CECAA850 Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 The reason the TV's are so far off some times is beacuase the manufacturers want the tv's to look best in the stores, where poeple compare them. But, our home settings are very different than the stores. Also the color blue is very eye catching and appealing so TV manufacturers like to boost the blue levels so their TV catches your eye better. But 300 bucks to calibrate seems too much.... I remember seeing those spider colorimeters for like 200-300 for a cheap basic one. With a little time resarching you could do a pretty good job with one of them. I've read several reports over at the AVS forum from people who used the Spider and the picture was worse than when they started. I personally have no firsthand knowledge however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Monster Cable (Yes, that Monster Cable, LOL ) has a disc with the cooperation of ISF to calibrate your HDTV. It is not perfect, but it does work. Short of hiring someone to your house, I suggest this route first. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-IWy935hSZvV/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?I=119HDTVCAL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian_Dude Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 i've used both avia 2 and digital video essentials(on blu-ray for HDTVs) and I am not impressed with either of them.... They both spend more time on explaing what a home theatre is than calibrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Avia has a general one... And one I bought at CEDIA with a LOT more stuff on it. Bottom line is, you have to get to know your HDTV and what you can do with it too. Your room may dictate a lot depending on your lighting situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khorn#1 Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 I've got a 73 Mits rear projection that I bought in 2004 that at that time paid more than most would pay for a tv. It was and still is noted by most in the industry to be one of the best built performance televisions in the market. It is huge but I have it in a large home theater media room so thats not a problem. Last october I had Craig Rounds from the chicago area come down to calibrate this set. I met him through the Home theater spot forum ( Like this forum alot of nice folks that for the most part no what there talking about concerning Video performance ) Anyway, Craig does this for his living and nothing else so he sets up these tours at differont times of the year so after talking to other forum members and doing some other research comcerning video calibrating I made my appointment with him to come to my home in Birmingham, Al. He is regarded as one of the best on the planet at what he does and I will tell you that its not cheap for him to come to your home but he will make follow up visits every year at a much lower price to keep everything in tune which is an option.. When he arrived at my home, he brought with him about 60,000 worth of equipment, software, etc. He was at my home for ten hours working and adjusting my set which already had a good display I thought. When he was finished I could not believe my eyes, this was the best display I had seen anywhere and I have seen $ 30,000 runco front projectors, fancy plasmas,Lcd, etc. True HD broadcast is amazing, Granted, I did purchase a $ 2000.00 Lumagen video scaler from Craig which he calibrated and set up also but even without the scaler the display was very, very good and still one of the best I had seen. The scaler took it to another level. Blacks, whites, grey scale were spot on. The lumagen is not for the amature, its highly recomended that someone with Craigs credentials install it. He told me not to adjust anything but if I did and messed up what he had done that all I had to do is reset the lumagen with a push of a button and it would go back to the calabrated settings which I thought was pretty cool.He also made a backup of all my calibrated settings so in the event of some major problem he could download all my correct calibrated settings right into the lumagen through the USB port on the back of the unit which is also great to know and at no extra cost. He also installed a SDI video connection on my Denon 2900 DVD player which improved its performance to the point that its not HD or blue ray but it aint far off from it. It to runs through the Lumagen scaler also. If you really want to get your display to look its best, Craig can make it happen and I no talking to other people that has used Craig that he can work his majic on any display you might have from front projection to plasma, etc. Now I will tell you Standard definition does not improve much but who watches that on a large video display anyway. I 've got a 20 inch tube in my home office for that.I'll be honest and say that I did spend much more than I ever thought I would on a vidio display since I'm mainly a two channel audio freak but it is a treat to watch this display especially true HD sporting events. Thanks, Randy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsu99999 Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 I have calibrated my own set and the settings can easily mess up your tv. It's typically called the service menu and can be entered by pressing certin keys on your remote in sequence. It's the menu that the manufacturers put in there that allows you to change literally every aspect of your screen. Size, color, temp, etc etc. These menus are very dangerous to mess with if you don't know what you are doing. you can definately mess up your TV beyond repair because some settings can't be accessed again if changed and your stuck with an out of focus tv. Manufacturers send their TV's WAY OFF of a natural color spectrum. I'm sure that most people here read Sound and Vision or some other HT magazine - If you read their reviews of TV's you will see the color temp and what they did to get it close to 6500k. This is what they are refering to. Almost Every single tv set out there needs this service. Sure, you can get by without it, and most people will never even know their tv is underperforming but for people on this Forum, I would think almost everyone would benefit from this service. It is just like recapping your networks, it's something that most people don't even know they need done, but when it is done, wow! 300 bucks is average, but if you go to AVS Forum and read up on it for a few weeks, it's something you could do yourself if you have the guts for it and are fairly technical. Good luck PS - I'm at work and don't have time to proofread or even go back to see if this makes sense. If it doesn't - sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 You know thats how my teachers/advisors described me at school, underperforming, needing an adjustment. Well I showed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 The Avia test DVD that I used had the whole schmeer, HD, SD, Color, Black & white, resolution, black levels, contrast, brightness, overscan, linearity, power supply loading and home theatre. My 1080P Sony just flew right through every test, including the ones looking through the special color plastic at the test squares. My eyes say it is as good as it gets OTA, HD-DVD, DVD, WMV, and direct feed from my Sony Z1 HD camera (1440 x 1080). Now I used to have an old Rollie 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 slide projector that would project a slide on the ceilings and the floor with the zoom lens with absolute wow quality. The LCD HDTV has the same wow quality at a very much smaller screen until you switch from HD to SD or analog. I will concede that with the pro calibrator you can take the accuracy from 98.9% to 100%. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 JJ, I agree with you. Mine too as well, on my projection system. I had the same results and people are just in awe! Case n point, you can spend 30k for a runco and 20k on a screen as my neighbor has,.. And still look like crap without a disc like this... Mine smokes his away 100 times... hehehehehehehe Roger.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h00kemh0rns Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 I'm curious about how good the Avia II (Blu Ray) version would be as compared to having an ISF Calibration done. I'm actually going to have the ISF cal done on my new Samsung Series 7 TV...but now that I have a home theater (projector) I was debating on doing one or the other. Seems there is no one way that is definitively good. The Avia is a do it yourself disc but the blu ray version isn't due out until Fall of this year. Not to mention people on avsforum have had mixed reviews. Whereas I've done the ISF cal before and there is a dramatic difference in the performance. However you're paying ~$300 for the service and is it any better than Avia? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Pretty sure I saw the avia one in blue ray at best buy last night? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h00kemh0rns Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Pretty sure I saw the avia one in blue ray at best buy last night? Doubtful...maybe a different flavor of Avia but as far as I'm aware the blu ray version isn't out yet. See email I received today: info@ovationmultimedia.com to me show details 8:51 AM (6 hours ago) Reply Thank you for your inquiry. Our target is now sometime in the 3rd quarterof this year for the Avia High Definition Blu-ray Disc release. I will add your email address to our database in order to send you a noticeonce the disc is available. We were hoping to have it on the market bynow, but changes are currently being made to its content. We are postponingits release in order to cover all features offered by Blu-ray such as BDLive and a PS3 set up guide. Thank you for your interest in our products! Kind regards,Lisa BerendtsOvation Multimedia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 However you're paying ~$300 for the service and is it any better than Avia? Yes. I am quite puzzled however how someone who's never had a set ISF'd can give an opinion about how it's only marginally better than using a calibration disc. I've yet to read a post that states "I've had my set done by a calibrator and It wasn't worth the extra money I paid over doing it myself. (That most may be out there somewhere, but I havn't seen it) That being said,I suppose it could fall into the law of diminishing return category. You also need to realize that the calibrator is going into the service menus that aren't accessed by the typical owner when using a disc. Will a disc do a good job? Yes. Is it as good as an ISF calibrator? No. Is it worth the extra money? Only you can decide that. Having seen a normal set, the same set set up with Avia and the same set ISF'd is what I'm basing my opinion on. To me it was worth the money, to others it isn't. Some like tubes, some like SS. It goes on and on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h00kemh0rns Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 I am quite puzzled however how someone who's never had a set ISF'd can give an opinion about how it's only marginally better than using a calibration disc. I've yet to read a post that states "I've had my set done by a calibrator and It wasn't worth the extra money I paid over doing it myself. (That most may be out there somewhere, but I havn't seen it) That being said,I suppose it could fall into the law of diminishing return category. You also need to realize that the calibrator is going into the service menus that aren't accessed by the typical owner when using a disc. Will a disc do a good job? Yes. Is it as good as an ISF calibrator? No. Is it worth the extra money? Only you can decide that. Having seen a normal set, the same set set up with Avia and the same set ISF'd is what I'm basing my opinion on. To me it was worth the money, to others it isn't. Some like tubes, some like SS. It goes on and on. I'm assuming this rant was meant for someone else... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 I'm assuming this rant was meant for someone else... Only the word "Yes" was directed at your question. Sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was ranting. It certainly was not directed at you. As a matter of fact it was not directed at any one person, just my observations from this thread along with others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 It was brand new in the Magnolia Theater area.. was a HDTV blu ray disk for calabration... I will check who from.. I might be there tonight, I will take another look....(I am finally thinking a Sony Blu Ray PS3 for my HT.) I also have a ISF disk...Bought it at CEDIA... So not a "consumer" one... That is what I used.. it made a BIG improvement on my HDTV. Like others have said, even at 720 native on a dlp projection HDTV, it is just stunning... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian_Dude Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Indy I bet it was the monster calibration disc.... I know they just put a Blu-ray version out his year. Otherwise it was probabbly digital video essentials, the one I have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 I am thinking Monster who does things with ISF too.. Your probably right.. I will let you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsu99999 Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 The Calibration discs do NOT do the same thing a professional will do to your set. Sure you can change settings, but the settings your changing are NOT the system menu as stated several times. This is a professional calibration and will produce much better results over a disc. I assure you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 If you purchase the service manual for your set it will tell you how to access the service menu. There is also a default setting for these adjustments which may or may not get you back to where you started. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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