TV calibration

davemich

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Feb 8, 2006
83
0
SW Lower Michigan
Is there a place to go and get calibration settings for various TV's? I want to give the website to customers that they can go to to professionally adjust their picture settings. Thanks!
 
Some calibration settings like CMS and Grayscale do not carry over perfectly from one set to another, due to variance. Best place to get user menu settings to get the set as close as you can without a professional, is an AVSForum owners thread. You can pretty much find an owners thread for any AV equipment.
 
And don't believe the first set of settings you see in those threads. If it is a popular set, you will end up seeing dozens of sets posted.

For accuracy, people will often post what gets set by an ISF calibration, but as Jason mentions, it won't be perfect and you will need to adjust to what works for you.

A lot of folks find the ISF cal dark and colorless because they have gotten used to the torch mode that everything ships with. Many manufacturers have started shipping with presets that are pretty darned good as well. Look for cinema, professional, THX presets.
 
All well said. Usually tv's have either a cinema or movie mode, with warm color setting. Good place to start. Any model purchased with THX offers a good mode too.
 
I’ve looked over the owners thread at AVS for my TV and found dozens of different settings posted. I tried most of them, and liked absolutely zero of them. Color temp is always Warm or worse yet, Warm 2. I can’t stand that overly red look. If I use all the same settings but keep the color temp at Neutral it looks off. The very best settings I’ve found for my TV are the ones I turned it on with. Sony has a ‘Theater Mode’ which basically looks like you’re watching TV with sunglasses on. I went to a few local A/V shops and priced out ISF Calibrations, since I didn’t get my TV from them, most charge extra. $325-$350 is what I’d be paying. I just dropped close to $7,000 on new A/V gear, I have no problem paying an extra $350, but what I don’t want to do is pay $350 and then change my settings back to like I had them as the calibrator is walking out the door.
 
If you are going to get your set professionally calibrated, my suggestion is to watch movie mode and warm setting with all the extra enhancer settings off. Try it for a week and see if your eyes can adjust. A professional will get a much better picture with these settings. Brighter with much deeper color.
If you can't adjust to this setting I would forget getting it calibrated and keep the settings you like. It is your tv.:)
 
And that's exactly what you will do if none from AVS were to your liking.

Diogen.

I agree, because a Warm 1 or 2 look is part of how a calibrated TV will end up. Sometimes Warm 2 is too hot, which is the case on my new set, so i settled in with a too cool setting of Warm 1.
 
Took all mine out of box and used factory settings.Tweaked over next year,little at a time.Not much difference from factory.LCD's and Plasma's.
 
I agree, because a Warm 1 or 2 look is part of how a calibrated TV will end up. Sometimes Warm 2 is too hot, which is the case on my new set, so i settled in with a too cool setting of Warm 1.

Don't most or any of the 2011 models come out of the box after initial setup menu is gone thru pretty much self calibrated? I would like to see the difference between it and one of those pros doing it side by side for sure.

I even played the Monster hdtv calibration dvd just to find out the steps they go thru the factory settings were pretty much on the money based on what the dvd was showing.
 
Stuff you can check with the disc, brightness/contrast/etc., will be, but gamma and grayscale generally need a good bit of work. Also, if your set has cms adjustment you can dial in colors. Color and tint don't do it.
 
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