Getting New Panasonic ST30 Plasma TV

You will love your plasma - I agree with those saying dial down the brightness. I had mine professionally calibrated after the recommended burn-in period and that is exactly what the guy did. I took good notes so I can do it myself in the future. It makes a very big difference in the picture, and also makes it much easier on the eyes.

Chadnliz and Learsfool, thanks for the advice. Still learning. Curious, what's the typical fee for a prof calibration, if I go that route?

$300ish and if you get right diy disc or good eyes its a questionable
value.

My calibration I think cost somewhere in the $200 range, it was mostly for the guy's time, as it did take quite a while. I could now do it myself, but I would say that it was a very good value, as I would not have known how to go about it previously, and although it looked good before, the improvement afterwards was much more than I would have thought. I would highly recommend it.

Certified ISF calibration will cost approximately $200. It's done with a sensor attached to the screen and ISF software is used with a laptop to achieve multiple levels of calibration depending on the panels setup capabilities. Using a disc player to calibrate a display has obvious limitations which is why ISF calibration is not DIY.

Any panel should be run in for a few months before calibration. LCD/LED's generally have their brightness set at their maximum out of the box. My Pioneer Elite plasma was very close to correct calibration.

A few years ago I compared and inexpensive Blue Jeans (Belden cable) to a top of the line Audio Quest HDMI and couldn't discern any difference between the two. This may have changed since then.