Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Panasonic Plasma S2 "shimmer"

Hey all:

I bought myself a new Panasonic Plasma 50" S2. Yummy.

After I got it properly calibrated I noticed on calm scenes, there is a slight shimmer to the image. I first noticed it when changing discs on my BluRay player and I had the BR Player Splash screen was on. Is this normal? Is it some sort of de-burn-in Tech? Dirty power perhaps? I have a good surge protector but it doesn't condition the power in any way.

Side note, did anyone else with this TV find it had a green tinge to it? I had to dial my Tint back to -5 to get rid of it. I found some calibration sites that stipulated Tint -2.

Thanks
snazzed

I think all plasmas have a slight sparkle to them. Some people call it dithering, but that would seem to indicate it is on purpose to increase color depth. I think that it's just a slight fluctuation in the number of electrons being excited from the plasma one instance to the next.

Can you see it from your seating position? I only notice it when I'm warming my nose right on the panel.

I've heard that the S2 does have a green push.

do you have occasion to warm your nose on the screen often, Chris?

It's a nice nose warmer* in the winter time. Actually, with all my HT stuff running, the rest of the apartment gets cold, because the thermostat is in the living room.


*Just don't touch your nose to the screen. Noseoil is one of the hardest things to remove from glass.

As usual, Chris nose what he's talking about.

No sparkles that I have ever noticed on my S1 and no one has ever mentioned the green push that the S1 is supposed to have either. I love my TV I have noticed when up close and warming my nose as Chris puts it, I can see black levels jumping around, lighter/darker in areas that are not 100% black, a gray area if you will; other than that it is all good.

I've mentioned the green tint several times. I've even taken a movie to a store that had one, watched half of it and noticed where I saw green where it seemed green shouldn't have been. Then went home and watched the same parts on my Samsung and the greens turned into browns and grays.

Before I had my display ISF calibrated I used > http://www.tweaktv.com/tweak-my-tv/calibration-guide/panasonic-tc-p50s2.html

After my pro cal the tint was set at -2(from +5) with no apparent issues regarding green push and I don't play close attention to black level rising issues. Each display will vary but those number on tweak city appear to be fairly close..but?

Here are my numbers the second ones are after the pro cal fwiw.
Cont~95...75
Brightness~57...75
Colour~42...48
Tint~5...-2
Sharp~0...12

Billy, I'm curious to know who calibrated your set. By chance was it Mark Kaye or Michael Osadciw? And are you happy with the results?

Thanks,
Cam

What it looks like here when you say black levels are jumping around is more than likely as a result of a non-linear Gamma level up and down the scale, (i.e. the color balance at various brightness levels is not linear). This is a separate issue from gray scale which essentially only adjusts the levels of red, green and blue so that they are shown on the screen in the proper proportion at a pre-determined reference level as close as possible usually to the ISF level of 6500K. These adjustments can only be made with access to the internal service menu which the customer doesn't have plus you need the proper measuring devices and software to do it accurately.

The trouble is, even an experienced calibrator can only adjust any of these at two or three points in the monitor so, no matter what, it is essentially a compromise.

I have touted this in other forums and might sound like an A/B repeat tape loop, but even with a less expensive television, when you can interface the unit with something like a Video EQ or DVDO IScan Duo and their 11 point and up grayscale adjustment capabilities and color management systems built-in, you can attain a grayscale, gamma and color accuracy capability that will even considerably exceed the best calibrators work on the most expensive monitor.

I can't notice those black levels jumping when I am more than a few feet away, it looks seemless so it is fine by me.

No problem, I guess when I took a leap and bought one of these units(Video EQ Pro) that was introduced for the first time early last year and got through the initial learning curve, I was amazed what its capabilities were(and they have upgraded it a couple of times since) so when it now comes to the video issues of any monitors, I have become somewhat of a perfectionist.

All part of the fun of this hobby.

I saw a Panasonic 46" C2 plasma today at Best Buy for $499. I haven't studied the C2's yet. Are they a good TV, or is it a TV with problems? One thing I didn't like right away was the shiny reflective screen.

Edit: This is a 720. I'm not interested unless it's a 1080. I'm just waiting for a good plasma 1080 46" to come along for $500 before I replace mine.

Yeah, my seat is a mere 8 feet away and I can see it on still frames or relatively static scenes... but only because I know its there. I've asked friends if they can see it and I universally get, "Hey, you're right! I didn't notice that!"

I'll try borrowing a power conditioner and see if it helps. If not, its not a big deal.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

snazzed

When calibrating monitors for individuals, from time to time, I see some oddball anomalies that can be related to the contrast being jacked up too high. This is one of the things that you would never notice in the store. Contrast which sets both voltage and white point levels, drags all the colors up or down in relation to that white point which if set too high can push everything beyond the capability of the monitor to handle, hence the strange little things that sometimes can show up on the screen. This is, of course, depending on the source material.

If you have already used something to properly set up contrast, brightness and color in your home and the "sparkles" still appear, then I guess it is an issue characteristic of the set itself.