Pioneer MXE Owners

[sapper]

HI all,

Out of curisity, I was wondering if youcould share with us al your various Contrast/brightness/tint/colour/sharpness levels are?

In addition the screen brightness mode, are youon stnadard, mode i or mode two?

Currently my settings are set around (but not on ) the zero level for all of these. Screen brightenss is Mode 2 at the moment

I would welcome your replies.

Thanks in advance

Adrian

 

[hilljd]

Seconded.

Some of you guys out there have been lucky enough to have professionals round to set up your screens. Now I know the results of this won't be directly transferrable to a different system, but they certainly would make interesting reading.

My 503MXE is set up much the same, I found the factory settings to be pretty good. This was a big surprise! However I have done two things:

1. Turned the sharpness right down, looked better.

2. Turned up the contrast to +10 (!!). This is because the normal contrast showed some nasty digital artifacts around fine details. This was very evident using the cross-hatch test pattern from the DVD32R, which was *crawling* at 0 contrast. The connection is component.

Jeremy.

 

[phil_evans]

sapper,

I also use component for DVD and Freeview and tend to use Mode 1 as Mode 2 is just too dark for me. I haven't settled on final brightness/ contrast/ colour settings but tend to keep them down a notch or 3 from factory standard. I haven't played with tint or sharpness.

I too would love to see the settings of a properly calibrated 433 posted here, but I'm not sure about hilljd's use of the word "lucky" as I think the guys who've paid £££'s for a professional callibration might see things differently.

What do you guys do with the DNR setting? I tend to keep it on LOW except for football.

Phil

 

[lloydo]

phil_evans

Your setup is practically exactly what I want (green eyed monster), the MXE, the Yamaha amp, Kef eggs and half a pint of OJ. How do you think they all work together and also how good is your picture using a Freeview DVB.

Cheers in advance

 

[phil_evans]

Lloydo,

They work very well together. I can't give you an audio- or videophile's review of the kit as I'm just an amateur, but in summary:

MXE - fantastic, stunning... any criticism is harsh, but I suppose I'd like it to show slightly better blacks (for the same price, with the same resolution, inputs, upgrade options etc)

Yamaha - everything I need at a reasonable price. Sounds great to me whether in AV or stereo use.

Kef Eggs - the eggs sound great but the sub gets a bit boomy/ wooly at times... perhaps I'll upgrade it one day... but its fine most of the time.

Freeview - the clarity and sharpness of the picture over component (via JS' YUV converter) is superb. However, this clarity does highlight the mpeg artefacts. I think you just have to accept that low-res (SD) TV on a 43" screen is never going to look perfect. If you sit about 10 feet back it looks very good though and much better than 'squinting' at a 32" CRT.

The OJ performs best when kept separate from all of the above.


Phil

 

[installer09]

Heres my settings , all in the intergrator menu .

Contrast 133 Colour temp mid and NR low
Brightness 113
Colour 150
Tint 129
h . sharp 0
v . sharp 0

R high 255
G 255
B 255

R low 123
G 130
B 124

H pos 134
V pos 135

 

[installer09]

Colour temp and NR in the standard menu .

 

[installer09]

Should have said , they are the input 2 settings for my DVD player , my input 1 settings are the same except I have the contrast on -5 in the standard menu and NR is medium , input 1 is for my SKY+ box connected with a RGB - VGA J.S box.

 

[DJBlade]

*intergrator menu* , whats this, it isnt on my menu's..?

 

[installer09]

Put the unit into stanby, then press menu then standby and it will start back up in intergrator mode.

 

[sapper]

DJBlade,

Ive posted under another thread how ot down load the technical manual from Pioneer with all this in.

I postesd in Tues or Wednesday, if youwant to look back.

There are more options availalble.

Adrian

Instaler, Thank youfor your post, I hope others will follow. I shall have a play with mine today.

Adrian

 

[DJBlade]

hi sapper, i saw that post, but when i tried the link, it said i dont have access rights..?

 

[sapper]

Hi Lenny,

Thought it was already mentioned!

1. go to http://pioneer-customerrelations.custhelp.com/

2. click on FAQ ( Frequently Asked Questions We probably already have the answer you require! )

A listof downlodas came up. Currently click on option 14..Do you have the technical specfications of the PDP plasma screens?

There youhave them..

Its three large pdf files.... totalling some ~120 pages or so....

Hope this helps.

Adrian

 

[sapper]

Over the course of the weekend, My Partner and I have experimented with the settings in Input3 (S-video) fed by the DVD player playing wither Video Essentials, or the THX Optimode facility on Toy Story! (Region 1)

Colour temp: mid-low and NR low

Contrast 100
Brightness 125
Colour 120
Tint 1128
h . sharp 0
v . sharp:0

Brightness Mode 1 (inbetween Standard and mode 2!)

As yet I have not altered any other settings.

25th November, 02

 

[installer09]

All my adjustments were copied from an MXE that had been proffesionally calibrated , then I just tweaked them a little using the Avia disc.

 

[sapper]

Thanks Installer for that, What I shall do is watch some parts of a film with both settings, and see how they differ?

Can the Avia disc be purchased here in the Uk?

Ive got the Video Essentials disc, but where can I get this Avia disc? Or anything else? What other set up discs are availalbe.


Adrian

 

[Paden]

I've got a copy you could borrow, don't live too far away so could drop it round.
PM me if you're interested.

Cheers, Paul

 

[philipb]

I calibrated my 433 using AVIA, and got settings very close or identical to installer. That's using input 2 (component) from a DVD player (and PS given that the AVIA disc is NTSC).

The same settings work less well for Sky digital stuff via input 1, needs more fiddling.

Now I feel a silly question coming on, but apart from the extra settings available to tweak, what point is there in changing colour, contrast, brightness, tint, sharpness in intergrater rather than the standard menu? Is it just finer control over a wider range?

 

[sapper]

Originally posted by philipb


The same settings work less well for Sky digital stuff via input 1, needs more fiddling.

Now I feel a silly question coming on, but apart from the extra settings available to tweak, what point is there in changing colour, contrast, brightness, tint, sharpness in intergrater rather than the standard menu? Is it just finer control over a wider range?

Hi Philip,

Thanks for your reply.

I shall retry Installers settings when I have the oppurtunity. Im not quite sure what the advantage of setting up in "Integrator Mode" is.

I am guessing that since youhave more 'options to tweak' you have more control, but this is mere guessing.

Basically, my thought was that if we have access to thie 'professional set up menu', then it wouldnt be there if it wasnt better than the normal menu!

Also, I think i twas installer, who copied his settings from a professionally installed/callibrated machine.

Hopefully I shall have my RGBtoVGA black box in the near future, ands I can go through the whole process again using Input 2 ( I think)

Adrian

 

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

The reason the integrator mode is there is to allow better set up of multiple and single units used together.

For end users you can see that integrator mode settings are where the user functions work from. IE the default setting in usermode is contrast "xxx" with Integrator at it's default. Now, if you decide you like contrast at "xxx" + 10 in User mode that's fine. If someone then goes in to integraotro mode and adjust contrast for that input and scan frequency then when they come out that will be the new default so your "xxx" + 10 will be different to what was seen previously.

The idea is that you can set the defaults to correct accurate settings rather than what Pioneer set them up to.

Gordon

 

[installer09]

The same settings work less well for Sky digital stuff via input 1, needs more fiddling.

Hi can you post what your settings are fot input 1 please (sky)

 

[philipb]

Thanks all.

Installer - off to Manchester in a few minutes and won't be home till tomorrow night, but from memory the settings are the same as yours except contrast which I think is at 140. My personal preference is usually for a slightly greater contrast balanced by lower brightness. As i say this is excellent for DVD via component, but not so good for Sky. I don't know if changing the settings will help - its probably more a case of the inherent quality of the digital feed from Sky - good picture when its good; bad when it's not. Trouble with plasma is it won't let you get away with poor input the way a good CRT (such as pixel plus) will.

 

[DJP]

Installer09 - Just out of curiosity which Mode setting were you using?

I tried your settings with Sky+ using the S-Video input and I found that it produced a greenish tinge. My JS RGB to VGA box should arrive later this week so I'll try again when that arrives using Input 1.

I've ordered the Avia disk but does anyone know of a Satellite feed which broadcasts a test card which the Sky+ box can pick up. I've a steerable dish so if it's on Hotbird or whatever then that's not a problem.

TIA

Derek

 

[ncpl]

Hi Derek,

Am only a couple of weeks away from taking a 433MXE and plan to use the JST RGB-VGA converter to feed my Skybox in.
How have you found it over the last couple of months ?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Cheers

Nick

 

[DJP]

Hi Nick,

I only got the 433MXE on Thursday (hence the reason it took me a while to reply to your PM..too busy playing ...sorry aout that) so it's a bit early for me to make too many comments.

However, I find DVD's to be fantastic. Sky+ has some noise/artifacts around moving objects. I'm waiting for the JS Box and will then do a comparison between S-Video and RGB from the Sky+. I will also do a comparison between Sky RGB through the Plasma and through a standard TV. I hope to be able to see the artifacts created by Sky versus any (hopefully none or minor) added by the Plasma.

One of the reasons for querying the Power Mode which installer09 and others are using is that the Technical manual for the MXE implies that there is more processing in Standard and Mode1 versus Mode2. I hope to check to see if running in Mode 2 (but changing the brightness etc. to achieve the correct level with the Avia disk) improves picture quality still further.

Please note that as far as I am concerned this is all minor tweaking. Right now I'm finding the Plasma experience to be pretty awesome.

Derek