[kj01]

I've noticed that, for video games, the game looks a ton better if I turn up the brightness setting within the game. Now, I'm pretty sure this is not adjusting just "brightness", but actually what I've heard of as "gamma", since trying to turn up "brightness" in the TV's display menu in an attempt to make things uniform across all games has unsatisfactory results. I could just go into every game and turn up its individual "brightness" setting, but I'm afraid some might not even have one. So, what can I do to turn up "gamma"? Is there another name it goes by in the service menu?


When I say the game looks a lot better, I'm generally referring to blacks -- at default "brightness", the colors in games just seem to sink into black, and it looks very distracting and ugly.


For reference, I have a Panny 47X54 RPTV.

 

[kj01]

Also curious, how do I get things that can be adjusted on 480i to be able to adjust on 480p? I thought they carried over, because it did for my adjustments of cuts and drives, but brightness and contrast don't carry over. The basic display adjustments are nearly useless, because they increase the brightness/contrast in much too high of intervals. So right now I'm looking at a too dark of screen, but I want to preserve the black level (since its fine as it is), and turning up the brightness washes it out. Adjusting the gamma in games seems to help the most, but I want to set my TV to these levels so I don't have to adjust per game.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Your TV, being a CRT, may not have any gamma circuitry in it that allows you to adjust the gamma response of the display. Gamma is implemented at the camera, or otherwise in the source partially so that there isn't need to have gamma circuitry in the display. digital displays are linear by nature, so necessarily have gamma LUT at the display, so often this is adjustable. CRTs need additional circuitry to adjust gamma from the natural gamma curve of the CRTs, and I would be surprised if that were present in your display. You will likely have to have other processing equipment or your source to adjust the gamma.

 

[kj01]

Then I doubt it's gamma I'm talking about. But whatever I increase in games by the individual game's "brightness" setting is a whole lot better than the TV's brightness adjust. I just want to know what exactly the game is adjusting so I can do that to make it uniform across all games.


Also, is there any solution to the whole 480i/480p service menu options thing?

 

[JohnnyG]

I can't remember the details of your exact model, but earlier PT-47's had 480p tied to 1080i. So, to adjust 480p, you had to adjust 1080i, which obviously requires feeding the display a 1080i signal.


For all intents and purposes, I believe you are correct - the video game console is essentially changing the Gamma. I'll bet it makes the entire image look "punchier".

 

[kj01]

What's odd is that 480i cuts and drives adjustments carry over to 480p (I'm pretty sure), but not brightness/contrast. Whats up with that?

 

[kj01]

Yeah, using the 1080i signal does indeed change the 480p adjustments. Now, which setting do I adjust to make it look the same as if I turned up the game's "brightness" setting? The thing about the game's "brightness" setting is it doesn't sacrifice black levels, something I can't figure out with the service menu's options.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Quote:

The thing about the game's "brightness" setting is it doesn't sacrifice black levels

Sounds like a gamma adjustment to me. It makes it easier to see in the dark stuff, while not elevating your black level, that's gamma.

 

[kj01]

That's what I assumed... now how can I get my TV to do this adjustment, rather than in-game?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Quote:

Your TV, being a CRT, may not have any gamma circuitry in it that allows you to adjust the gamma response of the display.

 

[kj01]

So I guess the only solution is to indeed use in-game adjustments... Unless there's some roundabout way of adjusting gamma. Thanks for the help, regardless.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

you could buy a video processor that has gamma controls...