Post by Skaggs on Aug 5, 2009 7:58:58 GMT -5
An Easy Route to TV Calibration
By Eric A. Taub, NY Times, August 4, 2009, 7:01 pm
If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts about TV electronics (like, how brightness is defined and why the sharpness control does not really sharpen the picture) there are few better sources than the Digital Video Essentials HD Basics calibration disc.
Created by a well-known television consultant, Joe Kane, Digital Video Essentials not only helps TV set owners calibrate their displays, but explains the theory behind the science in intricate detail for the lay person.
But for those consumers who just want to get the best picture possible and don’t really care to know why what they’re doing works, take a look at the $25 Spears and Munsil High Definition Benchmark: Blu-ray Edition calibration disc.
Both calibration tools provide all the necessary test patterns to theoretically get the best possible picture from your HD display, but the Spears and Munsil tool is easier for amateurs to navigate. The top menu gives you a simple but not very visually exciting list of the available test patterns. Click on one and it appears in an endless loop, giving the user the impression that it’s actually paused.
Click on the upper part of your Blu-ray player’s remote wheel and a slide explaining the purpose of the pattern and how to set it appears. Click the down part of the remote wheel and the slide disappears, allowing you to make changes.
Some additional information behind the disc’s approach is available on the company’s Web site, and Spears and Munsil promise to make more available in the future.
Curiously, the two discs did not provide the same results. Adjusting the PLUGE pattern, a tool that sets the optimal black level of the display by adjusting the set’s brightness control, required me to lower the level more using the Spears and Munsil disc than Digital Video Essentials. Other controls also gave me similarly varying results.
Which proves that, to get the best picture, you can’t simply rely on scientific tools alone. While certain settings achieved with calibration discs may prove to be technically correct, watching TV is not like viewing an oscilloscope. Human emotion and preferences are also part of the equation.
The bottom line: by all means use a calibration disc to tweak your set. But if you don’t like the results, change them to fit your tastes.
By Eric A. Taub, NY Times, August 4, 2009, 7:01 pm
If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts about TV electronics (like, how brightness is defined and why the sharpness control does not really sharpen the picture) there are few better sources than the Digital Video Essentials HD Basics calibration disc.
Created by a well-known television consultant, Joe Kane, Digital Video Essentials not only helps TV set owners calibrate their displays, but explains the theory behind the science in intricate detail for the lay person.
But for those consumers who just want to get the best picture possible and don’t really care to know why what they’re doing works, take a look at the $25 Spears and Munsil High Definition Benchmark: Blu-ray Edition calibration disc.
Both calibration tools provide all the necessary test patterns to theoretically get the best possible picture from your HD display, but the Spears and Munsil tool is easier for amateurs to navigate. The top menu gives you a simple but not very visually exciting list of the available test patterns. Click on one and it appears in an endless loop, giving the user the impression that it’s actually paused.
Click on the upper part of your Blu-ray player’s remote wheel and a slide explaining the purpose of the pattern and how to set it appears. Click the down part of the remote wheel and the slide disappears, allowing you to make changes.
Some additional information behind the disc’s approach is available on the company’s Web site, and Spears and Munsil promise to make more available in the future.
Curiously, the two discs did not provide the same results. Adjusting the PLUGE pattern, a tool that sets the optimal black level of the display by adjusting the set’s brightness control, required me to lower the level more using the Spears and Munsil disc than Digital Video Essentials. Other controls also gave me similarly varying results.
Which proves that, to get the best picture, you can’t simply rely on scientific tools alone. While certain settings achieved with calibration discs may prove to be technically correct, watching TV is not like viewing an oscilloscope. Human emotion and preferences are also part of the equation.
The bottom line: by all means use a calibration disc to tweak your set. But if you don’t like the results, change them to fit your tastes.