On April 19^th I published a short piece on a rather serious issue I encountered in the field while calibrating the very popular Pioneer PDP-5080 720p resolution plasma panel. You may recall that when I completed the grayscale calibration in the service menu, and exited the service menu to take measurements to check the accuracy of the grayscale, I found that it hadn't retained the calibration settings at all. Quite by chance, I found that if you turn off the Pure Cinema, then the calibrated grayscale returned.

Of course, the big problem with that is Pure Cinema is the video processing engine of the Pioneer. The Standard mode provides 2:3 pull-down for film based sources, and the Advanced Mode, provides 72Hz vertical refresh, which is compatible with Blu-ray's 24fps designed to eliminate the Jutter that is created by 2:3 pull-down. Needless to say, this is a huge downside.

After several more regular line PDP Pioneer calibrations, I did run into the issue two more times, and was able to figure out how to fix the problem. I discovered that a separate grayscale calibration has to be done for HDMI for 480i standard definition. Once this is done, then the calibrated grayscale for the 1080i/p is miraculously fixed, and it holds irregardless of the Pure Cinema setting that you choose. My measurements indicated that 720p was not affected, and the grayscale was accurate. Thus, it was not necessary to do a separate grayscale calibration for 720p as with 480i. Note: It turns out that the analog video inputs (component video inputs) are not affected by this problem.

Unfortunately, I have heard a rumor that Pioneer has stripped the calibration parameters that professional technicians need in the Service Menus of the upcoming Pioneer PDP-5020, and PDP-6020. If this is true, I will be recommending other Plasma models to all of my clients in the market for a new 1080p flat panel HDTV. I will be reporting back on the upcoming 20 series panels, and I will give you a full report.

Pioneer: Part I