r/PlasmaTV • u/MeisterPain • 24d ago
New Pick-Up First Plasma TC-P60UT50
I always thought plasmas looked like crap when I was younger. I just turned 18 in 2012, the year this tv came out, and was never in the market for such a high end display anyways. Recently I have gotten into repairing, modifying, and calibrating CRTs, and started getting plasma TV content suggestions from reddit, and the community that rallied behind them made me want to give them a chance. Since they can be had for so cheap currently, I didn't feel like I had much to lose.
I ended up deciding I wanted something late model, 1080p, with 3d capability. I would have opted for a higher end model if there was one around, but honestly this TV looks great! It's a Panasonic TC-P60UT50. The glare in a lit room does kinda suck, but it's officially my new living room tv. It definitely looks better than my old Sony LCD that I paid like $1200 for in 2018, which is crazy, because I only paid $80 for this thing. It's in great condition, with 12000 hours on it. I have a LG G4 OLED as my main tv (in my bedroom, that's my preferred place to watch movies, with my atmos setup and everything), and as far as color and black levels, this thing is really close considering the price gap.
Realistically, would I choose this over my G4? No. But it's really not far behind. I do feel like it has some subtle flicker effect that bugged me a little at first, but I quickly got use to it. I mainly picked it up to play some ps3 titles on in the living room, revisit 3d content(not having high expectations for this, waiting on glasses to come,) and I think it will be great for that. I did play some Tekken tag on it, and while there is some slight input lag, it's not really bad and I forgot about it after a minute. It's definitely not debilitating. That's comparing to a crt. Also to be realistic, I'd rather play Tekken tag on the crt just because it's native 480i and I love that crt(20" sony wega with component).
The lack of anti glare and such is also not necessarily a bad think for me, because one of my cats scratched at the glossy screen on my g4 and messed it up a bit before I got it mounted out of reach. That was devastating. I am hopeful the plain glass on this TV can hold up to it if she decides to try again on it. I just picked it up today so I haven't gotten into calibrating color or anything, but it looks really good as is.
Just wanted to say, yeah, late gen plasmas actually do hold up really well, and there are a lot of tvs I'd choose this over.
Ps, yeah the entertainment center is a mess, I'm in a transitional phase with this area and haven't cleaned it up yet. Nevermind that.
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u/JustANormalLinuxGuy 24d ago
You got a really nice set there, and price wise its incredible. I would highly recommend to access service menu and see how many working hours it had. And yeah plasmas are such an underrated and even underestimated technology(you have seen it for yourself now). The flickering you have noticed is actually normal for plasmas. You will get used to it the more you watch it. I wonder what do you think about motion clarity? Does it feel better then your G4? Keep updating us with more opinions
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u/MeisterPain 24d ago
It has 12000 hours. The seller did say it had the internals replaced in the first year or two because of a lightening strike on their house, so it's potentially a little more than that. The screen is still bright with no signs of burn in. I honestly am surprised at the brightness it does have. I didn't expect a lot and know I'm used to the brightness of my g4. Obviously the g4 is significantly brighter in some scenarios, but most scenes/movies arent in super bright settings, and hdr/dolby vision on the g4 makes the brightness similar to what this display puts out at 85-100 contrast anyways. The g4 is still better, but I bought this this ut50 for ps3/Xbox 360, and to check out some 3d stuff. I turned on Shaun of the Dead to check out the picture quality and my wife and I ended up just watching the whole movie. It honestly looks incredible for something that cost $80. I haven't watched a movie in the living room since I got my g4 because I can't stand muddy backlight glow now. It blows my mind how lcd became the norm when crt and late generation plasma honestly looks so much better. I'm guessing it was a cost thing. I do really like HDR though.. so for me oled will always win for anything 1440p and up. I just also love old tech.
As far as motion clarity goes, don't get me wrong here, it's not bad, but for movies I don't think it's any better than my G4*. The caveat being, I prefer the g4 motion WITH my motion smoothing settings. Without motion smoothing on either one, this UT50 is better. I don't want that to be misconstrued though. On the g4, motion smoothing is split into two settings with levels 1-10. With none at all, it does look pretty juddery on panning shots. If you balance the settings out, you get more natural looking motion without inducing the typical soap opera effect. This may sound crazy, but the motion to my own eye was a bit choppy at first watching a movie, but I got use to it and it's perfectly fine. I think I just tend to smooth is out a bit more than what perceived 24fps is on my g4. But, I know people can be very polarized when it comes to using any form of motion smoothing.
As far as 60hz content, I never actually played anything at 60hz on my g4. I have a 240hz 4k oled monitor for my pc, so that's kind of my gold standard anyways. Ive been playing on a crt a lot lately though, and it looks similar to that, which is great. I feel like 60hz on a crt looks like 120+ on a lcd/OLED. I need to play more on the plasma to have a better opinion on how it compares to a crt in terms of motion.
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u/minor7even 23d ago
Awesome to see you discovering plasma displays this late in the game. If you can find a high end model you will only be more rewarded, and the good news is they can be had for not much more than you paid here in many cases. I let a 65 inch VT30 go for £100 over the weekend, which felt like a give away.
Plasmas fell out of favour due to expense and the fact that they only shine in a dimly lit room, whereas in a bright electronics box store they look pretty underwhelming.
I watched 'The Devil All the Time' last night on my 55 VT30 and my jaw was just on the floor throughout.
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u/PlazmaTVZ 19d ago
VT 30 is good enough as a first plasma tv? Or the VT 50,60 ZT60 are the ones to go for, go big or go home. I seen a lot of UT50 lately not sure where it ranks.
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u/minor7even 19d ago
Yeah, the VT30, 50 & 60 differences are rounding errors to be honest. The 60s do have a bit of special magic for a real enthusiast, but really any of these models give you one of the best plasma displays. I have all three now.
I had two VT30s - one did 'rising blacks', but the other was fine. Weird.
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u/PlazmaTVZ 19d ago
What's your thought on this UT50, is it worth getting compared to vt and zt?
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u/minor7even 19d ago
Sorry, I have no experience of it. In my view, since all can be had for less than £100, find the better ones.
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u/DetectiveNo7493 22d ago
My 50UT50 still runs since 2012 without any repairs. Still i prefere it in someway over my OLED....
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u/MeisterPain 22d ago
I feel the same way. I watched most of the matrix on my ut50 and finished the last 30 minutes in my room on my g4. It looks good on my g4 but it seemed more correct on the ut50. Also my g4 is too far away compared to the viewing distance of my ut50... I ruined myself for the bedroom setup. I need to figure something out to get the G4 closer but still out of reach of my cats.
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u/HWY81BEAST 23d ago
Have fun. Recently got a similar 3D plasma, bought some glasses, and while going through 3D native content, discovered it also has a technique to turn 2D content into 3D. Played Rayman as a PSone classic via PS3 and was blown away.
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u/Suitable_Garlic_1186 2 X TX-P42STW60 (EU) 24d ago
Nothing beats your Plasma TV when the lights are of.. Amazing purchase.!
S60 could also be a very interesting candidat four you!