Wow, pricing is definately aggresive this year. 42 incher below 3K. And it will only drop further...how much is the question. Imagine just a few years ago a 34in CRT was more than 3-4K.

No. The X series plasmas are 720p (HD Ready). The G series onwards plasmas are 1080p. I am not sure of the LCDs.

If you were hard pressed to see differences between the Kuro and the Panasonic Plasmas and you found the differences not worth 2.5K that you just saved yourself your hard earned money. Buy what looks best to your eyes and your pocket. Its the most important concept in choosing a suitable HDTV.

Yes you are right. In both cases, the image received will have be to scaled. True 720p (16:9) is defined as 1280 X 720. The displays we have are either 1024 X 768 or 1366 X 768 for non Full HD. Each case requires the horizontal and vertical pixels to be scaled either upwards or downwards. If you do not like scaling you need to get a 1920 X 1080 display and feed it 1920 X 1080 source (ie, Full HD, Blu Ray or others). The eye is more susceptible to vertical resolution then horizontal resolution, that's why the 1024 X 768 displays rarely look bad.

Since some form of scaling is necessary, the most important aspect of a non 1080p source would be the quality of the scalar chip that resides in your HDTV. Some use better scalars than others. Bottom line, 720p will always be scaled, of course 480i (NTSC) and 576i (PAL) will have to be deinterlaced (since all HDTVs are progressive, except one) and then upscaled to fill out all the pixels in you HDTV (be it 1024 X 768 or 1366 X 786 or 1920 X1080). This is what makes the difference between the sets.

I am sorry that this is OT.

Yes, you're right, if you do not mind the pillarboxing and this is an important criteria for you, then yes,that is the way to go.

I have a question, are any movies or material originally made for 720p? I know there a 16mm, 35mm and other sources (higher def 4K, 8K masters and others I am not aware off) and they are typically remastered (scaled maybe) to fit either 1920 X 1080, 480i , 576i?

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Apr 21 2009, 01:37 PM

The bullseye circle is not the correct way to see the accuracy. Look at the Delta E numbers. For colours, it should be Delta E 1994, best to be below 1, better below 1.5, below 3 should be good. The bullseye circle is for the calibrator when he is calibrating.

For grayscale, 1976 Delta E should be below 2. Anything below 1 is very good. The X10 is better in terms of colour and grayscale compared to the PV80 and much better black levels.

I shd be getting round to calibrating one soon. I have done the PV80 before. The PR-655 is an excellent meter. It is more for professional calibration. An EyeOne pro that is also a spectroradiometer, is more than acceptable. Most pro calibrators use it in conjuction with a more expensive meter. A Chroma 5 is also a very decent meter. There are a lot of comparisons between these 2 meters and the more expensive PR-655 and the results are almost similar. There is a company in Malaysia who uses the Konica Minolta CS200 that is also a fairly expensive meter. D-Nice is a great guy and his knowledge of plasmas is extremely deep.

It just means that these 2 colours are not too accurate. Still its pretty acceptable. The eye is pretty sensitive to variations in blue (skies) and red (skin tones). The eye is also very sensitive to luminance errors in these 2 colours. The X10 fixes one issue that the PV80 had. If you look at the colour luminance charts, post calibration the luminance of red is pretty accurate. If the black bar beside the red is way higher than the red bar, you would see it in skin tones (tanned skins). Since the Pannys do not have a CMS there is nothing you can do about it. The error in cyan is there mainly because of the error in green. Once you are used to calibrated colours, you will notice errors, if you are not, you might not even feel it (green and cyan). Inaccurate reds and blues you would see quickly.

This is one area where the Samsungs do very well. They have a fantastic CMS and the colour errors are almost below 0.5!

Yes. Samsungs LCDs (from 650 onwards) and Plasmas have full CMS and 2 point greyscale adjustment.

Definately, it will improve quite a bit. The X10 can be calibrated to good grayscale in the service menu. Shadow details will improve pretty much. The default setting have a bad greycale and the colour temp is way off. You will see a more 3D image when grayscale is calibrated. Especially for DVD and BluRay. For Astro, not too much since the compression on Astro is pretty bad. Also Astro does not broadcast any test patterns to calibrate the picture with.

I calibrated a PV80 for a fellow forumer, there was a difference that he could see.

As mys_terious said, it depends on the source. Different DVD players, set top boxes have different outputs. Most DVD players send the signals in different formats, ie, RGB, YCbCr and they have different deinterlacing and scaling chips in them. The signals are different. Most sets have a mode that they try to get it into the ballpark. I believe for Panny it is the Cinema mode. Others call it the Movie mode or something, yet it is still pretty far from D65 and the colour coordinates. It all boils down to cost. For cable/astro it is really bad, since different cable operators use different mastering and video software and might tweak their broadcasts differently. Also your viewing environment is key. Depending on your ambient light in the room, the calibration is different.

The panels are most likely the same since there are only a limited number of plasma panel plants in the world. However, the firmare is different.

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Added on April 28, 2009, 1:16 pmBro,

The DVE BD is a good disc to do basic adjustments with some explanations. Without any tools, the only adjustements u can do are brightness, contrast, basic colour (if u have filters , this is very inaccurate) and sharpness.

For this I would recommend the free AVSHD709 disc. It has the test patterns you need to do the brightness, contrast and sharpness and it is free. This disc can be burned into a standard DVD but will only play in a BD player (because it AVCHD). You can PM me and I can guide you on how u can set the brightness and contrast.

The good thing about the DVE is it has a tutorial, but with guidance the AVSHD709 can achieve the same thing.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Apr 28 2009, 01:16 PM

Yes that is the correct disk. Remember that you can set brightness, contrast, sharpness with no additional sensor. Also your link of the greyscale & colour calibration is a good place to start. To adjust gresycale you no a minimum of a colorimeter. Same goes to colour as well. A spectrophotometer is a more accurate tool. Gamma also requires one of those tools to set correctly. Anyway, setting brightness and contrast correctly goes a long way. PM me if u have questions. Maybe I should start a thread for calibration

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Added on April 28, 2009, 6:53 pmYou know what, I might be in Kuching soon....Will let u know.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Apr 28 2009, 06:53 PM

EyeOne Display 2 is a pretty good starter meter. U can use it with the free HCFR or buy it with Calman package. In my opinion, Calman is a better deal! PM if u r interested.

I agree, adjustments in the service menu should be done only if u know what u r doing. Adjusting the wrong item can cause damage to ur set. Also adjustments of grayscale and colour as well as gamma can only be done with a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer.

Check out the Panasonic PV80 thread, the last few pages has the instructions. The X10 employes the same method to check the hours.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Apr 29 2009, 08:41 AM

This is the one. Should work.

You must remember that other electronic components will not last so long. That's why the warranty of 3-5yrs is reasonable. Even though the panel does not spoil other components can still damage the panel.

I would advise you to reduce the contrast for now. This is too bright.

Let me try to understand your problem. What do u mean by dark? Not enough contrast, or not enough shadow details. The brightness is actually a black level adjustment and the contrast is actually a white level adjustment. At these contrast settings and your current mode your windowed patterned is actually very high. It shd be more that 50ft/L. Is your TV in room of high ambient lighting? White colour looking grey is not correct. I have calibrated the older Pannys, contrast setting on the cinema mode was definately not that high. And the white was D65 white. You might need to get a LCD if this is what u want. Remember that the colours and greyscale are totally out of whack at these levels, unless ur set is a faulty set.