Calibrating PX80

[Nymins]

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:

French guy's:

HDTVTest:

French guy's:

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!

Cheers

 

[Nymins]

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?"

 

[Nymins]

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

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]

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.

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

 

[Nymins]

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.

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?

 

[Nymins]

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?)

 

[Nymins]

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.

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]

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

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!

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?

 

[Nymins]

Ok so i tried your brightness changing thing and i was basically at the point where it should be anyway. Looking at the TV, even when turned off the screen is a grey colour, so i think its just the way it is.

May invest in some lighting to go behind the TV, because i have a standard table lamp up behind the TV anyway and when its turned on, the blacks look jet black, but of course the light itself is a bit distracting, so i think lights that are designed to go behind a TV would be better.

Anyone tried this themselves? Does it bother you have the lights on behind the TV in a pitch black room?

Think -Ad- you have them right? Noticed a post of yours on AVForums about them awhile back.

 

[Nymins]

Ive got a couple of sets of blue led strips (from Ikea) behind my screen and I find it better than having a totally dark room.

Yea i saw some of the LED backlights on the Ikea website. May take a look at them and see what they're like.

Just used the THX Optimizer from POTC DVD. Seems to get the best black level according to THX is to just take the brightness down -1 from the default settings, just like HDTVTest said.

I have Ratatouille coming on Blu-ray on Monday, which has its own built-in Pixar calibrator, so ill see what that says as well, but i think it all just in my head really. I kept expecting super jet blacks, but i shouldn't have cause its not a Kuro, so its really my own fault going through this.