Calibrate your tv

[Paul2]

Did anybody in here ever calibrate their tv?  Usually by pressing some buttons on the remote control, they can enter the service menu which let them adjust their tv to the right convergence, brightness, contrast, color, tint, sound, and many more.  But only a train profession could do it right and if you don\'t know what you are doing, you can ruin the tv.  NTSC have a setting of 6500k but many tv come out of the box have a so-so setting.  After proper adjustment.  The picture and perhap sound will knock your mind.

I haven\'t try it yet because I don\'t know how to calibrate and if you did, tell me how you did it.

Err, dont you just calibrate it to what your eye see\'s? There really isnt any \'correct\' way (I don\'t think so anyway...).

I might be wrong but I think what your talking about is bogus.

You just adjust it to personal preference. I highly dount putting it on a setting will damage it, I mean, the setting is there to use, so why would it be there if it damages the TV???

I change picture options often, to suit what ever mood I may be in any given week... sometime I want a *warm* picture..sometimes a *cooler* pic..etc.

Yeah, thats what I thought. Theres no \'correct\' setting. Its personal preference.

right, and from what I know, it certainly wont damage the TV.

Exactly. I mean, why would the option be there if it damages it???


Maybe on projection TV\'s, it might wear out the tubes quicker...

[videoholic]

There is a correct setting and that is why you shouldn\'t mess with it.  TVs burn at 6500.  That is their color temp.  CRTs you can change to 3200, and I think there is a setting for even cooler, like 9000 or so.

setting at 3200 is really only nice if you are shooting in a room with a TV.  the normal setting of 6500 makes your tv look blue when you are shooting it in a scene.  So you either turn the color temp of the tv down to 3200 or you turn your lights up to 5600 (Daylight).


And no, you don\'t set the tv to what you think looks good.  When we shoot shows we go to great length to make sure the shows are correct according to color bars before they get sent out.  If your TV is set correctly you should have a good pic on all channels exactly how the director intended it.

Most TVs when they comeo ut of the factory have the sharpness/contrast setting real high.  Apparently that\'s what people like, although it is wrong.  

I would certainly not go into your service menu on a standard tv if you don\'t know what you are doing.  It is very easy to F it up.

Originally posted by Videoholic
There is a correct setting and that is why you shouldn\'t mess with it.  TVs burn at 6500.  That is their color temp.  CRTs you can change to 3200, and I think there is a setting for even cooler, like 9000 or so.

setting at 3200 is really only nice if you are shooting in a room with a TV.  the normal setting of 6500 makes your tv look blue when you are shooting it in a scene.  So you either turn the color temp of the tv down to 3200 or you turn your lights up to 5600 (Daylight).


And no, you don\'t set the tv to what you think looks good.  When we shoot shows we go to great length to make sure the shows are correct according to color bars before they get sent out.  If your TV is set correctly you should have a good pic on all channels exactly how the director intended it.

Most TVs when they comeo ut of the factory have the sharpness/contrast setting real high.  Apparently that\'s what people like, although it is wrong.  

I would certainly not go into your service menu on a standard tv if you don\'t know what you are doing.  It is very easy to F it up.

Man! This guy realy does know what he\'s talkin\' about.

Originally posted by Videoholic
There is a correct setting and that is why you shouldn\'t mess with it.  TVs burn at 6500.  That is their color temp.  CRTs you can change to 3200, and I think there is a setting for even cooler, like 9000 or so.

setting at 3200 is really only nice if you are shooting in a room with a TV.  the normal setting of 6500 makes your tv look blue when you are shooting it in a scene.  So you either turn the color temp of the tv down to 3200 or you turn your lights up to 5600 (Daylight).


And no, you don\'t set the tv to what you think looks good.  When we shoot shows we go to great length to make sure the shows are correct according to color bars before they get sent out.  If your TV is set correctly you should have a good pic on all channels exactly how the director intended it.

Most TVs when they comeo ut of the factory have the sharpness/contrast setting real high.  Apparently that\'s what people like, although it is wrong.  

I would certainly not go into your service menu on a standard tv if you don\'t know what you are doing.  It is very easy to F it up.

Man! This guy realy does know what he\'s talking about.



EDIT:  The network here at work is screwing up today, I didn\'t try to post twice, sorry.

Originally posted by Videoholic


Most TVs when they comeo ut of the factory have the sharpness/contrast setting real high.  Apparently that\'s what people like, although it is wrong.  

I would certainly not go into your service menu on a standard tv if you don\'t know what you are doing.  It is very easy to F it up.

Vid, it isnt wrong if a person likes a particualr picture over another. From your standpoint it maybe, videography, but some people like a high sharpness setting, others like less contrast..etc.

AS far as servicing, how hard is it to fine tune the settings? Unless you and the thread starter are talking about something me and racer are not.

[videoholic]

The thread starter I think was talking about more detailed settings that you need a particular sequence with your remote to get to.  I have it here somewhere, but it\'s probably better that i don\'t post it.

I think what the poster was talking about more that just contrast/ brightness/ color/ etc..

I think he is talking about convergence, skew, etc....

They are all done with codes and if you don\'t know what you are doing you can easily throw your guns out of whack and you will never see white again.

send me a pm with the codes .. I DO NOT hold you responsible for what ever may occur.

The service mode access codes are different for each manufacturer and often for each model of television.  You sometimes need a programmable universal remote like the OneForAll Cinema7 to use the codes.  The TV\'s stock remote may not allow you to do everything.  The other cool thing about using a universal remote is that many TVs and other components will accept infrared commands to perform functions that were not implemented on the stock remote.  So you could very easily do more with the universal remote.

Also, projection TVs are usually more adjustable than the direct view televisions that most people have.  If you want to find out how to do more with your television, start reading the home theater forums and websites.  There is a huge amount of information out there.

Calibrating your TVs through the service menu is a necessity for you avid movie watchers.  TV manufacturers do everything they can to make their set stand out against all those other TVs in the store.  They bump up the red level to enhance whites, overdo Scan Velocity Modualtion (SVM), saturate the contrast level, and much much much more.

2 TVs in my house have been calibrated (other 2 are too small to care about) by me.  I disabled the red push, toggle the manual anamorphic squeeze trick on the JVC, fixed color leves, enhanced black levels, corrected component input timings, etc...  I also put a 6500k bias light behind the wega and made black mattes for WS movies.  The sets simply look great compared to when I first got em.

A calibrating DVD (Avia or Vid Essentials) with circular test patterns can help you set your geometry.  If you wanna go one more you can hire an ISF technician to come to your house and do even more things that require multi-thousand dollar equipment.  There are several techs that are popular in the HT community over the internet.  They even do "Calibrating Tours" all across America.  I\'d lay down the cash for one but being a college student it\'s just not feasible for me right now.

If you are looking to get into the service menu for your particular set check out Michael TLV\'s site.

http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/

It has a wealth of info.  Look at the menu bar towards the bottom to find your TV.

Hey THX, it\'s funny you should mention Michael TLV.  He did a calibration tour in southern california last fall, and I signed up.  That\'s right, he calibrated my Toshiba last October.  I took him to lunch after that.  He\'s an interesting person, but sort of a geek.  

He did several things with the tv that I couldn\'t or wouldn\'t have done, but also several things that I could have easily done myself.  In fact I had to teach myself how to "undo" one of the things he did.  The mechanical improvements however were well worth it, especially disabling the SVM boards, restacking the screen elements, and doing that tape trick with the outside lenses.  I probably would not have done those things myself.