plasma owners - thoughts on calibration discs and break in dvds?

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: funboy42
Who was tooting a horn, I didnt mention anything, you did, and everything I have read on plasmas, and read in forums, such as this one, people are always talking about burn it and calibration, and how they cant watch this or that, it just makes me wonder what is so great about a plasma tv other then you can say "I own a plasma"?

I wasn't only talking about this thread. You post all the time about your love for projection and you're always in these threads talking about how great it is. You don't know much or were misinformed about plasmas.

Oh did I hit a nerve with you? Or are you on the rag too and your monthly got you all worked up as well? Get over it, I didnt come in here bragging up a storm about sh1t, you got a hard on for me today for some reason, as for the other threads, hell yes Im going to pop in and give my 2 cents because its a damn good deal and something for other people to consider when about to go drop a crap load of money on a tv, excuse me for trying to offer up options in the cheap end then throw out over priced name brand crap to the masses, sue me fvck tard.

Maybe I was misinformed about burn in, maybe not, I only got what I read and hear about, from this thread, several people talking about burn in and scared their tv may get it, and other threads else where. I have no experience in one, never owned one or plan on it for Im not about to shell out any money for it and I dont see why. I asked people a question, as to why if there is so much trouble with it, and it cause such a heartache worrying you may get it, why bother buying one in the first place or is it a one up on friends and family because you own a plasma?

You come in here with a boner for me about bragging which I didnt do nothing of the sorts, where the links to my set up, where the brand dropping, or price??? And all the time?? All the time as in ever damn thread I visit I turn it around into a OMG you gotta buy this kick ass projector or die of cancer, or ones where people every now and then ask a question on what tv to buy, and I throw out a low cost solution?

Not wasting any more time with you.

 

[zinfamous]

I never used a break-in disc, just had the TV run at low levels for the first 100 hours. I've yet to have permanent burn-in issues, but there was a slight occurrence early on after leaving a DVD menu up for ~20 minutes. It was easily fixable with samsung's white-wash function in the panel's menu. (I've also heard that it's bad to use this function too often)

Since then, I've had no issue whatsoever. On the flip side, A pal of mine mentioned that his coworker had recently bought a plasma (current gen, I assume), and had burn-in by the third day. Have no idea how he did it, but everything I've seen and read has lead me to believe that it isn't nearly as big a problem as it used to be.

As for the TV...it's ****** gorgeous. The deepness of the colors are what do it for me. I would have to say that if you are a film buff, and intend to spend the majority of your time watching DVDs on the TV, then plasma is definately the way to go...if you aren't in the market for a good projector. I recommend Amelie + Plasma (720p+) as an example...

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: zinfamous
I never used a break-in disc, just had the TV run at low levels for the first 100 hours. I've yet to have permanent burn-in issues, but there was a slight occurrence early on after leaving a DVD menu up for ~20 minutes. It was easily fixable with samsung's white-wash function in the panel's menu. (I've also heard that it's bad to use this function too often)

Since then, I've had no issue whatsoever. On the flip side, A pal of mine mentioned that his coworker had recently bought a plasma (current gen, I assume), and had burn-in by the third day. Have no idea how he did it, but everything I've seen and read has lead me to believe that it isn't nearly as big a problem as it used to be.

As for the TV...it's ****** gorgeous. The deepness of the colors are what do it for me. I would have to say that if you are a film buff, and intend to spend the majority of your time watching DVDs on the TV, then plasma is definately the way to go...if you aren't in the market for a good projector. I recommend Amelie + Plasma (720p+) as an example...

image retention != burn in. Too many people are confusing the 2. It is much easier to get IR, but it will fade after a while, and there are things you can do to speed the removal.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
search the AVS Forums. Many tvs have calibration setting. I also bought that 42" Panny a couple of weeks ago, and there are websites with the calibration settings on them that you can use.

Also, don't buy a break in DVD....download the image. Again, available on AVS Forums. As long as you have a DVD burner you're good to go. I didn't use a break in DVD, however. You can get by with just letting the TV run an a channel that has no static logos and as long as the image is stretched to fill the screen. An HD channel is even better.

ya, I just zoomed in the screen to insure the picture space was filled (kinda sucked for sports, not being able to see the score sometimes), and ran all the settings below 50% (~30-40%) for the first 100 hours. I never left it on any one channel, but did watch a lot of ESPN, Although sports has a lot of static images, I never had a problem. They cut to commercial or move the image around enough so that it isn't a problem.

Also, make sure the pixel shift option is on (If your TV has this).

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: zinfamous
I never used a break-in disc, just had the TV run at low levels for the first 100 hours. I've yet to have permanent burn-in issues, but there was a slight occurrence early on after leaving a DVD menu up for ~20 minutes. It was easily fixable with samsung's white-wash function in the panel's menu. (I've also heard that it's bad to use this function too often)

Since then, I've had no issue whatsoever. On the flip side, A pal of mine mentioned that his coworker had recently bought a plasma (current gen, I assume), and had burn-in by the third day. Have no idea how he did it, but everything I've seen and read has lead me to believe that it isn't nearly as big a problem as it used to be.

As for the TV...it's ****** gorgeous. The deepness of the colors are what do it for me. I would have to say that if you are a film buff, and intend to spend the majority of your time watching DVDs on the TV, then plasma is definately the way to go...if you aren't in the market for a good projector. I recommend Amelie + Plasma (720p+) as an example...

image retention != burn in. Too many people are confusing the 2. It is much easier to get IR, but it will fade after a while, and there are things you can do to speed the removal.

I figured it wasn't the same. Reminded me of our old, old Mitsubishi CRT that would get that soon after turning it off. My late Uncle had a rear-projection HDTV (not sure if is DLP or earlier model--not sure if there is any other non-DLP rear projection...but he had had it for several years now), and when the TV was passed on to a family member it had some pretty wicked Food Network burn-in. the logo was forever in the bottom right corner, as well as a text bar all along the bottom. So for those that think burn-in can only occur on plasma....

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: funboy42

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: funboy42
Who was tooting a horn, I didnt mention anything, you did, and everything I have read on plasmas, and read in forums, such as this one, people are always talking about burn it and calibration, and how they cant watch this or that, it just makes me wonder what is so great about a plasma tv other then you can say "I own a plasma"?

I wasn't only talking about this thread. You post all the time about your love for projection and you're always in these threads talking about how great it is. You don't know much or were misinformed about plasmas.

Oh did I hit a nerve with you? Or are you on the rag too and your monthly got you all worked up as well? Get over it, I didnt come in here bragging up a storm about sh1t, you got a hard on for me today for some reason, as for the other threads, hell yes Im going to pop in and give my 2 cents because its a damn good deal and something for other people to consider when about to go drop a crap load of money on a tv, excuse me for trying to offer up options in the cheap end then throw out over priced name brand crap to the masses, sue me fvck tard.

Maybe I was misinformed about burn in, maybe not, I only got what I read and hear about, from this thread, several people talking about burn in and scared their tv may get it, and other threads else where. I have no experience in one, never owned one or plan on it for Im not about to shell out any money for it and I dont see why. I asked people a question, as to why if there is so much trouble with it, and it cause such a heartache worrying you may get it, why bother buying one in the first place or is it a one up on friends and family because you own a plasma?

You come in here with a boner for me about bragging which I didnt do nothing of the sorts, where the links to my set up, where the brand dropping, or price??? And all the time?? All the time as in ever damn thread I visit I turn it around into a OMG you gotta buy this kick ass projector or die of cancer, or ones where people every now and then ask a question on what tv to buy, and I throw out a low cost solution?

Not wasting any more time with you.

I don't have a "boner" for you. I just don't appreciate you spreading misinformation.. and you do it in every one of these threads. I've seen you come into threads specifically about plasmas (hey, like this one!) and post crap that's completely off topic and/or blatantly wrong.

Hey, I like front projectors too. I'm planning on buying one. I'm just not a TV/monitor racist.

 

[Shadowknight]

Just got my set calibrated - HOLY CRAP!
Just had Randy Tomlinson leave my apartment, and it. is. amazing. The fleshtones no longer look red. Fox, who's programming ALL looked red now looks great; I even see the 3-D effect everyone talks about, and it blew my mind. Randy told me that it had some of the worst default calibration he's ever seen*, but my Insignia NS-27HTV had almost perfect geometry. He also said that in some ways it's better than a Sony CRT, though the brightness and sharpness don't go up as high, so the brightness has to be at about 90 (out of 100) and sharpness at 17 (out of 20), but he was really impressed by the set, especially for a no-name brand from Best Buy.

Wow, just... wow.

Interesting anecdote: He told me that at one point he was brought in to consult for a company that had Chinese factories looking awful. He showed them how to properly calibrate a set, and from then on almost all the sets were perfectly calibrated right out of the box. He says that when you show the Chinese how to do something, they do it well.

Now I'm off to rewatch the Thing. After taking a quick look at a clip at the end of the calibration procedure, "The Thing" creature no longer looks red, and shows much more color and detail. Yay!

* How bad? The red push was so high, that at the beginning of the calibration, when he was still showing simple test patterns from gray scale, I saw an immediate improvement in the image quality. Yeah, awful defaults.



Trust me, professional calibration is WELL worth the cost for the image improvement. By far.


ETA: One more thing, he was surprised that the OTA and the DVD connections "agreed" almost perfectly, since there's usually a difference in how different inputs react in terms of image quality.

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: mugs
:thumbsup:

But of course someone who spent $200 to have their TV calibrated is going to notice "all the difference in the world" just like someone who spent $200 on Monster Cables.

Dude? If you're TV is way off, you might not know and have it look "normal." If you get it calibrated, depending on how bad it was out of the box, it will look waaaaaaaaay better. Trust me on this, since I literally had it done 30 minutes ago, after a two hour calibration marathon.

 

[torpid]

$100 seems really low. Many people at AVS Were saying $300+. Shadow, how much did it come out to for you?

You can't use all the features of calibration if you download an ISO. You need those color filters for some parts. You can get them elsewhere though. Used to get some free blue ones off the thx site, but they discontinued that.

I started calibrating my DLP but the contrast and brightness patterns did not seem to ever work properly. The blacks all blended more than they should and the white pattern had the opposite problem - all bars were always distinguishable.

Haven't gotten around to doing the color and tint stuff since obtaining color filters to look through.

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: funboy42

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: funboy42
Who was tooting a horn, I didnt mention anything, you did, and everything I have read on plasmas, and read in forums, such as this one, people are always talking about burn it and calibration, and how they cant watch this or that, it just makes me wonder what is so great about a plasma tv other then you can say "I own a plasma"?

I wasn't only talking about this thread. You post all the time about your love for projection and you're always in these threads talking about how great it is. You don't know much or were misinformed about plasmas.

Oh did I hit a nerve with you? Or are you on the rag too and your monthly got you all worked up as well? Get over it, I didnt come in here bragging up a storm about sh1t, you got a hard on for me today for some reason, as for the other threads, hell yes Im going to pop in and give my 2 cents because its a damn good deal and something for other people to consider when about to go drop a crap load of money on a tv, excuse me for trying to offer up options in the cheap end then throw out over priced name brand crap to the masses, sue me fvck tard.

Maybe I was misinformed about burn in, maybe not, I only got what I read and hear about, from this thread, several people talking about burn in and scared their tv may get it, and other threads else where. I have no experience in one, never owned one or plan on it for Im not about to shell out any money for it and I dont see why. I asked people a question, as to why if there is so much trouble with it, and it cause such a heartache worrying you may get it, why bother buying one in the first place or is it a one up on friends and family because you own a plasma?

You come in here with a boner for me about bragging which I didnt do nothing of the sorts, where the links to my set up, where the brand dropping, or price??? And all the time?? All the time as in ever damn thread I visit I turn it around into a OMG you gotta buy this kick ass projector or die of cancer, or ones where people every now and then ask a question on what tv to buy, and I throw out a low cost solution?

Not wasting any more time with you.

I don't have a "boner" for you. I just don't appreciate you spreading misinformation.. and you do it in every one of these threads. I've seen you come into threads specifically about plasmas (hey, like this one!) and post crap that's completely off topic and/or blatantly wrong.

Hey, I like front projectors too. I'm planning on buying one. I'm just not a TV/monitor racist.

Im sorry op.

Ok first off, PLEASE go find every one of those thread and show where I jumped in posting misinformation secondly, as I said, I am going off on what I read because I have no hands on knowledge on these sets so when there is several people in one thread, like this one saying:

Originally posted by: LordSnailz
Second, are there anything steps I should take in order to prevent burn in?

Originally posted by: Mrfrog840

If you want to go all out, get ISF calibration, although it will run you 200 bucks, but it will be worth it beyond your belief.

Originally posted by: nife4
I've had the 50" Panny since the beginning of Feb. and I'm still afraid of burn-in. Also, there is 1 stuck pixel, is there anyway to get it unstuck?

Originally posted by: Shadowknight
I'm having a professional calibrator from Atlanta drop by my place this afternoon, actually. He hasn't called and told me exactly when he's coming, though He was in Raleigh yesterday, and apparently some issues with a TV required him to stay there overnight because it took longer than expected to get the calibration done correctly.

Originally posted by: Shadowknight

Originally posted by: purbeast0

EDIT: As to the break in period, for sets vulnerable to burn in, the first 100 hours are more likely to cause burn in than in the rest of the sets life. Once you get past that period, you don't have to worry about it as much.

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: Reel
Can someone take the time to explain why you break in a plasma TV? I have not heard of this practice. Thanks.

The big knock on plasma is that they suffer burn-in easily. Most plasmas with burned in screen marks had that happen almost immediately out of the box. (Guy hooks it up and immediately starts an X-Box 360 marathon)

But once the set has a few hundred hours under its belt this problem is greatly reduced. So by using a break-in disc, you can safely run the TV and grind off that first few hundred hours. At that point it's no more succeptable to burn-in than your average tube TV.

And me coming in here asking a QUESTION as to why these people spend so much on their TV sets, worrying about burn in (even if it is for 100 hours or what ever), paid xxx amount for the damn set and then to pay andother xxx amount to have it calibrated, never tooting a fvcking horn about sh1t but you coming in here with a boner for me, YES A BONER, saying I am misleading info to people when I asked a question to their comments.

You had a boner for me saying I jump in every thread like this giving misinformation, PLEASE search up other threads where I gave misinformation, I may have given a example of what I bought, what it looks like, and how much, but thats it, never going how a plazma this or a lcd that, or blah blah I know it all about the world and you all suck dicks, and you still for some reason have a boner for me calling a a tv nazi.

Face it, you have a boner for me, you want to give it to me and I dont want it, and for gods sakes how do I give misinformation asking a question to their comments they already fvcking made?

As far as misinformation you are right I did give one when I made this only statement to information:

Originally posted by: funboy42
As far as picture quality goes for contrast and blacks, from what all I have read so far, its crt-dlp-lcd-plasma

Acording to this website, plasma may have the upper hand in the backs and contrast but then LCD has it in resolution, my bad on that.

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: torpid
$100 seems really low. Many people at AVS Were saying $300+. Shadow, how much did it come out to for you?

$325, and worth every penny. Seriously, once you see a pro at work, you know WHY it's worth the money. He used several high end sensor probes, one connected to a laptop, as well as multiple patterns, some were simple patterns you might find on AVIA, but he got FAR more out of it than I did, thanks to his equipment and experience. He took multiple readings and made adjustments as dictated by the computer until everything was as close to 6500K as possible(the standard for accurate reproduction of colors for movies and tv shows).

Everything on my TV used to be very red, now? Skin tones look right, I see FAR more detail than I used to on my HD-DVD of "The Thing" and my local Fox Affiliate no longer looks red. Contrast and Brightness were set to optimum levels. He even told me some different settings I could use (in the user menu) to optimize viewing for standard DVDs, and other settings for HD-DVDs since the color is a little bit different for each type.

You also get a print out/computer files showing the pre-calibration readings vs. the new ones. Some of my readings shot into the 15000K range, red was out of control and blue was too low. Afterwards, everything was within a hair of each other, showing he fixed major issues with my set. It's a no-name brand, but he was impressed with it's hardware, it's just the calibration settings from the factory suck.

You can't use all the features of calibration if you download an ISO. You need those color filters for some parts. You can get them elsewhere though. Used to get some free blue ones off the thx site, but they discontinued that.

I started calibrating my DLP but the contrast and brightness patterns did not seem to ever work properly. The blacks all blended more than they should and the white pattern had the opposite problem - all bars were always distinguishable.

It may need professional calibration to fix those issues; in my case, having a high amount of "red push" affected my ability to set the brightness level correctly. It's also possible that you need to turn both your contrast and brightness up, since changing one affects the other, or you just need to turn the brightness really high; in my case I needed it at about 85 after calibration because that's just the way my set is made.

Haven't gotten around to doing the color and tint stuff since obtaining color filters to look through.

Fortunately, that stuff's pretty easy. You just use the filters and adjust color and tint until some flashing bars stop flashing (when looked at through the blue filter). And yes, as part of the calibration procedure, he did use those filters to check setting afterwards, since after fixing the service menu related color stuff, tint and color are still set that way.

 

[ponyo]

Wait, you paid $325 to get your less than $300 TV set calibrated? :laugh:

 

[lupi]

Feel free to pick up a 32" CRt and then a 42" plasma.

Now do it again and re-ask you dumbarse epeen comment.

 

[Shadowknight]

Yep! I got it for $270 on Black Friday, after rebate. Now it costs $415. They have a samsung for about $550, but the SlimFit series is well known for having issues. The calibrator agreed, when I asked about it. In the CRT section of avsforums, they have a very long thread on the Samsung Slimfits, as well as some Sony model I can't remember.

I got a great deal, with a great picture, and for the price of a crappy Samsung, I have a calibrated set AND a great HDTV ;D

 

[olds]

Anyone that thinks that burn in is a problem with new plasmas these days is ignorant.

And funboy42, don't play all innocent. You constantly troll plasma threads. Pissed you didn't buy a real HD TV?

 

[shilala]

I have two Toshiba 42" plasmas. I turn them on and watch them. Seems pretty simple.
Oh, I have a 52" Samsung DLP, too. I turn it on and watch it. It's not real complicated either.
You guys have difficult tv's.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: shilala
I have two Toshiba 42" plasmas. I turn them on and watch them. Seems pretty simple.
Oh, I have a 52" Samsung DLP, too. I turn it on and watch it. It's not real complicated either.
You guys have difficult tv's.

Nah. When you get it tweaked, have a HD signal and the picture on the TV looks like a photograph, you'll understand.

 

[montypythizzle]

FUNBOY42 FTMFW!!!!!
I don't agree with some he says and I really don't care!!!!

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Anyone that thinks that burn in is a problem with new plasmas these days is ignorant.

And funboy42, don't play all innocent. You constantly troll plasma threads. Pissed you didn't buy a real HD TV?

No I did, I had a Toshiba 65" CRT HD set up, a 32" LCD HD set up, and a 30" CRT hd set up, but really I dont see the point in that either considering 14 channels looked great and then the other sd stuff looked worse on the HD set up then it did on a regular sd tv set. Its all kinda pointless right now, IMO, till they get their heads out of their asses and decide on a real format that works and looks good all around.

BTW the toshiba broke and I bought the SP PJ set up in place of it, sold the POS LCD HD TV, and kept the 30 CRT HD set up because out of them all it made everything, sd and hd, look the best, and decided on keeping it.

And again please link me trolling plasma threads, Id like to see me trolling these threads you and the other guy so says I do.

 

[shilala]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: shilala
I have two Toshiba 42" plasmas. I turn them on and watch them. Seems pretty simple.
Oh, I have a 52" Samsung DLP, too. I turn it on and watch it. It's not real complicated either.
You guys have difficult tv's.

Nah. When you get it tweaked, have a HD signal and the picture on the TV looks like a photograph, you'll understand.

The cable signal in this area is simply awful.
I bought Toshiba stuff because they have some software cable-correct thing going on that makes crappy analog cable look pretty good.
The HD content on cable here is still nearly non-existant, but I have Directv in the livingroom and Discovery HD looks stellar on the dlp. I'm excited to see what it looks like on one of the plasmas.
I do get a couple HD channels on cable and there's a cooking channel that looks awesome.
In comparison, I think HD on plasma is far superior than on the DLP.

I have a Spider and I calibrate my lcd's on my desk (3-19" Samsungs). I only do that so I can reproduce my photography on the printer realistically. Saves a lot of ink and paper.

 

[icelazer]

Might try browsing around on this site a little:

http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plas...eviews/panasonic-th42px60u-review.html

I have this tv, the isf settings the suggest look pretty good. I can't imagine tv's off the line are THAT far off.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Naustica

Originally posted by: LS20
i pilfered an AVIA disc.. used it on my 42" panasonic

eh.. didnt have the patience to make everything 100% correct. not that big of a deal to me... i now just adjust my pictures setting by feel. picture and sound are subjective - whats quantifiably "correct" iusnt necessary the most "pleasing"

kinda like people working hard to tune their audio system to play flat to reference for accurate fidelity.. and then be disappointed with the sound. if you want a little more bass or treble? tweak to your liking

Exactly. I just tune with my eyes. Whatever looks good to me as I'm the one watching the TV. I don't need to pay some video nerd to tell me color on my TV is off by this much. Ignorance is bliss.

:thumbsup:

But of course someone who spent $200 to have their TV calibrated is going to notice "all the difference in the world" just like someone who spent $200 on Monster Cables.

lol, so true.

Same with the guy who paid $200 for a "grounding kit" for his car who said it made it noticeably faster. Yet, the car didn't dyno any higher or run any faster at the track. He still insists it's faster, though.

 

[Shadowknight]

For the record, they just came out with a hi-def version of DVE. Apparently, hi-def sets use color a little differently, so using the non-hi-def versions of DVE and AVIA don't provide the most accurate settings for hi-def sets, though they're fine for normal 480i sets. Just FYI.

 

[nife4]

So besides timing it, is there any other way to know you passed the 100 hr mark, something like how the Dell monitors have the internal timer?

 

[Shadowknight]

Nope. In my case, I don't watch TV much, but I'm hardcore about having the image fixed, hence paying for calibration. It was recommended to run it for 100+ hours before having it calibrated, so to be on the safe side, I left it on 12hrs a day for 8 days. That's pretty much the best way to do it, if you don't keep track of that kind of thing, and who does?

ETA: Here's the link for the HD-DVD version of DVE http://www.valueelectronics.com/Toshiba_HD-A2_and_HD-XA2.htm I don't keep up with Blu-Ray, so I don't know if DVE or AVIA, or anyone else, has announced a Blu-Ray specific disc.