Official Panasonic 2011 TC-PxxVT30 Series Thread Discussion Thread [No Price Talk] - Page 10

Calibrators are willing to travel. I live in the middle of nowhere and have had 2 different calibrators travel to my home. Check out the calibrator thread.

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

I received my VT30 a little over a week ago and I have run it through the Break-In slides and set up THX and Custom according to D-Nice's setting for the VT25. So far, so good.

Now, while watching regular TV through verizon FioS DVR I have seen numerous times a bright green line flash across the bottom of the screen. It resembles a lightning flash about 1/4" or so wide. Any ideas?

This morning before leaving for work, I switched to another brand new HDMI cable and will use a different HDMI input. This problem did not happen when running the slides.

Any help or direction would be helpful. I have 45 days return period. Hate to return it but I want it close to perfect and the "little woman" saw it so I'm cooked if this doesn't get fixed.

Thanks

RESOLUTION
To further cement his reputation as a technical guru, D-Nice resolved my problem by suggesting I change my picture size from "Size 2" to "Size 1." BAM! No more green flashes across the bottom of the screen after having the set on all evening. It was happening at least once every 30 mins. The "little woman" is now searching for more flaws.

Kudos to D-Nice. Thank you

Try the original input using the new cable. Changing two things at once makes it hard to tell which one corrected the problem.

Thanks, will do.

Argh, so now I have to debate my objectivity in choosing a p65vt30 over a d8000, plus if firmware isn't calibration-ready I'll either have to wait or have it properly calibrated a second time? I'm just about to buy 4 of these believe it or not.

Did that...and no more issue with fluctuating brightness.

Also, last night, as we were watching OTA broadcast (Dancing with the Stars) we ended up watching under the standard picture mode. With the ambient room feature turned off, no more dim picture. In fact, switching between THX and Standard, both my wife and I felt that Standard produced a slightly better picture. I had adjusted the standard settings previously which are now: 55, 55 and 45, with color temp set to normal. I don’t plan on adjusting THX.

I wonder if anyone else has found the standard picture mode producing a great picture?

You need to wait for at least 100 hours anyway before calibrating.

Last night I streamed a foreign film from netflix. First I started to stream it from my new VT30 (first time streaming from the plasma). PQ was not as sharp as it should be, including the subtitles, and when there were 2 rows of subtitles, the bottom row was partially cut off and difficult to read. I therefore switched to stream the movie from my Panny 110 BluRay player. PQ was considerably sharper and more high def looking, and the subtitles were easier to read (sharper and not as cut off on the bottom). I will only stream from the BluRay player from now on. Either it has better processing, or receives higher resolution from netflix (or both).

Which I was planning to knock out right away!

But in a mean time, you want to adjust the picture to your liking.

Thanks for that info! I've got several devices that stream Netflix films and I would have assumed that they are all equal. Guess not.

Anyone with connections to Best Buy who can answer this inquiry?

Go read some reviews of the Geek Squad's calibration service....

You might have second thoughts.

Stay away from BB's calibration, many people have been burned! The techs don't even use any type of instruments to calibrate, they do it by the naked eye! Just Google it!

-Techlord

If you check the link at the bottom of my post, you'll find links to a large number of AVS display owners who have had their displays professionally calibrated. None of those calibrations were done by BB's Geek Squad.

Since calibrators do tours you can post here to see if there is anyone who comes to your area:

ISF Calibrators, where are you located? Please post here!

You can also indicate in your profile your general location, and someone in this thread might be able to suggest a calibrator. Given your user name, maybe not.

Or, you can check out the calibration forum and pick up enough information to do better than BBGS.

Display Calibration

You need to wait for the firmware fix to do the calibration, I'm sorry to say. Otherwise it's navel gazing.

Sounds like you must be pretty remote if you're still contemplating a Best Buy calibration. Where are you located? Alaska? Hawaii?

I'm sure for the right amount of coin some calibrators will come out to visit you. Post your location. You never know. There may be group of people in your general area who are seeking a calibration and the cost might be pretty reasonable if a calibrator takes you all on.

Wrong. They use sencore devices. Ever had one done? I know a calibrator in my district from bb. He's great. Very experienced. Not all calibrators from bb are equal; some are good, some are very good, some aren't. You can't do an isf calibration by the "naked eye". Don't spread misinformation.

Hi,

Can someone help me find the 16:9 overscan option??

I'm trying to connect my HTPC to my VT30, I have a black space all around the image.

I found this on Flatpanelshd:
The TV supports 1:1 pixel mapping. In order to achieve 1:1 pixel mapping you need to select the aspect ratio called “Just" in the OSD. You also need to deactivate 16:9 overscan in the advanced picture menu.

But I just can't find that overscan option???

Thanks!

I've been keeping an eye on owner AVS posts about having their displays calibrated since August, 2006.

I can't be sure that I see all the owner reports because I can't read all the display threads. I am sure that I've read several reports from inexperienced new display owners that had BBGS calibrations that amounted to manipulation of the user controls and nothing more.

There have also been reports from people who claimed to be BB employees about a calibration time limit set by BB or the local manager.

There may very well be some better calibrators working for BB, but so far no owner has posted about them here at AVS in any of the threads that I keep an eye on. If you know about reports that I've missed, let me know where they are. I am always looking for new or missed reports to add to the list that's linked at the bottom of my post.

Enjoy.

The time limit thing is probably true, however, they definitely have calibrators who have been through ISF boot camp, and they do have pattern generators and meters, at least the trained ones who roll out of the BBs with Magnolia, etc.

It's also fairly inexpensive at $200. So if you get a tech that knows what he is doing and will put a solid couple of hours in to do a decent job it is not a bad deal.

I do not know if they have any familiarity at all with 10 point gamma or CMS controls or setting up ISFccc day/night modes or even if they would be willing to do it.

However, for a basic calibration I would not hesitate to use them as long as you can request one that knows what he is doing.

Taking your advise, I just did a Google on "Best Buy display calibration". The results are very interesting. There also seems to be a lot of discussion about BB faking their in-store set up that shows the benefits of having them do a calibration. It's great to have faith in your vendors.

Sounds like you are running an ATi graphics card. Its the graphic drivers fault, not the TV. Find the overscan option in control center and zero it.

From what I understand from some of the calibrators who post here at AVS, the ISF course is 2-3 days, and all you get is a piece of paper stating that you took the course. For a customer the size of BB it might be different. I doubt that it would be more rigorous. I don't have a way to keep up to date on such things, but my impression is that calling it the "ISF boot camp" could be implying more rigor than exists.


The word "if" is such a small word to cover big expectations. I'll grant you that if all your ifs hold up it might not be such a bad deal. I think the time limit might be less than a couple of hours.


Neither do I.


That's why I started the thread linked at the bottom of my post. I have to confess that I don't know how to pick "one that knows what he is doing" without references. Before I had my first calibration done, I visited someone who had that person work on his display which was the same model as mine. I also looked for information about him here at AVS. After that, I started the "owner's report" thread.

Ah, okay fair enough. I can do my own calibrations so it becomes apparently to me very quickly if someone knows what they are doing or not. I have watched a tech on one occasion calibrating a Samsung display at BB and he absolutely knew how to track RGB, gamma and delta-E and was able to get satisfactory results.

It also depends on the display requiring calibration. If it's a $1000 display with limited PQ I feel it is less of an issue having a perfect calibration then if it is a flagship display costing many times that amount.

At my point in life, and my current weight, it's much to hard for me to gaze at my navel.

Also, I wouldn't buy a display with the expectation that the the needed firmware fix will be done. That would be like me expecting to see my navel without the assistance of a mirror.

True and I agree that you're in a position to get your money's worth from BB and long as it's not that much money. BB seems to have convinced a lot of customers that BB will give them a "free" calibration as part of the deal.


Of course. It's also important to keep in mind Rogo's comment about the VT displays needing a firmware fix before an expert can get the best results.

In addition to the cost of the display, and it's potential PQ, there is the expectations of the buyer. There aren't going to be many folks who budget $1,000 for a display, and then add another $350-$500 for a professional calibration.

Well, I'm not saying the firmware fix will be done. But calibrating it and then getting the firmware fixed is doubly pointless. Apparently, a pre-fix calibration is questionably useful. And the firmware fix will definitely render said calibration useless or nearly so.

For me, given the highly questionable VT30 aesthetics to begin with, the set is moving into the dealbreaker category. One problem I'm having is that nearly every single 2011 model is falling into there as well.

Not entirely accurate. You need to put as many hours as you can watching full screen content without static images on it before your calibrator comes. Break in slides is where they recommend the 100 hours ootb. And these are only if you are NOT having your display pro calibrated.

Credit-D-N.

This too is inaccurate, there is nothing in the firmware that folks are waiting on that would prevent a proper calibration. You can complete a calibration in custom or thx etc.

The firmware is to complete the feature set within the isf day and night modes. If no one is going to mess with the settings, you could do a perfect calibration. If you need your settings locked into isf day or night, wait.

I could be wrong in both my posts though ........