optimising TV pictures....

[irocfan]

Probably an oft asked question but...

I bought a VT65 some time ago meaning to do all the necessary gubbins vis-a-vis getting the screen calibrated but (as happens) life got in the way and now 9 months later I'm getting round to thinking of doing this. The question is simple (I suspect the answer is not!) - is it worth it? What are the pros/cons? DiY or specialist? Costs?

cheers all

[probedb]

To do it properly you need the hardware and software to do calibration. I'd chat to a specialist first and see what that's likely to cost. There's quite a few on avforums.com and you'll be able to find one nearby

[Crackie]

Clearly a pro setup is going to be superior but spending 15mins running through THXs calibration routine / optimiser should help a lot. http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/hom...

It certainly improved upon my Panny plasma's factory settings. Remember that THX settings assume neglible light in the room, as per a cinema's ambient lighting. Consequently THX will usually look very washed out and low in contrast when viewed in daylight conditions for example.

There's a list of THX certified discs here http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/thx... and most have the THX optimiser on them. If you don't have one of these THX discs already, Star Wars films are easy to remember.

Edited by Crackie on Thursday 16th January 15:59

[belleair302]

You can download an app onto your phone which can help.....from Panasonic, or a THX disc which has a variety of settings which will improve your picture. Both of which are way cheaper and 80% as good as paying somebody £200 to do a very similar job.

[conkerman]

Your VT should be THX certified, my VT20 certainly is. Whack it in THX mode and see how you get on. I always thought the whites looked a little yellow for my eye.

CBA with the expense of getting someone in, Get it how you like it and tweak over time.

[OldSkoolRS]

Have to agree with Tonkerman; if you don't want the expense of getting it done properly then THX mode (or 'Cinema' mode on other TVs) is often a fairly accurate mode anyway and tends to automatically turn off all the crap that is only put in the menu to impress those who don't know any better.

I wouldn't bother with any phone app if it uses the phone's camera sensor as they are very inaccurate as has been the subject of a long thread on another AV forum I use. If you make the basic adjustments using the THX disc (or download the free and much better AVS HD709 disc) to set the brightness and contrast correctly, you'll be a long way there. I like the improvement that a full calibration gives (hence why I bought some decent gear to DIY) but the above is a whole lot better than out of the box settings and also better than the idiot's route of 'copying someone else's settings off the web' (and I include using reviewer's setting too ).

http://www.avsforum.com/t/948496/avs-hd-709-blu-ra...

[Gurbinder]

I used below and it was good.

http://www.avforums.com/threads/panasonic-tx-p50vt...

[irocfan]

cheers all - looks like I'll have a busy saturday

[gizlaroc]

It is worth calibrating your set, finding the clipping point of a plasma makes as much difference as getting the greyscale and colour right.
By that I mean finding how bright it will go on a full white screen, set it up with a white 25% window on screen and you will find it crushes dark areas when there is say 50% light area on screen, this is what makes a screen look natural imho.


My Pioneer, many think it is under saturated, but it is a very natural looking image...

[OldSkoolRS]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Toxic, my system is calibrated using Chromapure Pro and a decent sensor that is annually calibrated against a reference sensor. I do the greyscale and gamma manually, but Chromapure uses my Lumagen video processor to generate the signals and it runs the 125 point CMS automatically which works really well and saves hours.

I don't think there is necessarily any preference of ISF or THX it's as much down to the person doing it rather than which (or both) certifications/training they hold. I know of a few calibrators over on AVforums who come highly recommended yet I couldn't say off hand whether they are ISF or THX certified.

The trouble when adjusting a plasma screen's contrast is that it depends on what size test pattern you use due to the Automatic brightness limiter (ABL) that they all have. You will get a different result using small windowed patterns compared to full screen (which shouldn't be used on plasma), so it's better to use the smaller windowed patterns when calibrating.

I tend to use the AVS disc to do the basic set up first myself, as even with the automatic calibration set up I use you still have to set the basics correctly to get the best results. If you just plug in and press go you can end up with poor results with reduced light output (for projectors especially) and banding/posturisation due to excessive adjustments. So there is still an art to doing it as well.

Been learning calibration for about 5 years now and I'm still learning new things, but getting the basics right (or just using THX/cinema mode) will often get the display a long way there unless you're really picky.