[creatine]

This is my 1st calibration ever. I recently purchased a colormunki and calman bundle. I am attempting to calibrate my Panasonic 58VT25 which has aprox 1000hrs on it and have a question regarding the gamma tracking.


I am only attempting to calibrate the custom mode atm, via PS3, AVSHD disk, RGB range is limited with super white on.


These are my custom mode settings so far:


Contrast : 86

Brightness: 58

Color: 40

Tint: 0

Color temp: warm 2


W/B high R: -5

W/B high B: + 4

W/B low R: +1

W/B low B: -2

Gamma 2.2

panel brightness: mid

AGC: off


Any suggestions on what I can do to straighten out the gamma curve ? Is it normal that it dips so low. Advice is appreciated.


Thanks

 

[PlasmaPZ80U]



Quote:
Originally Posted by creatine /forum/post/20785840


This is my 1st calibration ever. I recently purchased a colormunki and calman bundle. I am attempting to calibrate my Panasonic 58VT25 which has aprox 1000hrs on it and have a question regarding the gamma tracking.


I am only attempting to calibrate the custom mode atm, via PS3, AVSHD disk, RGB range is limited with super white on.


These are my custom mode settings so far:


Contrast : 86

Brightness: 58

Color: 40

Tint: 0

Color temp: warm 2


W/B high R: -5

W/B high B: + 4

W/B low R: +1

W/B low B: -2

Gamma 2.2

panel brightness: mid

AGC: off


Any suggestions on what I can do to straighten out the gamma curve ? Is it normal that it dips so low. Advice is appreciated.


Thanks

I believe that gamma behavior is typical of the Custom mode. Try Cinema/THX.

 

[creatine]

I'll see what THX mode produces tonight and tinker around with custom mode a little more. Though when looking at Chad's calibration charts here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=3793


He was able to achieve a flat gamma curve.

 

[PlasmaPZ80U]



Quote:
Originally Posted by creatine /forum/post/20786868


I'll see what THX mode produces tonight and tinker around with custom mode a little more. Though when looking at Chad's calibration charts here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=3793


He was able to achieve a flat gamma curve.

In that case, I'm not sure. Are you using small window patterns and do you have any settings on that might alter gamma? Maybe check "panel brightness"?

 

[creatine]

I am using the small window patterns. Panel brightness is at mid.

 

[PlasmaPZ80U]



Quote:
Originally Posted by creatine /forum/post/20787179


I am using the small window patterns. Panel brightness is at mid.

try the other options for panel brightness and then re-check gamma


Are there any other relevant picture settings/options you didn't post in the first post?

 

[creatine]

I'll try THX and the other panel brightness and gamma options tonight to see what they produce. These are the other relavent settings.


Color Management: Off

x.v. Color: Off

Photo Enhancement: Off

C.A.T.S: Off

Video NR: Off

Blur Reduction: Off

Black Extension: 0

Gamma Adjustment: 2.2

Panel Brightness: Mid

Contour Emphasis: Off

AGC: 0


Advance Options

Block NR: Off

Mosquito NR: Off

Black Level: Light

3:2 Pulldown: On


I am tempted to factory reset my tv and start again.

 

[Doug Blackburn]

Never do a "reset" in the service menu unless you are CERTAIN the TV won't be rendered unusable. This means somebody else will have to have done this before you... there are 100s, possibly 1000s of examples of people who have done resets in the service menu and ended up making the TV useless until it was shipped back to the factory to have the initial factory settings reloaded.


The Reset in the User Menu is safe. But you should never need to use the User Menu Reset. You should always write down the starting settings so you can revert without having to use Reset (in case you only want SOME settings to go back to their original settings).


And by the way... the VT25 displays are some of the most frustrating and time-consuming displays to calibrate. Some seem to come in better than others. So you may or may not be able to achieve results that others have achieved on other VT25s. I'd say the VT25s would be among the most difficult displays to use to learn how to calibrate just because there are so many modes and the behavior of the adjustments is not necessarily consistent from mode to mode.


Make sure the power saving mode is not enabled... it is in a different area of the settings menu.

 

[PlasmaPZ80U]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Blackburn /forum/post/20787627


Never do a "reset" in the service menu unless you are CERTAIN the TV won't be rendered unusable. This means somebody else will have to have done this before you... there are 100s, possibly 1000s of examples of people who have done resets in the service menu and ended up making the TV useless until it was shipped back to the factory to have the initial factory settings reloaded.

100% true, but I believe the OP was referring to a user menu reset. Do the current Panasonics even have a factory reset in the service menu? My 2008 one doesn't.

 

[creatine]

I meant to say user settings reset. I haven't ventured into the service menu yet. I was under the impression the only values I would be changing in the service menu were in relation to calibrating THX mode greyscale (cuts and drives)


I was hoping there was an obvious setting I missed or adjustment in my custom mode calibration and appropriate settings\\paramaters to modify. (adjusting contrast, etc) I guess this is where the experience of a professional calibrator comes to play.

 

[PlasmaPZ80U]



Quote:
Originally Posted by creatine /forum/post/20788146


I meant to say user settings reset. I haven't ventured into the service menu yet. I was under the impression the only values I would be changing in the service menu were in relation to calibrating THX mode greyscale (cuts and drives)


I was hoping there was an obvious setting I missed or adjustment in my custom mode calibration and appropriate settings\\paramaters to modify. (adjusting contrast, etc) I guess this is where the experience of a professional calibrator comes to play.

The gamma you currently have is pretty awful, crushing near white detail (point gamma too low in the high end). THX mode should be much better in this respect. One last thing to try in Custom mode is to lower contrast quite a bit to see if you can raise high end point gamma.

 

[creatine]

I think I will work with THX mode and tackle custom later, it has much better gamma tracking. This is a screen shot of before I even started calibration. I will post after screens when I'm done.

 

[PlasmaPZ80U]



Quote:
Originally Posted by creatine /forum/post/20789593


I think I will work with THX mode and tackle custom later, it has much better gamma tracking. This is a screen shot of before I even started calibration. I will post after screens when I'm done.

not a bad starting point

 

[creatine]

I wrote down all my service menu offsets prior to starting so I can back out if necessary, but have run into a strange issue. I am trying to calibrate THX mode (WARM 2). I enter the service menu, I made sure I was in CINEMA, HD, WARM. I must have checked it 5 times. But regardless of what offset I change, nothing seems to happen to my RGB levels. I went to the extreme of doing +50 \\ -50 on a combination of R, G and B CUTS and DRVS but nothing happens. I power off the TV after making changes and remeasure. I retried this countless times. I am on FW 3.5


Here is a screenshot of +50\\-50 changes I made. It is identical to my starting point screenshot. Shouldnt the RGB levels change accordingly to changes in offsets ? Am i missing something ?

 

[Doug Blackburn]

By the way... it hasn't been mentioned here... I always assume people know this about the VT25s, but unless there has been a firmware update that changes this, THX mode and one of the other modes (it's in my notes, but I don't have them handy), probably custom (but might be a different mode) share adjustments. So if you adjust this mode (which I think might be custom), you alter THX mode as well. So if you want to "protect" THX mode, you'll have to use a different mode that doesn't conflict with THX settings to do the non-THX calibration.


(this applies to user menu setttings)

 

[creatine]

Thanks for the reply, I was aware of the shared settings between custom and THX.


If i change W/B offsets in custom mode they change the greyscale tracking in custom but not THX (i tested this) which is what I was expecting. The issue I am having, is that THX mode does not respond to any service menu changes I make. (CINEMA, HD, WARM are selected) I can increase\\decrease cuts and drives for each color by large amounts (ex: going from 68 to E8 and F4 to A2) and it makes no change to greyscale tracking. Non of my other modes are calibrated atm, they are at defaults. I am trying to find a solution to this issue.


Hopefully an experinced calibrator has come across this before and knows how to fix it. Chadb responded to my PM about this issue, he ran into it before on another VT25 but had no fix.

 

[PlasmaPZ80U]



Quote:
Originally Posted by creatine /forum/post/20792214


Thanks for the reply, I was aware of the shared settings between custom and THX.


If i change W/B offsets in custom mode they change the greyscale tracking in custom but not THX (i tested this) which is what I was expecting. The issue I am having, is that THX mode does not respond to any service menu changes I make. (CINEMA, HD, WARM are selected) I can increase\\decrease cuts and drives for each color by large amounts (ex: going from 68 to E8 and F4 to A2) and it makes no change to greyscale tracking. Non of my other modes are calibrated atm, they are at defaults. I am trying to find a solution to this issue.


Hopefully an experinced calibrator has come across this before and knows how to fix it. Chadb responded to my PM about this issue, he ran into it before on another VT25 but had no fix.

do you have the latest firmware version?

 

[donnymac51]



Quote:
Originally Posted by creatine /forum/post/20792214


Thanks for the reply, I was aware of the shared settings between custom and THX.


If i change W/B offsets in custom mode they change the greyscale tracking in custom but not THX (i tested this) which is what I was expecting. The issue I am having, is that THX mode does not respond to any service menu changes I make. (CINEMA, HD, WARM are selected) I can increase\\decrease cuts and drives for each color by large amounts (ex: going from 68 to E8 and F4 to A2) and it makes no change to greyscale tracking. Non of my other modes are calibrated atm, they are at defaults. I am trying to find a solution to this issue.


Hopefully an experinced calibrator has come across this before and knows how to fix it. Chadb responded to my PM about this issue, he ran into it before on another VT25 but had no fix.

I have the same problem on my Panasonic V10. I changed input from "method 00 to Method 03" in the SM. It works but there is one slight problem. The cuts stay the same no matter what color temp you are using. So you cannot calibrate for separate color temps. The other thing is that every time you change a value you must hit the OK button on the remote for it to store the new value. I hope this helps.

 

[creatine]

Yes, I have the latest firmware, version 3.5. I was pressing "OK" on the remote after each offset change and then pressing "3" to move forward to the next offset. After powering off the tv and going back into the service menu the values reflected the changes I had made but they had no effect on RGB levels. I will try changing my method from 00 to 03 to see if that helps. I will report back.

 

[creatine]

Changing method from 00 to 03 allowed me to calibrate greyscale in THX mode. The changes made in the service menu reflected the greyscale tracking after changing the method value. Here are my updated screenshots of my calibration. I would have liked slightly higher light output 35-39 fL but raising the the contrast any higher would clip green in the color clipping pattern. I admit i am having a difficult time with the color gamut calibration. Seems that any change I make is counter productive. Any suggestions ?


My current settings are


THX

contrast 59

brightness 54

color 46

tint -1

sharpness 10

WARM2

everything else off