Calibration Disc....

Lorthos wrote: »

Hello

Was just wondering what everyone was using to calibrate Plasmas and LCD's these days.....

I looked at a couple on Amazon but seemed like they were getting some pretty poor reviews.....

Thanks,

A technician with ISF training.
http://www.imagingscience.com/

BlueFox wrote: »

A technician with ISF training.
http://www.imagingscience.com/

does anyone around here swear by these ISF certified technicians being able to calibrate your tv in a way that you couldn't do yourself? I might be in the minority here, but I just can't justify paying a few hundred dollars for someone to come over and change some settings that are ultimately just up to my own subjective viewing preferences. I know having your tv calibrated 'correctly' is supposed to increase the life of the set, but personally I'd rather that the settings the way I like them the whole time and upgrade my tv a little sooner (assuming there is even anything wrong with the way I have it). I could put that extra money toward better equipment too!

Maybe if I ever have cash to burn I'd do it just to see what the fuss is about. But for now, a calibration disc is the most I'd pay for that- and really I'm fine just popping in a few movies and messing with the settings in a real viewing situation until I have it where I like best.

Gaara wrote: »

So I dropped the $ for a ISF certified technician, (Chad who spent ~3 hours and honestly the tv never looked better. The differences weren't huge, as I had already spent hours on it myself, but he fixed a few nagging problems, mainly a overscan issue and some convergence issues. The most noticeable difference was the greyscale, whites looked natural without being overly bright, and the blacks were pitch black, shadow detail was much improved. He also got rid of the little bit of red push that I had.

Overall it was worth the $ I spent, even though I already did hours of work myself on it. I am definitely not the norm though, as I have physically modified my TV for better picture.

I have to agree. If you know what you are doing, have access to the service menus, know how to input hexidecimal values, and have the correct test equipment, you might be able to do it yourself.

The tech spent at least 3-4 hours working on my set. He had some tool that attached to the center of the screen and it provided input to a program on a laptop. Then he started adjusting all the color values, grayscale, convergience, and probably something else. He would get a low end asjustment okay, but it messed up the high-end. This went back and forth until he couldn't get it any better. It really was detailed, and a lot of effort. But the finished result is stunning. This was done on a 57" Hitachi CRT RPTV.

If a noob with an adjustment DVD can equal this then they should go into business.

Below is the TV setting, and I have not touched those values since, and the before and after adjustment values. Hope it shows up okay.


Here are the user menu settings for your Hitachi:

pic mode day
cont 50
br 38
color 31
tint +2
sharp 50
color temp standard
blk enh off
edge enh off
color mgmt: all at 50%
color decoding all at 50% except color at 31
noise reduc off

As you requested, here are your before and after data logs:
<pre>
"Before Cal x y Y fL Hz Kelvin DeltaC* R R% G G% B B% Meas User"
"20 IRE 0.279 0.278 1.385 60 10,864 95.108 0.968 101.911 0.985 85.068 1.208 120.81 2.1 1.162"
"30 IRE 0.281 0.264 3.181 60 11,931 100.621 1.022 107.641 0.962 83.067 1.255 125.526 2.1 2.834"
"40 IRE 0.278 0.258 5.868 60 13,258 104.766 1.025 107.944 0.958 82.677 1.28 127.979 2.1 5.337"
"50 IRE 0.273 0.257 9.44 60 14,642 107.103 0.996 104.857 0.965 83.363 1.289 128.903 1.9 8.720"
"60 IRE 0.277 0.256 13.43 60 13,799 110.361 1.024 107.799 0.957 82.619 1.287 128.731 2.2 13.023"
"70 IRE 0.273 0.253 18.799 60 15,557 113.964 1.013 106.646 0.958 82.689 1.305 130.534 2.1 18.281"
"80 IRE 0.275 0.254 24.772 60 14,921 116.229 1.019 107.307 0.956 82.582 1.3 130.022 2.2 24.524"
"90 IRE 0.279 0.26 31.925 60 12,808 115.982 1.023 107.672 0.96 82.855 1.272 127.154 2.2 31.778"
"100 IRE 0.282 0.266 40.067 60 11,383 115.432 1.025 107.952 0.963 83.113 1.245 124.486 40.067"
"

---

"
"After Cal X y Y fL Hz Kelvin DeltaC* R R% G G% B B% Meas User"
"20 IRE 0.312 0.321 1.259 60 6,621 1.106 1.017 101.681 0.992 99.235 1.025 102.495 2 0.769"
"30 IRE 0.322 0.325 2.798 60 6,054 2.05 1.054 105.422 0.983 98.314 1 99.964 1.9 1.876"
"40 IRE 0.322 0.324 4.785 60 6,040 2.772 1.06 105.964 0.981 98.101 1.003 100.303 1.8 3.532"
"50 IRE 0.314 0.325 7.122 60 6,460 1.214 1.017 101.704 0.994 99.386 1.01 100.977 1.7 5.771"
"60 IRE 0.318 0.324 9.745 60 6,273 2.415 1.038 103.773 0.988 98.755 1.008 100.833 1.9 8.619"
"70 IRE 0.317 0.328 13.074 60 6,264 1.507 1.025 102.526 0.993 99.266 0.997 99.666 2 12.098"
"80 IRE 0.318 0.325 17.053 60 6,227 2.722 1.038 103.783 0.988 98.801 1.004 100.357 2 16.229"
"90 IRE 0.317 0.326 21.466 60 6,288 2.251 1.029 102.919 0.991 99.084 1.003 100.252 2 21.030"
"100 IRE 0.318 0.327 26.516 60 6,242 2.299 1.03 102.968 0.991 99.113 0.998 99.816 26.516"
</pre>

Apparently tags are not supported, or I did it wrong.

Fox, Calibrated projection TVs can look AMAZING. I have only seen a high end Hitatch that was calibrated, it was definitely a night and day difference from the ones we had in the store.

Manman, you already answered your own question. "I guess I don't know if the changes there are worth a few hundred dollars to me since I've never seen the difference." Calibrating a TV is like calibrating a HT system, you can get everything perfect, but some like to run the sub hot. There is a right way to calibrate a TV, and the calibration disc can show you how, but some will still like it a little to bright with the sharpness jacked.

As such I would recommend that you get a calibration disc like Digital Video Essentials. First write down the settings you know you like, then turn off all the extra "enhancements", turn down the brightness, turn down the sharpness, do EVERYTHING it says. Leave it like this for a few days, then watch a few scenes from a familiar movie, preferably some up close scenes w/people, some fast action, and some dark scenes. Then write down your current settings , and go back to the pre calibrated settings.

One of three things will happen:

A) You won't notice much of a difference
You won't be able to believe you watched it like that before
C) You will prefer the old settings

The trick is to watch it with the new settings for a few days. We are conditioned to think an overly bright high contrast picture with over exaggerated colors is correct. Most people prefer a more natural look, but you need a few days to get used to it, if you immediately switch back the unrealistic look will look better.