New Plasma TV Questions

[Varusodin]

I just purchased a Panasonic Plasma TC-P42ST30 a couple days ago. It's my first HDTV and first plasma and I hope I picked the right one for me. I did some trialing with some games for a few minutes and watched a couple anime episodes. It looks amazing to say the least (coming from an old Sharp 20" CRT that I watched TV and gamed on and watching anime on a 20" LCD monitor). I'm currently in the break-in period and have been running some break-in slides for ~20 hours. I want to keep it, but I'm back and forth with the things I read. So I just have a few questions.

1) Should I keep using the break-in slides if I plan on not doing major tweaking of the settings? I'm not much of a videophile, but I do like quality in my picture when watching TV and playing video games.

2) If I grab a recommended calibration disc, would the settings carry over nicely between TV/sports/movies/games? Or at least the first 3 and use the "Game" mode for video games?

3) When I finish the break-in period it is okay to play games like Halo, Rock Band, and other HUD games for durations of up to 3-6 hours? I generally lose track of time, but it's easily to catch myself after a while to take a short break.

4) Is motion smoother detrimental to picture quality at all, or is it a matter of preference? My uncle has a Samsung UN46D7000L and whenever I get to watch anything on it I love how smooth the picture is; that "soap-opera" effect.

I sought after the plasma because I love playing games and read plasma had the lowest input times. And I wanted to go for a bigger screen because I was also looking for something to last me a good amount of time.

I hope I made the right choice of getting this TV. I love it and I want to keep it. I just need some reassurance from more experienced people that I got what is right for me.

[Isiolia]

1.) If what you read led you to doing the break-in slides, then I'd just finish doing 'em. You obviously don't need to if you really don't care or want to.

2.) Possibly. It'd depend on a few factors. For example, you may not have the same room conditions when you watch movies versus when you watch sports. How you perceive the picture in dark room versus a light one changes.
Different input devices can need different settings. Plus there's the subjectivity of it - what's technically correct, and what you prefer, aren't necessarily the same thing.

Many TVs allow you to have multiple profiles, and/or calibrate on a per-input basis. Tends to be more the way to go than one setting fits all.

Game mode isn't really the same, as that basically disables post-processing for faster image display.

3.) Depends on who you ask. IMO, if you bought the TV to play stuff like that on, then you may as well and see how it goes. Modern plasmas should, at the very least, not have permanent issues, though they may still have temporary image retention.

4.) Mostly a matter of preference, unless you're talking about gaming, in which case you're introducing tons of input lag.

[octopus]

You made a fine choice. Large screen + low input lag + new Panasonic plasma is good for gaming.

[Varusodin]

Thanks for the replies. I'll be continuing the slides when I'm on my computer and sleeping, just to help get the first 100 hours out of the way. I don't watch TV much when football is winding down and before baseball starts.

Guess I'll need to find some nice settings for day and night. I usually watch movies at night and the room is usually very dark. Even during the day it's not very bright as the room it's in only gets a lot of sun exposure during the first few hours of the day.

Gaming-wise, I've been reassuring myself everything will be fine. Just need to take breaks more often than I used to and run the white sliding bar to clear any image retention during the break.

And I'll be remembering to turn the motion smoother off when playing games. Can't be losing a hammer battle in Grifball by swinging too late!

[Appie]

No idea what the input lag is on your Panasonic, but my 2009 Panasonic has such little amount of input lag in normal and gaming mode that I don't use game mode at all. I'd assume newer models have the same low input lag, especially since it is plasma.

I "broke in" my plasma by toning down the brightness for 200 hours and just watch whatever I wanted. After breaking it in, only game I ever got image retention from was Command and Conquer after 3+ hours of gaming and that was because the hud was on the screen always. Would only show when the screen was black though from turning the game off, once I turned on another game or normal TV I couldn't find the outlines anymore. Most games always switch between cutscenes and ingame hud on a pretty regular basis or have huds that disappear. So after breaking it in, you should be fine.