Panasonic TC-P60ST60 (i.e. the Samsung replacement)

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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Samsung PN60E8000GF won't power on

Post by kevm14 »

Good news - there is plenty of room to slide it in behind the front seats. I just have to fold the rear seat bottom up and I can probably lean the TV against the rear seat, with some moving blankets for cushion. In fact, I could transport a substantially larger TV this way.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Samsung PN60E8000GF won't power on

Post by kevm14 »

I finally got him on the phone.

We're on for tomorrow.

I did chat with him about the TV. He used to sell TVs at a Sears and had access to many TVs over a long period of time and specifically chose this one. He definitely seems to be a plasma enthusiast. I asked him if he has ever calibrated it. He said CNET has some recommended settings (I think I actually already linked to this) and he's been running those with good results. He did say he compared it to all the latest LED TVs and he liked this better than all of them. He did make an interesting comment and I had the exact same industry impression: Panasonic was basically the last high end plasma manufacturer, especially when Pioneer quit making their Kuro series. Samsung was more known for their LED TVs though I think their plasmas were pretty good.

I asked again about the optical cable. It does sound like something broke off inside the plug and won't hold the cable in anymore. So he just tapes it and that works fine.

He also said he did update it for the latest smart stuff and it has all the Netflix and whatever stuff. So that's cool as I definitely used that stuff on the Samsung. The Samsung system looked alright but was slow to navigate and also Samsung basically dropped support for the Youtube client this year I think. So we'll see if I fare better with Panny.

All in all it sounds like this is the right TV. I don't know how you could come close to duplicating the overall image quality at 60" for anywhere near $300, so I think this passes the value sniff test. We'll see how it goes. This will have to last until an even bigger OLED HDR TV is like $500 used. So...we're probably talking 5-10 years.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Samsung PN60E8000GF won't power on

Post by kevm14 »

This is why plasma.
https://www.soundandvision.com/content/ ... lasma-hdtv
As Good as It Gets
As great as the TC-P60ST60 looked without calibration, it took on another layer of goodness after tuning, delivering impressively deep blacks that seemed to drop out to near infinity in my dark viewing room and the deliciously rich, saturated colors I’ve come to expect from Panasonic’s better plasmas. Something as simple as the CBS coverage of a golf tournament became a riot of visual delights. Fleshtones after calibration were slightly more saturated and a bit rosier and more natural than the paler faces in the default Cinema mode. The greens of the golf course were never cartoony or exaggerated, and the teal and orange shirts and bright pastels worn by the more fashion-savvy golfers called attention to themselves, but in a good way—not the kind that makes you reach for the color control to turn things down. Blue skies took on pungency that elicited my “wow” response. Shadow detail in the dark areas was excellent. I had the set’s ultimate black level set so low that at first I thought I’d gone too far and crushed the fine shadings, but as quickly as my eyes adjusted to the black areas, I could see details emerge. When the broadcast’s two anchors came on camera wearing black jackets with white-thread embroidered CBS logos, it took but a moment for me to fully delineate the undulating folds and creases in their sleeves and the clear outlines of their lapels against the body of the jacket. And all the detail in the bright logos just popped right out of all that blackness. There was so much good stuff happening on screen that I actually began looking forward to the colorful commercials, with their punchy golf clothing, sunny golf course landscapes, and tight close-ups of finely detailed metallic club heads or deep, mesmerizing dimples on perfectly white golf balls. This is the mark of a great TV—when every scene change seems to yield fresh, evocative surprises.

Moving on to Blu-ray, I spun the recent transfer of Prometheus my colleague Tom Norton has been using as one of his black-level torture tests and swam into the rich darkness of outer space, with its endless blackness and an unusually sharp pinpoint specificity to starfields you don’t often see with the competitive backlit LCD display technology. Well-defined shadow details were easily evident in the flashlight-lit cave scene early in the movie and later in the aerial space shots of the passing Prometheus ship. This movie overall has a dark and sinister feel, but when color is used, it’s used spectacularly, as in the opening sequence when an alien drinks a nasty cocktail and disintegrates before our eyes. As the camera zooms deep inside his biology, we see his DNA breaking up, a winding helix of yellow so bright and saturated it almost flies off the screen. The various environments on the ship were also breathtaking, and when the camera zooms in on a small artificial Christmas tree set up by the captain, I couldn’t help but be taken with the dead-on accuracy of the green color in this familiar object.
Everyman’s TV
Most of the best plasma HDTVs I’ve seen have a kind of smooth, film-like texture and solidity to the image, coupled with a special quality to the phosphor-based color that’s hard to explain considering that it doesn’t really show up in the measurements. I once asked a plasma TV engineer about this, and he described plasma’s unique look as “organic.” If by that he meant natural, accurate, engaging, dimensional, even addictive, then I think it sums up the Panasonic ST60 series. With its spectacularly deep blacks, excellent shadow details, and richly saturated colors, Panasonic can chalk up another affordable hit for all us little people with big eyes and small budgets.
And the way plasma took everything that was great about an HD CRT, I expect OLED will do the same for plasma. LCD/LED was just a distraction.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Samsung PN60E8000GF won't power on

Post by kevm14 »

This story got unexpectedly interesting.

He calls me when I was like 5 minutes from home, having left early specifically to get this TV in Niantic. He asks me if I want to test the TV before buying. Of course I do. He's like, uh, well, the place he's living was his mom's house and she died in May. Things are going through probate but apparently the electric bill did not get paid. So power was cut off. Today.

We could have scheduled another day but I took this time off work so I'm like...well I have a generator. Surprisingly, he agreed with this plan. So I brought my generator. My 30 year old Craigslist generator. Not to be confused with my 30 year old Craigslist lawn tractor. But I digress.

I creatively get my generator in the truck, throw some various things in, and head to Niantic. Took about an hour. Not too bad.

The neighborhood was one of the most bizarre setups I've seen that I can't even really describe the layout. It had various do not enter roads, steep hills and steep driveways. It was so steep that when one tire got on some dirt was I was backing up, it just spun.

So I get there, shake his hand, and start setting up the generator. I just ran it from the back of the truck which worked fine. I run an extension cord inside and we plug it all in.

His internet connection didn't work but he was like "I have some videos on my laptop."
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Turns out he and his brother own and run a professional video production business. When I say that I mean they have real clients. The phone call? That was the Essex Steam Train. He also showed me a marketing ad he made for the Hartford Convention Center. They rent high end digital video cameras (like Red and Arri) and shoots up to 8K. They hire actors, write scrips, direct....it's amazing. The video he showed was a 100% legitimate for TV ad. I was blown away. During the phone call it sounded like he was coordinating a drone shot of a boat in the Sound.

A couple thoughts from this...

- I keep running into good people on Craigslist.
- We were sitting no more than 6 feet from the TV and everything he showed me was from his Macbook Pro at 1080p. It looked absolutely fantastic. At 1080p at 6 feet. What does this mean? It means people buy TVs that are way too small. 60" is even too small for my great room.
- A guy who produces video for a living bought this TV and prefers plasma. This should be no surprise. It should make me seem a little less crazy though.

But yeah he was cool. We just sat in there for probably 30 minutes just watching different videos, while my generator ran out in my truck powering it all. Speaking of.
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Truck swallowed it right up.
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Got into a little mischief on the way back. 102 on GPS. 4th gear, lockup. Pretty much all it would do I think, under those conditions. Stable enough that I was able to check my speed on GPS and take that shot.
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Panasonic TC-P60ST60 (i.e. the Samsung replacement)

Post by kevm14 »

I set it up mostly according to here: https://www.soundandvision.com/content/ ... v-settings

I did not take the advanced calibration settings because I think those vary by unit. I will try to calibrate it myself.

I will say a few things about how it compares to the Samsung (from what I remember):
- The remote buttons respond better. The Samsung made you mash them and I never liked that. This works as it should.
- Youtube app still works. Samsung stopped supporting it before the old TV got smashed. In fact it has a whole smart suite. Most importantly, Netflix, Youtube and Amazon video.
- I think the black levels are even blacker, which matches what I read would be the case.
- The color accuracy may not be quite as good out of the box, but there are a substantial number of menus and sub-menus to change a shocking array of stuff
- Overall the picture is great and I am very happy with it
- The optical plug is basically trashed. Looks like the plug got ripped out and took a chunk of the receptacle with it. It doesn't hold it in at all. You have to sort of wiggle and twist until it actually lands where it should, then carefully tape it. So far, it is holding and the sound works as it should to my receiver.
- The red power light comes on when it is on and goes off when it is off. This is actually dumb, and is backwards of how it should work. It should be a red standby light, and it should go off when the TV is on. It is somewhat distracting. Maybe I can change that. Anyway it's how my old Pioneer receiver works and, more importantly, how the old Samsung worked.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Panasonic TC-P60ST60 (i.e. the Samsung replacement)

Post by kevm14 »

Here is his website.

http://www.colonyvideo.com/

http://www.colonyvideo.com/our-work/

Here's the "Why Hartford" video he showed me.
http://www.colonyvideo.com/portfolio/why-hartford/

He even has a blog with some info on producing.

http://www.colonyvideo.com/blog-2/

What are the chances I'd run into someone like this?
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Panasonic TC-P60ST60 (i.e. the Samsung replacement)

Post by kevm14 »

kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Panasonic TC-P60ST60 (i.e. the Samsung replacement)

Post by kevm14 »

kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Panasonic TC-P60ST60 (i.e. the Samsung replacement)

Post by kevm14 »

kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Panasonic TC-P60ST60 (i.e. the Samsung replacement)

Post by kevm14 »

Really cool short film/ad. New London.
http://www.colonyvideo.com/portfolio/single-project-7/

Michael Fagan is who sold me the TV.
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