Panasonic 42'' ST50 - Good choice ?

Dimension · 4 May 2012 at 18:03

I got my 42" ST50 this week. I have not seen the any 30 series to compare, but the black levels are amazing. Viewing movies in a pitch black room the black level is amazing.

My previous set was a philips 42" 9632 ambilight set, the ST50 is a massive step up from that, considering the philips was £2000 when I bought it and the panny was only £850

the only issue I have is white screens have a 50hz flicker like old CRT's. but I think that is a plasma trait. Im going to look at a couple instore this weekend just to see if they all do it or i have a faulty set.

Destination · 4 May 2012 at 19:44

Castiel, when you use the record to usb (hdd) function, what sort of recording times per Gb do you get, does it vary with HD and sd etc etc.
Is playback good?

-also

Am I right in saying if you have a relatively bright family room, might it be best to go for an LED screen rather than plasma which would be more suited to a darker viewing room?

Castiel · 4 May 2012 at 23:38

Hikari Kisugi said:
Castiel, when you use the record to usb (hdd) function, what sort of recording times per Gb do you get, does it vary with HD and sd etc etc.
Is playback good?

I haven't used it tbh....I will hunt out a usb and give it a go over the weekend and let you know.

Hikari Kisugi said:
-also

Am I right in saying if you have a relatively bright family room, might it be best to go for an LED screen rather than plasma which would be more suited to a darker viewing room?

That is the current way of thinking, I have a Samsung UE40D5520 in our living room for that reason, the screen has less reflection and has a higher brightness...although the PQ is nowhere near as good, largely down the the Blacks and motion being pants compared to the Plasma screens we have, even our rather elderly Hitachi 42PD7200 has better blacks than the Samsung LED.

The Samsung is great for everyday viewing, but I wouldn't want to watch movies on it particularly, I did toy with the idea of buying a UE55D8000 or Panasonic WT50B LED but given the price and the poor blacks and viewing angles I stuck with the Panasonic Plasmas for movies. Although I have a dedicated movie room, even if I did not it is cheaper and easier to buy some decent curtains and close them than to find an LED with a decent cinematic picture.....imo although it is a matter of taste.

Destination · 4 May 2012 at 23:39

Thats good info, thx.

Castiel · 6 May 2012 at 15:25

HDTV test review for the 42ST50.......

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/panasonic-tx-p42st50b-p42st50-201203191731.htm?page=Performance

Destination · 6 May 2012 at 15:51

Castiel, most places are selling that 42inch version around £900 with no talk of glasses.
How on earth did you manage to net the 50inch and 3 pairs of glasses for that?

Out of interest, does your model have freeview HD and freesat HD, or just the freeview?

Castiel · 6 May 2012 at 20:48

Hikari Kisugi said:
Castiel, most places are selling that 42inch version around £900 with no talk of glasses.
How on earth did you manage to net the 50inch and 3 pairs of glasses for that?

Out of interest, does your model have freeview HD and freesat HD, or just the freeview?

Free view HD, and I bought mine from an independent dealer with whom I spend a lot of money, hence the £150 saving the TV and free Glasses.

You should be able to haggle at least a couple of pairs of glasses and 5-10% yourself though I would have thought, especially in this climate.

Destination · 6 May 2012 at 22:18

Probably give it a go, need the house move sorted first anyway, so thats going to be several weeks.

how about the hdd recording?

Castiel · 6 May 2012 at 22:57

Hikari Kisugi said:
how about the hdd recording?

sorry bud, still haven't gotten round to sorting out a HDD or Stick to try it...I stream all my stuff and have SKYHD so never have the need to record to anything else or even use the Freeview tuner itself.....I will do it in the next few days though, I'm curious myself now!

rikky · 8 May 2012 at 02:08

I use the HD recording on my ST50 and the picture quality is flawless - you can't tell the difference from the broadcast material. It is certainly better than my Digital Stream Freeview HD PVR which is no mug in that regard.

arad85 · 9 May 2012 at 07:41

rikky said:
I use the HD recording on my ST50 and the picture quality is flawless - you can't tell the difference from the broadcast material.

That's because it just records the bitstream off air. Absolutely no quality drop whatsoever. We've moved on from VHS recorders you know

Snow-Munki · 12 May 2012 at 07:43

Ok the st50 has gone up in price

to £900

Now should I get the gt50 instead, for £1200 but comes with 2free pairs of glasses worth £100.

So basically paying an extra £200 to go from st50 to gt50

Terminel · 12 May 2012 at 08:02

I had last years GT46 which had to go in for repair due to dead pixels and as they could not fix it in seven days offered a replacement. So off I trundled to my local electronic indian food retailer and they offered me the XT model which is not as good compared to the GT model line. So with some complaining in store they upgraded it to the new 50ST which in I am pretty damn happy about (unless I have f'd up)

From what I have read so far the new GT and ST are pretty much the same but the GT has a few more bells and whistles. The only down side is that I'll have to sell my current glasses as they are not compatible with the new line but I am hoping that after a little moan on the phone today they may throw in a couple of pairs.

and yes I am more necky than a long necked giraffe!

Update: They swapped out the old glasses for the new compatible version with no quibble, happy days!

Assassin_012 · 30 May 2012 at 12:22

finally, ive bought the ST50 yesturday!!!
waiting for delivery..

now for the questions:

-if i were to use skype (video call), could i use a normal PC webcam? or do i require a specific webcam in order to use video calling...

-also, how about voice input? could i use a normal PC mic? or do i require a specific mic? in order to speak on skype...

thanks..

Destination · 5 Jun 2012 at 14:45

rikky said:
I use the HD recording on my ST50 and the picture quality is flawless - you can't tell the difference from the broadcast material. It is certainly better than my Digital Stream Freeview HD PVR which is no mug in that regard.

Question, with only one tuner, or well only one freeview tuner, can you record one thing and watch another, or can you only record what you watch?

Can you record freesat while watching freeview etc?

I assume 2011 glasses won't work with 2012 tvs due to the move to bluetooth?

-edit for the recording i mean in general and with specific reference to the multitasking multituner GT model.

Destination · 6 Jun 2012 at 14:28

anyone know?

MAllen · 6 Jun 2012 at 14:46

Hikari Kisugi said:
anyone know?

I don't have my set yet, I am only watching this thread while I am finalising my decision.

As far as I know, the "two tuners" in the GT50 models are two separate systems. One is FreeSat which needs a satellite dish on the roof to work. The other is FreeviewHD which takes its signal from your old aerial.

If both of these are wired up at the same time, I'd assume you can tune into them independently. And therefore record independently. Just like you'd swap between DVD, PVR, VCR on the other inputs.

I have also read elsewhere that these tuners have "simple" PVR controls. So that implies to me that they won't let you change channel while recording.

At the very least, you would need TWO FreeviewHD tuners to be able to record BBC1 while watching Channel 4. This is why you see mention of "Dual Tuners" in the separate PVRs you can buy.

(Technically it should be possible to record BBC1 and watch BBC2 as they are on the same Mux. That is down to how clever the recording software is)

I'll have my ST50 set soon so I can give you a more accurate answer then. I'm currently stuck at the "which shop?" decision. This is made awkward for me as I have £400 of C*rrys tokens to use up, but the warranty from there would be £300!! Instead of the free warranty currently offered by the independent shops.

As they often say... RTFM... TX-P50GT50 TX-P50ST50 (These manuals cover all screen sizes)

And sure enough... as you read the manuals it becomes clear that you can only record the channel you are watching. See notes on page 28 of the manual.

Destination · 6 Jun 2012 at 14:54

heh, I would read it but it breaks on DL after 80kb of a 5.6mb dl

I'll try again later.

MAllen · 6 Jun 2012 at 15:02

Hikari Kisugi said:
heh, I would read it but it breaks on DL after 80kb of a 5.6mb dl I'll try again later.

They downloaded for me. Just give it another go - maybe we were overloading the Panny server by us both doing it at the same time.

Oh - and look up. I edited my post again. No, you cannot record one channel and watch another. A simple way to achieve that would be to pickup a cheapo Freeview box for £20 and have that plugged in for when you want to watch a channel different to what you are recording.

Destination · 6 Jun 2012 at 15:05

Interesting and thx, you can only record what you watch, can you have a freesat active and freeview active at once, guess thats going to be a negative, but it would need a GT to test.