How to Calibrate Plasma Televisions
A big-screen TV used to be considered an extravagance back in the days of rear projection, but with the advent of plasma screens, big is the new norm. These technological wonders invade living rooms with bright backlights, unfathomable contrast ratios and color representation numbering in the millions, but all that information can be a little bit of an overload if you're the plug and play type. Unfortunately, to get the most out of your new investment, a little calibration is required as the newest sets offer a dizzying array of user-accessible menus and settings that greatly enhance the picture for your individual viewing conditions.
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Instructions
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Change the out-of-the-box setting immediately. TV showrooms are brightly lit and competitive, so that leads manufacturers to ship plasmas calibrated to a preset often called "Vivid." Select another preset like "Standard" or "Film." The showroom setting overloads contrast, brightness and color saturation. If you leave the plasma set to those parameters, you could cut the life of your set in half.
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Experiment with the presets offered in the user menu. "Film" might be too dark for bright rooms, whereas "Sports" or "Gaming" can be too intense for daily viewing. Cycle through each of the presets and evaluate them using different signal inputs---a standard definition source, a high-definition source, DVD versus cable.
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Disable any noise reduction, skin detail or edge enhancement and the like. These enhancements might help for some video sources, but to calibrate your plasma, turn them all off first. You can add them back in later on a case-by-case basis.
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Choose the "User" option if you wish to tweak the settings to your specific room and video source. Most televisions allow you to create and save several "User" settings for different conditions.
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Set the brightness level first. The brightness setting is not an adjustment of how bright the backlight is. It is more accurately called "Black Level" as it determines the depth of the dark areas of the image. Set brightness to the lowest acceptable level by choosing a video source and then turning up the brightness way beyond what is watchable. Turn it down click by click until the image clarifies (the milky cast fades) and you are just beginning to lose some detail in the dark areas.
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Adjust the contrast level so that the lighter areas of the image are bright, but any shadows or colors within them are clearly defined. This is where a DVD calibration tool comes in handy as it can give you specific screens that make this setting adjustment easier to visualize. If you don't have a calibration DVD, use a standard DVD movie and pause in a scene where there are a lot of lights and darks that butt against each other.
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Select the color temperature from the preset menus if your plasma is so equipped. The ideal color temperature is 6500 degrees Kelvin. If your set doesn't specifically give you the numbers, cycle through the "Warm," "Neutral" and "Cool" settings to see what works best in your room.
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Turn off or dramatically reduce the sharpness setting. It may seem counterintuitive, but making your picture sharper makes everything sharper, not just the "good" parts of the image. It turns up noise just like it enhances the detail in clothing wrinkles or edges, so keep it as low as possible.
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Tips & Warnings
Use a DVD calibration tool for all of these settings and your results will dramatically improve.
Make small adjustments over time. Your eye will get better, and you'll start to notice things you never thought you cared about before.
