Digital Video Essentials, THX Optimizer, TV calibration - too dark!

[admin_exported]

Hi all!

I've calibrated 3 TVs previously including my current one using Digital Video Essentials, region 2, PAL. (DVE). My current TV is the excellent Sharp LC-46LE831E.

After using DVE for calibration, I then tried the THX Optimizer and found the recommendations the same.

I do believe in calibration and am definitely impressed with the more lifelike and natural picture post calibration as opposed to out of the box settings.

However - for a number of scenes where there are lots of blacks, the overall picture seems too dark. The whites on screen look brilliantly white but I found that after using DVE to calibrate my current LCD, previous LCD and CRT before that, the overall picture in some scenes just looks too dark.

e.g. One scene in The Godfather II which I'm sure a lot of you have seen many a time now appears too dark with lots of detail disappearing into darkness (it's when Vito Corleone visits Don Fanucci in the cafe to pay him money). I can now barely make Don Fancucci out.

Questions:

1. Are the pictures meant to look like that? How do I not know this is how dark the film director intended this scene to be?

2. Has anyone else found that after calibrating with DVE, THX Optimizer or anything else, that the overall settings are too dark?

3. Note, I’m using the DVE dvd version, not the blu-ray. I don’t think this makes a difference but if anyone thinks it does, tell me why.

Btw, I'm not ready to fork out for ISF calibration though I know this would be the best option for perfectness.

I know some of you will suggest for me to simply turn up the brightness, which I have done a little but I'm keen to maintain the settings I've achieved if these are what are true to cinema and TV images.

Thoughts please!

 

[professorhat]

I think the immediate question that springs to mind is how bright is the room you're watching in? If we're talking about a darkened room (e.g. curtains closed or at night time with minimal lighting), then something is wrong I would think. However, if it's day time and bright conditions, it could well be that the settings are too dark for those conditions. Having two sets of calibration settings may be the answer i.e. one for proper darkened viewing and one for daytime conditions.

I have calibrated my Pioneer and our living room only has blinds which cover half the window (the bottom half is frosted glass) and the blinds were cheap (rented flat) and still let in a lot of light. During the day when it's sunny, I find any night time or dark scenes are very hard to see as a result - this isn't reflections, it's just the calibration was done in a dark room i.e. ideal cinema conditions.

I've just invested in a roll of this to use for when I want to do proper film watching during the daytime - what with summer coming, daytime is obviously going to become more of an issue even in the evenings! I've not yet tried it, but the video looks fairly promising!

 

[The_Lhc]

Having two sets of calibration settings may be the answer i.e. one for proper darkened viewing and one for daytime conditions.

I believe ISF calibrators will do this, don't know where I read that though.

What did you use to calibrate your Pioneer Prof?

 

[professorhat]

Same DVE disk as the OP, but the Blu-ray version.

 

[The_Lhc]

Same DVE disk as the OP, but the Blu-ray version.

You've got the 5090 haven't you? I'm wondering if a disk like this will be any better than the "Pure" mode on the KRP-500a.

 

[professorhat]

You've got the 5090 haven't you?

Indeed!

I'm wondering if a disk like this will be any better than the "Pure" mode on the KRP-500a.

Not a clue!

 

[The_Lhc]

You've got the 5090 haven't you?

Indeed!

Thought so. #justagoodmemorynotastalker...

I'm wondering if a disk like this will be any better than the "Pure" mode on the KRP-500a.

Not a clue!

Me neither but I guess it's cheaper than paying for an ISF calibrator and finding out that's no better (although I'd be surprised if they couldn't improve on it).

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat, the opposite actually - I calibrated during the daytime i.e. a happy medium between it being very bright and night time viewing. Thus, having calibrated during daylight, the settings should be even brighter etc and therefore easier to see dark scenes at night time.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

professorhat, the opposite actually - I calibrated during the daytime i.e. a happy medium between it being very bright and night time viewing. Thus, having calibrated during daylight, the settings should be even brighter etc and therefore easier to see dark scenes at night time.

The TV should be calibrated to suit the viewing conditions in which it will be used in, so this is why any calibrator will apply different settings for both daytime and nighttime viewing as the 2 require different settings, for instance you may well find that you need to have contrast and Brightness set higher for daytime viewing to help combat against high levels of ambient light but if these settings are used at night you would more than likely find that bright areas bloom and you end up with darker areas displaying low levels of shadow detail. So it is needed to calibrate the TV twice both for daytime and evening viewing.

There are other settings apart from the basic contrast and brightness that will have a massive effect on the TVs overall picture which can't be adjusted by eye like the greyscale(white balance) and the Gamma tracking, then if your TV allows adjustments to the TVs primary and secondary colours should your TV have the required CMS (colour management system) If your TVs greyscale is out this will have major implications on every aspect of the picture including brightness and contrast, like wise if the gamma is not set correctly as this effects how quickly your TV comes out of black(0 IRE) to white(100 IRE)

You can read my guide to proper home calibration which should help explain better

 

[D.J.KRIME]

professorhat, the opposite actually - I calibrated during the daytime i.e. a happy medium between it being very bright and night time viewing. Thus, having calibrated during daylight, the settings should be even brighter etc and therefore easier to see dark scenes at night time.

The TV should be calibrated to suit the viewing conditions in which it will be used in, so this is why any calibrator will apply different settings for both daytime and nighttime viewing as the 2 require different settings, for instance you may well find that you need to have contrast and Brightness set higher for daytime viewing to help combat against high levels of ambient light but if these settings are used at night you would more than likely find that bright areas bloom and you end up with darker areas displaying low levels of shadow detail. So it is needed to calibrate the TV twice both for daytime and evening viewing.

There are other settings apart from the basic contrast and brightness that will have a massive effect on the TVs overall picture which can't be adjusted by eye like the greyscale(white balance) and the Gamma tracking, then if your TV allows adjustments to the TVs primary and secondary colours should your TV have the required CMS (colour management system) If your TVs greyscale is out this will have major implications on every aspect of the picture including brightness and contrast, like wise if the gamma is not set correctly as this effects how quickly your TV comes out of black(0 IRE) to white(100 IRE)

You can read my guide to proper home calibration which should help explain better

 

[Anonymous]

D.J.KRIME, I agree with what you're saying. Two sets of settings for day and night is perfection but not practical. How does one switch between the two and does this have to be done manually? It's about time that TVs had varying settings depending on the time of day OR had built in sensors to detect the light......

I'll checkout your home calibration guide, thanks!

 

[D.J.KRIME]

D.J.KRIME, I agree with what you're saying. Two sets of settings for day and night is perfection but not practical. How does one switch between the two and does this have to be done manually? It's about time that TVs had varying settings depending on the time of day OR had built in sensors to detect the light......

I'll checkout your home calibration guide, thanks!

It is quite easy to have separate day/night settings for your TV which can easily be changed by switching between different colour modes. Now I'm not familiar with the available presets on your TV but on my Samsung I calibrated the STANDARD preset for daytime use and the MOVIE preset for night time viewing, so I can easily switch by hitting the picture mode button on the remote. On other brands like Panasonic and LG they have 2 sets of ISF pro/expert allowing for day/night calibration,maybe your TV has something similar?

As for TVs with built in ambient light sensors they do exist but from my personal experience when used these sensors give awful results and are often way to bright and over blown in the day and far too dark and flat at night.

 

[The_Lhc]

As for TVs with built in ambient light sensors they do exist

Have done for donkey's years, I had an old Sony CRT that had that functionality.

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, I can look at two calibration settings then Thanks

Regarding light sensors, I use the Pantone Huey Pro for my PC and it's superb - not only did it calibrate my monitor to 6500K but it also adjusts the display depending on the light conditions every minute (can do as often as 10 seconds). There isn't a lot that Pantone doesn't know about graphics and colour; why do they not make the same device for TVs???? They'd sell in the millions.

http://www.pantone.co.uk/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=562