Now that many of us have indeed determined that the new Panasonic X54 series of CRT RPTVs presents the most compelling bargain in HDTVdom, let us begin tweaking!!

1.) Please only use this thread for providing information on how to tweak or troubleshoot the X54 series for best performance. General information or questions concerning the new line of Panasonic CRT RPTVs should be posted in this thread:
**Official** Panasonic X54 series RPTV Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=423343)

2.) Please use the Subject line to identify the tweak/resolution being discussed so that we can have an orderly index of related information.

3.) Before performing any service menu related functions, make a list of all the original settings.

Now let's get started.

JK

This is the convergence procedure for the Panasonic WX53 series as submitted by Ripper64. It is believed to work for the X54 series as well. **PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN PERFORMING ANY TASK IN THE SERVICE MENU**.

1) select the input you will be using, e.g. the component input your DVD player is hooked up to.So we will be using 480P mode. (X54 is 540P)

2) On the remote get roller guide menu up and select "setup".Roll to PROG. CHAN. and arrow over to MODE, make sure it says cable.press down action button.

3) Press down action button till your at the Roller Menu and roll up to "TIMER" .Arrow down to SLEEP and arrow over till HOW LONG? says 30min.

4) Press down action button till your out of the Roller Menu.

5) On the remote key in channel 124.

6) Adjust VOLUME on remote to zero.

7) Press VOL (arrow left decrease) on the Panny and you will be in SERVICE MODE.

8) With "CHECK xxxx" on, enter Roller Guide menu and go to TIMER icon and shut off the timer.Exit Roller Guide.

9) Press POWER button to enter SERVICE MENU.

10) Take down on your paper all settings HPOS, VPOS, HSIZ and VSIZ and other relevant figures you will encounter on the way.

11) In the service menu, arrow down until you get to ST icon.Press down the action button and you will see the ST dialog box in the lower right hand corner.Press VOL (arrow right) and you will be in the static convergence screen.Check the Static Convergence is lined up on on picture frame dimple marks or the center lines on the template.

12)Go to GREEN icon, press ACTION, press VOL (right arrow) and you will see the Convergence Grid.Press "0" on the remote and then Action.In TEST POS ADJ line up the cursors to the template center lines.

13) Press TV/VIDEO and in DATA PHASE ADJ mode make the curve symmetrical by using the volume arrows.

14) Press TV/VIDEO and in OSD POS ADJ mode line up the cursors to the template center lines.

15) Press "0" on the remote to get back to Convergence grid.

16) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to GREEN lines only.

17) Press TV/VIDEO to get to Line mode.Set up all the green lines to the template.

18) Press TV/VIDEO to get to Easy2 mode and use this to straighten out every other line.

19) Press TV/VIDEO to get to Point mode and get the GREEN lines as straight as possible.

20) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to BLUE lines only.Repeat steps 17-19.I've started doing this because the blue lines are hard to see.

21) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to YELLOW lines (red + green) and converge using Point mode.

22) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to WHITE lines (all 3 colours) and use Point mode to get clean white lines.

23) Press "7" on the remote to save settings.

24) Press POWER button on remote twice to exit to service mode, you should only see "CHECK xxxx".

25) On the TV panel press POWER and ACTION and the same time, this will exit you from Service mode.Your TV will power back on in a few seconds with a self check screen.Press the VOL arrow to get rid of the check screen.

26) Use Video Essentials or AVIA to set your picture settings, better yet they should have already been recorded by you.

27)Enjoy your sharper picture.Completetion time (with practice) about 45 minutes.

As provided by Ripper64.

First do the auto convergence using the button on the front of the TV. After its done it will take you through a series of steps to fine tune the convergence.Just follow the directions on screen (very basic).There are 4 notches on the inside of the TV frame.Their hard to see so look carefully for a small line.You actually only use the top one and the left one when you get 2 green lines to adjust your picture centering.The 0 button switches between red and blue convergence when you adjust the + .

Here is a tip to get your convergence even better.Display something with a lot of writing on your TV up top and even on the bottom and as far right and left as possible.You can see the picture in the background when adjusting the menu covergence which I find is a real plus.My JVC I couldn't do that.You will find that the convergence isn't perfect.Sometimes you will have to set,say a red + or blue + just slightly off to one of the 4 directions.What I mean is you don't want the + perfectly alligned behind the main + that you use to adjust red and blue.Some will be properly alligned perfect right in behind the +,but some + you will have to offset it a little.Thats how I got my convergence looking better especially when you see something with writing displayed.You won't see hardly any bleeding of red or blue.

Make sure the TV has been powered on at least 30 mins before performing tweaks/convergence.

Why is it so hard to align the blue? When I'm doing the convergence all the white lines have a blue "shadow" to them, I can't get the blueness of the grid to go away. From a distance it looks fine, but in movies things sometimes have a blue outline.

Focus. It sounds like your blue is defocused. Performing a mechanical and electrical focus can improve your PQ dramatically.

(all the panny.tv tweaks may not apply to the X54 series...but the focus procedures should)
http://www.panny.tv/tweaks.htm
www.panny.tv

DO NOT TOUCH THE SCREEN POTS!!! THESE AFFECT GRAYSCALE AND YOUR GRAYSCALE CAN END UP FUBAR!!!

that looks pretty cool but I don't think I have the guts to open up the TV. Would an ISF calibration cover all this?

I have performed both manual and electrostatic focus on a Hitach S series TV. It is actually quite simple if you follow the directions provided at Panny.tv. I believe you will have access to the guns and the pots if you remove the plastic back of the TV. For manual focus, once you have access to the guns you merely need to loosen the wing nuts on each gun and tighten the associated beam (by turning the front of the gun like you would focus a camera lens) until it is as tight as possible without producing a residual hew. For example, if you tighten the blue gun too far you will see a purplish glow around the blue line. After completing the manual focus, don't forget to retighten the wingnuts. Do not overtighten the wingnuts. As suggested, it makes sense to use a white piece of paper to reflect the beam back to you so that you can see the effect your adjustments are having in real time. Otherwise you will likely need someone to watch the front of the TV and tell you when the guns are properly focused. As far as the electrostatic focus, there should be pots located at the bottom of the guns that may be marked. If they are not and you are not sure which ones are for focus do not perform this tweak until you have the necessary information. For as mfusick so elequently stated, you do not want to touch the screen pots as they affect greyscale and can leave your TV much the worse. The screen pots and the focus pots look identical.

It does appear from my experience that the blue gun is a little too defocused. I will be performing both focus tweaks as soon as I can get an hour alone with the TV. The wife doesn't like it when I spend too much time "working" on the TV.

Best of luck,

John

nohjy, please keep us updated on this. You seem much more knowledgable about this topic of manual and e-focus, so please tell us how it fares with the X54 before some inexperienced users (such as myself) takes a shot at it.

How do you remove the protective screen?

Ventro:

Removal of the protective screen may or may not be possible with the X54 series. I do not know anyone who has tried it as of yet. I know that there has been a movement in bargain CRT RPTVs to attach the protective and projection screens together for cost saving purposes. In other words, with some tvs it is practically impossible to remove one without the other.

All this said, I am sure someone will try it and let us know. I have no interest in this tweak as I have 17 month-old and, as such, need the protective screen.

John

John, the manual says that it's removable and washable. The only problem is that they fail to explain how to do it :)

The only problem I've really seen is the mad red tint the stock settings have. Have people been able to tune to satisfaction?

I was comparing it to the other models in-store and discovery hd was on. Something black and white came up and the gray was awful compared to neighboring sets. Also, green grass was kinda lime or something.

Maybe some ISFs can give us some ideas on how to tame the red push. I have noticed this as well even in standard color temp. Has anyone played with the cuts and drives in the service menu?

Also, can some people who own the 53X54 offer some general picture settings after callibration with AVIA/DVE(i.e. Brightness, Color, contrast & tint levels).

Finally, if anyone has had their X54 series ISF callibrated please provide your pre and post callibration service menu values.

Thanks and lets keep adding to this. The more we provide the better our pictures will be.

John

Please, do not mess with cuts and drives as these affect grayscale and not color decoding.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2929129#post2929129

So how do we fix the red push?

Originally posted by Drew224
So how do we fix the red push? Since I haven't touched one of these new sets, I can't say for sure. This is a case where you owner's are going to have to experiment and help yourselves. There should be two parameters in the service menu for adjusting the color decoder. B-Y_G and R-Y_A

You need AVIA or DVE, you want to end up with the Red and Green patterns to line up when viewing through the respective filters just like when you adjust the color/tint for the Blue. If you don't have a test disc or haven't adjusted color/tint with the Blue Bars, you have a lot to study before you start tweaking (stay out of the service menu for now).

Guy Kuo

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AVIA Obscura #2 - Blue Bars, Red Bars, Green Bars

Color bars are useful for checking the proper function of color decoders in a display. With NTSC displays one can vary the saturation (amount) and hue (phase relationship) of the display. Ideally, the display is adjusted to recreate the same colors as encoded in the signal.

The traditional SMPTE color bar includes not only bars but small patches of colors which are in reverse blue order just below the color bars. By examining the amount of blue (using a filter or better yet by using the display's blue only mode) one can tell if the saturation and hue are correctly adjusted. This works because the gray portions of the pattern are encoded to be an intensity of gray which has exactly the same amount of blue in the blue portions of the pattern. Since gray contains no color content, turning the saturation control up and down does not affect its blue content. This allows the gray to act as a reference point against which to compare the amount of blue is present. Calibrating saturation can thus be done by adjusting blue intensity to match the fixed amount of blue in gray. Hue is observed by comparing the amount of blue in the magenta and cyan portions of the pattern. When hue is correctly adjusted, the blue intensities of magenta and cyan are identical.

Unfortunately, some people find it difficult to accurately tell when the blue intensities are equal. The bars and patches are of unequal size and color separation artifacts can make the color transition zones blurred or of uneven darkness. For these reasons, AVIA's "Blue Bars" add flashing patches within the color bars to aid in finely discerning when the intensities are equal. Human vision is very sensitive to flashing. AVIA takes advantage of this by having users adjust saturation and hue to minimize visible flashing in blue. This allows higher accuracy than comparison of static bars and patches. For those who still prefer more traditional static comparisons, AVIA also provides traditional split color bar patterns.

Several other features are built into the color bars. You may not have noticed that the transitions between bars and patches is closer to the center of the screen than SMPTE bars. This moves the critical comparison area of the pattern further from on screen displays which often appear at the bottom of the screen when televisions are adjusted. The white reference rectangle at the bottom of the pattern includes animated white bars for detecting white clipping. The lower right black portion of the pattern has animated black bars for checking black level. These are positioned where the PLUGE pattern is on SMPTE bars, but animation avoids the optical illusions of aligned rectangle edges that sometimes make it difficult to tell if a PLUGE rectangle is visible. Animation makes visibility obvious. Also the black bars do not rely on a blacker than black component for proper use. However, the black bars in this pattern are only to be used on displays which need a high APL during black level adjustment.

One can also use SMPTE bars in red or green only, but AVIA makes evaluation of green and red primary handling by providing "Red Bars" and "Green Bars." These are used in the same manner as the blue bars, except one views the red bars in red-only and the green bars are to be viewed in green-only. The patches which need to be compared are also moved to be positioned below the bar against which comparison needs to be made. This makes intensity comparisons easier than the wide separations that arise with a blue optimized color bar pattern. AVIA also adds its innovative flashing patches to the red and green bars to enhance viewer accuracy.

Why red and green bars? If the color decoder is perfect, adjusting to blue only accuracy would make the red and green color bar patterns also appear perfect. Unfortunately, it often isn't perfect. We'll visit that in AVIA Obscura --- Color Decoder Check. Guy Kuo
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AVIA Calibration Tips #4 -- Color Decoder Check

Note: The AVIA Obscura title of this series changes now to AVIA Calibration Tips

NTSC video signals must be separated, decoded, and matrixed to form the final red, green, and blue signals which drive the display. Professional grade displays accurately decode the color signals and render colors correctly. However, consumer grade televisions often break the rules and have non-standard color decoding. This is most often seen as exaggerated reds (red push) and wreaks havoc when one attempts to adjust colors on a consumer display using just color bars.

Color bars are encoded such that the amount of red, green, or blue is 75% in each bar which contains the color. For instance the amount of blue is 75% in the gray, blue, cyan, and magenta portions of color bars. Similarly, the amount of red is 75% in the gray, red, yellow, and magenta portions. Because the amounts of each primary are identical in the various patches, one can compare the intensity of each color to learn how a decoder is functioning. AVIA also includes 50% & 100% color bars for testing of color circuitry linearity but we'll ignore those for now and concentrate on the more commonly used 75% variety of color bars.

75% Gray has zero color difference from gray so adjusting color saturation up and down doesn't alter its appearance. Hence, gray serves as the reference point against which the intensity of color saturation may be compared. Turning saturation up and down alters the intensity of the colored portions of color bars. View the blue portions of color bars in blue-only as you increase saturation. You'll notice that blue increases in intensity with increasing saturation. When saturation is correctly set, the intensity exactly matches that of gray. On a professional display with NTSC accurate color decoding, this same saturation setting also makes the red and green portions of the pattern match gray. Hue is adjusted by comparing portions of the pattern that contain two primaries such as cyan vs magenta.

AVIA has a Color Decoder Check pattern which lets you measure and compensate for non-standard color decoding. The pattern has a gray background against which you compare the brightness of red, green, and blue color patches. The patches range from +25 to -25%. If the color decoder is perfect, then the 0% patches of each color match the gray background (when viewed in only that color). If a display has red push, then a higher (darker encoded) red patch matches the gray background. You can read the percentage push by finding the patch which best matches the gray.

You may find other imbalances with the AVIA Color Decoder Check pattern, but red push is the most important to control. This is because red push is more objectionable to most viewers than under push or green push. A professional calibrator can sometimes correct the color decoder axes to achieve NTSC standard decoding, but for most sets that is not possible. You may want to check the accuracy of color decoding of a display prior to purchase since this problem is often not correctable. The only recourse is to hide (not correct) the error by decreasing saturation to make the measured red push 10 to 20%. This desaturates the overall picture but avoids making flesh tones too orange. Leave hue alone when making this compensation.
There are two other things to remember when considering non-standard color decoding. Don't confuse correcting the color decoder axes with resetting gray scale. This problem cannot be corrected by decreasing red drive because that would alter the underlying gray scale of the picture. The problem is with the way color DIFFERENCES from gray are being interpreted by the display's color decoder, not with the amount of red in the gray scale.

The second thing to remember is that this pattern and color bars are most accurate if one turns off the other two color guns of the display when examining each color. Color filters leak through a bit of the other colors and falsely make the gray background brighter than it really is. This tends to make your observations through filters about 5% lower than if color filtering were perfect. The difference is small, but if you want highest accuracy, turning off or capping the other two color guns is best.

I gotta tell you guys to be careful.I promised myself I wouldn't touch my 53X54.I had a JVC AV-48WP30.I used to do a service menu convergence on it once in a while.One time something happened and I had blue,red and yellow bleeding on the left and right side of the screen about maybe 4-5 inches on each side.Even the tech couldn't fix it completely.He got it better but not like it was.I don't think he was too experienced in this field.It was a tech from where I bought the TV from,under warranty.I wasn't to happy.

I would consider tweaking my set again but only if I am certain I know what I am doing and the steps required.You might consider buying the grid from Panasonic so you can adjust the main hatch before doing the other colours.Some people use strings and tape them to the frame,but I don't know how far apart the strings need to be exactly.There is a series of steps that you should do before even doing the convergence from what I understand.Just doing a service menu convergence may not get you the results you like without doing prior adjustments.

OK, I have a 53wxd63 and yesterday I got up my nerves and decided to do a service menu convergence. There are no threads out there for this tv so I was flying blind until my service manual comes in. I only had the guts to do course convergence and static alignment, it made an huge difference in the pq, I can't wait to get the nerves to do a fine adjustment.

The thing is, once I was done, saved my changes using 7 and holding r-tune which is "OK". and used the power button on the unit to get out of service menu (powered off then back on) I noticed that my user settings were not deleted. Every thread I have read says these setting get deleted when you enter the service menu.

Why weren't mine?

Thanks.

- Mike

For those who have tried the servce menu convergence. Does the procedure listed above work properly?

Is there a recommended amount of time (hours) before one is to do a full calibration? Also , using the Avia disk, do I have to get into the service menu to make use of it?

I can find HPOS and HSIZ in the service menu but I can't seem to find VPOS and VSIZ. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Has anyone successfully acquired a service manual for the X54's yet?
I tried here in Canada, and found out that Panasonic seems to think that this information is Top Secret. Not only is it not available for sale, it's provided only to authorized service centers and is only available to them in a secure format. Apparently, an encoded disc only playable on a specific laptop. I was hoping that someone, somewhere, might have access to one, or have a suggestion for a possible source.
I'm a little too green yet to get in there without a step by step plan.

Yeah, I'd love to do a little tweaking myself, but I'm a little gun shy about going any farther than using the user menu adjustments.

I did fine 165pt convergence and geometry by eye on my X54. It was a breeze and my picture is great now. Still not 100hrs though, so in a few weeks I'm going to do it again, maybe with a test disc this time.

Ventro:

Can you provide a detailed step-by-step process for what you did to do the fine convergence? Did you just follow the directions I posted above? If you have any tips on how to go about using the service menu or performing convergence they would be nice to have.

John

I've done a convergence on my Toshiba 40H80 many times but the convergence procedure for the Panasonic 53X54 seems more difficult. I have been able to get into the service mode and to the convergence grids, however I have been unable to produce any type of cursor to access any given intersection of the grid.

Any adjustment of the lines on the grid, moves the entire grid as opposed to an individual area. The instructions, in a previous post, for the convergence procdure of the 53WX54, are slightly different than the procedure for the 53X54.

Updated 10/24/2004
After some more poking around in the service menu, I've found out the following:
After accessing the FINE convergence grid, the MUTE button activates the cursor. Press MUTE and the cursor flashes allowing it to be moved around the grid. Pressing mute again locks the cursor to the particular section of the grid, allowing adjustment of that area only. The TV/VIDEO button toggles between types of adjustments (point, original point, line or easy). You can experiment by pressing any number buttons except #7 which saves the changes you will be making.

Sorry I can not explain it better but I'm still unfamiliar with the complete operation. As I explore further I will post my results.

Thanks for the information that has already been provided.

Okay so I tried to tweak my tv a lil, now it says auto offset in progress and it won't go away. What should I do? It's been stuck like this for a few mins now.

Edit: Unplugging the TV made it go away plus it fixed what looked like really off convergence, I think I'm going to stay out of the menu for a little longer after this scare lol.

Originally posted by ventro
I did fine 165pt convergence and geometry by eye on my X54. It was a breeze and my picture is great now. Still not 100hrs though, so in a few weeks I'm going to do it again, maybe with a test disc this time.

Ventro, when you say your picture is "great" now, what exactly were the improvements, and what difference in picture could I expect to see if I had it calibrated?

Has anyone noticed this with the xbox on the PT-47x54? In the first photo the xbox is set to 16:9. In the second it is set to normal. As you can see when it is set to 16:9 part of the picture is being cut off (most noticeable with the word wins). This isn't so bad that it makes me not want to play or anything it's just kinda annoying and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas.


*Note: Mortal Kombat Deception does not support 16:9. However, I have noticed this in other games that do support 16:9. The word wins was just so bad with a full letter missing that I chose this game.

**Sorry about the kinda crappy pics but it's near impossible to not catch it in motion and it gets dimmer and blocks 75% of the screen when you pause.

Another problem I'm having is that my DVD player is set to progressive and using component connections yet the TV does not recognize it as progressive. This a is major deal to me cause I really wanna be using the HD color matrix and it won't let me. I can switch between SD and HD matrix with the xbox and the HD matrix makes a huge difference. Ideas? My DVD player is a Panny DVD-S35. I plan on getting an upconverting DVD player in the future, but HDTivo is top proriety so that won't be for a couple months and this is bothering me.

With Panasonic DVD players, you often have to set it to progressive in two seperate places in the menus.

Originally posted by Drew224
Has anyone noticed this with the xbox on the PT-47x54? In the first photo the xbox is set to 16:9. In the second it is set to normal. As you can see when it is set to 16:9 part of the picture is being cut off (most noticeable with the word wins). This isn't so bad that it makes me not want to play or anything it's just kinda annoying and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas. Probably check out an Xbox forum. Sounds like a bug with your Xbox and MK. I have noticed anything cutoff on a Hitachi 57S500 with MK and Xbox set for 16x9.

edit: I have NOT noticed anything cutoff on a Hitachi 57S500 with MK and Xbox set for 16x9.

Originally posted by Marc Alexander
With Panasonic DVD players, you often have to set it to progressive in two seperate places in the menus.
You, my friend, are a savior! There was another stupid setting. Not only do you have to set the dvd player to progressive in the setup but you have to set it to 480p in some "Picture Menu". I never would have found that if you hadn't said something.
Now if only you had this TV and could confirm it was my xbox and not the TV.

Shouldn't the lines be visible at the top and left in this pattern? Like they are on the bottom and right. Could this have to do with my xbox problem?

*Sorry to bloat the page with pics. I will eventually remove them. I just needed them to illustrate my problems.

Edit: I've been messing around with DVE, as you can probably tell, and I can't get the red even close to the way they say it should be with the red filter. The blue I've gotten near perfect, but red I can only get the yellow (I think it was the yellow) boxes anywhere near the right color and green is horrible. Would this be because of red push, and does this mean I'll have to play around with the service menu?

Anybody?

You overscan looks just fine. The DVE pattern is shifted slightly horizontally.

You problem is clearly the Xbox. Otherwise, changing the setting on the Xbox wouldn't change the symptom.

Originally posted by Drew224
Edit: I've been messing around with DVE, as you can probably tell, and I can't get the red even close to the way they say it should be with the red filter. The blue I've gotten near perfect, but red I can only get the yellow (I think it was the yellow) boxes anywhere near the right color and green is horrible. Would this be because of red push, and does this mean I'll have to play around with the service menu? Yes and yes

Hey All,

Great site!! Learning a lot. I just recently purchased a 53x54 and got hooked up with HDTV from Cox Cable in So Cal. Now, the HDTV is incredible, but the regular channels and SD are kinda fuzzy. I know they will be nothing close to the HDTV but I was wondering about one aspect of the Motorola converter box setup.

In the menu it has areas for output and size and what I want the regular 4:3 channels to be.

I set it to 16:9, 1080i for HD and then there are options of 480i or 480p or "off" for the 4:3 channels. What are the differences?

It was set at 480i for the last two weeks and I just switched it to 480p...but I don't know if I see a difference or my mind thinks there is. lol

Any info on what the 53x54 does to the 480i and p setting?

Also, I heard people talk about turning OFF the VM setting. What's the difference of OFF or ON of the VM setting?

Thanks !!

Hey Drew,

My buddy is coming over and has an XBOX and I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how the XBOX runs/looks on your 53x54. Anything I need to do to setup the XBOX on the TV for the best graphics?

Thanks!

For the best PQ make sure 480p is enabled in the Xbox dashboard (and that you are using component connection).

Originally posted by nohjy

10) Take down on your paper all settings HPOS, VPOS, HSIZ and VSIZ and other relevant figures you will encounter on the way.

11) In the service menu, arrow down until you get to ST icon.Press down the action button and you will see the ST dialog box in the lower right hand corner.Press VOL (arrow right) and you will be in the static convergence screen.Check the Static Convergence is lined up on on picture frame dimple marks or the center lines on the template.

12)Go to GREEN icon, press ACTION, press VOL (right arrow) and you will see the Convergence Grid.Press "0" on the remote and then Action.In TEST POS ADJ line up the cursors to the template center lines.

13) Press TV/VIDEO and in DATA PHASE ADJ mode make the curve symmetrical by using the volume arrows.

14) Press TV/VIDEO and in OSD POS ADJ mode line up the cursors to the template center lines.

15) Press "0" on the remote to get back to Convergence grid.

16) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to GREEN lines only.

17) Press TV/VIDEO to get to Line mode.Set up all the green lines to the template.

18) Press TV/VIDEO to get to Easy2 mode and use this to straighten out every other line.

19) Press TV/VIDEO to get to Point mode and get the GREEN lines as straight as possible.

20) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to BLUE lines only.Repeat steps 17-19.I've started doing this because the blue lines are hard to see.

21) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to YELLOW lines (red + green) and converge using Point mode.

22) Press "1" on the remote and cycle to WHITE lines (all 3 colours) and use Point mode to get clean white lines.

23) Press "7" on the remote to save settings.

24) Press POWER button on remote twice to exit to service mode, you should only see "CHECK xxxx".

25) On the TV panel press POWER and ACTION and the same time, this will exit you from Service mode.Your TV will power back on in a few seconds with a self check screen.Press the VOL arrow to get rid of the check screen.

26) Use Video Essentials or AVIA to set your picture settings, better yet they should have already been recorded by you.

27)Enjoy your sharper picture.Completetion time (with practice) about 45 minutes.

i can get into the service menu ok but i cant find "VPOS, HSIZ and VSIZ" nor can i find the "ST icon"

any help would be greatly appreciated

Originally posted by Quigs
Hey Drew,

My buddy is coming over and has an XBOX and I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how the XBOX runs/looks on your 53x54. Anything I need to do to setup the XBOX on the TV for the best graphics?

Thanks!
You will want to use the HD A/V Pack (http://www.xbox.com/en-us/hardware/highdefinitionavpack.htm). Once it's connected boot to the plain old MS Dashboard (no disc in tray) and go to video and set your screen to widescreen and the output to 480p, yes, and 1080i, yes,. That's about all you can do on the xbox side. Once you boot up a game you'll want to go into the picture settings on the TV, go to other and make sure color matrix is set to HD.

*In case you don't know, the HD color matrix is only selectable on a 480p input. And on an HD input it won't let you use anything but HD matrix.

I tried to do some service menu adjustment of the color and when I got into the service menu while my DVD player was in progressive mode the only video values it would let me change were I ABL and C_OFF. If I switch to 480i it will let me change all the values again. Aren't you suppose to adjust COLOR, B-Y_G, and R-Y_A? If I can't adjust them while my DVD player is in 480p, which is what I intend to use it in, is there any point in adjusting at all?

Hmmm...that would be quite disappointing if the color decoder cannot be adjusted with 480p and 1080i inputs.

I just picked up the 53X54. The directions for getting into the service menu don't appear to be the same tho I've seen mention in some other threads that it is similar and obviously some people have done it. Soooo anyone who has figured out the exact directions to get into the servive menu on the X54 series Panny sets I'd appreciate you posting them here.

Thanks,
AKH

BTW: Has anyone figured out how to remove the screen at this point?

Originally posted by akh
I just picked up the 53X54. The directions for getting into the service menu don't appear to be the same tho I've seen mention in some other threads that it is similar and obviously some people have done it. Soooo anyone who has figured out the exact directions to get into the servive menu on the X54 series Panny sets I'd appreciate you posting them here.

Thanks,
AKH

BTW: Has anyone figured out how to remove the screen at this point?
It's on the first page of this thread. Ignore the first step. Just do it while on the TV input. Once the Check thing comes up you can change inputs before hitting the final button and entering the service menu.

Originally posted by Drew224
It's on the first page of this thread. Ignore the first step. Just do it while on the TV input. Once the Check thing comes up you can change inputs before hitting the final button and entering the service menu.

It was this step messing me up:

7) Press VOL (arrow left decrease) on the Panny and you will be in SERVICE MODE.

That means after turning vol down on the remote to THEN directly press the volume decrease button on the TV itself. I wasn't catching on to that.



-AKH

Originally posted by akh
It was this step messing me up:

7) Press VOL (arrow left decrease) on the Panny and you will be in SERVICE MODE.

That means after turning vol down on the remote to THEN directly press the volume decrease button on the TV itself. I wasn't catching on to that.



-AKH
Yeah, that got me too the first time I tried to get into the service menu.

Anyone know how to bring up the geometry settings and other adjustment grids on the X54?.I have a slight downward bend on the bottom right hand corner.I also noticed when I checked out some grids with digital essentials on the right hand side of the TV with a verticle line displayed it would look wavy and not straight at all.Also,setting the fine convergence doesn't do a good job.This is telling me that something else is off that needs to be adjusted before I can adjust the covergence both course and fine.

Don't have an answer to the geometry question, but as a fellow service menu-er have you been able to tame the red push to a point where the color filters are correct as possible on DVE? Especially, to a point where they are correct with DVE in progressive.

Originally posted by Marc Alexander
Hmmm...that would be quite disappointing if the color decoder cannot be adjusted with 480p and 1080i inputs.
Well, that would seem to be the case. Actually, I just got HD so I could see if they can be change in 1080i. Although, I would expect it to be the same case. So, should I still adjust the red push while in interlaced with DVE?

I assume R-Y_A would be red so should I even just hit it down two or three steps?

Does anyone know why when I connect a DVI-D to HDMI cable to my Moto 6208 DVR and this tv it is all snowy and green looking?

*Edit: I'm fairly certain this is the crappy cable I bought. Once I took my cable box out and set it on the floor and made everything perfect and eliminated any noise interference I got crystal clear picture. Not sure if it has to do with shielding or if it's just finicky but the DVR and Panny can work together.

Do people recommend Gefen? I can get a Gefen DVI to HDMI for about half the price of Monster.

Originally posted by Drew224
Don't have an answer to the geometry question, but as a fellow service menu-er have you been able to tame the red push to a point where the color filters are correct as possible on DVE? Especially, to a point where they are correct with DVE in progressive.

Go to "coarse" rather than "fine" in the service menu. This will let you do all the geometry adjustments. And then you'll probably need to go back and do the "Fine" adjustments over again.

Someone should ask an ISF tech who works on Panny's the question about callibrating the color decoder for 480P and 1080I. Unfortunately, we don't have a callibrationist involved in this thread.

John

Hello all. I recently purchased the PT47x55 HDTV, and love it. Out of the box, it looked great, but found a little blue shadowing in the bottom left corner. After some searching, got into the service menu, and did the fine convergence. It seems like i cannot get the green lines(mostly the outer, or perimeter lines) to be perfectly straight? Are you supposed to keep those outer lines in sight, or do you push them past the screen? Do the convergence grid lines need to be perfectly spaced?

One more thing, If ANYONE could list their service menu settings for this TV, I would be very thankful for your efforts! My stupid ass messed with a few of the settings, mostly the color , tint, cont, bright settings...and of cousre, I can't find where i wrote the original numbers down..sigh...Actually, I could use all of these settings:

color
brigh
B-Y_G
Tint
R-Y_A
cont

If I could get anyone to share what these perameters are, it would be greatly appreciated!

Originally posted by md95
One more thing, If ANYONE could list their service menu settings for this TV, I would be very thankful for your efforts! My stupid ass messed with a few of the settings, mostly the color , tint, cont, bright settings...and of cousre, I can't find where i wrote the original numbers down..sigh...Actually, I could use all of these settings:

color
brigh
B-Y_G
Tint
R-Y_A
cont

If I could get anyone to share what these perameters are, it would be greatly appreciated!
480i default perameters...

Color
00 1D 1f

B-Y_G
00 3a 40

Tint
00 1e 89

R-Y_A
00 3b aa

Contrast
00 19 03 0e

Brightness
00 2b 02 aa

*Edit: While I was getting the values for md95 I discovered that I CAN! adjust video settings in 1080i. I can adjust color, B-Y_G, tint, R-Y_A, brightness, contrast, I-ABL, and C_OFF. I also noticed that the default values are different than 480i.

Color
00 1f 17

B-Y_G
00 3c 46

Tint
00 20 82

R-Y_A
00 3d 87

Contrast
00 1b 02 bd

Brightness
00 2d 02 BC


I set the cable box to upconvert SD to 480p and tried the service menu and it was the same case as when trying to do it with the DVD player. So, at least when I get my upconverting DVD player I can calibrate for 1080i.

Drew: Thank you! I appreciate it. Would you by chance have these also?

cut R
Cut B
B dr
R dr

I believe I can only get those in 480i(P) too...
That should get me back in business... thanks again

Matt

Originally posted by md95
Drew: Thank you! I appreciate it. Would you by chance have these also?

cut R
Cut B
B dr
R dr

I believe I can only get those in 480i(P) too...
That should get me back in business... thanks again

Matt
Cut R
00 23 01 f9

Cut B
00 27 01 d9

R dr
00 21 70

B dr
00 22 57

Originally posted by nohjy
Ventro:

Can you provide a detailed step-by-step process for what you did to do the fine convergence? Did you just follow the directions I posted above? If you have any tips on how to go about using the service menu or performing convergence they would be nice to have.

John
So can anyone provide step-by-step instructions or what?

I messed up my convergence pretty bad not knowing what to do. So has anyone figured out all the button functions for static convergence?

And how do you go about getting a service manual?

Originally posted by Drew224
I messed up my convergence pretty bad not knowing what to do. So has anyone figured out all the button functions for static conversion?

And how do you go about getting a service manual?

Drew,
I can tell you what I know if that helps... (Does Auto Convergence not fix your problem(s)?)

Once you get into the service menu and have the service options screen up use the TV/Video button to choose the input you want to work on (I am assuming each input has its own convergence memory but I've not confirmed that).

Now use the Vol/Ch buttons on the remote as a scroll pad. Scroll down and highlight FINE. Press the ACTION button on the remote.

This will get you into FINE convergence.

REMOTE
Button one (1) scrolls thru the color combinations. IE RED alone, Red and blue, Blue and green, Blue alone, green-yellow-red, etc).
Pay attention to the onscreen text to note which color you'll be adjusting (ie while you may -SEE- red and blue colors it is only the RED that you'll be changing. To change the BLUE you'll need to press button 1 and cycle thru the options until you see text note 'BLUE' and you'll have either a blue grid or a blue and green grid.

Button two (2) changes the grid patter. You can see crosshairs, full grid, dots, etc.

Button four (4) changes the grid to even more lines and cycles thru grids. AFAIK you can't actually go to all the points on these finer grids but it gives you a more detailed look at what you are doing in the general area of your cursor.

...And to move your cursor you use the Vol/Ch buttons on the remote as a scroll pad. The MUTE button releases the cursor to let you move it around the screen. Pressing the MUTE button again locks it into place and now the Vol/Ch buttons on the remote move your convergence line. When satisfied with that spot, press MUTE again (the cursor will FLASH) and it can be moved to another point. (Flashing cursor is a movable cursor. Non-flashing cursor means convergence line will be moved).

Button five (5) allows you to see whatever is playing on your TV on the choosen input. The grid will be over the top of it. This lets you preview your work. Finding something with white text or other sharp lines is helpful I would think.

Button seven (7) saves your changes. Pressing 7 you will be prompted to make sure you want to save the changes. You MUST press ACTION on the remote at that point to save your changes. Any other button, or waiting for a few secs without pressing anything will result in nothing saved (nothing will be lost either). You will be free to make more changes in either case. This means you can save your progress in steps and not have to finish all at once.

Once you have saved your changes and done all you wanted in this phase you press the POWER button on the remote. This will take you back one screen on the Service Menu. You will be prompted to press ACTION before it does this. Upon pressing POWER and then ACTION you'll be back at the Service Menu Options (any other button and you'll stay in the convergence grid).

From the Service Menu options screen press POWER again and that screen will leave and you'll be at the 'CHK' screen (upper lefthand corner).

Press POWER again (on the remote) and you go back to the Service Menu Options Screen. Press POWER -AND- ACTION -On the TV itself- and the TV will go off and then turn itself back on awaiting your input. It will have a diagnostic screen that will go away when you choose TV/Video button on remote and make a viewing choice.

All your 'USER' settings will be gone. Named channels... audio settings... etc.... All will be back at default (and for video that is VIVID). So if you have things like BRIGHTNESS/PICTURE/TINT/etc set at picky numbers that you spent hours deciding that TINT at 33 looked better than 31 then write these down BEFORE going into the service menu.

------

I have no idea how COARSE convergence works as far as what buttons do what.

-AKH

Well i got it back to minor convergence problems. I still need to fully understand all the covergence steps.

Has anyone played with coarse conversion and want to explain what they did? Also, in my fiddling I didn't lose any user settings.

I don't know how I messed it up. I went to coarse pressed down a couple times, couldn't tell what I was doing, chickened out, pressed up a couple times, and then when I exited it did an auto offset and not even auto or regular manual convergence could fix it. There was red and blue bleeding everywhere it looked like you were suppose to put on those red and blue 3D glasses or something. But at this point I've got it so it's watchable, but I definetly think it's worse than how it started so I wanna try to get it better using the service menu convergence all the way.

By the way, thanks for the quick response.

*Edit: Apparently, auto convergence is useless now. Cause, I just tried it again and the green vertical was way off when I went into maual. I also had to adjust every single cross hair for blue and red.

Tagging along.

Just recieved my 53x54 today. Great info in this thread however, after seeing Drew in his conversion predicament I'm more than a little nervous about touching anything in the service menu.

Question: can anyone tell me if I could practice on an input(say: input 3) to screw around with the convergence and other settings? So, if anything does get screwed up its only on input 3 and not my components and TV inputs.

Or, does one adjustment affect all inputs globally?

That way, only 1 input is bad if things do go south?

Like Drew, I have messed around with my coarse convergence also, and its a PITA to adjust, at least I think so. I know how all buttons work, and how to move everything around, its just that I cannot get some of the lines STRAIGHT. It will have a slight bend at the edge of one of the lines, and the cursor will move like 4-5" of line, instead of the shorter curved section. It's hard to explain, but it's really irritating. Out of the box, brand new, I had a blue ghosting effect in the lower left corner of the screen, and 9 pt convergence did not fix it. Now it's a little better, but I just can't get those lines, esp the outer lines, straight. Any help here? Is the grid supposed to be lined up with a template? Do the grid squares have to be perfectly sized to one another? I did get a 4 year performance service plan at CC for this TV, so i'll prob end up calling them out to fix the convergence at least...I'm a DIY'er at heart, so I find it a little disappointing that I cant get it haha..

I've done some adjustments also to the cuts and drives, and the color decoder, which IMO, the picture looks a bit better now. Got rid of the red push, but now, the greens dont look that deep, esp when looking at things like trees and grass..looks more of a dull, muddy green...I need to get an AVIA disk...

check this out, you may find this entertaining....

I called up a local Home audio/video retailer(not a chain store), and talked to the service guy about a ISF callibration. He was a bit surprised that I knew as much as I did about all the adjustments needed, but he goes on to say that even after they would do the work, that I will possibly not be happy with it. He goes on to ask how much I paid for the TV, and he says, "well you have to remember that you only paid 1500 for this TV, and can't expect it to give a picture like a much better quality and expensive unit. You want us to do about 700.00 worth of adjustments on this set, and I don't think its really worth it". I'm like umm ok... Not going to do business with them of course. Yeah, this set isn't the greatest in the world, but damn, i looked and shopped for a long time, and this picture on this tv, was damn near better than the 3-4 grand TV's..I'm smart enough to know that this set out of the box needs some fine tuning, as should be expected for any videophile who wants the most out of their purchase. So for now, i'm going to tackle what I can...I think my greyscale is pretty fubar, and adjusting that without a light sensor and laptop...just isn't going to happen..maybe I can get it close with an Avia or DVE disk..ok done rambling :)

Yeah, I was tweaking a little tonight. Nothing in the service menu. However, I did go to the credits in a DVD menu and slow motioned back and forth till the credits were in the far upper left/right corner and far bottom L/R corner. Boy, I forgot where I read and who said that the main white + sign were not always center. But man, were they right.

The red and blue +'s being center on the white(calibration) +'s were not on convergence. Not by great distances mind you, but 2-3 clicks above the white + is what the whole left hand side of my screen needed and 1-2 up on the upper right hand side of my screen needed to be set. Then, there was no bleeding what-so-ever of red or blue in the white text. Atleast to my eyes.

Which unfortunately means the digital or auto convergance isn't entirely accurate. But, I never expected it to be.

So far Kill Bill looked great! Now onto LoTR FoTR which is my best picture reference as to how things should look, having seen it 40+ times:(

Okay so I guess I was doing the action & power wrong cause this time it erased all my settings and seams like I made a bigger difference.

I believe in coarse you are suppose to first line up your solid red, green and blue with the notches on the cabinet. Then you cycle through and get your white, yellow, and baby blue so nothing is bleeding. At least this is what I did and I'm happy with my results. I'm not sure if that is what you were asking but that was my understanding of your question. The thing I don't get entirely is after you hit seven and save it and then try to leave you get that green screen that I'm too afriad to touch anything on cause I finally got things back to the way they were.

its just that I cannot get some of the lines STRAIGHT. It will have a slight bend at the edge of one of the lines, and the cursor will move like 4-5" of line, instead of the shorter curved section.
I think I saw what you are talking about. When I was adjusting green to make the yellow line I could get one side of the line perfect but the other side was still bleeding a little. Like the line was curved or something.

After doing a small convergence touch up I decided to try optimizing the mechanical focus (even tho that would mean I'd have to work on convergence). Now I wish I hadn't bothered.

A: I can't decide where the blue is best at. I know I want it defocused a little but I keep readjusting it... A little this way... A little that way...

B: The green. I apparently have to compromise on the green. The right side, and especially (mainly) the right top corner is out more than anywhere else including the opposite side when I focus sharp in the center. Softening the center helps but by the time the rt top corner averages out with the other corners I lose sharpness on things scrolling across the bottom (such as scores at ESPN or news crawlers). The red and blue don't have this problem and can balance out fine. This means convergence isn't going to be perfect because the green is smeared while the red and blue are relatively sharp in the rt hand upper corner.

I realize the corners aren't going to be as sharp as the center but I would hope to get a better balance on the 4 corners before getting obviously worse on the lower portion of the screen. But green is not cooperating.

So, unless there is trick or method I am missing, I need to just allow the upper right not to be as well focused as the other corners in order to have a very sharp picture elsewhere and/or try and strike a balance which helps the rt hand corner but doesn't soften the overall picture too much.

Of course if I'd not messed with it in the first place I wouldn't be constantly second guessing myself. ;)




-AKH

Did you adjust the optical focus as well?

Anyone who wants to try this:

Warning: High voltages inside your TV, even when unplugged, so be very careful.

Take off the grey speaker grille by removing the two screws underneath it. Remove the particle board. Remove the glue from the BOTTOM 3 knobs. Don't touch the glue on the top three because those will mess with the greyscale! I found the glue is easier to remove if your TV has been on for a couple hours, as the glue heats up a bit and is softer.

Each of the three knobs adjusts the focus for one of the three colours.

Warning: After adjusting these, you will likely have to do convergence again.

Warning 2: If you get things too tightly focussed in the middle, sometimes the edges can be very unfocussed, and you'll have red bleeding out on one side and blue on the other. So make sure when you focus, you also consider the state of the edges of the picture along with the middle.

If you want to do mechnical focus as well, just check out panny.tv for instructions.

Originally posted by voyager6868
Did you adjust the optical focus as well?

I did adjust the electronic focus and tried to see if there was some happy medium but as far as I can tell the electronic focus seems to have a more equal effect across the screen.

The upper right hand corner is basically the problem area. I can get fairly tight in the center of the screen and balanced at the other three corners. The lower right is probably a smidge softer than the left side corners but the upper right it much more smeared (in green). But as soon as I try and get the upper right hand corner to come into a useable focus I soften the rest of the screen too much (especically the lower portions where it is noticable due to news scrolls, graphics and sports scores...etc). And finding middle ground is hard. It seems there's very little margin for error on that corner as it relates to the rest of the screen.

With the upper right corner green that far out of focus it is pretty much impossible to get convergence in that corner. So I keep trying to find the happy medium. A tiny, tiny move makes a big difference.

I don't have this problem with the red and blue. I can balance the 4 corners with a usable mechanical focus throughout the screen. And the margin of error is much wider and more predictable.

I suppose how tightly I can focus the red will ultimately depend on what my compromise is on the green. I assume I need to maintain a balance where the red and green are focused to the same sharpness with as much balance as possible throughout the screen? IOW, I don't want either (red/green) color any sharper than the other (if one is handicaps me then I have to handi cap the other)? Then I can decide how much to defocus the blue.

FWIW, the green is also hotter on the right side but striping it (and then the red balances that). You can see it in a bright whitish scene or black and white video. But I don't mess with that while working with the focus.

Anyone who wants to try this:

Warning: High voltages inside your TV, even when unplugged, so be very careful.

Take off the grey speaker grille by removing the two screws underneath it. Remove the particle board. Remove the glue from the BOTTOM 3 knobs. Don't touch the glue on the top three because those will mess with the greyscale! I found the glue is easier to remove if your TV has been on for a couple hours, as the glue heats up a bit and is softer.

Each of the three knobs adjusts the focus for one of the three colours.

Warning: After adjusting these, you will likely have to do convergence again.


I will add, there is a piece of velcro (or hook and loop) in the lower center behind the grill. The grill is held tightly even without the two screws.

----

I'm curious how the auto convergence works at this point. Reading Drew's post I gather it cannot do miracles after convergence is messed up. I would've guessed that with 165 points it would be fairly good.... or does it base those points on a factory saved pattern instead of electronic points behind the screen (and if you change the factory settings then it 'loses' those reference points)?

----

-AKH

So I decided that I had to do a fine adjustment before my 30-day return period was up and I can finally say that the picture is better than what I started with. I got rid of the blue that has been bleeding on 4:3 black bars since day one and fixed what I messed up. Problem is that I still can't fully get blue to stop bleeding. This, however, has always been an issue. I think the blue is poorly focused, but am way too chicked to pop that speaker grille off and started twisting knobs. What's the best way to work on the blue? I think I've heard people recommend credits, but how do I get credits in the corners where the problem is the worst?

Also, what is the auto offset thing that it was doing after convergence?

Originally posted by Drew224
So I decided that I had to do a fine adjustment before my 30-day return period was up and I can finally say that the picture is better than what I started with. I got rid of the blue that has been bleeding on 4:3 black bars since day one and fixed what I messed up. Problem is that I still can't fully get blue to stop bleeding. This, however, has always been an issue. I think the blue is poorly focused, but am way too chicked to pop that speaker grille off and started twisting knobs. What's the best way to work on the blue? I think I've heard people recommend credits, but how do I get credits in the corners where the problem is the worst?



I don't think you'll ever get blue to entirely quit bleeding... especially if you are looking for it. I think that is just the nature of the beast (rptv) but I could be wrong. That is not saying it can't be tamed somewhat.

In think in my tweaking the mechanical focus I have probably gotten it back to where it was. The compromise that I have made on the green is probably the same one some panny factory worker made. I could get a sharper pic but I couldn't live with the right hand corner problem (any writing or graphics there would be blurred and coveregence couldn't correct it). Splitting the difference has been a PITA to find a happy medium. Lots of second guessing. I think I am calling it 'done' at this point. Red and blue are easy to deal with and there was some leeway but not green. I expected blue to be the tougher one. Not that I think I have my blue perfect but it is easier to move it back and forth and reasonably repeat the positioning/focus in comparing "Good, Better, Best"

Anyway, as Voyager said, focusing has an effect all around the screen so you have to strike a balance and pay attention to the sides. Your blue could be a bit unbalanced. That said, when you change focus you have to redo convergence (at least for the color you change). You might want to make sure your blue is done as well as possible in your convergence (constantly compare it to your red, and your red to green. As a rule I wouldn't change the green unless there is an obvious problem since it should be your baseline grid) and also make sure your color, brightness, contrast isn't so high that it is exaggerating the 'problem'... or that you aren't being extra picky just looking for something that in the end you could live with.

As for something with a lot of text.... Do you have a DVD with the THX Visual Optimization test on it? The instructions for each test are 'wordy' and use a lot of screen.

-AKH

I tweaked my fine convergence for a couple of hours last week, I used a couple of different methods.

First I used the built in grid (the one with small squares) and tweaked away happily. A couple of observations:
Its much easier to do if you press the key that makes it show the data values, I can't remember which key it is though, I'll post later when I find it again.
The method I used was to first move far left or right so that the colour I was adjusting was fairly mis-converged, then you can fine tune the up/down adjustment to line up the best. Then note the "Y" value. Move left/right to get roughly back to centred, then move up to be fairly mis-converged (remember to note the "Y" value) then fine tune the "X" value to be inline. Then set Y back to the value you noted earlier.

Its very time consuming but it seems to do a good job of getting things nicely converged.

The outer edges are extremely frustrating. Don't forget that to affect the outer most parts, you have to go up to the convergence points that are beyond the viewable area (the cursor jumps back and forth when in this mode), grapsing the concept of these "virtual" points beyond the viewable area helped me to visualize what I was doing better and I got it down to a science.

Sometimes it was impossible to get satisfaction due to the red and blue "smudginess" on the outer edges. I wasn't comfortable messing with the colour settings as I have no "method" to refer to and I expect that blindly changing things will result in poorer results. Does anyone have an actual method for knowing what they are doing with colour adjusts?

Also, the next night, I went back and did it all again. Instead of using the built in grid, I set it to display just the points, and then pressed 5 to display the source picture. I used the convergence grid from DVE in the background, so could see how the TV compared to a grid played from a DVD source.

Also, from what I can see, the convergence is a global thing, i.e. there are no different settings from input to input. This statement is based on the fact that the one area I couldn't "optimize" well (bottom right) is noticeable in all three of my inputs (TV, Component 1 and Svideo1).

I still have more tweaking to do, but am waiting until my 100 hour break-in period is past.

So that's what the jumping cursor means. Wow, that will be helpful cause I do have my worst bleeding in the very top left and right corners. Which DVE screen is the convergence grid? Is it labled as such? I don't remember seeing it.

A little follow up on my post about the xbox being cut off. I could see some bad blue bleeding in Halo 2, but I couldn't do convergence in progressive for whatever reason. So, I set it back to interlaced and all the sudden the whole picture was in frame. Set it back to progressive and corners pushed just off screen.

Thanks for your help guys. And, just for peace of mind everyone does get the auto offset thing after exiting convergence?

Drew224,the Halo 2 issue of screen cut off is a bug or something.Someone said thats what MS said.I read that a fix is to come out for it,beats me.I haven't seen the problem with mine running component in 16x9.I thought it had to do with the overscan on some TV's being too much.I read the ideal is 2.5% or 5%,but you don't want it too low or you will see stuff on the edge of the screen.

Here is a little tip.I am not exactly sure if it works this way.When you do adjustments in the service menu,DON'T SAVE.Exit out of the service menu and check how the set looks.If you don't like how it turned out.Press power and action simulataneously on the TV and its suppose to revert back to the way it was.Now,I am not postive on that.I don't know if it still holds your settings when you jump out of the service menu without saving.Someone told me that but I wouldn't necessarily take his word for it.This way you can get a handle on things and familiarize yourself before making final adjustments and saving.

Originally posted by Drew224


Thanks for your help guys. And, just for peace of mind everyone does get the auto offset thing after exiting convergence?

Mine does 'Auto Offset' just as you mention.

-AKH

Mine did the auto-convergence once (possibly only after I used the coarse convergence, but it certainly doesn;t do the auto after just adjusting fine and exiting service menu.

The DVE grid I used was Title 12 Chapter 20

Originally posted by Ripper64
Here is a little tip.I am not exactly sure if it works this way.When you do adjustments in the service menu,DON'T SAVE.Exit out of the service menu and check how the set looks.If you don't like how it turned out.Press power and action simulataneously on the TV and its suppose to revert back to the way it was.

And alternatively, you can hit 5 on the remote and it'll show whatever's on TV behind your current convergence grid.

Originally posted by 1canuck2
Mine did the auto-convergence once (possibly only after I used the coarse convergence, but it certainly doesn;t do the auto after just adjusting fine and exiting service menu.

The DVE grid I used was Title 12 Chapter 20
After setting it the way you like it what steps do you take to save and exit the fine convergence?

Button 7 brings up the prompt to save, press Action to confirm
Then press Power, Action to Exit.

Remember, you can press seven, action to save multiple times as you tweak things. That way, if you make a "big" mistake, you can exit without saving.

Well that is exactly how I exit and it does the auto offset every time. And that saving frequently is good advice. I'll remember that next time I'm doing a fine convergence and there will be a next time. I had to stop doing the DVE screen cause it was making my brain hurt, but I'll be back at it tonight.

On the xbox again. I noticed that I'm actually playing stretched. When I have it in interlaced I believe it is actually doing 16:9. Except that in multiplayer it is definitely doing 16:9 cause it has a vertical split instead of a horizontal split. I think I'm going to take some pictures later tonight so that I can confirm my suspicions cause there are way to many steps between interlaced and progressive. I don't know if any of that made sense so I'll post those pictures later to illustrate what I'm saying.

Originally posted by Marc Alexander
Probably check out an Xbox forum. Sounds like a bug with your Xbox and MK. I have noticed anything cutoff on a Hitachi 57S500 with MK and Xbox set for 16x9.

edit: I have NOT noticed anything cutoff on a Hitachi 57S500 with MK and Xbox set for 16x9.
Are you playing in progressive when you have it set to 16:9?

A little update on progressive Halo 2. They put out a fix today for the HUD it is now completely in screen. The only way to get the update, however, is throught an auto update on Xbox Live. So, if you don't have it use your trial. Or find a friend with it and put their live account on your xbox and log in and it will ask you if you want to download it.

I need help in reduce the overscan rate. I use the "h-cen" and "h-wid" to adjust in horizon. But I can not find any easy adjust in vertical. Is there any setting that I can use to reduce vertical overscan rate?

Geekrule:

When adjusting overscan can you hit 5 to see how it affects your picture?


Also, do you need to hit 7 and save the settings after every adjustment in service mode or is that just for convergance?

Matt

Hey,

I was wondering what settings people have for their X54, I did the DVE calibration and my brightness setting is higher than I expected. Here's the numbers:
Pic Mode: Cinema (Duh)
Color: 20
Tint: 24
Brightness: 44
Picture: 10
Sharpness: 0

Also, in the "Other Adj" I have:
Color Temp: Normal
Natural Color: Off
Video NR: Off
3d Y/C Filter: Off
VM: Off
MPEG NR: Off

Curious to know what other peeps have...

I have a couple questions about my 47X54.

- I have a non-progressive scan DVD player (Toshiba SD-2200) from 4 years ago. What resolution is it displaying on my TV, 540p or 1080i?

- when I discovered my player had a 16x9 mode (4:3 was default) I switched it to that and the picture quality was much better (less interlacing, etc.), but the image appears squished horizontally. I notice it the most when viewing cars on screen. The proportions are wrong. Is this an inherent geometry problem with this TV, or is it my DVD player causing this? Can this be corrected by an ISF calibration?

- What is "overscan" and what are the visible symptoms?

Thanks.

Originally posted by Jason Kelly
I have a couple questions about my 47X54.

- I have a non-progressive scan DVD player (Toshiba SD-2200) from 4 years ago. What resolution is it displaying on my TV, 540p or 1080i?

- when I discovered my player had a 16x9 mode (4:3 was default) I switched it to that and the picture quality was much better (less interlacing, etc.), but the image appears squished horizontally. I notice it the most when viewing cars on screen. The proportions are wrong. Is this an inherent geometry problem with this TV, or is it my DVD player causing this? Can this be corrected by an ISF calibration?

Geometry problems can be fixed with calibration.



- What is "overscan" and what are the visible symptoms?

Thanks.

Some of the DVD calibration DVD's will produce a graphic on the TV showing you a rectangle and a graph which lets you see the amount of overscan your TV is displaying as well as any vertical or horizontal positioning issues you might have.

As for casual viewing... watch for graphics at the corners and top/bottom of the screen. If any of these appear to be getting cut off then it would appear your TV's overscan needs adjusted. Sports programming is good for this. I'm sure broadcasters allow some margin of error so I wouldn't expect every graphic to be cutoff unless your overscan is really way off.


-AKH

1canuck2,

I just received my 53x54 on Monday and I've spent a lot of time tweaking the settings. Unfortunately, I don't have DVE or Avia, so I've been using Star Wars: Episode I disc (with the THX calibration) to "fine tune" the TV and my settings look quite different ;)

Color: 28
Tint: 32
Brightness: 34
Picture: 34
Sharpness: 28

I know they're probably way off, but I'm new at this... :) With these settings, I found that HDTV and my DVDs look pretty good, but SD looks a bit red and fuzzy. I think I'll try your settings tonight and see if there's much of a difference.

Also, I noticed for the "Other Adj" settings, you have most of them turned "off". Does it make much of a difference? :confused: I have them all "on" based on the description in the (sparse) manual.

Originally posted by Surly
1canuck2,

I just received my 53x54 on Monday and I've spent a lot of time tweaking the settings. Unfortunately, I don't have DVE or Avia, so I've been using Star Wars: Episode I disc (with the THX calibration) to "fine tune" the TV and my settings look quite different ;)

Color: 28
Tint: 32
Brightness: 34
Picture: 34
Sharpness: 28

I know they're probably way off, but I'm new at this... :) With these settings, I found that HDTV and my DVDs look pretty good, but SD looks a bit red and fuzzy. I think I'll try your settings tonight and see if there's much of a difference.

Also, I noticed for the "Other Adj" settings, you have most of them turned "off". Does it make much of a difference? :confused: I have them all "on" based on the description in the (sparse) manual.

My settings are more like your's. I think maybe my color is 29 or 30. Tint is right around center as well. Pretty sure Brightness and Contrast are exactly 34.

I have the edge enhancement OFF on the other adjustments menu. I've played with the MPEG filter, noise reduction, and natural color. Right now they are off. I'm not sure I ever saw a difference with natural color.

I've had the MPEG filter on and off. Not sure if it helps or hurts anything so for now it is off.

-AKH

Originally posted by akh
My settings are more like your's. I think maybe my color is 29 or 30. Tint is right around center as well. Pretty sure Brightness and Contrast are exactly 34.

-AKH

Have you noticed if your Sharpness setting has made much of a difference to the picture quality?

I've had mine high (40) and low (10) and I didn't notice a difference (even using the THX test). Maybe it's a little more difficult to notice on a 53" TV (?).

Originally posted by Jason Kelly
I have a couple questions about my 47X54.

- I have a non-progressive scan DVD player (Toshiba SD-2200) from 4 years ago. What resolution is it displaying on my TV, 540p or 1080i?

I believe it is doubling the 480i input to 480p. See post 227 on the Panny x54 thread.

[/i] - when I discovered my player had a 16x9 mode (4:3 was default) I switched it to that and the picture quality was much better (less interlacing, etc.), but the image appears squished horizontally. I notice it the most when viewing cars on screen. The proportions are wrong. Is this an inherent geometry problem with this TV, or is it my DVD player causing this? Can this be corrected by an ISF calibration?

What Aspect ratio are you using? Zoom, Full, or Just? I found that I have to the change Aspect ration depending on the format of the picture, 4:3 - I use Just, Anamorphic, I use full, and for some "widescreen" DVD's I use Zoom. Whatever format the latter is it fills the screen without cutting off any material.

With DVE as my calibration reference. My settings are

Color 24
Tint 23
Brightness 29
Picture 24
Sharpness 13

The sharpness was hard to see on DVE. I couldn't see any ringing with it full blast or anywhere inbetween. So, I just left it down.

Hmmm, mny brightness/picture seems way off of the others who have posted so far. I know the point is that the settings are specific to each TV, I just didn't expect mine to be so "polar" compared to everyone else.

Also, WRT Sharpness, I essentially turned it all the way down based on the statements on DVE that most TVs can go low enough. I noticed some ringing on full blast, but didn't notice much difference between the 0 - 20 setting range, so left it low.

Anyone have any of their "Other Adj" settings On and care to jump in with the benefits of one being on versus off? I figured (in an uninformed way) that they are all in some way manipulating the picture artifically to try and make it look better, and assumed that adjustments of this nature, like other such "features" in the HT world, are probably more detrimental than good (Vivid vs Cinema, overly sharp images, red push, etc...) Not scientific/informed reasoning, just gut feel. I'd be interested to know if any of them are truly considered beneficial (and in what way). I don't actually notice much of a diff with them on vs. off, so simply decided to leave them off.

Originally posted by SteroMAdMAn
With DVE as my calibration reference. My settings are

Color 24
Tint 23
Brightness 29
Picture 24
Sharpness 13

The sharpness was hard to see on DVE. I couldn't see any ringing with it full blast or anywhere inbetween. So, I just left it down.

Thanks, SteroMAdMAn... your settings actually helped me out :D I still find the SD to be very fuzzy.

Can anyone suggest any tips on improving the SD picture? The HD and DVD look brilliant.
Would the service level convergence mentioned in this thread help? Or do I need to call someone in? Right now I have the SD signal up converted to 480p on the STB (which I think the Panny up converts to 540) and I have it stretched,

Thanks for the comments so far... they've been very helpful:)

Surly,

SD is not going to look good no matter what you do. A Service Menu convergence might help in the tiniest of ways if your convergence is way off (but then you'd see that in HD and DVD playback as well).

Simply put, large screen 16x9 aspect ratio HD TVs will suck at Standard Def, you basically need to accept it and move on. It was my biggest reason for waiting over two years to buy a big screen HDTV, I hated the quality of SD, but I got over it, cos the big screen is nice and DVD quality is the bomb. As HD gets more prevalent it will be a non-issue anyway.

Console yourself with the fact that by buying a rear projection CRT, you have the "least bad" SD quality picture of any large screen, and the X54 is an exceptionally good rear proj CRT. Have you seen SD on a DLP/LCD/Gas Plasma? Its noticeably worse than what you'll get with your X54. Perhaps it will make you feel happier about the quality if you go see what quality you'd get in SD for a TV costing two to three times what you paid - its way worse!

Surly,
If your using component cables or a S-VHS cable to connect your STB, you are relying on the STB's comb filter and line doubler to make the best picture possible from a limited SD source.

The X54's (and other brands) filter and doubler? only work from the antenna/cable and composite inputs. The quality of the SD signal processing from this set will almost certainly be superior to that of the STB.

I haven't had this problem personally, but I recall someone else posting a similar complaint and recommending that by "downgrading" the connection of his STB to a regular composite cable and setting the STB to 480i he got better SD results. As strange as that might seem. If you try, make sure the 3d Y/C Filter is on for that input, turning VM (velocity modulation) off in general is a good idea too.

If your non HD digital channels(usually above200) look OK, but your analog channels are the ones that look bad, you could also try splitting the cable between the STB and the cable input of the TV. Then switching to the x54's TV input to watch the analog channels and to the component or S-VHS input to watch HD and digital channels.
Hope that's of some help,
P.

P.S. Have you done (or rechecked) the 9 point manual convergence?
I know that when I first received this set it took some trial and error to get the best convergence possible without going into the service menu. The poor convergence seemed to be most noticeable on the SD channels

Originally posted by 1canuck2
Hey,

I was wondering what settings people have for their X54, I did the DVE calibration and my brightness setting is higher than I expected. Here's the numbers:
Pic Mode: Cinema (Duh)
Color: 20
Tint: 24
Brightness: 44
Picture: 10
Sharpness: 0

Also, in the "Other Adj" I have:
Color Temp: Normal
Natural Color: Off
Video NR: Off
3d Y/C Filter: Off
VM: Off
MPEG NR: Off

Video NR set to ON actually turns it OFF on Panny sets. May want to fix that. The Picture looks really low, but I'm using last years model.
Curious to know what other peeps have...

Thank you for your replies :D

I think I'm going to have to just "accept it" like 1canuck2 said... especially after watching CSI in HD last night ;)

And thanks Idiotcanuck, I haven't tried the manual convergence again, so I'll give that a shot. I found the local channel CP24 a very good reference because of the amount of text that appears on-screen (weather, news ticker, stock ticker, etc.).

Any truth to the Video NR set to ON actually turns it OFF?

Can't say that I've ever heard of this Video NR issue, but it sounds unlikely to me. On/Off seems kind of simple to me, hopefully it's just as simple for the Matsushita corporation.

Surly,
Just curious, have you always used the STB with your X54? If so, you could try just directly connecting the cable to the set to see if there's an improvement in SD quality through the antenna input. Just a thought.
IC.

Here's a link to the thread I was refering to about downgrading
if your interested.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=443562&highlight=downgrading

Can anyone tell me what color is what in fine convergence. Specifically toggling between color grids.

Specifically:
Button one (1) scrolls thru the color combinations. IE RED alone, Red and blue, Blue and green, Blue alone, green-yellow-red, etc).
Pay attention to the onscreen text to note which color you'll be adjusting (ie while you may -SEE- red and blue colors it is only the RED that you'll be changing. To change the BLUE you'll need to press button 1 and cycle thru the options until you see text note 'BLUE' and you'll have either a blue grid or a blue and green grid.


This is kinda confusing. The grids are changing color but I have no idea of what color i'm actually converging.

I need to adjust my blue bad. Its pretty off in the lower left hand corner.

Help me please.

Matt

Originally posted by SteroMAdMAn
Can anyone tell me what color is what in fine convergence. Specifically toggling between color grids.

Specifically:


This is kinda confusing. The grids are changing color but I have no idea of what color i'm actually converging.

I need to adjust my blue bad. Its pretty off in the lower left hand corner.

Help me please.

Matt

When the grids are changing color (via pressing button) there is also text on the screen. The text noted with each button press is the color that you will be changing ('converging'). IOW, you might see a mix of blue and green but the text will say "Blue". The changes you make will be to the blue grid while the green stays fixed.

Or.... you might have a grid that is a combination of red and blue. If the text says "Red" then you will be affecting the red grid while the blue stays unchanged.

-AKH

Thanks AKH. I'll see if I can fix this blue problem.

Also, do you or anyone else now if the red push crack listed on panny.tv works for the X54 series? Listed as:

Register Old Value New Value
COLOR 23 42
B-Y_G 08 2A
R-Y_A 03 00


Thanks

Matt

Originally posted by SteroMAdMAn
Yeah, I was tweaking a little tonight. Nothing in the service menu. However, I did go to the credits in a DVD menu and slow motioned back and forth till the credits were in the far upper left/right corner and far bottom L/R corner. Boy, I forgot where I read and who said that the main white + sign were not always center. But man, were they right.

The red and blue +'s being center on the white(calibration) +'s were not on convergence. Not by great distances mind you, but 2-3 clicks above the white + is what the whole left hand side of my screen needed and 1-2 up on the upper right hand side of my screen needed to be set. Then, there was no bleeding what-so-ever of red or blue in the white text. Atleast to my eyes.

Which unfortunately means the digital or auto convergance isn't entirely accurate. But, I never expected it to be.

So far Kill Bill looked great! Now onto LoTR FoTR which is my best picture reference as to how things should look, having seen it 40+ times:(

I posted that in the regular x54 thread I believe it was.You can't line up the cross hairs perfectly in the regular user convergence screen.You need to bring up a picture with a bunch of text or something that will work all over the screen.The red and blue most likely need to be off center of the main white cross hatch or it won't be converged only in certain areas.Some of the areas will be good perfectly aligned while other spots will not.I have someone coming over friday from where I boought my TV to fix a slight downward bend I have on the bottom left hand side of the screen.You only notice it when there is like a sports bar ticker along the whole bottom.It screws up the convergence in that spot too.

I just recieved my 47x54. I do appreciate all info that has been provided by various users. It was a big help in purchasing my first big-screen.

I tried to calibrate my set with Avia to best of my ability.

I've tested several dvds and notice some issues

Monsters Inc (Region 2, Japan)
- Compression artifacts in the initial bedroom scene. Mostly in the darkest areas of the room.

LOTR-EE (Region 1, USA)
- Some of the dark scenes look fuzzy.

SW Ep II (Region 1, USA)
- Some of the backgrounds are just too bright... especially the those in Jedi Temple

Spider-man 2 (Region 1, Superbit, USA)
- Certain daytime scenes are too bright. Sometimes the chracters faces are lacking detail.


Other dvds like the new Matrix (w/HD transfer), Jurassic Park Superbit and Patriot Superbit look great.

I still don't know if it's just the source material and therefore different settings apply to different dvds (???)

Also, I did the auto covergence, but not done the manual one (yet).... still trying to sort through the instructions in the first couple pages. Is there a covergence guide (strictly for the X54) somewhere on the net? It seems some of the remote commands in the first page do not apply to the X54.

Thanks.

I forgot to add that my screen flickered once during Monster's Inc, and displayed various colors around the chracters. It later corrected itself after 3 secs.

Anyone else notice this?

Check page 4 in this thread.Someone posted the button commands for the service menu adjustments.

Hi. I've had my 47x54 for a week now and have been doing some adjustments on it. I have both the S&V and the Avia disks and I used both to compare the results (I originally bought the S&V because it was cheaper, but decided to get Avia to have more calibration options). My results are:
Color: 23
Tint: 22
Brightness: 35
Picture: 24
Sharpness: 0
Color temperature: Cool
All other settings are set to Off (ie.VM)
Should I be at all concerned about the high Brightness level? It is slightly higher than 50% and is there any danger of aging my tubes prematurely?
So far, I am running the TV with an older Sony interlaced DVD player and it looks very good. Standard definition tv via D*tv varies-some channels look better than others.
I also noticed that on the left side of the screen adn the bottom, I have 4% overscan and on the top 5%, and the right side is the worst at approximately 6%. What is the simpliest way to correct this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Some others have it in around 35 too or higher.I wouldn't worry about it.What do you guys use in pic mode,standard or cinema?.I ude standard.Cinema seems to add a slight tint or brightness I don't like.The JVC RPTV I had.In cinema made the picture looked a little yellow.It was terrible.I notice on the panny its quite not as bad and is better in cinema than the JVC I had.By the way,is it true that Video NR set to "ON" is really off on the X54?.Someone posted that in this thread.

Originally posted by SteroMAdMAn
Thanks AKH. I'll see if I can fix this blue problem.

Also, do you or anyone else now if the red push crack listed on panny.tv works for the X54 series? Listed as:



Thanks

Matt

The old original values on that site didn't match my 47x54. But I just fiddled with those settings till the red push was minimised.

Sorry to be late in responding. I have mine in Cinema mode and Cool temperature. Warm seemed to be slightly red to my liking.. Anyone have an idea for the simplist way to correct an overscan on the top and right sides of the screen? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

Easiest way I have found is do the auto convergence (front panel button). When it asks you to center the lines to the bezel, have the overscan image from DVD etc displayed, and move the image appropriately, ignoring the bezel markings.

Thanks! I'll give it a go tonight.

I want to get the best possible picture quality out of my Panny 47x54 should I hire a Professional Calibrator to come in and do it for me. Since this TV I consider "My Baby" I want to treat her good.



Rob

I followed your instructions using the overscan screen from Avia. It worked like a charm. Although my overscan is 5%, at least it's 5% on all sides. Thanks for the tip.

Hello

Just received the 53x54J a couple of weeks ago, and am having some trouble calibrating it using Avia with the Panasonic S97.

I go through the basic saturation/hue adjustments (blue only), which give the values:
Color: 29
Tint: 30
Standard setting, temp at normal, and all other settings turned off.

Also, Red and green comes in at -5% with blue at 0% on the Avia color scales.


Everything looks good on SD, except that anything yellow on screen is too pronounced. Is it Color/Tint, brightness/picture, or something else that is causing this?

As you can probably tell, I'm a novice at this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance...

That colour & tint setting are nearly identical to mine (I have colour 29, tint 31). And I also see blue at 0, and red and green are between 5 & 10 % lower than optimum.

Maybe you have the contrast or brightness set incorrectly.

I have my contrast at about 23, and my brightness at about 36. Brightness seems to vary with the source I'm using, sometimes, 32 is enough.

Originally posted by Pradeep
Easiest way I have found is do the auto convergence (front panel button). When it asks you to center the lines to the bezel, have the overscan image from DVD etc displayed, and move the image appropriately, ignoring the bezel markings.
Though you're responding to a question about overscan adjustment, your response brought to mind a nagging problem I've had with the auto-convergence when following up with the 9-point convergence (I don't yet have the nerve or know-how to risk a service menu convergence).

Anyway, the nagging problem... after auto-converging, I find that the green lines are a ways off from the notch markings on the set (is that what you're referring to as "bevels"?). It requires about six clicks to the left and six clicks down to align the green lines to the "bevels". After adjusting green to align with the bevels and moving on, I find that the post auto-convergence red and blue on the centered "+" are fairly close, needing only minor adjustments. The 9-point converging requires a good bit more adjusting around the edges.

So, is this green "unalignment" indicative of something wrong with mechanical focus (or other)? Should I align the green with the bevels as directed, or perhaps use the overscan image from DVE instead? The other aspect to this nagging issue is that I cannot get green "correct" using the color/tint settings when viewed through the green filter. Blue and even red are nearly spot-on, but I can't get the green intensities even close to matching.

FWIW, my settings (updated 11/23/05):
Cinema Mode
Color: 29
Tint: 28
Brightness: 35
Picture/Contrast: 14
Sharpness: 0
Color temperature: Warm
All other settings are set to Off

Thanks Rich and Voyager for confirming that my tint/color are not way off in left field.

After playing with the settings, it seems that having the brightness too low causes yellows to be extremely bright.

My settings now almost mirror Voyager's:

Color: 29
Tint: 31
Brightness: 36
Picture: 22

Thanks

I decided to have a go at removing the protective screen on the 47x54 and I'm very pleased with the results. There's basically no glare whatsoever now, and the picture is more vibrant (more like a direct view set).

It's actually fairly simple to do, but time-consuming. The hardest part is removing all the screws. Here are my steps if anyone else wants to try it. Although, use at your own risk.. And anyone who's done it, feel free to correct anything I missed.

1] Remove the top shelf (two screws at the back)
2] Remove two screws at the very bottom of, kind of underneath, the set (need to get down on the floor to see them)
3] Dark Grey grille at the bottom should now come off, remove it
4a] Now, you need to remove the rest of the plastic bottom part. Remove the 3 screws that were previously hidden by the dark grey grille (they're near the bottom)
4b] Remove the screws holding in the particle board attached to the plastic bottom, and this will uncover a third screw underneath the particle board which you need to remove.
5] Remove the screws along the left and right sides of the bottom. Should be three on each side (need to look from the back of the set to see them).
6] Now the light grey plastic bottom should completely come off

7] Now you've exposed the screws holding on the bottom of the screen. Remove those screws (5 or 6 I believe)
8] Remove the screws along the left and right sides of the screen (look from the back) and also the screws holding the top of the screen (two were previously covered by the shelf)

9] Now the screen should pull off (forward), but don't pull it off too far, just enough so that you can set it upright on the ground in front of the TV.
10] There are three sets of wires connected to the screen. There are three white plastic clips that act as "extension cords". Disconnect each of the three (they're easy to re-connect as they're all different sizes).
11] Now set the screen, glass side down on the ground.
12] Remove all the screws around the border of the screen (including those holding on plastic parts and sensors)
13] Now you should be able to lift up the border of the screen and slide out the center part which contains the protective screen (or alternatively, just lift off the border... not sure why I didn't think of that before...)

14] Now, you need to lift out the three layers of the screen which are attached together with tape. They may be stuck to the top of the plastic "container" they're in , but you should be able to pull them out with a bit of effort
15] Now you'll see there's the protective screen, a thin grid-like screen, and a plastic back (in that order)
16] Take the protective screen off the front of the three, and put it at the back so it's against the plastic back. Now the grid-like screen should be at the front. Make sure all the screens are still facing the same direction (i.e. front is facing front still)
17] Place all three screens back in the container they were in (make sure there's no dust in between the three layers beforehand)
18] Slide the container back underneath the border so that the border is back around the edges again (again, alternatively, just set the border back on top :))
19] Put all the screws back in :)

voyager6868,

thanks for the steps

it took me all morning to this because i did not want to screw up, an added bonus besides no more glare is that i have some extra screws leftover...just kidding :)

I'm tempted... but I have cats. Good cats, though the little one sometimes takes an interest in what's happening onscreen, even extending her little paw to take a light swipe every now and again.

How much risk do you think I'd be taking by removing the protective screen? I must say, the less glare/more vivid result is very compelling.

Probably not worth the risk, unless you're sure the cats aren't going to swipe hard enough to damage the screen. If you're able to turn off all the lights in your room, you can get the same effect without removing the screen.

Other Adj. under Picture menu:
I'm using D* and notice an improvement with text (using a paused imaged from DTivo) when using the MPEG NR feature. Anyone else notice this? I ask because most people are keeping this setting off.

Also, can anyone comment on the "image shift" setting? How exactly does this work?

Lastly, nobody finds any use with the 3D Y/C filter? I'm trying to understand why this wouldn't be helpful.

Thanks everyone and happy holidays!

3DYC is only useful if you're using the coaxial cable input or the composite input. I think a lot of us use component inputs only, and so it's not much use.

If you do use those other inputs, you should definitely turn on the 3DYC.

Does anyone know how to change the Picture settings back to the default settings?

Originally posted by guy1nj
Does anyone know how to change the Picture settings back to the default settings?

When you are in the picture settings menu at the bottom there is an entry that says "Normal" and the option across from it says "no" (if you've made changes). Just change that entry from 'no' and it resets to the factory settings.

I'm not looking at the menu but that is how I recall the settings. It is easy to change back to default.

-AKH

So the screen IS removable, then? I contacted a rep at Panasonic and they told me that the screen is not removable whatsoever. Liars!

Thanks for these steps. When watching movies, I turn off all the lights so I probably don't need to remove the screen if it's not distorting color.

The 53tw54 has an anti glare screen.It has a very noticeable difference compared to a regular screen.

Recently purchased the PT-53x54...1st RPTV so unsure of inherent picture "limitations" with this technology.

Here's my problem:

The bottom 6-8 inches of the screen (and to some extent at the top but not as bad) has a distortion that seems to compress the image just before it scrolls off the screen. Most noticable when camera zooms in on an image or when watching the credits at the end of a movie. The "distortion" is across the entire width of the screen and is present during all aspect ratios and input ranges/sources. No amount of convergence tweaking has any affect.

I have looked at same model (and others from various manufacturers) and have not seen the same "problem".

Is this a geometry problem that can be corrected through the service menu or do I have a bad set?

Not comfortable doing my own service menu adjustments and the set is under a 3 year maintenance agreement.

Just curious if anyone has seen a similiar problem...the Panny has a great picture otherwise but cannot live with this distortion.

Thanks....BTW, this forum is great for us newbies.

patsrush

I have the 47x54 and in the 8 weeks I have had it I have not experienced this problem. It is my 1st RPTV also. I would consider calling Panasonic for service. Maybe it was shaken up during delivery.

Patrush,

Have you tried running either auto-convergence (button on the front of the TV) or 9 point manual convergence (in setup menu - > convergence)?

That probably will help a lot.

Actually I don't think any amount of convergence will help. I would be asking for a replacement set, or asking to have a technician come out ASAP.

This is very similar to what I got using the Avia disk. Should I be worried that my TV requires a brightness of 45 in a dark room? Am I in for long-term problems, and should I be asking for a replacement set while I'm still in my 30-day window?










Originally posted by 1canuck2
Hey,

I was wondering what settings people have for their X54, I did the DVE calibration and my brightness setting is higher than I expected. Here's the numbers:
Pic Mode: Cinema (Duh)
Color: 20
Tint: 24
Brightness: 44
Picture: 10
Sharpness: 0

Also, in the "Other Adj" I have:
Color Temp: Normal
Natural Color: Off
Video NR: Off
3d Y/C Filter: Off
VM: Off
MPEG NR: Off

Curious to know what other peeps have...

I am looking for some advice about if I hooked up my Panny correctly because I have read this thread about a hundred times and the manual another fifty times and am still somewhat confused if I got this close.

DVD to PANNY HD - GRB Component Video / Optical Audio thru receiver

DTV HD Receiver to Panny TV - GRB Component Video / Optical Audio thru receiver (for HD channels)

DTV HD Receiver to Panny TV - Y Composite Video / R-W Composite Audio (for SD channels)

DTV HD Receiver to VCR to Panny TV - Y Composite Video / R-W Composite Audio

Here is my reasoning... When I use the component hookup for SD channels, the picture is not as good as the composite hookup. However, I can get the HD channels in 1080i resolution with the component hookup and they are awesome. Therefore, I connected both so I have an option based upon which I am watching (SD vs. HD). I would guess as more HD channels become available, I would no longer need the composite hookup.

When I am using the HD Component hookup, should I be using the 1080i resolution? When I use the SD Composite hookup, should I be using the 480i resolution? The only option to use the "Just" aspect is when I use the 480i on the composite hookup and that seems to give the best overall viewing picture for SD stations.

By the way, here are my settings:

Standard
Color 29
Tint 31
Brightness 36
Picture 23
Sharpness 0
Color Temp - Warm
Natural Color - On
Video NR - On
VM - On
MPEG NR - On

Can somebody explain any advantages to Video NR, VM, and MPEG NR being ON versus OFF. I have noticed many have these turned off but I guess even after reading the manual, I just don't understand what these do.

Thanks in advance for any advice and guidance.

Haven't hooked it up yet, but is there a way to tell how many hours the unit has been on?

I'm curious to see if this was a demo model somewhere or used.

If there is, how many hours does it normally leave the factory with (if any).

Natural Color - On
Video NR - On
VM - On
MPEG NR - On

Can somebody explain any advantages to Video NR, VM, and MPEG NR being ON versus OFF.

For HD sources, you should definitely have all of those OFF. And most should be off for SD.

* Natural colour makes the colour less accurate by emphasizing flesh tones. I would always have this off (for SD or HD) if you want an accurate picture
* Video NR is useful for analog SD channels that aren't coming in perfectly clear. It gets rid of the static on the channel.
* VM makes the edges of things stand out more. It *may* be useful for really low resolution SD stuff, but I would always turn it OFF.
* MPEG NR - This can be useful for SD digital channels with compression artifacts--it'll reduce those artifacts. For HD though, you should have it OFF.

jlseagull and 1canuck2:

When I calibrated with AVIA, I also have brightness set to 44/45.

Standard
Color 23
Tint 24
Brightness 45
Picture 22
Sharpness 30
Color Temp - Normal
Natural Color - Off
Video NR - Off
VM - Off
MPEG NR - Off

I also got a brightness in that range when I used the THX video configuration on the finding NEMO CD.

Is brightness that high dangerous in the long run?

Originally posted by lexluthor
Is brightness that high dangerous in the long run?
Any experts care to help? It seems like there are quite a few of us who have used AVIA or DVE and end up having to have brightness set at ~45.

Will this end up causing premature death for our TVs, and should we be asking for replacement units?

Originally posted by jlseagull
Any experts care to help? It seems like there are quite a few of us who have used AVIA or DVE and end up having to have brightness set at ~45.

Will this end up causing premature death for our TVs, and should we be asking for replacement units?

I'm not an expert but I don't see the problem. The 'highness' of your setting is just a number. If the actual viewing level is not overly bright then I don't see what the level of the number has to do with anything. And if the setup disc is showing you that this is the 'proper' level for brightness then you obviously aren't running the TV in 'torch mode'.

If you've seen Spinal Tap this debate reminds me of Nigel's Marshall amps that go to 11! ;)

-AKH

I'm watching a music DVD in VIVID mode.
hehehehe. Love it. I know I should not... but I bought this TV so I can enjoy it. My regular mode is in CINEMA.

Originally posted by FireDragon064
I'm watching a music DVD in VIVID mode.
hehehehe. Love it. I know I should not... but I bought this TV so I can enjoy it. My regular mode is in CINEMA.
Which mode did you calibrate your set in?
That's the only thing that makes a difference. Me, I never switched over to "standard" before hand so I'm calibrated in "vivid" mode.

Also, my brightness is somewhere around 32, which was a compromise between the two different test patterns using the original VE. I adjusted for darker rather than lighter.

Just FYI.

I asked about the high brightness setting on the HTF forum and they didn't think it would be a problem and it would not cause long term damage to the set.

I have a PT-53TW53, which is last year's model, so it might not be totally be appropriate to this thread. I started fooling around with my Service Menu values, and obviously, I forgot to jot some of them down :(

I did see some post about default values for the color decoder applying to the x54 series(RYB and RYA, i might be remembering the initials wrong, but I'm sure u guys know what i'm talking about).

Does anybody have the default values for the color decoder for the x53 series by any chance?

thanks!

I had a little more time to adjust my set yesterday.
As everyone knows, this RPTV has hash marks which are used to line up the image.

However, when I adjusted for overscan using the still image from VE, I was off the hash marks by these measurements:
Horizontal - 1/2"
Vertical - 1/4"

Is it normal to be off by so much?

I noticed this variance every time I tried to set the convergence on this set, at first I have to admit I was a little concerned by it also. My understanding is that this is attributable to the Image Shift feature which is supposed to move the image slightly, in both axes, over time to minimize burn in.
At least that's how it was explained to me.

I haven't adjusted for overscan myself, but I would think that to get proper results you would probably need to line up the hash marks first in the 9 point convergence, exit, then turn the Image Shift feature off for the duration of the overscan adjustment.

I have the PT-53x54(J).

I've been trying to tweak my SD picture quality over the last day. I have an SA8300HD cable box. SD over HDMI is aweful. The colors are all red. I thought that's as good as it was going to get.

Yesterday, I hooked up an S-Video connection and SD was actually pretty decent. I tried via component and that was the same (bad) as HDMI. I didn't try composite, but figured S-Video would probably be better or at least real close.

Since the SA8300HD outputs from all at once, it's not a big deal for me to switch TV inputs when I want to watch SD vs HD.

I saw in the SA8300 thread here that someone said they set their box to output 480p instead of 480i and PQ was better over HDMI (not with this set).

I tried that, but I can't get the set to display a full screen picture with a 480p input over HDMI or Component. Is that not possible? The manual does indicate that JUST mode isn't available at 480p, but FULL is still there, but it displays the picture with gray left and right bars. When I send a 480p signal through the S-video input, FULL mode does indeed display the picture in Full screen. I do get a full picture with 480i over HDMI as well.

Can anyone try and see if you can get the picture to display full screen with a 480p signal over HDMI or Component or did I miss something in the manual/features where it says this isn't available?

Thanks.

Hello All!

Just signed up for the forum after reading a vast amount of valuable knowledge regarding HD, HDTV's and other great stuff. I received my Panny 53WX54 last Tuesday and my SA 8000HD PVR box on Wed. I am in heaven! I can't believe that the picture quality can be improved so much more but am looking forward to 'tweaking' my setup.

I'm just getting ready to do the service menu calibrations but am wondering if anyone thinks that this TV should be left alone until I have more hours on it. I'm doubt I've even cracked 10 hrs yet...

I've read that many people are waiting until the magic 100 hrs mark. Is this something I should wait for or just a time that I'll have to redo everything. My understanding is that the guns need to 'burn-in' first. Is doing the calibrations this early a bad thing?

Bear in mind that I'm quite technically capable but am VERY new to RPTV's / HDTV.

Originally posted by lexluthor
I have the PT-53x54(J).

I've been trying to tweak my SD picture quality over the last day. I have an SA8300HD cable box. SD over HDMI is aweful. The colors are all red. I thought that's as good as it was going to get.

Yesterday, I hooked up an S-Video connection and SD was actually pretty decent. I tried via component and that was the same (bad) as HDMI. I didn't try composite, but figured S-Video would probably be better or at least real close.

Since the SA8300HD outputs from all at once, it's not a big deal for me to switch TV inputs when I want to watch SD vs HD.

I saw in the SA8300 thread here that someone said they set their box to output 480p instead of 480i and PQ was better over HDMI (not with this set).

I tried that, but I can't get the set to display a full screen picture with a 480p input over HDMI or Component. Is that not possible? The manual does indicate that JUST mode isn't available at 480p, but FULL is still there, but it displays the picture with gray left and right bars. When I send a 480p signal through the S-video input, FULL mode does indeed display the picture in Full screen. I do get a full picture with 480i over HDMI as well.

Can anyone try and see if you can get the picture to display full screen with a 480p signal over HDMI or Component or did I miss something in the manual/features where it says this isn't available?

Thanks.

Lexluthor,

I've been reading about this particular issue a lot on another forum. Many people are saying that SD PQ is better through S-Video (not so much with composite). The common practice is to use a combination of PIP, Swap and Video 1 switching when viewing SD vs. HD.

For SD, use your Video 1 connection on the TV with S-Video and set the SA box to output 480p. This will allow you to use the JUST aspect mode and give you the best possible PQ in SD for you STB.

If you want a link to the thread that mentions this info in more detail let me know. I'm not sure how people feel here about posting links to threads in other forums...

I just connected my HTPC to my Panasonic PT-53X54 CRT. The only resolution that works for me is 720x480@60. I tried 856x480@60 and 960x540@60, but both were jumpy with a lot of overscan. I even tried 800x600@60 and 640x480@60 and these completely garbled the text (I'm assuming I need these resolutions for a lot of games too).

I'm using a 5700LE w/67.02 beta drivers and have treat display as HDTV selected. Working with a DVI to HDMI connection.

I need help with PC resolutions!!!!

Originally posted by Idiotcanuck
I noticed this variance every time I tried to set the convergence on this set, at first I have to admit I was a little concerned by it also. My understanding is that this is attributable to the Image Shift feature which is supposed to move the image slightly, in both axes, over time to minimize burn in.
At least that's how it was explained to me.

I haven't adjusted for overscan myself, but I would think that to get proper results you would probably need to line up the hash marks first in the 9 point convergence, exit, then turn the Image Shift feature off for the duration of the overscan adjustment.
Good point! I noticed that featured was on last night when going through the menus again. I'll try turning it off for the entire convergence and test pattern.

Originally posted by video321
I just connected my HTPC to my Panasonic PT-53X54 CRT. The only resolution that works for me is 720x480@60. I tried 856x480@60 and 960x540@60, but both were jumpy with a lot of overscan. I even tried 800x600@60 and 640x480@60 and these completely garbled the text (I'm assuming I need these resolutions for a lot of games too).

I'm using a 5700LE w/67.02 beta drivers and have treat display as HDTV selected. Working with a DVI to HDMI connection.

I need help with PC resolutions!!!!

Being a computer tech I'm certainly willing to try and help. Of course I'm still very new to the RPTV/HDTV world.

Have you tried to plug you HTPC to a standard direct view 4:3 set using composite or S-Video cables?

The fact the 720x480 works seems to me to be because the TV only supports 480i/480p/540p/1080i. I'm surprised that 640x480 is garbled as that's a pretty standard res. and most STB's output recorded analogue SD stuff at that res.

Have you by any chance tried a true widescreen resolution like 1920 x 1080?

I'm just throwing out ideas here. Let me know if I'm off base...

Thanks for the help!
I'm also a network/PC tech, but new to HTPCs too.
As of now, no resolutions will actually work except 720x480@60.

I'm gonna try to connect an S-Video cable and see what I get.

Originally posted by video321
Thanks for the help!
I'm also a network/PC tech, but new to HTPCs too.
As of now, no resolutions will actually work except 720x480@60.

I'm gonna try to connect an S-Video cable and see what I get.

I just realized another possible issue...

The DVI connection on the TV uses HDCP. Your PC probably isn't sending that part of the signal and therefore the TV doesn't like it. You'll probably have more luck with S-Video, Composite or Component (if you have a breakout box for the video card).

Good luck!

Well, I tried S-Video and had better results. I was able to dialin 720x480 with no overscan using the driver properties. Similar results for 640x480 and 800x600. However, 1776x1000 and 1920x1080 displayed with tremendous amounts of overscan, but did sync pretty well.

I really gotta get this DVI connection working!

Originally posted by SC_Sixx
For SD, use your Video 1 connection on the TV with S-Video and set the SA box to output 480p. This will allow you to use the JUST aspect mode and give you the best possible PQ in SD for you STB.

If you want a link to the thread that mentions this info in more detail let me know. I'm not sure how people feel here about posting links to threads in other forums... [/B]

Yes, I'd very much like that link. I can't see it being a problem posting it here.

Also, 480i through S-video is pretty decent. If I do 480p, I can't get full screen when through HDMI, so if my wife or kids use the set and can't figure out or remember that they should switch to video 1 for SD, 480p gives them a letterbox. I'd just as well go with 480i and be able to have someone view through HDMI, just at the bad quality. It's better than being letterboxed if someone is too lazy or doesn't know to switch to video 1.

Still though, can anyone confirm that with 480p over HDMI/Component that you can't get full screen SD content? If I could do than and the PQ was better than 480i over HDMI (I don't know if it's true or not), I'd just leave it on HDMI all the time.

Also, what did you mean by using a combo of PIP, Swap and Video 1? You mean to discern which PQ is better or as an easy way to switch between modes?

Originally posted by lexluthor


Still though, can anyone confirm that with 480p over HDMI/Component that you can't get full screen SD content? If I could do than and the PQ was better than 480i over HDMI (I don't know if it's true or not), I'd just leave it on HDMI all the time.


I can set my STB (Hughes HD) to output 480P into the component inputs and I will have a filled screen. No letterboxing. The only reason I don't is because the Hughes will not let me adjust aspect ratio in 480P (no panorama mode) and the set won't do a 'Just' aspect ratio with a 480P input. It will do -zoom-

I have a DVI to HDMI cable ordered but it hasn't arrived yet (and won't until these flood waters go down and the road reopens :( ) so I can't speak to what happens with the HDMI signal.

Is your STB set for a 16x9 screen?

-AKH

Originally posted by akh

Is your STB set for a 16x9 screen?

-AKH
Yes, I'm sure of that since 480p over S-Video gives me a full screen and 480i over HDMI gives me a full screen, just not 480p over HDMI or Component.

The set doesn't do JUST at 480p, but it does do FULL. Why wouldn't you just use FULL over Zoom at 480p?

EDIT: I figured it out. I had to select 480p standard in the STB, not 480p Widescreen. Don't know why I didn't notice that before since 480i is standard.

Anyhow, SD at 480p over HDMI isn't any better than 480i over HDMI, so clearly, on my TV, SD is far and away best over S-video, so I'll just use the video source button to change inputs when I switch between SD and HD. Even if 480p was better, I lose JUST mode (smart stretch-not supported at 480p) and have to use FULL mode, so not sure that would have been worth it anyhow. SD is near unbearable over HDMI, so this is a fine solution for me.

Originally posted by lexluthor
I have the PT-53x54(J).

I've been trying to tweak my SD picture quality over the last day. I have an SA8300HD cable box. SD over HDMI is aweful. The colors are all red. I thought that's as good as it was going to get.

Yesterday, I hooked up an S-Video connection and SD was actually pretty decent. I tried via component and that was the same (bad) as HDMI. I didn't try composite, but figured S-Video would probably be better or at least real close.

Since the SA8300HD outputs from all at once, it's not a big deal for me to switch TV inputs when I want to watch SD vs HD.

I saw in the SA8300 thread here that someone said they set their box to output 480p instead of 480i and PQ was better over HDMI (not with this set).

I tried that, but I can't get the set to display a full screen picture with a 480p input over HDMI or Component. Is that not possible? The manual does indicate that JUST mode isn't available at 480p, but FULL is still there, but it displays the picture with gray left and right bars. When I send a 480p signal through the S-video input, FULL mode does indeed display the picture in Full screen. I do get a full picture with 480i over HDMI as well.

Can anyone try and see if you can get the picture to display full screen with a 480p signal over HDMI or Component or did I miss something in the manual/features where it says this isn't available?

Thanks.

I found that video via coax was better than s-video, and composite better than coax. This was done by recommendation from one of the other posts about the Pan 53x54...I think this thread or from the 53x54 Tweaks Thread. I think that the explanation was something about letting the TV do the upconverting instead of the STB...or something along those lines.

I'm using a SD DirecTivo. If you have a spare Coax or Composite cable, you may want to give it a try.

For those with cable boxes whose analog channels look nasty compared to the digitals, you might want to put a splitter BEFORE the cable box and send the coax directly to the TV and use the cable tuner built into the TV (while sending the other side into the cable box).

Your cable box will still get everything as before and be available on the regular outputs BUT you will also have your non-digital cable channels via the tuner in the TV. This tends to look better than the upconverting that is going on in the cable box many times.

-AKH

There are a few reasons that SD doesn't look as good over component (i.e. the reds are too red). And it's possible to "correct" this, so that SD looks much better over component.

The main reason is that, if you check your video settings, you'll noticed that the color matrix is set to "HD".

A few points:

1] When receiving 1080i, the set is ALWAYS in HD color matrix
2] The set will ONLY change the color matrix when you switch inputs on the set (i.e. switch to input 2 and then back to input 1).

So, if you want to see SD better over component you have to do two things:

- Make your set-top box output 480i or 480p for SD channels.
- Whenever you switch your box between HD (1080i) and SD (480i) channels, you have to briefly switch to another input, and then back to the input you were viewing, so that the set will change the color matrix to the appropriate one.

For example, if you start off by turning on your set and watching an SD channel, and then switch to an HD channel, you'll notice that the colours are washed out UNLESS, after switching to the HD channel, you briefly go to another input on the TV and then back to the input you were viewing.

Vice versa for starting on an HD and switching to an SD.

But remember, your set-top box MUST output 480i for the SD channels, because 1080i is ALWAYS in HD.

One last note, if you use 480p instead, this can use either SD or HD color matrix, and you'll have to check the video menu to see which one it's using, and then switch it, if necessary.

voyager6868,

I don't understand.

First, my reds are way too red in SD over HDMI/Component. I've decided to use the s-video input when watching SD, but if I could get all to work with one input, that would be even better. SD over s-video looks fine.

I have the 53x54, I have an SD8300HD that outputs 480i for SD and 1080i for HD.

My STB comes on on channel 2, I check and the color matrix is SD. I turn to channel 701 (INHD) and check the color matrix and it's HD.

So, for me, no problems at all with the color matrix switching when I switch between SD and HD.

I do have the 53x54 J model. Maybe that was something the J model fixed? Either way, I highly doubt what you are saying is accurate. If that was the case, I'd think that would be a major defect in this set which would affect an awefully lot of people.

Also, one note on using 480p. With 480p, you lose JUST mode and can only use FULL.

So......my set says it's in color matrix SD on SD channels, so is there any way to fix this too much red (and it's too dark too) when using SD over HDMI or Component?

Lex is right, you lose "just" mode when you go to 480p.

I have been trying everything I could think of all different setups and the one that seems to work best is to split your connection with a good rg6 splitter, and send one side directly into the TV for use in SD viewing, and the other to the STB for viewing of channels over 100. With pictures from the same channel side by side, the HDMI side was too red, the TV side was much clearer.

If anyone has a better way I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

Hopefully Comcast will start their digital simulcast very soon. They are doing a great job with the DVR and VOD...

Originally posted by lexluthor
voyager6868,

I don't understand.

First, my reds are way too red in SD over HDMI/Component. I've decided to use the s-video input when watching SD, but if I could get all to work with one input, that would be even better. SD over s-video looks fine.

I have the 53x54, I have an SD8300HD that outputs 480i for SD and 1080i for HD.

My STB comes on on channel 2, I check and the color matrix is SD. I turn to channel 701 (INHD) and check the color matrix and it's HD.

So, for me, no problems at all with the color matrix switching when I switch between SD and HD.

I do have the 53x54 J model. Maybe that was something the J model fixed? Either way, I highly doubt what you are saying is accurate. If that was the case, I'd think that would be a major defect in this set which would affect an awefully lot of people.

Also, one note on using 480p. With 480p, you lose JUST mode and can only use FULL.

So......my set says it's in color matrix SD on SD channels, so is there any way to fix this too much red (and it's too dark too) when using SD over HDMI or Component?

Lex,

I know this is probably a stupid question but have you calibrated your TV with AVIA or DVE? I had the same problem with reds in SD (not as bad in HD) but after running the basic and advanced settings on Digital Video Essentials I was able to get all my colors to look quite natural. :D

As for the JUST mode with 480p signals. I would imagine that JUST only works with interlaced signals as Panny only figured you'd need it for SD, 480p being for DVD's which should already be widescreen or better yet, anamorphic.

Also, you wanted some links to where I saw the stuff about the S-Video, PIP, Swap stuff but I don't have enough posts on this forum to allow them so add the www to the address below

hdtvoice.com/voice/showthread.php?t=10330

They have many useful posts/threads regarding the SA 8000HD and 8300HD.

You might also want to check out panny.tv about the red push you're getting (if you haven't already).

Originally posted by BadMojo11
Lex is right, you lose "just" mode when you go to 480p.

I have been trying everything I could think of all different setups and the one that seems to work best is to split your connection with a good rg6 splitter, and send one side directly into the TV for use in SD viewing, and the other to the STB for viewing of channels over 100. With pictures from the same channel side by side, the HDMI side was too red, the TV side was much clearer.

If anyone has a better way I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

Hopefully Comcast will start their digital simulcast very soon. They are doing a great job with the DVR and VOD...

I think BadMojo's method might be best for SD if you are getting analogue channels. That way the TV is the only one converting the signal so less upconverting/downconverting required.

My situation is different. All my analogue channels come in on the STB as true digital signals. Therefore, I see no difference in the PQ when using the STB vs. the TV to watch the normally analogue signals. Keep in mind that I have not yet tried the S-Video trick I've spoken of... Seeing as I see no diff between the STB and TV tuner SD PQ I haven't seen a need yet. Maybe I'll try it this weekend out of curiousity.

SC_Sixx,

No, I haven't calibrated my TV using AVIA or DVE. My color settings are pretty much right in line with what most people posted here. Most people are pretty much in the same range, so I'm not sure how those color settings would affect the PQ of SD over HDMI that greatly. My HD looks amazing, so I think I'm pretty close to being properly calibrated. Plus, when I do SD over S-Video, the colors are fine, so I don't see how it could be a simple main menu calibration problem, unless you can calibrate by input and by signal, which I don't think you can.

The reds on SD over HDMI are really bad and the picture is very dark as well. As soon as I go to S-Video, it looks pretty much as good as I'd expect it to.

Does anyone get a good picture on SD over HDMI with this set? I suppose it could be the SA8300HD STB in combination with this TV that is just creating bad mix for SD over HDMI.

I saw your link on the s-video/PIP/swap thing. I don't quite understand that and I don't think it applies to my SA8300HD. Maybe that was needed on the 8000. All I need to do is hit the TV mode on my universal remote, hit the video source button and choose source 4 for HD and source 5 for SD. It's not a big hassle. If you are on the wrong source, you'll know it right away either by bad PQ on SD or top and bottom bars on HD.

Still, if there's any way to get this working with one input, I'm all for that.

As far as the split to the TV and then to the STB, I have that for if/when I want to do split PIP, and I'd say the PQ from the STB over S-video has a slight edge on the direct input to the TV. Anyhow, I wouldn't be happy with that as you lose any digital and pay channels when bypassing the box. Unless S-video or composite is really a good bit worse than direct to the TV, I'd go with that.

When Cycling through the modes 9TV, Component 1&2, and Video 1-4 is there any way to take unused ones ou t of the mix? So I would only have to choose between TV, Component 1, and HDMI?

Originally posted by lexluthor
SC_Sixx,

No, I haven't calibrated my TV using AVIA or DVE. My color settings are pretty much right in line with what most people posted here. Most people are pretty much in the same range, so I'm not sure how those color settings would affect the PQ of SD over HDMI that greatly. My HD looks amazing, so I think I'm pretty close to being properly calibrated. Plus, when I do SD over S-Video, the colors are fine, so I don't see how it could be a simple main menu calibration problem, unless you can calibrate by input and by signal, which I don't think you can.

The reds on SD over HDMI are really bad and the picture is very dark as well. As soon as I go to S-Video, it looks pretty much as good as I'd expect it to.

Does anyone get a good picture on SD over HDMI with this set? I suppose it could be the SA8300HD STB in combination with this TV that is just creating bad mix for SD over HDMI.

I saw your link on the s-video/PIP/swap thing. I don't quite understand that and I don't think it applies to my SA8300HD. Maybe that was needed on the 8000. All I need to do is hit the TV mode on my universal remote, hit the video source button and choose source 4 for HD and source 5 for SD. It's not a big hassle. If you are on the wrong source, you'll know it right away either by bad PQ on SD or top and bottom bars on HD.

Still, if there's any way to get this working with one input, I'm all for that.

As far as the split to the TV and then to the STB, I have that for if/when I want to do split PIP, and I'd say the PQ from the STB over S-video has a slight edge on the direct input to the TV. Anyhow, I wouldn't be happy with that as you lose any digital and pay channels when bypassing the box. Unless S-video or composite is really a good bit worse than direct to the TV, I'd go with that.


I'm not positive but I believe the SD Color Matrix settings are independant of the HD settings. You may need to correct the SD color settings. These are what I use under user settings;

Color - 17
Tint - 30
Bright - 28
Picture - 28
Sharpness - 0

Obviously it may need to be different for you...

Also, it could be that the HDMI cable forces the TV to use the HD color matrix which would be incorrect for SD broadcasts. I can't confirm this as I'm not using DVI/HDMI yet.

I'll be buying an HDMI to DVI converter soon and then I'll be able to tell you how SD and HD compare on that end. I would also like to be able to use just the digital input and avoid unnecessary switching.

Regarding the S-Video, PIP, Swap thing... You are probably right. I believe the 8000HD has the other ouputs and video sources disabled for most cable providers (No VCR archiving, extra Video In/Out). If you have the 8300 (like me) then you probably don't need to use that trick.

Let me know if I'm totally off base and should just keep quiet. I'm most likely a n00b compared to most people here. I've just been doing a LOT of reading over the past 3-4 weeks and consider myself pretty well informed about the SA8000/8300HD units and my Panny 53WX54.

I'm always looking for more info and tweaks for my setup and probably always will be. I can't justify spending almost $2000 (CAN) on my setup without getting the best possible PQ and Audio!

Originally posted by BadMojo11
When Cycling through the modes 9TV, Component 1&2, and Video 1-4 is there any way to take unused ones ou t of the mix? So I would only have to choose between TV, Component 1, and HDMI?

If you have a universal remote that works with the Panny then you can just choose the correct input directly.

I was also annoyed with that and found the my Harmony 659 could just send the command InputComponent1, InputVideo1 and InputTuner instead of cycling through them. It seems a bit silly that this can be done yet not have the different inputs as individual buttons on the supplied remote.

I'm just glad I bought my Harmony remote. This thing is amazing! It can do pretty much anything but still be very simple so the wifie can use it. :cool:

EDIT: If you don't have a universal remote I think you're stuck. I found no way to disable the other inputs...

Originally posted by BadMojo11
When Cycling through the modes 9TV, Component 1&2, and Video 1-4 is there any way to take unused ones ou t of the mix? So I would only have to choose between TV, Component 1, and HDMI?

Set the unused inputs to SKIP in the TV settings. When you hit video source, it will only go though the ones that are not set to SKIP. If you are using the TV remote or a universal remote, you can just hit input source and then the number next to the input you want to switch to.


SC_Sixx, do you have the discrete codes for the various inputs? I didn't think of that, but I'd love to program some buttons on my remote to do that directly. Then I could just have an SD button and have an HD button.

Originally posted by SC_Sixx
I'm not positive but I believe the SD Color Matrix settings are independant of the HD settings. You may need to correct the SD color settings. These are what I use under user settings;

Color - 17
Tint - 30
Bright - 28
Picture - 28
Sharpness - 0

Obviously it may need to be different for you...

Also, it could be that the HDMI cable forces the TV to use the HD color matrix which would be incorrect for SD broadcasts. I can't confirm this as I'm not using DVI/HDMI yet.

So are you saying that the color settings in the video menu can be set differerntly if you are on an HD channel vs an SD channel? I don't think that's the case.

If anyone knows how the SD and HD color levels could be set individually, I'd love to hear.

Also, if I recall correctly, when I'm on an SD channel through HDMI, it did say it was using the SD color matrix, but that's a decent thought, so I'll double check it. Not that I could do anything about it if it was using the HD color matrix on SD over HDMI though, but it would better explain things.

EDIT: It definitely says it's using color matrix SD when viewing SD over HDMI, so that's not a problem.

Originally posted by SC_Sixx

I was also annoyed with that and found the my Harmony 659 could just send the command InputComponent1, InputVideo1 and InputTuner instead of cycling through these.


Shoot, I found the discrete codes, but there are only codes for Component and Video inputs, there's no discrete code (that I can find) for HDMI.

Do you know of one? That kind of stinks. I wonder if there's a way to get it somehow.

Originally posted by lexluthor
voyager6868,

I don't understand.


My STB comes on on channel 2, I check and the color matrix is SD. I turn to channel 701 (INHD) and check the color matrix and it's HD.

So, for me, no problems at all with the color matrix switching when I switch between SD and HD.

OK. I should have made it more clear... Whatever color matrix is listed in the Video screen is NOT NECESSARILY the color matrix that the set is actually using! You may consider it a bug in the set.

My big point was that the set won't REALLY change the color matrix unless you switch inputs. So here's what you should try.

When you turn on your STB, make sure it's on an HD channel. This means you'll be starting off with an HD matrix. Now, switch to channel 2. Even though the video menu says "SD", the set is NOT USING SD :)

To get the set to really use SD, you have to change inputs on the set (go to the input menu, and switch to another input, and then switch BACK to the input you were just looking at).

So, if your box is hooked up to component 1, switch to component 2, and then back to component 1 with your remote. I think you'll notice that the reds are much less red now, because now the set is ACTUALLY using the SD matrix. So, don't believe what you see in the video menu.

To re-iterate... the set ONLY changes the color matrix when you switch between inputs. If you leave the set on the same input, it will stay on the same color matrix no matter what the video menu says...

Let me know if this works for you.

(PS, when you switch back to an HD channel from an SD now, you have to repeat this (switch to component 2 and then back to component 1), otherwise the set will continue to use the SD matrix, and the colors will look washed out)

Voyager6868,

Yes, I've tried what you said. No, there's no difference.

Turn on the STB on Ch 2, go to 701, it looks fine. Change inputs and then back to HDMI and it looks the same.

Turn on the STB on Ch 701, got to Ch 2, it looks crappy. Change inputs and then back to HDMI and it still looks crappy.

My STB is generally set to come on Ch 2, so I suspect I'd notice if it was bad once I went to an HD channel.

I'm pretty sure whatever bug it is you are talking about definitely does not exist in my setup.

I just made things a lot easier for me too. I programmed the discrete video 1 code into one button on my remote and programmed a macro to change to hdmi input into another button. Now I don't have to leave CBL mode and switch to TV change inputs and then go back to CBL mode. I just hit these buttons in cable mode and the input switches. Cool.

I'd still love to find an HDMI discrete code, so I don't have to do it with a macro, but I've posted elsewhere.

Still, if others don't get the bad red and dark picture with SD over HDMI, I'm all for still trying to figure that out and just use the 1 input.

Thanks.

EDIT: Found the discrete HDMI code. Now when I'm in CBL mode on my remote, I hit macro 1 and it switches to video 1 and macro 3 and it switches to HDMI. I don't even have to hit the tv mode button to do that. Easy as anything to go with this solution.

Originally posted by lexluthor
Voyager6868,

Yes, I've tried what you said. No, there's no difference.

Turn on the STB on Ch 2, go to 701, it looks fine. Change inputs and then back to HDMI and it looks the same.

Turn on the STB on Ch 701, got to Ch 2, it looks crappy. Change inputs and then back to HDMI and it still looks crappy.

My STB is generally set to come on Ch 2, so I suspect I'd notice if it was bad once I went to an HD channel.

I'm pretty sure whatever bug it is you are talking about definitely does not exist in my setup.

Hmm. Strange. There's a noticeable difference on my set when I do that.

Originally posted by lexluthor
I just made things a lot easier for me too. I programmed the discrete video 1 code into one button on my remote and programmed a macro to change to hdmi input into another button. Now I don't have to leave CBL mode and switch to TV change inputs and then go back to CBL mode. I just hit these buttons in cable mode and the input switches. Cool.

I'd still love to find an HDMI discrete code, so I don't have to do it with a macro, but I've posted elsewhere.

Still, if others don't get the bad red and dark picture with SD over HDMI, I'm all for still trying to figure that out and just use the 1 input.

Thanks.

EDIT: Found the discrete HDMI code. Now when I'm in CBL mode on my remote, I hit macro 1 and it switches to video 1 and macro 3 and it switches to HDMI. I don't even have to hit the tv mode button to do that. Easy as anything to go with this solution.

Was the code listed as DIGITAL? I'm not using my DVI input yet so I'd like to know for future reference.

Glad to here you were able to simplify your setup.

Oh, and Voyager.. Thanks for the input on the SD/HD matrix settings!

I was wondering why SD channels looked washed out. I have all my channels going through the component 1 input and the STB was outputting all channels as 1080i or 480p. After changing my STB to pass-through mode and switching the inputs back and forth my colors look much better! Not to mention that I can now use the JUST mode for SD channels and PQ has really improved.

Sc_Sixx,

Yes, the code was listed as Digital. There aren't sets with both DVI and HDMI so this code will work for whichever input your set has.

Panasonic Discrete HDMI Input Select
Device 128, SubDev4, EFC 157

Originally posted by lexluthor
Sc_Sixx,

Yes, the code was listed as Digital. There aren't sets with both DVI and HDMI so this code will work for whichever input your set has.

Panasonic Discrete HDMI Input Select
Device 128, SubDev4, EFC 157

Kewl. That's pretty much what I expected. I probably won't need that code unless I set up some custom actions (macros). The Logitech Harmony remote website already knows all the codes for the Panny.

Another quick question...

Would this thread be an appropriate place to ask questions regarding tweaking my TV. More specifically, adjusting the manual focus, changing service mode settings (cuts, drives and color settings), and convergence? I've already done some tweaking but my blue and green focus are out (really out on blue) and the convergence/geometry could be better. I've posted the questions on other forums with no replies so far...

Thanks.:D

SC_Sixx,

Yes, that's exactly the kind of thing this thread is for. Hopefully you'll get some answers.

I think some of that was coverered on earlier pages here, perhaps.

lexluthor,

Good to hear you guys are willing to help.

The one thing that is bugging me the most is my blue focus. It is pretty far out compared to Red/Green. I've been told this is normal and I've done a manual focus with little improvement. From everyone elses experience is this normal? Will blue always be a tad bit out of focus compared to the others? Is there anything I can do to compensate for it?

I was thinking that it might just be too bright on the blue gun, can I turn it down without seriously affecting the PQ and color reproduction? Is there even a way to turn down the brightness of just one gun?

Thanks in advance!

i need help, i read and reread the manual but can't find the answer

can anyone tell me how to turn on the closed caption? when i go to menu/setup, i can not access the "cc on mute, cc mode", because they are greyed out

thanks for any advice

If your trying to get CC on HD, I don't think that will happen. I don't think the broadcasters are set up for that yet.
Rick

Rosa:

See if there's an option in menus on your cable box for turning on closed-captioning. I think that's the only way you can get it on HD channels

Hello.
I have been reading this thread for the last few weeks trying to make a decision on a new RPTV. I was running a commercial plasma panel but it just wasnt cutting it.

I had my PT47X54 delivered lastnight and almost immediatley i noticed 2 things and im wondering if it may be a problem with the set or if others see the same kind of thing. This is my second RPTV but im much more educated than i was with my first and i cant recall seeing anything like this with that set.

1. On any white test screen, or in the Bell Expressvu Guide. Everything down the center of the screen is nice and white. Then about 4" from the right and left sides it starts to turn to a faily faint yellow tint wich gets darker as it gets close to the edge of the screen. So if you look close enough and compare you can see nice whites in the middle of the screen with some faint yellowing at the edges. The yellowing seems to be even from top to bottom. I only notice it on a test screen or in the Bell guide.

2. I sit about 9' away. Brightness settings are high after callibration. So much so its kinda painfull in bright scenes. If i adjust until its comfortable I lose all shadow detail. For example if someone is wearing a dark suit...i dont see subtle folds and wrinkles in the suit....i see a big blotch of black with a head on it. I havent played with the lighting in the room much yet though.

Im mainly concerned with the yellowing. I must say though that i braced myself for a softer, less defined image coming from plasma...but this set surprised me with its clarity and detail. I havent tried to tame the red push yet, which is pretty crazy.. black actually looks more like a really dark crimson. Im not planning to do much more until i get some info on teh yellowing thing. Every time i think of it teh Avia guys voice pops in my head "if you see the white change color in this test, change to a moving image immediatley". I didnt see it change...it was like that from the get go. Perhaps i will take a stroll over to the place where i bought on my lunch...I have a feeling it might be the floor model. Any input is appreciated and thanks for all the great info thus far.

Hi - newbie here. I just bought the Panasonic 47X54 from CC and have been reading this forum. Excellent information! I hope I am posting this in the right place.

I have exactly the same 2 problems Jaymon listed above. As for the yellowing - I can see it in any scene with white. If the scene is a sky with clouds in it - I get nice bright white clouds near the center of the set, but they have a yellowish hue at the outer third on each side of the screen. This coloration is noticable on some light blue backgrounds too.

I did the basic adjustments with DVE, and have the same blackness problem with the calibrated brightness setting (32) and Picture setting (24). If I jump it to 42 and 30, blacks have more detail, but then some scenes look too bright.

Another problem I have noticed is ghosted horizontal lines that are slightly visible in the background of the picture. They look somewhat like the horizontal banding on an ink jet print. These are most noticeable on light scenes with a lot of the same color - a beige wall for example, but I did see them in a few dark scenes as well. I have basic cable with Comcast (no HD - but the PQ is excellent except for the banding). There is no STB - just a direct RG-6 into the Pany. I thought it was the signal, but I have also seen this banding when watching a DVD. The DVD player is a Sony DVP-C660 connected to Component 1 with component cables. I also tried the DVD on Video 1 using S-video cable - same result.

Any help is appreciated.

Originally posted by Chakotay
Hi - newbie here. I just bought the Panasonic 47X54 from CC and have been reading this forum. Excellent information! I hope I am posting this in the right place.

I have exactly the same 2 problems Jaymon listed above. As for the yellowing - I can see it in any scene with white. If the scene is a sky with clouds in it - I get nice bright white clouds near the center of the set, but they have a yellowish hue at the outer third on each side of the screen. This coloration is noticable on some light blue backgrounds too.


I believe what you are describing is something that is not uncommon for widescreen RPTV's. Do a search on lens striping and you'll get some info on a technique used to minimize or eliminate it.

What it amounts to is using something (in my case I used a piece of black gaffers tape folded so the sticky sides touched leaving me with about a 1" wide strip that was black on both sides) that you place over the sides of the lens (as needed) to tame the troublesome ones that cause the symptoms you describe at the sides of the TV. I didn't let the material touch the lens. It only touches at the frame around the lens.


HTH,
AKH

I went into the store today and compared my set to the store display as well as other brands and they all to some degree seemed to show some very, very faint yellowing but not as bad as mine. The sales and tech guys had never heard of it before. They basicly said it must be hot spotting in the middle for some reason making it more noticable on my set. They are sending someone out to have a look at that and fix up some geometry issues. Ill keep you posted as to weather they take care of it or not. As for the brightness problem...I think it just boils down to this model not having the greatest brightness/contrast adjustability, I seemed to have tamed it a bit with a lower picture/contrast setting so highlights and such dont burn out my retina but it does still seem a little off.

I went in planning to exchange the set but after looking at the other models i was still too impressed with the picture quality of the panny to exchange it.....until they get the 53" model in that is :)

EDIT: Forgot to mention i have seen the banding that Chakotay describes but only when changing inputs (the black screen). I havent seen it while veiwing material but if i were to have my brightness and contrast adjusted as per Avia, im sure i would notice it more. Ill have to check tonight.

I went to CC and talked the sales guys - they offered to exchange the TV or have someone come out. The store display had the same yellowing and banding problem, but like Jaymon said, not as bad as mine. I don't think exchanging it is a good idea. I might get one with other problems and this set is great except for this minor problem. So I had them schedule a tech to come out. They said the techs are factory certified.

Maybe I'm just looking for input if letting them fix it the right thing to do instead of exchanging it. I've heard the horror stories about getting a repair tech that screws a set up more.

Am I on the right track?

Hi all,
I have a 47X54 set and I love it. The only real problem that I've encountered is the TV input command. I have a Harmony remote configured to directly change inputs as required - ie, Component Video 1, Video 3, HDMI, etc. The problem is that there is no working code that I can find in the Harmony database that allows me to directly select the TV input. To do this, I have to configure the Watch Television activity to display the Input Menu on screen and then press the "1" key to select the TV input. This is a bit annoying considering that all other direct inputs work fine.

Has anyone found a way to make this work? As the TV's remote doesn't have direct inputs on it, there is no way to have the Harmony learn this command, Panasonic says they don't deal with consumers - only with the remote manufacturers and Harmony says if I can get the necessary codes from Panasonic they can make it work...a real Catch 22!

Guys, please forgive my ignorance. I've spend a week reading through pages and pages of posts all with some great information regarding my new TV as well as other info i've needed.

My question is this. I feel i found an incredible local deal for this TV (47X54) at less than a thousand bucks. So i coudln't resist buying it. I have done a manual convergence through the user settings, and i've set all the colors/brightness/etc to recommended levels from this site. I'm wondering three things:

1) Do i need, or should i have this professionally calibrated after 100 hours of break in or so to make sure i'm getting the best picture? So many people claim night and day differences after having the set calibrated, but it looks so good now, i'm just not sure how much better it could get

2) Would a professional calibration be included in the 1 year warranty that Panasonic offers on this set. If so, do i just call their normal service line and ask them to send a tech out

3) Should I or should i not have the screen protector removed. I suffer from a lot of glare during the day (have the set in a living room which gets a lot of light) but i don't want to risk damage to the screen in any way. Also, could the tech do this for me, if they do come out for calibration.

Thanks and great site.

Originally posted by SailRace

1) Do i need, or should i have this professionally calibrated after 100 hours of break in or so to make sure i'm getting the best picture? So many people claim night and day differences after having the set calibrated, but it looks so good now, i'm just not sure how much better it could get

2) Would a professional calibration be included in the 1 year warranty that Panasonic offers on this set. If so, do i just call their normal service line and ask them to send a tech out

3) Should I or should i not have the screen protector removed. I suffer from a lot of glare during the day (have the set in a living room which gets a lot of light) but i don't want to risk damage to the screen in any way. Also, could the tech do this for me, if they do come out for calibration.

1) I can't imagine it getting much better either. Certainly I don't see how it could be worth upwards of $300, but I'm far from an audio/video-phile.
2) No
3) It sounds like it might help with the glare. I'm in a darker room, but still get glare in the daytime. Based on what the person in this thread posted who did it, it looks like a pretty complex job. I'm not going to try it. I doubt a calibration tech would do this as a job included with calibration, but maybe you can find a guy willing to attempt it.

Thanks for the replies. I think i'm with you, at least for now, in that i don't think i could justify the $350 or whatever it is for the improvement that i may or may not notice. I might sack up and try entering the service menu and doing a full convergence, but i don't want to screw something up. I guess my first step will be getting an AVIA disc.

I guess i may just have to get used to the glare fore now.

Originally posted by bogen2
The problem is that there is no working code that I can find in the Harmony database that allows me to directly select the TV input. To do this, I have to configure the Watch Television activity to display the Input Menu on screen and then press the "1" key to select the TV input. This is a bit annoying considering that all other direct inputs work fine.

Has anyone found a way to make this work?
The TV will change to the TV input when you change the channel on the TV. Just configure your harmony to do that and it'll switch it to the TV input. Good luck.

Originally posted by SC_Sixx
If you have a universal remote that works with the Panny then you can just choose the correct input directly.

I was also annoyed with that and found the my Harmony 659 could just send the command InputComponent1, InputVideo1 and InputTuner instead of cycling through them. It seems a bit silly that this can be done yet not have the different inputs as individual buttons on the supplied remote.


OK, now I'm confused. I tried the InputTuner command with my Harmony remote and it didn't work for me, although all the other Inputxxx commands worked fine. I also tried (on the advice of Harmony tech support) the InputAntA and InputAntB commands...still no go.

Originally posted by lexluthor
The TV will change to the TV input when you change the channel on the TV. Just configure your harmony to do that and it'll switch it to the TV input. Good luck.

Good idea...I'll use that as a backup option, but I still believe that there must be a way to select the TV input with a single code.

When I set up the remote, there was no exact match for my model number (PT-47X54) so I used the 47WX54 set which mostly works with the exception of the TV input. Is there anyone out there who has this TV and a Harmony (or any other universal remote) that this works for?

I don't understand. How much worse is it to send a Channel + command to the TV to switch inputs than it would be to do a discrete input change? If you don't want the channel to change, send a Ch + and then a Ch -.

Seems like that would have the same exact net effect, no?

I found a file somewhere that listed all of the Panasonic Discrete codes (at least the ones known to who made up the file) and there's no discrete TV input code.

Question: Has anyone done manual convergence with the 53X54J?

If so, was there improvement?

Originally posted by lexluthor
I don't understand. How much worse is it to send a Channel + command to the TV to switch inputs than it would be to do a discrete input change? If you don't want the channel to change, send a Ch + and then a Ch -.

The only reason I want to find this code is that is "should" be there...its like why climb a mountain - because its there :)

Actually, sending the "Back" command works quite well - it sets the TV input and returns to the channel that was selected before the input change. And it has a nice feel to it...go ''back" to TV.

After entering service mode on a panasonic 47x54 I can’t turn the sleep timer off. I can highlight the timer and the clock but not the sleep timer. What am I doing wrong? Will the tv shut off after 30 minutes when I'm in the service mode? Can somebody help me please?

Originally posted by BadMojo11
Question: Has anyone done manual convergence with the 53X54J?

If so, was there improvement?

In my opinion you can always improve picture quality on a rear projection crt. I suggest you go into service mode and check your convergence lines and patterns, if everything lines up perfect then I guess you won't see improvement doing convergence, but most likely you will find some problems with the lines. After lining everything up, then you will see a better picture quality for sure

Originally posted by akh
Once you get into the service menu and have the service options screen up use the TV/Video button to choose the input you want to work on (I am assuming each input has its own convergence memory but I've not confirmed that).

I tried messing around with the convergence last night and found that the default service menu shows resolution as 480i, which I assume is because the input is set for tuner after setting it to channel 124. When I switch to Component Video 1 which is my DVD player, it shows 480i selected with 480p and 1080i greyed out. I would have expected at least 480p to be selected and that 540p would be listed.

Has anyone discovered if there are different settings for each input? Or for different resolutions? Sure would like to know what this all means....

I have the same thing on my TV. I think the reason is that the 47x54 only displays 540p or 1080i signal. To make any adjustment to the 1080i you have to feed your TV HD signal. When you try to make adjustment for 480i or 480p in service mode you will see that most of the option are grayed out for one display mode in the menu. You only have to make convergence changes to one display mode only, because the TV will up convert both signals to 540p any way. If anybody has a different explanation for this please feel free to correct me.

Just another tip for people who are sick and tired of adjusting geometry for overscan/underscan issues, go into your usermenu and turn off Image Shift.. Image Shift basically does this: Takes your whole image and move it in some odd direction on your set (up, down, left or right) every hour or so to prevent burn-in; and you'll find yourself pulling your hair out wondering why your overscan is all whack again.. As long as your Picture setting is half or below max your set shouldn't ever be susceptible to burn-in.

I'm sorry if that was mentioned in this thread as a bible rule or something, but I seem to come across a lot of overscan complaints about this model. ;)

Jay

After checkig some reviews online and reading this forum, it looks like this unit is a definate best buy at Cosco for $1350....I just have a couple of technical questions that I can't answer:

One reviewer wrote:
" it doesn't have the capability to keep up with the HD satellite receiver. There is a phenomena called macroblocking that occurs since the digital picture cannot be translated properly. Defined - it is an awful picture on the 480i channels, which means about 95 of my programs looked awful. Again, if you don't plan on getting HD satellite no problem. I don't know about digital satellite. "

I also read that:

1. contrary to most online specs, this model does not have an integrated ATSC tuner. True? What does this mean for the average cable user?

2. This TV DOES NOT accept a 720p signal - is this important? I was hoping to get by at least for awhile without buying a separate HDTV tuner!

3. This TV does not have 540p capability. Does that matter to me?

Is this true, and if so, how will affecdft HD over Adelphia cable? The same as with Satellite? Will i need to buy a separate HD receiver (which ruins the best buy consideration)?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a widescreen HD tv in this price range give or take a couple of hundred other than this model that may be usable without a hd receiver? How about the Samsung 50"???

TIA - Your input will be greatly appreciated as I was just about to buy this tomorrow.

Regards,
RawFoodGuy

Originally posted by RawfoodGuy
After checkig some reviews online and reading this forum, it looks like this unit is a definate best buy at Cosco for $1350....I just have a couple of technical questions that I can't answer:


I'll leave the questions to the other guys here.

Only thing I want to point out is that it's my understanding (posted somewhere in this or the other thread) that the Costco one is a "warehouse store" version of this set and that it has some important differences (again search this or the other thread) from the non-warehouse version of the set. The W in the model number if the warehouse version.

You could probably find or bargain for the non-warehouse version of it for the same price range.

Originally posted by RawfoodGuy
After checkig some reviews online and reading this forum, it looks like this unit is a definate best buy at Cosco for $1350....I just have a couple of technical questions that I can't answer:



The WX54 is not the same set as the X54. I believe it is the prior years model and is only available at Costco and Sams. When I was looking at the WX54 I found the CRT's used are not the same as the X54. I decided to take a pass on the Costco version and went with the X54. All of the "good" features you read about in this thread you may not find in the WX54.
I would also recommend you get an HD ready TV and use an external box for an HD tuner. It appears that the ATSC tuner technology is advancing every year-why get stuck with a third or fourth generation tuner that is built into the set. I had a Samsung SIR-T351 which I tried to live with for a month before returning it. My problem was multi-path and the current generation of HDTV tuners don't like it.

Thanks for the info so far guys. I don't mind a few differences in a warehouse version, but if they're actually using totally different CRT's, that is almost a deceptive practice since the unit basically made its reputation on the retail version and the CRT's are the heart of what you end up seeing.

Maxie's advice on a separate HDTV receiver is great...I didn't think of that and of course it makes a lot of sense.

Regards,
RawFoodGuy

Do I adjust CUT_R down to keep the red push and CUT_B from being so much? The only way I can tame my reds and blues if to put COLOR down to like 9.. thus making every other color look washed out..

Adjusting the CUT-B and CUT-R doesn't seem to tame the colors at all, am I missing something?

Jay

Oh and how do you adjust vertical position? I only see Horizontal positioning.. hmm.

Jay

I've had the 47x54 since August now and am very happy. Just reviewed the thread and want to thank voyager6868 for posting the process for screen removal. I now have a weekend project.

It seems as though I handle the colour matrix switches different that most of you. Rather than running a second input (ie s-video) for my SD stations, I use a different user mode with different settings for colour, brightness, etc.

So when I watch anything 1080i (including my Panny s97) I use the Vivid mode- with all appropriate settings for HD.

If I switch to anything SD, I switch to Standard mode, with all the appropriate settings to yeild natural colours. I can then use JUST mode, or whatever.

I use the cenema mode for my other DVD... you get the idea.

I feel that this is an easy solution - and the only one that I could figure out. Even the GF uses it :cool:

I also have some of the geometry issues that some of the other poster have talked about. This is really apparent when credits are rolling. You can see them almost waver as if there was a small wave that the were rolling over that spans a hoizontal section of the screen.

Has anyone with this same issue contacted panny? Will they send a tech out to correct this--- I assume it is a geometry issue:confused:

Nothing huge.... but if I can tweak this image better than peoples $5000 sets... why not :p !!

Thanks for the great thread guys!

SC_sixx, I live in London also.

Regards.

Hello everyone... newbie here so please forgive me if this has already been discussed.

I have a PT53wx54 and just this week I spotted an odd thing on the screen. When a program fades to black, I sometimes notice 3 faint arcs of RED, GREEN and BLUE visible on the top quarter of the screen. They're very thin (about 1 "pixel" thick) and stretch from the left side of the screen to the right while bowing down in the middle. Changing channels seems to get rid of it temporarily but it does comes back. I noticed it first while watching standard cable, but I've seen it on using other video inputs as well.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any adjustment suggestions? Or is this a job for the Panasonic tech?

Thanks in advance for your help.


PS. I'll try to take a picture of it if possible and post it here.

Hi folks,

Well, after reading everything here on the 54X54 and 53WX54, including your kind answers to my original questions, I drove a bit off the beaten path to find the local (only 20 miles distant for me) BrandSmart Clearance Center - and low and behold they had stuck in the back of a bunch a Mitsubishis a lone Panasonic 53TW54 - apparently a yet another version, the latest I believe, of this series (still on the Panasonic web site for $1799).

Fortunately (for me that is :-) ) the convergence was way off and the skin tones all appeared green, probably scaring off the average buyer until I got there thankfully!. I ran the automatic convergence and readjusted all the levels that had been messed with and voila - nearly perfect picture (can't wait !to tweak the convergence even more!!!). The case was perfect, not even any dust on the cooling vent intake, so I hope it was probably an open box item not a display model.

The good news - they had the retail price down as $1399 (comparable to the Cosco 53WX54) so I was able to get them down to a flat $1,000! I have seen this model online for much more. For safety's sake, given the clearance nature of the deal, I opted for the inhome service coverage which I ordinarily avoid, 2 years for just $78. So I paid $1,078 for a virtually new Panny X54.

My question - what are the differences between the other models discussed in this thread and the 53TW54? Are the instructions for tweaking convergence on the other models the same for this one? Just how good a set is this compared to other Panny's and brands? I was considering the 51" Sony at their retail store, but the extra two inches really makes a big difference.

Any other thoughts or recommendations/tweaks for this model will be greatly appreciated!!!

TIA
RawFoodGuy

Nice deal, but I don't think pricing discussions are allowed here to that detail, but I'm not sure.

Anyhow, here's a Panny web site comparision between the 53X54 and the 53TW54.

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelComparisonResults?storeId=11251&catalogId=11005&catGroupId=11253&surfCategory=CRT%20Projection%20HDTVs%20and%20HDTV%20Monitor s&items=70548|71400|>

You should have left the convergence bad and bargained for more ;)

Sorry if I got too into the details - thought it was a good story - to me it was! Didn't think of leaving it off color - I guess you are a bit more devious than even I am :-) But the sales guy probably would have figured that out anyway - he was pretty sharp. Thanks for that comparison link. On that chart only difference is the sound, which is much better on my unit, and about 100 lbs of weight - what the heck is in there now that weighs 100 lbs more than the WX54 model - or better yet, what is in there that was left out of the Cosco/Sams Club version???

Regards,
RFG

Has anyone had problems with the convergence of the green? The first step is to line it up to the marks on the inside edge of the frame and the vertical won't move to the center of the mark. Its about > 1/4 in off. Here are two pics to show what I am seeing.

[img=http://img36.exs.cx/img36/3314/dscn17753nb.th.jpg] (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=dscn17753nb.jpg)

[img=http://img36.exs.cx/img36/4922/dscn17805xg.th.jpg] (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=dscn17805xg.jpg)

Any thoughts on this?

since the lamp blew on my panny pt50lc13 after a lousy 4 month usage i've been researching for a replacement CRT. im done with LCDs and DLPs, an annual $300 lamp bulb maintainance fee on top of a $2000+ rptv is just plain ridiculous. the 47x54 seems to be a much better choice now that it has a 540p upconvert.

a question to the owners of the 47x54, what's the overscan percentage for this model? if it's anything over 5% on all sides i think i'll be needing an ISF calibration. i just can't stand overscans.

thanks much
jj

Originally posted by hattrik21
Has anyone had problems with the convergence of the green? The first step is to line it up to the marks on the inside edge of the frame and the vertical won't move to the center of the mark. Its about > 1/4 in off. Here are two pics to show what I am seeing.

[img=http://img36.exs.cx/img36/3314/dscn17753nb.th.jpg] (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=dscn17753nb.jpg)

[img=http://img36.exs.cx/img36/4922/dscn17805xg.th.jpg] (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=dscn17805xg.jpg)

Any thoughts on this?
If you're using a calibration disk, you may want to adjust for overscan with that first. I noticed that the green lines where way off from the hash marks when I compensated for overscan. With that done, I completed the red and blue convergence.

No calibration disk, only the built in convergence thats in the TV's menu.

I've now noticed the banding issue myself. I first saw it when watching a widescreen DVD (black bars). Now I also see it with light colored back grounds, such as white. I can say the bands are slightly diagonal rather than perfectly horizontal. Has anyone else whose seen this found anything out?

I have also noticed the banding problem but have not found a solution.

No cats, kids, etc.

Took the instructions from Voyager- (very good btw!!) and removed the protective screen today. Took about 1.5 hours. I'm really impressed with the results.

There are only 10 (approx) screws holding the screen to the frame... which results in slight bowing at the attachment points. HOWEVER:eek: there are mounting holes for another 25ish screws already drilled... just not used by panny when assembling :confused: (cost savings).

Screwing in the rest of these holes and all torqued the same with your drill will give you a much more even surface that should help with some of the finer adjustments that everyone here are trying to make.

The screws to use are the same ones that are all around the outside of the set. Just unscrew one, go to the hardware store, get a couple of dozen more and you should have some left over.

Anyone have an isf calibration done yet... ???

Regards.

I got the 53x54 in December which I really love…I rented avia from blockbuster for about a month now and I have video essentials in my queue…

so far I have

31 for color,
31 tint, asking for a blue filter?
45 for brightness
10 to 63 for picture, don’t see any blooming even in torch mode
0 to 63 for sharpness...I don’t see any difference, so pick a number

I keep going back to the default settings for standard, cinema, and vivid, for various lighting situations….I know I have to get used to the new settings but I don’t see any improvement…maybe I am not calibrating correctly?

My question is this…after avia calibration, you guys really notice a difference from the default modes?

Originally posted by rosa
31 tint, asking for a blue filter?
You can't set it correctly without the blue filter.
And, yes I see a big difference versus the default modes.

Hi!
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first RPTV: the highly regarded PT47X54...
I would greatly appreciate a post detailing the ideal (?) settings for my new set during its crucial first 100 hours of use. No detail is too small; for example, all picture settings, special features on/off (colour matrix, VM, MPEG NR), color temperatures, etc. Any other advice is more than welcomed.
Thanks in advance!

Originally posted by outtacash


I also have some of the geometry issues that some of the other poster have talked about. This is really apparent when credits are rolling. You can see them almost waver as if there was a small wave that the were rolling over that spans a hoizontal section of the screen.

Has anyone with this same issue contacted panny? Will they send a tech out to correct this--- I assume it is a geometry issue:confused:

Regards.

I too am experiencing this same geometry distortion that others mention. I was wondering if any of the previous posters have found a correction, either a tech coming to fix it or a replacement set??

Does anyone have the service manual? Where to get it? I want to explore.

If not does anyone have steps using static and course convergence?
(specifically for the X54 series?)

(NEVER MIND) Just ordered one from Panasonic Parts for 9.28 plus shipping...

Originally posted by agent512
I too am experiencing this same geometry distortion that others mention. I was wondering if any of the previous posters have found a correction, either a tech coming to fix it or a replacement set??
I just want to confirm what I see with others.
For me, the horizontal banding is actually tilted towards one side, the left I believe, and scrolls downward.

Is this what others see?

I have also noticed, about 3-4 times, a vertical black "band" at only one location of the set, maybe a foot in from the left. This is only seen with just the right conditions.
Edit: I have now figured out that this vertical band is either part of the signal from different channels (TBS and/or CC, either both or one of them) or my DTivo box decoding the signal. This was verified by pausing the signal and viewing it on a standard direct view set over a modulator.

badmojo - anyway we can talk you into scanning it and posting it in PDF format? Maybe contribute it to the www.panny.tv website?

(i almost wish we could take a our discussions there so they could be more organized adn threaded)

Originally posted by video321
You can't set it correctly without the blue filter.
And, yes I see a big difference versus the default modes.
As an alternative to using filters, is there a way to selectively turn off video guns from any of the menus?

I am going to play in the service menu this weekend. I have the manual and the post at the beginning of this thread for guidance.

Question. If I fudge it all up, am I able to recover by restoring factory defaults?

Also, It is mentioned in the manual about a "Convergence Alignment Template". Is this absolutely necessary? Or do AVIA or DVE contain the necessary elements?

Originally posted by BadMojo11
Question. If I fudge it all up, am I able to recover by restoring factory defaults?
Not if you don't know what the defaults are for the SM adjustments. So write them down before fiddling.

badmojo - write down everything before changing it! I think the reset sets everything back to zeroes, which is nowhere near correct.

As for the template, it helps you get perfect geometry since you know exactly where the lines from the built-in (in the service menu) patterns should go. You can make your own template or buy one for about $50. I haven't bothered with this as of yet myself, although I can clearly see how it would be useful.

I went in the Course and Fine convergence areas...learned to use cursor and data commands, changed values and put them back before leaving.

Its gonna take some more playing around, I haven't seen anything at all out of whack.

Question: To those who removed the protective screen, is it worth the effort as far as quality of pictur goes? I really don't have any complaints with the screen on.

BadMojo - if you ever adjust for overscan, you'll throw your convergence way out of wack until you do the service mode convergence. Also, you may not see much "all out of wack" but you can certainly do better than the factory did. Especially when you use "orig point" mode which makes adjustments in single digit increments, as opposed to the much larger steps used in the regular point mode and worse yet the user level convergence. Also, if you do the focus tweaks (electronic or optical), your scan lines will likely be smaller, which potentially has the effect of making slight misconvergence more noticeable.

Be warned however - once you start fooling in there, you could be there for hours trying to get all the geometry/overscan/convergence absolutely perfect....

Originally posted by mikea28
You can make your own template ...
How does one do this?

GregLee - The dimensions are specified in the service manual and there's also a pdf out there, both of which are available via http://www.panny.tv (again, a great resource guys, we should take the discussion over to those forums so it can be threaded more appropriately).

Originally posted by mikea28
GregLee - The dimensions are specified in the service manual and there's also a pdf out there, both of which are available via http://www.panny.tv (again, a great resource guys, we should take the discussion over to those forums so it can be threaded more appropriately).
I've been over there, but haven't found any info specific to the 47x54. One of the manuals there has width and height dimensions for *a* grid, but I haven't seen dimensions given for the grid lines, and I don't know that this grid would also work for the 47x54. If anyone has actually constructed a grid, I'd be interested to see some more details.

Originally posted by BadMojo11
Question: To those who removed the protective screen, is it worth the effort as far as quality of pictur goes? I really don't have any complaints with the screen on.

Yes, it's definitely worth it, especially if your room isn't completely dark when you're watching. It gets rid of all the glare, plus makes the picture look brighter overall.

greglee - there is a pdf you can download that you could have printed and links to purchase a preprinted grid. It's applicable for any of the 47" panasonic models I believe, but you might want to double check. I thought the service manual also had the dimensions for the grid, but I could be wrong.

I have the Panasonic PT-53wx54 53" tv I have had it for like 3 month's maybe and have been messing around in the service menu and about 2 week's ago the tv screwed up.I turned it on one time and then the whole screen was a bright pink and then turned off like some kind of safety thing was activated.I can only turn the tv on again after unplugging and plugging in again but then the same thing happen's the screen just turn's pink and then turn's off and the power light just blink's.Anyone know what could be the problem?

I am gona try and take the protective screen off this weekend.

Questions...what does this "Grid Screen" look like? I saw an older version of the 47x54 at wal mart and the screen it had was not protective, looked more like a bumpy egg carton like surface...

Getting dust off before you put the grids back in...best thing to use?

What to use to clean the new grid after old reflector screen moves to rear?

Voyager...thanks for the great instructions on removing the protective screen...the results are outstanding...

Voyager...thanks for the great instructions on removing the protective screen...the results are outstanding...


Hi Badmojo or Voyager...

I have searched on the AVS forum but was unable to locate the instructions for removing the protective screen. Would you please provide a link or URL for that. Also, if you know, does the 53TW54 have a removable protective screen? I assume it does and if I get the instructions will attempt to remove it...but if someone knows otherwise you could perhaps save me the trouble :-)

Thanks
RawFoodGuy

Hi Badmojo or Voyager...

I have searched on the AVS forum but was unable to locate the instructions for removing the protective screen. Would you please provide a link or URL for that. Also, if you know, does the 53TW54 have a removable protective screen? I assume it does and if I get the instructions will attempt to remove it...but if someone knows otherwise you could perhaps save me the trouble :-)

Thanks
RawFoodGuy
Removing the screen

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I decided to have a go at removing the protective screen on the 47x54 and I'm very pleased with the results. There's basically no glare whatsoever now, and the picture is more vibrant (more like a direct view set).

It's actually fairly simple to do, but time-consuming. The hardest part is removing all the screws. Here are my steps if anyone else wants to try it. Although, use at your own risk.. And anyone who's done it, feel free to correct anything I missed.

1] Remove the top shelf (two screws at the back)
2] Remove two screws at the very bottom of, kind of underneath, the set (need to get down on the floor to see them)
3] Dark Grey grille at the bottom should now come off, remove it
4a] Now, you need to remove the rest of the plastic bottom part. Remove the 3 screws that were previously hidden by the dark grey grille (they're near the bottom)
4b] Remove the screws holding in the particle board attached to the plastic bottom, and this will uncover a third screw underneath the particle board which you need to remove.
5] Remove the screws along the left and right sides of the bottom. Should be three on each side (need to look from the back of the set to see them).
6] Now the light grey plastic bottom should completely come off

7] Now you've exposed the screws holding on the bottom of the screen. Remove those screws (5 or 6 I believe)
8] Remove the screws along the left and right sides of the screen (look from the back) and also the screws holding the top of the screen (two were previously covered by the shelf)

9] Now the screen should pull off (forward), but don't pull it off too far, just enough so that you can set it upright on the ground in front of the TV.
10] There are three sets of wires connected to the screen. There are three white plastic clips that act as "extension cords". Disconnect each of the three (they're easy to re-connect as they're all different sizes).
11] Now set the screen, glass side down on the ground.
12] Remove all the screws around the border of the screen (including those holding on plastic parts and sensors)
13] Now you should be able to lift up the border of the screen and slide out the center part which contains the protective screen (or alternatively, just lift off the border... not sure why I didn't think of that before...)

14] Now, you need to lift out the three layers of the screen which are attached together with tape. They may be stuck to the top of the plastic "container" they're in , but you should be able to pull them out with a bit of effort
15] Now you'll see there's the protective screen, a thin grid-like screen, and a plastic back (in that order)
16] Take the protective screen off the front of the three, and put it at the back so it's against the plastic back. Now the grid-like screen should be at the front. Make sure all the screens are still facing the same direction (i.e. front is facing front still)
17] Place all three screens back in the container they were in (make sure there's no dust in between the three layers beforehand)
18] Slide the container back underneath the border so that the border is back around the edges again (again, alternatively, just set the border back on top )
19] Put all the screws back in

I would like to add what someone else has said...there were many screwholes that were not used on the frame...might be a good idea to get more and fill all the holes...

Thanks! That was fast.

For BadMojo...in my search looking for the instructions I found a thread wehre someone mentioned the extra holes...and according to them getting screws to put in them removed a lot of distortion, so that is definately a good idea! It helps hold the screen much flatter.

RFG

I'm seriously considering the purchase of a 47X54 and have been playing with one at a friend's house. One of my hangups is how 4:3 is presented, as I still watch a fair amount of 4:3.

In viewing the "JUST" mode, I can see why many find it acceptable. It retains all of the image and does minimize the horizontal stretch in the center of the image, however I still find it annoying on some material.

The "FULL" mode is less desirable as it applies a constant horizontal stretch, taking what is a 30.7" wide 4:3 image and stretches it to 41" wide (which JUST does too), while retaining the 23" height of the image. I can't watch this.

The "ZOOM" mode appears to take the 30.7" x 23" image and expand it to a virtual 41" x 30.7" image, and then cuts off about 3.5" off the top and bottom, given you a 41x23 window into that image, while retaining the OAR image relationship.

What I found was that the Panasonic allows one to modify the ZOOM settings, both the vertical expansion of the image and the vertical positioning - i.e. the placement of the "window" into your virtual expanded image.

Their are 5 settings for the ZOOM mode, denoted as the "Size" parameter in the ZOOM ADJ menu, ranging from 0 to 4. A setting of 0 appears to set vertical expansion to 0, expanding the image only along the horizontal axis. Thus it is equivalent to "FULL," which does the same. thing.

By tinkering with these settings, I found that I could produce a 4:3 mode that I find preferable to "JUST" for some material. Setting the Size parameter to 2 tells the set to expand the vertical height by about half of the default zoom (Size=4). This creates a virtual image of approximately 41"x27", with an aspect ratio of just a bit over 1.5:1. You could regard this as 3:2 or 4.5:3. The image is stretched but not nearly so much as what you see in FULL. To my eyes, it is uniformly stretched a bit less than even the center of the screen is in JUST. It does not alter the image all that much from watching it in 4:3.

But now we have about 4" of the virtual image that cannot be displayed on the screen. The vertical settings parameter can then be used to move our displayed window around within that image. It can be set from -8 to +8. The default setting is 0, which cuts off an equal amount of the top and bottom of the image. By setting it to its lower end, at -6 to -8, the viewing window moves toward the top of the image. That is, it cuts off more of the bottom of the image. A -8 cuts off just over 3" from the bottom, and only a half-inch or so from the top.

Many shows do not have much content along the bottom edge of the screen. It might not be optimal for watching a soccer game, but for standard fare, loping off the bottom 10%-12% of the image doesn't make much of an impact. On a movie I was watching last night, which mainly consisted of people talking to each other, there was essentially no loss of key information, and having the people's faces be only slightly altered from their OAR, was nice. Faces looked more natural than when using JUST and much better than FULL.

It is an interesting trade-off to make and it is very nice that Panasonic enables us with this degree of control. You can set Size to 1 for a minor expansion and then cut off just a bit of the bottom with the vertical positioning. Even this minor adjustment produces an image that I find superior to the FULL mode. With 5 Size settings and 17 vertical position settings, that's 85 different combinations that one can play with to see if they find something that works for them.

Didn't know about that, thanks for the heads up.