Video Asylum

Posted by Russell (A) on March 29, 2008 at 17:39:00

In Reply to: RE: Display Quality, What Am I Missing? posted by Vic D on March 29, 2008 at 08:21:56

As a relatively recent (and happy) owner of a new Pioneer Kuro 5010FD plasma display, I can tell you that I also did much comparison shopping, and have come away from the experience knowing that you simply cannot make any serious judgments of picture quality while looking at display models in a store. Even if the salesman re-sets a display's settings back to 'standard' mode, there's still a fair amount of processing going on underneath--processing that should be further tweaked for optimum results. I chose this particular Kuro model because I wanted great blacks and a more film-like look to the picture, which is where I believe plasmas are superior to LCDs. (I bought it online, BTW, and saved a bundle.)

I can tell you that the picture I'm seeing on my Pioneer is WAY better than what I saw on ANY store display, LCD or plasma. I attribute that to all the adjustments I made to the display's settings--in 'standard' mode, mind you--that made the picture look more natural and film-like. These adjustments included turning OFF many picture-processing (and degrading) 'features' like velocity scan modulation and lowering the sharpness and contrast settings. I started with the suggested settings published by someone on the AVS Forum and have been very pleased with the results. (To get really optimum results, I really should get the set ISF-calibrated, but that is a major expense and I already feel like I'm 95% of the way there, so it's not a priority at the moment.) Now I cringe every time I walk into a BB/Magnolia or similar store and look at their displays--they all look so artificially pumped-up and overly etched, even though the salesmen claim they are all set to 'standard' mode.

Russell