The Official LG PK350 Plasma Thread

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Anyone found this cheaper than Richer Sounds at £650?


Just ordered myself. Currys 649 (including delivery, which richer don't), used topcashback for 3.5% cashback, egg money card for another 1% and a free 2nd year warranty, total £620.

They're also running the England goals deal, a tenner for each goal they score. Being a Scot this will be a hideous internal struggle for me, but it's a nice deal otherwise (the betting markets have a midpoint of about 10.5 goals, ie worth an average of £105).
 
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hello,just thought id post a message here.
just bought one of these as a replacement to my old tv,set it up,did the picture set up thing,then sat back and watched some tv.
its only been on for an hour,but i think it looks stunning,and love the overall frame too,looks much smaller than my old one.
nothing special there,but my old set it replaces was none other than a pioneer kuro 5090.
i bought it last year,but due to a new job,it was hardly getting used,so i decided to get my money back,and just get a cheaper one to fill the space.
saw this was just out,and only 650,i thought it would do.
i have to say im stunned how good it looks,and how easy it was to set up.
i am in no way saying its better than the pioneer,and im pretty sure i never got round to setting the picture correctly on that,but for 1900 cheaper,its more than good enough for me.
i think its a bit like a bottle of wine,you can get a lovely one for 10 pounds or 100,some people can tell the difference between the 2,and the extra is worth it,for others they enjoy the 10 pound one just as much.
p.s,had a look on here about the sparklies issue,and mine has no such faults,fingers crossed
 
I've read elsewhere that the THX presets can be activated through the service menu using a universal remote, anyone found this?

One more reason to save £100 on the PK590, as there's no freeview HD in my area this year.
 
I've read elsewhere that the THX presets can be activated through the service menu using a universal remote, anyone found this?

One more reason to save £100 on the PK590, as there's no freeview HD in my area this year.

There were some people who did this on last years PS7000, but the THX presets you unlocked were completely wrong (worse than the existing presets) because it wasn't made for that model so it proved to be pretty pointless. I'm not sure if it would be the same with the new ones but I don't see why it would be any different.
 
On my 60PK250, I have used the service menu to add the THX presets and activate jpg/mp3 capability on the USB port. My TV is delivered through a Dutch shop, I'm in the Netherlands, but I assume UK models are the same.

I've not personally checked either changes. Not the THX settings, as I'm currently on a low contrast/brightness setting breaking in the TV using the 'Break-in' DVD, the TV was only delivered yesterday. So unfortunately no comment on wether the THX settings are an improvement. I don't have any use for playing jpg or mp3 through the set, so nice that it can be activated but let's leave it at that.

For activating the service menu on a Harmony remote:

- Add LG TV in Harmony remote configuration (if already added prior to following these instructions, continue to next step but be aware your current setup will be changed with this update. The changes to my Harmony/LG Device setup were minimal but I did have to re-learn a couple LG remote buttons).
- Connect to Logitech Harmony website with Login/Password http://members.harmonyremote.com
- Go to : http://members.harmonyremote.com/Eas...owInfrared.asp
- Click on "Manual >"
- In "Data Value" zone, copy/paste this Philips Pronto code :
0000 006d 0022 0002 0157 00ac 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0689 0157 0056 0015 0e94

- Click on "Process >" : message "Converted from Pronto format successfully!"
- Click on "Next >"
- Click on "Select an active device"
- Choose device for your LG "TV"
- Enter command name "EZ Adjust", for example
- Click on "Add >"

In remote software, you can now assign command "EZ Adjust" to any button

The pin-code for the service menu is '0000'.
 
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Has anyone had any luck with the Virgin Media V+ remote controlling the set's volume? i have a samsung V+ HD set top box! i found the code for LG on their list but it doesn't seem to work!
 
Well I've just reserved my PK350 to pick up tomorrow - fingers crossed I like it! Seemed like the best possible option around (including it's more expensive bro's) as I don't want any gimmicks & use SkyHD.

The only thing I was trying to decide between this and the PK590 was the option of THX colour modes as bad colours on screens do tend to bug me. I have a Marantz universal remote I haven't used in years so not sure if that will work to access the menu's or not but was wondering if the THX mode gives you the screen settings as figures or just locks them out?

I can use a calibration disk but only a basic one, don't have colour meters unfortunately :( If anyone has any good generic settings that equate to the THX spec would be very grateful! :)
 
Isn't there another way to enter the service menu that doesn't require having to buy a universal remote?
 
Unfortunately also green sparkles here, including the distortion of the letterbox...
Compared it to a 60PK550 and 60PK950 in a local shop today, they have red/green/blue sparkles as well, but a lot less then my screen. So probabbly a defective screen, I'm in contact with my supplier to change it.
 
picked one of these up today , Happy so far .
Not had to much of a play with the settings , just dialled them down to bearable levels for the moment.
Surprised to see the 2 ISF options available , thought they were only on the higher models . Not that I'm complaining .
Bit of HD, SD and GOW2 so far, no issues at all :thumbsup: so far ;)
 
picked one of these up today , Happy so far .
Not had to much of a play with the settings , just dialled them down to bearable levels for the moment.
Surprised to see the 2 ISF options available , thought they were only on the higher models . Not that I'm complaining .
Bit of HD, SD and GOW2 so far, no issues at all :thumbsup: so far ;)

Excellent news :) Picking mine up in the morning, probably won't get chance to use it until I move into my new house at weekend but will try and update with any issues/non-issues/pics etc to help out others looking to buy. Still unsure whether I should have gone for the PK590 just for the THX colours but considering Currys doing the 350 for £650 + £10-a-goal for England promo it didn't seem worth the extra outlay...
 
Excellent news :) Picking mine up in the morning, probably won't get chance to use it until I move into my new house at weekend but will try and update with any issues/non-issues/pics etc to help out others looking to buy. Still unsure whether I should have gone for the PK590 just for the THX colours but considering Currys doing the 350 for £650 + £10-a-goal for England promo it didn't seem worth the extra outlay...

PK590 at £799 still looks awesome for me though.... add NetCast, extra 2 x HDMI, DLNA and freeview HD built in for £150 is still well worth it if you are going to use the above.

What does everybody else think?
 
PK590 at £799 still looks awesome for me though.... add NetCast, extra 2 x HDMI, DLNA and freeview HD built in for £150 is still well worth it if you are going to use the above.

What does everybody else think?

Yeah I weighed up the balance and I use SkyHD so the Freeview is unnecessary and have a PS3 to handle all the media streaming options... Aside from that I don't think there's much in the syling - 590 more modern but 350 has smaller bottom black bar which I think matches the sides/top better. This leaves the THX presets as the only major difference for me and I reckon that's not enough to justify an extra £150 - especially as that's not far off a pro calibration cost! For now at least the 350 is supposed to have the better pic too (though as Phil has mentioned there may well be an update - call me sceptical but I'm never sure about manufacturers! Actually I'll say "video" manufacturers since I'm in the audio side!! ;) )
 
Yeah I weighed up the balance and I use SkyHD so the Freeview is unnecessary and have a PS3 to handle all the media streaming options... Aside from that I don't think there's much in the syling - 590 more modern but 350 has smaller bottom black bar which I think matches the sides/top better. This leaves the THX presets as the only major difference for me and I reckon that's not enough to justify an extra £150 - especially as that's not far off a pro calibration cost! For now at least the 350 is supposed to have the better pic too (though as Phil has mentioned there may well be an update - call me sceptical but I'm never sure about manufacturers! Actually I'll say "video" manufacturers since I'm in the audio side!! ;) )

People who are in your situation, with the HD TV, media streaming etc...all sorted are the lucky ones in this! You can bag a real bargain, because you don't necessarily have the need for the other stuff. Although a lot can be said for having it all in one TV.

Personally, as someone without HD TV or the ability to calibrate, the PK590 is worth the extra for me.
 
People who are in your situation, with the HD TV, media streaming etc...all sorted are the lucky ones in this! You can bag a real bargain, because you don't necessarily have the need for the other stuff. Although a lot can be said for having it all in one TV.

Personally, as someone without HD TV or the ability to calibrate, the PK590 is worth the extra for me.

Totally agreed, if I didn't have SkyHD I wouldn't even be thinking about the 350 - even now I wonder if Sky's worth the extra since Freeview/Sat has come so far. I figure I can always buy an external box in future if need be... I'll no doubt be tweaking picture settings for months wishing I had the THX option now ;)
 
Totally agreed, if I didn't have SkyHD I wouldn't even be thinking about the 350 - even now I wonder if Sky's worth the extra since Freeview/Sat has come so far. I figure I can always buy an external box in future if need be... I'll no doubt be tweaking picture settings for months wishing I had the THX option now ;)

Ah well, when you see what comes around next year, or the prices at the end of the year, you'll wonder why you didn't wait. This life is full of "what if's"
 
Excellent news :) Picking mine up in the morning, probably won't get chance to use it until I move into my new house at weekend but will try and update with any issues/non-issues/pics etc to help out others looking to buy. Still unsure whether I should have gone for the PK590 just for the THX colours but considering Currys doing the 350 for £650 + £10-a-goal for England promo it didn't seem worth the extra outlay...

I Don't know where you are in the world but Currys at lakeside in Essex are doing a special on this set due to a new best buy opening next door, you can pick this model up for £599 with the £10 per goal promo!
 
I Don't know where you are in the world but Currys at lakeside in Essex are doing a special on this set due to a new best buy opening next door, you can pick this model up for £599 with the £10 per goal promo!

Ahh bummer, am in Swindon and picked up already - not gonna complain too much about £649 though! I must admit if you just saw the set in the shop you wouldn't buy, they seem to deliberately make the picture as poor as possible (or it could just be that it's crap on SD). They are at least making an effort on the higher priced LCD's nowadays though, some of them looked fantastic.

I may get it set up today if I give in to my childish inquisitiveness (that doesn't even sound like a word) but realistically I should wait until I'm into my new house on Friday... That said I'm sure the father-in-law would appreciate a viewing... ;)
 
Just had my 50pk350 delivered. Only had 10 mins to play with, but did a quick black measurement and it hit at 0.015fL - this was in a bright room with a skylight overhead, so it looks like the 0.013fl measured elsewhere will be about right (the US model 550 chadb reviewed, and german forums of the 250/350).

Other impressions as I expected: it's a mirror, and the remote is pretty cheap.


Will calibrate and post the figures/charts tonight when it gets a bit darker.
 
Just had my 50pk350 delivered. Only had 10 mins to play with, but did a quick black measurement and it hit at 0.015fL - this was in a bright room with a skylight overhead, so it looks like the 0.013fl measured elsewhere will be about right (the US model 550 chadb reviewed, and german forums of the 250/350).

Other impressions as I expected: it's a mirror, and the remote is pretty cheap.


Will calibrate and post the figures/charts tonight when it gets a bit darker.

Awesome, will be interesting to see the results - I'm hoping the mirror effect won't be too bad in the new living room as all the light is to the side of the seating position (see pic). I was disappointed to see it was pretty much the worst looking picture in the large Curry's I went to - I'll use the "Picture Wizard" and see what happens as I don't have proper calibration tools...


IMG_142309_3_large.jpg
 
Awesome, will be interesting to see the results - I'm hoping the mirror effect won't be too bad in the new living room as all the light is to the side of the seating position (see pic). I was disappointed to see it was pretty much the worst looking picture in the large Curry's I went to - I'll use the "Picture Wizard" and see what happens as I don't have proper calibration tools...

You shouldn't have a huge issue with the reflections in that room, but you will probably get some. I have a Panasonic PX80 in my front room facing the window, we've worked around the issues a bit but if it's sunny during the day it's unwatchable unless you close the curtains, my PG6000 in another room is in a similar situation as your TV and I can watch it with the curtains open with no real problems. The picture might wash out a bit due to the light if it's sunny and particularly bright, but it's worth it for the superior evening performance in my opinion (taking this as a general plasma vs LCD case)
 
I can use a calibration disk but only a basic one, don't have colour meters unfortunately :( If anyone has any good generic settings that equate to the THX spec would be very grateful! :)

I'd love an answer to this too :)

Also, this is my first plasma, so is anything over 50 artificially sharp, like LCD's?
 
Bit short on time, so just a quick burst of measurements/impressions.....

Calibration proving a bit of a challenge, far too many controls! Colour accuracy is excellent though:

x y Luma CIE94
R 0.635 0.339 16.8 1.4
G 0.297 0.607 51.6 2.2
B 0.147 0.066 5.984 1.7
Y 0.428 0.495 72.4 3.0
C 0.221 0.328 59.8 2.3
M 0.323 0.164 22.843 1.1
W 75.5


CIE94 in the right column is the error, anything under 3 is good, under 1.5 is perfection. An average of 2.0 out of the box us a lot better than I was expecting - the pk990 avforums reviewed with its THX presets actually had worse (including a 5.0ish error on blue). The US model pk550 which chadb reviewed was a lot worse, 3.5 avg with red/blue/magenta at 7/6/4.5ish.

Some of these will drift as the set is broken in, some will get better, some worse. Still, very impressed. Of course, with a meter you can dial them in to ideal settings with the CMS (and since they're all pretty close to targets that'll be pretty easy).

Blacks were 0.013fl as expected, so slightly worse than my old Pana G10 at 0.08 (but better after it rises). However with stuff on screen the LG holds its blacks a bit better, with ANSI contrast was 2100:1, whereas the G10 was 1750ish:1.


IR is a bit of a bitch though. This should get better as it ages.

Very mirror like, but not a problem in a darkened room.
 
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Well I gave in and got mine up and running at the "in-laws" (ok, not actually even proposed yet but same difference ;) ) about 5 minutes after getting home - Must say even fresh out of the box I was surprised how good the picture was, especially after seeing how poor it looked in the shop!

After using the built-in picture wizard the colour looked very good indeed - I prefer natural to burn-the-eyes strong and these looked pretty accurate. IR didn't seem to be a massive issue, with golf you could see a subtle ghosting effect sometimes but I was the only one who noticed (only one looking for it I guess!). HD broadcasts looked fantastic, SD was perfectly watchable even from only a few feet, a little soft but that's to be expected on any 50" I think. Movement was very good, no real issues.

I turned all the gimmick settings off except the orbiter (especially useful I as I had to keep reminding the "father-in-law" to press "Back-up" to get rid of the bloody red dots - they really should offer a setting to do that!). The only real flaws I could see was that bright white sky, in daylight at least, looked grey - this is probably a trade-off of plasma over LCD though, and with the wizard settings contrast was at 100 to make the white box appear correct.

The contrast issue was odd as at 99 the inner test box was still visible and it noticeably jumped when you hit 100, obviously to "full", this looked fine on the picture but I will probably tinker a little as viewing a HD broadcast with little colour filtering the only negative to me was that eyes and teeth just looked a little too white and "glowy" (only a little), while a black jacket Chris Tarrant had on "Who wants to be a millionaire" was a very solid black with little shadow, indicating contrast was on the high side. Black levels as said by everyone are good but not the best - not a problem in practice and overall picture is great, even with only 4 or 5 hours use on the screen. Would recommend it to anyone - especially at such a ridiculously low price compared to its performance level peers.

Now I just need to go buy me a light meter and some software... Oh, and a 60" PK250 to replace the projector I was going to get for the man room as it will be a hell of a lot cheaper! ;)
 
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