Panasonic TH37PX70 - Colour too orange

Chrisinleic

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I have had this tv for about 6 weeks and on the whole am very pleased with it, but if i could change one thing , it would be to put more yellow in the picture , as i feel that skin tones are either very pink or very orange, which is very different from my old panasonic crt set which i feel had a much more natural display of skin tones. It seems that the service menu on this set is not accessible unless a "service remote control" is used. My settings are (from left being 0%)

viewing mode normal
contrast about 95%
brightness about 33%
colour about 40%
sharpness 100%
Colour management on
Colour balance normal

Changing the colour balance to warm makes whites look yellow, but does not give skin tones any more yellow-Horrible.
Does anybody else feel that the skin tones would benefit from a little more yellow and a little less orange or pink, and has anybody done anything about this?
 
Try these settings, (from my TH42 PX60:-

viewing mode Cinema
contrast about 50%
brightness about 50%
colour about 50%
sharpness 50%
Colour management Off
Colour balance normal
P-NR Off

I used those settngs as running in settings, but I've never had any need to alter them.

Dave
 
Try these settings, (from my TH42 PX60:-

viewing mode Cinema
contrast about 50%
brightness about 50%
colour about 50%
sharpness 50%
Colour management Off
Colour balance normal
P-NR Off

I used those settngs as running in settings, but I've never had any need to alter them.

Dave
Thanks for your reply Dave,

If i run the th37px70 on your settings the picture is so dim and blurred , it is unwatchable, so i guess there is a real difference in the way the px70s are set up compared to the px 60s. What i would really like to do is change the drives on the red green and blue to give a less orangey picture, i guess i will have to speak to the retailer about this to see if it is possible to tweak the colour balance. My parents 11 year old jvc 4:3 set has a far superior picture on it, punchy , bright , superb colour, i suppose that is progress for you!
Chris
 
chris sounds to me that your eyes are too used to a 'dynamic' picture. Your settings are way off - superbikes settings are spot on - although would add normal looks better for freeview, and warm for DVD and HD............:thumbsup:

you should stick it for a week when your eyes get used to it you will wonder why you didnt have it all along. Most pro reviews that have professionally calibrated the px70 have stated the settings superbike has posted, it gives most accurate picture...........
 
viewing mode normal
contrast about 95%
brightness about 33%
colour about 40%
sharpness 100%
Colour management on
Colour balance normal

For a start you need to get the contrast down and the sharpness, Contrast should not be above 75% at the most, and sharpness one click right from centre.
Colour management should be off too.
Colour balance should be Normal I personally think, although on paper warm is better, it is not right.
I don't think that colour out the box is perfect, but it is not terrible.
 
chris sounds to me that your eyes are too used to a 'dynamic' picture. Your settings are way off - superbikes settings are spot on - although would add normal looks better for freeview, and warm for DVD and HD............:thumbsup:

you should stick it for a week when your eyes get used to it you will wonder why you didnt have it all along. Most pro reviews that have professionally calibrated the px70 have stated the settings superbike has posted, it gives most accurate picture...........
Thanks for the advice, will give it a go for a week or so, but i still think the skin tones lack yellow even with the settings down and everybody looks like they have been on the fake tan. I think i am still in crt mode. It was a real plus to be able to get into the service menu on my old Panasonic crt set , which meant that i could set the colour balance of rgb to my exact liking.
 
Thanks for the advice, will give it a go for a week or so, but i still think the skin tones lack yellow even with the settings down and everybody looks like they have been on the fake tan. I think i am still in crt mode. It was a real plus to be able to get into the service menu on my old Panasonic crt set , which meant that i could set the colour balance of rgb to my exact liking.

I agree with, I am still trying to get into the service menu and will keep trying, the cinema settings that people quote certainly work well with pro panels but with the Vieras look as you describe, got mine at normal with contrast at 60% everything else at 50% ish. Looks ok but there is a a green/cyan push to the picture, cinema takes it a yelowy/orange push.
 
Im finding I need the contrast well over 60% when calibrating using the AVIA DVD. In fact I have it near 75%

Contrast around 75%
Brightness around 30%
Colour is around 40-45%
Sharpness at just 1 click away from being off
Colour managment I use Cool for games and Warm for DVDs using the Xbox 360 for both via official VGA cable. If I dont use Cool then the whites look more like beige, but Warm mode creates far more realistic flesh tones for movies.

Its really down to what you like as opposed to what someone else tells you, using a calibration disc does help but you still do all the work!
 
Im finding I need the contrast well over 60% when calibrating using the AVIA DVD. In fact I have it near 75%

Contrast around 75%
Brightness around 30%
Colour is around 40-45%
Sharpness at just 1 click away from being off
Colour managment I use Cool for games and Warm for DVDs using the Xbox 360 for both via official VGA cable. If I dont use Cool then the whites look more like beige, but Warm mode creates far more realistic flesh tones for movies.

Its really down to what you like as opposed to what someone else tells you, using a calibration disc does help but you still do all the work!
Avia, or DVE discs aren't really designed with flat-panels in mind, so a lot of the adjustments they have you make are wrong.

Contrast is a good example of this, as they will often leave you with a display that is set far too bright. They're only good at telling you what the absolute maximum should be, rather than the "ideal" setting.

The same applies to their method of adjusting colour, though it's far less wrong on a Plasma than it is on an LCD.

You have to be careful using a DVD to change your settings too, as the results may only be accurate for your DVD player, and not everything else.
 
I have the same issue, with the 'orangey' skin tones, and have been fiddling with the set on and off since I have had it. Sometimes I think it's just right, then I think it's off again, and it does depend a lot on the source material, for example, Deal Or No Deal looks extremely 'orangey', but if I tone down the colour for that, then watch EastEnders, it looks washed out. DVDs via Component input look fine.

I would also like to find the service menu - I did find one method, here, but I think it's for a US or Euro version, and I can't get any further with it. It also resets all of your settings, so I wouldn't advise anyone to try it (if you do, it's entirely at your own risk, and don't blame me if something goes wrong!). I do think that the 'Red' just needs toning down a bit, but that's an unprofessional opinion, and I am wondering if it might be worth seeing how much a professional TV engineer would charge to come out and calibrate the set, assuming they would have the means to do so.
 
By the way, I also agree with others that Chris, you have your Contrast way too high. FWIW, mine is set as follows:

Normal Mode:
+/- clicks from centre:
Contrast: +8
Brightness: -3
Colour: -5
Shareness: 0

Colour management: Off
P-NR: Off
 
try these settings, there very good i find

Originally Posted by red severn
cal,d mine with spyder try these as approx settings i have expensive ref arcam dvd so get excellent results from ref patterns

cinema ,warm is correct colour temp you must have these settings for accurate colours.
if left of bar = 0 right= 100
contrast=70
brightness=48
colour=53
colour mangement=off
sharpness=personal taste

try some dark scenes to look at shadow detail you will see more info now ,i set all my sets using set up disks and they where all miles out with spyder it gives you pitures and explains what you should see before and after cal

hope this helps cheers red
 
Just tried out the link (#10) on how to get in to the service menu and it works on my 37px70 , if you press the - button on the tv and also press 000 on the remote after a couple of seconds up pops a load of text on a menu. Its a bit hit and miss to get it up and running. When you get that far you can use 1 and 2 on the remote to navigate through the options. it is also possible to see how many hours you have used the set fo, i am up to 350. I came across one setting which said red cut, it states you can use the volume up down to alter it . Also it states what the "before " settings are , so you can put them back. I tried the red cut but when the volume down was pressed , it changed from 80 to 7f , so i pressed the up button and put it back to 80. If you cycle through the settings a bit further you come across a set of rapidly changing numbers, so i chickened out at this point and exited without changing anything. If you do decide to look at this , be VERY careful, i think this is for those with a bit of understanding, it looks a whole lot more complicated than my old crt service menu. If anybody gets to grips with this , who has that level of knowledge , any insight will be appreciated.
 
Well, you got further than me. I chickened out at the first screen, when I couldn't get any further. Out of curiosity, how did you exit the service menus, and did it reset everything to factory condition afterwards? I panicked when I couldn't see a way out, and just switched the set off to get out of it, and prayed it would come back on again!
 
checked service menu, 815 hours and counting :) it didnt reset my settings, if you just press exit it well exits lol

has anyone downloaded the update? jesus the colours are pratically leaping out the screen on freeview now, fantastic..................:thumbsup:
 
Well, you got further than me. I chickened out at the first screen, when I couldn't get any further. Out of curiosity, how did you exit the service menus, and did it reset everything to factory condition afterwards? I panicked when I couldn't see a way out, and just switched the set off to get out of it, and prayed it would come back on again!
Just press exit and it goes back to normal without changing any settings at all. I have also just had it explained to me by a friend that changing the red cut from 80 to 7F is actually called Hex , apparently the numbers are based on multiples of 16, rather than 10 as in decimal, so for example , the 80 actually stands for 8lots 0f 16 = 128 + 0lots of 16 , so the total value is 128.
But when i moved it down one, i got 7F , which is apparently hex code for 127, i forgot just how this was explained to me.
 
checked service menu, 815 hours and counting :) it didnt reset my settings, if you just press exit it well exits lol

has anyone downloaded the update? jesus the colours are pratically leaping out the screen on freeview now, fantastic..................:thumbsup:
Just downloaded the update and i dont know if its phsycological or what , but freeview seems sharper and more vivid or am i going mad ?
 
Just press exit and it goes back to normal without changing any settings at all. I have also just had it explained to me by a friend that changing the red cut from 80 to 7F is actually called Hex , apparently the numbers are based on multiples of 16, rather than 10 as in decimal, so for example , the 80 actually stands for 8lots 0f 16 = 128 + 0lots of 16 , so the total value is 128.
But when i moved it down one, i got 7F , which is apparently hex code for 127, i forgot just how this was explained to me.
Right, I found where you were, then navigated further with the 3 and 4 keys, to R-Drive, which I think is the one I wanted. R-Cut, again, I think, is the maximum allowable red, i.e. the cut off point, whereas R-Drive is the equivalent of the red 'gun' on a CRT. Well, that's how I see it anyway, but could be totally wrong. I adjusted the R-Drive from F4 to E4 (10 stops), but you have to make big adjustments to see any real difference. I'll see how this goes, but I would imagine if an engineer found out that the service menu had been accessed, it would invalidate the warranty. Let's hope it doesn't have an access log. :rolleyes: Did you come across the screen that was all red, then changed to blue, green and white? Had a bit of a palpitation at that point! :D
 
Right, I found where you were, then navigated further with the 3 and 4 keys, to R-Drive, which I think is the one I wanted. R-Cut, again, I think, is the maximum allowable red, i.e. the cut off point, whereas R-Drive is the equivalent of the red 'gun' on a CRT. Well, that's how I see it anyway, but could be totally wrong. I adjusted the R-Drive from F4 to E4 (10 stops), but you have to make big adjustments to see any real difference. I'll see how this goes, but I would imagine if an engineer found out that the service menu had been accessed, it would invalidate the warranty. Let's hope it doesn't have an access log. :rolleyes: Did you come across the screen that was all red, then changed to blue, green and white? Had a bit of a palpitation at that point! :D

certainly not for the feint hearted :eek:
 
R Gain is adjusting the red in the top half of the ire range, and R Cut is adjusting the red in the bottom half of the ire range.

There is also H and V amplitude as well so you can reduce the overscan nicely and produce a slightly sharper image, shame it is in 3 big steps, if it had been a subtle control these would have been very scaler friendly too.

Plus on this range you can go between different picture modes and colour temps which makes them pretty calibrator friendly and far better than previous Vieras.
 
certainly not for the feint hearted :eek:
I certainly wouldn't recommend it, especially for those who haven't dabbled in service menus before. I used them on most of my previous CRTs to adjust geometry, which couldn't be accessed in the user menus, but you can do some serious damage, and, as I said before, it might invalidate the warranty, should anyone find out one has been tinkered with.
 
R Gain is adjusting the red in the top half of the ire range, and R Cut is adjusting the red in the bottom half of the ire range.
Ah, right, so which would be one that affects skin tones? I adjusted my R-Drive (couldn't see R-Gain), and unless it's just psychological, it does seem a little better.
 
Sorry meant drive, and yeah that is the one you want.

I would make all adjustments under COOL as this is next to useless anyway so doesn't matter if you **** it up.
I would copy all the values from Warm in the colour temp section over to COOL and start working from there.
Raising the blue drive slightly should get rid of the yellow push quite nicely.
 

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