[math08]

While watching animation with my son, I have noticed a halo effect around the lines of the characters. At first we were watching cable TV, the ditigal tier of channels, and I noticed on Nick and Disney that there was a shadowing of the lines around the characters (exmple, against a solid background, the elephant character of Tarzan (who is also a solid color) has a distinct line of a lighter color on both sides of the black outline of the character. I thought that this must be a cable tv problem, but last night was watching a Disney DVD on my panasonic xp30 and noticed the same effect.


Additionally, I have gone to the music only channels of the cable tier, where a still screen with information on the music being played is shown during the songs. Instead of crisp lettering, there is a fuzzy shadow around each letter. I don't notice effect during movies, sporting events, etc.


Is this a defect of the screen, or is this normal and due to the video input?


Thanks, Mike

 

[sleeks]

If you are getting it from both cable and the DVD player, I would guess that it is not your source and it would be the panel.


Have you calibrated the brightness/contrast down?

 

[PooperScooper]

Sharpness above -9 or -8 on a P50 can cause "ringing". "inferior cables" can cause it too. Make sure power cords are isolated from non-power cables. What inputs were you using for other than the XP30? (I assume you are using component for it)


larry

 

[math08]

I am using DVI from the comcast HD box. The component cables from the xp30 are monster cable THX. The DVI cable has a magnetic shield at both ends, and I have shielded the power cable with the magnetic shield which came with the P50.


My settings are:


contrast -10

brightness -3

sharpness +2

Natural

Standard Color


Thanks, Mike

 

[Bob Pariseau]

Math08,

This sounds like a classic case of "ringing". Try reducing the sharpness dramatically -- down to -8 or below, and see if that helps. It is possible your Comcast box is producing the ringing (if it has a sharpness control you should try reducing it as well), but more likely that your sharpness +2 setting in the P50 is the problem.


When using a calibration DVD like Avia to calibrate your DVI connection for example, focus on the vertical lines in the Sharpness test screen and reduce Sharpness enough to make the halos vanish. That's a much more important test for the proper Sharpness level over the digital connection than any effort to "smooth out" the horizontal resolution sweep as described in the Avia narration. In my P50, the halos vanish at Sharpness -8 and suddenly appear if you raise Sharpness even only one notch above that.


[It's even possible the ringing was generated by the cable company before they sent you the signal -- in which case you are stuck with it.]


Also, many people prefer the calibration they get on the P50 in "Fine" picture mode. You will have to re-calibrate your white/black/colors levels as well if you change to "Fine". Since you've already got your Contrast cranked down in "Natural" mode the light output of the image will probably end up close to the same in "Fine" after raising Contrast in re-calibration, but there are some other changes that the P50 makes in the background when you make "picture mode" changes -- such as what constitutes "standard" Color Temperature. Fine mode also adds two new controls to the Precision Setting menu. "Luminance" adjusts the over-all light output of the display in case you decide Fine has gone to far in darkening the over-all image. The default for "Luminance" in Fine mode is the minimum value. I've decided I prefer to raise it by one or two steps before calibrating. "Black Level" acts like a fine tuning control on Brightness. A step in Black Level has the effect of about a 1/2 or 1/3 step of Brightness.


If reducing sharpness cures the "ringing" or "halos" then leave it turned down for a while until you get used to the picture. An overly high sharpness setting produces "false" sharpness that originally looks attractive until you finally twig off on how it is damaging the image, so it will take a while for your eye to get used to a correctly adjusted, but softer image.


Don't reduce sharpness lower than is necessary to eliminate the ringing. If you drop it all the way to the lowest possible setting, for example, you will "fuzzy up" those lines which is just as bad.

--Bob

 

[math08]

Bob Thanks, I have tried fine, but the overall picture was too dark. I did not try the luminance. I will play with the set tonight and see if fine with luminance set up a bit is a better picture.


When you are in fine, did you adjust the color temp at all?


Thanks, Mike

 

[Bob Pariseau]

math08,

For "Fine" picture mode, I tried a significantly redder setting (negative number) at the suggestion of a local calibration tech, but ended up deciding that I liked the "standard" color temperature better.


My guess is that a measured calibration would end up using "standard" or just a little bit negative (redder) from there. Keep in mind that "standard" means different things depending upon which picture mode you select in the P50.

--Bob

 

[Mark Cuhaci]

Bob,


Would you mind posting all of the settings including luminance and color temps for your P50. Also, how do I access luminence in the set. Is this a basic setting through the standard menus? Finally, do you know how to access the service menus.


Your settings will be a great help in getting me starting on calibrating my P50.


Mark

 

[Mark Cuhaci]

Bob,


In reference to my previous message, can you please post both your DVI and Component Video settings when you list them.


THanks again.

Mark

 

[Bob Pariseau]

Mark and Math08,

I'm not currently using Component for anything on my Fujitsu P50XHA30WS, and I've used all the memories for recent DVI connection experiments, so I don't have a good set of Component settings to offer you. I have an HDDirecTivo box (HR10-250) and a Pioneer Elite 59avi DVD player currently hooked in via a Dtronics 4x1 DVI switch to the DVI input, both devices using an HDMI to DVI adapter plug and then a DVI to DVI cable. Whether by sheer luck or the degree of standardization among home equipment makers using HDMI or DVI, I've found that one set of settings on the P50 just happens to work equally well for both of these devices when hooked up this way -- and also happened to work fine with a Denon 5900's DVI output at the 0 IRE setting.


Be sure to configure the P50's DVI Input for "video" standards as the factory default has it set for "PC" standards. You do this in the Features/Input Terminal menu -- hit menu, click, right to Features, then click down to Input Terminal and hit enter. Click down to DVI Input and hit enter again. Select DVI2 instead of DVI1 as the mode. Hit enter to record the change, and hit menu several times to back out of the menus.


The HR10-250 has no picture adjustments, so it's operating in factory default settings. It is set for a 16:9 display, and I have it set to stretch any 4:3 standard def TV shows out to the 16:9 width to minimize pillar box burn-in and because I'm used to stretched SDTV.


The Pioneer 59avi is set to use the factory defaults for "HDMI Direct" mode -- the player's picture mode that does the least to the signal. If you want to see what these defaults are, you can select a 59avi video adjustment memory and "load" values into that memory specifying "Direct" as the source. The output is set to "HDMI 16:9 Compressed" mode which automatically displays 4:3 DVDs with black pillar boxes generated by the player so as to maintain the 4:3 aspect ratio when displayed on a 16:9 display. With some DVD's you need to manually change the PureCinema (film vs. video processing mode) from the default "Auto 1" setting to the "ON" setting to avoid flicker from those DVD's which trigger the 3:2 Alternating Flags problem. You know to do this based on whether or not the "#" symbol indicating film mode detection is flashing in the on screen display when playing the DVD. Most of the time you just leave it in the default Auto 1 mode.


After a variety of experiments I've decided the picture I like best comes from setting both of these devices to 1080i output regardless of the source content -- and yes I like this better than 720p even though the P50's native pixel count is closer to that. I've no idea why 1080i should happen to look better but it does, to me. Based on comparisons with other devices, it is apparent that these device settings produce in the P50 the equivalent of a "0 IRE" black level image over an analog connection such as Component cables. Blacker than Black data is successfully passed by both devices in this setup.


Based on my earlier experiments with Component hookup, the DVI settings I'm about to list will not be precisely correct for Component, even from a 0 IRE device. But they will be close for a 0 IRE device. However this plasma is particularly sensitive to getting the levels "right", so by all means use a calibration DVD and find the right settings for Component. Also, the variation between different Component devices is quite noticeable, unlike the results I found for HDMI/DVI devices where one set of settings seems to work remarkably well across different devices. So adjust calibration for each individual Component source device.


Finally note that two of the settings, Luminance and Black Level, only appear in the user menus if you select Fine picture mode. They are found in the Precision Setting sub-menu along with the controls for Color Temperature.


Luminance adjusts the over-all light output of the display. It's default setting in Fine mode is the minimum allowed value (40), so its apparent use is to raise the light output for people who think Fine mode has gone too far in darkening the image. I've raised it 2 steps from default. Raising it seems to reduce noise in black areas of lesser quality sources at the expense of introducing a bit more false contouring as in the glow around lamps. I also feel it dramatically improves the "naturalness" of the image across a wide variety of source content.


Black Level apparently acts as a fine tuning control on Brightness. It seems to add or subject something like 1/2 to 1/3 of a Brightness step. It's default value is mid-range (0), and rather confusingly, negative values have the effect of INCREASING Brightness. In Fine mode, getting good black detail may push the display to the point where it turns on widely scattered pixels in what should be all black -- a form of rounding error. The finer adjustment enabled by the Black Level control allows you to get right up to the correct setting for excellent detail, without crossing over to this sprinkle pattern of just turned on pixels.


I've found this one set of settings works great for me across a wide variety of source content -- DVD's of all quality levels, off the air HDTV, satellite (i.e., compressed) HDTV, and satellite SDTV. So here's what I'm currently using:


Contrast: -3

Brightness: +8

Color: +2

Tint: -3

Sharpness: -8

Picture Mode: Fine

Precision Setting / Luminance: 50

Precision Setting / Black Level: -1

Precision Setting / Color Temperature: Standard


I've not tried to access or investigate any service menus yet.

--Bob

 

[math08]

Bob, Thanks for the info, I will try the settings this week.


Mike