Yeah it applies to both, just a slightly different set of rules for both as certain controls do different things.
Setting up a plasma is pretty easy, you need to adjust a few things and in a certain order, they are...
Set the Video mode.
Most plasmas come with 3 or 4 memories, usually called things like...
DYNAMIC
STANDARD
MOVIE
CINEMA
GAME
ECO
Different brands and different models usually have different names, but there will be something similar.
Some brands will always look the same on each preset if you set colour/contrast/brightness/sharpness/gamma/white balance etc. the same, however, many domestic sets won't, no matter how much you adjust you won't get them to look the same, this is because they add certain things like edge enhancement or exaggerated black levels to certain presets.
I would always put your display in CINEMA or MOVIE mode before calibrating, this is usually as close to correct as you will get out of the box with all the enhancements, that can actually ruin a picture, turned off.
You then need to set the colour temp.
Displays always look brighter if lots of blue is added to the image, however, this is not what studio monitors and directors see when they are mixing down their material, so it is not what you should have your display set to either. They calibrate their displays to D65, this means there is slightly more yellow in the image than there is blue, but it is correct, and it means you will see what they want you to see, if a scene is meant to be warm it will look warm, not cold.
You need to find the colour temp, there is usually COOL, NORMAL and WARM.
Some sets have COOL 1 and 2 and WARM 1 and 2 as well.
Set this to WARM or WARM 1 as a good base point.
So, so far we have the picture mode in CINEMA or MOVIE and colour temp as WARM.
If you have a Gamma setting you want to set it to 2.2.
Gamma is how quickly the levels rise coming from absolute black into grey.
Higher the gamma the darker the image looks, the lower the gamma the more detail you get in the shadows, but can make it look washed out.
Gamma of around 2.0, lots of detail but a little washed out.....
Gamma around 2.5, much punchier but lost detail in here jacket....
Gamma of 2.2, Much better, still lots of contrast in darker areas but all the detail there...
Now, obviously, I am assuming your pc monitor is calibrated properly and you can see the differences in the images above!
We now need to turn everything off.
Such as....
Dynamic Contrast
Enhanced Black
Noise reduction
etc. etc. etc.
Turn all that crap off.
Now we set contrast.
Contrast is the point where absolute white is, you can use a chart to do this and many THX discs come with them, however and easy way to do it is put the Sky banner up and turn the contrast up so the white in the banner looks really white and not yellowy white.
You want it at that bit where it just looks nice and bright white, usually somewhere between 45-70% on a plasma. We use the banner as we know that is white, use a white image on the screen and it might only be 90% white.
This is the sort of chart you need, you want to be able to just see all of the white boxes, if the last two blend together your contrast is too high, you will loose details in thing like white shirts, snow covered mountains etc.
This is an image with contrast set too high...
See all the detail in here face is blown out, around her forehead etc.
You set the black level, brightness, in the same way, so you can see every black box.
Once again though if you do not have a test pattern, and remember you dvd player may give you a slightly different level to your sky or freeview, you can simply put up a film with black borders top and bottom.
With a plasma there is a point where you can see the phosphors are being lit and when they have switched off, so stand right next to the screen with the black borders and turn up the brightness so you can see twittering pixels in them, then turn it back down again s the bars are solid black, it will be very obvious when this snaps in.
That is your contrast and brightness set.
You then need to adjust colour.
Most sets have the colour set far, far to high. This is to make sure in the store they stand out from all the others, but think about it, when you go to the football does the pitch look fluorescent?
I find that most sets need to have the colour somewhere between 25-40% for it to look accurate.
This is a Pioneer plasma with colours at 27%...
It doesn't jump out at you but it looks like a window, it looks realistic.
Next is sharpness, most sets need it set to 0, this is no added edge enhancement at all, which is just noise that will actually take detail out of the picture.
However, SD channels from Sky and Freeview can look very soft, so set this as you like it, I tend to have it off for Bluray, HD, and Gaming and at about 25% for SD stuff.
Also, for Freeview I sometimes use the STANDARD preset, this does add a bit of edge enhancment and knocks the gamma up to 2.5, which can help some poor quality broadcast look a little better, it will loose some detail, but so what, better to trick your eyes into it looking good and you don't know what you are missing if you can't see it.
The one thing you must do is take your sets out of DYNAMIC and turn all the crud settings off, these destroy an image.
If you have been looking with these on it may look a bit dull for a few hours, but after a few days going back will look very odd and artificial.
So...
CINEMA or MOVIE
WARM colour temp
Gamma 2.2 (or mid point)
Contrast - set using banner and get the white looking white)
Brightness - Stand next to screen and set it as high as possible without black bars looking noisy
Colour - just make it look natural, start around 25% and make grass look natural and peoples faces look natural.
Sharpness - as low as possible without it looking blurry.
Takes 5 mins and well worth it.
