Panasonic 42Px75U Calibration

[funked up]

My brand new panny should be arriving next tuesday. And i'm trying to get things ready for it. So i'm wondering how I should calibrate this TV. I've heard that out of the box they are not calibrated very well and I do not want to spend the money on proffesional calibration. If i try a calibration disk, do I have to get one for the HD player which I wil be using allot or just use one tha works with a regular dvd player. I'm fairly new to this stuff so I'm a little worried that I wouldn't be able to properly use the calibration disk, but will defenitly try if its the best option. Or by chance is there someone who has calibrate this same tv and has some settings that work well. I figure if I have a good base to start with then I could just tweak from there to get the picture I like the best. Any opinions or suggestions or better yet calibration settings will be appreciated.

 

[majorloser]

If you already own a HD-DVD player go ahead and get a HD-DVD calibration disc. They're pretty easy to work with. Just follow the instructions on the disc and take your time.

http://www.videoessentials.com/DVE_HD.php

http://www.ovationmultimedia.com/avia2.html

 

[GlocksRock]

I wish they would hurry up and put out Avia II on HD DVD or Blu Ray already... I used DVE and Avia to calibrate my new tv, and they did a pretty good job, but since they are SD discs, I would like to get an HD disc to see how it compares. I know there is a HD version of DVE, but I prefer Avia.

 

[annunaki]

I prefer the Video Essentials DVD for video and the Avia for Audio. I would just go ahead and get the HD version if you have the HD-DVD player.

 

[evan]

I just hooked this up for my parents and I can't believe how good the picture looks!
right now just breaking it in for them and then I will really adjust everything next week

 

[Hi Ho]

The first thing I do when setting up a Panasonic plasma is set the picture mode to "Standard". I turn "Color Management" off, then "Block NR" and "MPEG NR" on. That's a good starting point. As for brightness/contrast, a calibration disc is the best way to do that.

 

[annunaki]

What's goood for one may not be for the other.

Every television is going to be different for the actual adjustment numbers. What is perfect one one person's set may be off slightly on yours or vice versa.

As stated above, the mode selected should be standard. Color management should be off. If you are using a lot of standard def sources from a digital cable box or dish receiver, turn the Mpeg and block NR on. Set the color temp to warm. make sure when you start out everything is set to the middle ore in the case of Panasonic, "0".

After calibrating my Parents 42PX600U, I was surprised where the settings were. The contrast (picture) was at +16 and the Brightness was at +5. Hue and color were pretty accurate at around 50/50 and +1 respectively. Sharpness was at -22. Color temp was warm, black level at light.

I had figured that the neutral setting in standard mode for contast and brightness would still be a bit high as it usually is on most sets. Never did I anticipate that it would need to go up as high as it did. My parents are very happy with it now. It looks fabulous with HD images. SD content looks pretty good too.

 

[jlahk]

Although each will be unique, you may want to check out the calibration discussed below for some guidance (though for a 60U set, not 75U).

http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/panasonic-th42px60u-review.html

Panasonic TH-42PX60U Optimal Picture Settings (ISF Calibration)
Picture Mode Standard
Picture +22
Brightness +8
Color -1
Tint -4
Sharpness -14
Color Temperature Warm
Enhanced Black Level Off

Optimal picture settings for the Panasonic TH-42PX60U using ISF Calibration.

 

[evilkat]

Since I didn't have a calibration disk either, I just used the settings jlahk mentioned when I first got my set last year. The only thing different that I did was maintain the brightness at a lower than usual level for a couple of months to make sure that I wouldn't have any burn-in/after image issues, etc. After reading a bazillion threads on it, it's hard to say how much of it is still an issue in today's modern TVs, but I figure better safe than sorry.

 

[annunaki]

Although each will be unique, you may want to check out the calibration discussed below for some guidance (though for a 60U set, not 75U).

http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/panasonic-th42px60u-review.html

Panasonic TH-42PX60U Optimal Picture Settings (ISF Calibration)
Picture Mode Standard
Picture +22
Brightness +8
Color -1
Tint -4
Sharpness -14
Color Temperature Warm
Enhanced Black Level Off

Optimal picture settings for the Panasonic TH-42PX60U using ISF Calibration.

Remember that that is for ISF calibrated sets. Not everyone has the money to plop down $200+ for an ISF calibration. They are adusting more than just the contrast, brightness, sharpness, etc. They adjust the gray scale, color points, and more in the TV's service menu which most people do not have access to and even fewer know how to navigate and adjust properly.

The ISF calibrations are worth it to the person who needs that last milimeter of performance from their set. However, a high quality set up disc can get you (usually) 95% of the way there. Unless of course the set is way off from the manufacturer. Most Panasonics have a very good baseline of performance.

 

[funked up]

Although each will be unique, you may want to check out the calibration discussed below for some guidance (though for a 60U set, not 75U).

http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/panasonic-th42px60u-review.html

Panasonic TH-42PX60U Optimal Picture Settings (ISF Calibration)
Picture Mode Standard
Picture +22
Brightness +8
Color -1
Tint -4
Sharpness -14
Color Temperature Warm
Enhanced Black Level Off

Optimal picture settings for the Panasonic TH-42PX60U using ISF Calibration.

Hey thanks, I found the same thing on that website except for the 75U. I'll prob start from there and tweak as neccessary. I have the Avia II disk coming to my house from netflix, but from what i've read in some other posts it does not come with the neccessary filters to do all of the calibrations. Hopefully i'll be able to get it good enough from there. If I still feel the need to calibrate more after that i'll go buy the Avia II disk so that i can get the filters that come with it. Whatever those filters may be, haha.

 

[Tyreman]

I have all the filters enhancers etc turned off.

 

[funked up]

Well I got the TH-PX75U and the HD-A3 setup last night. Used the settings I found on the plasmabuyingguide website, and wow does that picture look amazing. Watched balls of fury last night, movie sucked, but the picture was awsome. I have the avia II disc at home so I still may mess with that to squeeze some better picture out of it, but I'd be suprised if it gets a whole lot better. Extremely happy with purchase of this tv.

 

[funked up]

I have basic cable hooked up to the TH-42PX75U right now, eventually digital HD cable will be had, but for now I mostly watch HD movies. Most of the basic cable looks fine in the JUST Aspect mode, makes it fit the whole screen. But some tv shows look blurry and my PS2 also looks kinda blurry like this. When I set the tv to 4:3 aspect to make the picture clearer the tv has grey bars on the side instead of black. I find this to be extremely distracting. Is there anyway I can change them from grey to black? i don't play allot of video games and like I said most of the cable stations are fine otherwise, so i'm not really worried about burn-in, which from what i here is a thing of the past anyways.

 

[jlahk]

When I set the tv to 4:3 aspect to make the picture clearer the tv has grey bars on the side instead of black. I find this to be extremely distracting. Is there anyway I can change them from grey to black?

I believe the bars are gray in an attempt to keep screen use even. The gray is a sort of average of all the colors that are usually displayed on the screen. If the bars were black, the sides of the display would degrade at a higher rate than the active part of the screen, making colors, etc. uneven.