Panasonic TH-P42 GT20Z vs ST30Z

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merlinz

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#90752 28-Sep-2011 22:13

I was planning on getting a 42" ST30 Panasonic (e.g. $1577 @ JB) but came across a 42" GT20 for $1100. Hard to find out much about it. Still boxed so I haven't seen it running. There was one thread on GZ where the owner returned one to the shop (HN) because it was dull on its normal setting, and evidently the manager concerned thought it was serious enough that they would drop the model. Which doesn't inspire much confidence.

Any other experience of the GT20 out there? It is a lot less cash than the ST30 or GT30 (I'd really prefer 46GT30 but beyond current budget ). We will judge it by how it looks when watching a movie, typically arthouse (DVD now, BD as soon as funds allow). Otherwise watch recorded excerpts from news & the odd doco, rarely a TV series (Freeview HD). We pipe sound thru the stereo for movies so not overly concerned about SQ of TV as long as news / docos are intelligible. No gaming at all.

Also - is there anything else worth considering up to $1600?

Dunnersfella

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#526971 28-Sep-2011 22:25

There's nothing wrong with it, it's not a great deal different from the V20 that was so popular in 2010 (I only say that because I bought one of course...).
It's THX cert. for 2D playback, offers 3D playback and has a very good filter on the panel to help deal with reflections. It's just a little old now.
I'd save your pennies and get the GT20.

merlinz

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#526972 28-Sep-2011 22:27

I'm confused... did you mean "save for GT30"?

Dunnersfella

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#527483 29-Sep-2011 23:50

No - I mean some some money, and buy the GT20.

merlinz

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#527508 30-Sep-2011 07:43

Gotcha, was thinking you meant "keep saving" - which isn't necessary with the GT20.
It's just the lingering doubt about its actual peformance. So I really need to see it running...

merlinz

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#528154 2-Oct-2011 08:37

Tried GT20 at home and it's going straight back, someone else can have the bargain. Murky mid-tones. Skin looks too grey. Clincher was the opening (title) scene of a movie (Babel), dim shot of water with waves rolling in. On our 6 year old PA50 Panasonic the waves were clear. On the new GT20Z (same room lighting, same player) the titles seemed to be on a completely black backround, would never have known about the waves if I didn't still have the old TV. Tried every possible display setting - normal, cinema, true cinema, lower contrast, higher contrast, lower brightness, higher brighness, DNR off/low, Eco off/on,... Still no waves. I thought Consumer's take on the VT20 was weird - quite poor picture performance - but if it's basically the same as this then I understand their rating, for once.

Dunnersfella

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#528314 2-Oct-2011 19:29

Nothing ventured, nothing gained I guess.
Was the movie a DVD or BluRay copy?
What picture settings did you have on the player re: playback scaling / colouration etc?

Typically, you'll want to let your plasma bed in for at least 100 hours before calibrating the picture etc.
Still, if your eyes don't like it, then that's what counts the most.

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merlinz

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#528319 2-Oct-2011 19:47

Boxed DVD. Player is a fairly old Pioneer HDD DVD recorder (530H). Not aware of any picture tweaks available on the player, pretty sure it doesn't know about upscaling. Used component out (I split it with Y connectors to be able to view both TVs at same time) - no HDMI out from player. Kept both TVs with same setting, eg both normal or both cinema (though the older one doesn't have 'true cinema'.

Was dimly aware of the burn-in requirement but don't know what effect that would have had - but I had agreed I'd return the TV smartly if it seemed to have any problems.

The scene is a pretty demanding one and only makes sense in a dark room, but it made no sense whatsoever on the GT20 under any circumstances. I tried the same video with an ST30 in the shop today but too much ambient light to draw any sensible conclusions.

Dunnersfella

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#528323 2-Oct-2011 20:00

To get the best out of your Panasonic plasma, go into 'Setup' and turn on 'Advance (isfccc).
From there, it will open up the picture option of 'Professional 1 and Professional 2'. These will allow you to tweak the white balance, colour management and the gamma. These will create a significantly better picture - meaning you should be able to not only achieve decent contrast, especially when viewing dark scenes. As well as bringing more natural skin tones to the fore.
I have a V20 46" and the picture calibration options need to be tweaked to get the best out of the TV, once you do that, it sings.

merlinz

41 posts

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#528344 2-Oct-2011 22:34

Well... sounds fine as long as one knows what one is doing, which in fact I don't, but I suppose I can give it a try.

Meantime - starting to feel as though I'm going slightly crazy - the same scene on the old Panasonic is now mostly blank (well very dark greenish background behind the titles, but no discernable image of the water scene) to at least 90% of the way across, and the waves are clear only in the right-hand few percent - in a very artificial looking rectangular band that surely was not in the movie. The only change I had made from earlier testing was removing the second TV from the Y cables. I've now swapped cables and tried a bunch of basic display adjustments to no avail.

sultanoswing

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#529191 4-Oct-2011 21:41

I have a P42V20 too, and after spending considerable time with the AVS Forum calibration discs, it turned out that Cinema 2 was pretty close to ideal in my living room. I did use Professional Modes to tweak just a bit. I didn't have the tools to do a professional colour calibration (or the blue filter either), but I'm very happy with it.

Are you sure the GT20 has THX? I know the US models of the V20 have a THX mode, but it seems that Aus and NZ miss out (due to licencing costs), so instead we get 'True Cinema'. Sigh.

One thing that comes through in reviews of the Panny Plasmas is that they're somewhat unforgiving of SD content. Not that that is usually manifested by off colours, however. If you could rent/beg or borrow a Blu-ray player and try some well shot HD source material (2001: Space Odyssey, Lord Of The Rings etc) you may be very pleasantly surprised by the picture improvement,

Dunnersfella

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#529196 4-Oct-2011 21:50

There's no doubt that a non-upscaling DVd player running via composite cables wouldn't work well with a late model Panasonic...
How does the picture look on HD Freeview or MySky HD?

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merlinz

41 posts

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#529230 4-Oct-2011 22:40

As I returned the GT20 to the shop it's hard to be certain now about its tweakability. It certainly had True Cinema as well as Cinema (the former was warmer and seemed a little yellower) but I believe I saw some custom/pro configuration options in there too, and I think I saw reference to THX.

As far as SD content goes - in some ways it was quite pleasing, because it seemed a little sharper than the old TV (surprised me as the player can't upsample, I rationalised it as the screen doing some interpolation). But skin tones generally - on both DVD and on terrestrial Freeview HD (via built-in tuner) - seemed ashen in all modes. I would imagine that if I could graph the brightness from lowlights to highlights (gamma curve?? - pardon my ignorance), the curve would be rather concave in the middle where the old plasma seems nicely linear.

If the GT20 is definitely known to be good when tweaked, I could be persuaded to give it another try (if I can persuade the shop). But I've read and experienced enough to be rather suspicious at this stage, and am inclined to wait for a clearance (e.g. 2012 release) on ST/GT/VT30

Meantime - still think I must be going nuts now that I can't see these waves (in at least 90% of the picture) in the title sequence of Babel. I even wondered if my using Y connectors to split the component signals somehow caused an artifact that I misread as waves! If anyone out there has a really good screen and a copy of the movie they could either convince me I am losing it, or - preferably - that it's just that my old TV is losing it.