The largest Civic Type R club forum

Established in 2002 it brings together people from all over the world to discuss their one love of Type R's.

The nerds hangout. Anything technology related. TV's, phones, PC's, consoles this is the place!!
User avatar
By Ali
#2073249
Might be worth a sticky for this. My continual research on the subject to fill in the remaining 3 days until it arrives, has brought these excellent sites to my attention.

First up, an iso image to burn a DVD to help with the first 100 hours of break in. Just leave this running on loop (making sure there are no black bands on the screen) overnight to help with teh first 100 hours of breaking in, which will significantly reduce the chances of image retention and phosphor lag:

http://www.eaprogramming.com/downloads/ ... d_main.htm

If you want to get serious about calibrating the screen, this is the iso to use:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/g9ajmv

More choices here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496

Both gleaned from the excellent AV Science forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/

Also, colour and greyscale calibration for dummies!

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457


Don't know about Windows, but on a Mac, to burn an iso for htose that don't know, you can do it directly from the included Disc Utility application. Just select the Image menu at the top, slect "Burn..." select the iso you want to burn first, then the DVD burner location second and you're on your way.
User avatar
By Wakey
#2073260
Well done Ali,

Finally bought a flat screen. And one of the best....Panasonic. I and all my friends, family etc has these panels and like you I was spending all my time on AV forums tweaking contrasts, brightness and using cinema mode lol. But something tells me your spending a bit too much time on there :lol:

I must say I notice a big difference when watching upscaled DVD's through the PS3. As for BR. Those letter box lines annoy the HELL out of me.....I have to get a 46" just to watch it in 42"...if you get my meaning.

Enjoy.
User avatar
By Ali
#2073298
andyd wrote:Just get it ISF cal'ed :thumbup: :cooldude:

Mind you can you do that with Panasonic's :vconf: :vconf:

Andy
You can, through a secret service menu. But rather too many AVForum members have buggered up their screen calibration by fiddling with them!!!
User avatar
By Superbully
#2073331
ive had my panasonic plasma over a year now, watching TV and DVDs.

I will be hooking my 360 up to it when i get back in a few days, i guess i don't need to take any precautions against burn in on my fairly modern set? this burn in DVD wont really help will it? the set has had over a year of ordinary use already...
User avatar
By Ali
#2073355
Nope, it's just to help stabilise them after storage, though mine will be pretty new off the line as Comet had run out on Saturday and mine is part of Monday's delivery from Panasonic :cool:
User avatar
By darren4
#2073416
I remeber when i had to run in my pioneer 43" plasma, it took ages as i didnt want to leave it on for ages :lol:
User avatar
By cheapskate
#2073458
I am usually quite tech savvy but I am not really up to speed with modern TV's and all that plug into them.

Was thinking of retiring the old Philips crt TV and replacing it with a Panasonic TH-42PZ81E Plasma. It has an inbuilt satellite decoder that can receive unscrambled FTA programmes and can decode Mpeg4 for the FTA HD channels - all three of them.

Is this a good choice, anything else I should consider, Anyone got one?
User avatar
By Ali
#2073489
The PZ81 and PZ85 I ordered, as well as the PZ800, all use the same panel. The difference is that the 81 has the Freesat decoder BUT, you can't hook up a recorder to it and Freesat boxes with built in recording are already under the £200 difference between the 81 (£980 in the sales) and the PZ85 (£799 from Comet only). It will also run video off an SD card which the 85 won't, but the 85 has better sound abilities and TruSurround 3D (ie faked using the front speakers). The 85 also has Intelligent Frame Correction but most people switch that off! Also, the 800 is very similar to the 85 but adds two extra speakers and a sub woofer as well as another two options, digital Cinema Colur and Deep Colur, that everyone switches off as well! And teh 800 is around £1220 for the cheapest I could find.

So, it comes down to whether you think teh Freesat with no recording ability is worth £200, or whether you go for the 85, as I did, and add a Freesat HD recorder later (we have Sky+ at eth moment anyway) for that price. Oh, and I take it you're in Ireland or teh continent if it has an E postfix as all the UK ones have B and US ones have U. They're all the same though.

As for the quality, set it up properly and it's only marginally less good a panel than teh MUCH more expensive Pioneers and nukes any current LCD, so a damned good choice :wink:
User avatar
By Geno
#2073503
Ali wrote:........but the 85 has better sound abilities and TruSurround 3D (ie faked using the front speakers)..............
Ali - a stupid question if I may: The TruSurround seems to jack the price on Panasonic sets by ~£150. If someone were to use an external 5.1 or 7.1 system, can the standard cheaper TV be used just as effectively since the TV speakers would not be in use or is there something fancy in the innards of the more expensive TV that would make a difference?
User avatar
By cheapskate
#2073535
Thanks for that rundown Ali.

Pixmania don't seem to offer the 85 so the TH-42PZ81E still looks like the go. It seems reasonably priced at €999 + delivery. I went to Harvey Norman this afternoon and they only had the lower speced y80 (I think it was) and on sale they wanted €1299 for it. Think I will pass on that. The PZ800 is €1762 and I can't for the life of me see why :scratch:

We don't do Sky and have no recording mechanism so that won't be an issue. We do have a FTA satellite receiver but it won't do HD (Mpeg4), so we would be able to retire one box from the collection. Ireland is going for DTT by 2012 so I think this set should cover that.

Have to wait until we get back from holiday before I can order one. Sounds like I am on the right track though :-D
User avatar
By Ali
#2073542
Yup. The panels are identical and most of the AV forum geeks say that all the extra electronics like IFC, DCC and DC should all be turned off for the best picture anyway. I believe the PZ8 and PZ80 are the same panel as the 81, 85 and 800. I'm not so sure about the 82 which only Comet stock. The PZ8, however, has a lack of one of the filters and a reduction in colour range as a resultand the 80 won't accept 24fps so you'll get juddering on some films. Given how little you save with one, I'd ignore them.

Make sure you get a PZ though, not a PX. Only the PZ has full HD and the much higher 30,000:1 contrast ratio (PZ8 only has 20,000:1)

CLICK for comparison between the PZ8, PZ80, PZ81 and PZ85.
User avatar
By Ali
#2073545
cheapskate wrote:Thanks for that rundown Ali.

Pixmania don't seem to offer the 85 so the TH-42PZ81E still looks like the go. It seems reasonably priced at €999 + delivery. I went to Harvey Norman this afternoon and they only had the lower speced y80 (I think it was) and on sale they wanted €1299 for it. Think I will pass on that. The PZ800 is €1762 and I can't for the life of me see why :scratch:

We don't do Sky and have no recording mechanism so that won't be an issue. We do have a FTA satellite receiver but it won't do HD (Mpeg4), so we would be able to retire one box from the collection. Ireland is going for DTT by 2012 so I think this set should cover that.

Have to wait until we get back from holiday before I can order one. Sounds like I am on the right track though :-D
If the 85 was out of stock, I was going to get the 81 anyway, so go for it! The PZ800 really doesn't offer much bar the extra speakers, but given it was £420 more than I paid for the 85, I reckon I could get a pretty good 5.1 system for that if I decide to, and the extra speakers aren't that great apparently. As for the Digital Cinema Colour option, it seems to be pretty poorly supported over here. And to confuse matters more, what we call the 800, the US calls the 850, because their 800 is THX certified where ours isn't.....confusing!
User avatar
By cheapskate
#2073595
smartie wrote:Whats next on the list, one of those new fangled microwaves. :wink:
No, but I have had an induction hob for the last 10 years :wink:
#2074595
good choice of panel, the pz85. ive had mine since May and am very happy with the excellent picture from it via blu ray and sky hd. however the sound is really not that good, a separate surround sound system, or stereo amp and speakers is a must, imo . seriously good value at the prices being quoted now!
User avatar
By ChrisM
#2075430
I use Jurassic Park on loop for 200 hours. It's 1.85:1 so no bars and it's 'real-world' use rather than test-patterns.

I used this method for my Pioneer 434 in 2004 and I'll be using it again when I buy my KRP-500A in a few weeks time.

EDIT:Forgot to add, my installer did a 24hr soak test of my 434 before delivery but I still wanted to go the full 200hrs.
My 434 has over 12,000hrs on the clock, can't believe it's been that long. :shock:
User avatar
By duckdodgersuk
#2076463
[quote="Ali"]Just leave this running on loop (making sure there are no black bands on the screen) overnight to help with teh first 100 hours of breaking in, which will significantly quote]

Are you saying when you get a brand new Plasma TV that you run a test pattern on it for 4 days! non stop :shock:
If it was me I'd just watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy back to back then all the Star Wars movies back to back. Thats far more fun that looking at a test patern for 4 days :P

Oh, and the grass is ment to look that Green as its digitaly enhanced for the movie which kinda makes the Spider calabration pointless
Image

Long time ago I had and Ep3 for 220k kilometers in[…]