Panasonic TH37PX600 awful picture???

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Having exhausted a local Panasonic's dealership of knowledge, which seemed to take 4 seconds, and I have not heard from NP despite contacting, I am in a dilemma and having looked around for expert off piste advice this one seems to be the very best. So here goes, fingers firmply crossed.

We are fed up with this TV, for 18 months we have endured what is best explained as a fuzziness around faces, mostly a pinky colour and sometimes on a background wall the same. If a torch is switched on in a programme you get this horrible effect around teh light, but the worst was the recent Harry Potter movie (Goblet of Fire) the underwater sequences, they were virtually unwatchable with this fuzziness on faces and hair and the water.

Shows such as X factor/Strictly come dancing are always perfect and never cause problems, I have recently installed a free sat box in the hope the sat picture would improve things, (maybe a bit) HD is fine (actually really nice, when available!) A digital aerial is mounted on the chimney, 100hz cable to interior point, 100hz gold connectors point to TV, Panasonic DVD is via HDMI, as is sat box, which is also all gold 100hz cables. Signal strength has been checked as being in the perfect band, yes we are using the digital facility to watch TV not the analogue one, so what else can we do?

I wanted to buy an LCD Bravia either 4000 or 4500 this weekend and throw the Panasonic away (we have been Panny for 20 years now) wife said ask once again, so I am. Don't get me wrong it is not all teh time, far from it, the HP film I mentioned was 95% OK but this distracting fuzziness around the face or neck or hands is awful, then a camera angle switches with a bit more light perhaps and its gone, vanished. I have P-NR set at maximum, C&B set on a middle setting with colour management set to on, what I plead from you can I do; or is it just me being thick as two short planks and missing teh wood for the trees?

Oh how we need this help

Charley

 

[Anonymous]

Can you clarify which inputs give a good picture and which don't?

You mention freesat via HDMI as being OK - on all channels?

How is DVD playback and how is the DVD connected (component, HDMI,SCART)?

How is freeview - are all channels equally bad or good? (you refer to "strictly" being OK)

Do you have blu-ray and how is that connected and what is the picture like?

 

[Anonymous]

"I have P-NR set at maximum"

"C&B set on a middle setting"

"me being thick as two short planks"

Doh, if you didn't know TV's are generally set up to look bright and garish at their default settings. The idea is the tv that shouts the loudest catches the buyer's eye and helps sales. So you're not starting from a good point to begin with. At a guess from here it seems you've either put settings in the middle or turned the up to maximum?

No wonder it looks horrible, I mean I hope you wouldn't bung a few tablespoons of salt on your dinner just cause a pinch of salt was good! All the noise reduction, sharpness settings, picture-processing techs are designed to overcome problems inherent in the display or the picture. However, I think most are best used subtly or not at all as they do have side affects.

Also, I wouldn't buy a new tv until you sorted out how to best calibrate the one you have. You'll be able to decide whether you do really want/need a better telly, and you'll be more likely to get the best out of a new one too.

Anyway, to get you started I'd suggest.

- Reading a basic / introductory primer on calibrating a tv

- turning off all noise reduction, sharpness settings, all the picture-processing etc

- Setting contrast and brightness properly using a calibration dvd (or even the free THX optimiser found on Star Wars and Indiana Jones dvds)

- Judiciously turning on / testing some of the other settings sparingly one at a time

Here's a the first descent link I found in google

http://ezinearticles.com/?Plasma-Calibration-Without-Spending-A-Single-Dime&id=493213

DVE (Digital Video Essentials) on amazon

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for coming back, responses as follows:

Can you clarify which inputs give a good picture and which don't? No consistency, it happens off & on all the time. Main aerial lead comes into DVD then looped up to TV (as per recommendations. Then I have HDMI (Monster cable & expensive) from DVD to TV, mostly I use the XP or SP setting to maximise quality. The shows we seem to see it most on is US style (but not exclusively) I saw it on heroes the other evening, switched to free sat and still saw it a tad, but and I emphasise it is not all the time. Take say 'silent witness' I watched it through the aerial, it blotched several times. oh you can see the entire picture it is just on skin tones and sometime the background, funny wallpaper, lights, underwater etc, that Haary Potter movie of last week was just awful underwater, on occasions you get this pinky red shimmering (like a birthmark effect) over the face, then the shot goes to another camera and it goes immediately, back and forth so to speak. HD through teh free sat is almost always free of this awful effect, and as stated, to a lesser degree that the aerial. It is amost as if a daytime camera shot or a well lit one will never ever show this nuisance problem, I suppose shows like strictly and X factor have lighting everywhere, but if say it is day and teh shot goes to inside and it is a tense thriller type programme which keeps the lighting low when the camera pans to teh actor his skin takes on these pinky red tones and shimmers.

You mention freesat via HDMI as being OK - on all channels? On all that we watch, although I would say the speckling blotching is to a lesser degree on freesat, and in the HD setting almost never does the speckling blotching show.

How is DVD playback and how is the DVD connected (component, HDMI,SCART)? HDMI.

How is freeview - are all channels equally bad or good? (you refer to "strictly" being OK) Strange really shows 'like' strictly, X factor are fine in either traditional Digital setting through aerial or through free sat. Al of the channels we watch which is mostly 1,2,3 & 4 are fine I must confess I have not tried the others and actually don't think they are all on there yet. Channel 5 is not yet included.

Do you have blu-ray and how is that connected and what is the picture like? No blu-ray although it's funny you should ask, I have just come back from Comet after looking at what TV's are available now and was thinking how nice blu-ray looks, although I only have two slots for HDMI in the existing TV.

I'm almost hoping for a miracle in-so-much reading this hits the jackpot and you think "that is exactly what I had" or someone (possibly yourself) shouts loudly at me to tell me what an idiot I have been. I can only hope as I did pay £1300 for the TV and it will be money wasted really if I have to change. My wife is not keen on LCD, it is speckly all over (so she says) and Plasma whilst we much prefer the ever so lightly muted pastel effect (compared to LCD) I fear buying another plasma just in case.

Can you tell the desperation in my tone?

Charley (and thanks again for taking the time to respond)

 

[Anonymous]

Ok - first you need to do what the other poster suggested and turn off or turn down all the excess picture processing.

A lot of Panasonics have a "store" mode and a "home" mode. Check that you have the TV in home mode.

Once you are sure you have the TV in home mode (the manual explains how to re-do the initial set-up which is where the TV asks this question) go into picture settings and turn off all the picture enhancements. Set the viewing mode to normal and set colour to mid point, contrast to mid point brightness to mid point and sharpness to off. Set P-NR to Off and Colour Management to Off.

You might still want to turn brightness and contrast down a little from these settings but they will be a good place to start.

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks all. I'll try doing that tonight and then monitor it.

Charley

 

[Anonymous]

OK did everything as advised here and one bit did seem to work on the facial
shading, I had to find a programme first that would do it; I found that
neibours did indeed give the poor quality so I set to changing it all round.
With the freeze picture facility it made it a lot easier so set to putting
everything on nil or zero settings, I turned colour management off, P-NR to
off, sharpness to off, and had contrast and brightness re-set as per
suggestions above.

It all made absolutely nil difference. Sighing and becoming a bit disillusioned
I tried reducing the colour, this then made it actually worse so I figured if
reducing colour made it worse what would happen if I increased it? Lo and
behold it virtually disappeared immediately.

Of course I set the colour how we like it from new and never changed it,
picking a 'one cap fits all' shade that we both liked, by increasing it the fizzing
went and all I could se was a really tiny bit from time to time on say trees in
the background when the picture changed depth of field to have say characters
clear and the background blurry. One more increase seemed to do it and for the
first time since new we enjoyed a fuzzy free picture. No idea why but it would
have been helpful if Panasonic had suggested it. By increasing sharpness and
playing with contrast and brightness we were able to tone the colour down and
set it on normal or auto.

It looks like it is fine with only a hint of it occurring for a couple of
seconds through the entire evening.

Thank you

Charley

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a case of 'purple snakes' to me which plagued the 60/600 series of Panasonic plasmas. The Harry Potter film is a giveaway as it was almost unwatchable on my PX60, it generally shows up on peoples faces and in backgrounds.

Do a Google search for 'purple snakes' and you will find out loads of info.The only fix I am affraid is to replace a circuit board and this is not 100% successful.

 

[Anonymous]

Finally I find out what it is and I thank you sincerely for your response for it is the one which identifies 100% accurately the problems we have experienced since day one!

Having now run a search under purple snakes I see this has been a huge problem for Panasonic but I cannot find anything to suggest that they had a free of charge upgrade or CB change that addressed the problem. If you happen to know of a way to rid the TV of this by something Panasonic offreed, I would be really gratefulk to yourself or anyone who might be able to suggest something. I see by maximising everything this does reduce it significantly but sadly teh one cap don't fit all due to differing recording/broadcasting techniques.

Oh blast,and I thought I carried out all the research before parting with £1300 of my really hard earned money; I feel gutted but releived that I am not teh only one and that you have told me what it actually is.

Respect sir; Respect.

Chazza

 

[Anonymous]

I believe the fix?? involved replacing the 'D' board if I remember rightly but it had mixed results.It worked for some and made things even worse on others.I would ring Panasonic who will know of the problem (though sometimes they seem reluctant to admit there is a problem)

If they send a engineer round it is best to have some pre-recorded films/TV that shows off the problems.If you have Sky+ record something with really bad 'purple snakes' to show them.If you haven't got Sky+, it might be worth purchasing the DVD of the Harry Potter movie you mention.Show the engineer how bad it is and let Panasonic sort it out.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.another site/forums/plasma-televisions/394430-color-problems-my-panasonic-pv60-px60-397.html#post7977276

Is the thread that has been running for a couple of years with almost 400 pages! It seems teh 'world & his wife' have all experienced the purple snakes and green rings and indeed you seem to be spot-on that some D board replacements have worked marginally but left other more significant problems and some have even had the mk 2 D board as Panasonic admitted the first was not up to par. I have spoken to teh dedicated repair shop Panasonic have told me to go to and guess what they have never heard of the problem. Actually I think I will just get a new TV and give this one away, maybe someone will be glad of it and wont object to the purple snaking.

Apparently this phenomena is really called 'magenta banding';-(

Now then, what the heck TV do I blasted well buy now??? Oh sod it, I'm off to become a monk.

Charley

 

[shado]

I have the LCD version 37LZD85 and I am very content with it especially on Eco mode. Apparently LCD have picture bleed and people skin look orange but on true Full HD resolution I have not personally encountered this and I have had this set for 7 months. Onboard a submarine we had a Panasonic 46 inch Plasma and within 7 months it has lines coming down the screen - it started off as one and when we returned back became 6 lines from top to bottom and this has seriously put me off plasmas. Even my PSP an lcd screen now 2 years old is ok and does not suffer from bad pixels - nor does my HP LCD Computer screen. It would seem Panny are getting a lot of flack recently but I can vouch for my TV. My previous Telly was a Panasonic 32 inch CRT and was marvellous. If you can have a demonstration then plse treat yourself to this version.