LG 50PA6500 50-inch 1080p 600 Hz Plasma HDTV

Great Picture after Calibration, April 26, 2012

Purchased this TV through amazon because of the price. I could not afford an LED this size so I went with the Plasma. The Plasma is not as bright as LED but bright enough for my needs. I am not disappointed with my choice. I calibrated using these setting I got from a friend for a different LG Plasma. I tweaked it to satisfy my eyes. You may need to do the same but I think these settings are a good starting point. Don’t forget to make sure your cable box is properly set for HD viewing. Enjoy.

Settings used:
Aspect Ratio: Just Scan
Energy Saving: Off
Picture Mode: Expert 1
Contrast: 90
Brightness:60
H. Sharp: 30
V. Sharp: 35
Color: 48
Tint: 0

Now select Expert control
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Noise Reduction: Off
Gamma: Medium
Black Level: Low
Film Mode: On or off (I didn’t see a difference between the two while watching cable TV)
Color Gamut: Wide
Edge Enhancement: On
Color Temp: Medium
Method: 20 Point IRE
Pattern: Outer

Select an IRE value i.e. 0 now move down and change the color settings. Go back up and select the next IRE value i.e. 5 then move down and change the color settings. Do this for all the IRE values. Yeah its a long and painful process but worth it.
r=red g=green b=blue.
0 ire r=-5 g=0 c=0
5 ire r=0 g=0 b=0
10 ire r=-16 g=0 b=-36
15 ire r=0 g=0 b=0
20 ire r=-17 g=-13 b=-34
25 ire r=-9 g=0 b=-37
30 ire r=-6 g=9 b=-29
35 ire r=0 g=0 b=-13
40 ire r=9 g=17 b=-25
45 ire r=0 g=0 b=0
50 ire r=-10 g=0 b=-42
55 ire r=-18 g=0 b=-10
60 ire r=15 g=20 b=-37
65 ire r=-18 g=0 b=0
70 ire r=5 g=30 b=-31
75 ire r=-9 g=9 b=-29
80 ire r=-6 g=19 b=-50
85 ire r=0 g=0 b=0
90 ire r=-8 g=16 b=-9
95 ire r=0 g=0 b=0
100ire r=-5 g=0 b=-24

Now go to the COLOR management:

Red Saturation 0
Red tint -1
Green Saturation -6
Green tint 0
Blue Saturation -8
Blue tint 0
Yellow Saturation -5
Yellow tint 11
Cyan saturation -2
Cyan tint -2
Magenta Saturation -3
Magenta tint -10

Now run the Picture wizard and adjust each setting in the picture wizard to your liking.

Hope you enjoy your TV with these settings 🙂

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comments (33)

Finally bit the bullet on a HDTV., April 2, 2012

Like others, when it comes to buying electronics, paralysis by analysis sets in. My living room continued to have the good old dependable 27″ tube, but I have been lusting to replace it with a flat screen for some years now. For whatever reasons, I never would pull the trigger. Initially, I was sure that I would get a LCD when the time came, as the plasmas would always look dull and lifeless on display. Along with the horror stories everywhere about 1st generation plasmas with the burn-in and such.

However, over time I couldn’t help but notice that plasmas were significantly cheaper than LCDs for the same features set. So with price being the motivator, I sought to prove or disprove the myths of plasma TVs. As expected, I found some LCD vs. Plasma flame wars amongst the fanboys. But digging deeper, I found plenty of what seemed to be fairly non-partisan praises of plasma TVs. That the problems of early plasmas were long gone.

I visited a hhgregg and this model’s picture was amongst the best on display. I took note of the model number and price and set off to do some more “paralysis/analysis” research. I soon found out that it was a 2012 release and there was very little information available. However, the store’s price was lower than the consensus price online even with the sales tax added (The price then, 3-9-12, was 10% lower than the price in hhgregg’s 4-1-12 circular). I checked on previous LG models and did not see any red flags, so I finally bit the bullet and got it.

Set it up and was only mildly impressed with the picture, as it was somewhat dull. Went to the picture set up menu and changed from the default “energy saving” mode to standard and voila the nice picture I was expecting. I do not have HD cable but get HD over-the-air with the […], again with a great picture. This model says it has some kind of feature that adjusts the picture depending on the lighting in the room. Well, I guess it works because the room this TV is in varies from dark to bright and the picture is always wonderful. So far, everything is set to the factory settings except energy saving and I do not see any reason to change anything. It might be that I do not have videophile credentials as I might not know “black levels” from a black bear, but to my eyes the picture is great.

The remote and on screen menu are well laid out and intuitive. I have yet to go to the manual to figure out anything.
*********************************************************************

11-6-2012
I’ve just came back from visiting a friend that has a Samsung UN60ES7100 60-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Black). While having more features and physically prettier, the picture on the LG is definitely better. However, the source may have made a difference, his Dish vs. my DirecTv. Also, I went through the long process of calibrating the TV according to the poster here. I was skeptical of whether it would make a difference, but it actually made a great picture greater.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comments (6)