Apparently I watch way too much tv . Calibration experience

[sunburnwilly]

Recently had my Pioneer 6020fd plasma display calibrated by D-Nice of the AVS forums . Crazy difference in the before and after calibration performance of the display . What I thought looked great was just plain wrong on soo many levels . Whites weren't actually white , colors not even close to where they should be . This is how your display comes set-up from the factory .

Everything is sharper and more lifelike than before . It just looks real . What a waste to have a high end display regardless of what it is and not have it calibrated . Kinda like audio , it's great if you don't know any better .

Have to give a shout out to D-Nice . The guy is highly sought after and goes all over the country calibrating displays . Last week he was in Chicago next week he'll be in Boston . Just so happens that his home base is Columbia , SC . I emailed him last Thursday about having the calibration done thinking hopefully I'll get on a list for when he was in the area . He made the trip down Monday evening just to do my display . A little over 100 miles in some very nasty thunderstorms . Just glad I had power when he arrived .

The process took 2hrs and involves some fairly specialized equipment . Getting into the service menu and adjusting colors and gamas and a bunch of other things that I don't have a clue about . But the end result is impressive .

Here's a couple of fun numbers . Since first set-up Nov. 25th 2008 a little more than a year and a half ago the display has been ;

turned on 1,147 times

hours used 6,833 !!!

[JJkizak]

According to my AVIA test disc my Sony XBR2 was right on the money and did not require any additional adjustment tweeking.

JJK

[CECAA850]

According to my AVIA test disc my Sony XBR2 was right on the money and did not require any additional adjustment tweeking.

JJK

Running Avia and having a professional ISF calibrator are two completely different things. You can argue over the law of diminishing returns,but professional calibration yields better results and normally longer panel life. I've done it both ways.

[synergyfreak]

will second proffesional calibration really makes difference i for yrs went off avs settings for all my plasmas, and flat panel tv's until had a proffesional do it.

[JJkizak]

If the ISF people are anything like the repair people I wouldn't let them touch my tv with a ten foot pole. If the computer controlled fully automatic calibration at the factory is withing 2% why waste money splitting hairs when it will be out of calibration as soon as you adjust the contrast/brightness?

JJK

[CECAA850]

If the ISF people are anything like the repair people I wouldn't let them touch my tv with a ten foot pole.

The tech that came to my house had been an ISF calibrator for years. One piece of equipment he brought was $26,000.00 just by itself. He wasn't your run of the mill appliance repair man. Since he's been to my house, I haven't touched the settings, actually when he was done, there's no need to touch the settings. The panel is set for my room with the lighting that I normally have on when I'm watching it. Before he came out, I had the set adjusted to what I thought was nearly perfect, and I'm extremely picky. After he had finished, you could tell that the set formerly had a red push that I couldn't detect. Everything looked much more lifelike, especially the yellows after he was done. He even gave me before and after graphs to show how much it was off. I started out with a really good picture and ended up with an exceptional one. I couldn't justify spending a good chunk of change on a nice set without getting the best picture that it was capable of reproducing. The manufacturers put alot of adjustments into their sets for a reason. YMMV.

[muel]

After paying for proper calibration you won't want to touch your contrast/brightness ever again!

[sunburnwilly]

If the ISF people are anything like the repair people I wouldn't let them touch my tv with a ten foot pole. If the computer controlled fully automatic calibration at the factory is withing 2% why waste money splitting hairs when it will be out of calibration as soon as you adjust the contrast/brightness?

JJK

Like I said in the first post , ignorance is bliss , or something like that . When D-Nice sends me my charts I will post them and you will clearly see the difference . Before calibration it wowed people and me now it's really something else . Maybe you should check out some of his posts over at the AVS forums chances are he has reccomended settings for your tv . Then get back with me . Oh yeah I have an old friend at Audio Warehouse here in Charleston , SC and he was going to give me a deal at $350. for the calibration , BB wanted $300. to have one of their monkeys do it . D-Nice , who as I said before is highly sought after , drove over 100 miles to do my display for $250. , and then drove back . This guy is an artist and really knows his stuff !

[InVeNtOr]

this is the only forum i go to. do you think you can give me his contact information? you can pm or e mail me if you like. i prefer emails, but as long as you respond, i won't be picky. i have been tweeking my set up for some time and it has now come down to doing the calibration. i have a furman 20pfi, custom furman power cord, custom tv power cord, custom cat 6 cables, and have even custom power cords for my DVR and modem. i will say my normal HD cable looks as good as my blu-ray. now i want to get the calibration done to bring it all together. my colors are so much better now. its neat to see the different blacks too. you can see that most black jacket tops are not the same black as the bottoms.

anyways, if you can provide me with the info i would appreciate it.

[JJkizak]

On a scale of 1 to 100 you have convinced me about .1% to have my set professionally calibrated. Conflicting statements---AVIA cannot detect a small red shift? Which white balance do they use---3400k, 3600k, 5500k, 6500k, 9400k? Which white balance is the tv designed for? If your adjuster is that good how do they adjust for channel differences on live broadcasts OTA? For instance: NBC 1080i- very sharp, excellent contrast, vivid colors. ABC 720p- subdued sharpness and contrast compared to off studio events, FOX 720p- very sharp, excellent contrast, vivid colors. CBS 1080i- very sharp, excellent contrast, vivid colors, PBS 1080i-very very sharp, excellent contrast, vivid colors. Bluray 1080p- very very very sharp, excellent contrast, vivid colors, zero pixalation.

I hope you are not going to tell me to spend 300 bucks on a red shift that I can't see.

JJK

[laager]

Spend on a product which can be used on other TVs and monitors rather than just a single service:

http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc.php

Or just TVs:

http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-ht.php

[mbr311]

This post makes me wonder how bad my setup is in all honesty. I messed with the factory settings to get to a picture I liked but I'm sure if I had someone do it professionally it would be 100x better. But I can't justify spending $250-300 for that really. It sucks because I want the best pictures I can possible get but there's no way I could convince the wifey to drop that much money to adjust the TV settings. Wish there was some kind of guide in regards to what are "optimal" settings generally for the Sharp Aquos I had but I'm sure its just like anything else, can't generalize because there are too many variables. Oh well.

[Olorin]

Yes, I understand your situation. I calibrate monitors all the time, and the fact is that there is no average set of settings for your average device from any monitor. They share behaviors and tolerances, but individual units will swing from optimum in different directions and different amounts yet still be within tolerance, so you have to approach each device as an individual, determine its base characteristics, and drive it toward standard.

Improvement doesn't have to cost a fortune, and I can quickly see three sub-$100 options that will make things better. Seeing the first two is easy -- they were identified earlier in this thread. Yeah, I cheat sometimes. ;-)

In order of decreasing cost:

1) The calibration device laager linked one post above yours.

2) Avia or Digital Video Essentials DVD.

3) Download standard test patterns from the web, burn a DVD of them, do it by eye, and accept that you've done the best you can with what you have.

I suspect option 1 is the best one. I also recommend starting there if you can swing it -- once you make any improvement at all, the law of diminishing returns sets in, and spending money to make the next incremental improvement gets harder to justify to the non-nuts. Most spouses fall into the non-nuts category, and you've indicated you've got one, so you have to decide how to balance all the tensions.

O

[sunburnwilly]

On a scale of 1 to 100 you have convinced me about .1% to have my set professionally calibrated.

HaHa , well if I was trying to sell something that would be a start right ? Trust me your AVIA disc is not capable of doing the details that a pro can . If your savvy enough to access the service menus and play around in there more power to ya . I have the regular Kuro not the Elite and the user adjustments are minimal . The service menus cannot be accessed on my tv without the proper tools to do so . The telling difference is to switch from one of the calibrated picture modes to one that you used before . With the mode I was watching before people look sunburnt now they look natural . Watching Avatar was a real eye opener The Navi actually have flesh tones and are not just vibrant blue . There's allot more fine detail much more than there was before . I can see it and frankly that's all that matters to me .A pro calibration is not your grandads old AVIA disc .

[sunburnwilly]

this is the only forum i go to. do you think you can give me his contact information?

Just go to the AVS forums sign up and PM D-Nice . The guy is not stingy with his advice . Or just get the AVIA disc and it will probably tell you your right on the money .