TX-42F430S Measurements

For calibration I'm using both the Sencore ColorPro5000 and Colormetre HCFR software. Basically, Sencore is great for calibrating your set but doesn't give you the pretty graphs that we like to show in our reviews. That's where Colormetre comes in. From the default settings, I measured:

Enhanced - 7500k (542:1 ANSI contrast ratio)
Game - 8700k (494:1 ANSI contrast ratio)
Sports - 7500k (620:1 ANSI contrast ratio)
Movie - 6700k (472:1 ANSI contrast ratio)

As you can see, color temperature in Movie mode without any calibration isn't too bad. It was a little too blue and red for my taste however, so I tweaked the settings a little. Calibration on the TX-42F430S is a mixed bag. It is easy to access the settings via the menu with the remote, though you'll find it resetting your settings from time to time (I couldn't identify exactly when or why). Just make sure you write your settings down when you are done just in case. A few oddities - settings for HD and SD content need to be set separately, settings are global for all inputs of the same type (all four HDMI inputs get the same calibration), and when you adjust the Red, Green, and Blue from the calibration menu, those settings stick even if you do a Video Reset. The only way to reset those setting is with a Factory Reset. I started off setting the Mode to Movie, Brightness down to 46, Backlight at 40, and in the calibration menu I switched the Warm Red to123, Green to 133, and Blue to 119. I ended up with a color temp of 6600k and a 588:1 Contrast Ratio.

One of the most disappointing results of my measurements was the discovery that the display clipped whites and added a lot of artifacts to blacks (I tried to get a picture of the test screen but I couldn't get it to come out). Using the DVE Pro disc, I found that 95 and 100 IRE were indistinguishable from each other and that 5 IRE had a lot of visual artifacting. This means that any very light or dark scene is going to have no definition (light scenes) or lots of artifacting (dark scenes). Unfortunately, this wasn't one of those "only shows up in the measurements but doesn't affect real world performance" things. It was immediately noticeable with casual viewing. Lowering the backlighting (which was set inexplicably high for default Movie mode) helped with the artifacting but not much. I found the most obvious example of white clipping during a scene in The Empire Strikes Back. When Han goes out on a Tauntaun looking for Luke, it looks like the Tauntaun is standing in an amorphous field of white. Sure, handing your teacher a blank sheet of paper and calling it a white horse in a snowstorm might be funny, but I expect that ILM did a little more work than that. Based on previous viewings of this movie on different displays, I know they did.

Color Temp (left); CIE (right)

Luminance/Gamma (left); RGB (right)

As you can see, the RGB graph lines up nicely but without gain and cut scores, I couldn't get the Color Temp to get in line. Basically, I could push it up and down but the shape stayed the same. You can also notice on the Luminance graph where the clipping starts somewhere above 90 IRE. With a finer resolution, I'd bet we'd see exactly the point where it clips.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130

Westinghouse TX-42F430S Benchmark total score: 45/130.

All tests were run at 480i through the Component input.

Comments on Audioholics DVD Torture Tests

You'll notice that I did all the tests through the Component input. This is because the HDMI input failed the 6.5MHz resolution test (oddly) when using 480i mode. Overall, the HQV results speak for themselves. Jaggie and Noise reduction are nonexistent. Only the most basic of deinterlacing features are available. Using a good source with this set is imperative though, as you'll see later, even that isn't going to deliver a great picture.