Philips 42PF9631D HD Plasma - Page 7

Yeah, I was going to ask if there was a way to set individual settings per input....

No, but maybe that's something we could pester the Philips tech people about.

Why are people looking to change settings per input? If you want certain settings, what does it matter that they change slightly depending on whether it's component or HDMI or whatever ?

Maybe your xbox is too dark when your DVD is perfect, or your OTA looks bright when all your other devices look good...
It's nice to save custom settings per input.
Some DVD players have brightness and black level settings, but I've never seen a single component give as much control as even the cheapest TV.

Mike

The thing that bugs me is that if you make a single minute correction to one of the PRESETS -- like change Sharpness in the RICH setting -- it TRANSFERS everything in the 'new' RICH setting to your PERSONAL !!!

Why does it do that ???

That is irritating and basically only lets you use the other 5 PRESETS as guides if you like their overall look but just want to tinker with them slightly. You have to copy them into PERSONAL (and remember your original PERSONAL setting) to make it easier to use.

Real annoying, IMO, but since I don't change anything that much I can live with it.

Green Tint: Anybody noticed a greenish tint in their Philips picture either through the DVD or the TV ? I have my Tint setting at +3 but maybe I need to lower it? Or perhaps the SM Green input is off and changing TINT in the OSM won't really do much ?

I also noticed the Green Tint coming and going on my DVD player but I think that's the DVD player or components working with my calibrations and/or the original factory color SM settings.

+3 is the highest Tint I've seen posted yet..Most are around -1...

How many of you use the extra functions with your settings?

Noise Reduction, AC, Dynamic contrast?

Let's have a run of personal settings!

I'd give you mine, but I've only got 50 hours.

Hopefully, we get all the 9631 owners -- including the recent and soon-to-be Christmas buyers -- to post.

As I said a few months ago:

CONTRAST 63.....BRIGHTNESS 56.....COLOR 56....SHARPNESS 2.......TINT 3......TEMP: Cool.....PIXEL PLUS....DYN CONTRAST: Medium.....DNR: Medium.......COLOR ENHANCE: On.....TINT 6....ACTIVE CONTROL: Medium

I originally posted Sharpness at 1 and Tint at 6 (!) but they're now 2 and 3, respectively. And I'm still seeing occasional green tint on/off with DVD's and less so on regular TV but it could be either the DVD player or my SM settings which I don't want to fool around with at this point (maybe the TV is correcting the tint but the DVD is less adaptive and that's why it shows up more there?).

On the settings, I detect a big difference with ACTIVE CONTROL at MAX vs. all the other settings (much darker). Otherwise, can't tell difference between MED/MIN/OFF.

PixelPlus, DNR, DYN Contrast, Color Enhance -- can't detect any differences if I turn them off or on, min or max. I assume they're working.

Does anybody have their TEMPERATURE set at Normal or Warm? What would be the reason for that?

Since I have had my 50PF9631D starting in July, I have been using only two of the presets; namely SOFT or NATURAL. I do have the AVIA DVD and will try creating my own PERSONAL settings, but for the most part I like what I see with SOFT or NATURAL. SOFT works for me with brightly lit scenes, such as a sunny day football game; I use NATURAL most of the time for movies and shows. If I ever get around to calibrating with AVIA, I will post my results. It is also an impression of mine that my picture quality is very much a function of what the broadcaster is sending out, with broadcast quality being the biggest factor and adjustments to my TV settings a secondary factor.

If you want to burn me a copy of the AVIA, I'll be happy to post my results.

PERSONAL can be whatever you want....just don't change anything in the other presets or it transfers over to PERSONAL and overrides whatever you had there.

You can have a PERSONAL that matches the presets you use except a number change of very small order or a slight change in the settings from off to min or min to med, etc. You don't have to calibrate them each to a disk -- go by eyesight or make minor changes to what your favorite preset is.

Here's a bunch of settings which represent the averages from posts from the 9630 and 9631 threads. All are post-broken in settings for Contrast, Brightness, and Color. These are averages for 12 users, with Hi/Low settings for each following.

Contrast.........63 (H/L are 85/50)

Brightness......51 (H/L are 56/45)

Color.............49 (H/L are 69/35)

Anyone have an issue where you turn the TV on and it says "Your TV does not support HDCP" Please use componenet inputs...

I'm getting this from my cable box via HDMI. If I turn the box off and back on, it usually comes up.

I run my TV through HDMI via the cable box and I have not ever seen that message.

On a seperate note, does anyone know how to post pictures here? I took some of my TV wall mounted and was asked to post them.

Thanks

Looks like it's most likey a handshake issue with the Scientific Atlanta 8250HD STB I have. If I turn it off and back on, it resends the keys, and the picture comes right up. Guess I'll have to see if the new 8300HD DVR does this too. Not totally annoying, or a deal breaker by any means. Just more of a question.

Sorry, I am sitting in Kirkuk, Iraq for now and I really don't recall which THX DVD I used. I know the Star Wars movies are THX. I have a 400 Disc DVD player and many have the THX Optimizer feature. I was very surprised how easy it was to use.

Thanks for your service, Kaboom !

I have heard that some of the THX optimizers are questionable, but Star Wars IV (the original) is spot on.
Mike

Has anyone here gotten their Philips plasma professionally calibrated? I was going to give it a shot in '07....I'll report back, but if anyone has already done it, let us know your thoughts.

Some 9630 users reported problems either getting the upgrade to load or in 1 case it 'froze' the TV (Philips support seemed aware of this problem from others). BEWARE ! Using 128 clean, Philips-stuff only USB drive best to getting it uploaded rather than massive gigabytes or USB with other junk on it.

Anyone having any problem upgrading or getting a new problem, report it here.

Just bought the 50" model of this tv from co***o online's store. The price was much better than anyone else and I wanted to buy it before the new year. I'm looking forward to getting the tv, but I probably won't hook it up until the end of January or so because that is when I am moving into my new house. Thanks for all of the feedback on here! Will let you know what I think of it when it is up and running.

Good luck with it. I have the same model, and I LOVE it!

Congrats, PantherFan, and when you get it give me a PM and I'll send you the Tips Sheet that will be going out later this month or early January.

You'll be all set-up to watch someone other than Carolina in the playoffs ! (sorry, couldn't resist, the Panthers killed me in my survivor pool !! )

Tell me about it . I am actually not going to set it up until the first of Feb because I am moving into a new house then. But I still can't get over my panthers.

They have KILLED me in recent Survivor Pools: lost on them, and also teams they lost to which I thought were good were lousy when I picked them. Carolina is just too erratic the last few years and you can't judge how good they OR their opponents are for pool purposes.

OK, back to the 9631 talk.....

BTW, Panther, you can be ahead of the game when your set is around by reading alot of the 9630/9631 threads, other Philips LCD/plasma threads, general flat-panel threads here, and lastly, my Tips Sheet (you can wait for the January update there).

I did a ton of research/reading before I got my set and it made me alot more comfortable getting it up and running quickly and then not screwing anything up. I'm assuming this is your 1st HDTV, as it was mine.

Again, congrats, you should really love the set.

I got some finger-smudges on the screen from nieces who don't listen....anybody use that Monster Microfiber Cleaning package they sell at BB/CC? Any good?

I'm not going to clean the whole screen, just 4-5 fingermarks.

I use it on my Philips plasma. No problems seems to clean nicely.

Thanks Casey....I know from my other optical equipment that it's tough to clean a whole screen and sometimes NOT cause more problems than you correct. So since the rest of the display is pretty clean, I am going to restrict myself to cleaning just the fingerprints.

When I see a buildup of dust, then I'll use the cleaner and/or just a very clean soft rag or the microfiber to dust it off. Always best to avoid using a liquid if you can avoid it.

I can't speak to the kit, but if it says Monster it is probably overpriced.
I had great luck with a dry microfiber on my Philips's screen - fingerprints gone.
I bought a little pack of three in a CD jewel case - five bucks tops. Anyplace with an electronics dept. has them (hint: cheaper options than Monster @ BB/CC).

Mike

look at that, three big eyes all in a row
sorry about that, must be feeling self-centered today

Mike, it probably is overpriced but since it'll last me a long time and it's probably $20 give or take, I'll probably get it. Also bought a Monster surge protector which was probably overpriced by $30-$40, but again, my last one gave me 11 years of use on my ProScan 27" so I got plenty of use out of it.

I didn't buy Monster cables because THAT definitely is a waste. Took the advice of AVS folks and got some HDMI and components for about 1/5th the price of Monster. Pays to save there, because I may buy new ones as I move or get a new layout for the TV; may want to get more shorter-cables, bought 1 short and 1 long for HDMI/Component and probably don't need/want the longer ones but will save them. Short seems the way to go. Tired of moving the excess cord around the back of my TV !

Hoping you folks might have some suggestions...

I borrowed the AVIA DVD from one of our great members here at AVS, with hopes of calibrating my 50" 9631. I went through the DVD, all 40 minutes of it, step by step and ended up with these settings:

Contrast: 69
Brightness: 51
Color: 35
Sharpness: 3
Pixel Plus: 0n
Dyn Con: 0ff
Color Enh: Off
Tint: 0

Before I did this, I turned all the extra stuff off, just so it wouldn't throw it off. Here's the thing. After I was done, I flipped back to my HD source and all the reds look like crap. It really doesn't look very good at all. I know they say that a properly calibrated set won't look great to everyone, because we're used to such oversaturated pictures typically, but the colors look off. I did use the filters and all that crap when I was doing it. I guess it's just kind of frustrating. Any suggestions?