Text on LCD will Kill me

Tech Talk
1

Hello, I’m writing in the hopes to save my sanity with something that has happened to me now that I’ve decided to buy a HDTV. Here’s the story:

This TV will be used 90% of the time to play games on my PS3 using HDMI of course. After a lot of searching on the web comparing it with what is available on my country I decide to go with a Panasonic P42X1.

I get the TV to my home, hook it up, launch Final Fantasy 13 on a 720p resolution, and I notice two things: first, the display is really dark and two, is kind of reddish looking. Those two tings didn’t bother me that much until I get to the real problem for me: White text looks really hard to read, kind of like unfocused, I don’t know exactly how to put it, its like some ghosting. Its really hard to read if it’s not big letters. When the letters are black they seem a lot easier to read.

I decided that I didn’t want to mess around too much with this thing so I take it to the store and they accepted it back. After that, they kindly allowed me to try 4 different TVs (Including the L32S1 and the L37G1) and guess what, I see the same problem in all of them, different models (all were panasonic) and different sizes, and some where LCD. I was used to play on a Dell 22" monitor without this issue, I know they are not the same but is like a world of difference.

The other game I tested was of course SF4 and while the game itself looks really good, the white text looks just as bad as it is on FF13.

So now comes the point where I don’t know what to do, I need some help figuring out what’s the problem. Please explain to me what’s happening before I get a heart attack.

Thanks for reading.

2

You need to adjust the picture settings. Out of the box, and especially on showroom floors, the brightness and contrast will be jacked WAY high. I got my first HDTV last week, and it caused one hell of a massive headache the first day I had it, and I wasn’t doing much with it. After I took the time to go through adjusting the settings (using THX Optimizer which is on a ton of DVDs, or the Pixar one thats one a ton of blu-ray pixar discs), the headaches went away, and the set became much easier on the eyes with realistic colors.

If the brightness and contrast are jacked up high (which they usually are) then white text with black drop shadows will be way bright and seem to have funny or moving edges. Adjusting the TV will fix that.

3

Play around a a bit with “Game mode” these type of tvs commonly have. Brightness, contrast etc too, as Toodles said. Had sth similar with my 23 inch LG HDTV.