Panasonic PZ80/PZ85 Calibration Thread (Updated first post) - Page 48

Originally Posted by AVfile

Your picture must be much cooler than mine. I just realized you are using Normal color temp while my numbers were with Warm.

By the way you can take Cinema mode and reset everything to defaults in the user menu, then perform all the calibrations in the service menu. That way you don't have to worry about someone messing with your settings.

Rather than pay an ISF I'm going to buy this kit and DIY:

http://www.curtpalme.com/EyeOneDisplay2.shtm

There are forums there if you want to talk about it.

Originally Posted by AVfile

Rather than pay an ISF I'm going to buy this kit and DIY:

http://www.curtpalme.com/EyeOneDisplay2.shtm

There are forums there if you want to talk about it.

Originally Posted by AVfile

Your picture must be much cooler than mine. I just realized you are using Normal color temp while my numbers were with Warm.

Originally Posted by Terrain

My question is why I seem to see so much more artifacting and noise in the Panny? This is especially predominant on scenes with a lot of contiguous sky or ocean, for example. Will this diminish with break in? Are there settings that will help?

Originally Posted by Terrain

Thanks AVFile. I have followed that advice (implementing Tom's numbers with Cinema mode) and it seems to have improved the PQ. I will continue to tinker, perhaps with the reality in mind that it will likely never match the Pioneer.

Originally Posted by Terrain

We just bought the TH50PZ85. I have owned a 43" Pioneer for the past four years as well. The Pioneer is an amazing plasma and it seems the Panny doesn't quite stack up

Originally Posted by ganzhimself

It's actually quite warm still. If i switch between warm and normal (with my above settings) the difference is minimal. Might put the "Normal" values back to their defaults and apply those settings to "Warm." I'm going to turn down my green drive a few steps, as there seems to be a slight green tint to some faces.

Originally Posted by Fr. John

I could easily be wrong but I find it highly unlikely the 4 year old Pio can match the brand new Panny.

Originally Posted by ganzhimself

I reverted my settings in the Normal color temp and went in and edited my Warm color temp, just dropped the red drive down 4 steps. It looks even better now. Since the blue and green drive levels were near where I had set them in the normal color temps I left them for the time being. Been watching NBC HD (Life and Law and Order), and CBS HD (Criminal Minds) and they look better than they did with my other settings.

Originally Posted by Shawn1

Did I just read that correctly? The picture quality of a 2008-model PDP is inferior to the picture quality of a 2004-model PDP?

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that.

Originally Posted by Fr. John

I could easily be wrong but I find it highly unlikely the 4 year old Pio can match the brand new Panny.

Originally Posted by AVfile

Based on the criteria he was judging, I think he's right. My 6-year old Pio CRT blew away the Panny which I was calibrating right next to it, but only in some respects. It just so happens that image "pop" factor is the most noticeable. If you crank up the Panny to those kind of picture levels it fails, shows nasty artifacts and starts to look like a lousy LCD.

Once you get used to the lower Picture levels however, you can really appreciate the panel for what it is. Incredible resolution, black stability, focus and perfect geometry that the CRT could only dream of.

Originally Posted by Terrain

See my response to Shawn. My error, we bought the 4360HD three years ago (January 2006). All of this raises a concern that there may be a defect of some sort on the Z85 we bought. That seems highly unlikely to me. The guys that delivered it said they see virtually no returns on the Panasonics. For certain the PQ is simply not as good, and that's coming from two sets of eyes.

Originally Posted by Fr. John

You should post some side by side screenshots.

Originally Posted by Fr. John

You should post some side by side screenshots.

Originally Posted by Terrain

Shawn,

There is no question that the Pioneer 4360HD (actually purchased three years ago, not four) has a nicer picture. That is irrefutable. That's the cause of my concern and why I am wondering if there may be a problem with the Panny we just bought. We were by no means "blown away" by the Z85, and we have always been by the Pioneer. The best reference HD channel we have is probably Oasis (along with Discovery) and it is consistently breathtaking on the Pioneer. Not so at all on the Z85. There seems to be noise and artifacts and generally less clarity. SD on the Pioneer is far nicer than on the Panasonic (better scaling?). And yes, we are using the same cables and HD sat receiver for both TV's.

Originally Posted by mpotturi

As a owner of Poineer 5070 and Panasonic 46PZ80U, let me attest your findings. There is no comparison of the picture quality between the two. Pio is in a league of its own. Though my Pio is nearly two years old and Panasonic is just couple of month old with higher resolution, Pio clearly blows the new Panasonic out of the water. There is absolutely no contest. That peobably explains why Pioneers cost that much more and still people flock to grab 'em.

Originally Posted by B_S

That looks like an interesting alternative, but I think if I was gonna spend ~$300 for that I'd just spend a little more and let the professional do it.

Let us know how yours turns out though.

Originally Posted by bucky4

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I bought my tv in August, it has over a 100 hours on it. I'm looking for the best settings for watching regular tv. Cinema mode looks really dark to me, maybe that's the way its suppose to be. Are their any calibrations settings that work really well under one of the other modes? If numbers have already been posted, sorry. How do I find them with out searching through all of the pages.

Thank you very much for the help.

Originally Posted by cvearl

Refer to page one.

Cinema at it's default of warm is for dark room viewing and is optimized for the cleanest possible signal like well made/mastered upressed DVD's and Bluerays. It is very accurate and has a rough peak luminance of 35 fl (footlamberts) which is what mastering bays generally get out of the CRT they use to master the movies on. The Warm temp is closets to the Greyscale D65 spec (very close) and the gamma is nearly a flat 2.2 (all cornerstones of a calibrated CRT in the mastering bays).

Toms settings in The first page are great for full HD blueray playback form HDMI. If you feel the skin tones are a touch blushy, drop his color to 38ish.

Overall Brightness of the picture is higher in Standard mode left in it's default temp of Normal and I use that for all TV viewing (P60, B50, C50, T0 seem to work well for me). The colors (according to my probe) are a bit more accurate but the gamma and luminance are overdriven on purpose (for bright rooms) and it's color temp is defaulted to Normal as much of content from TV signals can be overly warm already (at least I find) so Normal helps to compensate that to some degree without hurting other channels much. Which is why, in the manual, it calls STANDARD the setting for watching in a lit room and Cinema (accurate mode) for watching accurate content in a darkened (like a theater) room.

When I get a chance and I have experimented further I am trying to come up with a "close as you can get" set of user control only settings specifically for the PZ85U 42" for Blueray playback from HDMI.

C.

Originally Posted by BHS

Excellent summary. IMO this really otta be a part of page one.

Originally Posted by AVfile

Another thing that helps is, if you or the wife must have lights on in the room, placing the lighting in the right place. I see too many people with bright table lamps shining directly on the screen. All you see is a big reflection in the panel. Get some dimmable spotlights and point them away from the TV, or wall sconces placed on the same wall as the TV so the light is BEHIND or beside it, not in front.

Originally Posted by tcramer

Backlighting helps a lot. Earlier in this thread Elway had some posts on the benefits of backlighting that was helpful.