Panasonic Insiders' Thread - 2012/2013 (Please read sticky for thread policies)

[gadgtfreek]

All, this is a thread to discuss Panasonic tech with insiders who are kind enough to swing by here from time to time.

Everyone welcome avjunkie, xrox and Techniwizard!

***This will be an annual thread. At the end of each year, the current thread will be closed and a new one opened.***

Note: As moving all posts from 2012 to this thread would have required the manual selection of nearly 5,000 posts...only posts from June 1st and on have been moved.

Posts from prior to June 1, 2012 can be found HERE.

THREAD POLICY

This insiders thread was conceived to give posters in our community a unique opportunity to hear from industry insiders and prominent people in the electronics business. These professionals agreed to donate their time and knowledge to further the hobby that we all love. This thread was designed to be an "information thread", not a "fix my Panasonic" thread or a depository for product complaints. Unfortunately, due to the persistent complaining nature of a few individuals on this thread, it has evolved into what we did not want or intend for this thread. This thread was to be considered a special area of the forum, more of a "listening" thread for posters to hear from these professionals.

We chose to not be heavy handed in the moderation of this thread, in retrospect that was a mistake. That was in part due to avjunkie's unbelievable willingness to help people, even though most of time it didn't even involve his sector of the business at his company. He has gone out of his way to help people on this forum, with no monetary compensation, because he is passionate about this hobby we all love. I've never seen someone give such candid responses, within the boundaries of what he could comment on. He certainly is not just a "yes" man for his company. Unfortunately the easy access to avjunkie made him a target for company bashing and complaints, again, not what we wanted. We have provided an entire forum for product complaints and those individuals could have started threads about those issues, but they chose to bring those issues here.

If Avjunkie wants to continue with his involvement on this thread, things must change. The change will involve the conduct of the members on the thread. There will be zero tolerance for any behavior that makes avjunkie or any of our "professionals" feel unwelcome. This thread will be the exception to the rest of the forum, it will be regarded as a special area and enforcement will be tightly controlled.

If the tone of my message seems stern, be assured that it is intended to be that way. We have gone out of our way to provide something special for our members and to have some malcontents ruin it for the majority makes me upset.

Thank you,

Christian
HDJ Owner/Admin

[buzzard767]

I just saw the VT50 pick up a FW update too... can I assume this DOESN'T have the CMS Luminance fix yet?

Nope, luminance still inop.

[RandyWalters]

I just saw the VT50 pick up a FW update too... can I assume this DOESN'T have the CMS Luminance fix yet?

I don't think an update of that sort of magnitude would ever be made available via Viera Connect (historically speaking). But it would be nice if it comes to be.

[nsfw]

Support for viera connect.

Was hoping for an update to the MLB app. Season is 1/3 of the way through and still no update for 2012.

[heym0e]

They have 2 different supply allocations. Things being delayed in Canada have nothing to do with sales in NA. No worries.

VT sales in NA must be doing well because I placed my order for a 65VT50 via shop.panasonic.com (EPP) on the May 21st and even though the site said it would ship in 1-3 days when I placed the order I was instantly sent an email saying it was on backorder and it still hasn't shipped yet

[avjunkie]

i agree.I'd contact mlb app developers.Panasonic of course has nothing to do with updating the apps except our own viera remote and web browser. Any and all non pana apps ..they give them to us.we simply act as a portal.

Was hoping for an update to the MLB app. Season is 1/3 of the way through and still no update for 2012.

[avjunkie]

two different supply's again.. but I've voiced my feelings on epp many times.never ever listen to what the site says. call and talk to someone.. and then call again to confirm with someone else a few days later. its THAT BAD. but hey your saving a few bucks i guess.personally I do not buy anything from epp.
am i being harsh yes but I am 100% honest here..

VT sales in NA must be doing well because I placed my order for a 65VT50 via shop.panasonic.com (EPP) on the May 21st and even though the site said it would ship in 1-3 days when I placed the order I was instantly sent an email saying it was on backorder and it still hasn't shipped yet

[Influence]

AVJ: Just so I can make a final decision - there is definitely no screen over 65" coming out this year, but 2013 may see it happen.

Thanks!

[avjunkie]

AVJ: Just so I can make a final decision - there is definitely no screen over 65" coming out this year, but 2013 may see it happen.

Thanks!

Correct. I haven't seen any thing big size for 2012. If it comes it's news to me. But I typically see everything.

[nsfw]

i agree.I'd contact mlb app developers.Panasonic of course has nothing to do with updating the apps except our own viera remote and web browser. Any and all non pana apps ..they give them to us.we simply act as a portal.

Funny because I blast mlb.tv on their support forums and they say it's in Panasonic's hands. Someone at the @PanasonicDirect twitter feed said it would be done in a month about 7 weeks ago. Although it seems like a partner for mlb.tv is the one programming the app, it makes Panasonic look really bad. If you read the MLB support forums people are really upset with Panasonic. They bought Bluray players, etc just for the MLB app integration and it hasn't been updated. Those people say they will never buy Panasonic again. Thats a really tough relationship problem. Basically, MLB is sabotaging future Panasonic sales with poor support of their own app. This is especially true when you look at the supported devices page and all the other electronics manufactures were completed on-time before the season started. This includes A/V boxes like roku, xbox, ATV.

[avjunkie]

Funny because I blast mlb.tv on their support forums and they say it's in Panasonic's hands. Someone at the @PanasonicDirect twitter feed said it would be done in a month about 7 weeks ago. Although it seems like a partner for mlb.tv is the one programming the app, it makes Panasonic look really bad. If you read the MLB support forums people are really upset with Panasonic. They bought Bluray players, etc just for the MLB app integration and it hasn't been updated. Those people say they will never buy Panasonic again. Thats a really tough relationship problem. Basically, MLB is sabotaging future Panasonic sales with poor support of their own app. This is especially true when you look at the supported devices page and all the other electronics manufactures were completed on-time before the season started. This includes A/V boxes like roku, xbox, ATV.

Seeing how that app doesn't break the top 15 in terms of use it must be a small minority. But it maybe getting clearance for legal or a revision but it'll get an update. Just be patient. But what I said is true. We use test and approve the updates. Nothing more.

[maygit]

Pretty excited, I see Sears add the 55" VT50 to the plasma line up. Do you know if this will be distributed to stores as well, or be an online only item?

[BillD]

@avjunkie please try to bring back matte screens! I looked at an ST50 for a good half-hour the other day and even with that supposedly magical filter there is still crystal clear, mirror-like reflections coming off the screen. It's funny, because everyone is so fussy about screen uniformity but there are no threads about these displays literally being mirrors. These glossy screens are a legitimate picture quality issue - especially in dark scenes - all this talk of mll and shadow detail go out the window because all you are seeing is a reflection of your white shirt.

With sooo many TV's being bought online nowadays, the "matte-doesn't-look-good-in-the-showroom" argument isn't that relevant anymore. Also, you could easily advertise the matte screen as a positive feature, just as Apple does (they refer to it as 'antiglare' on their macbook pro's).

[inazsully]

You are absolutely right about weight and Rich is right about power usage, but I saw a UT50 (and a VT50) at bestbuy over the weekend and it probably has the best brightness and whites of any plasma yet and is more than bright enough. The 2012 UT/ST/GT/VT50 panels all have much improved brightness, but because the UT lacks the filter it really does have that extra 'pop' to it that the filtered ones kinda lack. Same goes with white content, the filter just takes away that brilliance a tad, but they really have no choice but to include it because of bright lights in the store and to compete with samsung.

I find the remark about the UT having more pop in a dark room very interesting. Which model you you guys think would work out best in a pretty dark room?

[avjunkie]

@avjunkie please try to bring back matte screens! I looked at an ST50 for a good half-hour the other day and even with that supposedly magical filter there is still crystal clear, mirror-like reflections coming off the screen. It's funny, because everyone is so fussy about screen uniformity but there are no threads about these displays literally being mirrors. These glossy screens are a legitimate picture quality issue - especially in dark scenes - all this talk of mll and shadow detail go out the window because all you are seeing is a reflection of your white shirt.

With sooo many TV's being bought online nowadays, the "matte-doesn't-look-good-in-the-showroom" argument isn't that relevant anymore. Also, you could easily advertise the matte screen as a positive feature, just as Apple does (they refer to it as 'antiglare' on their macbook pro's).

The matte lead to a unsatisfactory picture quality as determined by our engineers. We tried with the pz77 and it failed. A huge issue is no dealers want it.

[Teslatik]

Funny because I blast mlb.tv on their support forums and they say it's in Panasonic's hands. Someone at the @PanasonicDirect twitter feed said it would be done in a month about 7 weeks ago. Although it seems like a partner for mlb.tv is the one programming the app, it makes Panasonic look really bad. If you read the MLB support forums people are really upset with Panasonic. They bought Bluray players, etc just for the MLB app integration and it hasn't been updated. Those people say they will never buy Panasonic again. Thats a really tough relationship problem. Basically, MLB is sabotaging future Panasonic sales with poor support of their own app. This is especially true when you look at the supported devices page and all the other electronics manufactures were completed on-time before the season started. This includes A/V boxes like roku, xbox, ATV.

Welcome to the world of "Smart TV", pre-Apple. We're basically at the same point in time that "Smart Phones" were before the iPhone hit the market. Remember how things were back then? Surprisingly, it wasn't that long ago that all of the "apps" on our phones were canned, restricted, rarely kept up to date, and were implemented so poorly to the point of being too much of a hassle to even use. That's where we are today with "Smart TV".

With all due respect to AVJ and Panasonic, I find that the apps on the VT50 to be bad enough to the point where I don't really consider them a feature on this television. The web browser, especially, is worthless. I was really holding out hope that this thing would be useful, but if you really want to browse the web you're still better off hooking up a real computer to the television. The touch pad included with the VT50 is a pretty clunky navigation device, and the Logitech DiNovo Mini, which Panasonic even sells in their own online store IN the Viera Online store, doesn't fully work (no mouse support). There is zero flash support, and HTML5 support is spotty at best. I can't even enter my username on some sites... the browser simply doesn't recognize the entry location as a text box. And to make matters worse, I don't expect this to ever be fixed on my television (the VT50), given Panasonic's "we'll fix it on the next year's model" support mentality.

It's not just Panasonic, either- Samsung's Smart TV system, and even LG's "Google TV", have a LONG way to go- which is the core of the problem: there's no real competition here. And yes, as AVJ has pointed out, Panasonic doesn't make most of the apps themselves- they just act as a portal. What Apple will change in this regard is a level of standards. Their app vetting process on their iOS devices has changed the way people write apps: if it doesn't meet their standards, it's not available for their products. I'm expecting that once Apple enters the market, everything will change, seemingly overnight, unless Panasonic, Samsung, LG, or Sony steps up to the plate and starts to lead before Apple shows up.

So in short, the VT50 is a wonderful panel, but don't expect anything more than an afterthought in terms of Smart TV if you're purchasing a 2012 television. Buy one as if these features aren't even integrated yet, because in my opinion, they're not.

[avjunkie]

@avjunkie please try to bring back matte screens! I looked at an ST50 for a good half-hour the other day and even with that supposedly magical filter there is still crystal clear, mirror-like reflections coming off the screen. It's funny, because everyone is so fussy about screen uniformity but there are no threads about these displays literally being mirrors. These glossy screens are a legitimate picture quality issue - especially in dark scenes - all this talk of mll and shadow detail go out the window because all you are seeing is a reflection of your white shirt.

With sooo many TV's being bought online nowadays, the "matte-doesn't-look-good-in-the-showroom" argument isn't that relevant anymore. Also, you could easily advertise the matte screen as a positive feature, just as Apple does (they refer to it as 'antiglare' on their macbook pro's).

The matte lead to a unsatisfactory picture quality as determined by our engineers. We tried with the pz77 and it failed. A huge issue is no dealers want it.

[dlj11]

Hey avjunkie, i have one more question!

I know you said that the ZT50 IS a VT50, only the japaneese version. Donīt get me wrong, i know you know more about panasonic than everyone here together, and that you have the insinder informations BUT WHY the price for the ZT50 is so high compared to the VT50?? (not sure, but i think 50" 5000$, 65" 8000$ for the ZT50).

Maybe the ZT50 is a model like the Z1 was... (that would be niiice).

[avjunkie]

Hey avjunkie, i have one more question!

I know you said that the ZT50 IS a VT50, only the japaneese version. Donīt get me wrong, i know you know more about panasonic than everyone here together, and that you have the insinder informations BUT WHY the price for the ZT50 is so high compared to the VT50?? (not sure, but i think 50" 5000$, 65" 8000$ for the ZT50).

Maybe the ZT50 is a model like the Z1 was... (that would be niiice).

The Japanese CE market is very different then NA. They feel it can command that price point.

After the Z1 sales it'll never happen again.

[BillD]

The matte lead to a unsatisfactory picture quality as determined by our engineers. We tried with the pz77 and it failed. A huge issue is no dealers want it.

come on now, those $20,000 professional sony OLED's have matte screens, as almost every other professional monitor out there. I think it's safe to say they deliver satisfactory picture quality.

I'm not asking you's to make all of your tv's matte screened, that would be a terrible decision, but it should atleast be an option, just as apple gives the glossy or matte option on its macbook pros.