Hitachi 42PD5200 Calibration help needed

dUnKle

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Mine arrived today and have to say its very daunting

Not sure im getting the best from it and before anyone says :rtfm: I have done so more than once

Couple of questions

I have a DVD player which is connected to the AV1 input (first set of component inputs) and is also calibrated to do prog scan - will the Hitachi pick this up automatically or do I have to tell it to "do" progressive

I then have SKY connected via RGB Scart - the picture looks a little grey (well the darkr scenes do) and also a little washed out and unclear - are there any tips here


Thanks in advance
 
After a bit of fiddling I have gotten one of the best DVD pictures I have ever seen - very chrisp and clear but still have BIG problems with Sky

I have SKY connected via TiVO to the Scart socket

Using 2 x QED Scart cables

The picture can at times look very nice - but on moving scenes or images where there are light and dark stages (indoor scenes for example) the seems to be a few probs - the image is blocky at time, it seems as if a 2nd image is present, like a small ghosting effect and also a watercolor type effect on peoples faces

any ideas how to improve
 
I would also be interested in people's replies. Opinion seems to be split on the PD5000. Some report fantastic picture quality. Others (including myself) report inconsistent quality - sometimes great, sometimes a bit smeary with red/green tinges, especially on skin tones when there is movement across the screen.

I've fiddled with the settings (the ones I understand), but it's still noticeable.

Is it that some people just don't notice the red/green thing?

Or is it that some screens look great and others don't (always)? Well, perhaps I can help there. My screen is being replaced on Sunday because it buzzes (another PD5000 story, there). If it gives the same sort of pictures, I will shrug my shoulders and ignore it. If it doesn't, if the picture looks fantastic in all circumstances, then we'll know that ones that do the red/green thing are actually faulty.

peejay
 
Thanks

Certainly no buzzing from mine, well nothing that can be heard, even with the volume turned well down

I definatley think its going to be a calibration, cable, tweaking issue as just watched an episode of Have I Got 1991 For You (recorded via TiVO) and the quality was most impressive, espescially for a show with lots of reds

Also few other programs show potential

Fingers crossed
 
The worst culprit for smearing seems to be the 'CNR' colour noise reduction setting. Turn this off right away. To be honest you should also turn off all the digital processing options on the second page of the picture setup menu - they don't seem to add anything to the picture, and in some cases degrade it; this means the CNR, LTI, CTI, and Black Stretch. YNR is noise reduction on the grey level signal which seems to help a little with some sources, but I only have it set to Low.

Use a THX-certified DVD with the Optimode setup (e.g. Phantom Menace) to set your brightness levels, and it is worth a couple of quid to order the filter glasses from THX to help set colour balance.

Also bear in mind that the picture will improve as the phosphors on the screen 'bed-in' - it will probably take about a week of normal use. Make sure you turn down the contrast level to around 0 or less for the first few hours at least to prevent any risk of burn in (and blindness, since the default +31 setting is liable to burn out your retinas!)

Cheers,
wierd
 
Thank you very much for that :thumbsup:

I was very tired after setting it all up and not really in mood to look too deep and reading the above has given me some encouragement

Ill make do until my day off next week then put some serious time into getting it looking its best

As time does go on it does seem to get better - still struggles on scenes with lots of colour (mainly red) but better than it was
 
purchased this months HCC and used that along with DVD to set up brightness etc

DVD still looks great - very fine, chrisp and clear picture, but I am still a little unhappy with the SKY Picture

Currently have Contrast, Brightness, Colour and Sharpness on -15

The blooming (if thats what its called seems to have gone), by that I mean that the reds do not clash with other colors or smear - however on channels with on screen writing (Sky Sports Soccer or QVC) some of the writing still looks a little smeary and blocky - also some faces still look a little water colory

Maybe it needs warming up a little more (if that actually helps) as its probably not even been on for 10 hours yet - (curse work) - but would be grateful for any more advice that could be given

Im still not happy that I have it set up properly

Thanks
 
There is a thread somewhere with settings for sky, used them to set up my screen for sky , iirc the word colour is spelt wrong in the title .either color or coluor , I'll have a search if only to satisfy my own curiosity :D
 
here it is , Thought I was going mad for a moment , couldn't find it. :thumbsup:
 
Used that thread and still can not get away from this watercolory effect

It reminds be of the blocky effects I used to get when ITV Digital first launched on fast moving scenes

Also having problems with the reds

Grateful for any other Hitachi users thoughts
 
Well I think the color thing is sorted - I used the individual red and green settings and now its great

still suffer from the blocking and smearing though

no idea how to correct that
 
Duncan - that's great that you've sorted out the red/green problem. What did you change? What settings have you now got? Tell the world of Hitachi owners!
 
Well I used AVIA to do the calibration (I found DVE actually made things worse)

Still dont think things are finallised but they are close

I used the Blue/Green/Red Filters that I have to set the color

Once the blue part of the color was as close as possible - I then went into the Color Decoding section and lowered the settings for red and green

The colors are now much better - but Im still suffering from some blocking and smearing on fast moving scenes
 
Blimey - its not a simple thing owning a Plasma

Needs to have some dedication put too it - the color, brightness and contrast seem sorted now that I have turned down the red coloring

Just need to sort out the blocking, smearing and pixelisation effects that im suffering now

Got to be down to a combination of the NR settings
 
also further to that

I have just switched over to Eastenders

The scene was inside the pub and was of the two dark skinned lads playing football - there where definate problems there - blocking and graining on there faces which was worse when they moved

Also a scene with the vicar was also strange - his black clothing was sharp and so was the white background - but again his face also suffered - mostly around where his stubble was and also closer to his clothes

its as if the TV struggles with combinations of light/dark items and gets worse when they move

outside scenes however are glorious
 
Hi

Having read through the entire thread I am delighted to hear that your setup is much improved because of the advice you have received.

However could you do the decent thing and now post your setup so that other Hitachi 42PD5000 owners (myself included) don't have to go through the same agro as you did?

Thanks

Neil
 
Few things I have found out

For some reason the NR techniques actually seem to effect the players picture when connected by DVI - I have had them turned off in the past but a qucik experimentation whilst watching Exorcist III on R2 DVD saw the picture really improved by putting them all to maximum - strange but true !

Also Black Enhancment - I used to use this on the low setting but have found vi DVI its better off
 
Duncan I admire your persistance with setting up your Hitachi - it has inspired me a little to try a bit harder with mine.
BUT IMHO there is nothing can be done to eliminate completely the rgb contour lines on large areas of moving colour like when faces move across the screen - it's inherent in the crummy 256 grey scale processing of the Hitachi (and other brands too). I guess the best we can hope is to minimise it.
There is also a good chance that some of the blockiness/solarisation is actually source related so that even if the set had perfect (instant with 1000's of shades of grey) processing you would still see some of these sorts of image defects - I have seen it on a hi-res Sony PVM CRT monitor as well as plasma...
Over the 2 months of Hitachi ownership I have come to accept that it is like *any* other display device - it's not perfect and it has it's plusses and minuses, same as any other - with crt we have to endure smaller pictures with poor geometry, with plasma we have huge pictures/perfect geometry but they struggle with colour gradation and also just displaying SD image that size is bound to hilight all it's inherent faults that would not be as obvious on a smaller screen...
FWIW my Hitachi can deliver some absolutely stunning images but it's Achilles heel is the poor 256 grey level processing which really shows on large fast moving images as they pan across the screen.
Later designs (even the new US Hitachi) have much improved levels of grey scale processing which at least makes the plasma not part of the image degradation chain....
 
I very rarely suffer any of the above problems and when I do it tends to be a source issue - think the only programme which is a problem is Eastendrs - so no loss there

Football (often a cause of concern) is fine - with no problems at all
 
Hi Duncan,

Do you have any problems with the picture ratio while watching football? I have the same screen as you but I'm finding that the picture looks a bit squashed. I have the picture set to auto (Panoramic).
 
Micol.
If you have your screen set to panoramic, this is the reason for the squashed image.
This is because panoramic mode fits the picture to the screen by stretching out each end of the picture and keeping the correct dimensions in the centre.
You need to use either full, 14.9, 4.3 or zoom to get the correct picture aspect.
 

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