Calibrating PX80

Nymins

Nymins

Nymins

Soldato
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Ok so i know there have been a few threads on this already, but i think its time to get this pinned down. Got my PX80 in January, and it is extremely good, much better than my old Samsung M86 LCD. Anyway, i have been fiddling with settings ever since i got it, trying to get the most out of it, as you would.

Now most people will recommend the HDTVTest settings, and some people here continue to use them (Photoshop ;)) even after the 200hr break-in period. Now i used these settings are a few weeks, but found the "Warm" setting to give a much too yellow picture, so i went about getting new settings. I came across a French guy who posted pictures of his PX80 and it looked amazing. So I got a hold of him and got his settings and the picture did look a lot better.

However, last week i went onto AVSForum (USA AV forum) and downloaded their own calibration disk. So i got it burnt and it played fine on the PS3. They had a guide with it, so i followed that and went about calibrating. Well needless to say the settings i got of the French guy seemed to be a tad too dark according to the calibration disk, so i changed them according to their guide. Now, however, whenever watching movies, the black bars on the top and bottom seem very grey and are hard not to notice them. This is in a very dark room btw, with the only light coming in from a street light outside, but it barely creeps in.

So today i took a few pictures to try and compare the HDTVTest settings with the settings i currently use from the French guy. They are from "There Will Be Blood" on Blu-Ray, which gets a very high rating for PQ:

HDTVTest:
2ibokur.jpg


French guy's:
snny9w.jpg


HDTVTest:
anos5d.jpg


French guy's:
2ngyjhh.jpg


Now i know camera pictures aren't the best to go by and these were taken like 10mins before this post, so i tried my best to keep all the light out, but im just wondering what your opinions were. The french settings seem a bit dark, but give better blacks (crushed maybe?), whilst the HDTVTest seems to show more, thus more detail, but the blacks seem off?

Hope you guys can give me some advice, just want to get the TV setup once and for all! :D

Cheers
 
I you have said, I have pretty much stuck to HDTest's settings which some people say is a little "warm". The French guy's settings are darker and the bars at the top and bottom are more a washed out black where as the HDTest's settings the bars are more darker.

The only thing i have changed from HDTest's settings is i've increased the Sharpness by +1 which makes the text on the PS3 more clearer and games do look a little less blurred.

Its difficult to tell from photographs but i prefer the HDtest's settings over the French dudes. One of the main reasons is that on the French guy's settings the edges are not really noticeable (the right side of the guys face on the first two pics). Notice how the light strands of hair cant not be seen above his right ear and indeed you cant really make out his ear all that well (reference to the first 2 pics again).
 
There is definitely some detail lost in the French Guy's settings, but the blacks are a ton better i find. Watching a scene from Pan's Labyrinth, the HDTest settings where terribly washed out and really brown in the dark areas(the scene where she crawls into a tree, covered in mud), whereas the French Guy's settings where brown where it is brown and dark where it is dark.

Ill try knocking the brightness up 1 and see if that adds more detail. I suppose it should really be down to what i think looks best, but i still have the feeling in the back of my head, "am I really getting the full potential of this TV and HD?"
 
When I first got my TV I used the HDTVtest settings and then loaded the 'Digital Video Essentials' bluray and found I didnt need to change a thing (although Im no expert) to me all the test patterns looked spot on.

Im sure I read somewhere that the HDTVtest settings calibrate the PX80\PZ80 as close to D65 colour temperature as they will go, which seemed a bit too yellow for me even after the 200 hr burn in period, I just simply then changed 'warm' to 'normal' and Im happy with the PQ/colour now :)
 
Oxlde said:
When I first got my TV I used the HDTVtest settings and then loaded the 'Digital Video Essentials' bluray and found I didnt need to change a thing (although Im no expert) to me all the test patterns looked spot on.

Im sure I read somewhere that the HDTVtest settings calibrate the PX80\PZ80 as close to D65 colour temperature as they will go, which seemed a bit too yellow for me even after the 200 hr burn in period, I just simply then changed 'warm' to 'normal' and Im happy with the PQ/colour now :)
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Yea thats the thing. I used AVSForums own HD calibration DVD and the HDTVTest's settings where spot on to. The French Guys were just too dark, everything else seemed fine. I dunno though, the HDTVTest settings just seemed too grey for me in dark scenes.
 
Nymins said:
Yea thats the thing. I used AVSForums own HD calibration DVD and the HDTVTest's settings where spot on to. The French Guys were just too dark, everything else seemed fine. I dunno though, the HDTVTest settings just seemed too grey for me in dark scenes.
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I've highlighted the point that matters, use other peoples settings as a base and tweak them so you like it then stop playing around and worrying about it instead enjoy it.
 
a1ex2001 said:
I've highlighted the point that matters, use other peoples settings as a base and tweak them so you like it then stop playing around and worrying about it instead enjoy it.
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You are 100% right, but I'm one of those people who think that if everyone is saying they are the best and HDTVtest say they are calibrated to movie and tv standards, then I should use them even if they don't look as good to me! Daft I know, I really should just go by what I like :(
 
i never stick to other peoples recommended settings. why people assume all panasonics are the same out of the factory i dont know - we dont assume any others are. french guys is too dark, there's detail lost in the blacks as said. set up correctly, there shouldnt be any detail lost in french guys's settings and black shouldnt be any lighter in the HDTV settings. if there's a difference then one of them is wrong....or both.
 
james.miller said:
i never stick to other peoples recommended settings. why people assume all panasonics are the same out of the factory i dont know - we dont assume any others are. french guys is too dark, there's detail lost in the blacks as said. set up correctly, there shouldnt be any detail lost in french guys's settings and black shouldnt be any lighter in the HDTV settings. if there's a difference then one of them is wrong....or both.
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What's the best way to set it up correctly? I'm not 100% sure what detail I should see and what I shouldn't (artifacts etc). How did you set yours up, you have a PZ80 don't you?
 
Other peoples settings are a good starting point but there are to many variables to stick to them 100%.
Simple things like lighting or the time of day, even the time of year can alter the settings so youve got to tweak them to your own environment.
I used Digital Video Essentials to set up my Pioneer and must get round to rechecking it again some time, at the end of the day its what ever you are happy with not other people or Internet web pages.
 
So would you guys recommend getting a decent calibration disk like DVE? Is it easy enough to use and would it definitely give me the best picture out of the TV? (well I guess at least the best picture by movie and tv standards?)
 
You would get the best picture by having it professionally calibrated but that cost a lot of money, I found the DVE disk to be worth it but I wouldn't call it easy to use.

You will find your self going through it once or twice just to get an idea of what they are talking about and what you need to do to get the settings, after youve got to grips with it its easy enough but I still have to do it from start to finish as I find it hard to navigate to particular chapters.
 
Attu90 said:
You would get the best picture by having it professionally calibrated but that cost a lot of money, I found the DVE disk to be worth it but I wouldn't call it easy to use.

You will find your self going through it once or twice just to get an idea of what they are talking about and what you need to do to get the settings, after youve got to grips with it its easy enough but I still have to do it from start to finish as I find it hard to navigate to particular chapters.
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Tempted to buy it. Seems quite expensive though for just a calibration disk! About £13 is the cheapest i can find. Suppose it could be worth it though.

Really annoying me this whole settings thing. Just wanted to buy the PX80, use the calibrated settings from HDTVTest and be done with it! :(
 
Nymins said:
Really annoying me this whole settings thing. Just wanted to buy the PX80, use the calibrated settings from HDTVTest and be done with it! :(
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And 99% of owners do, the other 1% (us lot) sit in anguish worrying that we are getting the best picture from our box :)
 
Nymins said:
What's the best way to set it up correctly? I'm not 100% sure what detail I should see and what I shouldn't (artifacts etc). How did you set yours up, you have a PZ80 don't you?
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black screen. lower the brightness untill it doesnt get any lower, then back up one notch. done. contrast as high as you like, it doesnt over saturate the whites like it can do on other sets. colour temperature is a preferance, i like normal tbh. sharpness in the middle.


job done. its not hard - theres little else to adjust on the tv lol
 
james.miller said:
black screen. lower the brightness untill it doesnt get any lower, then back up one notch. done. contrast as high as you like, it doesnt over saturate the whites like it can do on other sets. colour temperature is a preferance, i like normal tbh. sharpness in the middle.


job done. its not hard - theres little else to adjust on the tv lol
Click to expand...

I shall try that later. Does it need to be a black screen from a blu-ray movie or anything or just a black jpeg viewed on the ps3?

I have mine set to normal and sharpness down one click left. Really couldn't get use to warm.

Its a good and bad thing really that there's little to adjust on the PX80. Good cause newbies like myself can adjust it and it doesn't take much to get a decent picture, but bad cause i do like to tweak things a lot! :p

So do you think the best way to do it is by getting a completely black picture, turning the brightness right down to zero and then upping it slightly until i see the black screen screen get that bit brighter?
 
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