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Oh yeah, I'm interested in that too. If I do get a plasma it must be able to handle 24FPS material without stuttering. Can plasmas set true 24FPS playback (LCDs with 120Hz can do it)?

ChronoReverse wrote:

Oh yeah, I'm interested in that too. If I do get a plasma it must be able to handle 24FPS material without stuttering. Can plasmas set true 24FPS playback (LCDs with 120Hz can do it)?

My Panny VT30 has no issues whatsoever with 24Hz content. Again, I bought it for the sports but made sure it could deal with the movie stuff because I'm the only sports fan in the house.

Well almost any TV will take in a 24FPS signal, it's how that signal is handled that matters.

LCDs usually have a fixed refresh, so with a 60Hz screen, you have to repeat frames to stuff 24 into 60. Do you know if plasma can natively change refresh like CRTs can?

The thing I'm worried about is if they do it at 48Hz which would be at a level my eyes might be able to see and be strained by. But perhaps plasma technology doesn't fade between refreshes like CRTs do?

And that's why my TV has a 240Hz refresh--so that it can display 24p 3D content without any nasty telecine judder.

Captain Ned wrote:

My Panny VT30 has no issues whatsoever with 24Hz content. Again, I bought it for the sports but made sure it could deal with the movie stuff because I'm the only sports fan in the house.

Well, with respect to Chrono's interests, I personally don't care about TV/movie content at all; I don't watch noninteractive videos (I even tend to skip cutscenes in most of my games! BORING! I bought a game, not a movie!)

I'm more concerned about fluidity of motion for the purposes of gaming; after being spoiled to 120hz + LightBoost gaming, it's very difficult for me to play on anything else! Everything else seems so blurry now. I've never seen a plasma screen, though. Do they strobe like CRTs?

JustAnEngineer wrote:

And that's why my TV has a 240Hz refresh--sothat it can display 24p 3D content without any nasty telecine judder.

It doesn't, though. There's no such thing as true 240Hz display.

It's a sad day... my Panasonic S1 is an amazing TV and I got it at a pretty reasonable price. C'est le vie.... but if this means they'll get their butts into gear for producing 4K OLED panels, then it might be OK.

chuckula wrote:

It's a sad day... my Panasonic S1 is an amazing TV and I got it at a pretty reasonable price. C'est le vie.... but if this means they'll get their butts into gear for producing 4K OLED panels, then it might be OK.

didnt_read_thread.jpg (⊙ヮ⊙)

ChronoReverse wrote:

Well almost any TV will take in a 24FPS signal, it's how that signal is handled that matters.

LCDs usually have a fixed refresh, so with a 60Hz screen, you have to repeat frames to stuff 24 into 60. Do you know if plasma can natively change refresh like CRTs can?

The thing I'm worried about is if they do it at 48Hz which would be at a level my eyes might be able to see and be strained by. But perhaps plasma technology doesn't fade between refreshes like CRTs do?

Check out this comparison of a few of last year's Panny's models.
The things you are looking for are labelled as "24p Playback (3:2)/24p Smooth Film" (the 3:2 pulldown, they even say it out loud!), and "24p Cinematic Playback". So you pretty much have to not buy the cheaper models to get the better 24p playback.

According to someone who read the manual, my TV uses 240 Hz. I just watch the picture.

Thomas J. Norton wrote:

Motionflow XR 960, which is selectable for either 2D or 3D, is Sony’s most advanced take on frame interpolation. It offers several settings, one of which (Clear Plus) uses dark-frame insertion. The panel operates at a refresh rate of 240 hertz. For 24-fps material in 2D, Motionflow XR 960 adds nine interpolated frames for each real frame (for a toal of 10); for 24-fps 3D, it adds four interpolated frames for each real frame per eye (a total of five). With Motionflow off, the added frames are simply repeated, not interpolated.

Motionflow XR 960 is said to produce its maximum smoothing when the separate CineMotion control is set to Auto 1, but I noticed little difference when I switched from Auto 1 to Auto 2.

For me, frame interpolation, no matter how sophisticated, kills the look of movies by giving them a soap-opera-like smoothness that film (or video shot at 24 fps) doesn’t have. Apart from checking this feature out (it does work, if that’s your thing), I didn’t use Motionflow or CineMotion in this review. With these features turned off, the set merely repeats the required additional frames needed to match the source to the set’s 240-hertz refresh rate, rather than interpolating them.

auxy wrote:

chuckula wrote:

It's a sad day... my Panasonic S1 is an amazing TV and I got it at a pretty reasonable price. C'est le vie.... but if this means they'll get their butts into gear for producing 4K OLED panels, then it might be OK.

didnt_read_thread.jpg (⊙ヮ⊙)

Oh I NEVER read the thread (but I will if I can ferret out specifics on when those 4K displays will be out).

adampk17 wrote:

Sounds like the reports that Panasonic will stop making Plasma TVs was incorrect.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/12/panasonic-buries-rumors-of-plasma-tv-death/

I don't think we are out of the woods yet. Go look at this and the original Verge link.
1. The reported killing of R&D was attributed to "Panasonic Display VP Kiyoshi Okamoto", plus the rumours have been so consistent over the past few months that even the Nikkei further fuelled the rumour.
2. Now look at this "rumour burying piece", it is attributed to "merchandising VP Henry Hauser". Who the heck is he? He is more marketing than the other VP who should be closer to product development.

There has been more than 1 "source" out there that supports #1. I don't see any other sources substantiating #2. This may mean the people in Japan made the decision, someone here in the US doesn't quite know about it and try to spin his way out of the tough question. Or, it may mean the decision is still not final and the camps are split fairly evenly, with heavy debates going on in a very undecided company. Based on how much financial trouble Panasonic is in, this kind of undecisive-ness is bad for business. The problem for outside observers is, are the plasma TV lines profitable? If it is not that profitable, then there is a good chance they will kill it given their situation. I believe this may be the case unfortunately. A company in this situation would have almost no choice but to kill these money drainers, simple P&L. They can't be like "the quality is so good, it will get better as more people know about it", they don't have that kind of time to wait for a turnaround.

Now, if like the CEO comes out and officially squash the rumour, and/or fire the VP who "lied about" having killed plasmas, that will be a different story. Then again, how often do we see companies flip-flop on their positions? Very often.

If and when the final confirmation comes to kill off plasmas, it will indeed be a sad day. Mass availability and adoption of OLED tech is still a few years out. At this point it is still too expensive and they have to solve the "blues".

Given recent developments, get this one while you can. LCDs have their place, but if plasmas are that much better, new ones have been released.

Are plasmas still useless as PC monitors? I tried a recent Panasonic plasma screen a couple years ago and it was showing image persistence after only using it a very short time. If a TV can't be hooked op as a monitor that's a deal breaker as that's probably 75% of what I would use one for.

crazybus wrote:

Are plasmas still useless as PC monitors? I tried a recent Panasonic plasma screen a couple years ago and it was showing image persistence after only using it a very short time. If a TV can't be hooked op as a monitor that's a deal breaker as that's probably 75% of what I would use one for.

I have the screensaver set at 1 minute, but in general yes, I don't use it as a computer monitor. The HTPC is for playing media and that's that.

Of course, I know where the moving vertical bar function of my Panny is and I do have the SD card/DVD of the "break in" disc handy around the TV. I only needed to use it once earlier in the TV's lifetime though.

In a very ironic twist, this thread being resurrected means the Panny plasmas are really going to die.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/08/pana ... plasma-tv/



Now, the question becomes, will there be a new generation out after CES 2014, or we will get our best ever prices this Thanksgiving?