I’ve noticed that the contrast levels on my Panasonic TH42-PHD8 plasma will suddenly increase during dark scenes and then drop back down to normal a fraction of a second later. This can be most distracting but as it only happens once or twice a week it hasn’t really bothered me. But, I found a discussion at AVForums which describes how to enter the plasma service menu and fix this behaviour. I’m pleased to say it works perfectly. Here’s the solution:

• Panasonic Black Shift Problem/Solution