Panasonic Plasma Monitoring Solution for davinci

[Illya Laney]

“Pro series offers more control over the picture in the menu while the Consumer requires you to access the service menu for the same control.”

This isn’t true with the nicer 2010 Viera’s now. They offer the ISF controls through a custom menu, and you can set custom calibrations for the different inputs. Like I said before, you can get a better calibration right out of the box with the VT’s and G series than you can with the average Pro plasmas.

Motion Design, Color, Editing
SWGC Incorporated

[Illya Laney]

I’m interested to see and read more on the subject.

Motion Design, Color, Editing
SWGC Incorporated

[Chris Ekstein]

Hello Fellow Creative Cows. I have Davinci Resolve on an 8 Core Mac with Blackmagic Decklink Extreme 3D+ Card and Nvidia Quadro FX 4800. I have HDMI out to a Panasonic Pro 42” Plasma TH-42PF20U for color display.

It is me or does the plasma look noisy in the blacks?

What are the best out of the box settings to achieve REC709. What is the best way to calibrate my monitor. A colorist friend is bringing his Ikigami HLM 1750 and I am going to try and match it. What is the best way to do this? What probe should I get?

Also I heard that I would need an outside box with a lut to make the Panasonic monitor perform under true 709. Is this true?

[Illya Laney]

After working with a few Panasonic Pros over the last year, you absolutely need a LUT to get it there. If you’re using it for a client monitor, then you don’t need to worry about it as much.

twitter.com/illyalaney

[Chris Ekstein]

Can I apply the LUT within Da Vinci? Where do I get the correct LUT?

Da Vinci comes with a blank LUT that I can program… but how do I go about it? Also doesn’t the monitor has to be calibrated in a certain way for the LUT to work?

I e-mailed Pete Putman to get the white paper on Panasonic calibration. For now I am planning on calibrating to the Ikagami monitor by eye following the white paper to get close so I can get going.

This is a process in definite need of a solution for all of us. We all need a correct monitor to go off of when coloring… and that step seems like rocket science mixed with voodoo magic or something…

[Denver Riddle]

Just in response, Illya has pointed out that by buying a Panasonic Viera VT25 or any of the consumer variety with THX processing you can get it into Rec 709 spec without employing any kind of LUT box or LUT generator. Granted you have a probe and calibration software, otherwise you can hire an ISF or THX technician to do it. AV Foundry’s Video EQ Pro has continued to make inroads now offering 3D and LUT capability with a new MAC OS interface. So if you need a video processor to get REC 709 specs I believe this is one of the best solutions out there for price performance. Other than that, go with the consumer variety with Panasonic plasmas with THX and you’ll be spot on.

Suggested tools:

Xrite Hubble Probe
Spectracal Calman
AV Foundry VideoEQ Pro 3D

Cheers,
Denver Riddle

[Steve Shaw]

Before you read this post note that Light Illusion sells LightSpace CMS, and therefore I do have an interest in the product.

Having said that, I have calibrated a large number of Plasmas over the past year or so, and have found all require a true 3D LUT to make them accurate to Rec709. It is not enough to just use the displays manual controls.

I have also found that calibration is not at all straight forward when trying to do professional level calibration, especially as all plasmas have inbuild power management controls that automatically dim the screen when bright images are applied. This power management cannot be turned off.

We had to modify LightSpace CMS to take this into account.

However, with a good non-contact probe, and an in-line 3D LUT capability (either in the grading system or an external box, such as an HDlink Pro) very good calibration can be achieved.

But, plasmas do also drift with heat/time, so regular checking and recalibration as necessaey is really required.

I hope this info adds to the discusion.

If anyone wants to ask further questiosn please feel free. I can also supply some ‘general’ initial setups for the panasonic series plasmas that I have found work well prior to full profiling and LUT building. These are just initial setup, and will nto perform accurate calibration on their own, but will help get a better end result.

Cheers,

Steve

[Evan Fotis]

Very interesting discussion.
Since I’m looking for a similar solution, after going through online display test sites, it appears that Panasonic has disabled 4:4:4 reproduction in its consumer displays, which a few years ago supported it, thus subsampling PC signals to 4:2:2.
Hdtvtest.co.uk and avforums.com report this in various reviews of G, V and VT series.

So only the pro models support full chroma. Lets see what the PF30 series to be released shortly improve over the PF20 ones.

[Jay Moffat]

For a small studio this seems like a good deal at first, a much larger panel for getting a sense of scale, deeper blacks, more wow for the client, but the costs seem to add up quite significantly in the end, with the probe, initial and regular calibration, and what seems to be some inherent shortfalls of this technology for consistent image feedback, or am I wrong?

Larger post houses seem to be using them all the time, especially for 3D…but I’m thinking that especially the investment in a probe for multiple stations seems more feasible than for one monitor in a single station studio?

My interest, as probably with many others here, also lies in DCI and Film-out applications, as well as Network/broadcast, but both applications these days are quite rigorous quality-wise…

J

[Gabriel Bergeron]

Hi guys!
Truly great discussion. Best thread on the subject I found.

I was simply wondering if some people would chip in with some updates on the subject and the experience you’ve had with your setup.

Also hardware wise, if you have plasma recommendations (vs. 2010 models discussed in the thread) and current LUT solution I should look into, fire away!