i want to calibrate my new tv, what should i buy?

[6th.replicant]

Max, FWIW, I currently have my PK350 setup as follows (thanks to AEJim's guidance):

Picture mode: Expert 1

Aspect ratio: 'Just Scan' (ie zero overscan for sharpest pic)

Contrast: 92

Brightness: 53

Colour: 51

Tint: even

Sharpness: Horizontal 45; Vertical 30

Expert settings:

Dynamic contrast: low

Black level: low

Colour temp: warm

All other stuff 'off'

 

[Anonymous]

ah cheers 6th, ill defo give them a try, but alas i have to wait till the morning, no tv till then, its a long and frustrating story

 

[theo12]

Max

Give AEJim,s suggestions a try, I have tried them and they do work well. 6thReplicant's as well work. But I agree with the sentiment about calibration, so long as you do it properly the resulting picture will look fantastic.

I have seen a V 20 calibrated great result.

Let us know how it goes

 

[AEJim]

My Eye One arrives tomorrow so if I get time I'll try my first real calibration over the weekend, if it works out well I'll try and get a before/after pic... I've realised it's not worth using other people's calibrated settings as they're so integral to the individual panel that they're unlikely to improve things - one persons settings I tried made all the black areas on my screen turn solid bright blue!

 

[Anonymous]

theo12:
Max

Give AEJim,s suggestions a try, I have tried them and they do work well. 6thReplicant's as well work. But I agree with the sentiment about calibration, so long as you do it properly the resulting picture will look fantastic.

I have seen a V 20 calibrated great result.

Let us know how it goes

sure will theo

 

[Anonymous]

AEJim:My Eye One arrives tomorrow so if I get time I'll try my first real calibration over the weekend, if it works out well I'll try and get a before/after pic... I've realised it's not worth using other people's calibrated settings as they're so integral to the individual panel that they're unlikely to improve things - one persons settings I tried made all the black areas on my screen turn solid bright blue!

ah, that should prove interesting jim, i agree re. using others settings, it has helped in the past, but its very hit and miss, if you get great results with the eye one i might invest myself

 

[D.J.KRIME]

sonycentre:Ok then d.j krime.As i have sold tv's for years.i think i know how certain tv's look.but each to their own i guess.i myself have never got on witht the thx discs,i have the hd-dvd hd essentails disc.used it one and was not happy with the picture at all.thats why i say use your eyes.

OK so you know how certain TVs look but the fact is all TVs sholuld look the same when properly calibrated to industry standards. 99% of TVs out of the box have a colour temperature set way above the target of 6500k often nearer 8000k so that the look bright and vibrant on the shopfloor to grab prospective punters eyes away from other TVs. This has a knock-on efect on the whole proformance of the TV along with the Greyscale which often has poor RGB tracking out of the box. These problems can't be corrected by the eye or by simple tweeks to the Contrast/Brightness/Colour settings(tint is redundant as only affects NTSC) and need to be adressed using a meter and PC.

So in the OP Max has clearly asked for advice in CALIBRATING his new TV so I stand by my statement about you advice being terrible for someone in the industry as there are a clear set of reconigsed industry standards regarding TV calibration and it's not as you put it "each to their own" especially when the TV Max has purchased has a 20 point adjustment across the IRE scale especially for adjusting the greyscale as standard.

 

[aliEnRIK]

sonycentre:Personally for advise coming from someone who sells TVs for a living this is possibly some of the worst advise I have ever heard......Ok then d.j krime.As i have sold tv's for years.i think i know how certain tv's look.but each to their own i guess.i myself have never got on witht the thx discs,i have the hd-dvd hd essentails disc.used it one and was not happy with the picture at all.thats why i say use your eyes.

Anything other than calibrated means your losing part of the picture as it 'should' look

For example ~

If brightness is too high then blacks become grey

If brightness is too low you lose black detail

If contrast is too high you lose white detail

If contrast is too low your whites wont be as white as they can be

Any sharpness of any kind is altering the true picture

Wrong gamma setting means colours never look as they should (Either too intense or too faded)

Greyscales that arnt calibrated means ALL clours dont look as they should as theyre mixed with other colours

So back to basics ~ uncalibrated means your missing out on what you should be watching and what all the directors intended

ALL cinema screens are calibrated. Do you go to the cinema?

 

[Anonymous]

Do you need something like the DVE disc to calibrate with something like an Eyeone/Spider?

If so aren't you only calibrating the tv to that specific player on a particular input, It still won't be calibrated for Sky or Freeview?

I'm just wondering.

 

[AEJim]

The Eye One has just automatically calibrated my monitor (didn't know it could do that), and limitations of the screen aside, since brightness and contrast are limited, it now looks fantastic. I thought I had it about right but the red was too low and green too high - brightness turned up too much as well. Now I can see all sorts of graduations I couldn't see before and everything looks natural. Obviously this is nothing like calibrating a 50" plasma (which I will try over the weekend) but does show the benefits. It's not something you can get right by eye.

 

[AEJim]

NSYGrinner:
Do you need something like the DVE disc to calibrate with something like an Eyeone/Spider?

If so aren't you only calibrating the tv to that specific player on a particular input, It still won't be calibrated for Sky or Freeview?

I'm just wondering.

Yup, but I think the variance in panel is far higher than the one in a player. Think of the sound differences you get by changing CD player as opposed to speakers...

 

[aliEnRIK]

NSYGrinner:
Do you need something like the DVE disc to calibrate with something like an Eyeone/Spider?

If so aren't you only calibrating the tv to that specific player on a particular input, It still won't be calibrated for Sky or Freeview?

I'm just wondering.

Thats correct. But once greyscale is calibrated, so long as theres no major difference (There shouldnt be) then the same greyscale settings can usually be applied to all sources

 

[Anonymous]

aliEnRIK:NSYGrinner:

Do you need something like the DVE disc to calibrate with something like an Eyeone/Spider?

If so aren't you only calibrating the tv to that specific player on a particular input, It still won't be calibrated for Sky or Freeview?

I'm just wondering.

Thats correct. But once greyscale is calibrated, so long as theres no major difference (There shouldnt be) then the same greyscale settings can usually be applied to all sources

Thanks. I thought that would be the case. When I use the THX patterns on a dvd on my dvd player the results are vastly different to the settings using my bd player. I'd like to have a go at calibrating my Sony HX703 but it only has a white balance control. Nothing else much really other than the usual brightness, contrast, colour etc. I don't thing it would be worth the investment. The Samsung C750 had a good range of adjustments 10 point greyscale, full 3d colour adjustment, the lot.

 

[aliEnRIK]

NSYGrinner:
Thanks. I thought that would be the case. When I use the THX patterns on a dvd on my dvd player the results are vastly different to the settings using my bd player.

Assuming all else is the same (ie, using the same settings on your tv etc) then it could be similar to what I had

I had a PS3 and a Pioneer dvd player. The 2 had different settings when I was setting greyscale gamma. Turns out it was the pioneer that was set wrong and had incresed its gamma from standard! Putting it back (Luckily, the pioneer had a gamma setting) gave the PS3 and the Pioneer pretty much the same settings (And now my Sony S370)

Sounds to me like one of your players is calibrated wrong (As in sending the wrong signal)

 

[Deleted member 2457]

It sounds like you are really happy then Max, nice one mate.

How about you with the colour of the tv do you prefer the black finishes or aren't you too bothered?

I have to admit i definetely prefer black but with the panasonic one i was not too bothered because i was just focusing on the picture.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

AEJim:My Eye One arrives tomorrow so if I get time I'll try my first real calibration over the weekend, if it works out well I'll try and get a before/after pic... I've realised it's not worth using other people's calibrated settings as they're so integral to the individual panel that they're unlikely to improve things - one persons settings I tried made all the black areas on my screen turn solid bright blue!

I'm been thinking about getting mine ISF calibrated but am now wondering if buying one of these would achieve similar results?
If you don't mind how much and where did you buy it from?
would i need to buy anything else apart from the DVE disk ?

Cheers

 

[aliEnRIK]

stu31:AEJim:My Eye One arrives tomorrow so if I get time I'll try my first real calibration over the weekend, if it works out well I'll try and get a before/after pic... I've realised it's not worth using other people's calibrated settings as they're so integral to the individual panel that they're unlikely to improve things - one persons settings I tried made all the black areas on my screen turn solid bright blue!

I'm been thinking about getting mine ISF calibrated but am now wondering if buying one of these would achieve similar results?
If you don't mind how much and where did you buy it from?
would i need to buy anything else apart from the DVE disk ?

Cheers

The eye one alone wont calibrate greyscale. You need separate software (free online), to use in conjunction with the eye one

It wont be quite as good as a true ISF calibration as the sensors not as accurate, but it will be much closer than any other method you care to try (And would be very close to ISF standard)

Bear in mind the obvious ~ youll need a laptop to do it, or a computer that would reach

 

[AEJim]

stu31:AEJim:My Eye One arrives tomorrow so if I get time I'll try my first real calibration over the weekend, if it works out well I'll try and get a before/after pic... I've realised it's not worth using other people's calibrated settings as they're so integral to the individual panel that they're unlikely to improve things - one persons settings I tried made all the black areas on my screen turn solid bright blue!

I'm been thinking about getting mine ISF calibrated but am now wondering if buying one of these would achieve similar results?If you don't mind how much and where did you buy it from?would i need to buy anything else apart from the DVE disk ?Cheers

What Rik said

The Eye One is approx £100, but so far I've calibrated three monitors with it and also have a projector as well as the plasma so I think it's worth it.

I've read up a lot on the process and it's by no means simple - it takes the pro's a good couple of hours to do a 20-point calibration so I'm going to start with 2 point and learn as I go. I think long term it's worth it as you can do it for any future screens as well. It's not something just to have a go at, takes quite a bit of dedication by the looks of things!

 

[visionary]

and if you're going to all this trouble then, as I've said before, you need to have your eyesight checked to make sure you've got the sharpest focus to appreciate your investment

 

[Anonymous]

Is it the eye one display lt or display 2 ?
On amazon the product descriptions mention calibrating lcd, laptop and crt screens but no mention of plasmas ??
Am i looking at the wrong one ?

 

[AEJim]

stu31:Is it the eye one display lt or display 2 ?On amazon the product descriptions mention calibrating lcd, laptop and crt screens but no mention of plasmas ??Am i looking at the wrong one ?

Both the same sensor, the display 2 has some extra photography software which you may or may not want. There is a pro sensor but you're looking at serious money, the LT is fine

Not had the chance to calibrate the screen yet - "er indoors" usually goes to see the parents at some point over the weekend but she's not shifting, seems I'll have to wait for the opportunity

 

[Anonymous]

gel:
It sounds like you are really happy then Max, nice one mate.

How about you with the colour of the tv do you prefer the black finishes or aren't you too bothered?

I have to admit i definetely prefer black but with the panasonic one i was not too bothered because i was just focusing on the picture.

Cheers

thanks gel

, yes im very happy with the lg, its really very good, for the money its an absolute steal..

i do prefer the black, everything else av is black, bar some speakers, and the tv has a lovely slim frame, i like it..

im sure ive made the right choice, if a really brilliant tv appears next year i may buy it, and sell the lg, if not icould quite easily keep the lg

 

[Anonymous]

AEJim:
stu31:Is it the eye one display lt or display 2 ?On amazon the product descriptions mention calibrating lcd, laptop and crt screens but no mention of plasmas ??Am i looking at the wrong one ?

Both the same sensor, the display 2 has some extra photography software which you may or may not want. There is a pro sensor but you're looking at serious money, the LT is fine

Not had the chance to calibrate the screen yet - "er indoors" usually goes to see the parents at some point over the weekend but she's not shifting, seems I'll have to wait for the opportunity

hmm, i look forward to finding out the results jim, a few weeks now and ill be ready to calibrate myself

 

[Andrew Everard]

maxflinn:a few weeks now and ill be ready to calibrate myself

I'd stick to just calibrating the TV, max - otherwise you might do yourself a mischief.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Im just waiting for the next thread ~

I love my LG

I hate my LG

I'll get money back for my LG and buy a............