Looking into some serious calibration options and have purchased an i1 colourimeter and will be buying the new Calman v3, when it's released.

Over the last few weeks i have been studying calibration techniques and service menu adjustments.

I read that setting R-Y axis and B-Y axis is best done via the human eye using the 3 colour reference card supplied with DVE / DVEHD with the colour bar pattern.

But, when i adjust the these Service-M references i cannot see any change in the colour bar differences, whether setting for R-Y or B-Y, they basically do not change at all.

What am i doing wrong?

Also i cannot find any adjustment for Cyan, Magneta and yellow, so what combinations will shift these colours?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks.

The best way to adjust these settings is by turning off the relevant colour channels in the service menu ( quit easy to find on the panny). This is more accurate than using the filters.

However I totally agree with you I can't get the colour decoder controls to do anything either on the PHD8. Bizarrely enough my PHD8 has very similar oversaturation of green and red as my JVC HD1 . When they are both on they match each other amazingly well!

Even though the black level is actually better on the HD1 ( I'm not joking!).

Thanks Mr D!

I was always led to believe that the PHD8 commercial display had a huge amount of calibration options hidden in there, apparently not!

I found the gun controls for each colour but if you could give some more info on exactly how these are set/calibrated?

Do you use the sensor and software for each channel, put it in continuous live mode and watch the CIE chart for the changes in shift?

Should this be done before greyscale calibration?

Ps. i sent the i1 d2 back after finding out about plasma IR problems and have ordered a monoco optix xr, more suitable.

Thanks.

I honestly can't remember what the settings are off hand to turn off the individual channels but the panny service menu naming is quite intuitive. ( seem to remember r-only , g-only b-only but couldn't swear to it I'm sure someone on here has mentioned it)

You are going to do the exact same process you were with the filters but turning the other channels off performs the same function as the physical filters with the advantage of being much more accurate.

Then its just a question of matching the intensity using colour bars for each primary by eye , however the r-y and b-y axis controls don't work anyway so not much point unfortunately! The panny doesn't have a full CMS to allow tweaking of the secondaries ( at least I've not been able to find the necessary controls)

You would do this after the grayscale and after setting colour and tint.

You can use a meter to do the calibration ( someone posted on here how to do it) but its probably not going to be any better than using the peepers.

Its all moot anyway as the dang controls on the PHD8 don't do anything ( I'd love someone to post saying they've found a way but I sure as potato couldn't)

I have found the R-G-B gun off function and had a play with them.

Totally agree that R-Y, B-Y do naff all.

Oh well, appreciate the help!

I'll carry on tinkering, if i find anything useful i'll let you know!

Cheers!;)

Been given some great information from an ISF company in the US.

Apparently the colour decoder settings are there but are dependant on inputs used.

I'm running Pixel mapped DVI and this is already in the RGB colourspace, which in turn disables the requirement for the additional colour decoder.

If you use composite, Svhs, component or YCbCr HDMI, the colour space used enables the addition of the colour decoder and control of the secondaries, which i think is the R-Y and B-Y controls, which only then become active.

I've caled all the inputs on my PHD8 , the decoder controls didn't unction on any of them ( component . s-video , VGA).

Works as described by Neonmod on my PHD8UK US model.

I've just this week calibrated my PHD8 (UK model). I've got delta E to below 1.5 at all points. Green and its derivatives look off on the CIE chart, but that could be down to the fact that I'm using a colorimeter rather than a spectro-radiometer.

The settings that worked for me were:

Panel in Cinema Mode, contrast and brightness at default.

Service menu settings:
Default Calibrated
Contrast 50 50
Red f1 f2
Green fc ff
Blue af 80
Brightness 82 82
Red 84 7e
Green 80 81
Blue 82 89

Tim

Looking into some serious calibration options and have purchased an i1 colourimeter and will be buying the new Calman v3, when it's released.

Why wait? If you have Excel, buy version 2 and the upgrade to v3 is free.

Tim

Service menu settings:
Default Calibrated
Contrast 50 50
Red f1 f2
Green fc ff
Blue af 80
Brightness 82 82
Red 84 7e
Green 80 81
Blue 82 89

Tim
It looks like your green drive is at FF. Per the service manual, the highest setting should be FC, and according to some posters in the 9UK thread, anything over FC is a 'no-no'. The difference between FC and FF is small, but you may want to back all the drives down 4 notches and then check the grayscale again, adjusting if necessary.

Your gamma looks good. My 8Uk is set for 2.5 in the user menu - is yours at 2.2 or 2.5?
-JD

Is there a reason given in the service manual? All drive is set to FF too - I don't know whether that is the initial setting, or has setting Green to FF increased it. I can't personally how it could cause a problem if green isn't being overdriven, which would be more likely if the service menu is set to FC and the user menu set to dynamic with the contrast set to default. I'm quite friendly with my local Panasonic service agent as I bought 3 panels from him a few months ago, I'll ask his opinion. On the domestic panels they suggest setting green to 252, perhaps that is their calibration methodology.

I'm pretty sure the gamma is set to 2.2, I'll check the panel later and edit if necessary.

Tim

The service manual does not explain why, but clipping and 'bit depth' seem to be the general answer, and just a general 'no,no' per some calibrators. Some posts discussing this are here: 9Uk Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10219647&&#post10219647)
The service manual procedure is to start with Green Drive at E0 (not necessary if you are starting out somewhat close to D65), then adjust Red and Blue, then increase R,G,B equally until one of them is at FC. I would expect another grayscale reading would be needed at that point, and then tweak as necessary.

All Drive will be set to the same value as your highest Red, Green, or Blue drive. Also, I think if you adjust All Drive, it increments R, G, & B drives equally.

Edit:
On the domestic panels they suggest setting green to 252 Whether it is red, green, or blue will depend on the panel, but FC (hex) = 252 (decimal)...these are the same.

I think you are right on the "ALL" parameters I seem to remember that they are used to adjust gamma should the entire curve need moving up or down.

Run out or "crush" would seem to be the most obvious reason not to go past a single set value, but again it seems that the scenario I mentioned in my last post of using dynamic mode is more likely to result in a crush in green (if my mind is working properly at the moment. I used the test patterns in my Lumagen to calibrate, I'll have a look at the red, green and blue ramps tomorrow.

I've emailed the question to a highly regarded ISF calibrator in the UK, and also to Panasonic UK via my local service agent.

I'll post whatever I get back. Try it on your own panel and see what it looks like...

Edit: I've just thought about this further and if I was over-driving green would it not show as running out towards the top end of the gamma curve? I think dynamic in the UK is referred to as "vivid" in the US - you go over to the pre-set and it is like whacking the contrast (white level) control up about ten notches.

Is this calibration instruction in the service menu meant so that the offsets in all the user menus won't cause it to be over-driven? I'm just thinking aloud at the moment. I've managed to get delta E down to a really low level across the board without even touching the Lumagen's 11 point CTEMP curve, every pattern I've looked at so far has been fine, and up until this evening I was really proud of myself given that this is my first calibration. I think the important one to look at is going to be a green ramp. I'll look up the ramp from the Lumagen, and run the test pattern generator on my HTPC.

Tim

Whether it is red, green, or blue will depend on the panel, but FC (hex) = 252 (decimal)...these are the same.

Yeah I know, that's why I put it in there. I was a CS Major.

Tim

The only thing I can think of for giving the FC advice is that there are modes in the panel when, if selected, may overdrive the panel or cause other issues in conjunction with this (e.g., have a "vivid" mode that pushes the panel into a long-term damage mode if particular settings are also too high). This seems like bad design to me, but I have to admit that I have more experience with CRTs than plasmas, and that means "not much".

Bill

Is this calibration instruction in the service menu meant so that the offsets in all the user menus won't cause it to be over-driven?I have asked the same question, and someone theorised that the user menu drive/cuts may be on the input side, so that the highest drive setting is not additive to the service menu value. This makes sense, if Panasonic designed it correctly.
The 8UK's don't seem to clip as easily as the 9UK's (maybe by trading off black level retention), but still, I would be wary of going over FC unless you hear otherwise from Panasonic. My factory settings and any 8UK/9UK posts that I have seen never go beyond FC, so there must be some reason such as the potential overdriving that Bill mentioned.

I've had the answers I suspected. The risk with setting any primary to max becomes an issue if a user adjusts any user menu options which increase that primary's drive. So as I suspected, if someone selects dynamic, then it increases the risk of burning in green. That seems to tie in with the fact that you can't adjust green in the advanced user menu.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll see how close I can get it with green set to FC.

Tim

I was also given advice from Carl (US Calibrator) that the all drive should be set FC and the lowest primary the same, as in Green for this panel.

I'm sure he also said that this was the recommendation from the Panasonic service manual.

This is what i have used for my calibration and the picture quality is spot on.

The PHD8UK is a damn good panel.