Arguments for and against calibration

[mr malarky]

If I had a set that wasn't faulty I'd get it calibrated, although I'd also share gels worry about it going wrong. It would cost me a little more as I'm sure I'd have to sweet talk the wife so might have to buy some new jewellery to get the green light

Ah, but there-in lies the beauty of it Rocket, there's no new box on the AV rack to explain, so get it down while she's out the house and she'll never know!

If she comments on the picture just say you've been playing around with the picture settings.

 

[theflyingwasp]

Hi mr malarky

just received my calibration report of the ZT65 .I have flicked back and forth to the pictures you posted earlier in the thread and my report pictures today.well to be honest they are pretty much identical! Every graph looks the same ,your red dot is in the exact same position as mine on the colour CIE and my post calibration colour temperature is 6518.i won't go into great detail because quite frankly I don't know what the hell I'm taking about

i have a slightly higher gamma at 2.35 but he even said on the day he wished he had given you the 2.4 gamma aswell .nitpicking aside anyone who owns this tv will be blown away with the out of the box settings let alone a calibrated one.money well spent.

 

[mr malarky]

Morning Wasp, interesting that the results are almost identical, sounds like they're doing a good job of manufacturing consistent panels for the ZT range - if your results are the same then it means your seeing pretty much the same image on screen with blurays, which means your enjoying one hell of a good picture!

Time to add that amp& speaker set??

 

[mr malarky]

I'm planning on Steve coming back at some stage to do a 2.4 gamma setting in addition to the current ones, as I'd like to see how it compares to the 2.2 setting even with a fairly light room environment. Sounds like Steve was right when he said its always hard to nail the red on panasonic panels. What films have you watched so far? (Or have you just got Skyfall on repeat, which lets be honest would be quite understandable given how good it looks!).

 

[theflyingwasp]

Yeah i asked about you a couple of times as you are the only person besides me who has a zt .he said it was because you had white walls he gave you the 2.2 gamma.im sure that if he had calibrated mine first at 2.4 he would probably just keep yours at 2.4 aswell.
Yes the picture is amazing like i said im down to 0.001 on the zt and 0.002 on the gt .
Ive watched skyfall,dark knight,dark knight rises,epic 3d,avatar 3d,prometheus and eh beverly hills cop on dvd all looked amazing.im watching now you see me tonight and snitch
Yes i have to get the speaker - amp on the go and im set

I doubt any zt will look much diffrent from the other after calibration.the whole thing has been designed just for picture quality from the ground up.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

I'm going to be rather predictable here here and just confirm what everyone else has said about calibration as some two months on I'm still over the moon with the results and had forgotten about the Maccau scene in Skyfall, just put it on and sat here dribbling lol...the colours and impact of those scenes is seriously impressive and just left me grinning from ear to ear.

Actually Oldboy, I think the scene that has most impact is the Shanghai scene, not the Macau one. Play from about the previous scene, scene 10, with 40 minutes elapsed from the start, where Bond is talking to the youthful Q in the art gallery. Then it runs on to scene 11, the nighttime in Shanghai at 41 minutes 24 seconds, with huge impact - I've showed this change from the art gallery scene to the night scene to several groups of people, and everyone reacts to the change! "Oooh!" they all gently murmur.

I've not regretted getting it done for one second and it was money well spent, don't worry as time goes by gel will cave in the end, it's just a matter of time healing a few wounds so that he's a bit more comfortable that the TV won't develop an issue but so far so good so I think he may well be the next of us to get it done fingers crossed.

Yep, gel will cave in in the end, we just need to keep working on him! Another two or three turns of the rack with him on it should do the trick! After all Oldboy, you are the best person to persuade him, since you yourself needed convincing about calibration, as you'll see if you go back to page 1 of this thread and read your posting, number 14 on page 1, sent over four months ago on Sunday 16 June at 3:44pm!

Skyfall has so many good test scenes...just been flicking through it and it does look very nice indeed, another good scene is the fight in the skyscraper where it is all glass and neon, it's a real test of blacks and low level detail.

I'm gong to suggest an alternative! Another good test of blacks and low-level detail is at the start of scene 12, with 46 minutes and 27 seconds elapsed. Bond has just come out of the lift and is standing in the corridor. If I pause at that point and send that picture to all my televisions, it highlights the varying black level performances of the TVs, with the 9th-generation Pioneer being, unsurprisingly, clearly the best, but with the much-maligned but post-calibration LG in the kitchen not actually doing too badly. Its black level is still dodgy, but there is quite some shadow detail. Pre-calibration, there wasn't.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Just in the interests of science you understand, I've just gone to the kitchen and changed the LG back to the pre-calibration setting, which took about 15 seconds. I then played the change I mentioned above, the Skyfall Blu-Ray, the change from scene 10 in the art gallery to scene 11 in Shanghai. First point - the pre-calibration setting now just looks wrong. Second, the change from art gallery to Shanghai isn't quite as effective, because the pre-calibration setting doesn't have the amount of shadow detail in the nighttime scene that the calibrated setting does. An interesting two-minute experiment. Now back to the calibrated setting!

 

[bigboss]

Have you read my speaker suggestion theflyingwasp?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Have you read my speaker suggestion theflyingwasp?

Yep, good suggestion this guy started off with them:

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/news/article/cinema-room-evolves-from-pioneer-kuro-to-bigscreen-projection/16777

He has a Pioneer amp too and has spent a huge amount on his home cinema system. I first read about this guys system a couple of years back and always found it quite interesting.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Have you read my speaker suggestion theflyingwasp?

I'm not sure, but he certainly has read my suggestion about the 5.0 Eltax Shine speaker system!

 

[mr malarky]

Now now boys, I'm sure he's read both suggestions and values them each equally..

 

[theflyingwasp]

Hi all,yes thank you big boss and son of sj i appreciate all the suggestions and info I checked everything out as soon as you posted them ,also nice link gel I was drooling.the whole thing is quite frustrating.im not as knowledgeable as you guys when it comes to this home cinema lark.
I'm more than happy with the blu ray player and tv even more so since the calibration but this pesky sound problem has to be sorted.

Pioneer lx87 - yes it's more channels of amplification and power than I will ever need but I plan to have these items quite a while and may add speakers if my home cinema moves to the larger room.im turning my attention to hifi in 2014 so I want to forget about home cinema and concentrate on that.which brings me to the problem of choosing speakers that are not only of high quality but also suit movies and music. :?

I know I said I could get good quality for less and it's all I probably need but I don't want to cheapen my system.

Monitor audio apex and the monitor audio silver package were my 2 favourites but I could push my budget to 2 monitor audio gold front floor standers .

Going back to the amps for a sec steve withers suggested the anthem range aswell.

 

[theflyingwasp]

Also more than a few have said pioneer partners well with monitor audio so that's a big plus too.

 

[theflyingwasp]

My calibration settings are LOCKED in son of sj I'm never touching a setting again ,there will be no science experiments in the wasps nest, DVD is dead to me .ive just watched the bling ring and now you see me .picture looked stunning.bling ring was full screen aswell.

 

[mr malarky]

If your going "gold" for the front mains then can you stretch to "gold" for the centre as well?

I know I can sound like a stuck record at times on this point, but best to have the same drive units across all three front channels if possible (and the tweeters are completely different in the gold and silver range).

 

[bigboss]

If Steve thought Monitor Audio Silver is too big for your room, the Gold series is even bigger! :?

Another option is Kef R500. Truly amazing, with components from their legendary Blade series'.

 

[BenLaw]

Have you been demoing BB?

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Going back to the amps for a sec steve withers suggested the anthem range aswell.

Dan at The Movie Rooms in Edinburgh also likes Anthem.

If you're going "gold" for the front mains then can you stretch to "gold" for the centre as well?

I know I can sound like a stuck record at times on this point, but best to have the same drive units across all three front channels if possible (and the tweeters are completely different in the gold and silver range).

Correct and important, Mr Malarky. I used to have a different centre in the kitchen from the front pair, even though they were all Eltax - the front pair were Shine 8, and the centre was from the Symphony 6.4 range. Upon changing the centre to the Shine centre, there was an improvement, but actually the biggest improvement was when I changed the presence, or front height speakers, from Yamaha NX-E130 to Eltax Shine 2, so now I get the same calibre of sound right across the front soundstage. I didn't quite get that previously. But, as to whether that same calibre of sound is in fact any good, I'll leave that for Theflyingwasp to judge when he comes to audition!

 

[bigboss]

Have you been demoing BB?

I demoed the Kefs at Hifix in May when I visited Coventry for a conference. It's on top of my list when time comes to upgrade my system in the new house next year.

 

[mr malarky]

If Steve thought Monitor Audio Silver is too big for your room, the Gold series is even bigger! :?

Another option is Kef R500. Truly amazing, with components from their legendary Blade series'.

Never owned a set of KEF's for some reason, though just been having a look online a these look great. Can't seem to find any reviews though?

 

[bigboss]

The younger siblings in the range have won the best buy award:

http://www.whathifi.com/review/kef-r100-51

There are a few user reviews in the Hi Fi section of the forum, and I haven't heard a negative comment about them.

You can make a 5.1 set using the R500 as fronts, and rest from the R100 package. They sound awesome with the Pioneers.

 

[Skiman]

Hi guys,
I have been following this thread avidly and would like to ask the calibrated collective for some opinions/comments.
Having just upgraded my speaker array to very good effect I would like to have my Samsung PS51E6500 display caibrated (it would be a combined birthday/christmas present from a very tolerant family).
Fistly is a display that cost me £579.00 a suitable candidate for improvement?
Secondly several of you have had day/night calibrations done but I cannot see how this will work on my dispay when both video sources (Sky HD and BR player) are routed through the AVR amp and into screen on 1 HDMI input. Must I route Sky video direct to the screen on another HDMI input therefore having 2 inputs to caibrate?
Thirdly it was mentioned that different colour walls would affect the calibration results. Currently I have narrow black conduit (D-line) running up to my front height speakers and across the top to make a large frame effect with the screen centred in the lower section. What would be the recommended colour to paint this area? I would prefer matt black or a deep mulberry colour but also would like the Ikea Dioder lights I have to do their magic - would the black absorb the light?
Lots of queries I know but any advise/comments would be very gratefully received.
Regards
Stefan.

 

[theflyingwasp]

Hi skiman

1- any display should benifet from proper calibration but it will cost you roughly half the price of your tv to get it calibrated.also lower end models may not have such in depth calibration controls as high end or flagships tv models,my gt30 was a fine tv but it didn't have half the controls my ZT had.i was also told by my calibrator that cheaper models calibration controls sometimes don't even work and even after calibration it's still not a impressive image.

2- as for the day/night/3d calibration It won't really matter what input/Hdmi or USB is being used for your equipment .the calibrator is simply fine tuning your picture controls such as sharpness/brightness/colour/tint/contrast your colour management,gamma and greyscale to get the best possible picture out of the display wether your watching a YouTube video through Apple TV ,a DVD or a refrence blu ray like avatar.

isf day mode will be calibrated to room conditions during the day and isf night to how you would watch your display at night and lastly he will calibrate 3d for you.so he will be calibrating your display 3 times each for a reason and should take him 2-4 hours .he will also take you through it step by step and explain everything to you.

3-as for the colour of walls it may affect the calibration.pure white walls may reflect more light back onto the screen than darker colours

if you are serious about calibration I cannot recommend stephen withers high enough great bloke and explained everything to me and answered ALL my questions.

 

[Skiman]

Hi theflyingwasp,

Thanks for the reply. My TV was originally approx. £1200.00 when released and has plenty of adjustment fields including colour space, 10 point white balance, gamma, rgb screens and expert patterns as well as the usual contrast etc. I don't know how that compares with your screen's complement of adjustments. Do these menus sound sufficient for a calibrator to use?

Excuse me for being thick but I can't understand how several calibrated settings can be accessed from 1 input as I can't seem to find "sub modes" within my menus.

Any help/advice/comments appreciated.

Regards

Stefan

 

[Son_of_SJ]

My TV was originally approx. £1200.00 when released and has plenty of adjustment fields including colour space, 10 point white balance, gamma, rgb screens and expert patterns as well as the usual contrast etc. I don't know how that compares with your screen's complement of adjustments. Do these menus sound sufficient for a calibrator to use?

Yes.

Excuse me for being thick but I can't understand how several calibrated settings can be accessed from 1 input as I can't seem to find "sub modes" within my menus.

Your Samsung TV will have various Picture Modes (press Menu, then select Picture Mode) such as Dynamic, Standard, Movie, etc. What a calibrator can do is to assign, for instance, a Day mode calibration to the Standard mode, a Night mode calibration to the Movie mode, and so on. It then takes only about 10-15 seconds to change from one calibrated picture mode to another, using your remote control of course.