Learning advanced calibration

[garyscottmagic]

Hi Guys,

As a newbie to all this HD techy talk and stuff, I'm very interested in calibrating any future TV's that I may purchase so that I get the best bang for my buck.


Where can I learn how to do this...and where and how did you all learn?

Best wishes
Gary

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

I think those who don't do this for a living learnt by reading reading and reading...then by playing around and experimenting. Those who do it for a living did it by reading reading and reading, playing around and experimenting and writing a cheque then doing an exam.

Seriously, read the faq's on basic calibration here. Read Tom Huffmans sticky thread about Colour Management System set up over at avsforum. Read the advanced calibration doc on the Lumagen forum at my own website.

Then ask questions in the calibration forum here. I try to answer and help out when I can.

Gordon

[Timbo21]

Originally Posted by garyscottmagic

Hi Guys,

As a newbie to all this HD techy talk and stuff, I'm very interested in calibrating any future TV's that I may purchase so that I get the best bang for my buck.


Where can I learn how to do this...and where and how did you all learn?

Best wishes
Gary

Ultimately, you can spend a lot of time on this, and to do it really properly you need to do an ISF course and invest in professional gear which has been properly calibrated and which can take readings from your screen to feed back to a laptop.

The easy way is to spend a few hundred quid and get Gordon, or similar, to do it for you.

T.

[Barcoing Mad]

Since you're here, and not browsing lifestyle magazines, I would read and read - a few hours intelligent Googling is in order - play around and experiment, if the subject is of interest to you.....and then spend a few hundred to get Gordon etc. Things are more fun when everyone is interested and knowledgeable.

[NicolasB]

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

Seriously, read the faq's on basic calibration here.

To be fair to the original poster: if you check this forum, the high definition TV forum, and the "video calibration and room acoustics" forum, none of them has a link to any sort of calibration FAQ (not that I can see, anway). I'm surprised there isn't any such link, actually; you'd have thought that questions about home video calibration would indeed be "Frequently Asked" on a forum such as this.

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

When I said HERE I didn't mean in this exact forum I meant on this site.

Projector FAQ/Resources/Calibration. Got a question? Check here first. Videos added

[NicolasB]

If there are any moderators passing: how about linking to Gordon's suggested thread from a couple of the other forums? Like, say, the video calibration forum?

[Barcoing Mad]

Remind me after the weekend!

[-Hitman-]

For intermediate display calibration i can recommend a free software tool called HCFR, that many starters/enthusiasts use with different types of calibrating sensors for different displays.

There is also a thread over at AVS forums that discusses in depth how to start your own calibrations, what sensor is recommended for any type of display and is an excellent learning thread for beginners and will also help you start into DIY calibration.

I currently use HCFR and it has produced excellent results.


Thread here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=737550

[timmorris]

One thing I'll add that isn't abundantly clear when you first start out. The filter based meters (Spyder 2, Display 2, Monaco Optix) are fine for measuring greyscale, but if your display device or processor has colour management software then you need a spectrophotometer. The cheapest of these is the X-Rite Eye One Pro. The filter based devices (colorimeters) aren't able to accurately measure spot colour.

Basically the cheaper devices typically have three light sensitive diodes each of which has a bandpass filter which lets through red, green and blue light respectively, whereas the spectro has an electronic version of a prism that measures the relative amplitude of colour across the entire spectrum. The cheapest way of buying one in the UK is to buy the i1Design package for £555+VAT, but an OEM version can be obtained from the US for a little over half that.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the Spyder isn't calibrated ex factory and you might get a bad one. There is a software solution for the Display 2 which is (calibrated), which allows its use on plasmas, just search for a few of my recent posts to find out which! The filters are all sensitive to humidity so you should keep the sensor in a zip-locked bag with some dessicant in order to preserve its life.

Tim

[Gary Lightfoot]

H Tim,

I've seen three Spyder 2s now, and only one was close to accurate. Initially they looked like a good option for the hobbyist (the first one I saw was pretty accurate), but now it's like playing Russian Roulette to getting a good one. I think the Platinum version is the only one that is calibrated so probably the only one in the Spyder range to give good results.

Gary

[timmorris]

Gary,

Since I moved over to the Eye-One I'll totally agree with you. My spyder is bang on as far as red is concerned but blue and green are off by about 10% each. That on its own doesn't seem too bad, but it puts deltaE into the low teens which means it isn't just a paper error, it's perceptual.

I'll post a file with comparative greyscale and delta E charts. On the face of it the Spyder looks fine. Once you measure with the Eye-One Pro it is obvious that the Spyder is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

The Platinums aren't calibrated, they are cherry-picked, which statiscally means a standard Spyder is going to be less accurate now. I'm waiting to find out whether the Spyder 3 is calibrated ex-factory. At the moment if you can't stretch to the £300 required to buy an Eye-One pro then the Display LT is a far better bet than the Spyder. It is calibrated at the factory, and can now with the right software work with plasmas.

Calman V3 is just about to go Gold - It is well worth a look!

Tim

[timmorris]

I tried to post the comparison but it was deleted because I mentioned three brand names in there.

For all those who are interested in a copy of the comparison PM me and I'll send it to you. It won't be as information rich though as I'll have to remove all device names from it.

Edit: I've just read through the PDF again and I mentioned Calman once and that seemed to be enough to get it deleted. I give up.

Tim

[Gary Lightfoot]

Hi Tim,

The first Spyder I looked at was out by approx 1.5% in x and y coordinates IIRC (can't remember the dE value that produced), but if the software you were using allowed a custom white point you could use that instead of the usual D65 coords to get you to D65 (of course you needed another probe to tell you what D65 really was in the first place). Colorfacts allowed that but not everyone can afford it. 1.5% wasn't bad for hobbyist use, but the next one I saw had red 10% low, and you didn't need to know the dE to see the image was too red! A dE of 15 certainly needs attention.

Can you point me to a link for the I1Pro at that price? Although I'm currently projectorless, I'd like to get a spectroradiometer for later calibrations etc. Interesting stuff about the Spyders and the fact the LT is calibrated. That makes it the only real choice at that kind of pricepoint then.

Have you used HCFR? It looks pretty functional and allows a choice of gammas which Colorfacts doesn't as far as I can tell. Fantastic when you consider it's free. I had a look at CalMan when it was in spreadsheet form and quite liked it. Is it in standalone format now?

Cheers

Gary

[timmorris]

PM sent to avoid incurring the wrath of moderators.