I just got the P60U50 from Frys.com for $799 and free shipping. First time having a flat panel at all. My last one was a 55" Mitsubishi rear projection TV. All CRTs before that.
Anyway, I'm new to the calibration scene. I messed around with the THX Optimizer on my Cars DVD, but it doesn't really help one to set the Color and Tint settings. Based on those, I had it set this way:
Picture mode: Cinema
Contrast: +100
Brightness: +52
Color: +100
Tint: +15
Sharpness: 0
Color temp: Warm 2
I have protanomaly, but I set the Tint to where the Magenta and Cyan looked how I thought they were supposed to. It said to set the Color setting to where the Red square was true Red without bleeding. The more I turned the Color up, the more Red it became, and I never noticed any bleeding. The THX Optimizer also said to set the Contrast to where the white was white and I could still see all 4 shades. I can still see all 4 with Contrast at 100, but the white still seems gray to me. When I think of white, I think of a light table to view negatives on or a new white car. So far, sunny outdoor scenes in movies appear to be hazy, like there is smoke in the air. It doesn't blur the details, it just makes things look dull and I feel like I'm trying to read a book by candlelight. I always turn off all the lights when watching things if I can.
Anyway, my wife said my color settings were horrible and said I should just set it back to default and leave it alone. She doesn't understand why things need to be messed with at all. It looks fine on default to her. So I set them to the CNET settings of this:
Picture mode: Cinema
Contrast: +100
Brightness: +56
Color: +45
Tint: +1
Sharpness: 0
Color temp: Warm 2
It looks fine now, but still the dingy, smoky look during sunny shots. I mean, I see the sun shining on things and they look like they are indoors! I've been outside when it's sunny. It's bright! But on this TV it looks like a volcano is erupting off-screen and shooting ash into the sky overhead. I see other people setting their Contrast to 78 or even down in the 60s. 100 is still too dark for me. How can the white level that low look natural to you? Things don't look like that in real life. Am I missing something?
Anyway, I love the detail of it compared to my other TVs. I'm trying to limit logos and stuff being displayed for long periods of time. So far no IR. I don't have any meters or anything and cannot afford anything like that. This TV was financed as it is. I would like to get the best possible calibration, however.
How do I tell how close to 6500K the white is without a meter? It's Cinema and Warm2. I can get into the Service Menu and saw where the RGB Drv settings were. I read a guide on how to set them in conjunction with a meter. My dad used to work for a printing company and he operated a drum scanner and color-corrected pictures with Photoshop. He would sometimes ask us to pick an object and he would tell us how much Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black it had. Then he'd view it in Photoshop and the values would be pretty close. I'm wondering if I could get him to look at something on the screen while I set the R, G, and B Drv settings and he could guide me.
On that note, are there any other settings to change in there? Gamma perhaps? I could load one of those images where you squint and change the Gamma to where the lined square matches the darkness of the outer solid square. I can't afford to have it professionally calibrated, but I also don't want to make due with incorrect settings if they can be changed.
You damaged it you keep it or fix it with your own money. No wonder returning products with actual manufacturing defect is getting harder and harder.
