Panasonic S30 Series (NOT ST) Picture Settings

i am looking foward to some feedback on this model also

I'd suggest picking up a calibration disc and calibrating it. (Spears & Munsil is good as well as the DVE HD) If you have a DVD writer, I would also strongly suggest you download and make yourself a copy of the AVS HD 709 disc found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496

The only thing you won't be able to do yourself is calibrate the greyscale, but at least you can look at a greyscale pattern and see how far you are off. You'll be able to tweak the most important settings: Contrast, Brightness, Color/Tint (if you have a blue filter), Sharpness, set the color temperature to one of the Warm presets, and turn off all the extra un-needed processing options.

I just picked up the 42s30 today. Trying to figure out optimal settings adjustments myself.

cinema mode gave me the best results

Ya I just bought a 50" S30 model and haven't been able to find any calibration settings like with some TVs. I have adjusted the settings to where I'm happy with. I just need to get a few hours on it then I'm going to buy a calibration disk.

I purchased this TV about a month ago, and despite playing with the settings over and over again, I can't seem to find the right combination.

I'm watching the Red Wings/Coyotes game, and the ice actually looks a little yellow. I've tried going through all of the settings and tweaking them without any luck. My wife and I have noticed this on other things as well, such as baseball games and even some TV shows. If anyone can recommend/point me to some good settings, I would appreciate it.

Also...I'm not positive, but I think that the picture mode is changing by itself. Maybe not, but I'm pretty convinced that I had it set to Game, and when I went in last time to check some settings, it was on Vivid. Not sure if it has some kind of "auto" setting or if I just changed it and don't remember.

Anyway, thanks for any advice on the picture settings.

Maybe you're aware of this already, but most flat panels these days save different settings for each input. So when you switch from a gaming console to cable TV to a Blu-ray player, you'll get three different profiles. On the other hand, if you have all of those hooked into a receiver, then I'm not sure if that would still apply. Or you just forgot

Bought a 50" S30 at Sears on Sunday. Also got the Disney WOW HD calibration disc http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1303667 there as well with the 5yr warranty. So far, I'm loving the picture on it. This is my first HDTV. If I had to do it over again, I might as well spend the extra $150 for the ST30 version that has 1080 lines for motion (vs 900 on the S30). But so far, I am extremely pleased. The Disney WOW disc is very detailed and has calibration categories for different user level experience. I wanted a plasma, and it had to be bought at a brick n mortar store. The LGs (pk550 and pv450) gave it a run for it's money

I have a family member who's taking delivery on this set today. I was hoping to find some tips for her. She's not an AVS type and she lives a few thousand miles away so I can't help her with any hands on tweaks. I'll check back in here to see if anyone posts some suggestions. In the meantime, I'll continue to hunt around for settings.

I'll post some settings that one of the members here did for me and it came out very nice

thanks,i will like to compare them also

If the S30 is anything like the previous generations of Panasonic Plasmas, this yellow ice your seeing is the nature of the beast.

Only my oldest Panasonic plasma doesn't do this, but all my newer ones do.

It is very distracting. It has to do with the color temperature preset's (like "warm") white balance. Yellow ice would usually show up with a lack of blue in the grayscale, and/or too much green. I am not sure if there is adjustments on the S30's custom mode for white balance, but if there is, you could always eye-ball it.

Otherwise, Using a higher color temperature like "normal" or "cool" is the only fix besides professional calibration.

Without a pro calibration, I found using a higher color temp along with intentionally moving the tint into the red 2 ticks helped reduce the issue as much as it could.

If white balance is too yellow, like the text of credits, hockey ice, etc, only adjusting the grayscale controls will fix this.

In closing, I have noticed that "VS" network coverage of some hockey games has a yellow tint to it as well.

picture mode :cinema
contrast: 56
brightness:49
color: 53
tint:2
sharpness:0
color:warm 2
color mgmt ff
catsff
video nrff
screen format :full
hd size:size 2
advance picture : everything off and black level light
24p:48hz if possible

best setting so far for me

Thanks,do you use the same settings for movies and live sports on tv?

yes. it was calibrated for dark room. I made another one for day time

what changes did you go with for daytime?

I did daytime settings by eye no disk .

I've been looking seriously at this display because I just need a good TV for my living room. It has pretty much everything I want and I'm not worried about having absolute awesome blacks or perfect PQ. I've seen it at BB and liked how it looks so I was just wondering if anyone who has bought this set would talk a bit about what you think about it. It's a fairly good price and I do want a plasma but don't really want a 3D display (even though 2D PQ is supposedly better) or really want to spend the extra for that. thanks.

Can someone provide a link or point me to these settings?

I'm lookin' at this model as well as the ST30 - and was curious about the motion picture resolution, if there is any diff. between 900 lines and 1080 lines. Any help will be much appreciated, thanks.

It's usually hard to spot the difference between 900 or 1080 with regular content. Perhaps if you are watching some content that has alot of massive and fast motion you may notice it. It's mostly something that is tested with patterns and whatnot.

Don't let the motion resolution be the only factor, factor in picture quality improvements as well.

btw this calibration set up was done with the DVE disk

I just got this TV, the 50". It is the first plasma I have owned. When I first opened the box the first thing I noticed was how the screen didn't seem black, like an LCD does. My 5yr old even said "why is it blue?" It *seems* to go away once the TV is on though, and actually I think the blacks look better than my LCD. Just thought it odd to be so bright for being off.

The picture overall seems kinda grainy compared to my older 42" LCD. Is that something that will go away after it's "broken in" ? I haven't messed with calibrating it too much yet as it sounds like I should wait 50+hrs anyway

you should lower contrast levels for a while and maybe your sharpness levels to 0. that should help "grainny" pic

Well I've found the grain goes away when in any mode except Normal. In Normal everything, even the menu, looks very bad. Cinema or any other mode and everything looks great. Strange.