Tips on how to calibrate a HDTV?

My tv is set to Vivid on blu-ray with sharpness off and noise reduction off. Is Cinema mode a good alternative?

 

Depending on your model, there's likely an owner's forum over at AVS that will give you all sorts of advice. Realize that if you've been watching in Vivid mode, a properly calibrated display will look dark and dull.

John K.

 

Is there a place(or disc) you can access to properly set up a panel? I'm asking because I went to dine at a local restaurant and they had Haier panels all over the place. Naturally, the 720's were bad on an angle and up close, but the 1080 - was clear as a bell in a banquet room.

Just want to keep my options open when deciding brand. I know Haier is probably a HH Greg "house brand", but it sure looked good!

 

Agreed that AVS probably has a detailed thread on setup for your particular display ("official Acme 46HDxyz thread"). A rough rule of thumb is to set picture mode to movie/cinema, and turn off any type of noise reduction. If your display has its own built-in test pattern for basic black level/color adjustment, try that. Then, for a basic setup, use any DVD (like Finding Nemo or Toy Story) that has a THX picture optimizer for a quick adjustment. The DVD explains what to adjust and what to look for onscreen when the adjustment is correct. Make sure your disc player and/or AVR aren't set to affect the disc video though. Some players and AVRs have their own brightness/color controls. Set them to off/neutral before using a disc to calibrate your display. As poster thegage says, if you've been watching in "vivid" mode, you'll think the correct adjustments are too dark/plain looking. But remember, watching in vivid mode is roughly analogous to listening to music with bass and treble controls at maximum.

EDIT: The "vivid" mode is specifically made to exaggerate color/contrast/brightness to make displays stand out on the showroom floor.

 

1. Buy this disc
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Disney-W...EW-Region-B-/281778061852?hash=item419b48021c
2. For a more accurate job, get a professional calibration.

 

Thanks for the info John. Anybody...anything out there for U. S. region folks?

 

AVSForum also has a dedicated subforum for users' calibration settings for various models of televisions. They also have a disc for adjusting tv's, Spears & Munsil Benchmark blu ray. They even have a specific thread with test patterns which can be downloaded and recorded onto a standard dvd. I'm not sure if it's still in print but there's also a Digital Video Essentials blu ray put out by the Imaging Science Foundation. ISF has a database you can use to look up certified calibration technicians by state.

 

Or this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video...8961&sr=8-3&keywords=blu-ray+calibration+disc

 

There must be a US version of this.

 

2nd this, plus research your model # over at AVS Forum. Many times forum members get their displays professionally calibrated and share the basic (or more) settings. HOWEVER, this does not take into account individual panel differences.

 

This site might help.

http://www.tweaktv.com/

 

There is:

http://www.amazon.com/Disney-WOW-World-Wonder-Blu-ray/dp/B0045ASBLG

 

Thanks!

 

Picked this up at a garage sale.
Haven't had time to mess with it yet.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71js19NllXL._SX342_.jpg
My biggest grip is screen door splotches esp on golf broadcasts.
But then I have a very early set & calibration will do nothing for this.
​

 

I can't speak about their electronics quality, but Haier is its own brand, from China, getting bigger and seems to be OK in general. Newegg has lots of Haier items, particularly appliances. I got a $39 (quick throwaway) Haier microwave from Newegg about seven years ago, and it is still working fine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haier

 

Vivid is bad. I agree, the Spears & Munsil Blu-ray setup disc is about as good as it gets.

In truth, you're better off hiring a calibration specialist to come in and tweak the monitor for you, but the disc will at least put you in the ballpark.

Go through the menus:

• turn off noise reduction
• turn off motion compensation (particularly the 120Hz / 240Hz / etc. modes)
• turn off enhancement
• turn off any automatic modes (particularly auto-black, auto-brightness, and auto-color)
• turn off any modes other than "normal"
• if there's a THX setting, use it
• if there's a Rec709 setting, use it
• avoid "cool" or "movie" or any other wonky settings

It's crap for TVs, but even I have a Haier air conditioner in a guest bedroom and it works OK. TVs... no.

 

Are you talking about an actual calibration or adjusting the settings on your tv?

 

I'm thinking about switching to Cinema mode and leave sharpness and noise reduction off.

 

I myself simply put it on standard picture then customize it from there.

 

I read in the past you should use the film or movie setting and tweak from there, as that setting doesn't use the blue white most viewers are used to. So I used the movie setting on my Samsung as a start and used the Disney disc to fine tune it.

 

I'm interested in seeing the proper color levels and natural film grain structure .

 

A lot depends on which TV you have. With some manufacturers, you cannot get full control of all settings unless you are in Cinema or Custom mode, so check the user manual.

If you want something free to start with, check out:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/139-display-calibration/948496-avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration.html

Most modern TVs have a USB input, so you can use a USB stick rather than create a DVD.

 

I'd read that too. IIRC it may even state that in the narration of the DVE adjustment disc. But I think there's a bit of confusion here. Film/Cinema/Movie settings as well as Vivid, Sports, etc are picture modes. Warm, Normal, Cool are color temperature settings (might have the term wrong).

 

You are correct.

 

I suspect you are seeing macroblocking on your golf broadcasts which is a result of too much compression and not enough bandwidth. This is usually a shortcoming of the broadcaster or (most likely) your service provider (cable, sat, etc). This is not fixable by adjusting the TV.