HDTV picture settings forum: Panasonic TC-LWT50 picture settings

Review:
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-tc-l47wt50/4505-6482_7-35118048.html

Related products:
Panasonic TC-L55WT50

Calibration report using these settings:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/100346986/Panasonic-TC-L47WT50-CNET-Review-Calibration-Results

Software version tested: 1.14a

Below you'll find the settings I found best for viewing the Panasonic TC-L47WT50 in a dim room via the HDMI input. Your settings may vary depending on source, room conditions, and personal preference. Check out the Picture settings and calibration FAQ for more information.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9996461-1.html

Calibration Notes: My WT50 review sample arrived with many adjustments made to its advanced picture settings, and Panasonic's engineers told me they were responsible. I zeroed out their changes and afterward Cinema came closest of all the default picture modes to the ideal calibration--so close, in fact, that I suspect my review sample was tweaked in its service menu to near-perfection on the charts, particularly its grayscale.

I was hoping to simply do a few tweaks to Cinema to get it even more perfect, particularly with green and yellow saturation, and perhaps improving gamma a bit, but I ended up having to ditch Cinema completely. That's because Cinema, as I noted in the review, doesn't allow adjustment of the Motion Picture Setting. It's stuck in Strong, which introduces large amounts of smoothing/dejudder with film-based material, a big no-no in any good calibration as far as I'm concerned.

So I performed a calibration in Custom, which worked well according to my charts (see below), but when I started watching program material it became apparent that something was very wrong. Colors were severely over-saturated, particularly red, giving skin tones for example a sunburnt look. It's the same phenomenon I noted last year when I calibrated the Custom mode of the VT30 plasma, an issue that in that case took Panasonic more than one software update to address.

Rather than monkey around more with Custom, I chose door number three: I calibrated using the limited controls in Standard, which at least allowed me to take advantage of the set's excellent grayscale and, crucially, disable dejudder. The results were less than perfect, as you can see from the chart in the review, mainly because Standard suffered from over-accentuation of red. My only option was to de-saturate the image significantly, but at least it looked (a lot) more accurate than Custom, and lacked the smoothing of Cinema.

--Picture menu
Picture mode: Standard
Backlight: +32
Contrast: +95
Brightness: +52
Color: +35
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 0
Color temp: Warm
Color mgmt: Off
A.I. Picture: Off
C.A.T.S.: Off
Video NR: Off

-- Aspect adjustments submenu
Screen format: Full
HD size: Size 2
H size: [grayed out]
Zoom adjustments: [grayed out]

--Advanced picture submenu
3D Y/C filter: Off [grayed out]
Color matrix: HD [grayed out]
Block NR: Off [grayed off]
Mosquito NR: Off
Motion Picture Setting: Off
1080p pure direct: Off
Black level: Light
3:2 pulldown: On [often grayed out depending on source]
24p Direct in: [Blank, no selection possible, grayed out]

Custom calibration: Here follows my notes and settings for Custom, in case you'd like to compare. Let me reiterate however: these settings will deliver a less color-accurate image than the ones above for Standard.

Using Custom I achieved an excellent overall calibration according to my charts, aided by grayscale controls that worked very well despite the odd 7-point detail control. I would have preferred the full 10 points of adjustment, for example to hone the 30 level more exactly, but 7 is still better than two when the controls work this well.

Unlike with Panasonic's VT50 plasma, I found the color management system employed by the WT50 to behave well during adjustment with one big exception: the backlight turned off whenever I fed the TV the blue window test pattern, making measurement and calibration of blue impossible (hence the gap for blue in the Geek Box, and the blue dot misplaced in the gamut chart--my meter actually measuring black instead of blue).

The backlight is designed to turn off when it doesn't sense a luminance signal above a certain point, and in the case of blue I had to set the Gamut Stimulus Level to 102.3 before the test pattern would appear. Since 100 is a maximum signal, and the calibration is designed to be done at 75, I couldn't use that pattern to make any adjustments to the blue portion of the WT50's color gamut--I left the CMS controls in their default positions for blue.

The Sharp LC-80LE632U is another TV whose aggressive backlight shutdown made blue impossible to measure, but the WT50's is even more aggressive, initiating shutdown even earlier. Aside from making calibrations difficult, it also interferes with program material. As I mentioned in the review, Standard doesn't have this issue but Custom and Cinema do.

--Picture menu
Picture mode: Custom
Backlight: +44
Contrast: +80
Brightness: +52
Color: +50
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 0
Color temp: Warm
Color mgmt: Off
A.I. Picture: Off
C.A.T.S.: Off
Video NR: Off

-- Pro settings submenu
W/B high R: +1
W/B high B: +2
W/B low R: +3
W/B low B: -9

W/B detail adjustment menu:
[listed as Red, Green and Blue gain, respectively]
87.5 IRE: -2, +1, -20
70 IRE: -1, -2, -2
62.5 IRE: -8, -5, +2
50 IRE: -6, -1, +7
37.5 IRE: -11, -8, -2
25 IRE: -30, -27, -32
12.5 IRE: -25, -29, -50

Red hue: 0
Green hue: +50
Blue hue: 0
Red Saturation: 0
Green Saturation: +10
Blue Saturation: 0

Color detail adjustment menu:
Yellow hue: 0
Cyan hue: 0
Magenta hue: +12
Yellow saturation: -28
Cyan saturation: +14
Magenta saturation: 0
Red luminance: -30
Green luminance: -13
Blue luminance: 0
Yellow luminance: +18
Cyan luminance: -5
Magenta luminance: -16

Black extension: 0
Gamma adjustment: 2.6
Panel brightness: Mid
Contour emphasis: Off
AGC: 0

-- Aspect adjustments submenu
Screen format: Full
HD size: Size 2
H size: [grayed out]
Zoom adjustments: [grayed out]

-- HDMI settings: [no change from default]

--Advanced picture submenu
3D Y/C filter: Off [grayed out]
Color matrix: HD [grayed out]
Block NR: Off
Mosquito NR: Off
Motion Picture Setting: Off
1080p pure direct: Off
Black level: Light
3:2 pulldown: On [often grayed out depending on source]
24p Direct in: [Blank, no selection possible, grayed out]

Note: This post was edited by its original author added link to calibration results on 07/17/2012 at 1:17 PM PT

Note: This post was edited by its original author fixed typos in Calibration Notes on 07/18/2012 at 7:08 AM PT