Panasonic PZ80/PZ85 Calibration Thread (Updated first post) - Page 14

What are the "color mgmt" and "x.v. color" settings and are they worth exploring/using? Thanks, all.

xvColor is a larger, very much larger, color space than HDTV. The only sources that support xvColor are some digital video cameras. If you don't own one of those digicams, then you should never use xvColor.

Maybe someday we'll have video or movie sources in xvColor, but we don't have it now. REAL xvColor has to be shot digitally with a digital video cam or digital cinema camera. Film has a smaller color space than xvColor so nothing that was ever shot on film would ever "fill" xvColor color space. But film has a larger color space than HDTV and HDTV's color space is a little larger than standard def color space.

Thanks for that great, clear answer to "xv color."

If you customize standard or cinema or vivid so all the settings are identical, will the picture be identical? Or will it be different because the modes themselves have different settings internally in ways we cannot adjust? I hope my question makes sense.

NOOOOOOOOOOO. Way different. This is why cinema is preferred, something about its internal setting in that mode offers a better picture.

Awesome. Thanks for prompt, helpful reply.

No problem. Custom and Standard seem to have the gamma higher or something which adds noise. Cinema IS darker but offers probably the most accurate picture you can get without a professional (per TomHuffman who is a professional)

For sports, would you 46" pz85 owners recommend the brighter "standard" mode or the preferred "cinema" mode with maybe a little additional tweaking/adjusting the settings. As always, thanks much.

I've settled in on "cinema" for all sports. I've tried "game" which is ok but a bit bright and some variations of "custom" but cinema seems to be the most reliable setting. Baseball, basketball and hockey so far have looked awesome.

Hi all:
Just bought my 85u 46 inch. I downloaded this break in dvd from the given url from other users

what settings should I use while running it and after running it? thanks. any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi all!

I’ve bought PZ85U a couple of days ago. Out of the box, it looks rather crappy with compare to Pioneer 6010 that I’ve been watching for about a month.
And it probably will, even after and if calibrated professionally. Anyway, the hole in my budget these two made is too big to hire a pro right now.
Hence, the following questions (primarily, for Doug, I guess, but any input is really appreciated).

1. Will I be able to calibrate 85U grayscale and color reasonably well myself using a decent color meter without signal generator
2. If so, what meter would you recommend
3. Can I avoid buying a blu-ray player and use instead PC->DVI->HDMI->TV connection to play the calibration DVD
4. Is software like HCFR (freeware, actually) sufficient for that purpose

I assume, of course the extensive use of the service menu and a proper PC (video card supports 1080 DVI out etc).

Thanks,
jb

If you picture is "crappy" out of the box you've got a bad set. Comparing it to the Pio should still bring very little differences. This is a great tv-take yours back.

I ran Cinema with the picture setting under 50 (I believe it was 45 or so). Everything else should be ok.

PJ did Dan Miller from LionAV do you calibrration. I was thinkingh about Dan because he services NJ

I just got my 50PZ80U yesterday and im just wondering, im reading about all this "break in" period and wondering if its really important or should i just tweak it to my preference right away.If i should break it in can anyone tell me what recommended settings i should use at first, and for how long.Im pretty much using cinema mode with everything else set at 50,wonder thats ok for the 100 hrs or so
Thank you

Thanks StuJac - what about after I run the DVD?

Also - should I run the DVD continuously for 100 hours? thanks again!

There are a number of differing thoughts on this so all I can do is tell you what I did. I ran the break-in dvd continuously for about the first 70 hours (24 hours a day) then when it was ready to be moved onto the new stand I kept the picture setting below 50 until about 120 or so hours. Now I run the pic at about 86 in cinema and it's been great. Some here will tell you that we're all paranoid; that we don't need to run a break in dvd or don't need to "baby" the picture. I'd rather err on the side of caution and now than I'm over the break-in period it's smooth sailing.

Don't have blu-ray yet... is it ok to run the break in DVD with a standard definition player? thanks!

Yes-why not? Just make sure the settings for picture are at or below 50.

yes.

If you want to calibrate for HD programming, you really need a gray scale that's on an HD disc or signal generator with HD output. However, using an SD test/setup disc gets you kinda-sorta close, not ideal, but not off enough to be a huge problem. The Panasonic gray scale calibrates pretty well - fairly low errors at each step in the gray scale. However, there's nothing you can do about the inaccurate colors with or without a signal generator. Blue and Magenta are pretty accurate, Green is way oversaturated, and the other colors are "off" a bit but not nearly as much as Green. The Pioneer you have is very nearly spot-on for all the colors so that's one difference you are seeing. You didn't ask about Gamma... in the Pioneer you can get a Gamma of 2.4 with no problem. The Panasonic will have a Gamma of 2.2-2.3 in Cinema mode but there's nothing you can do to make it higher. To my eyes, 2.35-2.4 Gamma is usually the best choice for giving images the most 3-D-look you can get from a 2-D display.


X-rite i1 Display 2 or i1 Display LT are the best bang for buck



No easy answer to this... see above. All depends on how close you want to get to an ideal calibration.



Yes, it will work fine but there will be a long learning curve and you'll probably spend hours and hours and hours experimenting, thinking you have it right only to revisit some measurements a week or 2 later to find that some insight or another that you've had since the last session will allow you to improve the calibration. This will probably go on for 6 months, then you'll get a PS3 or a Blu-ray player and start the process all over again.



You want to be sure the PC video board will support "consumer" video and not just PC video... consumer video (as encoded on DVD and Blu-ray) has digital levels of 16-235. PC video has levels of 0-255. The difference can mess you up considerably when you are calibratingn - with the right software (like DisplayMate MultiMedia Edition) you could work around not being able to send anything but PC Video but it would be much trickier. PC video can be a fickle friend.

I have run across posts and links to putting HD video test patterns on DVD discs - if you can dig those references out (sorry, I never saved any links or files and never tried putting HD video on a DVD disc myself so I'm not sure what the requirements are for software, hardware, etc.) by searching AVS or Google, that might be your solution to not buying a Blu-ray player just yet and still being able to calibrate for HD.

I understand what you are saying about the Pioneer vs Panasonic... crappy might be a bit harsh, but the Pioneer does enough things better than the Pansonic (at condiderably higher purchase cost, of course) that, side by side, there would be some fairly obvious differences. The Pioneer displays also have noticeably better video processing. Not that the Panasonic images are crappy, per se, they just aren't going to be the equal of the Kuro display before or after calibration.

Pro calibration may not be as expensive as you think... I can't speak for other calibrators, but I discount the 2nd and 3rd displays calibrated in the same house. I find the Kuro displays are easier/faster to calibrate than the Panasonics, so I'd charge the usual fee for the Panasonic and take about 40% off the Pioneer's fee. But that's me. I don't know what other calibrators do with multiple calibrations at a single location. Factor in what you'll spend on a meter (that will be OK, but not in the same league with a high-end meter) and other misc bits you may need and the amount of time it takes to learn enough and experience enough to do a good calibration, and pro calibration suddenly doesn't seem that bad, expense wise.

I use my TH-42PZ80U as a PC monitor, and I can tell you with certainty that 50 does not mean the sharpness is untouched. I am not sure whether 0 is untouched or not, but you can tell when looking at black text on a grey background that the image is *definitely* sharpened. The text starts to fade into the background once you get above 20 on the sharpness. Somewhere between 0 and 20 is where the sharpness is untouched.

I currently have my sharpness at about 10, I haven't decided whether I like it better at 0 or 10.

I played around with Size 1 and Size 2...decided to keep it at 1 for the most part, as I watch mostly DirecTV and can't stand just a black bar on the top (which happens on some channels). I might opt to go Size 2 for BD, as most have black bars anyway (but on top AND bottom)

Wow thanks for that ray of Sunshine, if you think it's so crappy why don't you return it and sell your car or something and buy a Pioneer. No offense but comments like this are offensive to everyone that spent a lot of money on this TV and are really enjoying it. I won't bother putting time and energy into answering people's questions when they are already calling the thing a piece of crap, unfortunately Doug already answered you which is more than you deserve, enjoy your crappy TV.

Just a little defensive, eh? If you can't handle the criticism, AVS is a rough place to be.

Criticism is making intelligent informed observations, he just took a big sh*t on it without really saying why. We all know the Pioneers are better but the Panasonics most certainly do not look like crap. Don't worry about me friend I'll survive the rough waters of AVSForum

Not sure who you are referring to but you are wrong. The poster comes here to a dedicated site for this tv and calls it a piece of crap and that should be allowed to pass? No, the guy was possibly a plant or just plain ill informed. He's comparing a 1600 tv to a 6000 tv. Sure-my wife's Sable is a piece of crap next to my Caddy. Come on, be real.

I think you do get a slight reduction in picture quality from Size 2 to Size 1. I leave mine on 2 all the time; until I have to go to 1 for certain programming. Luckily I dumped *D* years ago so it's rare that I have to go back to Size 1.

I am just returning a 50PZ850U because the picture is sub-par next to other mid priced plasma TV's. I do think this new line of Panasonic TV's must use cheap internal components. I am very disappointed to go through all the trouble of bringing this thing home only to find my 3 year old rear projection Sony has a better picture!!

I did not let the bright lights of BB or CC influence my decision on what TV's to buy as someone alluded too. I trusted the review on Cnet on the 800U, but I must say in real world use this TV comes up well short of its competitors!

You are in the wrong thread. This is for the PZ80 and PZ85-not the PZ850U. As has been stated about a hundred times in this thread; the PZ85 is a great tv, especially for the money.