Setting Brightness
Brightness is actually the setting of the black level that for me is the basis of a proper calibration. My preference on the test pattern on setting brightness would be the brightness (PLUGE Low– Picture Line Up GEnerator) pattern on S&M Test Disc. However, since most of you would not be buying the test discs all the explanation would be based on AVSHD709 free test disc. Pull up the Basic Settings, 1st pattern (called brightness and contrast). On this pattern you will see flashing bars labeled 1-25 against a video black of 16. First check that you cannot see all the way down to the label of below 5.  If you do these bars flashing, you need to check the settings of you Blu Ray player or your display. What is probably happening is that you are sending a RGB Full signal (also lookout if your display has a setting for 0 IRE, 7.5IRE, select 7.5IRE for the correct setup). For all BD or DVD material, it is based on a video level setting of 16 and above. This is the 1st setting you need to check. Once you select the correct output from your player (typically most players have an Auto setting, this setting normally sets to YCbCr it depends on the EDID that your display is sending out), you are ready to set the brightness. It is better to set the brightness in a dark environment. Turn up the brightness until you can see the bars below 16 flash. Then turn it down until 17 can barely be seen. Now go to the next pattern. The next pattern is brightness and a contrast pattern together. For displays that have different outputs based on dark/bright content in the same screen (plasmas, crt) check your brightness setting that you set earlier. Same method used here, in this case see if you can get at least 19 and above flashing and the 16 and below not flashing. The correct brightness setting is the higher one from pattern 1 and 2. ie, if using the 1st pattern you got a brightness of +1, and on the 2nd pattern you got a brightness of +2 then , use +2.

Are u adjusting it at the same environment as u r watching it? I believe u use the panny u series that does not hv great black levels? What mode r u using? R u adjusting and watching in a dark room? When set to -2 what do u see on the test patterns?

The downside to what u r doing is is black crush and leads to loss of shadow detail. There a couple of reasons why u r seeing what u r seeing. The gamma in normal mode is funky and does not track well. To start with the gamma is best tracked in cinema mode. Even then it only tracks at 1.9 or so which is bright. I believe true cinema might be slightly better at about 1.9+. Also it is most likely that the u series is coming out of black too fast. There is a setting in the service menu to improve this but shd only be done by someone who knows what they r doing and with a proper meter that can read low light levels. Anyway, I will check on this if I can this weekend. What u hv done is essentially to compromise black levels for shadow details.

Hi
I tried 2 different BRIGHTNESS calibration pattern including this one and gotten the same result with Brightness set at +2 (with this one pattern, the "17" is barely flashing).

But every time I looked at movies with lots of dark scene, the picture has some sort of whitish powdery look indicating Brightness being too high. I have to set it at -2 for me to be happy with it.

So in essence, the pattern tells me to set at +2 but in real life, I prefer the picture quality of -2. Or may be I am using the pattern wrong?