Calibrating Panasonic 50PZ850 w/ Avia II

[Nemo128]

So I popped in the disc, ran through the video sections.

The end result looked much too dark overall. Ran through it again, notice that the TV's options don't modify the set a whole lot.

Everything is routed through the Onkyo receiver, and I can calibrate all this through the Onkyo UI. Should I set the TV to something and use the Onkyo to calibrate?

Also, the color and tint test pattern never comes out a good blue without some flickering. Anyone experience these TVs and get better results than what I described?

I want it to look its best. Wife is complaining because it's too dark when she's playing 360, and although she's got bad vision, I gotta agree with her. Ideas?

 

[bandphan]

Are you calibrating one input for all sources routed thru the onk to the display ?

 

[annunaki]

What picture mode are you using to calibrate? What are the picture settings and brightness settings?

What is the lighting like in your room?

You cannot use the Onkyo to calibrate. All adjustment should be done on the televison.

 

[Nemo128]

What picture mode are you using to calibrate? What are the picture settings and brightness settings?

What is the lighting like in your room?

You cannot use the Onkyo to calibrate. All adjustment should be done on the televison.

I tried it set to Standard.

I like all lights off when doing anything but cable TV, and no light sources at all are on. Very dark room.

Are you calibrating one input for all sources routed thru the onk to the display ?

That was my intention, but I'm open to suggestions. Everything goes in the Onkyo and out to HDMI1 on the plasma.

 

[goodman]

I have the similar, but less expensive, TH-50PZ85U, fed a signal by Time Warner through a SA 8300HD. TW doesn't seem to be doing a good job supporting HDMI in my area. After going back and forth several times between HDMI and component, I chose the component connection for its superior picture. (OTOH, my PS3 produces a gorgeous picture on this TV via HDMI.) Anybody else have a similar experience with their cable boxes?
After hours of tweaking, I settled on the following settings under "Standard" in the "Picture" menu: Picture, 55; Brightness, 50; Color, 35; Tint, 0; Sharpness, 55. Depending upon your viewing preferences and room environment, your results may vary. Good luck.

 

[Nemo128]

Cablevision (also known as iO TV) enfuriates me. Good internet service, absolutely horrid digital cable.

 

[annunaki]

I tried it set to Standard.

I like all lights off when doing anything but cable TV, and no light sources at all are on. Very dark room.



That was my intention, but I'm open to suggestions. Everything goes in the Onkyo and out to HDMI1 on the plasma.

What are your settings on the set? i.e. picture, brightness, etc. The set should offer plenty of brightness even while properly adjusted, especially in a very dark room.

 

[bandphan]

Are you applying any video processing thru the onk. Also which x box. Connection are you using?

 

[Hi Ho]

You are experiencing exactly what many people experience when they properly calibrate a TV. They think it is too dark. It does look quite dim when you crank down the contrast but having both the brightness and contrast set correctly is a major part of having the best picture.

I'm surprised you think it's too dark in a completely dark room. I watch my Panasonic plasma calibrated in cinema mode in a very bright room with a wall of windows shining on it and while it looked dim at first, now anything brighter is too much. It looks great in the daylight and even better in the dark.

Speaking of cinema mode, I would recommend you try calibrating in that mode. Get the settings as close as you can using the Avia disc and watch it for a week or two. You may find that you adjust completely to the dimmer picture and come to prefer the properly calibrated image or you may simply want it brighter. It's all personal preference and the easiest way to make the picture brighter is to raise the contrast (picture on a Panasonic), not the brightness.

 

[goodman]

...the easiest way to make the picture brighter is to raise the contrast (picture on a Panasonic), not the brightness.

Does the brightness adjustment control contrast?

 

[Hi Ho]

No. Contrary to what the labels may suggest the brightness control does not actually make the picture brighter. Brightness controls the darker areas of the picture. Think shadow detail. Having brightness set too low will crush blacks and make dark areas into black blobs. Setting brightness too high will result in gray instead of black and will produce a washed out picture. It will not make the picture brighter.

Contrast controls the difference between the darker and lighter areas of the picture. Setting contrast too low will decrease the contrast ratio and cause the picture to appear too dim. Setting contrast too high will crush whites and make the picture too bright.

Panasonic calls the contrast control "picture". If you think the picture is too dim then raising the picture control will increase the overall lumen output. If you're interested in accurate picture reproduction use care when raising the picture setting as it could significantly reduce detail in brighter areas of the picture.

 

[Halon451]

I agree, let's see what settings you currently have it set to, then we have a better idea of what you're looking at. I own the similar set in my sig below, and there is another adjustment that hasn't been mentioned here that could be of some help.

If you scroll past the initial picture settings and go to Advanced, you'll find a setting for black level - check to ensure that this is not set to "Dark", but rather set to "Light". I fell into the trap early on with my TV of thinking that the better option would be to set it to "Dark", thinking, "Hey, better black levels right?" Well, this setting did one thing - it completely obscured any and all detail in all but the brightest of scenes. I discovered this to be the case especially when I went to calibrate the set and couldn't even see any of the bars for my brightness adjustment. Setting it to "Light" isn't going to necessarily make the black levels of this TV appear gray or washed out - instead it actually makes them stand out more clearly and brings forth the hidden details in predominantly dark scenes.

Obviously, you'll want to calibrate it after choosing this setting and ensure the picture and brightness levels are set to the right points, and as Hi Ho stated - it's something you have to get used to; plasmas are traditionally a little less bright than their LCD counterparts, and none will have that glaring show-room brightness when properly adjusted for the home environment. I believe this to be a good thing - watching something that bright would be very fatiguing on the eyes after a while, trust me.

Hope any of this helps, good luck!

 

[Hi Ho]

it's something you have to get used to; plasmas are traditionally a little less bright than their LCD counterparts, and none will have that glaring show-room brightness when properly adjusted for the home environment. I believe this to be a good thing - watching something that bright would be very fatiguing on the eyes after a while, trust me.

LCD sets don't have the glaring brightness by the time they are properly setup either. By the time you turn the backlight down to achieve the best black levels you're in the same ballpark as a plasma when it comes to brightness.

Thank you Halon for mentioning the black level control. I forgot about that useless control that shouldn't exist. All it does is crush blacks.

 

[Nemo128]

I'm going to try this on the weekend, won't have time till then.

I know there's something wrong in the settings, since things that had detail in the shadows before now just look like masses of black. For example, an aerial flight scene in 24 season 5 last night was completely black. When there is supposed to be a dark sky with a jet flying through it, last night it was literally a washed out screen that showed nothing but the dim flicker of the jet's lights. I know it shouldn't be like that.

Games also look dark, without any detail in dark areas to the point of turning a black textured surface into literally a nondescript blob of black. I may actually have that setting set to Dark, I'll check it soon.

Thanks! I'll report my findings.

 

[Nemo128]

Are you applying any video processing thru the onk. Also which x box. Connection are you using?

I believe I set the receiver to scale to 1080p, but I have to check later to be sure. If there are any settings configured, they're only to res scaling and not to picture adjustments.

 

[bandphan]

Try passing the signals native without processing and let the display do the work.

 

[annunaki]

You still have not given us your settings to make any determination.

 

[Nemo128]

Sorry, crazy busy. Will have an update this Fri/Sat! I want this TV displaying its best ASAP.

 

[Nemo128]

Calibrated, now discuss!

I gave AviaII the once over this morning for a long time and came up with these settings. It looks a lot better than before, there is detail in the shadows now and not just blobs of black.

Picture Mode: Standard
Picture: +50
Brightness: 0
Color: +47
Tint: -1
Sharpness: +59
Temp: Normal
Color Mgmt: Off
Digital Cinema Color: Off
C.A.T.S.: Off

Advanced -> Video NR: Off
-----------> Mosquito NR: Off
-----------> Black Level: Light
-----------> HD Size: Size 2

I gave Custom a try and went into the Pro Settings menu. I honestly could not come up with better settings, even when using the same settings as Standard and messing with the Pro Settings. Maybe I did something wrong, or maybe they shouldn't be used.

Feel free to offer ideas suggestions! It looks great now, but if it can look even better, I'd love to make it happen.

 

[annunaki]

When I calibrated my brother's 42PZ85U with Avia, these were the settings I ended up with: Settings