The Official Pioneer 9G non-Elite KURO Owner's Discussion Thread - Page 395

I had the pleasure of having D-Nice calibrate my 5020FD last night. He calibrated movie mode to use pure cinema advanced and game mode to use pure cinema off, so it is the best of both worlds for me. It was very impressive seeing him go through all of the adjustments and settings, after watching him and his relentless pursuit of the best possible color balance; I know that I did the right thing having him do it rather than attempting it myself.

The picture looked great before, but I had to admit I was a little disappointed in the set compared to the ranting and raving we see around this place. After calibration, the picture looks like someone scraped a thick layer of dirt and dust off of my screen. Movies where I never noticed a three-dimensional effect, I do now.

Right after he was done, I popped in Sin City and was blown away by the extra detail that was flooding the screen, then I popped in Kung Fu Panda and was similarly impressed by the fine details that I was missing before that were now everywhere.

If anyone is on the fence about having a professional calibration done and are wondering how it could possibly make your display look any better than it does, it really can.

Thanks again to D-Nice for his time and expertise!

I'll update this post when I receive the calibration report.

edit:

Calibration reports posted.

 

Pioneer PDP-5020FD Pre Calibration Forum Report (Movie).pdf 206.4912109375k . file

 

Pioneer PDP-5020FD Post Calibration Forum Report (Movie).pdf 198.3642578125k . file

 

Pioneer PDP-5020FD Post Calibration Forum Report (Game).pdf 202.6630859375k . file

Thanks for your Report

If your that worried about burn in, you can run the "video pattern"
feature Pioneer offers after watching a movie.

I have had a 6020 for nearly a year, watch many letterboxed movies, plus some 4:3 things, and have experienced neither burn in nor image retention. Zero, zip, nada. In short, I think the chances are incredibly remote that you will harm your display as a result of any sort of normal television viewing, no matter what it is.

True with me also, but I do dial in a fair amount of 16:9 HD TV, and run the panel on Wide/Auto to prevent 4:3 side bars.

Thanks for your calibration report. I've included it in the flat panel(Post#2) list that's linked at the bottom of my post.

Yeah, I, too, watch a lot of 16:9 HD. For awhile after I got my 6020 I stretched 4:3 content to 16:9, despite HATING the distortion that stretchovision causes. After a couple of months, though, I decided that the 6020 was virtually immune to burn in or image retention and went back to watching 4:3 stuff OAR. As noted in my earlier post, I haven't had a bit of trouble.

Be careful, It really depends on what you consider normal viewing. My wife watched about 3-4 hours of Standard Def television every day and after six months of watching it with black bars on the side we ended up with image burn of a perfectly 4:3 image in the center. It is only noticeable in a pitch black room but it is there. Thankfully it does not affect the picture. After a few months of watching that awful stretch mode, and running the video pattern avery couple weeks it is still there but it is better.

So now she watches it in AUTO and we let the TV decide to stretch it and I avoid SD almost completely. I even found that after calibration it made SD even harder to watch, because I get used to a phenomenal picture in HD.

I rather watch a bad show in HD than a good show in SD. LOL.

I imagine D-NICE would have tried to convince you to just calibrate MOVIE in both since most calibrators find that MOVIE is the best picture.

I'm curious to know, how would you describe the difference of a calibrated GAME mode compared to your calibrated MOVIE mode. Did you have GAME calibrated to 6500k? Is calibrated GAME a brighter image?

I opted to get MOVIE calibrated in OFF and ADVANCED and I would have a tough time telling them apart. I was wondering if I should have calibrated GAME.

Hi; I just got my 6020FD from Chris at Cleveland Plasma. I hope this is the right place to leave kind words about him, because the experience was painless. I highly recommend the way he does business.

Off to scour the early pages of this thread for all the settings and break in information.

Again, thanks, Chris!

Best,
Laird

I had him calibrate game mode with PC: OFF to 7500, since it was naturally closer to that temperature.

He calibrated movie mode with PC: Advanced to 6500

and no, he didn't try to convince me to just calibrate movie mode because I explained that I do about 50/50 between watching content and playing games.

It was the best way for me to go because I was happy with the way games looked in game mode and I didn't want them to be "blue", which is what would have happened if he did it the other way.

If I cut PC to advanced in game mode, it looks very blue and off-putting compared to PC: off. I'm ok keeping movie mode in PC: advanced because almost everything I watch is 24 fps HD content.

I'm very satisfied with the look of both modes.

I used to use game mode because it was brighter and the colors had more pop for watching 3d animated movies, but after getting movie mode calibrated, I don't feel the need to do that anymore.

Now that everyone seems to be getting their NE sets calibrated in both 60 Hz and 72 Hz modes, has anyone developed a method (using ControlCal profile v0.10) to determine the original factory 72 Hz settings? My plan was to apply the same offsets (not the same absolute values) I used for 60 Hz mode to 72 Hz mode, but I need to know the original factory settings. Several people have posted that the 60 Hz and 72 Hz values are probably similar, but I'm a cautious type when it comes to service menu adjustments. I always like to have the ability to revert back if necessary. Thanks for the assistance.

I'm not sure if that was taken care of in the newest ControlCal version. I imagine TURBE can answer that one. I'm wondering about new instructions too if they are coming out soon.

If you are getting it professionally calibrated, it would not matter what the originals were as you'll never need to go back to them. But if you are doing it yourself who knows. I know that the final RGB were slightly different in my calibration.

Thanks for your response. I am not getting a professional calibration, so I was just going to apply the same D-Nice offsets I used for 60 Hz to the 72 Hz mode. You just confirmed my suspicion that the calibrated absolute RGB values can be different in each mode, so there is a good chance that the factory values are different as well.

It will be, I need some more time..

I could not find anthing in this thread about loose frame on front of the 5020. Anybody have this.

The upper left bezel area on front of the panel is loose and extends to the upper left section of the bezel area. The plastic area seems to be loose from the metal section of the pdp.

I've had this for 7 months and never noticed this.

Hoping tighnting a loose screw will resolve this.

Thanks for any input.

went on vacation so I am still doing to break in images.

After tonight I will be at 100 hours.

Just a question, I have been doing my break in at ten hour sessions, is this normal or do you guys usually run the tv for longer?

it varies as each member sees fit on how they want to do it. some run it while only at home. some run it wheile they are at work. some just run it straight through for 150-200+ hours.

After spending sometime watching my 6020. I cant help but notice how unbearably hot it gets in my room. The room is about 20 x 15. I love the picture but man i dont know if i can take the heat. I dont want to have to run the a/c just when i'm in that room to watch a movie. Sadly I might have to go with another unit.

Turbe,

Thanks!! I eagerly await your procedure.

mine runs incredibly hot as well. you can feel the heat coming off it like when you walk by an oven

I bet you can sure find some people on this thread that would love to take that tv off your hands.

+100

Sounds like it's time to trade up to a 101.

I'm not sure if it is a fact or not but I really used to notice the heat for a few months. I'd walk in front of the TV and it would really freak me out. Lately, about 8 months now, I walk in front and don't notice it. I'm not sure if it improved or if I just got used to it.

I'm not sure that I have ever heard this complaint before. Home theater components get hot, including every HDTV on the market that I know anything about, that's the way of the world. My Apple TV, for example, gets hotter than my 6020, even in standby mode, and the Apple TV is exponentially smaller than the 6020. Rooms with expensive electronics in them need to be air conditioned, it seems to me. It's cheap insurance.

I haven't had this experience, but to check it, I sat a digital thermometer within the alcove where the panel sits. After 1-1/2 hours of high def programming running on the 5020, the alcove registered about 2 degrees warmer than the rest of the room. I think you may have a faulty panel, but do the same as I did, and sit a thermometer next to yours and report back.

I certainly notice the heat coming off my 5020, but only when I get within, say, a foot. However when I was running the break-in DVD (high contrast) I did notice the panel heating up the room (my room is about the same size as yours).

There's no such thing as a 60" plasma that runs cooler. If you want plasma, and you want 60", you are going to get a lot of heat... period. The TVs use 400 watts or so of power and much of that converts to heat in the process of producing images. LCD panels are only a little cooler-running, but they have motion blur and if you move to the sides, bright areas get dimmer and dark areas get brighter so you lose contrast. The more you move off-axis, the more contrast you lose. Plasmas don't do that.

Turning down the Contrast control as much as possible will use less electricity and prolong the life of the phosphors in each pixel. But you can only dim the picture so much before it becomes difficult to watch. But keep that in mind... a really bright picture will produce more heat than a dimmer picture. And "really bright" isn't necessarily better, especially for viewing in a darkened room.

If you use Movie mode (and you should), the default Contrast setting is usually pretty good for viewing in a darkened room. For daylight viewing, keep the picture dim unless you absolutely HAVE to see something brighter.

Fans work well (I'm talking about a floor-standing fan) - one that runs quietly can be as cheap as $20 but some have low speeds that are much too high for silent operation. If the room is enclosed, you may well need ventillation (A/C or open window).

Heat production comes with plasma technology (and LCD with fluorescent backlighting - LED backlight LCDs produce less heat, but cost more). Today's plasmas produce much LESS heat than plasmas of 3 or more years ago - and the pictures are much better too.