Calibration of a TV

[eddie willers]

Man , I am learning a lot. Thanks everybody. Some keep mentioning WOW disc. just curious. How does it work? U inser it in dvd or bluray player? Do you enter tv brand and model number and let it decide what is the best?

At one time there were 3 or 4 calibration discs out there. The first ones were DVD and came with a blue filter made out of film (to set "Tint/Hue"). These were updated to Blu Ray discs when that format reached critical mass. The last one I bought was from Disney and called the WOW disc.

A quick search through Amazon shows that most have now been discontinued. The one that seems to still be in business is from a company called Spears & Munsil. They also now have a 4K/HDR version (that I imagine is close to rocket science ) and you would need a 4K disc player to use.

Now remember, we are trying to get to "close enough for government work" and, though it won't be "perfect", it can get you very close.

I'll bet you can even get close with a non Blu Ray DVD. The WOW Blu ray is discontinued and people are paying ridiculous amounts for old ones. Don't do it.

If I was buying today, I would give this a lot of thought. Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark and Calibration

 

[HipKat]

Speaking of 4K televisions, the deal of the day on Amazon today is a 65 inch LG Series eight Nanotech TV for $556. My buddy just bought the same one last month and paid almost 900 for it. I’ve been watching a 47 inch LG 1080P for five years, so I had to pull the trigger.

 

[eddie willers]

Speaking of 4K televisions, the deal of the day on Amazon today is a 65 inch LG Series eight Nanotech TV for $556. My buddy just bought the same one last month and paid almost 900 for it. I’ve been watching a 47 inch LG 1080P for five years, so I had to pull the trigger.

I saw that. UNBELIEVABLE.

 

[HipKat]

I retired in 2010 and with all this "Energy Saving" crap (see 'modern' Dishwashers/Clothes Washers that don't work as well as the ones in the 1960s) that this wouldn't surprise me. But isnt 'energy saving' a setting and not a picture mode? Meaning, it can be as crappy as Vivid, but with less gain?

I’ll look on mine but I’m quite sure that the settings I see would be like movies, game, sports, vivid, expert, energy and those are paraphrased by the way.

I agree on the low energy setting on anything, it gets turned off immediately.

 

[bookworm370]

I won't argue your experience, but I have been involved in hundreds of threads about the results of D65K calibration and have NEVER heard a single comment that described the picture as bright. Even pro calibrators would never say D65K is bright. You can go to any theatre and the movies are tuned to D65K and they won't look "bright"

I'm not arguing with you and with all due respect, you're not here to see what a Sony Masters Series XBR OLED can do. I had my Samsung Plasma for years and I thought it had great PQ, but I'm watching the TV right now in the daytime witl all the blinds open and it's as bright as anything, and I just double checked and the settings are still on the Custom mode.

Now the Sony does have an ambient light sensor that will adjust the levels automatically, that's why he asked if we normally watch during the evening or the day (so he taped over the sensor to simulate night mode). But I'm watching the Hallmark (well my wife is watching Hallmark) channel and the PQ is amazing. Double down on that on Amazon Prime on the Fire Cube, or Blu-Ray, playing real 4K content and I'm a happy camper.

Again, I can attach the calibration report if anyone wants to see it, but it would be specific to my TV, the way it came out of the box to the way he calibrated it.

 

[eddie willers]

I'm not arguing with you and with all due respect, you're not here to see what a Sony Masters Series XBR OLED can do. I had my Samsung Plasma for years and I thought it had great PQ, but I'm watching the TV right now in the daytime witl all the blinds open and it's as bright as anything, and I just double checked and the settings are still on the Custom mode.

Now the Sony does have an ambient light sensor that will adjust the levels automatically, that's why he asked if we normally watch during the evening or the day (so he taped over the sensor to simulate night mode). But I'm watching the Hallmark (well my wife is watching Hallmark) channel and the PQ is amazing. Double down on that on Amazon Prime on the Fire Cube, or Blu-Ray, playing real 4K content and I'm a happy camper.

Again, I can attach the calibration report if anyone wants to see it, but it would be specific to my TV, the way it came out of the box to the way he calibrated it.

Well you answered most of that with the ambient light sensor. I would guess it boosts Brightness and Contrast etc. as needed. That, indeed, takes you off the standard, but in a good and necessary way. (I'm guessing a Sony Masters Series XBR would have a very good one)

The other case may be HDR and the advanced Dynamic Range of recent OLED sets. Dynamic Range is the difference between the blackest black and the whitest white. The OLED (all of them) start at absolute zero and the newer sets will really jump when it is asked to.

 

[HipKat]

I saw that. UNBELIEVABLE.

I know. I had to do all kinds of searching on the Internet to make sure that this wasn’t some Walmart level of TV. You know like a Corvette with a four-cylinder in it but it turns out it’s a damn good TV

 

[olds403]

I won't argue your experience, but I have been involved in hundreds of threads about the results of D65K calibration and have NEVER heard a single comment that described the picture as bright. Even pro calibrators would never say D65K is bright. You can go to any theatre and the movies are tuned to D65K and they won't look "bright"

Actually the calibration to D65K has nothing to do with brightness, those are separate settings. D65K is the calibration of the grayscale so that it is actually gray from 10% to 100% brightness.

The brightness and contrast settings are to set the peak white (so that it does not "bloom") and black levels (are not crushed), it is those settings that will frequently result in a darker picture, but it is set that way for a reason, you don't want something that is only 90% brightness to display at 100% so there is no gradation where there should be.

The sharpness issue is that having sharpness set too high adds information to the picture that is not there. You can see this when setting the sharpness with a calibration pattern, it will add artificial white edges to things. There are reasons for all of this, so that you actually seeing the picture the way that it was created. People can watch their tv's any way they want, overblown colors on the "sports" mode or blazingly bright if they prefer, but that is not what the actual image was originally intended to look like.

 

[omeletpants]

Actually the calibration to D65K has nothing to do with brightness, those are separate settings. D65K is the calibration of the grayscale so that it is actually gray from 10% to 100% brightness.

The brightness and contrast settings are to set the peak white (so that it does not "bloom") and black levels (are not crushed), it is those settings that will frequently result in a darker picture, but it is set that way for a reason, you don't want something that is only 90% brightness to display at 100% so there is no gradation where there should be.

The sharpness issue is that having sharpness set too high adds information to the picture that is not there. You can see this when setting the sharpness with a calibration pattern, it will add artificial white edges to things. There are reasons for all of this, so that you actually seeing the picture the way that it was created. People can watch their tv's any way they want, overblown colors on the "sports" mode or blazingly bright if they prefer, but that is not what the actual image was originally intended to look like.

A TV calibrated to D65k will be darker and softer than what 80% of watchers are willing to accept. The Director may have wanted that but the public doesnt. In the thousands of comments in the D65K debate, calibrators freely admit that the vast majority of customers change their settings. It's not an opinion, but fact. You can verify by searching the archives of the AVS forum back to 2005

 

[olds403]

A TV calibrated to D65k will be darker and softer than what 80% of watchers are willing to accept. The Director may have wanted that but the public doesnt. In the thousands of comments in the D65K debate, calibrators freely admit that the vast majority of customers change their settings. It's not an opinion, but fact. You can verify by searching the archives of the AVS forum back to 2005

I know how the calibrations work, The ACTUAL D65K calibration of th gray scale is not related to brightness, D65K is calibration of gray scale to a color temperature of 6500k, and affects colors and grays, there are temperature settings that approximate the D65 color temperature, usually named WARM or sometimes WARM2 if they have multiple color temperature settings available. This is SEPARATE from brightness (which is also calibrated to known standards). I was merely stating that color temperature grayscale calibration does NOT have to affect the brightness as they are not inter-related.

 

[arlo]

For years in my little niche, Avia Guide to Home Theater was one of the go-to calibration tools. It actually continued to be highly regarded as one of "The Tools" to calibrate displays of all types during those days. We passed it around work quite a bit.
I just ran sections of it on my TV and for my satellite input things were very close. To an extent. I burned it to a USB.

Personally without going way too far out on factory settings. Those should ballpark you pretty close.
Your brain is very adaptive. My self proclaimed audiophile friends blow my mind when I go over and see bass and treble controls cranked at 3 o'clock.
Equalizers set at a V pattern. I joke that maybe they should give it wipe of Rogaine.

Heck. Even when we were kids and went over to grandma's her TV was green. And bright. Who knows how long she had watched it like that.
But oh no, reaching for the color and tint knobs would get her screaming don't you dare touch that. That she'd have to call the service man again.
Mom would distract gram into the kitchen, give me a wink and a nod. Bob Barker and Jeannie weren't green any more. You come up with the rest.

Anyway. With most newer TV's having multiple HDMI ports and individual settings for each one, a tweak here and there certainly won't hurt.
Color bar and gray scale bars at the least are a good thing to have.
Brick and mortar stores blow your mind when you jump into the menu of the TV with the nicest picture and once you jump into the setup menu find that the settings are maxed out. Then you bump them back to the factory 50% levels to see how they look out of the box.

You're certainly not likely to screen burn a modern TV or blush it from cranking up the knobs but I would say that if you find yourself veering much from the factory 50% or so settings to get a decent picture. It's either your input source or your brain. Maybe it's that el-cheapo display you might have waited and saved up your pennies for a better one. Other than seeing one in person I rely on reviews from many different sites.

 

[eddie willers]

For years in my little niche, Avia Guide to Home Theater was one of the go-to calibration tools. It actually continued to be highly regarded as one of "The Tools" to calibrate displays of all types during those days. We passed it around work quite a bit.
I just ran sections of it on my TV and for my satellite input things were very close. To an extent. I burned it to a USB.

Personally without going way too far out on factory settings. Those should ballpark you pretty close.
Your brain is very adaptive. My self proclaimed audiophile friends blow my mind when I go over and see bass and treble controls cranked at 3 o'clock.
Equalizers set at a V pattern. I joke that maybe they should give it wipe of Rogaine.

View attachment 147467View attachment 147467

This reads like I wrote it.

I used the Avia disc for years as it was good and you could get to the proper patterns quick. I would also calibrate the audio with it using a Radio Shack analog SPL decibel meter.

 

[olds403]

This reads like I wrote it.

I used the Avia disc for years as it was good and you could get to the proper patterns quick. I would also calibrate the audio with it using a Radio Shack analog SPL decibel meter.

Still have mine in a box with my laser for aiming speakers. Near my tripod that is used for the calibration mike (used to be used for the sound level meter).

 

[eddie willers]

Still have mine in a box with my laser for aiming speakers. Near my tripod that is used for the calibration mike (used to be used for the sound level meter).

Laser!

 

[olds403]

Laser!

LOL

 

[DishSubLA]

Quite a discussion. My lousy two cents:

Spears and Munsil (probably spelled wrong) does have Blu-ray calibration disc and I think maybe a UHD, but not sure on that. Anyway these reasonably priced Blu-ray calibration discs can make a difference and when done provide a place from which to START, and then you can make adjustments so that the Dish PQ suits you. I find I often increase DETAIL on the TV for almost all my devices connected to my TV. Most people find these useful calibrations that have made a difference for the better.

As for Pro calibration: that is really more for true videophiles who LIKE such calibrations along with the flaws they show. Most TV's today just don't need the average consumer to pay all that money for a pro calibration because the TV's rarely perform far from their ideal settings. Today, if one has a TV PQ that is dissappointing, it is far more likely that the TV just not capable of performing much better. It is suprising how many TV's today come from the factory pretty much spot on at the best of the TV's capabilities, but that was not so in the past.

Also, pro calibrations are not "aesthetic" from the view of the average consumer. Pro calibrations can show clear film grain on a great many Blu-rays because far too many Blu-rays were not mastered well. Also, most people really do like those rich, deep, over-saturated bright colors that just "pop" out of the screen. In fact, most people LOVE their entire PQ to "pop" out at them. You will lose that with many pro calibrations because those "pop" qualites are NOT realistic, and often not what a film director wanted for their film. However, what makes TV so engrossing and "aesthetic" is the UN-realistic bright colors and great detail with "life like" PQ that is clear and clean, and that stuff is next to impossible to achieve without the TV's processing all that data to "enhance" how "great" it looks on screen and give it that "pop" that most people want. I for one do not want a TV to act as a Conrac monitor showing all ills and flaws to be corrected. At home, I want the aesthetic result and processing is a big part of what makes these TV's look as good as they do.