Which to calibrate first?

[Skiman]

Hi all,

Just bought a new plasma display (see signature) which I'm bedding in ( only got 16 hours on it at the moment) and was wondering if anyone could

advise which order to calibrate equipment once I've racked up approx. 200 hours.

I downloaded and burnt onto a DVDR a calibration disc which I will play through my Universal Disc Player however the UDP has a whole set of

adjustment parameters (gamma etc.) which I adjusted for the previous display. The question is - do I reset the UDP to factory settings and then

calibrate the display as the the present UDP settings could (will?) affect the readings on the display or am I talking nonsense?

This is the first display I've had that has a veritable smorgasbord of adjustments available and I would like to get the picture as perfect as possible

without employing a Professional aftera suitable running in period.

Many thanks in advance.

Stefan

 

[D.J.KRIME]

I would reset the settings of the UDP to the default settings then use the TV settings to make any adjustments then if need be use the UDP to make any further adjustments that you can't do using the TV alone.

Are you planning on making adjustments by eye or using a meter and PC?:quest:

 

[Skiman]

Hi D.J.KRIME,

Thanks for the reply - your comments make perfect sense and will be the route I'll follow when the time comes.

I will trying to set up the display by eye using a very useful disc downloaded from a competitors website - it's quite in depth

and involved to calibrate but hopefully will improve the picture so Idon't have to go down the ISF route - however one always wonders

......... what if ........

Cheers

Stefan

 

[Son_of_SJ]

I don't know the calibration disc that you have downloaded, but I presume that it is quite good. I use the Spears and Munsil calibration Blu-ray disc, which I imported from the USA. I've adjusted my TVs as best as I can, but I'm not sure just how much I changed the default settings. Not by a huge amount I suspect. Certainly my friendly local and very knowledgeable dealer has told me that he would be quite happy to take my £200-£300 to schedule a 3-hour calibration by a professional bearing a colour meter and a laptop, but my dealer doubted whether that would give significant further improvements for my televisions over and above the careful adjustments that I have made with the Spears and Munsil disc. However, other people may think that a professional calibration is worthwhile.

 

[Sizzers]

I don't know the calibration disc that you have downloaded.

I would suggest it’s this one.

 

[Skiman]

Hi there

Sizzers - thats exactly the one I've downloaded and used on my old display but as that had very limited calibration tools I was never convinced about

it's efficacy. Hopefully with the full gamut of adjustments available on the Samsung I will be able to acheive a really decent picture.

Son of SJ - Very interesting comments from yourself and your dealer. I am hoping that once the screen is 'run-in' ( currently on 35 hours so a long

way to go) I can acheive exactly what you've done.

Regards

Stefan

 

[Dan Turner]

HI Stefan,

I agree with the screen first approach, because then those settings benefit all your sources. I've got the Digital Video Essentials HD Basics blu-ray.

I found with my TV that it wasn't possible to get it perfect though - there was not quite enough range on the contrast control, the steps of brightness and sharpness adjustment were too coarse, and with the single colour control, whilst it was possible to get blue perfect, red and green were each ever so slightly out.

So I got it very close using the TV, and then used the controls on my Blu-ray player to tweak it further and get it nigh-on perfect. I was actually pretty surprised at what a difference it makes, just that last 5% of refinement on the blu-ray player itself. It only occured to me to do that bit quite recently and it was a nice free upgrade in picture quality!

Cheers

Dan

 

[Skiman]

Hi Dan,

Thanks very much for the reply.

Your way of explaining the process is very logical and I will definately go the same route.

Could you tell me if you had to reset your BDP to factory settings then calibrate your display and then finally tweak the bdp settings?

Regards

Stefan

 

[Dan Turner]

Hi Dan,

Thanks very much for the reply.

Your way of explaining the process is very logical and I will definately go the same route.

Could you tell me if you had to reset your BDP to factory settings then calibrate your display and then finally tweak the bdp settings?

Regards

Stefan

Hi Stefan,

I didn't bother doing a factory reset on the blu-ray, because i hadn't adjusted the picture settings previously (only the 'set-up' settings, which I didn't want to have to re-do).

Cheers

Dan

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Another thread has recently been started, called "Is your tv calibrated?" and people might want to look at what is being said in that thread also.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Certainly my friendly local and very knowledgeable dealer has told me that he would be quite happy to take my £200-£300 to schedule a 3-hour calibration by a professional bearing a colour meter and a laptop, but my dealer doubted whether that would give significant further improvements for my televisions over and above the careful adjustments that I have made with the Spears and Munsil disc. However, other people may think that a professional calibration is worthwhile.

Are you sure your dealer actually knows what they are talking about? Now I know you have quite a few TVs and apart from your Pioneer I personally doubt that any of your TVs greyscales are running near to a perfect D65 greyscale or a colour temp 0f 6500k or correct gamma. ou can make adjustments by eye to contrast and brightness ETC using test patterns but unless you use a meter and PC to correctly adjust the Greyscale etc then your not getting the maximum out of your display.

Have a look at my results before and after calibrating my TV HERE and you can see how far off the greyscale was at the factory default and this error can not be adjusted by eye alone nor will adjusting contrast etc correct it.