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The OFFICIAL Panasonic 9UK Owner's Thread

538K views 5K replies 638 participants last post by  GnatGoSplat 
#1 ·
Couldn't find an owner's thread, so if there's already one let me know and I'll delete/request this be deleted.


Got my 9UK yesterday (it's been in since last FRIDAY but due to biz travel I didn't get home until night before last). Got it all put in (with a grand total of 1/8" clearance on either side... WHEW!), fired it up and... AAAAAAAAAARGH! 'Da panel, she's-a broken! Two rectangular vertical sections on the bottom mid-right are intermittent. One goes from black to displaying video normally. The other is worse and only has the red/green pixels operating with no blue. Pressing lightly on the "Panasonic" logo brings everything back to normal, however that has negative effects for viewing enjoyability.


Ok, despite that, the TV is INCREDIBLE! Mind you, I did not have a Panny before. My comparison is with a calibrated NEC PX42-XR3A. Immediate impressions were that cable SD looks better. The TV does a better job scaling SD to HD than my NEC did, and while it's still very soft, it's not the mush that the NEC was and retains some measure of detail. DVDs are beautiful! Even over the component inputs (ran out of HDMIs, got a switcher but need to put it in), Nemo, Fifth Element and Matrix Revolutions looked amazingly good for SD. Shadow detail on this TV blows the NEC into the weeds and the blacks are BLACK by comparison. I had to set the TV to Cinema mode and turn down the brightness a bit. By default it's in Dynamic and is so bright as to be painful in a somewhat dim room.


The NEC was always great on color and did subtle fleshtones and shading as well as lurid cartoonish colors with aplomb but the Panasonic is in another league. Overall I am thrilled with the panel. Now if I could just get a working one!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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#4,077 ·
I asked this on the HCFR calibration thread, but since I have a question specific to the 9UKs, I thought I'd ask here, also...


I know that all of the controls in the User and Service menus interact somewhat, so if you make any adjustments at all, are you affecting your grayscale? If you use both menus and get the grayscale "perfect", will your primaries and secondaries be "perfect" also?


Adjustment of the grayscale seems pretty straightforward, but if your primaries and secondaries are not "spot on" at that point, what do you do to get them on, and will you have to redo your grayscale? I have a 9UK, so do I even have access to the necessary controls to achieve proper grayscale AND primary/secondary readings?


TIA,

Glenn
 
#4,078 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by GlennV /forum/post/0


I asked this on the HCFR calibration thread, but since I have a question specific to the 9UKs, I thought I'd ask here, also...


I know that all of the controls in the User and Service menus interact somewhat, so if you make any adjustments at all, are you affecting your grayscale? If you use both menus and get the grayscale "perfect", will your primaries and secondaries be "perfect" also?


Adjustment of the grayscale seems pretty straightforward, but if your primaries and secondaries are not "spot on" at that point, what do you do to get them on, and will you have to redo your grayscale? I have a 9UK, so do I even have access to the necessary controls to achieve proper grayscale AND primary/secondary readings?


TIA,

Glenn

Any brightess, picture, gamma, or RGB cut/drives will affect your grayscale. Your color/tint controls will NOT affect grayscale. They'll only tweak your color decoder, which you probably shouldn't have to do on the 9UK. It is not required to use the service menu to balance grayscale on the 9UK. Balancing your grayscale has nothing to do with your primaries.


You cannot adjust your color the 9UK creates. You can balance how your tv creates different shades of gray (grayscale) which in turn affect how your tv uses the colors it has to produce an image. You can buy a Fujitsu or Pioneer Elite to 'move your primaries', but plan on paying 2-3 times more money.
 
#4,079 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by colin6969 /forum/post/0


Any brightess, picture, gamma, or RGB cut/drives will affect your grayscale. Your color/tint controls will NOT affect grayscale. They'll only tweak your color decoder, which you probably shouldn't have to do on the 9UK. It is not required to use the service menu to balance grayscale on the 9UK. Balancing your grayscale has nothing to do with your primaries.


You cannot adjust your color the 9UK creates. You can balance how your tv creates different shades of gray (grayscale) which in turn affect how your tv uses the colors it has to produce an image. You can buy a Fujitsu or Pioneer Elite to 'move your primaries', but plan on paying 2-3 times more money.


colin,


Does the CIE diagram tell if the decoder is off?


If not, how do you check it? My gut still says my decoder is off.



bob
 
#4,080 ·
Hey Everyone,


I've searched and searched and can't seem to find anyone who has faced the same problem, but I am hopeful that I'm mistaken. My set up consists of the 50" along with a 3-1 HDMI switcher from Monoprice.


Basically, whenever I sit down to watch tv, a movie, etc., EVERYTIME I turn on the TV, I get a totally green screen and have to switch inputs and then back (sometimes multiple times) before it goes away and displays the image.


Can anyone tell me what the heck is going on?! Is it a bad blade? I tried going straight from the cable box and dvd player to the tv, so I don't think it's the switcher, but I am at a loss as far as what to do next. PLEASE HELP!!!
 
#4,081 ·
Guys


I've been hoping this would go away but it hasn't. On high contrast edges (black jersey on hockey ice, etc) there is a green fringe mostly with motion. It will do it on any high contrast edge while moving. Very distracting. Ty pical for this set? I don't see it on my brothers Sammy.



thx


bob
 
#4,082 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by spongebob /forum/post/0


Guys


I've been hoping this would go away but it hasn't. On high contrast edges (black jersey on hockey ice, etc) there is a green fringe mostly with motion. It will do it on any high contrast edge while moving. Very distracting. Ty pical for this set? I don't see it on my brothers Sammy.



thx


bob

Hi Bob - I think what you're experiencing is what plasma owners refer to as "green phosphor lag". Basically the green phospher doesn't react as quickly as your red/blue.


I notice it too btw. It's inherent in all plasma technology from what I've understood. At least it's not as distracting as LCD's motion blur.
 
#4,088 ·
So is it true that the "picture" setting affects the luminence of the set and input level actually affects the contrast level? I've read that if "picture" is set too high that luminence drops at high IREs? And it seems on greyscale bar patterns that the whitest bars cannot be differentiated unless input level is lowered below 0...yet I've read here that input level should not be touched?
 
#4,092 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg17 /forum/post/0


So is it true that the "picture" setting affects the luminence of the set and input level actually affects the contrast level? I've read that if "picture" is set too high that luminence drops at high IREs? And it seems on greyscale bar patterns that the whitest bars cannot be differentiated unless input level is lowered below 0...yet I've read here that input level should not be touched?

Picture affects your overall luminance, affecting mostly your total output, but also your black-level cutoff to a small degree, hence the need to readjust brightness after playing with picture. I wouldn't say it's true that luminence drops on this panel if driven too far. In fact, my VGA input happens to overdrive my last 95-100IRE (a high top-end gamma) no matter what Picture setting I have. Where as my HDMI input is the opposite and happens to level off around 90-100IRE (a low top-end gamma).


Input level is a video-mapping correction utility to be used if your source is feeding your panel an analog signal with a mapping that is 'off'. It should only be used for this purpose if you know your source is mapping incorrectly. Using Input level to force white clipping is NOT your panel clipping due to power-limiting or anything....it's white-clipping at the Video level because you forced your mapping of white levels to be so off that the high end believes everything is 255.
 
#4,093 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by spongebob /forum/post/0


HD loses its' 3D "pop" at zero sharpness. Kinda like a Pioneer Elite




bob

I advise you to set it to 0 and watch the set for a couple of weeks. You may be surprised how much more detailed the picture is without artificial edge enhancement. It takes a little while for the brain to re-adjust, so the initial impression will always be "how soft!". Just an illusion, however.
 
#4,094 ·
I picked up a 42PH9UK last week (finally into HD!). I've been reading this forum forever and have found answers to most of my questions, but here's one I haven't seen: does anyone make 90 degree BNC - RCA adapters that I could use with the 9UK? My Monoprice cables are a little stiff and I'd like to run them to the blade without bending. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
 
#4,095 ·
Hi All,


I've been a major 'lurker' on this thread for the last couple months and it's been incredibly helpful to me in setting up my 9UK....I think I now know enough to be dangerous!


Anyway, I recently calibrated using HCFR, an Eye-One Display LT and GetGrey DVD. I achieved fairly good results but when I switched the source to my DishNetwork VIP622 the calibration seemed off to me. I decided to try and calibrate using the VIP622 as a source and captured the contrast/brightness, greyscale and color patterns from the GetGrey DVD and uploaded them to the VIP622 and calibrated. The settings I needed to calibrated were much different from the DVD source. I was unable to achieve 100% red at IRE 20%, so I increased the Input to 10 which allowed me to get 100% red at IRE 20%. I switched to 80% IRE and was unable to get Blue to 100%. I ran the HCFR calibration and achieved the attached results.


A couple questions:


1. Is displaying a .jpg file a legitimate way to calibrate?


2. Is increasing the Input Level a legitimate way to increase the R/B gain/offset?


3. Any advice on dialing in my calibration on my VIP622?


Here's my setup:


Onkyo DVD and VIP622 connected via HDMI to Onkyo TX-SR604 A/V Receiver, whcih is connected via HDMI to the 9UK.


Thanks in advance for any advice,


Jeff

 
#4,096 ·
Jeff -- first things first....take a look at your luminance histogram. Notice the S-shape to it? Normally, I'd say it's because you probably have gamma=s-curve. But my guess is that you've changed that to 2.2 or 2.5.....if so, the problem you're seeing there would probably have to do with setting input level=10. Since that essentially remaps your video to your display output, you can see your bottom spiking early--a high bottom-end gamma, and your top leveling off--a low top-end gamma. I would think this would be inline with mapping your video levels too high. (white gets crushed and levels off, bottom staying low and then rising far too quickly)


Put input level=0 and make sure gamma=2.2 or 2.5 (depending on lighting conditions), and retry getting them in line.


If your HDMI input is like mine, red is the weakest color, not green. Therefore you'll need to enter the service menu to calibrate your grayscale using red as your weakest color....thus adjusting green/blue drives to nail D65.
 
#4,097 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirkimus /forum/post/0


I picked up a 42PH9UK last week (finally into HD!). I've been reading this forum forever and have found answers to most of my questions, but here's one I haven't seen: does anyone make 90 degree BNC - RCA adapters that I could use with the 9UK? My Monoprice cables are a little stiff and I'd like to run them to the blade without bending. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

I've never seen such an animal, but you can certainly get right-angle BNCs and mate them with BNC/RCA adapters. That's what I did. Or, you could just get right-angle BNCs and BNC to RCA component cables.


Glenn
 
#4,098 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by colin6969 /forum/post/0


Picture affects your overall luminance, affecting mostly your total output, but also your black-level cutoff to a small degree, hence the need to readjust brightness after playing with picture. I wouldn't say it's true that luminence drops on this panel if driven too far. In fact, my VGA input happens to overdrive my last 95-100IRE (a high top-end gamma) no matter what Picture setting I have. Where as my HDMI input is the opposite and happens to level off around 90-100IRE (a low top-end gamma).


Input level is a video-mapping correction utility to be used if your source is feeding your panel an analog signal with a mapping that is 'off'. It should only be used for this purpose if you know your source is mapping incorrectly. Using Input level to force white clipping is NOT your panel clipping due to power-limiting or anything....it's white-clipping at the Video level because you forced your mapping of white levels to be so off that the high end believes everything is 255.


Then how do we get the WTW w/o adjusting the input level?



bob
 
#4,099 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by csundbom /forum/post/0


I advise you to set it to 0 and watch the set for a couple of weeks. You may be surprised how much more detailed the picture is without artificial edge enhancement. It takes a little while for the brain to re-adjust, so the initial impression will always be "how soft!". Just an illusion, however.

I'll try, Carl


You're right. At first, it's "No, No"





bob
 
#4,100 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by spongebob /forum/post/0


Then how do we get the WTW w/o adjusting the input level?



bob

You don't. As Carl said, this panel is designed to not clip white and give you the largest dynamic range throughout what the 'video-range' would consider WTW....the 16 steps before 255.


This is actually a good thing in that:


1. There are those that would claim that you don't want to clip white during those last 16 steps, and that they should be distinguishable...this mainly has to do with the fact that there is plenty of material out there (early dvds, etc.) that didn't strictly follow this WTW video standard well. You get to see that detail...others won't.


2. As long as you're content with your foot-lambert output @ 100IRE (Video White=239), what does it matter that the display will show anything higher?


Input Level would slide your mappings up/down if you knew for certain your source was off...so if the source's 255 white material was actually coming in @ 220, then perhaps you'll need adjust Input Level to remap it into place.


And as Carl said, the only way to know for certain is with a known reference source....like fancy signal generators that none of us have.
 
#4,101 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by colin6969 /forum/post/0


Jeff -- first things first....take a look at your luminance histogram. Notice the S-shape to it? Normally, I'd say it's because you probably have gamma=s-curve. But my guess is that you've changed that to 2.2 or 2.5.....if so, the problem you're seeing there would probably have to do with setting input level=10. Since that essentially remaps your video to your display output, you can see your bottom spiking early--a high bottom-end gamma, and your top leveling off--a low top-end gamma. I would think this would be inline with mapping your video levels too high. (white gets crushed and levels off, bottom staying low and then rising far too quickly)


Put input level=0 and make sure gamma=2.2 or 2.5 (depending on lighting conditions), and retry getting them in line.


If your HDMI input is like mine, red is the weakest color, not green. Therefore you'll need to enter the service menu to calibrate your grayscale using red as your weakest color....thus adjusting green/blue drives to nail D65.

Colin,


I re-calibrated with Input at 0 and gamma at 2.2, was 2.5 previously, attached are the results. It appears you were right about red being the weakest color, is there a previous post that explains how to go into the SM and make red the weakest color or would it be possible to explain how to briefly (I know this is a stretch!).


Also, the calculated gamma (avg) is 2.19 and contrast is 2170:1 is this where I want to be?


Thanks,


Jeff


GO TWINS!

 
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