Panasonic to Halt Plasma TV Production 2014 - Good or Bad News for buyers?

lifeisabeach said:

Hmmm. My 1080p streams off iTunes look great, but Dish Network looks awful. I had reset everything from the DVR to the AVR to 1080p, but Dish Network is very fuzzy Even the channel guide is clearly too fuzzy, like how text is on an LCD monitor that isn't set at its native resolution. But what's really bizarre? Resetting Dish's Hopper to 720p cleans it up. That makes no sense at all.

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Nope, doesn't.

Using Hopper here also, will check my settings because it should look pretty great.

bobtomay said:

Nope, doesn't.

Using Hopper here also, will check my settings because it should look pretty great.

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My Dish Hopper looks great on my 55in LG. No idea what settings I am using; will have to check.

I reset the "Screen Adjustment" back to the default (it was zoomed out a couple steps) and that made a difference, but the text is still fuzzier in 1080p vs 720p. HBO looks fine, but last night it was Walking Dead that looked bad. I'm thinking it may be AMC that's the problem. Even the after show, Talking Dead, was very fuzzy. When I applied one of the video processing options on my AVR, everything was much sharper. I may have to stick to doing that, though I'd much rather not. I don't have to on other sources. At least I can do the video processing independently for each input device.

Try and look for a channel with SMTPE COLOR BARS and turn off NR and auto color along with lowering sharpness below 20.

I hope my TV never goes. I currently have a 42in Panasonic Plasma that's about 5 years old. It's "only" 720p but it has a fantastic picture and no stupid "smart" TV options.

Stretch said:

I hope my TV never goes. I currently have a 42in Panasonic Plasma that's about 5 years old. It's "only" 720p but it has a fantastic picture and no stupid "smart" TV options.

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I still have a working 42 from 05 so yeah they last a long time.
Unfortunately in order to get the latest panel tech it comes with smart and 3D but thats the cost of wanting the best picture at 1080p the beauty part I paid 3000.00 8years ago for my Panasonic 42 and the new TV is a 55 which was 1400.00.
Deeper blacks 1080p vs 768p and more accurate colors.

I think it's funny how some people view the "smart" features. I don't have cable beyond the most basic package (about 20 channels). I don't have a Roku or Apple TV or DVR. I have a Netflix account (streaming and DVD by mail). I have purchased movies/TV shows from Amazon and I'm sure I will again in the future.
The smart features are just a means of watching TV shows and movies that I do not have access to via cable. Pandora is a nice feature on our current TV that we use a lot. So, if my current TV came with extra features (5 built-in apps) that I ended up using and liking a lot, then I definitely want my new TV to have similar features and more because I don't know what options that tech will bring me in the future. It may just be something I will use and love.

My primary concern is picture quality (especially watching movies in the dark), and build quality - i.e. is this going to break on me in a few years? So, that's why I wanted another Panasonic plasma.

I'm still on the fence, but leaning towards my original choice - the TC-P60ST60.

MYmacROX said:

I think it's funny how some people view the "smart" features. I don't have cable beyond the most basic package (about 20 channels). I don't have a Roku or Apple TV or DVR. I have a Netflix account (streaming and DVD by mail). I have purchased movies/TV shows from Amazon and I'm sure I will again in the future.
The smart features are just a means of watching TV shows and movies that I do not have access to via cable. Pandora is a nice feature on our current TV that we use a lot. So, if my current TV came with extra features (5 built-in apps) that I ended up using and liking a lot, then I definitely want my new TV to have similar features and more because I don't know what options that tech will bring me in the future. It may just be something I will use and love.

My primary concern is picture quality (especially watching movies in the dark), and build quality - i.e. is this going to break on me in a few years? So, that's why I wanted another Panasonic plasma.

I'm still on the fence, but leaning towards my original choice - the TC-P60ST60.

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The ST60 has the same picture quality as the GT and only slightly diferent from the VT
so it is the best bang for the buck out there.

osxx said:

The ST60 has the same picture quality as the GT and only slightly diferent from the VT
so it is the best bang for the buck out there.

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I would have "settled" for the ST60 myself, but Best Buy doesn't carry it in a 55" model, nor does anyone else carry it locally. I decided against ordering online because of the potential hassles if we had issues and had to return it.

Anyway, I already had to call Panasonic support. I didn't notice it until last night (and maybe it didn't start till then) but the fans have a rather high pitched noise to them, worse when the TV first comes on but still slightly perceptible even while watching something with the sound at a "normal" level. Actually, now that I know it's there, it's more obvious when I think about it. I'd read of a lot of complaints about this, but not everyone was experiencing it so I hoped for the best. Ah well. Panasonic is working on finding someone who can service it locally. I should mention that some fan noise is expected, but the high pitch of what I'm hearing isn't and I tend to be a bit more sensitive than most people to high pitched noises.

lifeisabeach said:

Anyway, I already had to call Panasonic support. I didn't notice it until last night (and maybe it didn't start till then) but the fans have a rather high pitched noise to them, worse when the TV first comes on but still slightly perceptible even while watching something with the sound at a "normal" level. Actually, now that I know it's there, it's more obvious when I think about it. I'd read of a lot of complaints about this, but not everyone was experiencing it so I hoped for the best. Ah well. Panasonic is working on finding someone who can service it locally. I should mention that some fan noise is expected, but the high pitch of what I'm hearing isn't and I tend to be a bit more sensitive than most people to high pitched noises.

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Is that specific only to the VT60 models? I can't remember the exact model of my 46", but it's never made a sound.

MYmacROX said:

Is that specific only to the VT60 models? I can't remember the exact model of my 46", but it's never made a sound.

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I believe so. I just checked some reviews on the 55" ST60 series on Amazon and I see no mention of fan noise. There are a lot of complaints about station logos burning in despite the orbiter being on, but I think these people mostly have the same station on with a logo with so much white space in it that it doesn't "orbit" enough to avoid some burn in. I'm being very particular about running some slides to break the panel in to minimize any issues here. I did learn that the THX certified presets do NOT have the orbiter on, and there is no way to turn it on.

Well if my 55ST50 has fans I cannot see or hear them and my 42 does but unless i put my head within a few inches of the back I can't hear them but can see them.

Don't believe I've ever heard the fans on either my 42" or 58".

Hope Panasonic keeps making replacement parts for their sets for those that need them for awhile.
I've had boards replaced in a couple of them over the years - last one caused by a power line brown out coming into the house - on the power company side - only took about 3 days to get a new board in. Hear about a lot of folks sitting for weeks/months with broken sets waiting for parts with several brands.

Real shame they haven't been able to make this division profitable.
Guess Panny will be relegated to the middle of the road which is where they are with most of their other electronics.

Guess Panny will be relegated to the middle of the road which is where they are with most of their other electronics.

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I wouldn't think so. Matsushita (owners of the Panasonic brand) is probably the second largest electronics manufacturer in Japan after Hitachi. They're into everything from Jet engines to turbines. Most of their consumer electronics have been outsourced to China (like everyone else has done) because Japanese labor like ours is high cost. In other words, they'll still make billions of Yen every year.

Well, it's the consumer electronics I was referencing.
Pretty sure Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, Pioneer, (Apple) et al are all made in China (while McIntosh continues to be made in the US).

But, aside for their disc players and TVs they've always sat in the lower to middle tier of the consumer brands both in price point and in quality of goods. They did, however, assist in dethroning the US brands and have continued to remain, quality wise, head and shoulders above most of those dethroned ex-US manufacturers that are still in business in name only - like Phillips.

Ex. Would never recommend someone buy a Panasonic receiver or all-in-one home theater system vs. the extra $50 for a Sony or $100 for an Onkyo. Most of Panny's consumer market has always seemed to be for those that really can't afford anything better and barely a step up from most of the throwaway brands. Although, they did make a pretty good reel-to-reel back in the day.

And while we're on Hitachi - they were, imho, the King of computer monitors all through the '90s and early '00s.
When HD TVs began to hit the market, they were right there with the leaders (if not at the top) of the pack.
Basically, they are no where to be found in this market any longer.

Be real curious to know what all they plan on cutting back.
Surely they can't have lost a billion dollars in the last year only on TVs.

gotta go to work, I'm late

I think the next big thing will be OLED if they can get the same panel life and keep the cost to the consumer reasonable.
Advantages= the blackest blacks (better than Pro -Feel CRT) and vibrant accurate colors without motion blur better there again than PF-CRT which says a lot. No need for backlighting.
Disadvantages = Price and panel life (not tried and true as plasma and LCD)
Supposedly there is a joint venture between Panasonic and Sony on OLED.

I wanted to post a quick update about the VT60 that I bought. I am soooooo glad I got this through Bets Buy, rather than ordering the ST60 model elsewhere. This morning, the price was down $200, so my wife called tonight to get the price match courtesy of her Rewards Zone offers. By the time she called, the price was down again. We got back nearly $500, which puts it at about the price I would have paid if I got the ST60 model elsewhere. SCORE!

A couple notes... I continue to be very very pleased with the picture quality. I am experiencing the loud fan noise that is a common complaint with this model, but I finally have service scheduled for next week (too much traveling past 3 weeks to do sooner).

I've been communicating with a rep from Dish Network about how poor the UI is when set for 1080i/p, and though he ignored my last question, I believe I have the answer on that. I found that my AVR showed it was getting only 1080i from the Hopper, not 1080p, regardless of what channel or content was being viewed, and that includes the Home Media app streaming 1080p content from my Plex server. He told me that they only offer 1080p on select PPV/VOD content, which I understand and have no issues with. The problem is that I would expect the Hopper to output at 1080p, but upscale anything lower than that as needed, and render the UI at 1080p, just like the Apple TV and other devices do. It does not do that. It doesn't even stream local media at 1080p. My best guess is that the UI and the "regular" HD content is 720p, and if you tell it you have a 1080i/p TV set, it just upscales everything to 1080i (or, the case of Home Media, downscales it if the source is 1080p). That explains why the UI is fuzzier. 1080i is not absolutely superior to 720p because the horizontal resolution is really only 540, but interlaced to fill it out more. The vertical resolution is superior (1920 vs 1280), but overall, if you count the number of "pixels" available in the data, the difference is only slightly higher (1920 x 540 vs 1280 x 720). I'm a little annoyed, but not terribly so. I just reset the Hopper to 720p and called it a day.

I'll post an update about the service call (Tuesday), but I'm confident it'll be fixed. The problem is just too widespread for Panasonic to not have a proper solution by now.

BTW, it should go without saying, but if you are interested in one of these, get one NOW! The price is right and Panasonic announced yesterday that they have ceased production!

The TV got serviced today and the fan noise is 100% resolved. Woot!

Bummer. All three TV's in my house are Panny Plasma's, my oldest is a 42" 720P I bought in Feb 2007, I own a 2010 65" VT series in our great room and last year I bought a 60" S series for my basement "media room", mostly based on my high end old school 2 channel audio system centered on my Maggie Tympani IVa's with CARVER equipment and I wanted something to use with my PS3.

To my eye Panasonic Plasma's just look "right" without any excuses. I hope they run for many more years.

After going and looking at a couple of the 4k sets out there right now - only need mine to run until the 4k TVs get down to where I can actually afford one of them.

Came home from watching part of the 4k version of Amazing Spidy at the store this past weekend and could still tell the difference between that and the B-R version at home. I was really hoping I wouldn't be able to see it, but alas... Couple more years maybe?

liab - been meaning to check all my settings and just haven't gotten to it - but there should be somewhere in the TV settings to use it's scaler to upscale everything to 1080p.