Mitsubishi PD-5050 Plasma Monitor Calibration

Calibration

As shipped from the factory, the PD-5050 comes close to optimum white balance using the Mid Low white-balance setting. But out of the box, that setting drifts from just around 6400K to 7500K, an 1100K color-temperature shift.

Using a Progressive Labs CA-1 color analyzer, I was able to pull that curve into a more-respectable 550K shift. The measurement at 20 IRE may not be all that accurate, given the age of my color analyzer. Toss it out, and you have an even cleaner line with a maximum shift of 450K.

After all grayscale and white-balance adjustments were complete, I measured maximum brightness at 74.41 nits (21.75 fL) with a full-screen white image in Normal picture mode. That ranged from a high of 89.96 nits (26.3 fL) in Theater 1 mode to 60 nits (17.5 fL) in Theater 2 mode.

Small-area brightness came in at just about 200 nits (58.4 fL) in Normal picture mode. Contrast measured 233:1 ANSI average (16 square checkerboard test pattern) and 276:1 peak (the maximum and minimum readings on the same pattern), good numbers for a plasma monitor. The average black level measurement was 0.58 nit (0.17 fL), which is high for plasma these days—Panasonic and Hitachi both consistently produce lower numbers in the 0.2 to 0.4 nit range.—PP

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