Maybe your TV need calibration. You can PM anfieldude.  He is expert in calibration.  You can consult him regarding the  black issue.  Truth me, he is real expert in this matter. 

You can refer his thread here : http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1365250

Click the PM bottom to send him a message. 

Is this in a bright environment? Is there light hitting the screen?

The only way a plasmas black screen looks dark grey is if u crank up the brightness, selected the wrong colour space or if there is direct light hitting the screen....

And in the dark, ur LCD when fed a black signal (0% IRE) is black? What LCD are u talking about?

What is the source of your "black image"? Is it a photo? Or from SD movie source? Is it supposed to be a completely black image (something you can verify independently eg a black dress that you took a photo of?)

Depending on the origin of your black image, your LCD may not be rendering it realistically. So it may not be a fair comparison.

this V20k , if there's no signal input , the blank screen will not be as black/dark as many other models. however , if there's a signal input ,meaning to say when you play a movie from any HD source and even DVD, the black level is impressive , especially in dim environment . i have tried it on the latest Batman and others, and i'm impressed. you're probably confused blank screen with black levels. i have a sammy R8 LCD and the blank screen is always blacker than this V but once there's a signal feed , this V comes to live

why did you set the brightness to +40 when the default is at 0 and you are still doing the breaking-in . this neoplasma panel is so good that even when the brighness is set at low , the white level are still very impressive and in dark scenes the shadow details is still good and clear. i really love this babe. the color reproduction is awesome

a_loen,

Where r u based at? Penang or KL? Did u feed that same image to the LCD? And it is black? R u crushing black in the LCD?

Also, if u r using the Break in DVD, then setting the contrast so low, defeats the purpose.

In a totally dark room, no display today can do total black. The V20 is closest to 8G Kuro, so there will still be a dark grey glow from the display. The 9G goes significantly darker, so in a darkened room, it will be closer to black on a total black screen. What u r expecting, of a totally black screen can be got from a local dimming LED where it totally shuts off when total black is detected, but with as little as 1 pixel content the backlit will light up and it will be grey. A plasma will do better blacks in that extent.

Even the 9G Kuros can only do bezel melting blacks with a bias lighting behind the display only, in total darkness ur pupils will open up to allow more light, and thus the screens will not look so black. 2 yrs ago before Pioneer shut down, they demo-ed the technology u r expecting, the ECC (Extreme Contrast Concept). This was supposed to come out in a couple of years but they shut down.

OLED is the next best thing to total black so lets see however the half lifes of the different elements are not up to mark yet. Right now, I would suggest to get a low powered bias light and put it behind ur display so that ur pupils are more relaxed and also to enhance ur black level. Still the V20s black levels are superior to most displays out there especially in mixed content. There is no content out there that only has black screen except test signals.

Also if u r planning on watching content, during the early life of the panel, then I would suggest reducing the contrast/colour and mixing ur content. However, if u plan to use the break in dvd then u need to jack up the contrast/colour so that u can age ur phospors faster. U need to decide which method u want to use.

Was a 24p source playing? I will confirm if we do have 96Hz when I can.

Looks like u r right. No 96Hz mode for Asian sets. I need to check what is the equivalent in UK. I hv a sneaky suspicion that it might be the GT20 series.

Z1!! wow, i would like to have my hands on it. too bad no such discount found in Malaysia. Display unit or new? better check the time used through the system.