Quick question regards black level calibration on plasma

What I do with my plasma is I put up a full black screen and look at the screen from about a foot away.
Then I turn up brightness until I see pixel dithering and back off one clink so that there's no pixels turned on on the screen.
That should be the highest value of brightness for which stimulus level 16 turns on no pixels.

It seems to me that's the correct brightness level.

Greetings

If you are using a low level pattern to set brightness, it is normal for you not to see the 17 bar when you try a higher picture level pattern.

IF you are setting brightness for a bright room, use the brighter pattern. If for a dark room stay with the answer using the darker pattern.

regards

On the Samsung e450 here if I turn the brightness down so the dithering is gone I end up with black crush and a dim screen.Every tv is different in the way they handle the lower black levels.

Some commercial calibration disks have settings for a darker picture, per some comments in this forum. If using the AVS Forum 709 disk, try adjusting the brightness setting to where the 21 and above is flashing. Some members have said that this will probably exclude 2% of the picture that you don't really need. After making this adjustment, look at the picture to see if it looks okay to you or if you need a lighter setting closer to the 17 flashing level setting.

Vincentfam

When I put cable box on ycc4:4:4 when I adjust brightness it does not effect dark black levels very much, but if I put it on rgb then brightness control has more effect On darks when adjusting

Don't mean to hijack this thread but it seemed pointless to start a new one on more or less the same subject. I recently bought a LG 60" plasma and am happy with the set but with regards to black levels was a little disappointed, my understanding of plasma's displays advantage in black level performance is its ability to completely shut off a pixel at and below video black? However on my set even with the brightness control cranked all the way down the pixels never seem to achieve a completely dark state. Dithering completely stops, but they still have a glow to them as if they are being backlight (impossible on a plasma?) Am I expecting too much or is there something I haven't done?

Greetings

They don't completely shut off each cell. There is current that goes through there.

LG is the weakest of the 3 plasma companies in terms of black level performance.

Samsung says they are usually a year behind Panasonic. LG would be a year behind samsung.

Regards

Good to know, thanks Michael. I got a smokin' deal on the set $799 @ costco. Compared to my 10+ year old Pani CRT RPTV it was like viewing HDTV again for the first time. So to clarify the best black level I'm going to get on plasma is the absence of dithering? This set also has the ISF calibration modes with a full CMS and 20 point grayscale adjustment which is a bit beyond me for now. It also has a gamma adjustment (high, medium, and low) Would i be correct in assuming that the correct setting for the gamma control is high? The medium and low settings required significantly reducing the brightness setting and the dark greys still seemed to be too bright even then.

Pro's have mentiond this make 17 barely visible 16 invisible. Barely visible meaning one click down and 17 looks like 16 ie black this is too low or 2 click ups and 17 looks to obvioust this is too high. All this has to be done in a black room using avs black clipping pattern. If your set can't make 17 barely visible then go with the setting that makes 17 a litter darker.

When in doubt go with what you can do for 16.

Turn it up till 16 is visible, then turn it down to the brightest setting that 16 becomes indistinguishable from the background.

dginsd I had lgpa4500 and I adjusted cms colors by comparing it to an iPad and the blacks became very dark black.Also the cablebox setting that makes hdmi black level grayed out on the tv will give darker blacks.The budget tv had green blobs more visible on black and white shows and were more noticeable with brighter gamma settings.

Wouldn't this make 17 appear too bright?

No, as long as 16 is correct, don't worry about 17.