HDTV picture settings forum: Vizio M3D550KD picture settings

Review:
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/vizio-m3d0kd-series/4505-6482_7-35159745.html

Related products:
M3D470KD

Calibration report using these settings:
http://scr.bi/QfT24V

TV software/firmware version tested: 2.36.8.T

Below you'll find the settings I found best for viewing the Vizio M3D0KD 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: Vizio's Movie preset certainly provides the best picture quality prior to calibration, but when measuring it I immediately ran into an issue. The TV's backlight turned off at zero percent (black signal), which isn't unusual. What is unusual is that it didn't turn on again when my signal generator sent the TV signals brighter than that. Even when it sent a 5%, 10% and 15% signal, the backlight stayed off, so taking an accurate reading in Movie, let alone using it for calibration, was impossible with my current equipment.

I tried a couple of the alternate modes for calibration, namely Custom and Standard, but both showed markedly inferior black level performance to Movie. So I settled on a workaround for my calibration: I left the menu up. Vizio's on-screen menus don't time out and disappear after a short period of time like most do, and while a menu item was on-screen the backlight stayed engaged and I could get proper readings for calibration and measurement. It's not an ideal solution, since the menu can interfere by making the entire image brighter, for example, but in this case it was better than the alternatives.

Every reading (both pre and post) from the charts and Geek Box in my review, and those used to calibrate the TV, was taken with a menu item on-screen. That item was "Backlight" since picture adjustment sliders are the smallest, least intrusive items I could find and they don't impinge on the measurement area of my meter.

Once I got that figured out the Vizio was quick and easy to calibrate, and I got very good results overall. Its biggest issue was uneven gamma, and since there's no choice of gamma presets or 10-point grayscale there was little I could do to address it. Color accuracy and grayscale were excellent afterward for a TV with sparse controls.

---Picture settings menu---
Picture Mode: Movie
Backlight: 43
Brightness: 43
Contrast: 50
Color: 55
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 6

---Size & Position submenu---
[no change]

---Color Temperature submenu---
Colour temperature: Custom
Red Gain: 45
Green Gain: 48
Blue gain: 50
Red offset: 49
Green offset: 48
Blue offset: 50

--Advanced Picture submenu---
Smooth motion effect: Off
Real Cinema Mode: Smooth
Noise Reduction: Off
MPEG NR: Off
Color Enhancement: Off
Adaptive Luma: Off
Film Mode: Auto
Smart Dimming: On
Ambient Light sensor: Off

Note: This post was edited by its original author added link to calibration report on 07/31/2012 at 8:24 AM PT