Out of the box and Calibration results
Lets start by looking at how close the TV gets to Industry Standards out of the box, with the front controls (Contrast, Brightness, Colour) set correctly for our review room. I measured each picture preset and colour balance setting to find the closest to Rec.709 and D65. In the case of the TX-P42X10, like every other plasma from the company so far, ‘Cinema’ picture mode and ‘Warm’ colour balance gave the best results as you can see below.
As with every other Panasonic we have tested this year the colour gamut as seen on the CIE chart is wide of the Industry standard Rec.709. Green is over saturated along with Red and although the secondary’s line up with their points, they are still inaccurate with a slight over saturation and hue errors. However, saying all that, out of the box the results here are more than acceptable and better than many LCD TVs we have tested which commonly have huge colour point errors out of the box. As there is no colour management system on the Panasonic we are not going to be able to correct the colour points and bring them back to the Rec.709 co-ordinates.
One thing that I did notice with the X10 images out of the box and in Cinema and Warm was a lack of visual red tones in the image. There was a distinctive green/yellow feel to skin tones and an obvious lack of Red in the greyscale. And, as you can see when I measured the greyscale, this was born out with our results. (It’s interesting to note that Normal and Dynamic where even worse in this regard with very little red energy in the greyscale, presumably this is deliberate to achieve as much image brightness as possible, but with the side effect of blown out images and cartoon colour performance.) In terms of greyscale and gamma, out of the box the X10 is not quite as accurate as we would like towards the Industry Standards and as a result the image on screen suffers slightly with errors.
As you can see, after a trip into the service menu (not recommended for untrained individuals) I was able to get the greyscale to track perfectly from 20ire to 100ire with deltaE errors no higher than 1.5. This is an excellent result and it’s just a real pity that we are forced into the service menu to achieve this when other manufacturers offer Greyscale control as standard in their models user menus. By correcting the greyscale, the colour points (with the decoder set correctly) were slightly improved with less of a red over saturation and only two areas that let the side down. Green is still too strong in terms of saturation and hue errors and this is obvious with football material as the grass looks just a shade to far. Magenta error is also slightly increased with the greyscale corrected, but to be honest even I was hard pushed to notice any on screen examples of this.
Overall out of the box the X10 impresses and with some service menu calibration the results are encouraging with gamma hitting 2.2 and the tracking of the greyscale almost perfect. The colour point errors are set in stone thanks to a lack of a CMS system, but onscreen errors are thankfully not that noticable in every day use. It would be nice if Panasonic could do a factory calibration to try and get this close out of the box, or even better gives us the menus. So with the measuring and ISF calibration out of the way, how does it look?
Picture Quality out of the box and Calibrated
Starting with the best out of the box settings (Cinema and Warm with Brightness and Contrast set for our room), the X10 is quick to impress with its picture quality. Although there is a slight lack of red in the greyscale and that is seen on screen with a green/yellow tone, the image is still very impressive. Dynamic, Normal and Game modes suffer more with this error and colour temperature settings of cool and normal don’t improve matters in my eyes. So, sticking with the Cinema and Warm modes is highly recommended. The first thing that really does impress with the X10 is the black levels available on what is a base model. Blacks are rich and solid with plenty of shadow detail still available.
This performance when compared to LCD screens in the same price range, show why Plasma is still a preferred choice for videophiles and those looking for accurate images. And the 720p image capabilities are not detrimental to overall sharpness or detail on screen. Indeed at normal viewing distances and side by side with the Reference Kuro in our testing room, image sharpness and detail was never an issue at normal distances. Colours do look slightly over saturated out of the box, especially reds and greens, but this is also only really noticeable with material using strong examples of those colours. For the most part you will need to give the X10 some time if your used to strong bright LCD images to get the very best detailed images. As with the more expensive Panasonic's for 2009, PWM noise is also reduced and this offers a cleaner and sharper feel to images. The X10 offers an exceptionally good image performance out of the box at this price level and certainly offers some accuracy for film and TV material. And things only got better once I completed a greyscale calibration.
With the Greyscale calibrated in the service menu I suddenly saw the potential on offer from this base model plasma, although you will never get an accurate Panasonic this year because of a lack of controls. In cinema mode and with a calibrated greyscale, suddenly skin tones looked better and fine detail in the brighter areas of the image also added a sense of depth back to the image where required. And the strong black performance of the X10 was also improved by a perceived contrast boost with the gamma now tracking correctly at 2.2. Shadow details and low light areas of the image bristled with detail and depth, which at the price point left me very surprised indeed. With strong daylight in our testing room I thought the X10 would show the usual Panasonic trait of washing out the image, however this was not nearly as bad as I had feared. Place the X10 correctly in your living room with well designed lighting and this set shines with its image quality. That doesn’t mean that this TV needs to be used in a dark room only, in fact its dynamic range and contrast performance is far better than expected, rather you just need to be careful not to put it in an area where it will obviously wash out.
fonte: _http://www.avforums.com/reviews/Panasonic-TX-P42X10-Plasma-HDTV-Review.html
