Thanks all again for your help. bfginger, we took the TV back and purchased the model you suggested above.
Seems great!
I have a question about the USB HDD recording - does it work in NZ? They seem to mention plugging it in a couple times, so I suppose that a USB powered HDD is not enough?
Would be great if we could record onto a HDD as the manual says, without having to buy a separate HD recorder.
USB recording from a TV isn't going to be a full substitute for a dedicated television recorder. Because a TV has only one digital tuner you won't be able to watch TV1 while recording from TV3. It's possible you wouldn't be able to record TV2 while watching TV1 too. I don't think recording and series link from the MHEG-5 electronic programming guide would be supported but someone correct me if it is. There is some use to plugging in an external HDD and that is for live pause and rewind or if you're just recording what you're watching to replay later.
Others have got USB powered HDDs working with their Panasonic but mains powered USB HDDs are usually more likely to work with recorders. Some HDDs won't be compatible so Google may help there. I'd only want to use a USB powered drive as it'd be less fuss.
A dedicated recorder can record two channels while watching a third so that's alot more useful. With NZ being a small market and most people with a PVR using MySky there aren't many real options for Freeview HD UHF recorders. And Freeview restrictions inhibit the extracting of recordings. http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?j=1235536,907232,963289,929947,502425
The BWT720 is the best but it's expensive. The BWT700 is last year's model so it's cheaper but I doubt the new model is much different. These two also play and write Blu-rays and DVDs and some people have managed to access the 700's recordings via DLNA so hopefully the 720 supports that too.
The DishTV unit is much cheaper. It sells for under $300 on special. I don't think getting a Magic TV 3700 would be worthwhile over the BWT700 despite the larger HDD. The 3600 had all its remote controls fail but someone managed to modify the firmware to give a 4min ad skip and http access to recordings so can be a good choice if buying second hand but you'll need to buy a Harmony remote or something like it eventually.
Do leave the pixel orbiter on for the first several hundred hours use of the TV. The plasma phosphors are more vulnerable during that time and having it on helps keep the wear of the channel logos more even. If the pixel orbiter in that model moves about more with the overscan turned on then leave it on during the "break in" period. If it lets you keep the pixel orbiter on while overscan is disabled (HD Size 2) then I would leave it on if image retention is ever an issue. Burn in is seldom an issue but if the TV is brutalised by having a static image shown for many hours or brightness or contrast is turned right up it does risk problems. The settings may be independent for each input.
The VT30 supports 48Hz and 96Hz modes for 1080p24 sources so try both.
Here is the firmware page http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/tv/download/fw/aoma/down_oc2.html
I turned the overscan off, and left the pixel orbiter on (though at the time I had no idea what it really did). Seems like a good idea. Do I leave 'Resolution Enhancer' and stuff like that on?
Most of the presets like 'THX' and 'Cinema' seem too dark to me and seem to show color casts (eg, THX looks orange-y). My folks like it set to Dynamic, which seems the brightest. This is not good for burn-in though?
I turned the overscan off, and left the pixel orbiter on (though at the time I had no idea what it really did). Seems like a good idea. Do I leave 'Resolution Enhancer' and stuff like that on?
There might be an option in there to control the frequency of the pixel orbiter. I'm not sure resolution enhancer even affects HD, it's some kind of sharpener so if you can't see anything positive coming from it I'd turn it off. There's alot on information about VT30s on overseas forums and you may have some luck in the Home Theatre section of this website as there are other owners. The "Z" at the end is just for the rare NZ model.
Most of the presets like 'THX' and 'Cinema' seem too dark to me and seem to show color casts (eg, THX looks orange-y).
I think those are designed for watching without compensation for any other light sources like how it is at a movie theatre. Presets aren't going to be highly attuned for the behaviour of an individual television so there are limits to their accuracy. Overseas many people pay professional calibrators with special equipment to set up their televisions to be as accurate as possible. The model you've got has special custom or "professional" modes for greater control. Google "AVS HD 709" for more info about this but it can be complicated. I wouldn't recommend rushing into the technician's service menu as that can all but brick the TV.
My folks like it set to Dynamic, which seems the brightest. This is not good for burn-in though?
The distinction between image retention and burn-in is image retention goes away. The more brightness and contrast are turned up the easier it is to have problems. How a plasma is run during the first few hundred hours is supposed to influence how it behaves for the rest of its service life so unreasonable settings are no no.
Try setting Dynamic and Normal modes back to defaults then lower the brightness and contrast settings on Dynamic to the same as they are on Normal and see how they compare. When I was setting up a relative's Panasonic plasma up I found the contrast defaults were far too high on the Dynamic mode they wanted so keeping the brightness and contrast on reasonable levels should make it much more ok to run on Dynamic mode if the VT30 behaves the same way.
Both people I know with Panasonic plasmas ran them on Dynamic mode with brightness and contrast cranked all the way up. Which looked horribly over-bright and washed out but somehow they didn't manage to damage their sets although they were absolutely asking for trouble with those settings.
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