PHD8 Settings

[Fontie]

Just wondered what settings others were using

 

[tjradiohead]

Just wondered what settings others were using

Ill tell you when mine arrives next week.

Im absolutely terrified it will have dead pixels/contrast jumping/loud buzzing.

Why do i bother?

 

[Mep]

Hi Fontie, i've got sky going in on scart at the moment which is surprisingly good and have the follwoing settings: cinema, contrast -4, brightness +2, colour 0, sharpnes +4, black extension 2 and gamma 2.2 (always used 2.5 on previous screens but its to much for the phd8) My DVD settings on component and hdmi are both similar to above.

 

[BeelzebubUK]

Still running mine in.......then will run the AVIA/DVE discs to set it up correctly. Will post again when thats done.

 

[Fontie]

Thanks Mep im using your settings now. I still cant get over how good this screen looks specially compared to the Samsung 42S5H. Its funny how things work out sometimes if my Sammy hadnt had a dodgy hdmi imput and their cs been so bad i would have never got my money back and never owned the PHD8 i have now.

tjradiohead I think you have to be really unlucky to get a screen with dead pixals the odds are in your favour as far a buzzing i can hear it with my ear up to the back of the screen at 2' i cant hear a buzz. Fan noise with the volume low yes i can hear it but to me its not distracting i soon forget about it when i get into what im watching.

Enjoy the screen when it comes im sure like me you will love it

 

[Mep]

Fontie, yep I find those settings give a very realistic picture..........if you flick between those and the dynamic setting the difference is night and day isn't it....and yet thats how most people watch their CRTs!

 

[gIzzE]

Have you got INPUT SENSITIVITY when using that input ( I only use VGA)?

If you have try setting the contrast and brightness back to -0 on cinema mode, then dropping the INPUT SENSITIVITY till you are not crushing whites and calibrating again.
My screen at 50" now looks as good as the 42" did, awesome bit of kit!

 

[Mep]

I have tried playing with the input level, but to my eyes it didn't make a huge difference....though to be fair I wasn't using test patterns.

 

[X6TUS]

Same here, using SkyFree Sat with SCART on PHD8 - same settings, looks lovely.

 

[gIzzE]

It doesn't make a big difference at all, but it seems to make all the difference with mine.

 

[Mep]

I think you have a more expert eye than me..........very keen to see what difference a scaler will make though...that's next on the list once I've bought my daughter a car! (which apparently is more important)

 

[Saltrock]

To those still worried about the fan:

if you havn't noticed it is located on the top of the screen just right of the centre (if you are facing the front of the screen.)

If you're unsure if its fan noise or the usual plasma buzz just feel for a warm draft on that area of the panel (on the back, through the grid)

I guess you 'could' take the back off and disconnect the fan - of course voiding the warranty by damaging the furry screws!

There is a setting in one of the menus to change the fan to vertical mode or something. Unsure what that does.

Saltrock.

 

[Mep]

maybe its for using the screen portrait instead of landscape which some do for displays

 

[Saltrock]

Yea but wondered if it swaps the power to a fan mounted elsewhere (along the top if mounted portrait)

or if it dropped the voltage to the fan - a long shot i know.

 

[davsdu]

It doesn't make a big difference at all, but it seems to make all the difference with mine.

Giz, what are your settings?

 

[chedmaster]

Yea but wondered if it swaps the power to a fan mounted elsewhere (along the top if mounted portrait)

or if it dropped the voltage to the fan - a long shot i know.

it might speed it up because the vents are in the top, heat would normally rise out as well, but on the side it would need more encouragement.

 

[gIzzE]

On my screen everything is at 0 apart from input sensitivity which is at -25 on the RGBhv input.

I then adjusted "All Drive" and "All Cutoff" in the service menu whilst using the "black bar + half white" pattern on avia, to make sure I had the contrast and black level right.
I then use the scaler to adjust per input and get it spot on.

I could not get it right until I set the input sensitiviy down to -25.

 

[BeelzebubUK]

I only ever hear the fan spin up when I switch the 42PHD8 on and then I guess it just runs down to a normal operating speed which I would guess is the barely noticeable hum I can hear from a couple of feet away. Just to make sure its not just my hearing going I've asked 3 people so far and none of them can hear it. Looks like I got a good one.

 

[davsdu]

On my screen everything is at 0 apart from input sensitivity which is at -25 on the RGBhv input.

What does input sensitivity do and why did you change it?

 

[usman24]

gizlaroc, where can you find input sensitivity on phd8's ?

 

[gIzzE]

Input sensitivity does exactly what it says, changes the sensitivity of the input, if the screen is expecting .7mv on the RGB input and your device is giving .9mv everything will be too bright, by reducing the sensitivity you can get it back to where it is meant to be.
Now I now that the output from my scaler is OK so I would have to think that the screen is doing someething wrong, maybe the have made them more sensitive to get the screen to look brighter?
All I know is that it needs to be where it is to get it looking right, any higher and white detal is crushed at the very top of the ire range.

It is found in the advanced menu under PICTURE controls.

 

[Mep]

to avoid any confusion, i think it is just called input level

 

[gIzzE]

I never paid attention at school either!

 

[usman24]

I think I know what you are talking about now. It is set at 0 default. I will reduce this when I get home from work, this maybe what is causing the red dithering effect on freeview [black bars-top/bottom]rgb to vga connection. flashing red with automatic increase of brightness levels.

Meanwhile I am still waiting for a response from Panasonic via AV sales on the matter.

 

[tjradiohead]

Can anyone explain to me how to post a poll? I think it would be interesting to see how common some of the problems are with the PHD8.