Mar 19 Panasonic BLACK Levels - A Listener's Experience
We received an email from Jawhn (pronounced Shawn) complaining about the black levels on his three month old Panasonic plasma. We've have reported that you have to have a keen eye to see the difference and that its much ado about nothing. Jawhn begs to differ. To quote Jawhn:
"As the owner of a 3 MONTH OLD Panny Plasma my black levels have doubled. In a dimly lit room, the black bars in a 235:1 movie are NIGHT AND DAY different than when I first calibrated the set. They are not even DARK gray and no amount of Brightness or Contrast reduction makes any difference. The MAIN reason I bought a Plasma was Superior black levels. My black levels are no better than a CHEAP LCD."
He even includes a picture that helps make his case:
This is a black screen from the AVCHD disk (it looks the same with AVIA)
This does not require an expert to notice that the black image is actually gray. We have a friend who bought this same TV and we will be checking in with him periodically to see if his results are the same. Until then we will change our position on 2009 Panasonic Plasmas to "Proceed with Caution".
Reader Comments (11)
This looks like a lemon problem and not the programmed black level system Panasonic & the others have implemented for plasma TVs which don't start upping the level only after 3 months. I'd take it back personally.
I have a 65V10 purchased in November and I have been hearing about the increase in black levels and freaking out. Luckily I have not noticed any change yet. Actually my picture is richer now than it was when it came out of the box. Calibration with video essentials disk reveals no problems yet. I hope you can get your situation resolved.
A couple of thoughts in Panasonic's defense here (I am an owner of a 42" S1):
1) Yes, the min-brightness-level went up, however, why would Panasonic do it in the first place? No one really seems to be asking this question. The engineers who design and build these TVs aren't morons, they know what they are doing. I think it makes sense to ask why such a change is done?
From what I've read, plasma panels actually get dimmer over time due to phosphor aging; it won't be as bright, eventually. This includes the brightness of the min-brightness-level that is automatically adjusted. As the panel ages, theoretically, THE ABOVE BEHAVIOR THAT YOU ARE SEEING SHOULD GO AWAY WITH TIME and the blacks should "recover" to a normal level as the panel ages some more. By changing the drive voltage, they can make the panel look brighter and compensate for the aging process. It's a feature IMHO, not a defect. Yes, your contrast ratio drops, but that's to be expected anyway. The fact that it jumped like that is just a function of the way the panel's software was written, pure and simple.
2) Yes, the min-brightness-level went up, and yes, it's annoying. Sadly, we're gonna be stuck with this behavior; Panasonic probably isn't going to fix it. However, it may be less noticeable if you put a 6500K fluorescent back light behind the TV. It isn't a panacea, but it should make the brighter levels less noticable. My own TV looks a tad bit grey (it has less than 1500 hrs on it), yet I've found that adding the backlight improved the black level a bit.
Yes, this behavior stinks, but I think a lot of people need to get over it and move on. It's just a TV.
I understand the principle of the panel aging and the attempt to compensate. If this was happening 3 or 4 years down the road I wouldn't be complaining. But I bought my TV at Christmas (THIS YEAR) It has just ovr 650 hrs on it. Who doesn't expect ADVERTISED like new performance after 3 months from NEW electronics?
Jawahn,
If your'e upset, I'd join the class-action lawsuit.
In the meantime, though, you still have a low-black-level TV that you're upset with and can't return without taking a huge loss. You may want to try #2 that I mentioned, and see if you feel better / less upset about your purchase. A 6500K CFL daylight bulb pack doesn't cost very much (less than$15USD) at most home improvement stores, and you can use a unused lamp or something that you picked up at Goodwill to hold the bulb (I used a bottle-lamp kit and screwed it into the top of an empty CD-R spindle).
It's a measure that might help you "do with what you got," as my grandma used to say, until you can replace it with something that has a better black level later. It's worth giving a try, at least.
For more info, try googling for "hdtv bias lighting"
I've experienced exactly the same problem on my Panasonic G50 inch plasma (build date October 2009) purchased in Australia. There appears to be set intervals based on number of hours usage where the black levels will increase then stabalise to some extent, however I now have over 1200 hours usgae and it is nowhere near as good as when it first came out of the box or at appox 700 hours of usage. It is not oly the black levels which chaneg it is also posterisation and colour banding, couple with severe increase in image retention. I nhope that a fix is forrthcomming, I am so disappointed with this purchase, I now prefer my 5 year old LG plasma 42" picture.
Maybe you shouldn't have calibrated the set, perhapes you should have left it alone.
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