65" VT50 has arrived

[gadgtfreek]

So, due to the massive vet bill I acquired I backed off the 2013 budget and grabbed a 2012 VT50 before it went out of stock. Great deal on it too.

I figured since it was the best set of 2012 and the 2nd best tv ever, can't go wrong

Slim and sexy; I really like the one sheet of glass design with no bezel. A friend is buying the GT30 today, so Ill just be using THX Cinema (supposed to be pretty accurate) until Gregg Loewen comes out next month for a cal. I measure the MLL of my 65" GT30 one last time last night, and at 2000+ hours is was 0.0041fL. Thats outstanding and I really love the display. Will be curious to see what I can measure on the VT50, reviews stated it was around 0.0025fL in 60hz mode and then 0.002fL in 96hz mode with blu-ray. That should add a significant contrast ratio boost to what Im used too. If Its anything like my GT30, as the hours accumulate, the MLL will actually improve (lower number), so Ill be tracking the VT50 in the same way. Will take first measurement tonight before bed, also plan to set brightness properly and contrast for 35fL of output.

 

[dfergie]

Nice...

 

[gadgtfreek]

Buddy is buying the GT30 for $1300, and I got this for $2600. Eases the pain

 

[teachsac]

Cool. Just got back from picking up my dual Sunfire HRS subs nyself. Off to hook them up. Have fun. If you lived around here, I would have sold you the 65VT25 for 1300.

S~

 

[gadgtfreek]

LOL, I figured you had sold that already.

Hope the new subs sound good.

 

[pro96]

Nice set.. maybe when those reach the low 1k's then might upgrade. For now very happy with my 60" ST50 3D

Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[gadgtfreek]

Shoot, ST series is one of the best bang for buck plasmas out there. They calibrate well, have great black level too. ST30 and ST50 have been super popular.

 

[gadgtfreek]

For anyone wondering about settings.

I ended up using THX Bright Room. With a 10% sized window, the best THX Cinema would do was 29fL, and that was too dim. Im around 37fL in Bright Room and it reminds me a lot of THX and Mid Panel Bright on my GT30.

For mll, here is what I got at 5 hours run time:
60hz - 0.0023fL
96hz - 0.0018fL

My basic settings are:

THX Bright Room
Contrast 83
Brightness 53
Color 46
Sharp 0
Tint 0

Deep shade of black in the dark with no backlight on, will look damn fine with the backlight on.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Here are the results at 91 hours:

0.0018fL 0.006cdm2 65" VT50 96hz mode THX Cinema
0.0023fL 0.008cdm2 65" VT50 60hz mode THX Cinema

Grayscale THX Cinema Warm 2

As you can see its quite warm, just like my GT30. Will benefit from a calibration, and you could use Warm 1 as well.

Gamma - averages right at 2.30 with 10% sized windows (THX Cinema)

Color luminance

Color

Very nice display so far.

 

[tubetwister]

Yousa nice set! I just bought two sets in Feb a 50 inch RCA plasma NIB discontinued model clearance at 50% off it has all Samsung boards in it and Samsung panel it plays well. This is my first plasma ( I can see why a lot of folks like plasma's ) and a 32" Toshiba for the bedroom .

The Panny VT 50 was a little out of my budget nice set though I did see one it was good!
congrats .

 

[gadgtfreek]

They are hard to beat when it comes to price vs performance, especially in a dark room.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Gregg Loewen will be out on the 8th of April for a 2D and 3D calibration. This will be my first real 3D mode calibration so Im kinda excited and am holding off on Hobbit and Life of Pi for that.

He is planning a extended visit so we can compare accuracy across several modes like ISFcc and THX Cinema, and he may even bring a Lumagen to test if the display can really be made that much better to justify the cost. Should be fun, we did the same thing on my GT30 and found THX mode offered the most accurate color across 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. A lot of folks have some hate for THX mode, but on the GT30 it was the only mode to use mid panel brightness (which you want) and have very accurate color.

Charts:

THX

Custom Mid Panel

Which one would you rather use

 

[gadgtfreek]

Got home today and spent about 3 hours in Custom mode for 2D. Watching Spartacus right now, set looks damn good IMO. This was done with a colorimeter, I have an I1 Pro 2 Spectro on the way that Ill use to ensure its even more accurate.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Got my I1 Pro 2 in and did another cal, found out the D3 Pro I have reads a little off, but thats to be expected since its a cheaper colorimeter and it uses lab based profiles. It does show me how it is consistently off, so I used to to adjust 10 and 20 stimulus based on how it read 30-100 after I was done with the I1 Pro. On this set, the I1 is only good down to about 30.

D3 Results

 

[gadgtfreek]

Here are the charts from a recent visit by Gregg Loewen, to calibrate THX Mode in 2D and 3D and mess with ControlCal. I plan on trying to watch 3D again and will use the THX mode he calibrated.

THX Gamut

THX 3D Gamut

THX Gamma

THX 3D Gamma

THX Grayscale

THX 3D Grayscale

As you can see, even without all the 10pt mumbo jumbo from Custom/ISF modes, THX calibrates quite well. My only complaint about THX Cinema is the low light output (28fl). All non 3D charts above are THX Cinema. THX Bright Room has a pretty bad gamma.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Anyone with a 65" VT50 with ControlCal that wants to load in my settings and try them, here is the file:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cuuby76lajcc2b6

 

[teachsac]

You're nice. No way I'm loading my Sharp file. I don't know very many people outside of professional calibrators that use controlcal. I'd like him to tackle Sony next.

S~

 

[gadgtfreek]

Well, its likely to not help much since panels vary. A lot of folks ask for it so they can try, so what the hell

 

[teachsac]

Good reference. When we did mine, he used it as a starting reference for the rest of the 844s he does since mine was extremely responsive. My copy is saved in case I need to reload it.

S~

 

[gadgtfreek]

Yeah, I actually found many of my settings where in the ballpark of others, so tll get you closer. I put in D-Nice's generic settings and it actually measured OK. Grayscale error was a little high, but not near as bad as some of the stock modes.