The Official Panasonic VT50 Settings Thread - Page 14

I think the EU model has the Pro 1 & Pro 2 settings which are open to any user. Correct me if I'm wrong.
The US model has the ISF Day & Night which must be opened with specific software. To me that's a disadvantage for the US model but it is workable.
The calibrations done correctly with meters are based on industry standards so I would imagine that it would be more accurate than the THX mode.
I haven't measured the THX mode but I'll say that my picture after my calibration is much better than the different "Factory Modes"

I'm a plasma newbie and am getting a 55" VT50 delivered tomorrrow! Great info here, and I'm sure I'll be returning often as I start to make sense of all the calibration goodness you folks have posted.

The main reason I opted for this set was Robert Heron's excited review of the 65" at Revision3:
http://revision3.com/hdnation/panasonic-tc-p65vt5

Robert used CalMAN in an automated way which sounds perfect for someone like me (hands off!). Now I'm off to learn about CalMAN. Thanks for a great thread.

Thank you for your help - yes indeed it has professional 1 and 2 option, and I can also enable ifcccc or what option so I can get a lot more options.

Can you please tell me how to tell when was my panel manufactured, and where does the TV shows how much hours has it been on?

wmwilker,
I have been experimenting with Calman4 and my spyder3 meter.
I know the meter is not the best, but i am trying to learn how to calibrate.
I noticed that gamma spikes a lot around 80-100. Is this normal for vt50 panasonics?
No way I could set it to the flat line.
Is this a meter that is so bad?

I'm pretty new at this too so I'm not familiar with that meter.
The gamma hasn't been a problem for me. I'm using an i1 Pro

There should be a sticker on the back of the set and possibly on the box that would give you the build date.
There is a thread on High Def Junkies forum that can show you how to check the hours. It is in the Service Menu and anytime you access the service menu you run the risk of hosing the set. I would give you a link but they don't allow links to that forum here. Also you will have to join if you haven't already. It's free and a good resource.
Another issue is the service menu in the EU models may be different than the US model so you will add even more risk.

WMWilker - thank you for posting your settings. I always considering my living room to be dark, but with all the 'dark' settings I could not get the pop from my TV that I was accustomed to with my old set. I've started using your ISF day settings, and the picture is simply amazing. For daytime viewing the panel outputs plenty of color, and in the evening it comes to life even more. While this might be too bright for some, to my eye the picture is outstanding.

I've had the TV for 4 weeks now, and this has just taken it to another level. Thank you.

Yes that is what I am going to do, have Jeff (UMR) profile my I1pro2. Yes I still have my i1pro.
The one thing I noticed last night using my i1pro2, is that I wasn't getting good reads in 10 to 20% IRE's, so I re-calibrated the meter and all was good.

The three biggest plus with the i1pro2 for me are.
You don't have to calibrate the i1pro2 every 10 min, one calibration is good for about 2 hours.
The multi reads seem to work better.
The hardware that comes with the i1pro2 basic imo is a lot nicer than the hardware that came with the i1pro OEM, and for less money with the price drop that I posted about.

ss

I too am very much enjoying his settings, both the day and night are fantastic. I almost want to get a calman or one of thes things that would allow me to open the isf day and night options but will get it calibrated in a couple months so am going to wait.

In other news with all the IR talk I figured I would work a little harder to find some since I've been logging a lot of hours playing MW3. Well it was a job but I did find some when watching Birds from BBC Life during some panning scenes with the light blue sky. I was not able to see it in a variety of other discs and content I tested. I then tried watching some panning scenes from Up and was just barely able to see it. So I ran the pixel flipper from the WOW disc all night and then today I did the same but ran the scrolling bar several times in between. By 5pm it was all but gone, I could kinda see a hint but it was very very hard to tell. When I tried to point it out to others no one could see what I was talking about.

I think what I thought with my last plasma, IR is not a myth but it is pretty hard to establish and near impossible see unless I dissect the hell out of my panel with a variety of content and the objective of finding it. I don't doubt others have real issues or that the severity varies from panel to panel but to my eyes it is a non issue and does wash with either the tv's tools or simple and regular content variation.

As much as I struggled with the decision between the VT50 and 70" Elite I am 100% happy with my decision and would buy the VT50 again. Don't get me wrong, the Elite is a damn nice panel but for me I know I would have really been bothered by the flaws I observed in the store tests I did given the hefty price tag. The colors and motion on the VT50 were probably the biggest win factors for me and I am constantly telling Mrs. Kenobi how impressed and pleased I am with this panel. No it's not perfect but IMO there is nothing better in current production.

Glad they work for you. I'm enjoying them too.

Thanks for posting these. They were a really good starting point for calibrating my set and probably saved me 2 hours.

WMWilker- thanks for the settings. Using them on my 65VT50 and look really good for me too. Seem to look really natural and add some pop. thanks again.

wmwilker, can i use your settings with ControlCal?
want to make sure i can upload them to my tv before i screw anything.
thx

wmwilker has his ControlCAL settings file posted in his Thread on my forum, that xml file can be directly loaded into ControlCAL and sent to the VT50.

The zip files with the calibration charts and XML files are here
http://www.controlcal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=840

The newest are at the bottom of the thread.

I just noticed something weird with the IRE Gain controls in the Gamma Detail Adjustment menu. I am using Calman 4 and when I change the gain for ISF DAY it also changes for ISF NIGHT. So both my night and day settings will have the same gain value. Can anyone who uses Calman 4 test this? All the other IRE controls are specific to their ISF mode except the Gain. This is the same as the IRE luminance if you are using the DDC workflow.

Sorry for not being familiar but does UMR mean http://www.accucalhd.com/ ?

Yes that's his web site.

ss

I am a bit confused per ussual. How do you get to the ISF DAY and ISF NIGHT menu, to use wmwilker settings that everyone is talking about here?
Do you have to have certain equipment to do this? If so, what is needed?

You need ControlCal or CalMAN software for access. Without the ability, enter the numbers in the Custom mode.

You have a 50/50 chance of improving your picture.

I don't like those chances What's the difference between ControlCal and CalMAN. Do I need to buy a license and a laptop to use it. I only have a desktop computer which is in another room

You don't "need" a laptop but I can't imagine not using one. CC & CM are programs and yes you have to pay. If you aren't willing to under go the cost, equipment, and learning curve of display calibration they aren't for you. Just copy the numbers into the Custom mode and see if you like what you see.

you can buy the software but unless you have the meters to do your own calibration you are still taking a chance with copying mine or anyone's settings. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.
I would suggest trying the settings in your Custom mode and see if they work. If not the only thing that will help is to have your set calibrated. If they do work you could buy ControlCal and open your ISF Day and Night settings and apply the settings. Your computer will need to be close enough to access it over your home network or by ethernet cable.

I tried your settings and they look pretty nice.
What i wonder is how different are 55 and 65 in terms of calibration settings differences?
Lets say one does 10 different calibrations , would the settings be very much different or very similar?
Probably somebody who calibrated lots of vt50 would know better. How many did you do?

thx

Only my own. I'm not a professional.

I purchased a Panasonic VT 50 65 inch about a month and a half ago. I was very leary of Plasma due to brightness or lack of and actually saw a vt50 at Magnolia in Capitola Ca. in early June.
I wasn't that impressed but realized there was a tremendous amount of light in the room and the TV was set on THX Cinema. I did a lot more research and after the "Value Electronics"
shootout I purchased one through Amazon. It was delivered with White Glove service and set up in my living room. I paid $3499.00 delivered and received an instant (next day) refund of
$331.00:) with there "best price guarantee".
I watched tv and movies for about 200 hrs before I put Topper McFly's custom settings in. I was pleasantly surprised with the Panasonic settings but when I put Toppers settings in the TV took on a
whole new personality. Was very bright, colors were very natural, and generaly a delight to watch!
I was a Tool and Die maker for HP for 25 years and ended my career at HP in Santa Rosa Ca. where I met Robert Busch of "Busch HomeTheater" through a friend. Moved to Red Bluff Ca. in 2002,
Purchased a Sony 65 inch XBR2 CRT projection TV and after 200 hrs on the set had Robert travel up state to Red Bluff and calibrate the Sony. Robert worked almost all knight on the set and a few hrs.
the next morning and I can honestly say I got 10 very enjoyable years of movie viewing.
Even before I purchased the Panasonic I knew I would have Busch come up and calibrate it so when 325 hours rolled around I called Robert and made arangements for him to come up. He came up
last Monday, spent quite a bit of time on it, showed me a lot of the measurements on his $15000.00 light meter and worked his Magic. He got a tad over 35 ft. Lamberts light output in ISF Night setting.
I know know what 'Inky Blacks" look like and the Colors are so natural looking they really draw you in. The picture is just stunning.
Anyone with light output concerns with this Plasma can rest assured it will deliver the goods. Actually being retired a lot of my TV viewing is during the day with curtains open and the picture is still drop dead
gorgeous. He did ISF Day also but the Night setting is plenty bright for daytime viewing. He also tweaked the 3D settings and we watched Avatar in 3D when he finished the calibration and were blown away with the presentation.
I wish I had settings to share but they are all fixed and locked but anyone reading this in the SF Bay Area and wants to get a superb Calibration I can highly recommend Robert. He is expensive but worth every penny.
All home theater viewing is run through an Onkyo TH-NR 3009 and an Oppo BDP95 Bluray player and Harbeth Compact 7ES3 speakers.
This is my first post so I hope it goes to the right place although I have been a member and reading this fourm for many years and what a wonderful place to share ideas and gather information. Thanks AVS

I am having issues dialing in Blue for ISF Day. Are you guys using 75W or 100W for CMS?

Currently, I am taking a 100% White reading, then 75% white reading, and then 75% color readings until they are dialed in. Is this correct?

I am doing 2pt GS, 10pt GS, CMS, 10pt
Edited by jbrady3324 - 8/14/12 at 11:24am

I did some gamma measurements with my spyder3 meter with 78 contrast and 58 brightness and when i did 9 point reading with a target of gamma 2.2 the gamma was around 2.0. (tv had gamma set to 2.4)
To get the flat line at 2.2 i had to put these settings:

10: 0
20: -38
30: -17
40: -14
50: -9
60: -4
70: -1
80: 0
90: 3
100: 4

I see you guys do little adjustment here so i wonder why i am so off?
Is the the meter that is of bad quality?
Edited by blwegrzyn - 8/15/12 at 9:10am

Did you do 2 pt first and what is your color temperature to start ?

I used calman4.
I set brightness, contrast first.
Then i increased contrast to get luminance of 30fl.
then i went to Displays Gamma Settings and measured for 9 point (20-100)