04-27-2019 07:45 PM
04-29-2019 01:58 PM
Hello, SimonTaub,
You are far too kind for sharing some of the in's and out's of getting a TV calibrated. It's one of the roads less traveled by most customers but the final product can net you a more immersive viewing experience. That being said, I do want to warn perspective DIYers who may want to tackle this to be aware that there are a lot more settings and steps involved in getting a TV fully calibrated and close to perfect. Changing your settings also vary depending on a few different factors. If any readers would like to read our TKB on calibrations I've linked it below.
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07-17-2019 12:34 PM
Sorry guys but this comment:
"side thought, and very importantly, the television does need a break in period; about 6 months for entry level televisions; shorter for for more advanced televisions with a higher refresh rate"
is absolutely not true.
First of all no two people have the exact same viewing habits so suggesting someone wait SIX MONTHS to calibrate their television is such an impossible and vague measurement it can't do anyone any good. Please cite a source for this recommendation, which respected professional is suggesting a break-in period even remotely close to 6 months? Imagine all the HDTV shootouts that use new panels that are invalid due to being done around 100 hours of being opened? And who is going to spend money calibrating an entry-level television anyway? They're never going to acheive a respectable calibration to begin with. What would refresh rate have to do with break-in period on LCD/LED sets where the pixel isn't self-illuminating? I do recall people used to do 200 hour break-ins on Pioneer and Panasonic plasmas but that was because the person (DeWayne Davis) doing the calibration ON A DIFFERENT SET, said they were doing it after running the EA calibration slides for 200 hours and thus if people wanted to "closely" match the picture they were getting with a professional ISF calibration, they should do the same to try and have the panel at the same lifespan, because no two panels perform identically. If you want to break in your TV for 100 hours, that's 4 days not 6 months! 200 hours? Now you're at 8 days.
I wouldn't hesitate to have my brand new OLED panel calibrated within a week out of the box, why wait 6 months to get the best picture out of it? Seems absurd, especially for those who have money that might be upgrading to the newest model annually - now you're only watching your TV calibrated for 50% of its viewing lifespan. If you're spending money on today's stunning OLED panels, makes sense to spring $300~$400 for a professional calibration to get the most out of it.
If you want a generic calibration, spend $30 on the Spears & Munsil disc (4K UHD also now available) and be done with it.
07-17-2019 12:51 PM
Is it truly worth it? I know some people that have paid for the service and swear by it but I cannot help but think that they swear by it because they paid somebody a lot of money.
There are a number of articles out there stating that modern higher end TV's are already coming so good out of the box that calibration had almost no change to the picture.
I have seen supposedly calibrated TV's on display in the store and have been over whelmed buy the result.
I go for the most white white and the most black black when I look at a picture. And the "calibrated" sets were not terribly black black or white white.
07-17-2019 01:02 PM
11-08-2020 08:23 AM
11-08-2020 01:37 PM
11-10-2020 11:42 PM
I took the time to rewrite the write up because it was so inaccurate hopefully this is easier to follow. If a moderator want to edit my first post with the following it might save some people some confusion...
BASIC TERMS:
Backlight: Adjusts the levels of lighting behind the display allowing the image to be seen
Contrast: Adjusts the difference between black and white
Brightness: Adjusts the amount of light that is displayed from the original format(the camera that recorded the media)
Sharpness: Adjusts the basic clarity of the image displayed ( H Sharpness and V Sharpness stand for Horizontal and Vertical)
Color: Adjusts the amount of color that is displayed on your television
Hue or Tint: On televisions; is a tool to adjust, as you prefer, the amount of (G)reen shade or tint; and (R)ed shade or hue (-/+) in the entire display
Temperature: Is a tool to adjust the level of colors to display an effect of summer or winter, warm or cool/cold.
ADVANCED TERMS:
Dynamic Contrast: adjust the contrast using artificial light
Dynamic Color: adjusts the color using artificial light
Preferred Color: Adjusts the colors of the High Dynamic Range engine, that is used to create a better, more accurate depth of field
Gamut: Amount of available colors
Gamma: Color spectrum
COLOR TERMS:
Saturation: On televisions; is a tool used to correct color bleeding in the display panel caused by data transfer components(hardware)
Hue or Tint: On televisions; is a tool to adjust, as you prefer, the amount of green shade(tint) or red shade(hue) per pixel {or in the entire display}
Luminance: Is the measure of the ratio of light (color) to surface area(display). (this is a measurement of the amount of color the reaches the face of the display)
we will adjust these later on after I explain what chroma is.
WHITE BALANCE TERMS:
2 Point White Balance: Is a precise tool allowing for most accurate calibration and correction of the white balance of a television (your television is set to 3:6:1 out of the box)
Gain/Highs: On televisions; is a tool used to tune the illuminance (strength/power) of all the colors in the display
Offset/Lows: On televisions; is a tool used to tune the saturation of all the colors in the display by pixel
Your white balance is set to 3,6,1 out of the box and to correct this enter the following into your tv settings:
Gain/Highs
Red 0
Green -3
Blue 2
Offset/Lows
Red 0
Green -15
Blue 10
10, 20 or 25 Point White Balance: Adjusts the power distribution of your TV at each I.R.E. Point
IRE Point: Is the measure of the amount of power being delivered to the display (this allows for proper depth of field and a wider array of colors)
Your TVs are set to null out of the box and to correct this enter the following into your TV settings:
IRE % Point: Red Green Blue
5: 3 3 3
10: 5 5 5
15: 8 8 8
20: 10 10 10
25: 13 13 13
30: 15 15 15
35: 18 18 18
40: 20 20 20
45: 23 23 23
50: 25 25 25
55: 28 28 28
60: 30 30 30
65: 33 33 33
70: 35 35 35
75: 38 38 38
80: 40 40 40
85: 43 43 43
90: 45 45 45
95: 48 48 48
100: 50 50 50
Target Luminance: Is a measure of the desired brightness of the display
Adjusting Luminance: Is the measure of the brightness to each IRE point of the display allowing for smoother action scenes and quicker scene changes
For those of you with an Adjusting Luminance setting you will need to adjust these settings as well. You will need to know the maximum brightness of your TV to do this you might need to call the manufacturer and ask them what the brightness of the TV is. Once you know the maximum brightness of your TV you are going to enter that number into the Target Luminance setting i.e. 500 cd/m2 or 500 nit..
Then your adjusting luminance is on a scale from 10%-1% of the required nit. value. You can find the required nit by going to the next setting, red adjustment, for each I.R.E. Point or going back to the previous setting menu and looking for the nit of each I.R.E. Point.
Example:
500 cd/m2 500
500 nit 50
438.2 nit 44
375.4 nit 38
223.4 nit 22
HDR TERMS:
Chroma: The ratio the RGB colors are displayed on your televisions display (4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4)
Next: You should adjust the colors of the display so you can find the proper 2 point white balance. This is where we will compensate for an uneven chroma scale.(Color Management)
There are several different out of the box settings for these setting to correct these follow the guidelines below and enter the following:
Saturation
Red 0
Green 0
Blue 0
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Hue/Tint
Red 0
Green 0
Blue 0
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Luminance or color setting
4:2:0
Red -4
Green -2
Blue 0
Cyan -1
Magenta -2
Yellow -3
4:2:2
Red -2
Green 0
Blue 0
Cyan 0
Magenta -1
Yellow -1
No HDR or 4:4:4
Red 0
Green 0
Blue 0
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Finally: You can adjust your basic settings.
I recommend setting backlight contrast brightness and color to 80 and work from there.
The essentials are you want 100% contrast, the lowest possible brightness giving you the most amount of light without any cloudiness, the most amount of color without any bleeding or discoloration, the least amount of sharpness possible providing the sharpest image and no hue or tint.
And you're all done. As for the advance/expert options. I recommend setting the gamma before the gamut the preferred colors(skin, grass, and sky) before dynamic contrast and then dynamic colors.
You need to remember your television has a break in period and televisions with a higher refresh rate have a shorter break in period than the televisions with a lower refresh rate.
Good luck.
Any questions don't hesitate to ask.
11-11-2020 08:21 AM
"To answer your question about the break in period I would still HIGHLY recommend a break in period for the highest end OLED TVs; and the reason being is all LED TVs have sub LCD display behind the LED panel."
This comment doesn't make sense, you mention OLED and then say "and the reason being"...OLED TVs are not LED TVs so the follow-on sentence doesn't apply. OLED TVs, like plasma TVs, have self-illuminating pixels. That's why they get perfect blacks.
The break-in period was for plasmas, to stabilize pixels. You don't need to do that with CCFL or LED backlit LEDs because the pixels aren't phosphors and thus don't have the same properties as pixels on a plasma. With OLEDs, feel free to get that calibration right out of the box.
11-11-2020 10:40 AM
You are mistaken oleds get true black because they turn off the pixels no display an absence of color.