What's new. New posts Latest activity. Best Gaming TV. Thread starter bergami Start date Feb 25, Sidebar Sidebar. Forums Consumer Electronics Audio Components. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Previous Next. Apr 15, 0 Thank you. JackBurton Lifer. Jul 18, 15, 14 How far are you going to be sitting away from this thing since you'll be using it as a PC monitor?
And yes, in this case, there is such a thing as too big of a screen. Hmm,It will be a bit longer than my arm. Aikouka Lifer. Nov 27, 30, I'm curious why you want Hz. Although, Hz seems to be rather common on monitors these days anyway. I know you don't want 3D, but there is one interesting aspect to 3D that you might like if you're planning on using consoles: full-screen multi-player.
By using existing 3D technology built into the TV and specialized glasses, a split-screen image is blown up to take up the full screen.
The existing ability to separate left and right eyes is used, but instead of the left and right, it now splits player one and player two. It could theoretically work with active TVs as well, but you would need glasses that are signaled properly to open and close both lenses instead of the individual sides. I do not intend to play with consoles, only for PC. Does this TV support it? Apr 18, 49 0 There aren't any TVs that will take a Hz input.
Only PC monitors. I also wouldn't recommend Samsung TVs for gaming since they have a long input delay. So probably at least 8 frames compared to a CRT.
Although I got it down to frames of delay by renaming the input to PC which turns of all of the post-processing features. Why game mode doesn't do this, I have no idea. From what I've read, plasmas often have a shorter input delay. Although you could probably find an LCD with an acceptable delay if you find a site that measures it. Oyeve Lifer. Oct 18, 21, I recently got an LG 47LS 47" hz p for under Am loving it.
Cheap, full HD and have no issues with games from PC or consoles. Childs Lifer. Jul 9, 11, 7 Aikouka said:. Childs said:. Its just frame interpolation on consumer TVs. BurnItDwn Lifer. Oct 10, 25, 1, If it's primarily for gaming, would it perhaps make more sense to buy 3 inch displays and run in eyefinity? Or perhaps a 30 inch display with higher resolution? Of course those options would be inferior for movies Oyeve said:.
My lg doesn't have the soap opera effect at mhz. I don't even think I can turn it off or on. If that's the case, I believe it should turn off if you disable the SmartMotion feature.
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Panasonic rises to the challenge with their latest mid-range plasma TV by Steve Withers Mar 22, stephenwithers. Review Specs Discussion Panasonic have revamped their plasma TV line-up this year, dropping a number of models and screen sizes in an effort to streamline their range. Now almost all of Panasonic's plasma TVs are 3D capable, bar the X50, cementing the format's status as a standard feature and they have introduced a 65" screen size for the ST50 series.
In fact of all the models, it's the ST50 that has undergone the most change with a new design and remote, added calibration controls, built-in WiFi, Smart VIERA features and improved black levels.
Whilst it would be nice to think that these changes are the result of feedback from our reviews, there is a more obvious reason for the redesign.
Despite Panasonic's position as the pre-eminent manufacturer of plasma TVs, the fact is that Samsung delivered some very impressive plasma models last year and they now shift more units than Panasonic.
The ST50 is clearly being positioned as Panasonic's main mid-range display and has been specifically redesigned to go head to head with Samsung. The Korean giant's success is in part due to their fairly aggressive pricing structure but also due to features such as Smart TV, built-in WiFi and calibration controls appearing as standard in their mid-range models.
Whilst Panasonic appear to have addressed many of these features, the question is, can the new ST50 deliver the kind of all-round performance that will give Samsung a run for their money?
Styling and Design Anyone looking at the P50ST50B could be forgiven for thinking that it looks a little familiar and if imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Samsung must be blushing. It is a sign of the Korean giant's dominance of the TV market that every manufacturer - not just Panasonic - has been taking a leaf out of their design book this year. Panasonic have christened their new look for 'Metal and Glass' and sure enough the P50ST50B includes both materials in its design.
In actual fact, whilst incorporating the metal and glass design, the look of the P50ST50B is specifically referred to as a 'Crystal Frame' by Panasonic. There doesn't appear to be any actual crystal in evidence and if we're being honest not much actual glass either - more like clear hardened plastic - but the P50ST50B is in fact a very attractive TV. The bezel is 3. Along the centre bottom of the bezel is the Panasonic logo and to the right of that there is the infra-red receiver for the remote control.
On the right hand edge there are some basic controls and the rear of the chassis is made of black metal. The 50" screen itself is obviously made of glass but perhaps thanks to the filter designed to reject ambient light, it wasn't as reflective as some displays and we never had a problem with reflections during daytime viewing. Incredibly, despite having a 50" screen the entire chassis is only 3cm deep, which whilst looking cool, doesn't bode well for the sound quality.
The P50ST50B weighs 23kg without its stand and there are the standard fixing points for wall mounting. The stand itself is equally attractive and is square in shape with a brushed metal finish and silver trim. When mounted on the stand, the panel can be swivelled by a 10 degree angle to either side. The design is both contemporary and tasteful, with a solid build quality that gives you the feeling you have bought a high quality product. In fact we have never been big fans of the Samsung designs; finding the bezel too reflective and the quad foot rather unattractive, so we actually prefer the look of the P50ST50B and if it looks as good when it's on, we're in for a treat.
To accommodate the new sleek proportions, the rear connections have also had something of a make-over. There are no longer any rearward facing connectors which will make wall mounting easier, some of the legacy connectors have been dropped and the composite and component video connections use breakout adaptors. The connections for these breakout adaptors are facing downwards, along with the aerial input, an optical digital out and a LAN socket for those without a wireless network.
All in all a fairly comprehensive set of connections and our only complaint is that the HDMI inputs are just 9cm from the edge, which is far too close if you use heavy duty HDMI cables.
This is a common problem with modern TVs and your only choice if you don't want HDMI cables poking out the sides, is to either use right angled adaptors or to stop wasting your money on big thick expensive cables. It is good to see that unlike certain other manufacturers, such as Samsung, the power cable on the P50ST50B uses a three pin plug that can be detached. In fact this is the only connection that faces rearwards but sensibly Panasonic have provided a cable with a right angled connector to aid in wall mounting.
Along with the P50ST50B itself, the remote control has also had something of a face lift. Whilst still made of plastic it has a rather attractive gloss black finish and feels very comfortable in the hand. It is well made, sensibly laid out and has a backlight. Overall we rather liked the new look remote control and our only complaint was that the glossy finish did rather show up fingerprints. The P50ST50B does not ship with any 3D glasses, as standard, but frankly almost no TV does these days because 3D is now just regarded as another feature.
However, for the purposes of this review, we were able to test out a pair of Panasonic's newest active shutter 3D glasses TY-ER3D4MU , which have only just been released. These new glasses use RF radio frequency rather than IR infra-red to sync with the TV and in that sense they are similar to the glasses that Samsung use. A number of the manufacturers are working together to create a standardised pair of active shutter glasses, which is a good idea but you can't help thinking they should have done that from the start.
Thanks to the use of RF, the glasses never had any problems syncing to the P50ST50B and we never lost connection once. That's the good news, the bad news is that the P50ST50B doesn't have an IR emitter built into it, so should you have any of Panasonic's three previous generations of glasses lying around, you can't use them with the P50ST50B or any of Panasonic's TVs for that matter. Aside from the use of RF instead of IR, the new glasses share the same general design as the earlier TY-EW3D3ME glasses and as such they are incredibly light - at 26g - and so comfortable to wear that you quickly forget you've got them on.
The glasses themselves have quite large lenses that provide a suitably wide field of view and are very neutral in tint. There is a switch at the top of the frames above the bridge of the nose where you turn on the glasses and, if you need to, you can also switch the glasses to 2D mode.
This setting will display just one eye view to both eyes thus allowing you to watch 3D content in 2D if you need to for some reason. The glasses sync automatically once turned on and they will switch off if they don't receive a sync signal for 5 minutes. You can fully charge the glasses in a couple of hours but a 3 minute charge should give you enough battery life to get through a film. The latest iteration of the menu system has a very modern feel to it, with subtle use of colours against a black background.
The menu system is also very responsive, easy to read and intuitive to navigate. If you select User mode, there is an Equaliser and there are also controls for the Surround mode, the Auto Gain, the Volume Correction and for setting the distance from the speakers to the wall.
There are also controls for setting the Voice Guidance for the visually impaired. Given how thin the P50ST50B is, we weren't expecting the sound to be great and it wasn't. It was good enough for basic television watching and the 24 hour news channels but for anything more critical we strongly recommend using a sound bar or, better still, connecting to an AV amplifier.
The next sub-menu is new for the ST series and allows the user to setup the Network. This sub-menu also includes all the usual picture controls such as Contrast for adjusting the luminance of the video signal, Brightness for adjusting the black level, Colour control and Sharpness.
There is Vivid Colour which boosts the saturation of the colours and C. Contrast Automatic Tracking System which is designed to adjust the Contrast setting from scene to scene in order to boost the contrast ratio numbers, this can cause fluctuations in the image and is best left off. Finally there is a P-NR Noise Reduction function that is designed to reduce compression artefacts but we found this control to be of no real benefit so turned it off.
Also within the Picture sub-menu there are the Advance Settings where you will find the Overscan. It is important to ensure that the Overscan function is set to Off, otherwise the display will scale high definition content which will reduce the resolution of the material you are watching.
Then there is the Clear Cinema mode for film cadence detection and the Resolution Enhancer control which is essentially another sharpness control and is best left off.
Finally the Side Panel control increases or decreases the brightness of the side panels, whilst the Pixel Orbiter and Scrolling Bar functions are designed to reduce image retention. The most interesting new feature in the Advanced Settings is the inclusion of some calibration controls. First there is a gamma control which allows you to select an appropriate gamma for your viewing conditions.
Then there is a two point white balance control which allows you to calibrate the greyscale on the P50ST50B. This is a very useful addition because previously in the ST series, you had to enter the service menu in order to calibrate the greyscale. Finally there is now a CMS included which allows the user or a professional calibrator to adjust the luminance, saturation and hue of the three primary colours red, green and blue.
The last important menu is the 3D Settings sub-menu where you will find the 2D to 3D Depth control which allows you to select the 3D image depth on 2D to 3D conversion as well as a 3D Adjustment for controlling the depth on actual 3D material. There is a control called Picture Sequence which reverses the 3D image and an Edge Smoother function that is presumably designed to work with lower resolution side-by-side material.
There is also a 3D Detection mode that when on will automatically detect the 3D signal frame sequential, side-by-side or top and bottom and display it correctly.
Finally there is a control for turning off the 3D Signal Message and there are some Safety Precautions. Features There's no question that the P50ST50B comes with an impressive array of features including Freeview HD but in order to utilise this and other features, the display needs to be set up correctly first. This process is fairly painless and when you first turn the P50ST50B on, you will be asked if you want to tune in all the digital channels. This only takes a few minutes and the resulting Electronic Programme Guide EPG is a big improvement on last year as Panasonic appear to have dropped all the unwanted adverts, leaving a guide that is easy to read and use.
As an added feature, you can also connect a HDD via USB and use the programming timer in the menu system to record and store programming. Unlike last year, the P50ST50 has WiFi built-in, so you can connect directly to your wireless network. If you don't have a wireless network then you can connect to your router or network using a LAN cable.
It's fair to say that we'll be hearing a lot about Smart TV this year from all the manufacturers and Panasonic is no exception. They have branded their line-up as Smart VIERA which is an all-encompassing phrase that includes design, picture quality, connectivity and interactivity.
Well we already covered the design aspects and we'll look at picture quality next but what about the other two? Well, the VIERA Connect internet platform looks basically the same as last year but Panasonic have added a number of new applications to their platform. Obviously the ubiquitous BBC iPlayer is present and correct and of course there's Skype although you'll need the camera and microphone attachment to use it , as well as Twitter and Facebook.
Besides having a wide choice of apps, the other important elements of an internet platform are that it is easy to access and responsive.
In this sense VIERA Connect was a success because it was easy to access, you just press the Internet button on the remote, and it was reasonably quick to navigate. In fact it seemed quicker than last year, although it's only the GT50 and VT50 that will include dual core processing, so it'll be interesting to see how quick they are. The interface was easy to connect and simple to use, providing an effective way of controlling and communicating with the P50ST50B. As far as connectivity goes, the P50ST50B is fully DLNA certified which means it can connect with other such devices and stream content over you home network.
We found sharing content between a tablet device and the P50ST50B to be very easy using Panasonic's 'swiping' technology. Quite simply if something is playing on the tablet, if you hold your finger down and move it upwards, the content will begin playing on the P50ST50B. Test Results Measured Results Out-of-the-Box We initially ran the P50ST50B in for about 50 hours before we began taking any measurements and when we checked the different picture modes, we found that True Cinema unsurprisingly proved to be the most accurate.
We initially selected a Gamma setting of 2.
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