My HDTV calibration by Eliab from Avical

[Skaggs]

On Thursday, March 3, 2005, I had the pleasure of having Eliab from Avical calibrate my Toshiba 57H83 rear projection HDTV. See photos from my calibration here.

Eliab was very courteous, and had a pleasant personality. It was obvious from the beginning that Eliab knew what he was doing. We sat and discussed the type of shows we watch, via what sources, and under what lighting conditions. I informed Eliab that I only occassionally watch DVDs and that nearly 100% of the TV shows I watch are HD via either my OTA set top box or TWC. Since I only have two component inputs on the TV, I have the DVD player using an S-Video connection.

We watched the Digital Video Essentials DVD so he could get a sense of what my TV was displaying. He immediately pointed out some problems with the setup of my DVD player and corrected them. We discussed the different proceedures he was going to perform on my TV. Once he got started, I left him to himself for what he described as a "four hour process".

I occassionally stopped by to see if he needed anything, but he brought everything he needed to get the job done.

When the calibration was nearly complete, we sat down to watch the Digital Video Essentials DVD again. He described how my colors were "off the chart" incorrect when he started and he brought them back to their proper levels. As the DVD played, I couldn't believe the improvement. It was like I was watching HD, but remember, this was a DVD that was hooked to my TV via a S-Video connection. The picture was incredible.

We switched to the HD input that was connected to my TWC 8300HD DVR. It is set to go to channel 1869 (ESPN HD) when it is powered on and there was a SD program on at the time. I noticed that the bars on the left & right side of the screen were not equal in width. The left side was about 50% larger than the right side. Eliab described how no one had yet broken into the Toshiba "secret" service menu and figured out how to move the horizontal placement of the display. He expalined that the convergence was 100% correct, but I voiced my concern over the shift of the picture. Eliab picked up his cell phone and called a fellow calibration expert from PA. Eliab said, "If anyone has figured out the code in the secret service menu, it's this guy." Sure enough, the man in PA told Eliab how to shift the picture horizontally by going to a specific location in the "secret" service menu. Details posted here. Within a few moments, he had the picture centered again in the middle of the screen.

Eliab documented the pre & post calibration data on an Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) field report and left a copy with me.

It was a real treat for me to have this calibration done. There's still appointments left in Eliab's return to Albany during the week of March 21-25. See the thread entitled "Avical HDTV Calibration Tour - March 21-25, 2005 for more info on how you can have Eliab perform a calibration in your home. He travels throughout the country performing calibrations and we are lucky enough here in Albany to have him schedule a second week of tour dates. Don't miss out on this great opportunity.

[OldMatador]

I wish I could get this done, but because of my dental bills, I can't afford it. Perhaps if he makes a swingaround again, I'll be ready. But that's a big perhaps.

[Eliab]

Skaggs,

Thanks so much for your well detailed review and for your compliments! It was my pleasure to have had the opportunity to get to work on your display and to finally reveal the picture that it was capable of producing!

Many people, like you, are amazed at what they were missing after a thorough calibration procedure is performed on their display. In your case, there were quite a lot of key areas such as geometry, overscan, convergence, grayscale, electrostatic and mechanical focus, color decoder, etc that needed serious help! In other words, your display was being grossly under-performed – pretty much like the vast majority of CRT-RPTVs that I’ve worked on over the last 8 years (2000+!). But even the newer digital displays such as DLP, LCD, Plasma, etc. can be greatly improved upon particularly in the grayscale and color departments. In my opinion, not having this service done by a reputable ISF technician is like going to a museum with tinted and slightly foggy and scratched glasses. That is, you’ll never get the correct representation of an artist’s work with such skewed viewing conditions.

BTW, the HD horizontal position parameter hidden in the Address menu of your Toshiba 57H83 was discovered by an exceedingly tenacious client of mine who spent an afternoon searching for it!

Thanks again for your business, hospitality, and patience!

Happy viewing!

Eliab