Plasma Break-in Images

steveinaz

heiney9 wrote: »

I don't use zoom to remove the black bars either...........I am such a heretic.

In all seriousness, I should get a calibration disc just to make sure I am not missing out on anything. But so far after almost 3 years I have no complaints about my Panny Plasma.

H9

Don't know which set you have Brock, but "warm 1" is usually best for Panasonics in general. Make sure to set all controls at their mid-point, and set sharpness to 0 initially.

Contrary to (new) popular belief, sometimes a little sharpness is needed. The pattern included in DVE makes setting sharpness perfectly----very easy. My S2 series panny required a setting of 12 to get the lines completey focused, without "ringing." At a setting of "0" the picture was noticably too soft.

mrbiron

Probably just jinxed myself by mentioning that.

hehehe
In all seriousness, I'll buy it and when i'm done, i'll mail it to you to borrow unless you have a "whopping $18" to buy your own. :cool:

Only use zoom when necessary, for the first 100hrs. You're just trying to avoid bars for the first 100hrs. After that, set your aspect ratio properly.

Duly Noted. I'll baby it for the first month and then it's game on! No Holds Barred!!

As always, you have all been most helpful.

steveinaz

No problem, you'll love that Panasonic picture.

Tips:

Remember that brightness (controls black level) and contrast (controls white level) work hand-in-hand, so after you adjust contrast, go back and re-check your brightness test pattern again. Chances are it might need a little tweaking.

Only mess with Tint if you can't get the color pattern completey "clean." My tint did require some correction to get a clean color pattern.

When adjusting sharpness, sometimes it's easier to get right up on the screen to look for the "ringing." Ringing is when white ghosting appears on the black test pattern lines; once you get the first hint of ringing, back the sharpness down one step at a time until it just disappears. This will ensure the sharpest image, without distortion.

Calibrate the TV in the type of lighting that you typically watch TV in. Calibrating in bright room will result in crazy contrast levels in a dark room, so find a good compromise.

mrbiron

Calibrate the TV in the type of lighting that you typically watch TV in. Calibrating in bright room will result in crazy contrast levels in a dark room, so find a good compromise.

All excellent info. All my lights in my room are on a dimmer so basically, i'll set it to half way and go from there.
I just hit the order button on DVE so in about a week, i will be all hunky dory!

kuntasensei

BTW: For quick pattern checks, the AVSForum's 709HD disc is faster (and it's totally free, minus color filters for setting color/tint). So long as you have a Blu-ray player, you can burn it to a blank DVD and you're good to go. I use the AVS 709 disc more than my Spears & Munsil disc.

mrbiron

AH CRAP!...where were you an hour ago with this!! :cool:
I'm just going to stick with the one i ordered due in part to my addiction to being somewhat lazy by not hitting the cancel order button on Amazon. I'd have to sign in and click 4...maybe 5 times to make it go away and right now, i don't see that happening. :razz::razz:

I might download it anyway and use it as a check.

pitdogg2

mrbiron wrote: »

Do any of you use an upgraded cord on your tv's? The only reason i ask is the stock cord is too short by 2' and i figured if im going to buy a new cord, then maybe i could put some balls behind it?

My Panny instruction manual had a paragraph in the set up that made it a point of telling the consumer to NOT REPLACE the factory cord with an after market power cord. mine Panny is the 50"S2 although it is an IEC connector it has little locking wings and two ferrite cores one at each end. There must be something to it or Panasonic would not of made such a statement.

mrbiron

If that's the case, then i will replace is with a standard power cord. Nothing Fancy.
Thanks!

MADGSF

When I got my Panasonic I just used it as I normally would but trying not to have static images on the screen for too long. Three years later looks great and no problems.

steveinaz

Exactly. No need to be OCD, just exercise some common sense; and ENJOY!

DMara

steveinaz wrote: »

The big thing for the first 100hrs is to watch content that fills the screen completely--other than that, you're simply accelerating aging.

Image retention is a fact of life with plasma--but don't confuse it with burn-in. Burn-in is permanent, IR is not.

This piece of info helps ease my worry :biggrin: Seldomly but it happened a couple times, when I watched a movie via my Oppo, after putting the disc in, the Panny screen retented the Oppo logo silhouette during the black screen transition. That scared the hell out of me because I thought I broke the burn-in avoidance rule.

zingo

Scott Wilkinson from hometheater.com and the Home Theater Geeks podcast suggests a 50% gray field for the first 100 hours of the TV. He says that should take care of any issues and get your plasma off to a great start. Congrats!

mrbiron

Thanks Zingo, i might add that to the long running list of tiny adjustments to take note of.

I just measured my needed length for the power cord. Of course the one shipped is 1.5' too short to hit my media cabinet so i'm working on ordering a new one. why don't they ship them with the ferrite inline or is there a huge difference between in the inline and the snap on?

begbie

I had what was thought of as burn in on my Lg plasma. Freaked out about it at the time quite honestly and called Lg reps where they scheduled a repair depot to come by the house.

The repair depot was quite helpful in determining it was image retention rather then burn-in. It wasn't permanent but to them they didn't like it and offered to dial down the voltage. I didn't bother to do that and haven't worried about the issue ever since.

Sherardp

Panny Plasma here, I too just set it up and let it go. I came back to it months later and did the calibration myself with an Eyeone and software. You can probably search AVS in order to try someone's calibrated settings and adjust to your liking. That should get you started until you have yours done.

gdb

My now old 50" G10 has an anti retention program option that I used a lot when it was new, that was my only effort (I'm lazy). Never calibrated the thing, except to my liking, I took some AVS advice about which bells and whistles to turn on and which to leave off. Now with prices and features being so much of a better deal than I got a few years ago....... I can now get a 60" for less than the 50" cost, in the same quality/feature class except I don't think they(Panasonic) still tout the THX cert. anymore. I DID buy a third party in-home extended warranty for a period of 4 years, IIRC. It was very cheap in the overall scheme of things and a lot more comforting than the less than generous 1yr. manuf. warr. Happy viewing ! PS pic is still like new with very black blacks etc.

mrbiron

I DID buy a third party in-home extended warranty for a period of 4 years

I bought the 3 years Sears warranty due in part to I always buy a warranty on anything $500 or more.
It's peace of mind and contrary to popular belief, i do use them and it's a life saver in most instances!

I came back to it months later and did the calibration myself with an Eyeone and software. You can probably search AVS in order to try someone's calibrated settings and adjust to your liking. That should get you started until you have yours done.

The plan is to use a calibration DVD and then the AVS settings as a check. I will most likely do it more than once as i am an anal retentive @-hole (as you can tell about all my paranoia above) and want everything to be perfect.

I did also buy the longer cord for the TV and that should be in on friday with means, the TV mounting will occur on saturday, calibration to follow. It sucks to buy this new toy and not being able to use it :evil:

gdb

Good luck with that warranty from Sears.....I bought one from Circuit City on a Velodyne sub, about 10 months before Circuit City went **** up! FWI, Sears seems to be on the same path, hope not though, I can't imagine the U.S. without Sears stores !

mrbiron

Bobby V. will single handily save that store and if the monthly payment is too much, Norm Abrams will sell his Yankee Workshop.

Sears will sell off all the smaller, less profitable stores they own before going under and that won't be for, at least, a couple years so my warranty should be safe!

gdb

Bobby V. is a know-nothing, gee whiz, putz.......an empty toolbelt, if you will ! As for Norm......well....... let me just say that he is the Emo/Bose/Monster among serious woodworkers.(seems like a damn nice, unpretentious fellow though) Maybe the Twatdashians will pull Sears' chestnuts from the fire, won't be holdin' my breath for Bobby to do it!!

mrbiron

You may of may not have some sort of anger issues :cheesygrin:
The Kar ....... sorry, whenever i start to say their names it gets to me......They suck!

gdb

^That is entirely the spirit that I posted in ! No "anger" at Bobby V. whatsoever, he should be trowelling the concrete on sidewalks though.

kuntasensei

gdb wrote: »

Good luck with that warranty from Sears.....I bought one from Circuit City on a Velodyne sub, about 10 months before Circuit City went **** up! FWI, Sears seems to be on the same path, hope not though, I can't imagine the U.S. without Sears stores !

Fortunately, Circuit City used a third party for the warranties... so even after they went under, Assurant honored all the warranties Circuit City had sold. Can't imagine it would be any different if Sears took a nosedive.

gdb

I did not know that about CC's warranties, as it happens....I never even used the sub for more than 20 minutes and it has just collected dust ever since.