Arguments for and against calibration

[Deleted member 2457]

I don't get why calibrators charge so much? £200 plus for getting a really good picture on your TV is excessive to say the least to me! It can't cost them that much to do it?

But you just spent more than that on a player that is no better PQ/Audio than your other pioneers you had, which were half the price,should have stuck with the pioneer, or at least given the Denon a go the cheaper one, and spent the difference on a calibration... Maybe

That is true, I did think that too!

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I don't get why calibrators charge so much? £200 plus for getting a really good picture on your TV is excessive to say the least to me! It can't cost them that much to do it?

Well you only have to look at how long it takes to carry out a calibration 3-5 hours then travel time, paying for the courses, more than one I think depending which ones are taken..level1-level-2 etc then the equipment required, its like any skilled trade sparkys, plumbers, brickys all charge varying amounts, its alright just buying the equipment but then you have to spend time to learn how to use it, and I would rather pay some one who is qualified than some one who is not, so unless you buy said gear for your self its pointless, and remember if you start trying to get into restricted menus this could and probably will cause problems with warrantee, as I understand calibrators have IDs they input when carrying out a calibration, so if the set was to go back, panasonic for example can see who accessed that menu. So really unless you have money to throw away get it proffesionally done. I could be wrong on the above.... but would you let some one play around with your set that cost a fair bit of money only to say ;I have not done one of these before but will give it a go; I dont think so.... weigh all that up and £200-£250 does not look to bad,especailly when the results seem pretty compelling and improves the image.

Just my tuppence worth.... 8)

I don't get why they take so long to do it? It can't take that long surely? I think if I was to have it done I would want a discount, I am thinking if I paid £50 for my home cinema system to be setup, that seems fair for the TV too.

 

[pioneer7]

Hello Gazman just emailed Steve withers and a guy called Julian who frequents these forums

No they don't frequent this forum. You'll find Steve Withers on AV forums, not sure if Julian is on AV forums as well.

Indeed I did not explain properly Steve withers does work with A/V-Forums, Reviews etc, but recall Jules/Julian being on these forums talking about calibration, sorry if that was misleading.....

 

[ellisdj]

You dont need to be qualified to calibrate a tv.

No doubt going on a few courses would help clairify a few points. learn some new skills etc and show you the way and also you will have something formal to show for what you can do to sell your services - that seems the crucial element to me.

Its not somehting you will learn over night either - its like all skills takes some time to get to into it but its more than doable thanks to online guides etc

I can do it - completely self taught, I think to a very high standard - if you saw my tv I think you would agree -so its more than doable for the average man - but it does take me a good few hours to get it how I like it - someone more experienced will do it quicker no doubt.

I wonder how you go about becoming a calibrator?

 

[pioneer7]

I think I am right in saying, if you go over to A/V-Forums they advertise courses 2-3 times a year maybe less, these are proper THX and other level courses, Over 1-3 days if memory serves me right, have a look and check out the calibration thread, or input a search, should give you the info.. 8)

It maybe also that certain Calibration companies offer courses as well, maybe give them a call, details of them are on this very thread.

 

[mr malarky]

I don't get why calibrators charge so much? £200 plus for getting a really good picture on your TV is excessive to say the least to me! It can't cost them that much to do it?

Well you only have to look at how long it takes to carry out a calibration 3-5 hours then travel time, paying for the courses, more than one I think depending which ones are taken..level1-level-2 etc then the equipment required, its like any skilled trade sparkys, plumbers, brickys all charge varying amounts, its alright just buying the equipment but then you have to spend time to learn how to use it, and I would rather pay some one who is qualified than some one who is not, so unless you buy said gear for your self its pointless, and remember if you start trying to get into restricted menus this could and probably will cause problems with warrantee, as I understand calibrators have IDs they input when carrying out a calibration, so if the set was to go back, panasonic for example can see who accessed that menu. So really unless you have money to throw away get it proffesionally done. I could be wrong on the above.... but would you let some one play around with your set that cost a fair bit of money only to say ;I have not done one of these before but will give it a go; I dont think so.... weigh all that up and £200-£250 does not look to bad,especailly when the results seem pretty compelling and improves the image.

Just my tuppence worth.... 8)

I don't get why they take so long to do it? It can't take that long surely? I think if I was to have it done I would want a discount, I am thinking if I paid £50 for my home cinema system to be setup, that seems fair for the TV too.

Delends on how many viewing modes need calibrating, and whether the set has 2 point or 10 point adjustment options.

When Steve did my kuro it only had two point adjustment and he only did one viewing mode, so it was done in about 20 minutes. When Steve did the ZT however he did a 'day' viewing mode, and 'night' viewing mode and the 3D viewing mode, with 10 point adjustment on each, so it took him about 2 & half hours (though he could no doubt have shortened that if he wasnt explaining it all to me as he was going through it for the first viewing mode).

If your TV has 10 point adjustment then to be honest you need to see it being done to appreciate why it takes so long; its an iterative process of constantly setting and resetting the luminance, hue and saturation of all three primary and secondary colours, on each point on the scale, to try and get as perfect a balance as possible. Really didn't appreciate the complexity myself until I saw it being done.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I don't get why calibrators charge so much? £200 plus for getting a really good picture on your TV is excessive to say the least to me! It can't cost them that much to do it?

Well you only have to look at how long it takes to carry out a calibration 3-5 hours then travel time, paying for the courses, more than one I think depending which ones are taken..level1-level-2 etc then the equipment required, its like any skilled trade sparkys, plumbers, brickys all charge varying amounts, its alright just buying the equipment but then you have to spend time to learn how to use it, and I would rather pay some one who is qualified than some one who is not, so unless you buy said gear for your self its pointless, and remember if you start trying to get into restricted menus this could and probably will cause problems with warrantee, as I understand calibrators have IDs they input when carrying out a calibration, so if the set was to go back, panasonic for example can see who accessed that menu. So really unless you have money to throw away get it proffesionally done. I could be wrong on the above.... but would you let some one play around with your set that cost a fair bit of money only to say ;I have not done one of these before but will give it a go; I dont think so.... weigh all that up and £200-£250 does not look to bad,especailly when the results seem pretty compelling and improves the image.

Just my tuppence worth.... 8)

I don't get why they take so long to do it? It can't take that long surely? I think if I was to have it done I would want a discount, I am thinking if I paid £50 for my home cinema system to be setup, that seems fair for the TV too.

Delends on how many viewing modes need calibrating, and whether the set has 2 point or 10 point adjustment options.

When Steve did my kuro it only had two point adjustment and he only did one viewing mode, so it was done in about 20 minutes. When Steve did the ZT however he did a 'day' viewing mode, and 'night' viewing mode and the 3D viewing mode, with 10 point adjustment on each, so it took him about 2 & half hours (though he could no doubt have shortened that if he wasnt explaining it all to me as he was going through it for the first viewing mode).

If your TV has 10 point adjustment then to be honest you need to see it being done to appreciate why it takes so long; its an iterative process of constantly setting and resetting the luminance, hue and saturation of all three primary and secondary colours, on each point on the scale, to try and get as perfect a balance as possible. Really didn't appreciate the complexity myself until I saw it being done.

Cheers for the reply - that makes sense. How are you getting on with your TV now? Cheers.

 

[mr malarky]

In Greece at the moment, so only had a few days to enjoy it before I left.

Have a stack of blurays waiting to be watched when I get home though!

 

[mr malarky]

One Of Two[/b] Summary Reports of Mr Stephen Withers’s calibration on Saturday 27th July 2013

As well as actually doing the calibrations, Stephen has sent me detailed reports on each television. I’ll HEAVILY edit the first set of reports and show only the Gamut CIE charts and RGB balances for all four televisions, pre-calibration, and then show a post-calibration balance for only one[/b] television (because post-calibration, they all look very similar).

The axes on the Gamut CIE (International Commission on Illumination) charts are the responses of the short-wavelength (letter s ), middle-wavelength (M) and long-wavelength (L) cones in the human eye. (Anyone wanting a simple but sufficient explanation of cones and rods photoreceptors can check this link http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/retina.html .) You will see that the Gamut CIE graph has seven small squares and seven small circles. If I’ve understood that nice Mr Withers correctly, the seven squares are where the seven colours (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow - and White?) of the television being tested SHOULD measure on the chart. The seven circles are where the colours, pre-calibration, in fact measure on the chart. One purpose of calibration is to bring the circles inside the squares, so that the seven colours do in fact measure where they should.

In the RGB balances, the vertical axis is just percentage and the horizontal axis uses a unit called IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers) which measures from black (zero) to white (100). The idea is that the Red, Green and Blue responses should all measure 100% at all values of IRE. Clearly, pre-calibration, none of the televisions are 100% for the three primary colours at various values of IRE.

Enough explanation already! This is the PRE-calibration Gamut CIE chart and RGB balance for the Pioneer PDP-LX5090 in the second bedroom. http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/3967/8een.jpg

See how green is pretty close to 100% at all values of IRE, red is consistent at about 110% and blue is about 87%. This is the Pioneer Kuro, and I mention this because we’ll see that other televisions are not nearly as consistent in going across various values of IRE. Oh, in the Gamut CIE chart, the circles are pretty close to the target squares.

And now the Pre-calibration graphs for the Pioneer PDP-428XD in my bedroom http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/74/49jw.jpg

This is also pretty consistent as we go from 10 to 100 IRE, but blue is well above 110% throughout, and red is around 93% and green is around 90%. On the Gamut CIE chart, the circles are a bit further away from the target squares than on the 50” Pioneer.

Now for the Samsung PS64D8000 in the parlour http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/9443/fl76.jpg

This is even more blue-biased than the Pioneer PDP-428XD! In fact, the vertical scale goes up to only 120%, and the Samsung’s blue response is measuring off the scale! Also green at 20 and 30 IRE are struggling to show above 80%. The circles on the Gamut CIE are slightly closer to the target squares than on the 42” Pioneer.

Lastly, the Pre-calibration graphs for my much-maligned LG 60PZ950T in the kitchen http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/204/i2bs.jpg

Annoyingly, although the strengths of the RGB components vary relative to each other across various IRE values, overall all the components are the consistently closest to 100% of all the televisions, even better than the Pioneer PDP-LX5090. And the Gamut CIE graph shows that the circles are at least as close to the target squares as those of the 50” Pioneer, which is still regarded as a reference device. How can the much-maligned LG 60PZ950T be measuring at least as well, on the pre-calibration RGB graphs and the Gamut CIE chart, as the revered Pioneer PDP- LX5090??? Damn!!

And now a Post[/b]-calibration graph. As the Post-calibration graphs are all very similar for all the televisions, there is no point in showing four graphs, so I give only one, that of the much-maligned LG 60PZ950T television. It can be easily compared to its pre-calibration version immediately above: http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4163/qcrb.jpg

On the Gamut CIE chart, the circles are now all inside their target squares, and on the RGB balance, the RGB components are now very close to 100% for all values of IRE from 20% to 100%. Well done, Mr Stephen Withers!

I had meant to do both reports tonight, but this one has taken me 90 minutes, and I’ve had enough! I’m out tomorrow night, so I’ll do the second and last report on Friday night. Now I’m off to the kitchen to play my Blu-Ray of either The Grey or Argo on the 8.1 speaker system based on the Eltax Shine speakers, Calvados finish http://www.eltax.com/en/model/222_Shine-5-pack.html and that much-maligned LG 60PZ950T television (which looks better, especially for Blu-Ray playback, than pre-calibration, thanks to Stephen!)

Evening SoSJ, just back from hols and finally had chance to read through this (and actually understand most of it! ).

As you say, its striking when you find your display is so far out from where it should be on things like colour balance - had the same feeling when I viewed my "before & after" graphs for the ZT.

Not surprised to see you Samsung pushing blue so highly initially, apparently this is common to most TV's - what is surprising is that you'd set each one up using a calibration disc and two seemed to push blue while the other two pushed red slightly - can only guess that reflects their various start points (my Kuro 5090 was significantly closer to the ideal measurements than the ZT prior to Dteve doing his work, though the ZT ended up with the better results due to its 10 point adjustment vs the Kuro's 2 point adjustment).

I'm guessing the effects must be most noticeable on the Samsung and the LG?

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Hello there Mr Malarky, yes, almost a month on and I'm mostly very happy with the result of the calibrations on three of the four televisions - I watch the Pioneer LX5090 in the second bedroom only rarely, but the last time I did I thought that the night scene from Shanghai in Skyfall looked just wonderful on it! Sometimes I watch the Samsung PS64D8000 in the parlour, but mostly I watch the LG 60PZ950T in the kitchen and the Pioneer 428XD in my bedroom. The only thing that it took me longest to come to terms with, as I think I said earlier, is with the Samsung when playing ordinary television. When showing Blu-Rays it's fine! But I'm more than happy with the bedroom Pioneer and the kitchen LG when they are showing either ordinary television programmes or Blu-Rays. Particularly striking is my much-maligned LG 60PZ950T in the kitchen, on which the picture really seems to pop out of the screen, and this is true with quite a bit of light in the room and also when it is much darker. (Its black levels are still not so good though, but Steve set the Black Level to High rather than Low, which is how I had it previously, and now there is quite good shadow detail, in fact better shadow detail than the other sets (apart from the bigger Pioneer, of course.) Whether this extra "pop" on the LG has anything to do with the fact that its gamma is 2.4, whereas the gamma of the other three televisions is closer to 2.2, I don't know! But I'm really pleased with the much-maligned LG, which, as it is in the kitchen, is the one that I tend to watch the most. (For the last 20 years I have watched whichever television happens to be in the kitchen the most!) Of course, the LG has the advantage of being Full HD over the smaller Pioneer in my bedroom, which is only HD ready, so the extra sharpness helps also.

 

[mr malarky]

You do realise what this means though SoSJ - that you may have to stop referring to her as the "much maligned" LG!

 

[mr malarky]

Right then, back from holiday so have time to post some Steve's reports on the pre-calibration and post-calibration results for the ZT.

The pre-calibration colour gamut:

As per previous posts, you can see that Blue is pushed very heavily at the expense of Red, and the colour gamut is out (most markedly on green).

This probably doesn't fairly reflect the ZT's true out the box performance, as I had been noodling around with the settings in the preceding weeks (safe in the knowledge a professional would soon be sorting out any errors).

Now post-calibration:

RGB balance pretty flat across the board, and the colour gamut pretty much bang-on with the minor exception of Red (which Steve couldn't quite nail without shifting one or more of the others, and which is apparently a niggle common to Panasonics even with the new red phosphor in use this year).

Now the full summary sheets for pre and post calibration:

Excluse the possible poor image quality (had to print, scan, and then load into Flickr before I could post in the thread.

You can see that colour temperature is almost flat at around 6,500 (lowest point is 6,472, highest is 6,532).

Gamma curve is almost exactly on the target of 2.2.

All colours are within 1% of their target range.

Steve's statement on the day, when viewing the results, was "that looks like one of the best calibrations I've ever done".

Result!

 

[Oldboy]

Very nice results there mr malarky and in line with all of us that have had a calibration carried out, the results post calibration speak for themselves and as Julian said to me when my calibration was done it's nearly impossible to get everything perfect but you certainly can get very close.

How are you finding the difference in picture quality on your ZT now? Can you notice improvements across the board as I did or are you finding it more subtle? The most striking aspect for me was how much more natural the picture seems now and the range of colours my Samsung F8000 can now display along with shadow detail and black levels, I would think the results on a plasma (especially yours) to be even more pronounced so it would be interesting to hear your experience.

Hope you are enjoying the results.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Excluse the possible poor image quality (had to print, scan, and then load into Flickr before I could post in the thread.

You can see that colour temperature is almost flat at around 6,500 (lowest point is 6,472, highest is 6,532).

Gamma curve is almost exactly on the target of 2.2.

All colours are within 1% of their target range.

Steve's statement on the day, when viewing the results, was "that looks like one of the best calibrations I've ever done".

Result!

What??? Better than all four of the calibrations that he did for me??? I'll see you and him at the local Crown Court, sir, I'm bringing an action for slander! |( But really, your Panasonic 60ZT65 is simply the best non-4K television that there is, so excellent calibration results are only to be expected! I wonder what Steve will say when he calibrates theflyingwasp's 60ZT65??

 

[mr malarky]

Excluse the possible poor image quality (had to print, scan, and then load into Flickr before I could post in the thread.

You can see that colour temperature is almost flat at around 6,500 (lowest point is 6,472, highest is 6,532).

Gamma curve is almost exactly on the target of 2.2.

All colours are within 1% of their target range.

Steve's statement on the day, when viewing the results, was "that looks like one of the best calibrations I've ever done".

Result!

What??? Better than all four of the calibrations that he did for me??? I'll see you and him at the local Crown Court, sir, I'm bringing an action for slander! |( But really, your Panasonic 60ZT65 is simply the best non-4K television that there is, so excellent calibration results are only to be expected! I wonder what Steve will say when he calibrates theflyingwasp's 60ZT65??

Hopefully he'll be saying its the 'second best', or at least 'joint-best' calibration he's ever done!

 

[mr malarky]

Very nice results there mr malarky and in line with all of us that have had a calibration carried out, the results post calibration speak for themselves and as Julian said to me when my calibration was done it's nearly impossible to get everything perfect but you certainly can get very close.

How are you finding the difference in picture quality on your ZT now? Can you notice improvements across the board as I did or are you finding it more subtle? The most striking aspect for me was how much more natural the picture seems now and the range of colours my Samsung F8000 can now display along with shadow detail and black levels, I would think the results on a plasma (especially yours) to be even more pronounced so it would be interesting to hear your experience.

Hope you are enjoying the results.

I'd say the improvements are across the board, though to be honest I need to get more time in with some blurays.

The improvement is most striking with BluRay though, the picture is just incredibly clear and natural looking, I would almost say flawless (at least to these untrained eyes).

With TV is does actually take some getting used to as SoSJ mentioned. I think it doesnt help that on some TV shows (and in many commercials) the production is geared towards a high contrast image to create a "modern" or "fresh" look, the reds can look almost too red on some flesh tones, just becuase I'm not used to seeing them correctly set up, and whites can be searingly bright - when watching 'celebrity master chef' yesterday evening I actually put the TV into "Daytime" mode (2.0 gamma), as John Torrode's shirt was so White under the studio lights it was actually quite distracting to watch, while Les Dennis' flushed red cheeks due to the pressure he was under were painful to see (I just wanted someone to put the poor man out his misery as he looked like he was about to burst into tears!).

 

[jog3004]

Well guys, I'd like to thank you for your posts, I've been reading them with great interest, & today bought a Samsung 64f8500 at a great price from reliant in Blackpool. I'm receiving this on Friday & have already emailed Julian to organise calibration in December hopefully. My brother will be the lucky recipient of my current 50" panasonic plasma.

 

[theflyingwasp]

Hi guys I'm booked in for the end of October for my Gt30 and zt60 calibration ,looking forward to it ,mr withers won't be leaving till I have a better calibrated results than mr malarky .i already typed in mr withers suggested picture settings on professional 2 ,what a diffrence it made .

yes it's expensive but I feel with the ZT it has to be done.i want it performing at its very best.this will be my last tv until a 4k tv is released that's not only affordable but hopefully will have plenty of content available which will probably mean a new disc player aswell.i will have to sell my other kidney!

just wish I didn't have such a large DVD collection it's getting harder going back to DVD after watching 3 or 4 blu rays back to back ,skyfall on blu ray to ace Ventura on DVD is a big comedown ,the oppo and ZT do their best to make the picture look its best but some DVDs really are bad quality.

its hard to imagine I might be saying the same about blu ray in 5 or so years time .

 

[bigboss]

Hi guys I'm booked in for the end of October for my Gt30 and zt60 calibration

October?? Why not September?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Well guys, I'd like to thank you for your posts, I've been reading them with great interest, & today bought a Samsung 64f8500 at a great price from reliant in Blackpool. I'm receiving this on Friday & have already emailed Julian to organise calibration in December hopefully. My brother will be the lucky recipient of my current 50" panasonic plasma.

Nice one. :cheers: Yep - good thread Strapped.

 

[theflyingwasp]

Mr withers is totally booked up until then ,the last weekend in October was the first available date.

 

[jog3004]

Well guys, I'd like to thank you for your posts, I've been reading them with great interest, & today bought a Samsung 64f8500 at a great price from reliant in Blackpool. I'm receiving this on Friday & have already emailed Julian to organise calibration in December hopefully. My brother will be the lucky recipient of my current 50" panasonic plasma.

Nice one. :cheers: Yep - good thread Strapped.

cheers Gel, was planning to buy the panasonic 65VT, but with the deal I got, it'd have been £700 more & I don't think it was £700 better, in honesty I didn't think there was much in it, where the VT was better in some areas, the Samsung bettered it in others, plus even if the calibration costs £250, I'm still better off. Once calibration is completed I'll add the graphs etc. but it won't be for a while yet.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Well guys, I'd like to thank you for your posts, I've been reading them with great interest, & today bought a Samsung 64f8500 at a great price from reliant in Blackpool. I'm receiving this on Friday & have already emailed Julian to organise calibration in December hopefully.

To echo a similar comment from bigboss on the previous page, why do you have to wait until December? It won't take you that long to do the required 200 hours on your big new Samsung plasma, will it? Unless Julian, like Steve Withers, is booked up way in advance, maybe because of this thread, which Strapped for Cash started!

My brother will be the lucky recipient of my current 50" panasonic plasma.

Hey, if you're giving away 50" Pansonic plasmas, just remember, we are all your brothers!

cheers Gel, was planning to buy the panasonic 65VT, but with the deal I got, it'd have been £700 more & I don't think it was £700 better, in honesty I didn't think there was much in it, where the VT was better in some areas, the Samsung bettered it in others,

I can't argue with your choice of television - I would incline to the Panasonic 65VT65 myself, because of its great black level, but the Samsung 64f8500 also has a good black level, and maybe better motion handling, and is certainly brighter. There really isn't that much to choose between these two very fine sets.

plus even if the calibration costs £250, I'm still better off. Once calibration is completed I'll add the graphs etc. but it won't be for a while yet.

I must disagree with your reasoning here though - you would have incurred the calibration cost (in order to get the best from your 3-grand set) no matter which television you bought, so that would be a constant factor.

 

[jog3004]

Well guys, I'd like to thank you for your posts, I've been reading them with great interest, & today bought a Samsung 64f8500 at a great price from reliant in Blackpool. I'm receiving this on Friday & have already emailed Julian to organise calibration in December hopefully.

To echo a similar comment from bigboss on the previous page, why do you have to wait until December? It won't take you that long to do the required 200 hours on your big new Samsung plasma, will it? Unless Julian, like Steve Withers, is booked up way in advance, maybe because of this thread, which Strapped for Cash started!

My brother will be the lucky recipient of my current 50" panasonic plasma.

Hey, if you're giving away 50" Pansonic plasmas, just remember, we are all your brothers!

cheers Gel, was planning to buy the panasonic 65VT, but with the deal I got, it'd have been £700 more & I don't think it was £700 better, in honesty I didn't think there was much in it, where the VT was better in some areas, the Samsung bettered it in others,

I can't argue with your choice of television - I would incline to the Panasonic 65VT65 myself, because of its great black level, but the Samsung 64f8500 also has a good black level, and maybe better motion handling, and is certainly brighter. There really isn't that much to choose between these two very fine sets.

plus even if the calibration costs £250, I'm still better off. Once calibration is completed I'll add the graphs etc. but it won't be for a while yet.

I must disagree with your reasoning here though - you would have incurred the calibration cost (in order to get the best from your 3-grand set) no matter which television you bought, so that would be a constant factor.

Yes, good point made, I was referring to financially better off, after all this is important to a tight Yorkshire man as myself. I also agree with the benefits the samsung represents but also the better black levels of the panasonic, but in the end the black levels on the samsung were far better than that of my current panasonic, so in a way it was a win win situation with the samsung based on my current plasma, but if asked a month ago, until I experienced the samsung plasma, I would have been buying either the vt or zt, the former won because as a man I consider size always matters & as superb as th zt looked, if I bought it, eventually I would have regretted it & wished I'd got the bigger option. Julian has now got back to me & hopefully will have date booked soon, why December? Simply logistics, I'm CEO of a Adult Mental Health Hospital & looking at my diary, there is just more availability for me to be free in December, so sadlyDecmber it must be& last thing I would want is to do it earlier & transpire that I have to cancel the date due to unexpected work commitments & then mess Julian about.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

After two months, I thought I'd revive this thread because one of our more passionate members, theflyingwasp, is due to have his Panasonic 60ZT65 calibrated today, Saturday 26th October, by Mr Steve Withers, who also calibrated all four of my sets. I just want to give a quick, partial update of what I now think of the calibrations, three months after Steve did them in late July.

1. Samsung PS64D8000, in the parlour. This is the one that I am probably least impressed by, maybe partly because I hardly ever watch the damn thing! I have it on now, but that is just because I'm writing this piece. Nowadays I go to the parlour only to work on the computer, and the TV is not on then. I am, however, happier with the Samsung when watching Blu-Rays than when watching TV programmes via its Freeview HD tuner.

2. LG 60PZ950T, in the kitchen. I probably watch this set the most of all my four, it's on when I'm ironing, cooking etc. It's also, because I'm lazy, the one that I will watch when I'm eating - I mean, why would I go to the parlour to watch a slightly bigger set when the kitchen also offers a table and a comfy chair. It took me about a week to get fully used to the calibrated settings, but now I am a huge fan of the set. Calibration has NOT removed its only, but considerable, weakness, namely its fairly weak black level, which is most obvious when watching what should be dark scenes in 21:9 aspect ratio Blu-Rays, becaue the black bars above and below the film are shown to be grey, not black. However, with that considerable qualification, the calibrated picture, with both Blu-Rays and broadcast television programmes, is very, very good indeed. I know that it is the calibration that has made the picture so good, because it takes about 10 seconds to revert to the pre-calibrated settings, and they now just look garish.

3. Pioneer PDP-428XD, in my bedroom. The second-most watched set, and again, it took me several days to get used to the calibrated settings, but like the LG in the kitchen, I'm now a huge fan of the set. Like the LG, calibration has NOT removed its only, but noticeable weakness, in this case that it is not full HD, its pixel resolution is only HD ready. However, post-calibration, the picture with all sources is very good, so much so that I seldom notice the lack of full HD.

4. Pioneer PDP LX5090, in the second bedroom. I can't say very much about this set, which is intrinsically the best of all my TVs. This is because a friend has been staying there for some time, but is moving out at the end of October. So I will be able to examine it thoroughly by the end of the first week of November, and I'll report back.

Oh, one alteration to the calibrations. I hope that Mr Withers doesn't mind, but using the Blu-Ray of Skyfall, in Chapter 8, 30 minutes and 36 seconds from the start of the film. Bond is in the shooting range, and the cameral closes in on his face. Pausing the disc at that point, I've decided that maybe the calibrated settings could do with some extra sharpness, so I've increased the sharpness by about 25% and also - quelle horreur! - switched on Edge Enhancement, where possible. I do prefer the picture which the slightly enhanced sharpness settings.

I'll give the final update in about two weeks, with my thoughts on the calibration of the bigger, 9th-generation, Pioneer.