Brightness control not working on 58V10? Not sure.

dave_m · 02-03-2010, 05:05 AM

This is going to sound strange, but I'm not sure if the brightness control is working on my Panasonic TC-P58V10. We got this TV about 6 weeks ago, set it to the recommended break-in settings, and ran the slides until we had 200 hours. I then attempted to adjust for optimum picture (standard mode) by playing with color, contrast and brightness until it looked as good as I could get it. I did notice at the time that the brightness control didn't seem to have a lot of effect, so I set it at 55 and left it there. I turned off all of the extra stuff like color management, C.A.T.S., and noise reduction. Overall we've been pretty happy.

Well now that we've been using it for a while I wanted to play "tweak" a little and was adjusting things to see what effect they have on the picture. Once again, it seems that brightness just doesn't have much effect. I know that brightness affects black levels, which seem to be very good, maybe even too black. Sometimes I think we're losing detail in the black that ought to be there. Still, not really that bad. However, without being able to see changes in brightness settings, I really don't have a lot to compare to. Current settings are Contrast 50, Brightness 55, Color 42, in Standard mode.

Early this morning I came across a station that was off the air, running the color bar signal. It occured to me that this would be a great time to play with settings to see what effect they have. Well running the brightness all the way from 0 to 100 had no noticeable effect. By changing the contrast it's very obvious that the contrast adjustment is working the way it should.

One thing that I did try was to use "Reset to defaults", run the brightness down to zero, and then hit the "Reset to defaults" again so that the brightness would change in one quick step instead of being adjusted gradually. I then repeated this, running the brightness up to 100. By doing this I could see some change, albeit a relatively small amount. So I know that the brightness does have some small amount of effect.

So I'm wondering exactly what I should be seeing when I change the brightness control, and how much. I'd surely appreciate knowing if it's time to call for service, or how to approach this.

pappylap · 02-03-2010, 07:36 AM

I know that in the service menu it is possible to set the maximum and minimun levels on brightness, contrast, etc. so that the display will not exceed those levels.... Perhaps the maximum setting is too low. I am not suggesting you go into the service menu!, but it may be something you want to discuss with Panasonic.

SantaPimp27 · 02-03-2010, 09:56 AM

set the tv to thx mode. then while watching something, switch it to vivid mode. if you do not notice a big difference in brightness, then something is definitely wrong

dave_m · 02-03-2010, 10:14 AM

pappylap, I don't think I'll go into the Service Menu to change settings when I don't even know if there's anything wrong. Since it's under warranty I'd hand it over to Panasonic if there is something wrong, but I need to establish that. You may well be right that I should discuss it with Panasonic. I just hate contacting customer service about something that's not a clear failure. Everyone talks about how good their customer service is, so maybe it would be a better experience than I'm used to.

SantaPimp27, I definitely do see big differences between the different picture modes, and the difference between THX and Vivid is dramatic. However, if I understand correctly there are a lot of things that go into the settings for those modes, so I have to wonder if there would still be dramatic differences even if the brightness adjust wasn't working properly.

d6500k · 02-03-2010, 10:19 AM

Please use a test pattern, the THX optimizer found on many dvd's will work fine.

Bring up the black level pattern. How many boxes do you see going across the top of the image? You should have seven or nine depending on the DVD player source.

Another option, the SMPTE color bars pattern has a pluge pattern in the bottom right hand corner. By adjusting the "brightness" control, you should be able to see two small moving bars in the black box. Adjust the black level in a darkened room to the point where one of the bars just disappears.

If no joy in any mode.....

pappylap has it right on yet again.

You will need some type of service for the display.

Doug k

HiDefRev · 02-03-2010, 10:58 AM

You could purchase a calibration disc, such as the DVE disc or the Spears and Munsil disc. You can find these at www.amazon.com , or at a local retailer. They are very inexpensive ( about $15 ) and will let you know if your controls are working properly. And, it's OK to call Panasonic. I called them a couple of times when I first got my Panny, just to check a few things that I was unsure about. They were SUPER helpful !!

dave_m · 02-03-2010, 11:07 AM

Doug, we have very few DVDs. We rent what we want to see, but purchase almost none. I don't think I have any with the THX optimizer. Is it possible to download either it, or the SMPTE pattern, and put it on a DVD or SD card? If I can get a DVD image file to create a DVD, that would work. If you can provide any links that you know are exactly what I should use, it would surely be greatly appreciated.

HiDefRev, I may very well end up calling Panasonic. You make me feel better about how that might go. We're also very close to purchasing a Blu-ray player, so maybe I'll just get the Spears and Munsil at the same time. That might kill two birds with one stone. It's something I probably ought to do anyway, as I'm not planning on a professional calibration at this time.

s2mikey · 02-03-2010, 11:09 AM

Not all adjustment "ranges" are that large. On my Pioneer, its the Contrast adjustment that seems to take a lot of clicks to actually see a noticeable change in the picture contrast. My brightness on the other hand is like night and day between a few clicks.

Honestly, smaller increments or steps is probably desirable if you think about it. It provides better fine-tuning opportunities for you.

dave_m · 02-03-2010, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Not all adjustment "ranges" are that large. On my Pioneer, its the Contrast adjustment that seems to take a lot of clicks to actually see a noticeable change in the picture contrast. My brightness on the other hand is like night and day between a few clicks.

Honestly, smaller increments or steps is probably desirable if you think about it. It provides better fine-tuning opportunities for you.

That's good to know, and I understand your point. Maybe I'm just panicking. But I guess I'd like to be able to see some kind of significant difference when I go from 0 to 100, and I really don't. I'm thinking that I ought to be able to adjust at least a little outside of the desireable range, on both the low and high sides. Does that make sense?

**PFC5** · 02-03-2010, 03:55 PM

It sounds like you have the Black level in the advanced controls set to "DARK". This should be set to "LIGHT" as the dark setting crushes black which is what you are seeing.

Try that and see if the Brightness setting works better.

dave_m · 02-03-2010, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PFC5

It sounds like you have the Black level in the advanced controls set to "DARK". This should be set to "LIGHT" as the dark setting crushes black which is what you are seeing.

Try that and see if the Brightness setting works better.

Good shot, but no. The black level is set to "light." Thanks for the idea.

The black levels are very good. That's not really an issue.

dave_m · 02-03-2010, 06:47 PM

Well, I decided that since I've been flirting with the idea of purchasing a Blu-ray player for some time, this would be an excellent time to do it. I ordered a Panny DMP-BD60 and a copy of the Spears & Munsil calibration disc. So the first of next week I should know if there's an issue with the TV or not. If I can't calibrate the TV then I'll call Panasonic.

Thanks for the responses. They were helpful, if only to make me realize that I didn't have all the resources I needed to figure this out. In the meantime, I'm still very happy with the picture I've got.

s2mikey · 02-04-2010, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave_m

That's good to know, and I understand your point. Maybe I'm just panicking. But I guess I'd like to be able to see some kind of significant difference when I go from 0 to 100, and I really don't. I'm thinking that I ought to be able to adjust at least a little outside of the desireable range, on both the low and high sides. Does that make sense?

Sure, it makes sense. And, from 0 to 100 you should see an appreciable difference and you would also expect that anything close to the ends(0 or 100) would be either way too bright or way too dim.

Hmmmm????

dave_m · 02-04-2010, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Sure, it makes sense. And, from 0 to 100 you should see an appreciable difference and you would also expect that anything close to the ends(0 or 100) would be either way too bright or way too dim.

Exactly. That's what I should have said to begin with. I think the Spears & Munsil will tell the story, and I should be better informed and better prepared if I need to contact Panasonic.

xninjagrrl · 02-04-2010, 12:04 PM

I managed to check out a V10 in HHgregg last night and I messed with the settings a good bit. From what I could tell not much happened when I messed with the Brightness setting. Could have been the lighting though, or the tv, it has problems and they were sending it back to Panasonic.

02-03-2010, 05:05 AM	#1
dave_m A remote in each hand Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: NW Ohio Posts: 169	Brightness control not working on 58V10? Not sure. This is going to sound strange, but I'm not sure if the brightness control is working on my Panasonic TC-P58V10. We got this TV about 6 weeks ago, set it to the recommended break-in settings, and ran the slides until we had 200 hours. I then attempted to adjust for optimum picture (standard mode) by playing with color, contrast and brightness until it looked as good as I could get it. I did notice at the time that the brightness control didn't seem to have a lot of effect, so I set it at 55 and left it there. I turned off all of the extra stuff like color management, C.A.T.S., and noise reduction. Overall we've been pretty happy. Well now that we've been using it for a while I wanted to play "tweak" a little and was adjusting things to see what effect they have on the picture. Once again, it seems that brightness just doesn't have much effect. I know that brightness affects black levels, which seem to be very good, maybe even too black. Sometimes I think we're losing detail in the black that ought to be there. Still, not really that bad. However, without being able to see changes in brightness settings, I really don't have a lot to compare to. Current settings are Contrast 50, Brightness 55, Color 42, in Standard mode. Early this morning I came across a station that was off the air, running the color bar signal. It occured to me that this would be a great time to play with settings to see what effect they have. Well running the brightness all the way from 0 to 100 had no noticeable effect. By changing the contrast it's very obvious that the contrast adjustment is working the way it should. One thing that I did try was to use "Reset to defaults", run the brightness down to zero, and then hit the "Reset to defaults" again so that the brightness would change in one quick step instead of being adjusted gradually. I then repeated this, running the brightness up to 100. By doing this I could see some change, albeit a relatively small amount. So I know that the brightness does have some small amount of effect. So I'm wondering exactly what I should be seeing when I change the brightness control, and how much. I'd surely appreciate knowing if it's time to call for service, or how to approach this.

02-03-2010, 07:36 AM	#2
pappylap I See You! Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Way over Yonder Age: 4 Posts: 4,090	I know that in the service menu it is possible to set the maximum and minimun levels on brightness, contrast, etc. so that the display will not exceed those levels.... Perhaps the maximum setting is too low. I am not suggesting you go into the service menu!, but it may be something you want to discuss with Panasonic. __________________ Pioneer KURO ProElite 111FD Pioneer Elite BDP 23FD Pioneer VSX-919 receiver Pioneer LX70HD 500 GiG DVR-DVD recorder Hsu Ventriloquist HT speaker system Polk Sub

02-03-2010, 10:19 AM	#5
d6500k ISF Technician Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Oregon Age: 57 Posts: 1,333	Please use a test pattern, the THX optimizer found on many dvd's will work fine. Bring up the black level pattern. How many boxes do you see going across the top of the image? You should have seven or nine depending on the DVD player source. Another option, the SMPTE color bars pattern has a pluge pattern in the bottom right hand corner. By adjusting the "brightness" control, you should be able to see two small moving bars in the black box. Adjust the black level in a darkened room to the point where one of the bars just disappears. If no joy in any mode..... pappylap has it right on yet again. You will need some type of service for the display. Doug k __________________ Website: www.6500kcalibrations.com Serving Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Twice yearly tours to St. Petersburg/Tampa Fla. & Southernmost Texas.

02-03-2010, 10:58 AM	#6
HiDefRev The Universe is HiDef. Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: State of Relativity, USA Posts: 1,872	Brightness You could purchase a calibration disc, such as the DVE disc or the Spears and Munsil disc. You can find these at www.amazon.com , or at a local retailer. They are very inexpensive ( about $15 ) and will let you know if your controls are working properly. And, it's OK to call Panasonic. I called them a couple of times when I first got my Panny, just to check a few things that I was unsure about. They were SUPER helpful !! __________________ Living Room Panasonic TC-P58VT25 3D Plasma HDTV, Panasonic DMP-BDT350 3D Blu-ray player, Sony PS3 80 Gig, Onkyo TX-SR608 7.2 3D AV Receiver, Yamaha NS-777 Front Tower Speakers, Yamaha NS-6490 Side and Surround Speakers, Cadence C-17 Center Speaker, Acoustic Audio HD-SUB15 Subwoofer, Mediacom HD DVR, Netflix Streaming Video, Monoprice Cables Den Panasonic PT-50LCZ70 50" 1080p HDTV, Panasonic DVD Recorder/VCR, Onkyo HT-S6100 7.1 AV System, Magnavox Blu-Ray Player, Mediacom HD STB,

02-03-2010, 11:09 AM	#8
s2mikey Flat Panel Luvr Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate, NY Posts: 1,288	Not all adjustment "ranges" are that large. On my Pioneer, its the Contrast adjustment that seems to take a lot of clicks to actually see a noticeable change in the picture contrast. My brightness on the other hand is like night and day between a few clicks. Honestly, smaller increments or steps is probably desirable if you think about it. It provides better fine-tuning opportunities for you. __________________ Pioneer KURO 5080HD Sharp LC32D4U Toshiba A30 & A2 Sony BDP-S360, PS3 80gb Sony STRDG810/All Polk Speakers Harmony 510 remote Antennas Direct DB4

02-03-2010, 09:56 AM	#3
SantaPimp27 High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 889	set the tv to thx mode. then while watching something, switch it to vivid mode. if you do not notice a big difference in brightness, then something is definitely wrong

02-03-2010, 10:14 AM	#4
dave_m A remote in each hand Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: NW Ohio Posts: 169	pappylap, I don't think I'll go into the Service Menu to change settings when I don't even know if there's anything wrong. Since it's under warranty I'd hand it over to Panasonic if there is something wrong, but I need to establish that. You may well be right that I should discuss it with Panasonic. I just hate contacting customer service about something that's not a clear failure. Everyone talks about how good their customer service is, so maybe it would be a better experience than I'm used to. SantaPimp27, I definitely do see big differences between the different picture modes, and the difference between THX and Vivid is dramatic. However, if I understand correctly there are a lot of things that go into the settings for those modes, so I have to wonder if there would still be dramatic differences even if the brightness adjust wasn't working properly.

02-03-2010, 11:07 AM	#7
dave_m A remote in each hand Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: NW Ohio Posts: 169	Doug, we have very few DVDs. We rent what we want to see, but purchase almost none. I don't think I have any with the THX optimizer. Is it possible to download either it, or the SMPTE pattern, and put it on a DVD or SD card? If I can get a DVD image file to create a DVD, that would work. If you can provide any links that you know are exactly what I should use, it would surely be greatly appreciated. HiDefRev, I may very well end up calling Panasonic. You make me feel better about how that might go. We're also very close to purchasing a Blu-ray player, so maybe I'll just get the Spears and Munsil at the same time. That might kill two birds with one stone. It's something I probably ought to do anyway, as I'm not planning on a professional calibration at this time.

02-03-2010, 03:55 PM	#10
PFC5 Super Moderator Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 34,820	It sounds like you have the Black level in the advanced controls set to "DARK". This should be set to "LIGHT" as the dark setting crushes black which is what you are seeing. Try that and see if the Brightness setting works better. __________________ Denon AVR-887 Klipsch RP-5 Pwred Towers (mains) (525 watts peak each 12"Subs) All Klipsch RC-25(ctr),(2)SS1(surr),(2)SS1(rearSurr) Toshiba (2)HD-A20,PS3,BD35 For SACD/DVD-A Samsung HD-841 Panny 50pz80u plasma SETTINGS RCA HD50LPW162 50"DLP w/HD2+ SA 3250HD 47" LCD+Yamaha5790+HD-A1(bedroom) Harmony 680 + (2) 670s (amazing remote/support) Game room with Onkyo receiver & B&W Speakers The_Cable_Game Take the high ground and be happier PSN: PFC5

02-03-2010, 06:47 PM	#12
dave_m A remote in each hand Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: NW Ohio Posts: 169	Bit the bullet to solve this puzzle... Well, I decided that since I've been flirting with the idea of purchasing a Blu-ray player for some time, this would be an excellent time to do it. I ordered a Panny DMP-BD60 and a copy of the Spears & Munsil calibration disc. So the first of next week I should know if there's an issue with the TV or not. If I can't calibrate the TV then I'll call Panasonic. Thanks for the responses. They were helpful, if only to make me realize that I didn't have all the resources I needed to figure this out. In the meantime, I'm still very happy with the picture I've got.

02-04-2010, 12:04 PM	#15
xninjagrrl My plasma is High Def. Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Florida Posts: 9	I managed to check out a V10 in HHgregg last night and I messed with the settings a good bit. From what I could tell not much happened when I messed with the Brightness setting. Could have been the lighting though, or the tv, it has problems and they were sending it back to Panasonic.