Finally got a plasma tv.

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Ghostworld, Jun 23, 2017.

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  1. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    I picked up a really clean Panasonic Viera TH58PZ70OU 58" plasma today used for $150 off Craigslist. It's ten years old, the owner took good care of it. No marks or dust, anywhere. Remote and manuals. Fired right up at home and looks fabulous. A little on the heavy side -- 165lbs! The specs on this from Panasonic said it features a 100,000-hour tube -- which sounds like a lot of hours to me! Has anyone ever owned one of these? Was this a good choice? I always hear guys here talking about Panasonic plasmas and this was my chance.
     
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  2. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    I was never a fan of plasmas and find their reputation to be overblown.

    Firstly, I don't like the glass and it reflects every light source which I personally find annoying. If there are any windows on the sides or facing the TV, you'll see them so I suggest thick curtains.

    The colors of the Panasonics I've seen were rather cartoony and overly vivid which may seem cool at first but gets old fast... to me, anyway.

    You've already mentioned the weight which can be problematic if you want to hang it on the wall unless you anchor the stand to your studs and even then, I wouldn't be so keen on taking that chance, though in your case, you'd only be out $150.

    Screen burn is also a possibility so make sure you don't leave it on while an image is static like if you pressed Pause on a movie or left your PC running and forgot to turn off your TV overnight. Those can lead to bad surprises.

    They can also be extremely hot which, depending on your location, might or might not be an issue.

    And lastly, off-axis viewing isn't so great which, again, entirely depends on your situation so this might not even be an issue for you.

    In the end, all that matters is whether YOU like it. If you fired it up and had a grin on your face, that's all you should care about. Some will chime in and state they love their plasmas and will never let them go but I never saw any that made me think they were all that great. When DLPs were on the market, plasmas were superior (IMHO), but now,...
     
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  3. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    $150 ?
    Cheaper than a meal for two washed down with a bottle of Moet champagne.
     
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  4. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Plasmas are far from perfect, but some of the things you criticize them for simply aren't true.

    If anything, plasmas have the opposite problem to being vivid and 'cartoony'. They tend to have more subdued colors with less brightness compared to LCD panels that can be cranked up to real cartoon-like levels. Plasmas have always been praised for 'natural' looking colors. Either you were watching an animated (cartoon) movie or the set was set to 'showroom' clown mode, or both.
    Some models may, but the last gen of plasmas were quite good and the power consumption was cut significantly (I have a last gen Samsung plasma).
    This is 100% BS. The view angles on plasmas are almost 180 degrees with no sudden color/brightness shifts as you change viewing position. LCDs are notorious for this type of problem.
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2017
  5. mikeyt

    mikeyt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    The F8500? I have the 51" and love it. By the time I need to upgrade I hope OLED has come way down in price.
     
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  6. Johnny Rocker

    Johnny Rocker Well-Known Member

    Location:
    DFW
    I'm all flat screens hers, I had issues with land fills , and junk haulers taking away the behemoths and re-cycling them. Congrats though on your purchase.:cool:
     
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  7. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    3-D.
     
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  8. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Possible. That is what I've seen, anyway.

    I wasn't praising one versus another. Simply stating what my experience was. Glad you don't have those issues with yours.
     
  9. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    The thing is it's not a matter of 'my plasma' vs 'your plasma', but the nature of the display technology itself. Plasmas, just like OLEDs are selfemissive displays which simply don't have an off-axis viewing problem. So I'm confused by your comment.

    Edit: The only thing I can think of is if the plasma you saw had some kind of a horrible Anti Reflective filter applied to the screen, which might have some effect...
     
  10. Larry Mc

    Larry Mc Forum Dude

    I've had a Panasonic plasma for 5 years, I love it. Great 3D.
     
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  11. mikeyt

    mikeyt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    ?

    I've never used the 3D function of my set. 3D has always been a gimmick to me.
     
  12. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    It's possible. Since it wasn't mine, I had limited experience with it. Truthfully, all of this didn't;t bother me as much as the glaring from the glass. That, to me, was a deal breaker. But I know lots of people who either don't notice these things or can easily live with them. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.
     
  13. Chazro

    Chazro Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Palm Bch, Fl.
    Glass glare is no biggie. Especially if yr only spending $150 bucks!;) My son recently gifted me his 55" Samsung LED. I was using a 50" plasma (that I still own but not using). Tellyawhat, I could easily go back to my plasma!
     
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  14. townsend

    townsend Senior Member

    Location:
    Ridgway, CO
    I've got a 50" Panasonic plasma. I'm not sure exactly how old it is, but I think I purchased it in 2012 or so. I don't use it a lot, but it is an outstanding set and has given me no problems. Back in the day --- plasma was considered superior to LCD for a variety of reasons: deep dark blacks, leading to more appearance of "depth" to the picture, foremost among them. I recognize that LCD has come along way since then, as well as LED, and probably other new technology. I think plasma is still impressive (I'm not into 4K at this point).
     
  15. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    To be clear, LED is the same as LCD. That is, the display technology is LCD, it's just the backlighting that's LED (as opposed to fluorescent tubes of old). Currently, there are only two types of TV display technology - LCD and OLED.
     
  16. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Panny active 3-D glasses ain't cheap new.
     
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  17. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    Don't own the model you have but I bought my 50" Panny plasma in 2009 - still going strong, not a single issue, and it beats the pants off of any LCD I've seen since then and now.

    Only when mine craps out will I start looking for something like 4K OLED.
     
  18. Heavy Music

    Heavy Music Forum Resident

    I thought Samsung's QLED has been thrown into the mix?
     
  19. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    I've never seen an LCD come remotely close to the calibrated picture quality of my ZT60 and this includes the Samsung F8000. I'm glad high end OLED has surpassed plasma and I'll have something that is better when this set dies.
     
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  20. Claus LH

    Claus LH Forum Resident

    Ghost, congratulations on a great deal. The Viera 58 700 series...we spent nine happy years with ours until the power supply started going this spring. I wasn't ready to start buying just like that, but....had to. Got the 65 LG OLED B model, as no LCD set would have been acceptable after the Panny. Set her up right with a set of color bars and a grey scale (both downloadable from the web) and you'll have a killer image.

    C.
     
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  21. greenhorn

    greenhorn Forum Resident

    I have a Panasonic 42" that we got in 2002 just before the Salt Lake City Olympics. I will be a very sad day when it goes. Years of great picture. I've seen some 4k, I think that would make a nice transition when the time comes.
     
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  22. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Ah, their marketing tricks worked! This is a sad tale of marketing over technology. It's true that Samsung was and still is working on what they originally called QLED. They bought out a tech company pioneering that technology which is quantum dot based. Essentially, it's an inorganic LED display which promises to have better performance characteristics compared to organic LEDs (OLED).

    The trouble is that it's relatively new technology and getting the wrinkles out, sorting out the processing and manufacturing, investment, etc, is taking some time (it's still at least 2-3 years away). But Samsung had already sung the praises of its new fantastic technology which won't be available for years. In the meantime, LG is eating its lunch with OLEDs, which have been available for some time.

    So, what to do? Samsung decided to muddy the waters by releasing a QLED labeled panel which does use quantum dots, bit is NOT the original tech they were promoting. It's just a standard LCD panel which happens to use quantum dot filters to generate the colors. Quantum dot filters do produce more saturated colors with a wider gamut, but at the end of the day, the displays are still just LCDs at core. What's more, quantum dot LCDs aren't unique to Samsung - everyone is going that way now (because there is some benefit to it).

    So, until Samsung releases true QLED displays, which will be a new display technology, we still currently only have LCD and OLED.
     
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  23. felvis

    felvis Forum Resident

    Real quick,... Had two plasmas two LCDs, one a 65 Samsung 4k from this past Black Friday, Too lazy to look up model numbers. Still prefer my 6-7 year old Panasonic 50" 1080p for color, black level, and definition. Good buy, enjoy!
     
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  24. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    Thanks! I finally got it in place and dialed in to my "custom" look. Watching Netflix and it looks incredible! It's does have the most inky blacks I've ever seen. The model that followed this actually got criticised by CNET for have less rich black. And that rich contrast does lend depth to the picture. Not a single bad pixel! It's really great. I played it for about 5 hours and I didn't find it produced any appreciable heat. So all is good with the used tube! Three or four years of life and I'll be happy. I'm too chicken to go into the technicians menu to see how many hours were logged on. And did I say it looks incredible. I watched "2001: A Space Odyssey" last night and got a chill watching the "Dawn of Man" sequence. I haven't seen it look that good since I saw it at the Cinerama (first run!). The veld presented in such a large scope in my room really moved me .... and made me grin! :p I'm watching "Black Mirror" now and I'm floored. I never had a tv like this before. For some reason Netflix looks better than blu rays in my PS3. Why would that be?
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2017
  25. Matt Richardson

    Matt Richardson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Suburban Chicago
    I have five-year-old 50 inch Panasonic Plasma in my office and I love it. The picture is so natural looking while also very accurate and detailed. For comparison, I also have a three-year-old 60 inch Samsung LED in our living room, which I have grown to dislike. Compared to the Plasma, the LED is artificial and analytical with weird contrasts that I can never seem to correct no matter how much time I spend calibrating it. I plan to hold onto my 1080p Plasma for as long as I can.
     
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