Help with RPTVs -Panasonic (1 Viewer)

[Steve Richter]

I've recently purchased an RPTV (Panasonic PT-47) on the merits of its picture quality, price, and aesthetics, and I've got a few questions for those in the know, as I've been far more involved in audio than video over the last few years. I've read through the "Burn-in" primer, and I'm somewhat confused as to how to correctly adjust the contrast on my TV -- the Panasonic has no adjustment named this -- I assume you refer either to the "sharpness" control or the "Brightness" control. The sharpness control seems to have almost no effect on the picture from an anamorphic DVD, and if I lower the brightness somewhat (I prefer the picture at about 75% brightness level) I begin to lose texture in blacks, IE black clothing appers pitch-black with no wrinkles, black cars have no shine, etc.

Are my high-brightness preferences going to burn-in the bars from my anamorphic DVDs? I watch movies almost exclusively, and aside from my wife's copy of The Emperor's New Groove, there are only a few that completely fill the screen.

I've been happy with my purchase thus far, but the RPTV in general seems riddled with compromise, and I am beginning to regret not buying a smaller direct-view 16x9 set, at the time largely unavailable in my area -- I would rather watch a smaller (though brighter and sharper) image than spend all my movies wondering if I'm wrecking my $1900 TV just because I like to see the wrinkles in black suits and actually be able to watch TV without hanging blackout drapes.

I appreciate any advice you guys might have, especially from owners of my TV or its larger cousins.

Steve

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Contrast = picture

Should not be higher than 50% as a rule of thumb.

Sharpness is usually set in the 10 to 25% range to avoind seeing too many compression artifacts from DVD.

Regards

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

In general, this TV has a lot of potential ... after you tweak it.

OOTB ... it is considered to be about average in terms of image quality compared to most other brands.

You either have to be willing to tweak it yourself or you will have to hire some pro guy to come do it for you.

Of course getting a test disc is also advisable since you talk in words like bright and vivid = good picture which is "wrong."

Regards

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yes, do as Michael suggested. Get a setup disc like Sound & Vision HT setup or Avia or Video Essentials.

Michael, I did not realize the sharpness control would affect the display of DVD compression artifacts. During the Avia setup of one input, the sharpness control only yielded some edge enhancement at the medium-to-high settings for me, but no noticeable difference across the lower settings. For another input, I was not able to get rid of some edge enhancement even at the lowest setting. I ended up leaving it set to zero. I guess I should experiment some more to see, and also see if I can get rid of the edge enhancement via a lower service menu setting for sharpness on that input.

BTW, I did notice that the VNR should probably be turned off for good sources since it seems to reduce output at certain frequencies according to the sharpness setup in Avia.

_Man_

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

I never suggest using the VNR except on bad VHS or cable sources.

On last year's Panny's ... I'd just go to the 4 EE parameters in the engineering menu to neutralize the EE. VNR appears to sort of do that as well but it went a bit too far in my books.

Of course there is no identifiable EE parameters in the current PAnny units so we do what we can with the sharpness control.

Regards

 

[John Stone]

Steve,

I have a PT-53WX42 and agree with everything that Michael said. I was not impressed at all with this set out of the box, but after I calibrated it with Avia and tweaked a few user-land settings (I turned off VM and VNR, turned off all factory color modes, set the convergence, et. al.) the picture was infinitely better. The set now produces deep, detailed blacks, and the colors are vibrant and bright. Out of the box the picture was so bright that I felt like a laser was boring out my eyes. Now the TV produces a picture that I find absolutely amazing!

Just to give you an idea of what neighborhood you should probably be in, I have picture set at 30, brightness at 29 and sharpness at 14. Of course these settings are probably not optimal for your set. You should definitely take the excellent advice given above, and calibrate it yourself with Avia or VE. I think you'll be amazed at the difference, and burn-in won't be such a concern.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

John,

Do you also turn off the Natural color setting? On my set, it seems to only affect green color saturation when I check the Avia color patterns. I use warm/cinema modes.

_Man_

 

[John Stone]

Hi _Man_,

Yes, I did turn off the Natural Color setting. I turned it off because I figured starting with the most unaltered picture possible before calibrating would be the best way to go. If that's not correct I'd definitely be interested in learning more about it!

Aside from the rather poor explanation in the owner's manual, I actually have no idea what that setting is really doing...

 

[Tim Jin]

Steve,

I have the same tv and after tweaking it with Avia, it looks far more better than what came out of the box.

My picture and brightness settings are at 30. My sharpness is 10.

Does anybody knows what does 3D filter does?

 

[JoeRiley]

Good to hear that this set produces a nice picture... I'm 99% sure this is the one I'll be picking up in about 2-4 weeks.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

The 3D Y/C filter is the comb filter. IIRC, you can only select it for composite inputs (and RF coax) since those are the only ones that need (and can use) the filtering. Basically, just leave this alone and let the TV auto-select for you.

_Man_

 

[Eric Bass]

Just curious from you Panny owners. How is it not having a screen protector after the set has seen some use? Do you find it difficult to clean? I've been looking over the 53" Panny in the store lately and I really like the reduced glare. Just curious what some thoughts are on it from someone who has lived with it awhile. Would you go that way if you had to make the purchase again?

 

[Tim Jin]

From my viewing area, I didn't go with the protective screen because I get a lot of light during the day. I didn't like the protective screen because I could see my reflection and everything in my room on the screen.

I haven't clean my screen yet. So, I don't know what to use.

 

[John Stone]

I love not having the protective screen. There is no glare, even with lots of light in the room and a big fire burning in the fireplace behind us. The screen does not attract dust at all. I've had mine for 2 weeks and the only cleaning I've had to do is dusting off the odd bit of fluff using very light vertical strokes with a soft cloth. I'm very happy with my choice.

 

[Steve Richter]

I am also using the component video inputs to watch my DVDs, my output is from my older, inexpensive RCA DVD player -- not sure of the model number, but it's a very common player, I see them all the time-- and I *really* have to have the brightness at about 70% to make out detail in dark grays and black clothing.

Is there a known issue with either of these devices that makes an unnaturally dark black level from the component connection? I am satisfied with the brightness of the whites (no bloom) at about 35% 'picture' but I need to have the 'brightness' raised to make shadows brighter than just blank, textureless black areas..

I'm not so uncultured that I can't appreciate an accurate picture, but the settings many have advocated in this forum are very, very dim with my current setup, to the point of making "certain movies" (pronounced "Fight Club") almost completely unwatchable.

It also seems logical that the 'picture' control would have more effect on the burning or not of the tubes, since it lowers and raises the maximum output of the tubes, right?

 

[John Stone]

Steve,

I'm not familiar with your specific model of DVD player, but some DVD players offer a "black level" selection. The lighter of the two is 7.5 IRE (NTSC standard) and the darker setting is 0 IRE. That could be your problem. Check your DVD player's settings and make sure black level is set to 7.5 IRE (AKA "normal" or "light" on some players).

 

[Steve Richter]

I'll check on that, thanks. Whats the consensus regarding my burn-in theory? High black level OK?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

High black level should be fine as far as burn-in goes. In fact, I'd think that helps(!) prevent uneven phosphor wear since blacks are not so black anymore.

But seriously, as long as it looks fine and doesn't lead you to pump up the contrast unnecessarily, then go for it since high black level itself is not the problem when it comes to burn-in. Nevertheless, you really should do these adjustments w/ the help of a good setup disc.

_Man_

 

[Steve Richter]

Does "contrast" actually have an analogue on my Panny, ("picture"?)

#&%$@. This industry needs some standardization.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yes, Steve. Contrast is same as "picture" on the Panny, so you should probably be just fine at 35%.

_Man_