Best replacement for Panasonic ST60 in 2024?

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sidefx

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#315798 17-Aug-2024 07:19

My trusty panasonic plasma finally gave up the ghost after I think 10 years of fairly heavy daily use... 😭😭😭

From a brief bit of reading (and looking at sales and availability in local stores) I'm thinking time to save for one of the following:

LG B4, LG C4 or Panasonic Z85 of the same size.

Anything else I should consider and will these all be as good or better than the ST60? Anything cheaper that will give as good picture quality as the ST60? Any upcoming releases within the next 3 months that will be better?

PS: Yes I will go look in store but trying to narrow list down before I do that. And sorry, I know there are many recommend me a TV threads but they seem to have a lot of noise and I have some pretty specific questions... and I know quite a few of you had ST60s back in the day :)

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sidefx

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#3272768 17-Aug-2024 07:42

Adding another option to the mix: Panasonic 65" MZ980

I see quite a few places still have these in stock for pretty sharp prices.

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Oblivian

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#3272782 17-Aug-2024 09:00

I'm waiting for mine to start doing things. Touch wood.

I've lost native ac3 from Netflix. Then lost Netflix totally.

And feel depressed when I see the sharpness and imsge difference on some Samsung q90s in another room. So wonder if I should prematurely retire anyway.

robjg63

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#3272789 17-Aug-2024 09:35

Oblivian: I'm waiting for mine to start doing things. Touch wood.

I've lost native ac3 from Netflix. Then lost Netflix totally.

And feel depressed when I see the sharpness and imsge difference on some Samsung q90s in another room. So wonder if I should prematurely retire anyway.

Your elderly Panasonic plasma lost Netflix?

As they stopped selling plasmas in 2014 I would have expected any 'smarts' would have long since stopped working.

Buy an Amazon Fire TV stick - $69 and you have a fully supported smart TV again.

Our 2009 50" Panasonic plasma is still (touch wood) going strong - I still think its got a great display and colours. Has had heavy use too

It never had any 'smarts' so has had a couple of AFTV devices connected over that time.

I have had to take the back off in a couple of times and clean out the cooling fans - it has two. They get a bit of dust build up (they run all the time like a PC) and if they get too much dust build up, the TV will shut down and do 10 or 11 red light blinks. Scared me the first time it happened because I thought it was something fatal. Turned out to be pretty easy to DIY.

EDIT: Time for trivia....

I was curious how many hours the panel has done. Found how to get into the service menu.

It tells me it has been turned on 7398 times and has done 23,748 hours.

The panels were rated at a life span of around 100,000 hours (yes theoretical I know).

Found the receipt - We bought it on 17 September 2009 for $3325.

Between that date and today is apparently 5448 days.

So that averages about 4.3 hours per day.

That price, according to the reserve bank inflation calculator equates to $4,667.19 in todays money.

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Oblivian

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#3272828 17-Aug-2024 11:39

Running a Chromecast already to reintroduce smarts. But the built in support menu/previews was far better than casting.

Netflix actually appears to be back working again (it uses the web app rather than a native). Despite previously stating device no longer supported.
But presumably a separate spat with licencing also meant most AC3 passthrough dropped a lot longer ago outside of broadcast Singal. And while running an external AMP, AC3 is kind of important.

The downside of an external player is the hum pickip it seems to be effected by. Could be the early generation CC at fault. Not narrowed it down, But another bugbear.

However even with comparison of broadcast image with facial pores Etc. it's clear although plasma was king. Technology on the LCD front has changed. Although it may still have better black contrasting.

sidefx

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#3272844 17-Aug-2024 12:34

Oblivian: I'm waiting for mine to start doing things. Touch wood.

I've lost native ac3 from Netflix. Then lost Netflix totally.

And feel depressed when I see the sharpness and imsge difference on some Samsung q90s in another room. So wonder if I should prematurely retire anyway.

Mine just won't power on at all. Have tried every factory reset suggestion online and no dice. Am half tempted to get a multimeter and start checking fuses... but I was really hoping OLED tech had caught up for image quality by now without breaking the bank.

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robjg63

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#3272941 17-Aug-2024 16:49

I hope you have googled "st60 panasonic plasma wont power on" - there are a few responses....
Just be careful if you are poking around in there. Plasmas had some pretty high voltage capacitors.
You could do yourself more than an injury....

Still worth having a cautious look i reckon.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

sidefx

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#3272951 17-Aug-2024 17:21

robjg63: I hope you have googled "st60 panasonic plasma wont power on" - there are a few responses....

Yes that's why I mention fuses - the service manual flow chart I came across seems to indicate that's most likely issue. But TBH this seemed like a good chance\excuse to get an OLED. But are they still not equal to the ST60??

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Asteros

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#3273285 18-Aug-2024 18:27

OLEDs are better in my opinion. I have a Sony A95L 65" however it might not fit your price criteria.

In general, TVs are slashed in price during Black Friday sales right through to Christmas and Boxing Day. Lots of time to do some research.

jonathan18

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#3273351 19-Aug-2024 09:03

Our last larger TV was also an ST60, and TBH I kinda wished I’d jumped to OLED before I did as, much as I liked that TV, four years on I don’t miss it at all and prefer the OLED in nearly all (if not every) aspects. So, yep, I’d also suggest as someone used to a plasma, you’ll love OLED. (As for brands, we’ve stuck with Panasonic for both our OLEDs.)

That said, I’ve little experience in the current alternatives that may give OLED a run for its money - calling @ShinyChrome for input here!

ShinyChrome

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#3273385 19-Aug-2024 10:29

jonathan18:

That said, I’ve little experience in the current alternatives that may give OLED a run for its money - calling @ShinyChrome for input here!

I have regressed, and return to monke... by which I mean CRT, which is the ultimate display technology...

But if the idea of a 100kg+ hunk of glass and metal isn't appealing, then PQ wise, there is nothing out there that beats the self-emissive and motion of OLED (especially coming from plasma). As others have said, if you can hold off towards the end of the year, prices will decline a tad (65" $3k or under usually). You could always floor-walk some local retailers and see if there are any 2023 models they are trying to hawk off cheap. Don't be put off by ex-demo ones, OLEDs nowadays are pretty hardy and you usually get a new warranty anyway.

I'm a Panasonic fan, but really outside of small differences between each manufacturers secret sauce for picture processing, or "better" speakers (not worth it IMO); you are probably going to be more interested in usability of their OS and price. Unless you treat it as a dumb monitor and feed it via a Nvidia Shield, Apple TV, HTPC etc; which is highly recommended.

The LG B4 is the weaker version of the C4 so don't pay too much for the former unless it is good bit cheaper than the latter or the Panasonic Sony offerings. The 2024 Panny Z85A is a very similiar to the 2023 MZ980 (Fire TV OS vs Panny's own My Home Screen most notable), so if you can find the latter for cheaper, it's worth it.

Side note: However one thing OLED can't do easily (read cheaply) is scale in size, so for the cinematic large screen experience traditionally reserved for a projector, I'm quite interested in the 100"+ LCD models hitting the market. I mean, this is one area where size > PQ IMO