Poor image quality

[Viperzs]

Hi,

I've just put Skyfall on and noticed the picture doesn't look anywhere near as sharp as I expect. It is a BluRay being played on a PS3 via an Onkyo NR-609 onto a Panasonic TX L42D25BA. All upscaling is turned off from the PS3 and the amp is set to 'Direct' image mode (as it comes out of the PS3).

Here's a photo I took on my phone as an example: http://i.imgur.com/LCJqx6B.jpg Skyfall viewing time 17:05. Horizontal lines are from the photo, however the complete lack of detail in the writing on screen is where my issue is with this example. The rest of the film just doesn't seem to have as much detail as I would expect.

If someone could test this part of the film on their own set up first I would be very grateful. If it's just the film then awesome, not just me, if not I would love some advice on how to improve my situation.

Thanks in advance.

[megaphone]

Try the PS3 direct into the TV and see if the picture improves.

[Viperzs]

Just tried that and it didn't make a difference. Maybe there's a setting on the PS3 affecting it that I don't know about?

[gizlaroc]

You made sure you have any overscan features disabled on the TV?

And that the blueray is outputting 1080/24p from the PS3?

[Viperzs]

Just found these settings on the TV:
24P smooth film
Resolution enhancer
16:9 overscan.

Should all of those be turned off?

The amp is receiving and outputting 1080 24

[MLC166]

Turn overscan off. It artificially enlarges the picture so you can lose up to 10% of the true image on some TVs. The ps3 will map every pixel correctly on the TV at 1080p. Also picture enhancement modes can affect the resolution. Lastly, try the sharpness settings. Mine is set low as too much can cause artifacts.

[gizlaroc]

Overscan means the TV has to scale the image again. So definitely off.

[gizlaroc]

Viperzs said:

Just found these settings on the TV:
24P smooth film
Resolution enhancer
16:9 overscan.

Should all of those be turned off?

The amp is receiving and outputting 1080 24

24p smooth should be on if outputting 1080/24.

Resolution enhancer is adding noise to the edges to try and make it look sharper, shouldn't be needed on 1080 material really.
Same with sharpness, just adding noise, but many Panasonics are 0 at the 50% mark rather than the 0% mark, so try adjusting it.

[gizlaroc]

I don't know this TV, but have calibrated 100's of Pannys over the years.

I would try the following.....

First in the set up menu make sure ADVANCED is set to ON.
I think you need to do this to allow you to get to True Cinema, it might just be prof 1 and prof 2 though.


Picture Mode True Cinema
Contrast 95
Brightness 49
Colour 45
Colour Temp (should be greyed out in True Cinema Mode, if you use Cinema set it to WARM)
Vivid Colour OFF
CATS OFF
PNR OFF

Then in the set up menu make sure ADVANCED is set to ON.

Make sure Intelligent Film Creation is OFF.

24p I think is meant to me MID, MAX adds frames and can make it look like a cheap soap opera.

Resolution Enhancer I set to off.

Overscan must be OFF.


This should give you the most accurate image, it may look a bit yellow to start with, but live with it on all inputs for a few days, it is pretty close to calibrated and should mean you are seeing what you are meant to be seeing on screen.


Just make sure the PS3 is definitely outputting 1080/24, from memory the setting for 24p for films is in a weird place, not where you would expect it to be in the menu.

[gizlaroc]

Oh, forgot about sharpness, set it to 0 and slowly move it up, do this with a menu on screen, as soon as you start to go from looking sharp to noisy round the edge of letters you have gone too far.

I am not one of these that says everything must be zero, but you don't want to be throwing detail away by adding extra sharpness, at the same time if it looks blurry with it too low set it higher.
Sit near the screen to set it, it will be obvious when it is right.

[gizlaroc]

This is what a well calibrated display should look like, nice and natural...




This was a 480p panel calibrated....




So a 1080 panel should look nice and sharp.

[Viperzs]

Thank you so much for putting the time into that for me! Putting the Advanced mode on gave me Professional 1 and Professional 2 picture modes. Pretty sure I already had true cinema.

Either way I have tuned True Cinema close to what you suggested. It doesn't show me numbers for each level so I've put it so it looks like the percentages you said.
All other settings are now put to what you've said and I'll start to play around with the sharpness when I find a good image to test it on.

PS3 is definitely on the right image setting as my amp tells me what signal it's receiving.

Thank you again for your help, hopefully I'll notice a difference with these settings.

Tom.