2010 Panasonic CATS Override - Page 2

Are you talking about internally by peeking through the upper vent holes??

You can only see it in the dark as most of the light is near the bottem bezel almost directly over the sensors and across the length of the display.

It is not really a back light, it seems to be radiant light from the panel.

Bump...

This thread will be soon renamed to 2010 Panasonic Plasma TV Power Mode Defeat.

CATS is not the issue, as many have thought so. CATS uses the TV's power mode feature to enable brighter picture in bright or well lit viewing areas.

Disabling CATS does not disable the built in feature for power management.

By lowering the factory default Contrast setting in the service menu keeps all modes from triggering high power mode when user settings are set high.

The only draw back is CATS cannot properly operate, and the TV will not be as bright.

Though it is bright enough when tested with my settings.

I Need Some Service Menu Contrast Values for X, G, S series and so on

I want to see if all the TV's have similar high values. So I can give a setting to start with for each model.

This will help me complete my thread for all to use as a guide to finalize a good calibration.

As for CATS with flash light... I only got mine to work when it was enabled.

I thought that once you disable CATS it would be disabled Globaly. Which was a bad assumption.

You can make the tv trigger the floating blacks by having a high Contrast value in the user menu. Though you may not see the tv use the high contrast until a scene using bright details. Once that scene comes up on the display, low power mode is replaced with normal mode.

It is part of the Energy concervation design, why have the TV push all the high contrast all the time. My DLP has a Dynamic Contrast that works very similar with the same results, floating blacks.

Yes, I made sure to disable it long ago... though Panasonic does not have a disable function in the menu. Makes you wonder what Panasonic was up to hidding Dynamic Contrast within CATS or it was just by freak luck with power managment.

Ok, let me explain a bit... there is soo much that I did that may have confused you.

Originally I saw the changing black levels when I started to calibrate after my burn in.

I saw them as I started to do the brightness and contrast on the grayscale bar image.

I noticed my brightness would boost or blacklevel would change as soon as I got past 65 on the contrast.

I thought since the TV was low end from Panasonic that it used outdated controls on the Brightness and Contrast levels. DVE kinda led me to that when viewing the instructional video.

After some diving into the internals and reading so many threads... I soon realized after a tweak with the Service menu that I can lower the initial contrast level so that the tv will not trip the low power mode into full power condition for bright viewing.

So with the few days of messing around from all the different ways to disable CATS, I realized that CATS is just another triggering system to put the tv into high gear so to speak.

I will be updating my information to give my numbers as a guide to show how much a difference lowering the intial value to the Contrast level set in the service menu.

D-nice's values only effect color.

Mine only effects the highest level of contrast.

It seems to me that the Contrast level is monitored by the power managment. Once the level requirment has been reached by the video signal. It flips the output into high gear, causing the black level to shift.

Oh no! I only have two digits with mine... I hope others who will state their values will give me enough data to suggest a starting point.

Hold on for a bit... it may take some time, but things are picking up with this thread.

I would assume so too, but there are differences on power design and contrast levels for 720p and 1080p displays.

All I can say is without more information, giving out an offset for this may not be a good thing.

Oh I just checked there is a auto adjust for Contrast... I would write the inital value down before using the auto adjust feature.

I just did mine and it lowered the value considerably.

I think if you have an image that is 100% pure white the value may go higher or near the initial value.

I will see if I can get the auto adjust feature to give me the same value with 75% white, or what ever and give instructions to use the auto adjust feature with the proper image.

Off to test....

Bump... I just added my new settings information that I am currently using on my C2

If you have a C2, you can try my initial value of 6C in the service menu for the contrast level.

I tried my best with auto adjust... it just reverts to factory defaults in the service menu.

Great! I too like contrast and brightness at nice to the eyes levels.

I think you just confirmed that contrast kept at low levels help keep the black levels from floating.

My service menu adjustment helps keeps the settings from kicking in high power mode.

I finalized my testing with entering 1/2 the inital value. Just divide it by 2 with windows calculator using the HEX button.

That should give you plenty of head room to work with.

I don't know... you could set it at 1FF and see if your contrast allows all gray scale bars across at high contrast levels.

If nothing happens for the good you can always put 000 back.

If you should see any of the white bars fade into white it means your contrast is too high. My setting should keep contrast from removing data.

It is pretty much the same and has been... usually the only difference is a small hand full of components and a chip enable for PAL and for firmware code.

Not to mention a set of transformers in the power supply as 220v for those fortunate.

I have a few old transformers that have 4 different voltages for Military purchases of equipment overseas.

Yep!

Watch the DVE video about calibration... it is interesting and give explainations about what you see when adjusting.

For one thing most digital electronics should not take away Contrast when adjusting Brightness or visa versa.

With the default factory settings, everyone who has seen the floating blacks will see the grey bars for brightness change along with setting the Contrast levels from low to high... just watch as you go from 40 to 80. It is amazing.

I just thought with a inexpensive plasma that is energy star approved, may have a weak power supply and all the good stuff for image quality.

I was wrong... The C2 is a sleeper among all the other Panasonic Plasmas for 2010.

Once you get the setting right, black levels are awsome through out the contrast range. Though it is limited compaired to the default range.

Nope it should be a good start at 50.

You will need to make sure you do a good Brightness and Contrast adjustment with proper DVD or Bluray calibration software.

The simplest is any THX DVD has the optimizer in it.

If the black levels change during the setup, you'll need to change the setting in the service manual even lower about 16 clicks with the remote.

Ok, start all settings at 40...

With reverse gray ramps and steps pattern... Slowly move up on brighness and make sure bars show nicely.

Now slowly move down the brightness so you will loose a bar.

Then move the contrast up until you see the black bar re-appier.

That means you have floating black issues.

If you can do that all videos that push the contrast to its limits will move blacks higher.

That is how I found what was going on with the factory setings.

Ok, so you can read the bottom half of my starting page for this thread... it will give you insight on what you can do to lower the factory default safely.

Be sure to write down the original setting.

Once you have made the adjustment turn off the tv and wait 10 seconds and power it back on.

You will notice high contrast will not float blacks anymore.