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Ok, you've gone out and bought a brand spanking new plasma TV, but how do you make sure that you're getting the best picture out of it? To do that you need to adjust the picture settings on your plasma TV, otherwise known as "plasma calibration" in the AV industry.
Before you start, you should know that the best calibration for your plasma TV will depend on your source material (i.e. what you're watching), your input device (e.g. DVD player or satellite box) and the amount of ambient light in your home environment... among other things. You should also be aware that your plasma TV needs to be run in for at least 200 hours to allow the phosphors to stabilize, or else you will have to repeat your plasma TV calibration in the future.
You may not own a plasma TV calibration DVD, so this article will try to walk you through the steps using readily available material. Remember to use the best available connection to connect your input device to your plasma TV. In descending order, the cleanest signal (and hence best picture quality) can be obtained via: HDMI = DVI > VGA = component > SCART (RGB) > S-Video > Composite.
1. Adjust Brightness. This actually determines the black level on your plasma TV: too high a setting and black will look gray; too low and dark grays are swallowed into blackness. To set brightness to its proper level, simply play a DVD with lots of black scenes (e.g. opening scene from Star Wars). Now crank your brightness up until the black on your plasma TV look gray, then slowly dial your brightness down until the black in the movie JUST matches the black on the black bars on top and bottom of the movie.
2. Adjust Contrast. This determines the white level and is responsible for how much light your plasma TV actually emits. To set contrast correctly, play a DVD scene containing a shiny bald head/forehead (e.g. The Fifth Element). Now increase contrast until the bald patch is glaringly hurting your eyes, and then tone it down until you're satisfied that you can see all the detail within the white.
3. Adjust Sharpness. For most poorly-encoded source material you want to use this to enhance the edges, but if done excessively this will introduce haloing and ringing around edges. It's best to bring up a "User Menu" (from your DVD, satellite box, etc) to adjust sharpness: increase it until lots of ringing artifacts occur around the edges of the words, then decrease it until the ringing just disappears.
4. Adjust Color. Color can either be too saturated or too dull... either way the picture will not look right, with the most noticeable errors found in skin tones and green foliage. As a rough guide, you can use a DVD scene with a hand and tinker with the color until the color matches that of your own hand.
What I've described above is 4 basic steps for plasma calibration using only what's available to you. If you wish to strive for more accuracy you can get a HDTV calibration DVD, but you'll need to know which one to buy and how to use it to calibrate plasma TV because the majority of them are still catered for the CRT market.
Want to buy a high-def TV but just don't know how to figure out the specifications to choose the best sets? Here's a short guide to some of the most common specs you'll be faced with.
Contrast ratings - a measurement of the darkest blacks to the lightest whites - Panasonic boasts of a 18000:1 contrast rating for their best plasma. In nearly every case, you'll find that plasma TVs have better contrast ratings than any other high-def TV, but you don't necessarily need off-the-charts contrast ratings to have a television you'll enjoy. An 1800:1 makes most people happy, and in a darkened room you often can't tell much difference, though it will be obvious in a showroom.
1080p and 1080i - These numbers refer to the horizontal lines that make up your television image. Traditional televisions - and traditional TV broadcasts - have a 480i; most modern high-def TVs have 1080 or better. The p and i refer to the method the television uses to interpret these lines. An i is an interlaced picture, where every other line refreshes, usually every 1/60 of a second. A p displays all the lines at once, and refreshes either every 1/60 or 1/30 of a second. Look for sets that have a high number and the p for best pictures. Also, for best results look for Blu-ray sets that match this number for your television; some televisions designed for interlaced images cannot handle a Blu-ray set only for p.
Scaling - Refers to the ideal resolution for your television's picture. This is more important for a front-projection DLP TV than any other set, as it determines the maximum and minimum picture for good viewing.
Artifacts - Auras, ghost images, sharp edges, and other distracting things that can detract from your high-def TV's good image processing. A television reviewed as having few or no artifacts is always better than one that has some complaints.
De-judder processing - this refers to the sometimes-jerky motion when frames change too slowly. Because high-def TVs are in essence computing devices, this depends heavily on internal processor speed as well as good programming at the factory. Some experts complain that certain sets do too good a job at de-juddering, and as a result the image is unnaturally smooth in motion. Most consumers are happier with this sort of set, though, so the better your de-judder is the happier you will probably be.
Resolution - Most sets have at least 1920 x 1080 resolution, referencing the vertical x horizontal lines your set will display. High resolutions indicate better pictures, provided everything else works well.
Color-temperature presets -- With values like Cool1 and Neutral, these presets skew your television's color settings toward blues or reds. These settings are not necessarily a make-or-break thing for your high-def TV, but it's nice to be able to skew your picture without fiddling with every color setting. Most high-def TVs have many other color settings you can mess around with, but none of them are critical.
There are several other specs, with more being created every day, but these should help you choose a great high def TV for your needs.
