[Sibeber]

Just used a calibration dvd on my samsung plasma and my panasonic lcd ..was dissapointed with the results ,could i be doing something wrong ? Anyone else got any experience with caliibration dvd's ? now back to using my eyes

[-GONZO-]

Best one I've used is AVSHD 709 and its free, just burn to a DVD.
http://www.avsforum.com/t/948496/avs...p4-calibration

[Lumstorm]

How were you disappointed? These discs are made to make your picture more accurate, so the colour can look dull and the picture darker.Sometimes you will think its not as good but live with it for a week and you get used to it and you should see more detail in the picture.

The problem with using your eyes is that we tend to prefer brighter more colourful images which are very artificial which is why shop display TV have the brightness way up and the colour turned up to max.

[alan1302]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumstorm

The problem with using your eyes is that we tend to prefer brighter more colourful images which are very artificial which is why shop display TV have the brightness way up and the colour turned up to max.

I've tried proper calibration etc before but it just does not work for me - think I must just like bright and shiny!

[Sibeber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumstorm

How were you disappointed? These discs are made to make your picture more accurate, so the colour can look dull and the picture darker.Sometimes you will think its not as good but live with it for a week and you get used to it and you should see more detail in the picture.

The problem with using your eyes is that we tend to prefer brighter more colourful images which are very artificial which is why shop display TV have the brightness way up and the colour turned up to max.

The disappointment was in calibrating colour .I did as per the instructions and my plasma ended up with a colour setting of 46 resulting in bright red faces of people on screen , wimbledon grass was too green etc.Contrast and brightness seemd to calibrate fine , i accepted the settings but turned colour down to 30.

[Chris Frost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sibeber

The disappointment was in calibrating colour .I did as per the instructions and my plasma ended up with a colour setting of 46 resulting in bright red faces of people on screen , wimbledon grass was too green etc.Contrast and brightness seemd to calibrate fine , i accepted the settings but turned colour down to 30.

The test patterns for black level (brightness) and white level (contrast) are set with a simple comparative test. These can be done by anyone. There's no special equipment required. However, anything to do with colour requires a minimum of a colour filter gel (a blue gel) through which to view the test pattern unless your TV has a "blue only" mode.

So, did you have the gel? What disc did you use?

Even with a gel the most you can do is set the master level for the tint and colour controls. It is not possible to do anything with the grey scale tracking with any degree of accuracy without a colour sensor and PC software. This is because our eyes constantly adjust for changes in colour temperature in the real world. They do the same when watching TV.

The next question normally asked is "Why bother with colour adjustments if our eyes compensate".

The answer is that when we adapt to make white look white in nature, the rest of the colour palette is viewed under the same lighting conditions. TVs don't work that way. The colour balance can (and does) often change across the grey scale. There will often be a predominance of blue in the upper half of the grey scale to make whites look brighter. Then there's a hump of red corresponding to Caucasian skin tones attempt to correct for the over-blue. The result is that faces end up looking magenta (too much red/blue mix) rather than natural. At the darker end of the grey scale there could be a predominance of red, green or blue or any combination depending on whether the TV was set to cool, natural or warm colour preset as a start point.

Setting the master colour level doesn't normally result in the sort of issues you seem to have unless something else has been altered incorrectly first. The most likely candidates are colour preset, gamma and greyscale or CMS settings. However, this doesn't rule out the effects of manufacturer's picture "enhancements" which often just screw up the picture.

So, what did you adjust and how?

[Sibeber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

The test patterns for black level (brightness) and white level (contrast) are set with a simple comparative test. These can be done by anyone. There's no special equipment required. However, anything to do with colour requires a minimum of a colour filter gel (a blue gel) through which to view the test pattern unless your TV has a "blue only" mode.

So, did you have the gel? What disc did you use?

Even with a gel the most you can do is set the master level for the tint and colour controls. It is not possible to do anything with the grey scale tracking with any degree of accuracy without a colour sensor and PC software. This is because our eyes constantly adjust for changes in colour temperature in the real world. They do the same when watching TV.

The next question normally asked is "Why bother with colour adjustments if our eyes compensate".

The answer is that when we adapt to make white look white in nature, the rest of the colour palette is viewed under the same lighting conditions. TVs don't work that way. The colour balance can (and does) often change across the grey scale. There will often be a predominance of blue in the upper half of the grey scale to make whites look brighter. Then there's a hump of red corresponding to Caucasian skin tones attempt to correct for the over-blue. The result is that faces end up looking magenta (too much red/blue mix) rather than natural. At the darker end of the grey scale there could be a predominance of red, green or blue or any combination depending on whether the TV was set to cool, natural or warm colour preset as a start point.

Setting the master colour level doesn't normally result in the sort of issues you seem to have unless something else has been altered incorrectly first. The most likely candidates are colour preset, gamma and greyscale or CMS settings. However, this doesn't rule out the effects of manufacturer's picture "enhancements" which often just screw up the picture.

So, what did you adjust and how?

Thanks Chris the disc Is used is a disney blu ray calibration DVD , I used the supplied blue filter and adjusted as per instructions .Im not technical as you can gather but I had to get two blue bars with a white tip to match so that the tips were gone and to do that i ended up really having to crank the colour up .I'm not gonna bother with it any more as I'm delighted with the picture on my tv now .

[Sibeber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sibeber

Thanks Chris the disc Is used is a disney blu ray calibration DVD , I used the supplied blue filter and adjusted as per instructions .Im not technical as you can gather but I had to get two blue bars with a white tip to match so that the tips were gone and to do that i ended up really having to crank the colour up .I'm not gonna bother with it any more as I'm delighted with the picture on my tv now .

ps just to clarify I have switched off all the manufacturers picture enhancements.

[Lumstorm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sibeber

ps just to clarify I have switched off all the manufacturers picture enhancements.

I really wonder why they bother with all these picture enhancements when you tend to switch them off to improve the picture. Saying that I know plenty of people who stretch a 4:3 picture to fill the 16:9 screen and think it looks much better like that.

[Kenny Maclean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumstorm

I really wonder why they bother with all these picture enhancements when you tend to switch them off to improve the picture. Saying that I know plenty of people who stretch a 4:3 picture to fill the 16:9 screen and think it looks much better like that.

Most of the "enhancements" are to make the TV's look good in the harsh / bad lighting in the stores.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenny Maclean

Most of the "enhancements" are to make the TV's look good in the harsh / bad lighting in the stores.

Not at all, they have a special 'shop demo mode' for that, nothing to do with customer picture 'enhancements'.

[fastest finger]

OP, if you own (or have access to) an iPad / iPhone with HDMI connector or Airplay then there is a "THX Tune-up" app available which is pretty handy.