V10 Settings

[Daylightdon]

Hi Chris, Will your review of the Panasonic V10, be coming anytime soon?

[MrBoylan]

Hi Chris, Will your review of the Panasonic V10, be coming anytime soon?

Unlikely it will be done before CEDIA Expo at this point (September 9-13). Too much on my plate plus I'm taking next week off for some much needed actual vacation time (as opposed to my usual working vacations).

-CB

[vern]

Nope. Sorry but I really have only played around with this set superficially so far as I need to finish a Samsung LED/LCD TV review first and I'm just back from a week's vacation. Hope to get to the Panasonic set next week.

-CB

I have a question concerning formats. With the recent purchase of the bd80 blue ray player and a TC-P50v10 TV I have noticed while watching blue ray movies that the picture does not fill the whole screen. I still get black bars top and bottom while playing a movie that claims to be 1080p. Should I not see the whole screen filled, if the format is 1080p? I believe my set's resolution to be 1920x1080. I'm sure this question has been asked before, and apologize in advance for being such a noob to this HD world.

[MrBoylan]

I have a question concerning formats. With the recent purchase of the bd80 blue ray player and a TC-P50v10 TV I have noticed while watching blue ray movies that the picture does not fill the whole screen. I still get black bars top and bottom while playing a movie that claims to be 1080p. Should I not see the whole screen filled, if the format is 1080p? I believe my set's resolution to be 1920x1080. I'm sure this question has been asked before, and apologize in advance for being such a noob to this HD world.

While HDTVs are wide (16:9) they are not as wide as most movie theater screens (2.35:1 or 2.4:1 for CinemaScope). Movies on Blu-ray are usually released in their original theatrical aspect ratio so you can see the film as the director intended. This means they are wider than the TV screen can fit. The only way these movies can fit the screen without distorting the image or chopping off the sides is by "letterboxing" them to fit at 16:9 screen. This means you get a black bar at the top and bottom of the screen. This is completely normal.

At least one company (Phillips) actually makes an ultra-wide flat panel LCD TV (it's got a 21:9 aspect ratio!) but that's a pretty radical solution. In the projection world, many people install 2.35:1 or 2.4:1 screens and either use anamorphic lenses (and processors) or the ZOOM function of their projector to fill the entire 2.4:1 screen at the correct aspect ratio and geometry. But flat panel owners don't have this option.

You can experiment with the aspect ratio controls on the BD80 (accessible via the sub-menu button on the remote). This may allow you to zoom in on the content to fill the screen but it will chop off the sides while doing so which means you will be missing part of the picture. I don't recall if the aspect ratio control on the BD80 works for Blu-rays or only for DVDs but you are free to play around with that and see if it does what you want.

-CB

[vern]

Chris, thank you for the reply. I am beginning to think that there is nothing in the A/V world that you don't know. I have changed the aspect ratio in the V10 to zoom so as not to have the black bars, and as you said the picture gets clipped. I just found it strange that the 1080p movies were displayed on the V10 in letterbox. Since my TV is new I have been in the zoom mode for most viewing so as not to get IR on the new screen. As a rule of thumb is this necessary, or should I just watch the movies as they are intended? I guess since I'm new to plasma I still have not been able to draw my own conclusion concerning IR and burn in. Paranoid you say? I would guess that the TV has seen about 40 hrs. of viewing since we got it.

[MrBoylan]

Chris, thank you for the reply. I am beginning to think that there is nothing in the A/V world that you don't know. I have changed the aspect ratio in the V10 to zoom so as not to have the black bars, and as you said the picture gets clipped. I just found it strange that the 1080p movies were displayed on the V10 in letterbox. Since my TV is new I have been in the zoom mode for most viewing so as not to get IR on the new screen. As a rule of thumb is this necessary, or should I just watch the movies as they are intended? I guess since I'm new to plasma I still have not been able to draw my own conclusion concerning IR and burn in. Paranoid you say? I would guess that the TV has seen about 40 hrs. of viewing since we got it.

Oh there are definitely things I don't know. I just haven't figured out what they are yet. I wouldn't worry about burn-in/image retention on a current model plasma. As long as your set is not in Vivid mode (aka "torch mode") there is negligible risk of any long term image retention or burn-in even if you watch the movies the way they are intended to be watched (in letterboxed mode).

Some content like HDTV shows and some animated films (and even some features) are framed for 16x9 (1.77:1) or for 1.85:1 which is slightly wider. The 16:9 content will fill your screen without any cropping, and the 1.85:1 content will just have tiny black strips at the top and bottom. But most movies are shot for the wider cinema screen (2.2:1, 2.35:1, 2.4:1) so you're stuck with those black bars whether your TV is 1080p, 720p or even standard def. It's about screen shape, not resolution. You can't fit a square peg into a rectangular hole.

This is one big reason that those who go for the projection-based home theater rig these days do so with a 2.4:1 or 2.35:1 screen. This way they can watch the whole movie without any black bars. Of course this means that they cannot use the entire screen for 16:9 content, but this is a small price to pay if you're a movie lover (plus there are some automated masking screens that deal with that issue automatically).

Anyway, don't worry about image retention and just enjoy your beautiful new HDTV!

-CB

[vern]

Oh there are definitely things I don't know. I just haven't figured out what they are yet. I wouldn't worry about burn-in/image retention on a current model plasma. As long as your set is not in Vivid mode (aka "torch mode") there is negligible risk of any long term image retention or burn-in even if you watch the movies the way they are intended to be watched (in letterboxed mode).

Some content like HDTV shows and some animated films (and even some features) are framed for 16x9 (1.77:1) or for 1.85:1 which is slightly wider. The 16:9 content will fill your screen without any cropping, and the 1.85:1 content will just have tiny bacl strips at the top and bottom. But most movies are shot for the wider cinema screen (2.2:1, 2.35:1, 2.4:1) so you're stuck with those black bars whether your TV is 1080p, 720p or even standard def. It's about screen shape, not resolution. You can't fit a square peg into a rectangular hole.

This is one big reason that those who go for the projection-based home theater rig these days do so with a 2.4:1 or 2.35:1 screen. This way they can watch the whole movie without any black bars. Of course this means that they cannot use the entire screen for 16:9 content, but this is a small price to pay if you're a movie lover (plus tehre are some automated masking screens that deal with that issue automatically).

Anyway, don't worry about image retention and just enjoy your beautiful new HDTV!

-CB

Thanks for the quick reply Chris! I certainly have been enjoying the set with the blue ray movies. So can I assume that you are not in the camp that states one should excercise the plasma pixels for xx hours using a preset color pallate. I have transferred some of those images to a SD card and have at times, when no one else is up put them on a slideshow to "excercise the pixels" If I am not mistaken I may have got that link from one of the people on this forum.? I will definetly try watching Star Trek tonite in its entirety and proper aspect ratio.