Colour Banding Panasonic PX60

[dazzlew]

Can this be callibrated out or is it just a fault you have to live with?

[CG_Gordon]

I would also like to know if the colour banding can be reduced through calibration on the PX60. I have used the Spyder calibration tool which definatley improved the picture quality but failed to get rid of colour banding. I have run my set in well past 200 hours if that makes a difference.

[Neil Davidson]

Do you see the banding on moving objects only or on both stationary and moving objects?

It can't be removed altogether but can be minimsed with ISF calibration. These displays do respond really well to calibration in general though, just the improved greyscale makes most people smile!

Neil

[yorkyred]

Originally Posted by ceenhad

Do you see the banding on moving objects only or on both stationary and moving objects?

It can't be removed altogether but can be minimsed with ISF calibration. These displays do respond really well to calibration in general though, just the improved greyscale makes most people smile!

Neil

Have to say I beginning to think I was the only person with a PX 60 who had this problem.

I have colour banding on any large area of colour where there is a gradual change such as skies without clouds. Many advert show this where most of the screen is the same colour. Shows up big time with bright lights against walls,the sun,spotlights.
I did wonder of it was a fault with my screen but have even noticed it to a lower extent on the Panny commerciall panels in my local pub.

It's close to none existent on DVD with just the sun or very bright light catching it out. Poor on NTL and i'm expecting it to all but be gone on HI Def.

Any thoughts?

[CG_Gordon]

Originally Posted by ceenhad

Do you see the banding on moving objects only or on both stationary and moving objects?

It can't be removed altogether but can be minimsed with ISF calibration. These displays do respond really well to calibration in general though, just the improved greyscale makes most people smile!

Neil

I have found it occurs on both static and moving scenes. Some of the menus in the xbox 360 show the banding up very clearly. Unfortunatley I will proabably be moving house in the next year so an ISF calibration will have to wait, can you recomend any consumer calibration discs or tools that might reduce the effect in the meantime?

Thanks for your help.

Gordon.

[clockworks]

I was under the impression that this banding was mainly a limitation of the source signal, exacerbated by the digital nature of LCD/plasma TVs. I get it on my Samsung LCD when watching some Sky channels.

This is my take on the problem:

The original digital picture is compressed for transmission, reducing the number of discrete colours. If the original has a smooth transition from one colour to another (perhaps from light blue to medium blue, in a sky shot), this may involve hundreds of discrete colours. Compression will reduce the number of discrete colours to, maybe, ten. Each original colour will be converted to the nearest compressed colour.
What was a smooth transition becomes a series of bands.
You can see the same thing if you reduce the colour depth in a digital picture on your PC.

The more aggressive the compression (for a lower transmission bitrate), the worse the banding. It's not usually noticeable on DVD, because the compression is less aggressive (higher bitrate).
I'd also guess that the problem is worse when the picture is compressed in real-time (re-transmission of some TV channels), than where it's done off-line (original TV transmission or DVD).

Because a flat panel is digital, the banding is faithfully reproduced. With a CRT, the banding is disguised by the natural "dither" of the analogue circuits.

Hopefully, HD will reduce the effects, but only if broadcasters use sensible levels of compression.
It could also be reduced by adding some dither in the panel's digital processing, or by interpolation.

[CG_Gordon]

The most obvious example of banding is on my xbox 360 which is of course outputting HD in 720p to my plasma.

[yorkyred]

Originally Posted by ceenhad

Do you see the banding on moving objects only or on both stationary and moving objects?

It can't be removed altogether but can be minimsed with ISF calibration. These displays do respond really well to calibration in general though, just the improved greyscale makes most people smile!

Neil

Would you consider the banding on my PX60 a fault, given I am unable to compair i'm not sure if it's par for the course or not with this model?