TV Calibration?????

I personally really like Digital Video Essentials, but totally understand how it could be confusing to use. I know many that like using AVIA. I have used both on my Mits and am very pleased with the results. I don't doubt that an ISF tech could do better, but I'm just too tight to spend that much for a calibration.

I have both DVE and Avia. I prefer DVE, becuase it has an excellent audio callibration as well. What is it your having problems with?

Without getting into the service menu, there isnt much you can do becides get the color temp as close to d65 or 6500k, brightness, tint and color adjustments.

Get it right from the disk, leave it there for a couple of weeks and see if you get used to it. If not, tweek from those settings, but I would use those settings as a starting point.

DVE is the better disc for digital displays. However, DVE also has serious errors in its audio test tones (both DTS and DD) that make it absolutely useless for audio calibration. The subwoofer test tones are 10dB incorrect in both bitstreams, which I've verified digitally (by breaking down the DD into its component tracks and measuring digital level) and a guy who now works for SVS verified via ground plane testing. Also, the tones it has marked as 40-80Hz tones are not limited to that range, so are incorrectly labeled. The speaker test tones are also digitally off by about 2.5 dB from the proper level to determine reference on your system. To date, Joe Kane refuses to acknowledge any of these problems, though they have been well documented in several forums. In short, don't use DVE for audio calibration. Avia or your AVR's internal tones will get you way closer. The only audio test I use on DVE is the speaker test tones that are centered between channels, since that helps nail speaker distance/delay to ensure good imaging between speakers.

DVE's instructions are crap, however. The quick-and-easy way to use it is to first bring up the screen that shows a series of boxes - white to black - that run along the top and bottom. To both sides, you will see 3 dots that represent 0 IRE (black) and 100 IRE (white). Beyond those areas are segments beyond the 0-100 IRE (i.e. above white and below black). Adjust contrast until the 100 IRE box above or below the 3 dots starts to blend with the box brighter than it. Then, back contrast down so that you can just barely (and I mean BARELY) tell a difference between the two segments. This gives you a little range at the high end and will prevent whites from clipping.

Then, go to the screen immediately before that and you should see 3 black bars on each side. The black bar furthest out is actually below 0 IRE (i.e. below black). At first, you may have to raise the brightness control to even see this bar. What you want to do is adjust brightness down until that darkest bar blends with the background completely, but you can still see the other two bars.

You may have to bounce between these two screens and double-check each setting, since brightness and contrast tend to interact with each other. On a digital set, this gives you the maximum digital range of white to black.

I'm not at home or I'd offer chapter/title numbers. Going from memory, you can find these screens by picking PROGRAM GUIDE, then REFERENCE MATERIALS, then VIDEO PATTERNS. If you have any other questions, let me know.

I see its a DLP, ignore my convergence comment.

kuntasensei wrote: »

However, DVE also has serious errors in its audio test tones (both DTS and DD) that make it absolutely useless for audio calibration.

Yep! I reported on one of the sweeps being incorrect back in 2005. Also, Dr. Spec found the sub calibration problem.

I'm not sure what "perfect color" is, but if it allows you direct control over red, green and blue saturation/tint instead of just general color/tint controls, Avia has test patterns specifically to line up the saturation and tint of each color (though I don't know of any on DVE other than the standard color bars). On my Sanyo PLV-Z3 projector, I used Avia to get red, green and blue decoding dead perfect, and the results are NICE.