Plasma Televisions

The name plasma makes people think of it as a new technology and one would be surprised to hear that these screens have been around for more than 40 years now! Only recently, there has been much improvement in the making of these displays. Plasma televisions (a.k.a. plasma display panels) are emissive flat panel displays where light is created by phosphors excited by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass. This plasma/gas discharge uses an inert mixture of noble gases (such as Neon and Xenon). The plasma is sandwiched between two glass panes coated with phosphor material.

The television controller controls the plasma through electronic signals delivered with beams of electrons. Each pixel of a plasma display panel can turn red, green, or blue, and the controller combines them and varies their intensities to produce the entire color spectrum.


Nowadays, most plasma televisions support high definition resolutions such as 800×600 and 1,280×1,024 pixel resolutions. Plasma displays are also quite bright (1,000 lx or higher, with "lx" being the standard of measure for illuminance, lux). Plasma television manufacturers claim that their products can last about 60,000 hours (almost 7 years). However, unwise use of these displays can shorten their lifetime; these include, but are not limited to, setting the contrast to high levels or leaving still images on the display for too long as they can cause burn-ins.

How to calibrate your plasma television?
Plasma televisions are the showroom boast bright, flashy displays that draw you into buying them. However, once you install the television in your home, the same bright, flashy display will be excessive and even damaging to your new appliance. Here is why:

• Plasma televisions in the showroom have their settings configured to attract customers and "out-dazzle" the competing sets sharing the floor. For example, showroom televisions have their brightness levels set too high.
• Each home and television surroundings have different ambient light conditions, which means the optimal settings for one household might not work for the next.
• The default high contrast and brightness levels will prematurely age your plasma screen.
• The default brightness levels consume a tad more power than "normal" and toned down settings.
• Showroom settings might cause eyestrain in the long run.
  

Calibrating your plasma television gives you four things:

• More vivid images optimized for your environment and preferred lighting conditions.
• Longer lifespan for your beautiful television.
• A few more dollars off the monthly power bill.
• A comfortable experience for your eyes and senses.
  

Thus, you need to tone down the default settings of your plasma television, and adjust them to match the conditions of your living room/home theatre surroundings. The question is, how do you know which settings are right or wrong? And before that, what settings do you need to tweak? There are three ways to calibrate your plasma television:

1. Do it yourself (free)
2. Calibration disk (moderate)
3. Professional help (very expensive)

1. Do It Yourself
This method costs nothing but some mind and eye-work is necessary. Important things to note while doing the adjustments, in this order, are:

1. Room lighting
2. Viewing distance
3. Avoiding active modes such as Sports, Dynamics, and Vivid
4. Disabling factory settings and enhancements
5. Adjusting the colour temperature to 6,500K
6. Adjusting the brightness
7. Adjusting the contrast
8. Adjusting the sharpness
9. Adjusting the colour and tint

2. Calibration Disk
These disks provide step-by-step guides and also include test images and videos for adjusting. They also do audio calibration.

3. Professional Help
Have you ever heard of an ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) technician? These guys are the masters of plasma television calibration. ISF calibration, as it is called, will cost you seriously (check their website), but in the end, the expense will be worth it. ISF professionals can adjust settings that few laymen television owners can understand, and they have thousands of dollars worth of calibrating equipment to help them do the job. A plasma television calibrated by an ISF professional will give you stunning results.