Originally Posted by
trueX 
Ill sum up how the video does its Brightness, Contrast and Color settings. It may not be the best disc but it gets pretty close imo.
Brightness: Has a looping image of a man wearing a black tux, black silk shirt and black tie, all just a BIT different shade (against a fully white background). I basically lowered the brightness until I could not tell the difference between the 3 shades, then bumped it up 1 at time until I could see the diff in all 3 yet had no washout. Custom Brightness setting is +55 currently.
I'd suggest burning a copy of the free HD 709 disc and using the brightness patterns for this. I have no idea if the test image on that disc has those tuxedo black levels at 17, or 21, or 28, but if the darkest shades on the tux were 15 and 24, for example, setting it using the disc could crush all blacks below 24. Using the pattern on the 709 disc can get this exactly right.
Contrast: Has a looping image of a man wearing a white silk shirt & buttons with a pocket (against an all black background) and I just raised the contrast until I was mostly unable to see his buttons and lost the pocket lines and shirt fold details, then bumped it down 1 at a time until I felt it was still popping, yet I could see the details again. Custom Contrast setting is +85 currently (seems a bit high but at about 75 you can noticeable see the TV getting darker and after +85 it seems to get no brighter so I figured the lowest that im suitable with the better for the TV)
I'd use the pattern for color clipping here, to make sure you set the contrast low enough that one color isn't running out. This is also on the 709 disc. Since the grayscale isn't totally neutral you might not be able to tell as easily if one is getting clipped at the top. Then you can adjust the light output with a backlight level, if the Panasonic has one.
Color: Has a looping image of 3 women side by side by side. The left most girl is made up to look pale skinned, the middle girl is made up to look correct (flesh tone wise) and the girl on the right is made up to look sun burnt. I just adjusted the color until the left most girl no longer looked pale and the right most girl started to look sun burnt, then bumped it down 1 at a time until the right most girl was again pale and the left most girl JUST barely lost her sunburn and the middle girl looked like a normal person flesh tone wise. Each looping picture has audio instruction also telling you what to do and what you are supposed to be seeing. Custom Color setting is +60 currently
Tint: Left alone as the ISF disc said that most factories are getting damn close to the correct settings and only a full calibration needs to mess with these settings, if at all.
Sharpness: My TV says "Adjust's Image Outline Detail" now here is a setting im a bit unclear on. Of course we all want our pictures and what not to be "sharp" right? But I have read back and forth, too MUCH sharpness can cause edge detail problems and also have read that you can dang near set this to 0 or VERY low since my cable is HD and all my movies are Blu-Ray and using Audioquest HDMI cables that the picture is already as sharp as needed and this setting is a moot point. Custom Sharpness setting is +50 atm. Just set it to the middle as I was unsure of where to put this or what to believe and the disc I use has no sharpness option to set it.
Once again, the 709 disc can help here, or Spears and Munsil which I usually use. You'll want to put up a pattern with fine lines and reduce the sharpness pretty much as low as you can. Then increase it until you see ringing/haloing around the lines. Then bring it back down until that goes away. This is very different based on TV. With LG it's often set at 50. With most other models, it's closer to 0. I think my Samsung is at 8.
Color Temp: Normal (options are Cool 2, Cool 1, Normal, Warm 1, Warm 2)
Color Management "Enhances Blue and Green Color Reproduction, especially outdoor scenes" Set to ON (it seems to really make a diff in the greens to look VERY green and true, more so than the blues)
Your plasma can produce colors outside of the Rec 709 specification. So while it can make some greens or blues look extra bright, that isn't what's on the disc at all, and it pulls every other color off of what it should be. I'd turn it off, though with some CGI stuff (Pixar and other animation) it can add some pop, and that's all fake already. But for an accurate image, off.
C.A.T.S. - "Adjust brightness and gradation according to the room's ambient lighting conditions" OFF - Was instructed to NOT to let this be ON as it will constantly be changing your picture based on the light, seems OFF is the clear best setting.
Video NR "Reduces Video Noise (artifacts or snow). Set to ON when receiving a weak signal" Currently set to Auto (options are OFF, Weak, Medium, Strong, Auto). I don't think this setting effects my discs at all but I set it to Auto so that if my cable signal is ever lacking or what not, it will automatically try to reduce the degradation.
As mentioned, only use for highly compressed cable images, otherwise it's going to wind up removing detail on a Blu-ray disc.
Screen Format: FULL
HD Size: 2 (options are 1 or 2 and 1 says it trims off the outside 5% of the picture, I personally like seeing size 2 and the full picutre)
Motion Smoother: Strong (options are OFF, Weak, Medium, Strong) "Reduces picture blur from fast moving scenes to display a sharper image" - I don't see how anything but strong is the best setting.
A plasma can already do full resolution on motion. Doing this will just lead to a fake looking effect, and add a lot of extra motion artifacts to the image.
Black Level: Light (options are Light or Dark) Dark has VERY little difference but makes me my raise my brightness another 15-20 notches to achieve the same effect as "Light" and as far as the internal components are concerned on the TV, the lower settings im happy with the better.
Dark probably uses the full 0-255 range, and Light is going to set it to 16-255 or 16-235. Setting it to dark will let you see Blacker than Black, which helps to set the brightness correctly, and you can make sure it's not also clipping whiter than white with that setting and the 709 disc.
Those are my summed up TV settings: Feel free to tear them apart and make recommendations. TY
