I am thinking of purchasing a Panasonic TH42PX600 and I note from lots of people that the TV has to be run in for 200 hours. Can someone tell me what this means and also is their instructions in the box on how to do this. Thanks

[ThundyCat]

Originally Posted by mikeywlon

I am thinking of purchasing a Panasonic TH42PX600 and I note from lots of people that the TV has to be run in for 200 hours. Can someone tell me what this means and also is their instructions in the box on how to do this. Thanks

Nah m8 it's easy to do just drop ya contrast,brightness and sharpness down to about 25%. Leave colour at about 40% but most important of all is to take it out of dynamic mode and put into cinema mode.

Hope this helps you.

regards,

Joseph.

[ThundyCat]

I would like to check on the amount of hours that my screen has done so far,I know there is a link to a thread that explains what to do here.

Accessing service menus

But this line in the instructions does not make sense



'then press v/- 0n front panel at the slightly after index on remote.'????

Can someone explain this to me in simple mode please

regards,

Joseph.

Originally Posted by Thundycat

Nah m8 it's easy to do just drop ya contrast,brightness and sharpness down to about 25%. Leave colour at about 40% but most important of all is to take it out of dynamic mode and put into cinema mode.

Hope this helps you.

regards,

Joseph.

So after 200hrs can I put the tv back to dynamic mode? Also, whats dynamic mode?

Originally Posted by Thundycat

Nah m8 it's easy to do just drop ya contrast,brightness and sharpness down to about 25%. Leave colour at about 40% but most important of all is to take it out of dynamic mode and put into cinema mode.

Hope this helps you.

regards,

Joseph.

Why is this information not supplied with the TV. Do I really have to wait 200 hours or is it OK to simply get the TV out of the box and switch it on.

[suniil]

Please check the first post or Panasonic PX600 owners thread

Originally Posted by Thundycat

'then press v/- 0n front panel at the slightly after index on remote.'????

Can someone explain this to me in simple mode please

regards,

Joseph.

[tony87]

hi

just setup the 42px600 and was wondering if anyone had setup their SKY remote with it..i'm not sure what the code is, so if anyone could shed some light on this it would be great

[suniil]

i've added this in first post, but verified this with SKY+ remote only

Panasonic PX600 owners thread

[ThundyCat]

Originally Posted by tony87

hi

just setup the 42px600 and was wondering if anyone had setup their SKY remote with it..i'm not sure what the code is, so if anyone could shed some light on this it would be great

0051

[manojluhar]

Great thread guys ... very useful.

I have been pondering over buying a new TV for the past 6 to 9 months and have come to the point where I'm seriously close to shelling out for a new TH42PX600.

I was initially against a plasma TV because of the screen burn/retention issues, and so my number one contender to date has been the Sony 40V2000 LCD TV. However, everytime I see it in the shops with a non-HD input, I just think to myself, is it worth paying nearly £2K for a TV whose picture is no where near as good as my 3 year old 28" Sony CRT?

Having seen the Panasonic plasma, I've been really impressed by the picture with all sources, SD and HD, so I'm edging towards this now.

I am going to be watching SD Telewest cable and the in-built Freeview tuner, plus I'll be watching DVDs on a DMR-EX75 DVD recorder that I am planning to buy at the same time.

To all of you PX600 owners out there, is there any reason why I should not buy the Panasonic?

Screen burn is my biggest concern. Do any Panasonic owners have any bad experiences of this issue?

Finally, if anyone owns the 42PX600 with the cabinet, it would be great to see some pictures of your set up.

Many thanks in advance.

Manoj

[suniil]

manoj,

read, re-read couple of times recent threads. you can easily find panasonic are less vulnerable to screen burns, retentions etc. You have to take care for first 200 hours, but after that you can really forget about these.

Others may differ, but this is my experience with panasonic panels.

And for your question in bold - IMO PX600's style is not the best when compares to Pioneer 436XDE or Fujitsu 58 series. Still PX600 is very good looking, feature packed TV and VFM. I've no other reasons to turn back

Originally Posted by manojluhar

To all of you PX600 owners out there, is there any reason why I should not buy the Panasonic?

Screen burn is my biggest concern. Do any Panasonic owners have any bad experiences of this issue?

Finally, if anyone owns the 42PX600 with the cabinet, it would be great to see some pictures of your set up.

[spinaltap]

manojluhar,

Like you I had a Sony 28" Widescreen CRT and had long ago discounted plasma in favour of LCD - and I was prepared to spend in order to get the best (such as Loewe Spheros, B&O BeoVision or Sony X Series).

However, when push came to shove I just couldn't justify spending so much on a flawed LCD. Last week, having visited a shop@panasonic branch (with properly set-up LCD and Plasma panels), I purchased a Panasonic 37PX600.

Ever since it was delivered I've been looking for any fault with the picture. I can't believe my good fortune that the television is way beyond my wildest expectations. Even with low bit-rate channels the picture is excellent. With upscaled pictures from my Panasonic EX85 DVD recorder it's even better.

I'm so glad I didn't buy into LCD. I would strongly recommend Panasonic plasma - but go find a properly set-up panel, as I've since been to other dealers where the picture quality is less than perfect via their suspect aerial installation.

[Phantom Phixer]

I have spent many weeks trying to convince myself that LCD's are good, though they seldom look good when viewed in shops. I had no interest in plasmas. Then I saw a PX60. Yesterday I installed my 42PX600 and am very pleased. I was prepared to be disappointed but it is an excellent set. I would highly recommend the PX60/600 to anyone.

[tony87]

Originally Posted by manojluhar

Great thread guys ... very useful.

I have been pondering over buying a new TV for the past 6 to 9 months and have come to the point where I'm seriously close to shelling out for a new TH42PX600.

I was initially against a plasma TV because of the screen burn/retention issues, and so my number one contender to date has been the Sony 40V2000 LCD TV. However, everytime I see it in the shops with a non-HD input, I just think to myself, is it worth paying nearly £2K for a TV whose picture is no where near as good as my 3 year old 28" Sony CRT?

Having seen the Panasonic plasma, I've been really impressed by the picture with all sources, SD and HD, so I'm edging towards this now.

I am going to be watching SD Telewest cable and the in-built Freeview tuner, plus I'll be watching DVDs on a DMR-EX75 DVD recorder that I am planning to buy at the same time.

To all of you PX600 owners out there, is there any reason why I should not buy the Panasonic?

Screen burn is my biggest concern. Do any Panasonic owners have any bad experiences of this issue?

Finally, if anyone owns the 42PX600 with the cabinet, it would be great to see some pictures of your set up.

Many thanks in advance.

Manoj

hi

hope this helps u decide

[suniil]

manoj: if you are in london i'm happy to invite you for a demo
here is my setup
My openplan living room

nice one tony

[RobDickinson]

Well I've done the deal, bought a TH-42PV600AZ which is NZ's equivelant set, different styling, $5000, no bult in digital tuner(no point).

The 60 model isnt a HD panel here which is a bit of a con.

Should collect weds, waiting for the stand to come into stock.

http://www.panasonic.co.nz/_TH-42PV600AZ.jpg

can someone please tell me why you have to run the tv in for 200hrs and why is there no mention of this in the box. What are you supposed to do and what happens if you get it out of the box and switch it on. Cheers

I'm a newb when it comes to plasmas but am on the brink of buying a new PX600 and have a few questions that I'd appreciate some help with:

1) In NZ, my cable TV box only has standard R-L-Video phono outputs - how badly will this affect the picture and will it be worth buying to view like this?

2) My DVD is an old Sony S-Master (integrated amp and dvd player) which I bought to get me in the 5.1 club. It has optical out, s-video and standard phono as above. I would imagine s-video would be the best connection to use - is this correct and again, will I lose a lot of quality through this? (it doesn't have RGB or composite which didn't bother me at the time, as my TV didn't have these either.

Obviously an upgrade is in order down the track but I need to do this in stages. My big problem is that the speakers have dedicated sony input plugs on (typical sony). What would be the best order to upgrade this kit? I was thinking a new receiver and speakers, running the dvd to the amp through s-video then upgrading the dvd player when the next dominant technology emerges (Blu-ray, HD etc). This is not the major issue for this thread - just thinking ahead (this time!).

So in short is it worth buying this panel with the connections that I currently have on my DVD and cable? Also what are the arguments around viewing height? I will be wall mounting. One more question, will the tilting wall bracket allow me to plug in leads without taking off the wall?

Cheers.

[JTHM]

Originally Posted by mikeywlon

can someone please tell me why you have to run the tv in for 200hrs and why is there no mention of this in the box. What are you supposed to do and what happens if you get it out of the box and switch it on. Cheers

The reason to run the TV in is to reduce the impact of image retention and likelyhood of image burn on the screen. Why there is no mention of this 'on the box' I don't know - perhaps it might put lay-people off buying the TV and push them in the direction of LCD which (it is said) doesn't need running in. Most people who don't read forums and alike don't know about running-in a plasma and a vast majority don't suffer problems - generally shop assistants either don't know about it, don't bother to mention it or only make a cursory comment about it. Quite simply all it involves is (in Picture menu) taking the Viewing Mode off Dynamic (Cinema is usually said to be the best) and then reducing the Brightness and Contrast down to levels decently below 50% (say 25-40%). If you use the TV in anything but full screen then also set the side bars (in the Setup menu) to mid or high. Then use the TV normally but making sure that static channel logos, footy scores, etc. are not displayed on the screen (use Zoom) for any period of time. Once the TV's done 200-300 hours then you can consider normalizing the settings or adjusting to your personal taste.

When I first got my PX600 it was run-in 24hrs a day for 10 days but before going to bed it was difficult to find a channel that wasn't going to show static images during the night - even BBC1 shows BBC News 24 early in the morning and BBC2 shows Ceefax.

[Michael Tonge]

Originally Posted by JTHM

The reason to run the TV in is to reduce the impact of image retention and likelyhood of image burn on the screen. Why there is no mention of this 'on the box' I don't know - perhaps it might put lay-people off buying the TV and push them in the direction of LCD which (it is said) doesn't need running in. Most people who don't read forums and alike don't know about running-in a plasma and a vast majority don't suffer problems - generally shop assistants either don't know about it, don't bother to mention it or only make a cursory comment about it. Quite simply all it involves is (in Picture menu) taking the Viewing Mode off Dynamic (Cinema is usually said to be the best) and then reducing the Brightness and Contrast down to levels decently below 50% (say 25-40%). If you use the TV in anything but full screen then also set the side bars (in the Setup menu) to mid or high. Then use the TV normally but making sure that static channel logos, footy scores, etc. are not displayed on the screen (use Zoom) for any period of time. Once the TV's done 200-300 hours then you can consider normalizing the settings or adjusting to your personal taste.

When I first got my PX600 it was run-in 24hrs a day for 10 days but before going to bed it was difficult to find a channel that wasn't going to show static images during the night - even BBC1 shows BBC News 24 early in the morning and BBC2 shows Ceefax.

All you have to do is go to UKTV gold or something, and put the TV on Zoom 3 which will mean that you never get any logos on the screen.

[bomholt]

I don't think there's any reason to turn down the contrast and brightness as low as 25%. 50% is safe. People seem to be overly scared about burn in issues. Setting the TV to normal or cinema and not do anything more with the settings is also probably more then good enough. That's my opinion.

I have the 42PV600 (without digital tuner) by the way. The screen is wonderful.

[RobDickinson]

Originally Posted by KiwiBlue

I'm a newb when it comes to plasmas but am on the brink of buying a new PX600 and have a few questions that I'd appreciate some help with:

1) In NZ, my cable TV box only has standard R-L-Video phono outputs - how badly will this affect the picture and will it be worth buying to view like this?

2) My DVD is an old Sony S-Master (integrated amp and dvd player) which I bought to get me in the 5.1 club. It has optical out, s-video and standard phono as above. I would imagine s-video would be the best connection to use - is this correct and again, will I lose a lot of quality through this? (it doesn't have RGB or composite which didn't bother me at the time, as my TV didn't have these either.

Obviously an upgrade is in order down the track but I need to do this in stages. My big problem is that the speakers have dedicated sony input plugs on (typical sony). What would be the best order to upgrade this kit? I was thinking a new receiver and speakers, running the dvd to the amp through s-video then upgrading the dvd player when the next dominant technology emerges (Blu-ray, HD etc). This is not the major issue for this thread - just thinking ahead (this time!).

So in short is it worth buying this panel with the connections that I currently have on my DVD and cable? Also what are the arguments around viewing height? I will be wall mounting. One more question, will the tilting wall bracket allow me to plug in leads without taking off the wall?

Cheers.

1) Sounds like the cable box is composite only, which is wierd - are you sure? Can they not supply you a new box with better video output? Composit sux. The Pany panel is good with poor signals but shines when supplied better quality.

2) Does your sony dvd/amp combo have digital audio in? If it does I'd be tempted to buy a cheap upscaling dvd player $100-200 or so, run that to the TV with component & run a digital sound output to the sony. Personaly I have sony and how they try and own you as a consumer. If what I've said isnt possible then you can buy an all in one, or a dvd player with av amp + speakers which is the better way but costs more.

HD-DVD and blu ray, I'm not sure when they'll arrive in NZ, nor when they'll be affordable or worthwhile, likewise HiDef sound aV amps with HDMI imputs etc.


As for vewing height, dont have it too high or you'll strain your neck watching it! Sit down and look at the wall where your thinking of mounting it, if your having to bend your neck back then it'll get old quick...

[JTHM]

Originally Posted by Michael Tonge

All you have to do is go to UKTV gold or something, and put the TV on Zoom 3 which will mean that you never get any logos on the screen.

...only got Freeview (and no TUTV either, so no UKTV Gold).

I also found that some channels sent signals that made the TV reset the aspect by itself too BTW so saying "you never get any logos on the screen" may not be the case 100% of the time though it may be for UKTV Gold on which all programs are broadcast in 4:3.

[Rygar]

Would it not be better to just put it onto an untuned analogue snow channel?

I am running in my PX60 but I don't leave it on overnight or anything...I rekon it will only take about 4-5 weeks of normal viewing to get up to 200 hours. patience is a virtue

[JTHM]

Originally Posted by Rygar

Would it not be better to just put it onto an untuned analogue snow channel?

I am running in my PX60 but I don't leave it on overnight or anything...I rekon it will only take about 4-5 weeks of normal viewing to get up to 200 hours. patience is a virtue

Can't with the PX600. If you select anything above analogue Channel 5 (the last tuned channel) the TV shows Channel 5 no matter what (at least it does on mine anyway).

Is there a way of changing the Freeview channels around on the px600?
As with my old nokia box, i could put the music ones together, and in order of use etc?

Also, how long would you say it would be ok to leave it on standby for?

Cheers

[Latman]

Can someone confirm all the things which can be viewed/played through the SD Card slot at the front. I think it was mentioned that it can view pictures but not HD movies?!
What about any other formats or even mp3's?
Thanks.

[Michael Tonge]

Originally Posted by JTHM

...only got Freeview (and no TUTV either, so no UKTV Gold).

I also found that some channels sent signals that made the TV reset the aspect by itself too BTW so saying "you never get any logos on the screen" may not be the case 100% of the time though it may be for UKTV Gold on which all programs are broadcast in 4:3.

If it's on zoom 3 the tv shouldn't ever reset itself irrespective of what is fed into it.

All you need is a channel that has shows on all day/night, has adverts, and just isn't news or something.

In all honesty you'd probably be ok with most channels, as long as they are showing something all night. Zoom 3 will cut out all logos regardless of aspect ratio.

But you lose subtitles

[Michael Tonge]

Originally Posted by javaman

But you lose subtitles

Yes but I am more talking about when you leave it on overnight/during the day when you are at work (which is what I am doing- I've got it up to 190 hours in under 2 weeks)

If you are actually watching it you're safe to have logos on there (watch normally), as long as you change the channel regularly, and don't keep it on the same channel for hours and hours. This is what i do, I just watch it normally in the evenings.