To tweak or not to tweak...that is the question?
- Jan 15
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 24
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Some Kuro owners are obsessed with trying to get the blacks even blacker on the Kuro. Is this a good thing to do?
Comparing a Kuro to an OLED is the wrong way to think. The Kuro is a completely different technology, designed to give a different output.
Plasma TVs were inspired by the natural phenomenon of the Sun's plasma reacting with the earths magnetic field. Voila! The Northern Lights is the result. The geniuses at Pioneer adapted the process to a glass screen and magnetic layers, with millions of tiny cells, sandwiched in between. When an electric current passes through a cell, which is filled with neon or xenon gases (now you know why neon lights are so attractive), the gases become ionized into a plasma state, thus emitting ultra violet light (UV). Each cell has three sub cells, Red, Blue, Green, that are coated with phosphor on the inside. The intensity of the color from the cells is controlled by the various voltages fired by the plasma guns into each cell. The result is a TV with deep detailed, contrasting images that is soft and naturally appealing to your eyes...
If it isn't broke, don't fix it
Personally, I don't think the Kuro needs pro calibration with a light meter and color reference software, unless you have a dedicated cinema room with fixed lighting conditions.
From my experience, the Kuro are good to go straight out of box. The standard color preset is pretty decent. Usually all you have to do is just lower the contrast to around 33, brightness to 1, color to 4, and sharpness to 4 (The default sharpness is -13 on the Kuro and is too soft for me. I like to see the grain).
I always set the HDMI input to drive mode 3, regardless of the source. If you are watching a source in drive mode 1, then select drive mode 3, there is an instant noticeable improvement.
You calibrate to the lighting of the room, that's why pro TV calibration technicians provide you with a day and night calibrated preset.
However, everybody has different eyes and different tastes, so what looks good to one person, may look off to another. I believe in adjusting the image to my own personal liking—that's what the color settings are for.
The standard Kuro is only a fraction away from being pro calibrated. So, an entry level calibration disc, by "Perfect Picture" or "Spyder", to optimize the contrast, brightness and color, is more than enough.
The M, Pro and 5090H/6090H series Kuro, usually have that rich inky black contrast look straight out of the box, but over time, due to screen ageing, and general wear and tear, the voltage settings may need adjusting.
I want to reset my Kuro
You can make your Kuro even better with just a few voltage adjustments from the hidden service menu
Note: A reset will improve the image but will always run the risk of causing a few sparkles or other pixel anomalies if you do not set the correct voltages...
Fortunately, there is a safe way to reset your Kuro, which enables you to test your settings before finally committing to a reset. If you don't like the changes, you can revert back to the original.
To do this you will require a Service Remote Control to access the hidden service menu, where you can see/and/or make changes to your hour usage meter, error log, temperature, Pioneer test patterns, change the color of the side bars in 4:3 ratio content, and lots more. We can assist you with this and tweaking.
Note: It is highly recommend to use some voltage tweaking to improve the performance, and only reset as a last resort.
A reset is for fully working Kuro. It cannot fix a failed plasma screen with high image burn, dead pixels, etc.
I agree Kuro King, personal settings like you mentioned to suit your taste, simple adjustments is usually all I've done with different TVs over the years, like you say the Kuro's look great out the box, which you'd expect wouldn't you really if those clever folk at Pioneer were 'making the best TV's in the world's they obviously put a lot of time tweaking the factory settings so the Kuro would look good straight out the box either on display in stores or in customers homes.
People get obsessed they can always improve on products themselves, but there's not a lot of customers have the same knowledge as those making the products.
Great write up 😉👌