Panasonic PD30 Faults/Problems plz post here

[DoogyDawg]

I thought it would be much better to have a sticky for all panasonic PD30 problems, instead of having to look through each thread to gain whats good or bad on these TV's, so please post,
lets see what These TV's have going for them or not.

Many thanks to Lynx for this sticky thread.
steve.

[davej]

Well for starters:
- "Black crushing" when viewing DVDs via RGB, where all shadow detail is lost and replaced by black. Noticed by large numbers. Doesn't appear to happen if the DVD player is capable of progressive scan (PD30 RGB problems thread has more detail). On some (earlier?) sets this is more extreme than others and can affect component input, and on the sets where it is at its worst overall colour/brightness stability seems poor as well (dull scenes too dull, colourful scenes too colourful). 5 mins into Attack of the Clones is a prime test for this.
- Overall green colour cast, seen by large numbers, fixable via service menu
- PAL progressive scan images off centre resulting in an white band, seen by several, fixable via service menu
- Pink stripe on side of screen, reported by one person
- Lack of sharpness, reported by one person
- Dirty screen effect highlighted when watching sport, seen by me on two successive sets (awaiting third!) and one other person
- "SVM" cannot be deactivated, reported by those who know what SVM is
- some reports of horizontal banding when brightness is set very high
- a report of banding from an HK25 dvd player when in progressive
- a report of a buzzing noise

owt else?

[davej]

To balance things it might be an idea for someone with a healthy one of these sets to summarise the good things about the PD30.

I'm not qualified for that role as I'm still at the wanting-to-throw-a-brick-through-the-screen stage with mine....

[katalyst2k]

Has anyone tried a Scart to Y-U-V Convertor?.

I recently purchased one from Maplins, and have acheived great results.

Might be the answer to many peoples problems. (Hopefully )


Kat

[NinjaKi11a]

So would the basic message be: don't buy one as they're a pain in the arse?

Do similar problems happen with all sets?

What kind of comeback go I get if I start noticing these problems after a couple of months? Are they faults under warranty or are they 'features' of the set.

Many thanks,

Pete

[lynx]

Originally posted by SansSouci
What kind of comeback go I get if I start noticing these problems after a couple of months?

Have a look at some of the older threads such as Sony TV Scrolling Bar Problem - Official Response from SOny UK at last !!! , for an idea.

I've had my 32" PD30 now for a couple of weeks and in the main I'm impressed. Most people who have seen it have commented very favourably on the picture quality - to the untutored eye it is sometimes, as has been said elsewhere, more like looking through a window than looking at a screen. I wonder if any domestic TV would meet the demanding requirements of the users of this forum? Incidentally I use NTL via Pace set-top box and Panasonic DVD-S75 through component leads. Contrast is set to about 50%, brightness 60%, colour 50% and sharpness low.

I may be about to join the ranks of the critics now that my Avia test disc has arrived and I'm able to be objective, but the first problem that concerns me is new to this forum (I think).

Geometry tests (grids and chequerboards) reveal a considerable horizontal stretching at the sides, such that a square is elongated by as much as 50% near the screen edge. There is also significant bending of vertical lines near the corners. What I'm not clear about is what is normal for a widescreen CRT. Comments from the experts would be welcome.

[bazzae123]

I've had my 32PD30 for eight hours now and it is Sh*t. It replaced my three year old Toshiba 32" and hasn't come no where near matching it on picture quality. The main faults are.
A constant buzzing that drove me mad last night when the volume had to be lowered.
The colours can't seam to make up there minds. One minute its dull, the next it looks like the contrast is set at 100%.
Playing my copy of "Saving Private Ryan" loses all detail on the beach landing scene. I now its has a grainy effect to enhance the scene but now its completely washed out with black detailess scenes. Before on my Tosh it had substance, now its all lifeless.

My main terrestrial test is on the footy, with especially the BBC studio commentary team. Before the quality was outstanding but last night things only got worse.

I've just phoned the retailer and demanded my money back. There are sending a engineer to look at it but I'm afraid he may say there's nothing wrong with it. It could be all subjective. All I know is it's a lot worse than the set it replaced so therefore I'm not satisfied. Should that be enough?

Oh, one last thing, The wife doesn't give a dame about what TV I purchased but last night she did make one comment on it. All she could say was "the pictures not very clear is it".

Don't you just love it when that happens.

Bazza

Just spoke to JL and their going to get another set for me to try, If I'm still not happy, it's either a full refund or a different model. Boy am I clad I went to JL, service to date is excellent.

[kwangomango]

Originally posted by lynx
In a short space of time, quite a number of individual PD30 threads appeared and at the time i felt it would better serve the board members to draw them into one thread rather than have lots of individual threads. Hopefully this one can sumarise and bring a bit of clarity to the topic.

Absolutely. I made a few posts asking people to put there questions/comments on the main thread rather then creating new ones. It really is best keeping all the info in one source despite the fact that it grows to a large size.

[Andrew N]

I mentioned on the other big thread about the green problem. On Progressive mode (set on the HK25 DVD Player)I find it unbearable especially on Buffy Season 6 Episode 10 within the first 5 minutes, one of the characters looks radioactive, every outline to the right side of skin has a green edge to it. When I switch to Interlaced the problem moves to the left hand side of peoples faces but is FAR less pronounced. I watched Phone Booth in this mode and didn't notice it once.
I've tried turning down the green in the service menu and to be honest it made no difference whatsoever.
I've sent an e-mail to Panasonic about it, but I'm expecting to be fobbed off.

Does anyone else have the green problem as excessive as this?
[Long Shot] Does anyone have the same Buffy episode to test this? [Long Shot]

Apart from this green problem I think the Tv is excellent.

[Andrew N]

Oh, and one other problem that was mentioned in a separate thread, previous generation consoles have a problem.

I've had to transfer my Nintendo 64 to another tv because the picture kept juddering every 3-4 secs. I've also noticed it on the Dreamcast, but only on 60hz mode, 50hz seems to work ok.

Gamecube and XBox both work fine.

[DoogyDawg]

I was going to get the panny 32pd30, but have just read the reviews in Home entertainment, the tosh 32-ZP-38 came out above the Philips and the panny, any comments on this tv would be great.
soz a bit off subject, but the tosh v panny for me now.
P.S
yeah I know its a mag review

[EasyTiger]

Well I am returning my PD30 due to:

- Whilst watching Solaris I noticed that bright areas of the scene were brilliant white whilst any black areas lost all detail.
- Using the THX utility on my Terminator 2 disc I noticed I was getting the dirty screen on white areas.
- Certain amount of digital edge problems - this is only to be expected from the processing required for all those extra pixels

Have ordered a PF2 (arrives this Monday). So am hoping the Tosh is a bit better.

As there are a number of people faced with the PD30/PF2 decision I will report back Tuesday after a bit of PF2 time.

[fatbob]

Originally posted by nsutherland




Geometry tests (grids and chequerboards) reveal a considerable horizontal stretching at the sides, such that a square is elongated by as much as 50% near the screen edge. There is also significant bending of vertical lines near the corners. What I'm not clear about is what is normal for a widescreen CRT. Comments from the experts would be welcome. [/B]

If your set elongates objects by 50% at the edges, then its' geometry is at fault. No CRT can produce perfect geometry, some sets being much better in this area than others, but a 50% distortion on any tv is not normal.

This might be a little obvious, and I'm sure that you've probably already tried this, but make sure that you're not looking at test signals with the tv set to the picture mode that configures a 4:3 image to fit a 16:9 screen, as these often work by slightly zooming the image, while stretching the sides of the image to fill out the screen. This would result in a crosshatch pattern showing properly proportioned squares in the centre, while those at the edges of the screen would be elongated.

Cheers.

[davej]

I chose the PD30 over the PF2 because
1) at the time there was no major problems reported with the PD30 on here while there were countless reports of colour purity problems on the PF2 (something that I'd notice and hate)
2) One shop's PF2 was flickering at the edges like crazy
3) The next shop's PF2 had horrendouse geometry (not something I normally notice but this was extreme)
4) The PD30 I saw in a shop didn't have any noticeable problems
5) I wanted PiP etal (watching two footy matches simultaneously this last week was great fun)and the PF2 didn't offer it

At the moment I'm in a dilemma. Do I keep getting the PD30 replaced in the hope of getting a good one? Do I try a PiP-less PF2 instead and maybe start a new sequence of constant replacing? Do I go for a refund and wait to see what October's Sony KV-36HQ100 is like?
Maybe I'll just keep replacing the pd30 until the sony is available, doing my civic duty by causing loads of them to be sent back...