Questions about plasma TV settings

[Ivory_Soul]

I bought my 50" Panasonic Viera plasma almost 2 years ago and it's probably a little late to be researching the various options, but I'm doing it. After spending 3 hours Googling I couldn't find any definitive answers, so I came here like I always do because you guys are the best! I just have some questions about options that I don't really know about so I'll post them here and you guys can answer. I didn't really "break" my TV in because the guy at Best Buy didn't tell me anything about that. I did A LOT of research and found out that plasmas are best for gaming. All he kept going on about is how the Xbox 360 doesn't display true 1080p and the PS3 does. I got more info on what a good HDMI cable is more than the freaking TV. I do have some image retention and I notice is stays pretty often, but I read that it's nothing to worry about. I have my TV set accordingly.

Contrast = 55
Brightness - 55
Color = 50
Tint = 0
Sharpness = 2
Color Temp. = Normal

I set this about a week ago. I had it set to factory Game Mode which had Contrast at 70 and Brightness at 80, as well as sharpness at 70.

1. x.v. Color - I heard this was for HDMI 1.3 only, but I couldn't find anything useful. Any know if this should be Auto or Off?

2. C.A.T.S. - This adjusts the display according to room lighting, but I'm not sure if I should turn it on or off.

3. Video NR - I heard this actually makes the picture more blurry.

4. Blur Reduction - I know plasmas don't have motion blur issues like LCD's. I know that the TV will put frames in between frames to reduce blur, but do I really need it enabled?

5. MPEG NR - Same thing as Video NR. I heard it makes the image more blurry.

6. Black Level - Dark or Light?

7. Anti-Image Retention - One thing I couldn't find anything on was the pixel orbiter. After noticing the constant image retention I set it to on and 1 minute. Should it be 1, 2, 3, or 4 minutes? There's also a scrolling bar option but no one would say how often I should run it.

If you guys can answer these questions it would be great!

[Segitz]

Well... a lot of the stuff here are "taste" things, really... I usually disable ALL image enhancement things, like Noise/Blur Reduction etc.

xvColor is supported by PS3... though I am not sure if it really makes a difference in gaming though (my tv doesn't support it). Also CATS should be disabled, as it leads to "image pumping". At least my tv does it (white walls reflect light and the sensor picks that up and thinks it's brighter than it is, thus he makes the image brighter and so on).

Black level... depends on your taste I guess. If the image looks better, then enable it, and if it doesn't, then don't.

And the last one... Can't tell, don't have a plasma yet, though I'll be soon in the market for one The orbiter is like a little "robot" walking across your plasma, changing the values of each pixel slightly for a short while, so it doesn't stick. This depends on the tv itself if you need it or not. I guess since you already have some retention, I'd leave it on, if it doesn't distract you. Can't say anything about the frequency, though.

[Ivory_Soul]

I disabled all image enhancement features and the quality is better! It's actually crisper with them all off. I was playing Mass Effect 2 off my laptop and noticed that all the edges were crisper and the image was more vivid. I don't understand why image enhancement would reduce quality. It this only for SD inputs? The pixel orbiter has reduced image retention a lot. I only notice it here and there on large HUD items, but only faint outlines instead of being able to read everything that was on screen when the TV is really dark.

I also know that plasma TVs have deeper blacks. Is this true black? I know LCDs had problems displaying all black as true black, because I noticed that I was watching Game of Thrones (being in 720p might have had something to do with it) and a lot of the dark scenes were really hard to see.

I just find it funny that TVs have so much technology in them but we can't notice any difference when they are enabled or disabled.

EDIT: I just turned C.A.T.S. off and was able to turn my brightness and contrast down to 45. This might help reduce image retention as well.

[Crazybone126]

Image enhancement reduces quality because it lowers framerate. It's basically constantly processing information by trying to "autocorrect" everything by adding MORE things in order to fix something, which is why performance always takes a dip. But like Segitz said, everything else is pretty much just a personal preference kind of thing.

[frosty]

Plasmas do produce true black since the light is emitted from the pixel itself and not from a backlight like LED or LCD tv's. The downside of plasma is, image retention IS a bad thing, as in many cases it is permanent damage to the TV. You won't always be able to get the frozen image out, just like with the old CRT TVs. LED/LCD TVs can have their image retention removed by displaying a rapidly flashing black and white image that unfreezes the pixels. With plasma burn in, though, it can't always be fixed. That's what the pixel orbiter does, keeps every pixel changing so it can't burn in.

Try one of the many looped DVDs designed to even out the screen. Any movie played continuously on a loop will do, actually, but there are specially designed DVDs that make use of motion, lights and darks to clean up minor burns, such as PlasmaSaver. Testers at the Plasma Display Coalition suggest that minor image retention is not a function of the phosphors, but electrically charged pixels. They noted that displaying an all white screen solved most problems effectively as well. However, if the image retention is bad enough, you will not be able to remove it, so be careful when using the TV. Turn it off if you're going to have a still image sitting on it for long periods of time, like a paused game. Avoid using it as a PC monitor to surf the net and such, as the toolbar of web browsers always sits in one spot and will burn into the TV.

Deep color and x.v. color (HDMI 1.3) are supported by PS3, however nothing takes advantage of it at this point. The Blu-Ray encoding spec only supports 16 bit color currently. The advantage of those color schemes is they can produce more colors than your eye can see, for a much more vivid image, but it's more of a future proofing tech at this point than anything, since nothing takes advantage of it right now. In order for deep color, etc. to work, the image has to be captured using a deep color compatible camera, edited and encoded using deep color compatible tech, played with a deep color compatible device, and sent to a deep color compatible TV. Video games skip those first steps of course, but current gaming hardware struggles enough with 16 bit color, I doubt we'll see deep color games this generation.

As for the 360 and 1080p, he's right. It does upscale from a native 720p render. The HDMI cable thing is bullshit. A $13 HDMI cable will give you the exact same image quality as a $100 one. Since HDMI is digital, the bits either get to their destination or they don't. So, you either get an image, or you don't. It isn't like with analog where interference can cause certain aspects of the image (color, or brightness information) to not get to the TV resulting in a lower quality picture. The only thing you want a better HDMI cable for is if you're doing 3D, ethernet over HDMI, or any of the other HDMI 1.4 capabilities. Then you want a cable rated for HDMI 1.4, but even then you can find a cheap one.

[goku2057]

OLED FTW.

[Segitz]

Image enhancement reduces quality because it lowers framerate. It's basically constantly processing information by trying to "autocorrect" everything by adding MORE things in order to fix something, which is why performance always takes a dip. But like Segitz said, everything else is pretty much just a personal preference kind of thing.

That's actually not correct. It doesn't lower framerate at all, but it rather introduces latency. That's one of the problems. The other is... if your input video is "pristine" (say a console game... there's no compression involved from the framebuffer until it's displayed on the TV), those NR algorithms destroy information. They can't see that there's no noise (well then can, but I doubt that any medium prized tv actually has intelligent filtering), so the image is still processed.

For low res content, it CAN help, but I prefer the pure look. With HD, and good content, there's no real need for all that crap. Badly compressed TV maybe, but BluRays etc don't need it.

But... don't talk to shop employees about this stuff... they know jack shit. No wonder retail is going down the drain, when the only advantage they have is gone.

[Ivory_Soul]

Plasmas do produce true black since the light is emitted from the pixel itself and not from a backlight like LED or LCD tv's. The downside of plasma is, image retention IS a bad thing, as in many cases it is permanent damage to the TV. You won't always be able to get the frozen image out, just like with the old CRT TVs. LED/LCD TVs can have their image retention removed by displaying a rapidly flashing black and white image that unfreezes the pixels. With plasma burn in, though, it can't always be fixed. That's what the pixel orbiter does, keeps every pixel changing so it can't burn in.

Actually, this isn't true. Plasma TVs these days have burn-in prevention and it's nearly impossible to do it. Image retention isn't bad because all plasmas have it. Of course leaving your TV on for hours with the same picture isn't good, but image retention isn't anything to worry about and I have read his on multiple websites. Thanks for the other info though. What about the slim 360? I know the original models didn't even have HDMI, but the later Elite consoles did. Since the slim is a whole new rebuilt 360 doesn't it upscale now?

OLED FTW.

I wanted OLED but they are damned expensive. Maybe next time. One thing I will never get are 3D Tvs. Not enough content still and way to gimmicky. I don't even care for it in theaters.

[frosty]

Not true. I work with video equipment for a living, I know what I'm talking about. As I said, image retention that has only been on screen a certain amount of time can be fixed using certain techniques, however if an image burns in long enough, the actual phosphors that create the plasma burn, and you'll never get it out of a plasma TV. The newer sets use pixel orbiters to help prevent that, but they are still vulnerable to permanent damage if you leave a static image on screen long enough without the orbiters turned on.

The 360 can output native 1080p, but it isn't easy for it to do at all. 360 only has a 10MB frame buffer, and a 1080p frame will not fit into that. So, for playing back video, there the possibility for 1080p output when using HDMI. However, for gaming, because you have to use predictive tiling (which is a pain in the ass) to get a 1080p frame in the framebuffer, there are only like 3 retail games that have ever used it. Simple games like Virtua Tennis 3. That said, PS3 doesn't fare much better at native 1080p games due to RAM limitations. You do see more games on PS3 that go above 720p, however, such as Wipeout HD (native 1080p, using adaptive resolution to downscale frames when the action picks up), Gran Turismo 5 (between 720p and 1080p native resolution), a lot of PS3 sports games (I remember alot of the basketball games were native 1080p), and most PSN games. Neither console was made to take full advantage of 1080p. I don't know if it was fixed, but earlier this year a system update disabled native 1080p video output on 360 (for watching videos). Apparently 360's dashboard is only 720p as well.

Here's some XNA devs talking about their challenges when trying to render at 1080p. http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums...48/497010.aspx

One thing I will never get are 3D Tvs.

Chances are your next set will have a 3D capability built in, whether you wanted it or not. It's becoming a common bullet point in new sets. I own a 50' 3D plasma, and love it. For racing games, it truly does give you an advantage. Especially in games like Motorstorm, where lack of depth perception can often send you crashing into a rock you didn't know was there.

[Ivory_Soul]

Not true. I work with video equipment for a living, I know what I'm talking about. As I said, image retention that has only been on screen a certain amount of time can be fixed using certain techniques, however if an image burns in long enough, the actual phosphors that create the plasma burn, and you'll never get it out of a plasma TV. The newer sets use pixel orbiters to help prevent that, but they are still vulnerable to permanent damage if you leave a static image on screen long enough without the orbiters turned on.

The 360 can output native 1080p, but it isn't easy for it to do at all. 360 only has a 10MB frame buffer, and a 1080p frame will not fit into that. So, for playing back video, there the possibility for 1080p output when using HDMI. However, for gaming, because you have to use predictive tiling (which is a pain in the ass) to get a 1080p frame in the framebuffer, there are only like 3 retail games that have ever used it. Simple games like Virtua Tennis 3. That said, PS3 doesn't fare much better at native 1080p games due to RAM limitations. You do see more games on PS3 that go above 720p, however, such as Wipeout HD (native 1080p, using adaptive resolution to downscale frames when the action picks up), Gran Turismo 5 (between 720p and 1080p native resolution), a lot of PS3 sports games (I remember alot of the basketball games were native 1080p), and most PSN games. Neither console was made to take full advantage of 1080p. I don't know if it was fixed, but earlier this year a system update disabled native 1080p video output on 360 (for watching videos). Apparently 360's dashboard is only 720p as well.

Here's some XNA devs talking about their challenges when trying to render at 1080p. http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums...48/497010.aspx



Chances are your next set will have a 3D capability built in, whether you wanted it or not. It's becoming a common bullet point in new sets. I own a 50' 3D plasma, and love it. For racing games, it truly does give you an advantage. Especially in games like Motorstorm, where lack of depth perception can often send you crashing into a rock you didn't know was there.

Thanks for a better understanding. Makes sense now. I always wondered why the 360 didn't look as sharp as the PS3. I would play Gears of War 3 noticing how uneven the edges of shapes were (not being anti-aliasing). I would then play GT5, or God of War 3 and notice how sharp and vivid every texture and color is. I even notice some miscoloring on the 360 dashboard so that does explain a lot. Does this have to do with the fact that the 360 originally wasn't designed with HDMI output thus the hardware team not designing it for true 1080p output?

The guy at Best Buy didn't explain things to me like this just that HDMI cables need to be 24K gold and the 5 cent ones I bought on Amazon are junk. So he sold me a $50 HDMI cable. I then later got a $10 one being Amazon brand with ethernet and I don't notice a difference in the two. However, with the Amazon one if you have the cable flipped around there's no sound output which I found strange.

[Segitz]

Well... it's a digital signal, so either you have a picture, or you don't. There's no in between, like with analogue cables.

And it's strange that you don't get sound in one direction. The sound is independent of the "LAN" stuff in HDMI cables. And HDMI cables are omnidirectional.

[frosty]

Yeah, that is really strange! I've never come across that before.

[=NukeBlaze=]

It takes 45 minutes of high-contrast, static image to burn into a Panasonic plasma from 2010;
This is even with anti-image-retention on.

Source:
I own a Panasonic plasma from 2010 and have a burned in image from a DVD menu.

Resolution:
Panasonic plasmas have a white-bar scanner in the TV menu than can help remove retention.
Now, the old image shadow can only be seen when about 1/4 a meter from the set.

The reason for the lack of audio when the HDMI cable is reversed is likely do to it being a bad cable.
The geometry of how the cable is bent is likely at a large angle in the TV HDMI jack, while at a shallow
angle in jack of the other AV-thing-in-a-box. The defect in the cable is probably aggravated when in
some particular shape given to it by its routing.

[goku2057]

I would say bad cable. And honestly, Ivory, take that 50 buck cable back and get a 5 dollar one off of Amazon. you won't notice a difference. unless you're doing 3D, in which case you need a HDMI 1.4a.