......So, let’s start with the now infamous 50Hz issue that owners have complained about and indeed something I see on my VT20. It appears that communication of the exact problem has broken down somewhere in the process of feeding back the exact issue that members have reported.
The engineers initially thought that when we mentioned football as the main content where it is visible, it was the movement of the ball that was the issue. However, they did set up an impromptu demonstration with a 2010 G20 and a 2011 VT30 next to each other showing a short football clip in SD at 50Hz. While the engineers pointed out the better motion of the football as it travelled over the crowd, they were unaware of the exact issue we have seen here in the UK where the actual picture breaks up with fast panning moves; with lines on the pitch breaking down to component parts. I politely pointed this issue out to our hosts using the footage on screen and showing them exactly what the issue was. I also gave them the full details of our testing carried out over the last year as well as mentioning that it doesn’t appear on their competitor’s screens.
I have to take my hat off to the Panasonic engineers and staff here as after a few quick discussions between the team I was informed that they would be investigating the issue fully and they would come back to us. The plus point here is that there is no chance of the issue now being misunderstood as I had the opportunity to point it out directly to the actual engineering staff and that’s the best way. Again it was evidence of the company being fully open and listening to feedback.
So, was the issue there on the VT30? Yes, it was there if slightly less obvious than last year and hopefully something can be done to remove it completely by the time we get the production samples.
The next thing I know members will want an answer too is floating blacks that have been reported by some users. I was told that this issue is not present on the 2011 models. Next was the question of MLL Black level rising and again it was stated that this was not an issue on the 2010/11 sets.
2:2 cadence detection? Yes we have it for 2011 line. For film and video.
Posturisation, will be very much viewer dependent but excessive instances need to be reported with examples of when it happens. I have been asked to feed this back with examples..........
