HeavyNova Posted February 11, 2011 Posted February 11, 2011 (edited) Hi everyone, I've recently purchased a Panasonic V20 TV. After running it in properly I've applied some general tweaks to the settings to improve the out of the box picture. e.g. brightness, contrast and colour saturation adjustments. After some further viewing I'm concerned that the image is too cool and would like to add some warmth to it. I've had a look at the white balance menu in the Professional mode, got confused so I went online but I can't find out what the R/G/B-Gain and R/G/B-Cutoff settings actually do. There's also a 'Tint' setting which I suspect could also be related to the white balance but it's not in the WB section - so what does Tint do? I currently don't have any access to any kind of calibration tools, so I'm just using my eyes at the moment. I've been well into photography and photo processing for years though and have a reasonable idea of realistic looking images. At the moment I'm just trying to get my head around the actual changes the Gain and Cutoff sliders do - so I can understand what I'm actually changing on the TV when I fiddle with them. Anybody out there that can help? And, thankyou in advance to anyone who does chip in! Edited February 11, 2011 by HeavyNova
alanh Posted February 11, 2011 Posted February 11, 2011 HeavyNova, The reason it may appear too blue is the lighting you are using in the room. TV production is done in a control room lit with daylight fluro tubes in boxes above the production desk. The boxes prevent the light from spilling on to the screen. The wall surrounding the screen should be a pale colour, ideally grey. Meanings Colour Temperature. Television is adjusted so that white looks the same colour as a fluffy white cloud at around midday in the southern sky (Southern Hemisphere). This is called Illuminant D with a colour termperature of 6500 K R, G, B stands for red, green and blue. The cutoff values is adjusting the colour of dark areas of the picture ie in the shadows. Gain affects the colour of the bright areas of the picture eg white. Tint varies the red vs blue gain. Gamma affects flesh colours. With so many interactive controls as well as if you adjust all 3 of say the gain then you can over drive the display causing the detail in the highlights to be removed. The only way to adjust this is to have an Illuminant D65 light source and a grey scale signal which can be obtained from a test DVD. You will also need a PLUGE signal and a light meter to set the white and black levels. Alternatively a Monitor alignment meter. In short unless you have all the above equipment I would do a factory reset and leave this menue well alone. AlanH
HeavyNova Posted February 11, 2011 Author Posted February 11, 2011 Hi alanh, Wow, sounds involved! Can I ask, do the test/calibration DVDs take you through a process or are they simply a range of test images and colours that the calibrator will need to know what they are for?
alanh Posted February 11, 2011 Posted February 11, 2011 HeavyNova, The test equipment is expensive, and you don't know enough not to stuff it up. So as I suggested get the viewing conditions right and reset the TV to its default values and the colour will be ok. Remember try to keep the light on the screen and any light in the room to be daylight coloured. AlanH
Owen Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 Doesn't the V20 have a “THX” mode? Use it and grey scale will be very close to the 6500K standard, typically less than 5% error. Even with extensive calibration experience you will be lucky to get within 20% by eye without a reference. The only way to get accurate results is with a reliable colour meter and they can be had quite cheap ($150). I recommend the Eye One Display LT with HCFR Colormeter software and test disks which are available free from here. http://www.homecinema-fr.com/colorimetre/index_en.php
HeavyNova Posted February 14, 2011 Author Posted February 14, 2011 Thanks for the link Owen, I'll check it out. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure that the V20 doesn't have a THX mode. It has "Cinema" and "True Cinema". I assume that the True Cinema is this model's closest picture preset to the THX mode that is on the VT20.
PersianImmortal Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 (edited) In terms of the White Balance settings, my layman's (and possibly incorrect) understanding is that the Gain value is equivalent to contrast, while Cutoff is equivalent to brightness for each individual colour channel. Owen said: Doesn't the V20 have a “THX” mode? Use it and grey scale will be very close to the 6500K standard, typically less than 5% error. Even with extensive calibration experience you will be lucky to get within 20% by eye without a reference. Owen is correct, this is why the THX mode on the V series panasonics is so valuable, because it basically means it's as close to being calibrated for correct colour reproduction as is possible from the factory. If you switch to THX mode (or True Cinema or the Professional modes - they're all the same) and turn down the main Colour control to the point where colours look natural, and reds in particular don't look neon bright, then you will get a warm picture with accurate colours. This should address your issue in terms of wanting a warmer image. I personally don't like quite how warm THX mode is (a yellow cast on whites), so I've used a calibrated set of White Balance values similar to this review, which provides a slightly cooler image while still being warm. This may be technically incorrect, but ultimately it depends on what looks good to your eyes. /EDIT: HeavyNova replied while I was typing this - yes, to confirm, True Cinema mode is the same as THX mode on the P50V20A (which I have), without the branding. This is confirmed by this post for example. True Cinema, Professional1 and Professional2 modes are all the same as THX mode. I assume Panasonic did this either so as to avoid paying the THX licensing fee on this particular model, or perhaps to create a false distinction in terms of features between this and other models which do come with THX mode. Edited February 14, 2011 by PersianImmortal
HeavyNova Posted February 15, 2011 Author Posted February 15, 2011 PersianImmortal said: In terms of the White Balance settings, my layman's (and possibly incorrect) understanding is that the Gain value is equivalent to contrast, while Cutoff is equivalent to brightness for each individual colour channel.Owen is correct, this is why the THX mode on the V series panasonics is so valuable, because it basically means it's as close to being calibrated for correct colour reproduction as is possible from the factory. If you switch to THX mode (or True Cinema or the Professional modes - they're all the same) and turn down the main Colour control to the point where colours look natural, and reds in particular don't look neon bright, then you will get a warm picture with accurate colours. This should address your issue in terms of wanting a warmer image. I personally don't like quite how warm THX mode is (a yellow cast on whites), so I've used a calibrated set of White Balance values similar to this review, which provides a slightly cooler image while still being warm. This may be technically incorrect, but ultimately it depends on what looks good to your eyes. /EDIT: HeavyNova replied while I was typing this - yes, to confirm, True Cinema mode is the same as THX mode on the P50V20A (which I have), without the branding. This is confirmed by this post for example. True Cinema, Professional1 and Professional2 modes are all the same as THX mode. I assume Panasonic did this either so as to avoid paying the THX licensing fee on this particular model, or perhaps to create a false distinction in terms of features between this and other models which do come with THX mode. Thanks Persian, I've since moved over to True Cinema and just toned the colour down to an more normal level. I too have found those setting you refered to but haven't had a chance to input them and see what it looks like. Thanks for the help everyone, I'm pretty happy with the display's current settings now.
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