Quote:
Originally Posted by
decker12 
Apology / Caveat / Humble Begging:
I'm a plasma newbie and bought a new 860 after my 9 year old 46" Sony Rear Projection started to develop expensive-to-repair blue and red gun problems.
Crutchfield Signature has managed to deliver my new 860 a couple of days earlier than expected, and I'm only on page 60 of this extremely helpful thread. Although I'm learning fast, I'm trying to get a "jump start" and general consensus for a few questions.
I apologize in advance that I didn't finish the next 50 pages of this thread to figure out my exact answers. If someone would be so kind to PM the answers to my questions I'd appreciate it instead of cluttering up the thread even further.
Anyway,
Any advice on what my "first 100 hours" settings should be? I've read that I shouldn't have the contrast or brightness up past a certain point.
In between bouts of normal TV watching, I understand to avoid letterboxed / pillar boxed content as well as high contrast tickers or bugs for the first xxx amount of hours.
Should I be running the Plasma Break in DVD, and if so, at what brightness / contrast levels?
I'm dreading the "buzzing problem" that I've read so much about in the 860. Is this buzz tied into the physical speakers on the TV (which I don't plan on using)? Is it a problem that has been solved with later manufacturing runs? Anything I should look for on the box itself (serial number starting with xxx) so I should know to refuse delivery or send it right back?
I'll also appreciate any other advice anyone can give me with the TV, considering I'm a newbie to the plasma but not a newbie to home theater. This 860 will be my primary TV for X360, PS3, DirecTV (HD), DVDs and BDs. I intend to amateur calibrate it with consumer DVDs after burn in, and depending on my success level, get it professionally calibrated sometime in the next few months. My room is already setup with a decent 5.1 Yamaha RXV565 AVR - all input switching will be done by the AVR.
Finally, any particular "wow" settings I can setup relatively early in the burn-in process to win over the ultra-important Wife and Children demographic?
Thanks in advance.
I've had my PN58B860 for over two months and love it.
As far as buzzing, if you don't hear it or it doesn't bother you, I wouldn't worry. From the myriad of posts on plasma buzzing, I think it more often has to do with the sensitivity of the individual because some posters have stated that they can hear it while others cannot. But I believe there are the occasional clunkers that are unacceptable buzzers. That said, I probably don't know what I'm talking about
As far as settings, I got super results using something I found in the settings thread for this TV. While the results might be better with a professional calibration, I was so happy with the results, I'm not going to bother. Lets just call it igonorance is bliss. Here is a link to the message with the settings I used:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post18214486
As far as a calibration disk, I highly recommend Spears & Munsil. I do have to admit it was a little daunting to use until I went to their web site (
http://www.spearsandmunsil.com/) and read in detail the explanation of all the test screens. I first used it, then found the settings in the above link and did those. I went back to Spears & Munsil to check the result to make sure things still looked good. They checked out very well.
As far as break-in, I just used the above mentioned settings, running them during the night for about 100 hours. There are those who say it doesn't matter if you use a break-in. I really don't know, but thought I do it anyway. I put the slides on a thumb drive and stuck it in one of the USB slots. I then ran it as a slide show. That way I didn't need to worry if a DVD would continue to repeat itself while unattended.
Honestly I don't think its much but here is my list so far...
