Panasonic Viera TH-L50ET60Z good idea?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Panasonic Viera TH-L50ET60Z good idea?

JayADee

2115 posts

Uber Geek

#127251 4-Aug-2013 05:19

I'm looking at buying a Panasonic Viera TH-L50ET60Z to stream media from my laptop with dlna or serviio or if I must, by hooking it up via hdmi cable. It's my first tv in yeeeeaaarrrsss!

First, will it stream mp4, avi and mkv on wifi using windows 8 and windows media player without having to use a USB stick?

Second, can I attach my laptop computer to it via hdmi cable in case it wont stream or if I just want to mirror my laptop as a PC screen? No problem from the laptop side but will the tv accept it?

Third, does this seem like a good tv to you? We were really struck by the picture and even picked it out a second time blind at a second shop.

Thanks for your help, I don't want to get it home and have it not work. I'm not sure I could bring my laptop to the store to try but I am taking USB sticks.

Julie

Ps going in to look at it again this morning. It costs just over 2k.

Under Applicable PC signals in the specs it is blank (for none) while other models say XGA, WXGA, SXGA 60Hz, 1920 x 1080 (HDMI) so I'm worried my hooking up to the laptop is no.

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#871502 4-Aug-2013 09:05

Read the operating instructions which can be found here
www.panasonic.co.nz/media/529791/TH-L42_47ET50Z%20Operating%20Instructions.pdf
Laptop HDMI out to TV should be no problem. The PC formats you mention appear to apply to the PC 15 pin D input, not the HDMI.
As for streaming, would appear Divx and MKV are OK but probably not mp4.
TVs tend to be rather limited in what formats they wik handle. That's why I use a media player.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#871510 4-Aug-2013 09:50

looking at the model number I think this is an LCD. As a reasonably recent plasma convert I strongly recommend you consider plasma. LCDs look better under the bright shop lights but plasmas IMHO look much better once you get them home. consider panasonics ST60, GT60 VT60. I have an eariler VT30 and a year later I'm still blown away by the depth and richness of colour especially whatching HD BBC David Attenborough.

As for 'smart' TVs I don't have much time for them I have a PC permanently connected to the TV. I guess DLNA when it works and Laptop via HDMI for everything else would be a workable approach.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

JayADee

2115 posts

Uber Geek

#871534 4-Aug-2013 11:11

Doh, I am in the store. Model number is TH-P50ST60Z. Brought laptop, am hooked up to wifi so am about to try it out. Waiting for tv firmware to update. :) Wrote it down wrong yesterday. Damn old age!

fahrenheit

757 posts

Ultimate Geek

#871546 4-Aug-2013 12:19

The ST60 is the best value TV you can buy this year and the only reason I'd overlook it would be input lag.

JayADee

2115 posts

Uber Geek

#871587 4-Aug-2013 15:14

I bought it :) Including a 4 metre hdmi cable came to $2148.00

Should have just bought a Bluetooth keyboard as my mouse is already wireless and a shorter hdmi but I probably won't hook up directly to it often anyway.

Great looking tv. I played a variety of file types and resolutions on USB stick and hooked up the laptop to the store wifi and tried out streaming using DLNA. Streaming was pretty bad (laggy) but I put it down to slow shop wifi as the sales guy owns one and says he streams at home with no issues. I can stream to a couple iPads at a time at home from my laptop no problem. I had also downloaded the apple app for the remote to my iPhone and had no trouble getting the basics of that to work too. (Didn't try swiping media from the phone)

I'm not a gamer so latency isn't an issue.

The tv picked up my phone, laptop and the shop wifi no problem and connecting windows media player was no hassle either. Can't wait to get it home, a boxed one is being shipped over from another shop.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#871589 4-Aug-2013 15:26

keep the contrast a bit low for the first 1000 hours and avoid bright white logos etc and if do get some image retention just try to ignore it it will go away eventually! I got some during the olympics as the sky sport logo was quite bright and the TV was new but what could I do olympics HD on a panasonic plasma Is jaw dropping! anyway it took some months for the IR to completely fade.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

fahrenheit

757 posts

Ultimate Geek

#871605 4-Aug-2013 16:10

JayADee: I'm not a gamer so latency isn't an issue.

That was not my only concern. Input lag can affect lip-sync with external sources too. Sensitivity to it will differ from person to person (just like gaming lag), so YMMV.

mcraenz: keep the contrast a bit low for the first 1000 hours and avoid bright white logos etc and if do get some image retention just try to ignore it it will go away eventually! I got some during the olympics as the sky sport logo was quite bright and the TV was new but what could I do olympics HD on a panasonic plasma Is jaw dropping! anyway it took some months for the IR to completely fade.

Keeping the contrast low means the phosphors take even longer to settle and reach their optimum condition. The change between 300 - 1000 hours will be so negligible that it would be a great shame to waste 700 hours of viewing with lack-lustre contrast settings. Its the 0 - 300 hour period that sees the most change and your cautions about bright static logos etc during that period is sound advice. I think its important throughout the panel's life, but more so during that period.

mcraenz

1140 posts

Uber Geek

#871609 4-Aug-2013 16:24

sounds like good advice.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz