These are the settings in use on my KDL-52Z5100. I'm certain they will change over time. However, I'm pretty happy with the way it looks, so I don't imagine that there will be any drastic changes, pending a monumental firmware update. Remember, YMMV with your set since no two are exactly alike. Different companies accept certain tolerances when it comes to binning the individual parts used to build an electronic device. Any opinions or comments are welcome.
My family/theater room is a cave, so my settings reflect that fact. I'm very happy that even with the low level of ambient light, I do not see any clouding or flashlight effects at all.
Update 9/24/09: I made some changes to my Blu-Ray input settings. I also discovered that I can use 'theater mode' to allow me to have separate settings for my HD-XA2 and PS3, which are connected to my AVR via HDMI. I really wish television manufacturers would start installing an "HDMI through' so that you can take advantage of the multiple HDMI inputs on the TV and then pass the sound onto the AVR. This would allow you to take advantage of the separate settings of each input. Well, this is a workaround that allows me to have two for my HDM content.
Update 10/15/09: Even though I don't have a colorimeter, I used some D65 photographic paper for comparison to a grey raster. I ended up dropping the gains for blue and green down significantly. I also decided that the tearing artifacts during fast, horizontal pans to be too much to bear. Thus, I turned MotionFlow down to standard. I may experiment with eliminating it altogether for BD and HD DVD.
Also, on the Reon processor settings on my XA2, I stopped using edge enhancement on both HD and SD DVDs. The Z5100 really exhibits a lot of ringing if you set the sharpness too high. As an example, using DVE's over-scan patterns, going above 6 for HD and 14 for SD introduced perceptible ringing, especially on the horizontal axis. I'm glad that you are able to turn sharpness down low enough to eliminate the ringing.
These settings will be a 'work in progress' for some time. My wife is always the one to bring me back to Earth from my incessant tweaking. It doesn't take long for me to get the all too familiar "Can you stop screwing around with the television so we can just watch it?" She does have a point but the urge to tweak is very strong indeed!
Update 10-21-09: I think I have
finally settled on gamma being at +2. On DVE, it appears that gamma is at 2.2 to 2.4. I'm pretty sure that's where it needs to be. After 1 week I'll see if I still feel the same way...
Update Dec. 10 2009 I've decided to raise my backlight levels,
slightly. I'm going to increase it by levels of one, wait a day or two, and see what I think of it. Like I've mentioned, my HT/family room is a cave, so I've never had to have my sets very bright. Even my old primary set, the 60" XBR2, which is as bright as an acetylene torch was set very low on the peak white side.
I've settled on gamma at +2 and
may try out the next and last setting, maximum. I've read several reviewers state that in order to achieve gamma of 2.2 to 2.4, they have had to set gamma to max. Once I read that, it kind of piqued my interest. I do have a difficult time reading the gamma pattern.
I have now concluded, IMHO, that there is absolutely no reason to set MotionFlow to high. It causes an extreme number of artifacts, especially during moderate to fast horizontal pans. Additionally, it really accentuates the 'soap opera effect'.
Update 12-21-09 I thought I might share my new gaming settings. I only play Rock Band 1 and 2, plus Beatles: Rock Band. If there is a game that needs as little lag as humanely possible, these would certainly fit that bill. I do the following. 1st, I use analog component connections. Also, I use standard RCA jacks for audio. Ensure that MotionFlow and CineMotion are off. Calibrate your game and, viola...The least amount of lag. One more thing, I also use 'direct' in my AVR to further help the cause. My Onkyo, and I'm sure, all other HDMI based AVRs have these issues to contend with.
Update 2-4-10 So, I make a post about the virtues and pitfalls of the sharpness setting and realize that since October of 2009, I haven't updated sharpness since I first wrote the update ranting about sharpness! My apologies for any confusion I may have caused!
Update 9-14-10 I just picked up an LG BD-590 Blu-Ray player. As soon as I started a movie, things just didn't seem
right. I brought out the trusty calibration disks, blew the dust off of them, and went right to work. What stood out the most was that while I was watching the first movie (Star Trek 2009, I saw what looked like edge enhancement. Since I know the movie does not have issues with EE, I pulled up the raster and was kind of shocked to see ringing, even at the low sharpness setting the I've used since I purchased the set. One click at a time, I brought the level down. The ringing didn't completely disappear until I hit 0 (minimum)
I had just a few other changes to make to color and hue that were very minor.
I also bumped my back-light up, finally. I set it to 3 for all inputs! I still do not have any issues with back-light bleed or clouding. I'm still in love with this display, over a year later. I think we're soul mates!
Blu-Ray
Picture Mode - Custom
Backlight - 3
Picture - 88
Brightness - 44
Color - 48
Hue - R1
Color Temperature - Warm 2
Sharpness - Minimum
Noise Reduction - Off
MPEG Noise Reduction - Off
MotionFlow - Standard
CineMotion - Auto 2
ADVANCED SECTION
Black Corrector - Off
ACE - Off
Gamma - +2
Auto Light Limiter - Off
Clear White - Off
WHITE BALANCE
Red Gain (-2)
Green Gain (-12)
Blue Gain (-10)
Red Bias (0)
Green Bias (0)
Blue Bias (-2)
OTA (Tuner)
Picture Mode - Custom
Backlight - 3
Picture - 90
Brightness - 45
Color - 45
Hue - 0
Color Temperature - Warm 2
Sharpness - HD 10 SD Oh...Not applicable! I don't watch sub channels
Noise Reduction - Off
MPEG Noise Reduction - Off
MotionFlow - Standard
CineMotion - Auto 1
ADVANCED SECTION
Black Corrector - Off
ACE - Off
Gamma - +2
Auto Light Limiter - Off
Clear White - Off
WHITE BALANCE
Red Gain (-2)
Green Gain (-12)
Blue Gain (-10)
Red Bias (0)
Green Bias (0)
Blue Bias (-2)
HD DVD (Theater Mode)
Picture Mode - Cinema
Backlight - 2
Picture - 91
Brightness - 44
Color - 53
Hue - 0
Color Temperature - Warm 2
Sharpness - 6
Noise Reduction - Off
MPEG Noise Reduction - Off
MotionFlow - Standard
CineMotion - Auto 2
ADVANCED SECTION
Black Corrector - Off
ACE - Off
Gamma - +2
Auto Light Limiter - Off
Clear White - Off
WHITE BALANCE
Red Gain (-2)
Green Gain (-12)
Blue Gain (-10)
Red Bias (0)
Green Bias (0)
Blue Bias (-2)
Games USING COMPONENT CONNECTION AND RCA STEREO AUDIO.
Picture Mode - Custom
Backlight - 2
Picture - 90
Brightness - 44
Color - 48
Hue - R1
Color Temperature - Warm 2
Sharpness - 8
Noise Reduction - Off
MPEG Noise Reduction - Off
MotionFlow - Off
CineMotion - Off
ADVANCED SECTION
Black Corrector - Off
ACE - Off
Gamma - +2
Auto Light Limiter - Off
Clear White - Off
WHITE BALANCE
Red Gain (-2)
Green Gain (-12)
Blue Gain (-10)
Red Bias (0)
Green Bias (0)
Blue Bias (-2)
Regards...Will