Panasonic Viera 50” plasma TV problem

G

gman2304

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Bought in 2008 and showing only about 25% of the screen at the top, bottom 75% is black. I’m prepared to buy a new TV but curious as to what might be the cause of this problem (opinions welcomed) and if it might even be cost effective to repair a 13 year old plasma. I love the TV but after 13 years it might be time to let it go. Also just in case, any recommendations on a new 50/60 inch wall mounted TV? OLED seems too expensive and I’m not smart enough for a “smart” :unsure: TV.
 
I would try and fix it unless you can determine it is the panel itself. Panasonic Plasmas still to this day have better picture quality than most tvs under about 3k or so. I still have one myself.

Its very likely one of the circuit boards, I'm sure some digging online can find the culprit pretty easily. Finding the part might be difficult, maybe you can find a parts tv 🤣
 
I have a 65” LG, it’s a smart TV but you don’t have to use any of those features if you don’t want too. The HDR on it is kind of a joke since it can’t get bright enough, but TV’s that can properly do HDR are way way more expensive. Cost was ~$650 or $700 about a year ago. I added a bias light strip to the back of it.
81AB9D88-3035-4C41-ABF5-41775116E708.jpeg
 
newer TV's are more energy efficient - especially compared to plasma TV's, have advanced smart features (albeit you said you wouldn't need them).

But: While those old plasmas are energy burners, hot and have burn in issues - theres one thing a plasma can that a LCD cannot: natural image quality. (I remember Pioneer and Panasonic where the best, I personally had an LG which was close.)

So I would recommend to see wether its repairable ....
 
Danno said:
Sony 900 series panels. Our 85" has outstanding picture quality.
Click to expand...
Yes, agree, we got rid of our 55 inch Panasonic Viera Plasma years ago. Actually gave it away, was a great TV.

Our now 65 inch Sony X900 blows away the Panasonic image. The X900 is an older model now, 2 years old maybe, think it can be picked up for around $1300 @ Best Buy. We were so impressed with the Sony image, the Panasonic Plasma met it match. The Sony detail and HDR makes some good programming/video look 3d ish.

BTW, you also save money in electricity. The Panasonic Viera 55" used roughly 700 watts, the 65 inch Sony less then 300 watts. If I remember correctly the Sony uses about 450 less watts and it has a larger screen. Pretty significant.

A lot of comments on the superior image quality of the Panasonic Viera etc plasma TV's, yes, once upon a time, back in the day, nothing matched the superior image quality of the Panasonic. That was then but not now, its an old, energy guzzling, worn out technology that companies abandoned and never took to the next "level".
For us, we owned the Pani Plasma, nothing matched it, back in its time, but its time is gone. Higher end Sony's (900 series and above)picture quality blow it away, this is coming from my wife and I who owned both.
 
Last edited:
gman2304 said:
Bought in 2008 and showing only about 25% of the screen at the top, bottom 75% is black. I’m prepared to buy a new TV but curious as to what might be the cause of this problem (opinions welcomed) and if it might even be cost effective to repair a 13 year old plasma. I love the TV but after 13 years it might be time to let it go. Also just in case, any recommendations on a new 50/60 inch wall mounted TV? OLED seems too expensive and I’m not smart enough for a “smart” :unsure: TV.
Click to expand...
It's most likely the T-Con board, you can find them on online pretty cheap maybe $20-$30 and it's an easy replacement.
 
alarmguy said:
Yes, agree, we got rid of our 55 inch Panasonic Viera Plasma years ago. Actually gave it away, was a great TV.

Our now 65 inch Sony X900 blows away the Panasonic image. The X900 is an older model now, 2 years old maybe, think it can be picked up for around $1300 @ Best Buy. We were so impressed with the Sony image, the Panasonic Plasma met it match. The Sony detail and HDR makes some good programming/video look 3d ish.

BTW, you also save money in electricity. The Panasonic Viera 55" used roughly 700 watts, the 65 inch Sony less then 300 watts. If I remember correctly the Sony uses about 450 less watts and it has a larger screen. Pretty significant.

A lot of comments on the superior image quality of the Panasonic Viera etc plasma TV's, yes, once upon a time, back in the day, nothing matched the superior image quality of the Panasonic. That was then but not now, its an old, energy guzzling, worn out technology that companies abandoned and never took to the next "level".
For us, we owned the Pani Plasma, nothing matched it, back in its time, but its time is gone. Higher end Sony's (900 series and above)picture quality blow it away, this is coming from my wife and I who owned both.
Click to expand...

Yeah... I mostly disagree regarding the image quality, but that is subjective and highly dependant on what you're watching, room lighting, etc. In any event even if the Sony is actually better, I have a hard time believing it is miles better.

I've had three of them, this one I still have now is 12 years old. I don't imagine it will last too much longer but I do regret the day it will need to be replaced. I'll look into the Sony 900's for sure at that time.
 
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alex_at said:
newer TV's are more energy efficient - especially compared to plasma TV's, have advanced smart features (albeit you said you wouldn't need them).

But: While those old plasmas are energy burners, hot and have burn in issues - theres one thing a plasma can that a LCD cannot: natural image quality. (I remember Pioneer and Panasonic where the best, I personally had an LG which was close.)

So I would recommend to see wether its repairable ....
Click to expand...

My first HD set was a Samsung plasma set from 2008. Cost $700 back then. It was good, but burn in was really bad, even though it had a supposed burn in protection mode. It would go into some sort of sleep mode where the Sa. I also didn't have any HD programming from Comcast because I didn't have an HD box, so I just made to with using 4:3 mode. I could see some some HD programming by bypassing the cable box, but I couldn't necessarily get all the channels and sometimes could see other channels that I didn't pay for. But with 4:3 mode, I started noticing a line right at the bands. I was hoping that it would go away, but even years later they were still there. I also watched a lot of one network with one of those network logos in the corner, and that ended up burning in where it was visible even when I turned it off.

I got rid of that set. It was still working, but I wanted something with more features.

As for the OP, sounds like there might be a disconnect of some sort with the lines, but there could be all sorts of reasons. Heck - even with the replacement LCD TV I've seen some weird stuff that was probably software related. I had it show up with one line going across and one vertically, plus 80% shifted to the left, and what looked like the other 20% from the left on the right. But the captioning was right where it was supposed to be. I tried turning it off and it just came back in the same condition. The only thing that worked was to to completely pull the AC power, and it came back normal again when I plugged it back in.
 
Danno said:
Sony 900 series panels. Our 85" has outstanding picture quality.
Click to expand...
alarmguy said:
Yes, agree, we got rid of our 55 inch Panasonic Viera Plasma years ago. Actually gave it away, was a great TV.

Our now 65 inch Sony X900 blows away the Panasonic image. The X900 is an older model now, 2 years old maybe, think it can be picked up for around $1300 @ Best Buy. We were so impressed with the Sony image, the Panasonic Plasma met it match. The Sony detail and HDR makes some good programming/video look 3d ish.

BTW, you also save money in electricity. The Panasonic Viera 55" used roughly 700 watts, the 65 inch Sony less then 300 watts. If I remember correctly the Sony uses about 450 less watts and it has a larger screen. Pretty significant.

A lot of comments on the superior image quality of the Panasonic Viera etc plasma TV's, yes, once upon a time, back in the day, nothing matched the superior image quality of the Panasonic. That was then but not now, its an old, energy guzzling, worn out technology that companies abandoned and never took to the next "level".
For us, we owned the Pani Plasma, nothing matched it, back in its time, but its time is gone. Higher end Sony's (900 series and above)picture quality blow it away, this is coming from my wife and I who owned both.
Click to expand...
Agree on the SONY X900H Series HDTV's, have the 75", Awesome TV.
IMG_0260.JPG
 
Keep in mind if you go OLED the picture will not be as bright, OLED is a negative if placed in a bright room. I would read reviews on it first, some OLEDs suffer from lack of detail in dark scenes as well.
But still a superior picture for a darker room, to me, it just seems the negative outweigh the positive but maybe that is because we could never go OLED, we have a bright room, roughly 18 feet of tinted windows 5 or 6 feet high for each with 16 foot ceiling and no curtains that face west. The Sony x900 series handles it with ease. Not that we watch TV at that time of day, except if there was some weekend event going on, but it is much brighter then even the Pani plasma that we replaced.

OLED is for darker rooms for sure.
 
years ago i got lucky with my conventional big heavy Toshiba with the Carver sound system!! after it warmed up i lost the pic, removed the back + it came on after a bit, but went out again, so called a local guy, 15 min he soldered a few cracked printed circuits!! he said it was a common failure from heating + cooling, only charged me $50!! a slick guy + talking to him he noted computer builders buy similar internal parts + install them so overpriced brand names may be about the same as lesser brands with lesser prices, but of course better installation may come into play as well, good luck!! i watch little TV these days + mostly listen to XM-50's mostly!! i enjoy learning on-line + of course shop + buy there!
 
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