What 36 inch?...

[Silva]

Hello there

I was wondering if there was anybody out there that could answer a few questions for me. I have only started looking at this forum over the last few days due to owning a 36ZP18P and experiencing similar problems to others here. I am now in the position whereby I have been offered a replacement tv of which I need to choose. So, back to square one as it where. Anyway here are my questions:

1) Has anybody got the Panasonic 36PB30 (the model with Nicam instead of DD/DTS due to the volume issue with the PB50)

2) Does the moire effect make the picture unwatchable? does it effect PAL dvd's, does the Progressive scan help it at all?

3) Has anybody got a good 36ZP18P without the vertical bar effect, is it a batch problem, as I do like this tv but cannot put up with this

4) Does the Panasonic have any other problems apart from the buzzing and the moire effect? as everything else seems ok

5) I play a lot of games (import) would the moire effect be abvious with these too.

6)How is the black level withe the Panasonic, and what is this about the dvd level being grainy due to the set receiving noise as wrote about in the 'What Video andTV' review. AV input breakthrough they called it.

Its just that I have looked at many sets the last few days and I have found the greyish horizontal bars across the Philips 36 and the Sony 36 which would bug me too much to watch what was on the tv instead of watch THE tv itself. this is whatI have found recently that I am not able to look at the programme itself. The Panasonic I am able to even if the pictures might not be up the other makes standards.

So please help me as time is closing in on me, I have to make a decision soon. Thanks for your help in advance...

[Pids]

I am going to be no help to you up there, however, I ma in a similar dilema. I am about to buy a 36 tv, was looking at Tosh 36zp18p and hitachi c36wf810N.

Can anyone help me decide?

I'm a real technophobe though.

I'd say if you want the toshiba 36ZP18P go to the place you're buying it from and get them to set it up so you can check it out,there are some good sets out there(although I didn't get one ) I love the style of my toshiba over any of the others but if the problems can't be sorted out mine will be going back as well.

All this hassle makes me wonder why only the shops that hold stock are selling,all the other retailers I contacted were quoting delivery dates of january onwards as toshiba had no stock.

Now is it that Toshiba have no stock or they're not selling any more untill all the faults are sorted out

[yakko]

Silva do you mean the 36 PL30?
I am very interested in this set to replace my third Philips 36" set (frankly terrible!). Embarrasingly I'm not exactly sure what a "moire" effect is. A quick search showed it effecting a lot of 32" models are you sure it's a problem with this set also? Where did you hear about the buzzing?
The PL30 is a rare beast to track down, have you seen any reviews yet ?

Yakko

[Silva]

Yes sorry I do mean the 36PL30 (Nicam version) - the moire effect is the wavy line effect seen where there are horizontal lines shown close together (cant be bothered to get too technical) Anyway it seems like it is distracting enough to bother a few people which is why I ask. Can anyone answer any of my questions though, just one?

[Monster]

I briefly had a 32PB50 which suffered the moire problem. Not only was this evident with close horizontal lines but also across the main part of the screen irrespective of what was being show. It was even visible when selecting an AV input with no device connected. It gave a pattern like the colours in a soap bubble or like a thumb print over large areas of the screen. An engineer came to look at it and defocussed the beam until the lines vanished. Unfortunatly this left the picture too blurred. Also had problems with buzzing, audio line out is not fixed and I found the picture looked washed out.

Swaped for Tosh 32ZP18P and had the usual faults but could see that this was potentially a stunning set. Swapped it for the 36" and I am now fairly happy. The only problems I have are the slight brightness around the edge of the screen in dark scenes but this is very slight, slight colour staining to top left of screen Again slight and only visible in large patches of block colour. (barely noticeable during normal viewing even when looking for it!) and finally the biggest problem, the black bar effects to the left and right. This I can put up with most of the time. Its only really noticeable when watching grass sports when the camera is panning. As I don't watch footy much it is not as major a problem for me as it is for others.

In all I've had a Panny TX32PK1, 32PB50 32ZP18P and now 36ZP18P and the 36" Tosh is the best set I have seen. I think the severity of the faults varies from set to set so getting a shop to set one up for you to check and if you are satisfied, making sure that it is the same set they deliver is a good idea. I personally wouldn't take a display model due to continued playing at high contrast causing wear to the tube.

It will be interesting to see the response DTSBorg gets from Tosh. See his (Assuming its a he!) post.

Hope this helps.

Originally posted by yakko

The PL30 is a rare beast to track down, have you seen any reviews yet ?

Sound and vision in bolton had the PL30 in stock last week for £1400 delivered.

First of all can I say I have the 32PG50 not the 36" version.
As for the moire' patterning, it is most evident on NTSC but can be cured without defocusing the beam. This is done via the service menu although I am not to sure of the parameter. The buzzing noise I have not experienced so cannot comment.
I am now one happy PG viewer but it has taken nearly 18 months and 6 32 inch WS sets (both Panny and Sony) to reach this stage.
It is important that only service engineers who have been on a course relevant to this particular chassis do any maintenance - I believe the reason that many have had problems with Panasonic Sets (and it applied to myself) is that as soon as an engineer walks into the house, the first he does is take the back off!!!!!!! Not always needed.
Hope I have been able to help.

[yakko]

Originally posted by Colger
it has taken nearly 18 months and 6 32 inch WS sets (both Panny and Sony) to reach this stage.
.

likewise, I started two years ago with Philips first dolby digital set, and have been through two different Sonys, a toshiba, and the soon to be departing Philips 36". I'm going to order a PL30 next week, fingers crossed that this is a "keeper"!

In response to the Panasonic moire questions I have had a Panasonic engineer from Bracknell down to fix my NTSC moire problem on my 36PG50 and Panasonics official solution is to go into the service menu and increase the overscan in NTSC mode (V AMP) until the moire it disappears. A very nice guy came to visit my premises and did a geometry setup for me using a pattern generator.

The result was that when viewing NTSC material in 16x9 mode there was no moire evident (horray!). Moire in other picture modes was still there though. But on further viewing after he had gone everything looked really squashed which I ignored this thinking the engineer couldn't have set it wrong until I noticed films not filling the frame in NTSC 16x9 mode when I knew they previously did. Watching R1 Evil Dead showed rough white edges at top and bottom of image I never previously suffered.

I then tried THX setup on my R1 T2 disk and found that NTSC geometry was truely now far too squashed and opening up the V AMP setting ( the engineer kindly showed me how to do this before he left) started to bring the Geometry back to an acceptable size. But...........the moire is now back, just as before!

The engineer did comment that these sets were probably too sharp for there own good and people want to watch NTSC on TV's which really are optimised for PAL viewing. He also offered to defocus the scan beam which I declined. The geometry settings are separate for PAL and NTSC by the way. If anybody has one of these models I would be interested to know your V-AMP and H-AMP settings in NTSC mode just for a comparison.

Nick