The Official Panasonic GT30 Settings Thread - Page 31

+1 IMO to many making guesses in a menu that can really screw things up. What one person considers a awesome picture might not be that awesome to another person, especially when it involves messing around in the service menu. D-Nice and the few other experts excluded of course.

I personally am very happy with the THX mode and just tweaking the contrast and other minor settings. It's a amazing picture and seems to only get better as the tv ages. If I find I really require more then that's when I will have it professionally calibrated. Otherwise I really love this tv.

Unfortunately, it appears that you both have proved that a replaced A1 card should have been updated with the old card's stored settings before it was installed.

The best thing would be to contact Panasonic tech support to see what they can do.

This is a 'technical' forum and this thread, in particular, is entitled ". . .GT30 Settings Thread. . ". It's designed for users to post his/her settings for all who could be interested.

These settings may involve making SM changes to the W/B menu but that is NOT hard or difficult to do. Have you forgotten that D-Nice in his settings for the "THX" mode provides SM changes (and the methodology to do them) that must be made to effect the picture quality he stated. Is that "messing around"?

"People need to stop giving advise or assistance on any changes involving the service menu. Unless you have a substantial amount of knowledge and experience with it (such as D-Nice), it is just irresponsible to providing guesses". What guesses?

If you are not capable of making such changes, then MOVE ON! That's YOUR personal problem and has nothing to do with the settings merit. But what happens, is that these individuals denigrate those who want to or can do the changes! It is NOT messing around. . . . and is not that difficult to do if one follows the procedure outlined in the changed settings.

"IMO too many making guesses in a menu that can really screw things up". That statement falls under the "not-following-instructions" and certainly could result in incorrect settings. But, no one here has recommended that be done. In fact, if you do follow the change procedure, the changes can EASILY be returned to original values without any difficulty.

If the changes are too difficult for you, then go read another thread!

I'm curious if you used a meter and software to arrive at your settings and if so what package do you use ?

Called Panasonic and talked with someone that didnt know much of anything. He kept saying you change the sm offset values by changing the brightness and contrast. I asked for a build sheet of my tv but he had no idea what the service menu is, or if they even have build sheets.

Does anyone know what i can do? My tv in thx mode looks pretty good, but my mind keeps telling me i need my old sm offsets

I should have been more clear. YOU should not be giving advise you are not qualified to dispense. Your disregard for the potential damage your poor advice could cause is unfortunate.

I am new to this forum and definitely not a TV expert, but a few thoughts, for what it's worth:

1). I bought a 65" GT30 in late March, and was underwhelmed by the dim/"soft" picture on most settings, including THX (I tried almost all settings on this forum that didn't require adjusting service menu).

2). The only settings that look good to me are in the Vivid mode - both settings recommended by Orangebrothers and Jforge (although I didn't touch the service menu).

3). I did load the 2.1 "luminescence" firmware patch. I didn't like the irreversible nature of this update, but at that point i was considering returning the TV. I did notice a small, positive change in most modes, but no appreciable change to vivid. FYI - I did this update with jump drive via USB, not SD card. I'm not sure why SD is the first recommendation.

4). I'm finally happy with my picture. Thanks Orangebrothers and Jforge for your reco's. Until I tried your settings the TV seriously lacked brightness, "pop" and sharpness. The picture finally looks clear!

With regards to going into the service menu to make changes, there are two ways to go. You can use equipment to get the best picture for your individual tv, or make your adjustments that look the best to you. I had my 65gt30 re-flashed by a Panny tech. I then did the 2.1 update with the Panny tech, who knew nothing about it. All went well. I used Dave's settings (thanks again) and made a few tweeks to make it look good to me. Then, I had D-Nice come to my house in SoCal and calibrate it with equipment. He spent about three hours trying to extract every ounce from the display. What I thought was great, was nothing compared to what he did. Every panel is going to be a little different. The final setting on my tv were in the "range" of what he ends up with, but none are the same. I understand that we want to do it ourselves. I was not comfortable doing SM changes, even though I work on most of my own tech stuff myself. I just took my MacBook Pro apart and put in a new hard drive, two fans, heat sink and thermal paste. It was all over the table, but thanks to iFixit, all went well. To each his own and you venture in at your own risk. The money spent on the calibration was worth it to me. The blacks are actually better several hundred hours later. I have a 42X3 that is one of the most budget Panny plasma's. D-Nice says he can extract more out if it, and based on previous experience, he will. I have learned so much from AVS Forums and appreciate everyone's opinions. That is why I have my 65GT30. My wife thought I was crazy to buy it, but now she does not doubt why I insisted on it. Take care all and user beware...

All I can say is it looks like RedOctober was just sunk!

That's natural, I too had that feeling since I have NEVER had a Panny TV and was not familiar with the SM and how to get around. D-Nice gave bare-bones instructions (along with others) and that serves as a guide.


Pity, b/c you missed the best part.


Others have reported doing it via USB successfully. I used the SD card.


I have had my neighbors in to see the set and ALL . . . ALL of them prefer my Vivid settings to the others. So there must be something good about it???

Yes, it does have great "pop" and the video is "out-front". It's great for every-day TV and, for me and most people, that's what we watch. And, to boot, there's no problem viewing TV w/ this mode with a well-lighted room. Tnx for trying it and glad you like it.

I've continue to make 'adjustments' to the parameters as my TV ages . . only has 250 hrs or so; latest update is here.

Dave_O's settings for "Custom" are great . . no doubt about it.


That's precisely why any of the settings that are recommended may need to be 'tweaked' for your TV. All need to understand that. Most do but many newbies think that the settings are gold!


As I've stated, I wasn't either (never having a Panny) but being a tech person, and following a pre-defined procedure. it's tough to screw-up. But as I stated a few posts back, if it's not for you, then move on.


From what I know and have read, you had the BEST cal your TV . . . so you s/b happy! Glad you and your wife are happy . . esp your wife!

I used some DVDs and that's IT! If you grew up with "old" TVs (Sencore dot-bar gens, etc), you learned to do an alignment with a "screwdriver".

Today, things are done with a D/A and/or A/D converters and that's what you adjust when you make changes to settings. The concept is still the same however.

Of course, your eyeballs are no match to a recently calibrated spectrometer but with . . . TIME and PATIENCE . . . you can still get there.

If it looks good to you I would leave it as it is, even going back to whatever the setting were out of the factory cant guarantee a quality picture. The only way to know for sure is to calibrate the set with a meter and software either yourself or professionally.

Thanks thats what I need to know

false

So........what if you get your set pro calibrated but then you don't particularly like the way it looks? Maybe it appears a little too dim, or a little too shifted towards warm color balance. Do you just leave it that way, comfortable in the knowledge that it's technically "perfect" according to accepted standards, or do you make some changes to satisfy your own eyes perception of what appeals to you? I know what I would do. How about you Mr. October?

C63 . . . was wondering if you'd comment on the previous posts . .

Previously, you posted a reply that represents my thinking also. In case others may not have seen this, here's the direct link.

Actually I now like the Vivid settings so much that I use it for all viewing . . even BD! Such blasphemy . . oh, oh RedOctober just had a heart attack!

You fail to understand the purpose of a professional calibration.

The post you reference is all I can say. I understand why some people prefer a calibrated set, but I also recognize that its not to everyone's taste. The divergence of opinion and the resulting PQ is pretty wide between a calibratied 6500 color temp set and the Vivid preferences of some of the guys here. I'm just saying that each of us paid their hard earned money for the set and we should use it the way we want to. I simply find the "my way is right and yours is wrong" attitude of some of the calibration fans to be somewhat annoying, but that's just me. I don't like that attitude with anything, not just TVs. As for the Vivid settings making the rounds here, they are a bit too extreme for me. I ususally watch in dimly lit room at night and with just a little sunlight during the daytime. Have pretty good control of ambient light and reflections. So I have gravitated toward the pretty standard THX settings mentioned on this and other forums with contrast bumped to 80 and color temp of Neutral. This just looks the best to me for my conditions but I can easily see why somebody with a brighter environment might prefer cooler/brighter settings. I guess that was my initial point, we all have different rooms, different eyes, different tastes. For anybody to say they are right and others are wrong just seems useless to me.

Really, I thought I summarized it reasonably well. Please enlighten me.

No. Do you have any idea how many times it has been explained over the years on this forum? At some point you realize it just isn't worth the energy to educate people that have no hope of understanding it. You can't fix stupid.

Who says its poor advice? WTF are you? What are your qualifications? What make you the all-knowing all seeing expert here?

VIVID ROCKS!

Read my last post.

Thats what I thought!

Sorry, but you either need to explain/state facts or just don’t respond at all, because one word or one sentence responses don’t cut it. For whatever reason you are assuming that everyone that posts here lives on AVS. If you wanted to help you would go into detail and explain, not assume. I don’t say any of this for me because I’ve been on AVS 10 years longer than you, but for others that want help and a little more insight other than - false. Maybe you know more than people posting here, but with the responses you’ve been giving, I don’t think it’s advisable for you to be calling other people stupid.

I am many things sir, but stupid (by most standards, anyway) isn't one of them. But I understand your point and I will refrain from making any further amateur, uneducated, subjective, personal opinions on this forum. I now see that the forum exists only for scientists and physics professors with a complete understanding of all things spectral and chromatic, such as yourself. By the way, you can't fix douchey either.

I’m having my 65GT calibrated in a couple of weeks. In preparation, and to have a little fun, I wanted to take a couple of pics to use as a comparison. The left photos are my settings; the right is Dave_O’s. I’ll take the same pics after my calibration is complete to see the before and after contrast with my current settings.

Mine:

Temperature: Normal
Contrast: 75
Brightness: 44
Color: 47
Sharpness: 0

Dave-O:

Temperature: Warm2
Contrast: 80
Brightness: 50
Color: 49
Sharpness: 25

All other settings are the same.

The thing that stands out the most is the white screen. Mine is brighter with a definite blue tint. This shows up in the shirt collar. I think my image is sharper. The hairs are more defined. The blue stripes on the book are a little more defined. The facial features also appear more detailed. Definite color difference in the face as well. More red in mine. I'll probably tweak that. All personal preferences with a little tweak here and a little tweak there. YMMV.

Great post, looking forward to your "after" photos.

Exactly as many (myself, C63, etc) have stated . . . enjoy what YOU like to see.

I bet that you will see whiter whites after cal so that will whiten the blueish tinged face of "Mine" and the red-brownish tint of "Dave" pic.

Interesting . . . did you see the IR in the both 'screen' pics? It's much clearer in the "Dave_O" pic as you can see the complete "head" outline . .

What you are seeing is the fade-in (Bruce Willis) of the next scene, not IR.

I was pleased with how they turned out. Those are not paused pictures; they were taken by watching the counter.