First time Plasma buyer here...need info on calibration/initial setup concerns.

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  • Thread starter Thread starter FuzzyReets
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FuzzyReets said:
Thanks for all your input Bandphan. Really do appreciate it. If I have you at the point of screaming on the thread then its probably best if you opt out of notifications for this. Up to you but if my questions are annoying then that's probably best. I do appreciate your input though.

What I'm asking is the difference between standard and movie and when to use them. My TV is in a basement so telling me to use one for day and one for night doesn't really apply. I have all the settings for both of them set to the same as much as possible but I don't know which to use and when. I'm guessing standard is for TV in a well lit room and Movie is for watching movies in dim lighting. I noticed that the standard setting only allows for "normal" and cool1" picture mode. Dunno. All the other settings seem the same. Trying to put together the final pieces. Thanks to all.
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Its all good, like traffic comedy school:) Calibrate movie mode for the main or night time viewing. Then calibrate standard for daytime or brighter conditions. I have specific inputs on my displays calibrated for day and night and source, not picture modes. If you get an ISF calibration done by a professional with the "full" equipment, finite adjustments will be made that are not available to the end user without advanced knowledge of the service menus and understanding of the offset values . I didnt mean to come across as literally screaming, hence the grin, it was just to let you know not to sweat it. Calibration basic is something that most can pick up and grasp, advanced calibration takes time, training and $$ for the equipment. Continue to ask questions if your uncertain, enjoy your new gear.
 
So a week in here, I have one thing that is somewhat bothering me. I feel like this 58" Plasma is not as detailed as my 40" LCD. Perhaps this is something that will change over time but it definitely appears to have a different "look" to it than my LCD. It doesn't appear as sharp, or something. I can't put my finger on it. Does anyone else feel like this with plasma vs. LCD? I guess I will get used to it or maybe it will change over time? Not sure. Any reactions to this statement? Thanks.
 
FuzzyReets said:
So a week in here, I have one thing that is somewhat bothering me. I feel like this 58" Plasma is not as detailed as my 40" LCD. Perhaps this is something that will change over time but it definitely appears to have a different "look" to it than my LCD. It doesn't appear as sharp, or something. I can't put my finger on it. Does anyone else feel like this with plasma vs. LCD? I guess I will get used to it or maybe it will change over time? Not sure. Any reactions to this statement? Thanks.
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you probably use to the overly bight display. When we do calibrations some clients comment on a dull picture until the see it side by side and how unnatural it looks. You did calibrate, didnt you?
 
bandphan said:
you probably use to the overly bight display. When we do calibrations some clients comment on a dull picture until the see it side by side and how unnatural it looks. You did calibrate, didnt you?
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I did. I think the movie setting is not for me though. I really didn't like how it looked. I moved over to standard, reset everything, and did it myself and I like it much better. It was way too soft the other way I had it. I think the Digital NR played a huge part in it. I'm really happy with it now though. It was really bothering me for like a week so I decided to see what it would be like if I just did it myself. Sure am glad I did.

One other question. I noticed when I'm on my PS3 home screen that it sort of has a flicker that catches. It seems like things are very sharp and smooth looking then all of a sudden I see a bunch of noise and it "catches" itself and goes back to being smooth without the little digital dots I see then it repeats this. I don't know if this is because this is a a game console or what. Seems to do the same thing on my Xbox 360 home screen. Kind of bothering me. I'm not sure if this is something wrong with the TV or just something due to my settings and the way a game console displays or what Not sure if anyone had any input regarding this issue or if this is something I need to get checked out. As always, thanks.
 
how are the game consoles routed? Direct to the display, thru a switch, or and AVR?
 
bandphan said:
how are the game consoles routed? Direct to the display, thru a switch, or and AVR?
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Both game consoles go via hdmi to my receiver (Yamaha RX-V465) then to my TV via hdmi. Damn you're fast.
 
bandphan said:
have you tried to hook them direct to the display to see if they still do it?
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Yessir. Same thing. Someone on another site mentioned trying a Cat 2 High Speed HDMI or switch to 1080i. I tried switching to 1080i but that didn't help. Going to try the high speed cable route next. Not sure if mine is or not. General from Amazon and doesn't indicate whether or not it is. Bummer.
 
No dice with the ridiculous fast Monster cable either. Only seems to happen on the home screens but not during gameplay. Strange.
 
This goes out to Bandphan probably. I don't know, I'm on the verge of sending this thing back. Sometimes it looks great and I'm blow away, other times I don't know. Seems to soft and not detailed enough. There's just somethign about it. The Dynamic setting gets it close to what I want, whatever that means. I just can't get it to look as good as my 40" LCD. It's driving me bonkers. Don't know what to do. Looking for help.
 
FuzzyReets said:
This goes out to Bandphan probably. I don't know, I'm on the verge of sending this thing back. Sometimes it looks great and I'm blow away, other times I don't know. Seems to soft and not detailed enough. There's just somethign about it. The Dynamic setting gets it close to what I want, whatever that means. I just can't get it to look as good as my 40" LCD. It's driving me bonkers. Don't know what to do. Looking for help.
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Wish I lived near by Id take a look. When it looks bad what is the material? As for looking soft/dull think of it this way, when you see someone wearing a red shirt, does that shirt reach out and punch you with red or does it just tell you I'm red and this is how im supposed to look. The dynamic setting is no where near what the display should be and Im not telling you what you should or shouldn't like, but you need to understand color accuracy and temperature based on what you should be seeing and what we see as people everyday in our lives. Over exaggerated brightness is not realistic at all. I would recommend having an ISF calibration but I'm afraid you wouldn't see the value in the finished result. Go back and look through all the linked reading material and see if you can get a grasp of what a properly setup display is supposed to look like. Also please post your calibration settings .

thanks

scott
 
bandphan said:
Wish I lived near by Id take a look. When it looks bad what is the material? As for looking soft/dull think of it this way, when you see someone wearing a red shirt, does that shirt reach out and punch you with red or does it just tell you I'm red and this is how im supposed to look. The dynamic setting is no where near what the display should be and Im not telling you what you should or shouldn't like, but you need to understand color accuracy and temperature based on what you should be seeing and what we see as people everyday in our lives. Over exaggerated brightness is not realistic at all. I would recommend having an ISF calibration but I'm afraid you wouldn't see the value in the finished result. Go back and look through all the linked reading material and see if you can get a grasp of what a properly setup display is supposed to look like. Also please post your calibration settings .

thanks


scott
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I wish I could explain it better. It's like sometimes the picture has very good depth and definition and then other times it looks like the picture is flat without depth and very sharp and smooth and almost minorly blurry, which i don't like. Do you know roughly what settings might impact what I'm describing? Extreme facial closeups are good though.

I'm thinking maybe it's the difference between going from a 40" to a 58"? That is one thing I am thinking.

I hear what you are saying about Dymamic, you're right, i'ts not natural but as far as the above problem, it seems to clear things up and make depth. Butu yeah the color is odd. Is the Dynamic setting something different than a normal setting? I mean let's say I made all the settings in Dynamic and Standard exactly the same. Would it look the same or does it do something different. I was thinking that the movie, dynamic, and standard modes were just different groups of settings and if you set them all the same way it would look the same but I'm starting to think that is incorrect. ?

Here are the settings I had the other night when I thought I was good then I started having a problem with it again.

Mode: Standard
Cell Light: 9
Contrast: 95
Brightness: 48
Sharpness: 50
Color: 46
Tint: g35/R65

Advanced Settings

Black Tone: Off
Dynamic Contrast: Medium
Gamma: 0
Color Space: Native
Flesh Tone: -3
Edge Enhancement: Off

White Balance

R Offset: 25
G Offset: 20
B Offset: 10
R Gain: 22
G Gain: 28
B Gain: 10

Picture Options

Color Tone: Normal
Size: 16:9
Digital NR: Off

I dumped all that last night and started over. I ended up with just about the same except I dropped the cell light to 4 and thought that might smooth things out. I just dont' know what to do. I'm very particular about this stuff and it makes me nuts until I have it just how I want it. Don't know if this information helps at all but there it is. Now I'm back working with the standard setting with a cell light of 10.

Where would I find someone local to calibrate?

Thanks for your continued reading of my mess :)
 
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2 things .. First what is the source when it looks bad, ie Sd, HD, Bluray, Dvd, Games, ect.. Second what is your zip code? Ill post back a bit later as ive gotta run out..
 
bandphan said:
2 things .. First what is the source when it looks bad, ie Sd, HD, Bluray, Dvd, Games, ect.. Second what is your zip code? Ill post back a bit later as ive gotta run out..
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Zip is 19403.

Well, I have FIOS tv, which usually gets me pissed when I watch it after I have the settings where I think I want them. I know even the HD is compressed but it never looked like this on my LCD so that is somewhat of an issue. Lacks depth. For instance I was watching the Life program from Discovery HD last night which I notice it a lot.

Second, blu rays usually look pretty good over all, not surprisingly.

Games is where I'm at now. The xbox menu looks soft/blurry/undefined to me. Gameplay seems to have that same soft/blurry/undefined thing to me. I really don't like that. It's like I look at it and I'm like, it looks good then I play for a few minutes and I start to notice it when I start doing things.

It seems as if overall very up close things look good to my eye but other things have the issue that I don't like. Hopefully that gives you some minor insight. Thanks again.
 
You settings seem way out of wack, sharpness even in standard mode shouldnt be anywhere near 50, closer to zero and that could have a huge effect of your detail problems along with dynamic contrast being at medium. Untill you get the set dialed in close to where it should be it will be hard to make any determinations about it.
 
ParadigmDawg said:
I have a coupple of plasmas.

I just turned them on and watched them (after turning off the torch).

Don't worry too much about it.
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X2 Although mine will be getting calibrated this weekend since I hit the 200 hour mark : )
 
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