Calibrating a Panasonic TH-42PWD4

stevekale

Established Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Messages
366
Reaction score
13
Points
108
Hi all

I am well-used to calibrating monitors for Photoshop work and have an Gretag Macbeth Eye One Photo calibration device. This device and software create an ICC profile for a given monitor which can then be accessed by a computer's video card for accurate rendition of colour. Presumably a plasma or LCD tv works in exactly the same way except that the video card and ICC profile are on board. How can I access the relevant parts of the Panasonic's service menu?

Steve
 
One of the benefits of the PWD4 as opposed to the PW4 is the "advanced settings" menu in the "picture" menu. No need to get into the service menu to adjust cuts and gains for greyscale unless you need to adjust different memories for different input types (and a search on panasonic service menu will surely yield the answer on how to do so).
 
Piers

Thanks for the response. I guess I would like to explore this a little further. A computer has a video card for the rendition of digital video data into RGB info to drive a display. How does this work with a television that is receiving analogue input (say, via composite or component inputs)? I can plug in my computer to my plasma, place my spectrophotometer in front of it and generate an ICC profile for the display which is stored on my computer and used by my computer's video card when connected to that display - all that I understand. But I guess the DVD analogy would be that the "video card" processing is done in the DVD player and without regard to the particular display it is being sent to. So if you are going to tune a display for DVD input is it really a case of trying to tune basic controls without regard to an ICC profile type of sophistication?

Thanks for the help

Steve
 
In other words: Does a professional calibration of a plasma involve sending some kind of ICC profile to the screen's graphic processor or is it simply a matter of adjusting the screen's advanced (or service menu) settings until the ICC profile of the PC used to calibrate reaches certain values?

Would be very keen to know how that works, in my case on a Pio 505XDE

Cheers
 
The way it works is that there are specs written for what the video output should be of a device. The IIC profile in the display is calibrated so that if the correct signal is applied to the display the image you see on the screen is accurate. Of course the IIC profiles in the displays are not able to take in to account the varience in sources and indeed they are often intentionally not correct for effect. The user menu's are offsets that are applied to the IIC profiles loaded up in the background of the display device.

So to do the most accurate calibration you would access the IIC service menu of the Panasonic, apply the necessary test patterns from your source not from a PC) and then make adjustments to the parameters available as necessary. Or if you are only going to be using one incoming signal and scan rate you could probably get just as good a result by using the user menu offsets in Advanced.

For Pioneers I use the user menu's and Pro Adjust area to do it all.

Hope this is a little use,

Gordon
 
Gordon

Thanks. I must say that all seems a little antiquated! I guess I would have liked to have seen a scenario whereby one would position a spectrophotometer on the screen, put in a test dvd into the dvd player which would deliver the colours expected by the spectrophotometer software, the colours would be measured and a new ICC/ICM profile developed and uploaded to the display (perhaps with the ability to store a profile per input type - component, composite etc). OK so you put in a test dvd and manually alter the "colour" parameters until it "looks right"....

Cheers

Steve
 
No you don't manually adjust it till it looks right......

The software I use in conjunction with my GretaMcbeth eye one is able to control test pattern generators to put up patterns and measure as you suggest. Some domestic devices are also starting to be made with IIC profiles that are accesible by license holders in order to do what you suggest....Pioneer Elite series devices and Runco displays. However test pattern generators, although accurate you'd hope, will not be the same signals as that from a DVD player.

My sofware for my eye one allows me to stick the patterns up from the clients actual source and measure the signal coming of the screen. I then make adjustments to the profile until the display chain measures the most accurate it can within the physical limitations that the manufacturer has put on it. So as you can see it's actually pretty much as you want......even down to individual profiles dependant on source signal type, resolution and refresh...guess i just wasn;t clear enough in my posts...sorry

Gordon

Gordon
 
Gordon

Thanks, that's very helpful. Do you get that software in your ISF course, or is that generally available standard software?

Cheers
 
OK I think I have got it now - almost. I guess you need something like Milori's Colorfacts software which can interface with an Eye-One and a known target dvd. I guess I still don't understand how one can "make adjustments to the profile". Am I right in saying that you don't "adjust the profile itself" but make adjustments, using feedback from the Eye One/software, to the parameters which coupled with the fixed profile get the job done?

Thanks again

Steve
 
Yes the IIC profile in the service menu has adjustable parameters for interfacing the analogue signals to the drive of the panel. I use colorfacts to allow me to measure gamma and greyscale and colouromitry to make necessary adjustments so that the display starts to behave as it should for playing back the material I am watching.

Does this make a little more sense.


Gordon
 
Yes it does - thanks for the help. One rainy day I will take a further look at the menus on my display. The software isn't cheap and neither is the Eye-One. Let alone the brain investment in learning how to operate it properly! I understand your pricing.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom