Panasonic Plasmas

[Ttone305]

This question is about the PZ850 line, I noticed a sticker on the actual set that says "480 htz" and just wanted to clearify what that ment. I saw the 42" model next to the PZ800 42" and it does look a lot better in its contrast of blacks and other colors, but as far as the "30,000:1 native contrast" it doesn't that far better than the "10,000:1 dynamic contrast" of the PZ800. I did get a chance to tweak with the settings and put the contrast to dynamic, which was supposed to be 1,000,000:1, but it didn't seem that great. Yeah, the blacks were "blacker" than the 800-series, but not by what seemed to be a 990,000:1 difference. Prices weren't too steep. At sears, they had it for $1,199.99. I get all my electronics from sears, they are AWESOME! They had it hooked to a sony blu-ray with Meet The Robinson's playing. Don't get me wrong, the details were jaw-dropping, but the million to one contrast didn't seem to be worth a million to one.

And if any one knows what 480 htz stands for, please let me know. I know LCD's have 120 htz, but I don't know if this is the next step in plasmas or what.

[rex]

Originally Posted by Ttone305

This question is about the PZ850 line, I noticed a sticker on the actual set that says "480 htz" and just wanted to clearify what that ment. I saw the 42" model next to the PZ800 42" and it does look a lot better in its contrast of blacks and other colors, but as far as the "30,000:1 native contrast" it doesn't that far better than the "10,000:1 dynamic contrast" of the PZ800. I did get a chance to tweak with the settings and put the contrast to dynamic, which was supposed to be 1,000,000:1, but it didn't seem that great. Yeah, the blacks were "blacker" than the 800-series, but not by what seemed to be a 990,000:1 difference. Prices weren't too steep. At sears, they had it for $1,199.99. I get all my electronics from sears, they are AWESOME! They had it hooked to a sony blu-ray with Meet The Robinson's playing. Don't get me wrong, the details were jaw-dropping, but the million to one contrast didn't seem to be worth a million to one.

And if any one knows what 480 htz stands for, please let me know. I know LCD's have 120 htz, but I don't know if this is the next step in plasmas or what.

"Dynamic contrast ratio": this does not refer to the "dynamic" setting on user display preferences. It is common to market the dynamic contrast ratio capability of a display (which is a larger number). This should not be directly compared to the static contrast ratio. A plasma display with a static 5000:1 contrast ratio will show superior contrast to an LCD display with 5000:1 dynamic and 1000:1 static contrast ratio when the input signal contains full range of brightnesses from 0 to 100% simultaneously. However they will be on par when input signal ranges only from 0 to 20% brightness. There is no set formula for calculating dynamic contrast ratio, since it depends upon how much you can dim the lighting in the room. Generally, dynamic contrast = TRue contrast x K , where k is 3 to 5 and denotes how much you can dim the backlight. I have no idea how they came up with "1,000,000:1", but, honestly, I wouldn't pay to much attention to it. This is undoubtedly nothing more than marketing hyperbole, intended to mislead. For more information, see: The Contrast Ratio Game http://www.practical-home-theater-gu...ast-ratio.html:
"An imaging device ability to display subtle detail arises out of its ability to display various levels of gray i.e. its gray-scale performance rather than out of a higher contrast ratio.
Do not get carried away with big contrast numbers - the eye dynamic response is the limiting factor."

480 Hz refers to the subfield drive. 8 subfields per frame x 60 frames per second = 480 subfields per second = 480hz (A subfield drive system detects a PAL source and increases the number of subfields in a frame in order to reduce flicker.)
Manufacturers look for ways to make the "numbers" in their specs larger, since consumers tend to buy stuff with "better" specs; even though the specs may be completely irrelevant (watch alot of PAL videos?), they may not know what they mean, and may very well be comparing apples to oranges. I hope that helps. I am sure there are many other people on this forum who can explain this stuff much better.
(BTW, Does anybody know what ever happened to Lotus?)

[rex]

I would like to see how these compare side by side with the Kuros. Panasonic claims they have reduced pre-charge emissions by 90%! This could make them blacker than the Kuros (Pioneer claims a pre-emission reduction of 80%). If anyone gets to compare them, please post your impressions.
Of course, I am far more interested in black levels and gray scale performance than gimmicks like IP enabled features.

[rex]

Amazon has the Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U 50-inch 1080p Plasma HDTV for $2,499 delivered.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Vier...7115074&sr=8-1

[rainfire]

Originally Posted by rex

Amazon has the Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U 50-inch 1080p Plasma HDTV for $2,499 delivered.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Vier...7115074&sr=8-1

"Usually ships within 1 to 2 months."

[mynewt]

the current price at Amazon is $3199 - delivered in 1-2 months of course.
If I could find it for $2499 - that would be a deal!