for the flagship 54" Z1. I suspect that these panels are 96Hz capable, I am just surprised that Panasonic don't explicitly mention it. The Australian site does mention it so I supect that we have it too. Anyway, I am going for the 58" anyway. Just need to get a price and cost of installation. Hoping to get a good cash price! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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