2011 LG XXPV450 and 400 Owner's Thread - Page 8

Well, I re-calibrated yet again......LOL. This time I used Blacknoir's settings, and re-ran the picture wizard, and all I can say now is wow! I thought I had it dialed in pretty well and was happy with calibrated cinema, but I figured I would give Blacknoir's settings a try again with some tweaks, and again, what a difference! Shadow detail is improved significantly, and that was my biggest issue before, I had sorta given up due to the not-so-great black levels of this set, but I am much happier now. I am posting a couple of pictures, although they are not 100% accurate depictions, real-life viewing is much more natural and less contrasty, but in a good way.

Hi LG Owners!. My Sony SXRD 60 Rear projection LCD died over the weekend so I picked up this LG 60pv450. I am blown away by the PQ difference and finally seeing what real 1080p looks like. Wow. The colors just pop on this set!.

I am a little anal about wanting to make sure I have the best possible calibration settings but I'm also cheap and dont' want to pay $275+ to have someone come out so I'm looking forward to giving Blacknoir's settings a go.

Just to confirm though. If I run through his settings and then come back and run the picture wizard. This won't reset all the custom settings back to defaults?

All I've done so far is run through the picture wizard a few times and I can nail the recommended settings perfectly except the blue tint one. The pic it shows I can't seem to duplicate no matter what so I get it as close as possible. I have flipped through several of my movies and it's a real treat seeing them on this set. Especially movies that were dark. I know a few of you have said you feel this tv is not that great at blacks. Wow you should have seen blacks on my old set. This is leaps and bounds better.

My son was playing Blackops on it for a little while and I've never seen that game look so good before.

Anyhow, Just wanted to thank all those for making this site great and thanks for sharing your settings BlackNoir!

I just bought the 50PV400 from Futureshop for a weekend steal price of $599, I almost bought the V450 a couple weeks ago at Costco for $750 (but Costco does have a great warranty included).

I have been looking at the 50PV400/450 for months now and heard so many great things about it. In stores, it always appeared to have a much "flatter" and dimmer picture than even the cheaper 720p plasmas beside it (like the PT350 for example always looked much zippier, brighter with more pop, even if I cranked up the P450's settings).

I heard so many good things about this set though I figured I couldn't go by what i saw in the store, so when the price came down I pounced.

I've never owned a flatscreen before, my last tv was a Prima 27" CRT, but my friend has a 3 yo panasonic (36") which always astounds me with it's PQ, I just love the POP of plasma TV's.

I've now had the TV for a few days, and I'm finding the same problems I noticed in the store... the TV is just plain dark. I live in a bachelor with a window across from the TV, but I face east so I only get morning sun. I can close the blinds, but the room light doesn't seem to be the real problem. SD content looks especially bad (of course) until I get my HD signal hooked up in a couple days, I have some HD material like Alice In Wonderland, True Blood, which, at night, in most scenes does look great, but I have to use Standard setting with the contrast at 98 and brightness at LEAST at 75 to enjoy it.

I've turned off the dynamic contrast settings, and have set things mostly like Blacknoir's except haven't done the ISF numbers yet, but again, unless it's a good contrasty scene, the image looks "flat". Whites aren't "white" more like "gray" a lot of times.

The worst is hockey, which I love... I have an HD copy of the Gold Medal game from the Olympics (awesomeness) and I will notice that if the play is in the ends, with the crowd taking up a lot of picture, the whites and colours are quite vibrant. But once you get into centre ice, where it's mostly a white screen, it becomes "gray" not the vibrant white, almost as if the TV only has so much white to go around.

Yes, I do have the power saving features turned off too. I had to because with them turned on the set was REALLY flat. The default power save feature the set comes set at is basically unwatchable, even at night in a pitch black room it's more like watching a projection on a wall.

But I read all these amazing reviews, one guy on the FS website review said his friend's 50PV450 looked better than the 55" Samsung Series 8 LED he bought himself (unless this was a post by a salesman or manager.

Do I just have to get used to it? My old 27" CRT, while not HD, certainly was MUCH more vibrant, MUCH brighter.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Hmmm. You seem to have done everything I would have told you to do in order to fix it. Maybe you got a buggy tv? What I would do if i were in your situation is reset the TV to factory defaults and go from there. That's the only way to really make sure there's nothing you've missed.

No two sets are the same. What I find best is place BN settings into your set. Then run Picture Wizard. Once done. Carry over the slight changes from picture wizard to BN settings. In should be minor adjustments like brightness,sharpness,and back light. Very minor tweaking just to get it perfect!

As for the blue tint part. I've givin up on it because I find it impossible to get perfect lol.

I agree 100%, this is exactly what I just did and I absolutely love the outcome! Using BN's settings I wasn't happy, and actually gave up on Expert for awhile and just calibrated cinema. Once I ran the picture wizard after the BN settings this time, all I can say is wow!

how is everybody getting their tv's so black with this set? Is it your camera or what? And another question, if someone could oblige, are the black levels on this tv lighter than pk550 or equivilant?

Depends on the camera being used. I make sure the pics I take are as close to my eyes before posting. Even then. Your display isn't the same as mine. So its going to look different. I keep wanting to take more pics. But, as always I get to into what I'm watching or playing so I never grab my camera lol. Open for request though!

JB,

I did exactly that lastnight prior to reading your suggestion below. LOL. Great minds. You were dead on right!. Perfect now!. I fired up TRON and qued it to the Light Cycle scene. OMG!. I also viewed a little LOST in Space (Gary Oldman) Phenomenal!

I did notice of BN's settings the only one I could not alter was Film Mode. Mine was grayed out. I assume that comes on automatically when certain content is being played?

THanks!
B

P.S. Boy entering all those IRE settings are very tedious and easy to screw up. One must be very careful on what row and column your on. Whew!

Someone mentioned a backlight setting, but I have not seen this. Could someone please tell me where to find it if it exist? Is this the same as the cell light setting on Samsung's plasmas?

Glad I can help!

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Initially I would have thought my TV was buggy, but having played with the pv400/450 in 3 different stores prior to buying, I noticed the same thing there too, it's just not as bright as most of the other plasmas around it, and no amount of playing with the brightness or contrast (even on Vivid) could get the TV as bright as all the others.

However, as of today I'm very happy with my Standard (user) setting. I hear plasmas get a bit better with time initially, or perhaps I had to retrain my eyes and brain away from what it was used to... a super bright, super contrasty, relatively small CRT display vs a gigantic plasma tv.

I watched some HD TV last night (720p),and some HD Netflix and it was just phenomenal! Today I have the same standard def tv thru rca jacks playing in the daylight (cloudy outside though) and the TV still looks very good to me! Can't wait to get the HD hookup tomorrow!

I'm loving my setting, I have it much brighter than most recommendations (not sure how people can watch the TV in Cinema or with any of the energy saving modes, so dark), I guess it just took time to retrain my eyes.

I couldn't find any sort of menu indicator of operating hours on the set. I've been zooming my content want to know when I reach the 100 hour mark so it might be safe to start watching movies at their proper ratio

Lifesun...would it be ok to ask if you could post your settings on here to help us all...them blacks on your tv are the best this tv can produce...thanks in advance lifesun

It's the picture.

As long as you mix it up. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Well, in reality, those pictures that I posted are much blacker than in person, however, I am certainly happy with my updated settings. I started with BN's settings, and just ran through the picture wizard again after, and I only tweaked a few things. Contrast changed to 85, Brightness 55, color 49, vertical sharp 40, horz. sharp 50.........that's it, but it made a huge difference. Also, these settings are for bluray via a PS3 at 24p.

Bingo. Plasmas do indeed only have "so much white" to go around. It's a limitation to conserve power consumption and protect the power supply.

It's rather well established here at AVS that plasmas struggle with hockey (the term "dirty whites" comes from a similar hockey fan's complaint). Plasmas' other attributes usually compensate for that shortcoming. But if hockey is your thing, LCDs deserve a second look.

lifesun....thanks for posting the settings it has helped out alot...and i hope it helps others out too...i played 2001: space oddesey bluray 1080p/24 and there is a big difference...seems to pop out like 3d and wanting to grab it but cant...lol...havent tried att hd yet but bet itll look awsome too.

No problem, glad that you are happy with your new settings and your new set!

I am with JukeBox360 on this one. The black levels on this unit is really bad. I just got it yesterday and had higher hopes for it. It also doesn't help that I have reference to a 9G kuro in the study.

In any case, it was at a really cheap price so I am not going to complain.

Any of you have really bad IR with this unit? I mean, it only takes ~5secs of being in the menu to change the picture mode to have half the menu burnt into the screen for the next 5 minutes. Or is this problem just on my set?

Ouch. Top it off you own a kuro lol. Yes, blacks are the worst I've seen. But that was expected from something so cheap. As for IR. Yes, you will get a lot if it when you 1st start using it. In time. You'll find you end up never getting IR.

I thought for sure I was going to get burn in or at least IR last night. I played infamous for Bout 7 hours strait lol. There is a health meter and map constantly on the entire game. To my surprise. Nothing happened. Great gaming set.

Glad to hear the IR will get better with time.

I also notice I get a lot of random sparkly pixels of RGB when I scroll through menus and settings. They are not there outside of the menu, is this normal?

Yup, it's completely normal. I don't think it goes away over time. I have at least 300HRS on mine and it still does it. Picture does seem to get better though.

I plan on taking some more pics tonight! Did some more tweaking of my set. See if it looks better! I'm very surprised there isn't more pictures in this thread. Makes it feel so much more alive!

ok....i have a chance to pick up a Pioneer Pro-111FD for $900....i can turn around and sell my 60PV450 for $1100 to a guy who offerd to buy it...i bought the 60PV450 in july this year...have no problems with it...calibrated to BN and Lifes settings...The Pioneer Pro-111FD has little usage about 2000hrs nothing wrong with it no burn in images that a seen or buzzing..comes with reciver box, speakers,manual,remote...would you sacrifice 10" of screen for overall quality...i heard that there is a big differance from 50" to 60"...vewing distance is 15'5ft but can move to 12ft...what would you do in my shoes guys....2011 LG plasma tv for 2009 Pioneer plasma...thanks for the help

I am thinking about purchasing the 50PV450 or the LG 47LK520 (LCD). Presently watching a 28' CRT. Viewing distance 8-9 feet.

I was leaning towards the 50PV450 because of the extra 3 inches and also due to plasmas being better for movies, sports and in rooms with less light.

However my apartment faces the south/southeast and has 2 adjoining windows 3 ft. off the ground. The windows can be covered by blinds but I usually leave the lower 3 feet high by 2.5 feet wide section unblinded. I am worried about the plasma/glare issue. I live in Canada, so while the day is short in the winter, the tree in front of my apt. window loses its leaves while the warmer seasons might have their own issues. It's tough to tell now as the past few days have been overcast or muggy and ambient light is not something I usually am concerned about. I'm not somebody who notices most things unless they bothers me.

I do recall some days where I had to pull down the blinds or move the angle of my TV while watching my 28' CRT, but this was infrequent.

Is the 3 inches, better sports/movie viewing and a more realistic picture (subjective) worth trading for pretty much eliminating the glare problem and the burn-in/IR issues? I don't do that much daytime viewing aside from football and other sports - haven't been watching much TV at all lately (though that will increase with a new TV).

(edit: I just looked at google maps and realized that I am pretty much facing the south, with a minor angle to the east)

Is this deal in FL by any chance. Cause if you don't take it I sure as hell would!

Honestly, it purely depends on the person. With the kuro you'd be getting the best plasma picture possible. But, you'd be sizing down. 60-50 is going to look super tiny. Heck, I remember when I went from 55-50. That alone was a huge difference. So I took it back and got the 55 again. The main thing people regret when buying a set is it not being large enough. I suggest you take the time to consider what you want more. Size or picture.

If it were me. I'd have both sets lol. If it had to be just 1. I'd keep whichever set I already have. Due to less hassle and big azz screen. ( a bug screen gives more of a wow factor to guest then a smaller one) That and god forbid something does go wrong with the used one you buy. Your screwed.

I have a huge Windows right next to my set. As long as your not watching dark content during the day. You should be fine.

Dell Canada have the 50PV450 on special today, considering it for the new house I'm moving into soon. My major concern is that it will be facing a window, so I'm worried about glare.