Arguments for and against calibration

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Happy Birthday, BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW! :beer:

I plan on getting my humble gt30 calibrated,probably next year now(just had to book a rather expensive holiday :roll: )

Well, I must admit, I didn't expect that little surprise present. Thank you!

 

[mr malarky]

Morning BBB, and happy birthday sir! :cheers:

 

[cheeseboy]

there's an good free guide on tv calibration with a link to a free download for a calibration disk here http://lifehacker.com/5858625/how-to-calibrate-your-hdtv-and-boost-your-video-quality-in-30-minutes-or-less

worth a try - it's free so the only thing you lose is time. So long as you make a note of the settings before you change them, you can always revert back if it's no good for you

Did it on mine, and even with the limited calibration in the guide, it all looked better

 

[CnoEvil]

Mr "Cash" suggests I'm rich, which I'm certainly not. (Though rich is a relative term.) "For" would be a silly name, which means we're out of options.

How about Strap Cash......works well, especially if you play tennis.

 

[mr malarky]

there's an good free guide on tv calibration with a link to a free download for a calibration disk here http://lifehacker.com/5858625/how-to-calibrate-your-hdtv-and-boost-your-video-quality-in-30-minutes-or-less

worth a try - it's free so the only thing you lose is time. So long as you make a note of the settings before you change them, you can always revert back if it's no good for you

Did it on mine, and even with the limited calibration in the guide, it all looked better

Thanks for this. Had a read through and in terms of Sharpness settings I am definitely in the camp that says Sharpness should be set to 'Zero' - Have always found that turning up sharpness introduces picture processing errors (on plasma's anyway).

Would be interested to hear what others think?

Strapped, what was your Sharpness set to after the calibration was done?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Happy Birthday, BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW! :beer:

I plan on getting my humble gt30 calibrated,probably next year now(just had to book a rather expensive holiday :roll: )

Well, I must admit, I didn't expect that little surprise present. Thank you!

Happy birthday BBB! :cheers:

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Yep. My Philips 32pd9731d got a line mark down the screen, and my Pioneer 5090 got a big black mark down the right of the screen! My Panasonic actually has a little bit of that going on too, but you can only see it when the screen is off! I did take a photo of it the other day, I will have to upload it sometime, because the Pioneer one was twice as big and even blacker! I am now wondering what exactly it is? It was definitely screen burn on the Pioneer because I had two people inspect it! My Panasonic has a tiny bit of image retention but nothing too bad.

TVs definitely develop faults. (Or have faults out if the box). I know this from bitter experience, though I don't need to fill you in on the story.

In my view, calibration isn't so prohibitively expensive that it'd be too risky with any TV. As long as you've given the TV enough time to bed in and are satisfied that any issues are marginal and tolerable, you might as well get the best from it.

Better not tell me any more about a vertical line on your GT50, Gel! I bought my GT50 after you advised that your set was perfectly uniform! :O Luckily I got my money back and moved on, so no harm done, aside from several months of stress.

No it is nothing like that. It may be part of the design - the screen is perfect 100 per cent! I am curious to get some feedback on it. I noticed the other day when the screen was off, never once have I noticed it while playing it. On the Pioneer you could definitely see screen burns while the screen was on.

I think it is part of the design but I was curious to get a second opinion. The image retention is the logo from the top left corner which I can only see on the Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray at the beginning really close up, I have never seen it once on Sky or other Blu-rays, it is not even bothering me it was so small.

 

[BenLaw]

Happy birthday Mr Bresslaw

 

[BenLaw]

There's something public school, and a little kinky about the name Strapped, don't you think?

Maybe I should call you Mr Cash?

I realised this soon after signing up. There's something Mosleyan about "Strapped" that in no way reflects my personal habits or interests. Unfortunately there's no forum deed poll equivalent, so I'm stuck with it.

Mr "Cash" suggests I'm rich, which I'm certainly not. (Though rich is a relative term.) "For" would be a silly name, which means we're out of options.

Given the choices, I'll stick with Strapped. Anything else would feel strange now.

G'night...

I'd always assumed it was like a Dutch name, the equivalent of Robin van Persie etc. So we can go (slightly) shorter by calling you Mr for Cash.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Here you go, this is what it sort of looks like:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=vertical+line&client=safari&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=-ru-UYL6C4TE0QWX8IH4Cg&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=672#biv=i%7C78%3Bd%7CKRD9E4eT8bKjIM%3A

Any ideas, you only see it when it is daylight, and the screen is off, it is not a problem at all, and the screen is perfect, 100 per cent!

It is right against the side of the screen.

 

[ellisdj]

This is my take on it.

You have spent £1500 - £2500 for your TV - thats an investment and you could call yourself an enthusiast for buying this product as you could have had an equal size tv for a lot less money.

If at the time someone said to you - for another £200 I have this much better tv that is exactly the same as this one you are buying only much better - would you have paid the extra £200? I would without a shadow becuase you look at it for many hours over many years so its worth that small bit extra

If you dont think the £200 was worth it why spend £1000 more than you needed to in the first place why not buy a same size, probably better spec'd samsung or LG - becuase you wanted the perceived great picture quality of the set you own.

Well without a calibration your not fully getting it - the new Pannys are only reference TV's after a calibration not before. The Kuro holds its on with the new tvs, but only after a calibration.

Of course once you have had the set calibrated you will get used to it and will just be the picture on the tv again - and you may think about it the same as you think about it now. I honestly dont see how someone can sit there knowing what they are seeing could be a lot better and £200 to have that is a very small investment. It also adds value to the set if you want to sell it.

If your contemplating selling them maybe it may seem like wasted money - however you may not want to sell it after its been calibrated so you may end up saving a small fortue over buying a new set.

There is no cons to having the set calibrated - it cannot make anything worse, it can only makes things better - sharper, clearer, more depth, more accurate, easier to watch, much more to enjoy - it can be calibrated as bright as the set will do - however what you will soon realise is that you have been watching an overly bright image to try and compensate for the lack of calirty of the uncalibrated screen.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Ok I was just about to take another picture of it but it has disappeared! :O. I may still have a picture of it on my laptop though, I will have to check. The screen may have to cool down before you see it, I am not sure at the moment!

 

[strapped for cash]

I'd always assumed it was like a Dutch name, the equivalent of Robin van Persie etc. So we can go (slightly) shorter by calling you Mr for Cash.

See, that suggests I'll do anything for money; which is just as worrying as the Mosley inference.

I gave little thought to my forum name, as I thought I'd pop in for advice on a TV purchase in 2009. Little did I know that I'd be chatting to your good selves several years (and four TVs) later. Note to self: I really need to stop buying TVs...

 

[strapped for cash]

How about Strap Cash......works well, especially if you play tennis.

I never wear a headband.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Nope, none on my laptop, and the black bit has disppeared! If it comes back, I will take another picture. It just reminded me of my Pioneer problem because it was so similar! I was starting to think it was something I was doing to it.

 

[strapped for cash]

No worries, Gel.

I'll be interested to see the pics if/when the line reappears.

 

[Paul.]

I considered having a go at calibration myself, but I found this review of my TV and tried out the settings in the link...

http://reviews.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/samsung-plasma-tv/samsung-pn51e6500-picturesettings.html

They were fantastic! I apreciate room colour temperatures vary, but I felt these settings were close enough. Also bearing in mind my TV was discounted so heavily (down to £550 ish) that £250 cost (or £150 for a meter) becomes quite a steep investment

 

[strapped for cash]

I considered having a go at calibration myself, but I found this review of my TV and tried out the settings in the link...

http://reviews.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/samsung-plasma-tv/samsung-pn51e6500-picturesettings.html

They were fantastic! I apreciate room colour temperatures vary, but I felt these settings were close enough.

That's what I thought after copying settings. It turns out I was very wrong indeed.

I mean no offence by this. As mentioned above, it's impossible to know how much you'll benefit from full calibration without paying a professional or doing it yourself.

 

[Paul.]

Yep, it's a risk I can't be bothered to take When I used the settings I found online it became night and day better, I just don't believe the TV has much more scope for improvement? My Dad has a KPR500a, and although it trounces my E6500 for blacks, for everything else there doesn't seem much in it. I'm in that happy zone where I don't think about the TV when I watch movies, so I would definately take 17 blurays over slightly better gamma and white balance if I had £250 to burn. I should add I don't disagree with anything you said about calibration and I'm not just being dismissive, I just don't fancy my odds of getting value for money when you factor in the cost of my TV)

Anyhoo, the E6500 fan club is recruiting, it seems I'm back down to one again!

 

[f1only]

Well I can say it certainly made a difference to my viewing experience on my present Sony & previous Samsung TV.

I did use the Free to download AVC HD 709 calibration disc for the bedroom TV & it did an excellent job for a freebie to calibrate it myself. Ok it's not quite as accurate as a professional coming in to do it & as BB says why bother when my 22" bedroom TV is not used that much.

I would recommend having either your TV professionally calibrated or at a minimum give the AVCHD 709 disc a try (it comes with video instruction), it offers a lot for next to nothing (the cost of a blank DVD & a little time) as Oldboy has said in a previous post.

 

[pioneer7]

Evenin all

I have been thinking about getting my GT50-50in calibrated but to be honest I have very little knowledge about the procedure, I have tried to look for in depth info but at no avail, Can some one explain the procedure, my first interest is how is it exactly it is carried out, as I understand a laptop is needed and the software but is the laptop connected to the tv, if so which way via HDMI or the DVI Port I think it is, I would be very intersted to understand a little about the procedure, as I am sure others would, It may seem a dumb question but this maybe a reason why some do not have callibration done, so I suppose I fall in that catorgory.

Thanks 8)

 

[GSB]

Anyone got any experiance of a darbee with plasma tv's?

http://darbeevision.com/

 

[pioneer7]

Interesting seems to be very highly thought of... 8)

 

[pioneer7]

Would this be an alternative to calibration do you think...OR would you still need the calibration done first to get the beneifit from the Darbee..???and if the Darbee is that good, would you still neeed the calibration..??? intersting 8)

 

[BenLaw]

I'd always assumed it was like a Dutch name, the equivalent of Robin van Persie etc. So we can go (slightly) shorter by calling you Mr for Cash.

See, that suggests I'll do anything for money; which is just as worrying as the Mosley inference.

How about in true Two Ronnies style, we call you Mr Fork Ash?

(and four TVs) later. Note to self: I really need to stop buying TVs...

:O What's the list?