Toshiba X3030D Settings and Calibration

[runtime]

By popular request I've started this thread with the purpose of discussing calibration of the Toshiba 42x3030D.

Note: While many of the concepts and principals discussed can be applied to calibrating any TV display please remember that we are merely enthusiasts with an interest in obtaining the best from our TVs and as such accept no liability for any damage that may arise as a result of the information contained in this thread.

Please also note that each TV display is different, composed of multiple parts with different tolerances. Together with other factors such as ambient lighting, source material and playback device, any settings published may not have much impact and in some cases may be detrimental. In other words, your mileage may vary.

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Update: zaxxon64 has kindly put together a PDF with the more useful posts in this thread, so it might be easier for you to read through this first, and then look for specific answers to questions in the thread. It's hosted on rapidshare over here.

For the really impatient among you here are my final settings:

It's still worth reading through the thread to learn what these settings do, and how to determine the most optimum settings for your TV / environmental conditions.

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It might start with a little nagging question at the back of your mind: "I love my display, but am I getting the most out of it?" Or it might simply be a question of running into this thread and wondering why people are fussing over calibration. If you're not familiar with the concept of calibration and are perfectly happy with your display its probably best not to get involved with some of the advanced techniques discussed in this thread, however that shouldn't dissuade you from attempting basic calibration.

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Basic Calibration

You've just installed your set and are happy with the bright vivid colours but "argh its burning a hole in my retina!". Or you're over the moon with your set, but during some of those dark scenes you find yourself asking "is that jacket supposed to be a featureless black silhouette?".

Put your mind at rest by performing basic video calibration; the only tool you'll need is a video calibration DVD such as Ovation's AVIA: Guide to Home Theater, or Joe Kane Productions' Digital Video Essentials.

Its quite surprising, but many people don't really understand what brightness and contrast controls actually do. Could you confidently explain the effects of these controls to someone else? Using the calibration DVDs you learn that brightness controls the brightness of black, and contrast controls the maximum white level; and the issues of black crush and thresholding when brightness is too low and contrast is too high.

I've used AVIA DVD before and have found it to be a very helpful introduction to calibration. It provides a layman's explanation of calibration and explains each of the tests you'll use to optimize your display's contrast, brightness and colour saturation levels. Some of the tests involve the use of different colour filters which you hold up to your eye, making real-time adjustments to ensure the correct saturation is achieved.

You'll be able to perform many if not all of the optimizations covered in the DVD simply making adjustments to the user settings on your TV display.

I imagine for many users their interest in calibration will stop at this point; sets which adhere closely to the recognised standards will output a beautiful well balanced image, and as such you might feel no real desire to go any further with calibration.

But how do we know how closely our TV display matches these standards? That's where advanced calibration comes in. In my next post I'll provide an introduction to advanced calibration.

[Mikoyan]

Good thread!!! was getting worried when there are so many Samsung settings/calibration and none for the 42x3030

Anyway I have just built my Alphason ABR1100-B right this moment ready for my 42X3030 to be delivered this friday!!!!

I have been reading about calibration and have gone and bought the ColorVision Spyder 2 Express!!! Is this half decent hardware to use for a total noob in the world on calibration (heck this is my first LCD)

When using this Spyder2 will I need to access the service menu?

Edit: just realized I cannot use the supplied Spyder2Express software for my TV what should i use !????

[runtime]

Advanced Calibration

If my early experience is any indication, there can be quite a large degree of variance between displays, even those of the same model. Advanced calibration is used to quantitatively measure how far the TV display differs from a reference model and make changes to compensate for that.

Don't dismiss calibration DVDs used for basic calibration, they still serve as a useful tool for getting your TV display in the right performance ballpark before pursuing more advanced calibration.

Note: You don't necessarily need to adjust service menu settings to calibrate your set, depending on what changes you wish to make you may be able to confine adjustments to the user menu settings.

The tools you'll need: HCFR software and the HCFR DVD (both of which are free to download) and a supported colorimeter (a device which measures the wavelengths of light). AVSForum contains a thread which discusses HCFR and the supported colorimeters in great detail so I won't dwell on either but get right onto the process I used to calibrate my TV display.

A PC laptop will be extremely handy in enabling you to locate the probe on TV and viewing the results of live measurements recorded by the HCFR software.

Recording a Baseline

Before you do anything you'll want to take note of all your TV's settings both in the user menus and in the service menu *if* you intend making adjustments. If you do access the service menu, please note that by doing so you could invalidate your warranty and potentially cause damage to your TV display, so read up thoroughly and understand the risks.

To record a baseline of the performance of your TV display, you'll need to install the colorimeter (typically a USB device such as the Spyder 2) also referred to as a probe, followed by the HCFR software. This is an important step, you'll want to record the current performance of your TV display before you start making adjustments to it. That way you can compare your newest readings with your baseline and see what effect your adjustments are having.

Upon launching the HCFR application you'll be prompted a couple of times: select 'DVD manual' and 'Spyder II' if you're using a Spyder 2 colorimeter (also referred to as a probe). The blog post here describes the process in a little more detail.

Note: All Spyder2 products (Express, Pro and TV) use the same hardware colorimeter so you should encounter no problem using either in conjunction with the HCFR software.

Select References from the Preferences menu and ensure HCFR is using D65 white and REC 709 colourspace as a reference model.

Let your TV display warm up to operating temperature over a few minutes before you start recording measurements. Dim the ambient light in the room according to your preference.

To start with, ensure the probe is fitted with an 'LCD baffle' if one is provided, position the probe centrally along the screen taking care not to hit the pointy sides of the probe against the screen, you should take extra care to ensure that the probe gently meets the screen; you might use a pillow to apply some gentle pressure on the probe. Any undue stress could damage your screen so please be careful.

Click on the Measure button in the Grayscale window. You'll be prompted to select 10 levels of grey by navigating to the appropriate option on the HCFR DVD. Take care to pause the DVD once the appropriate grey level is output, unpause and skip to the next grey level and click OK to take a reading when prompted.

You'll be asked to do the same for the Primary (Red, Green, Blue) and Secondary (Yellow, Cyan, Magenta) colours.

The process takes about 10-20 minutes depending on the speed of your colorimeter.

In my next post I'll discuss a couple of the graphs and offer some guidance on how to interpret the results.

[runtime]

Originally Posted by Mikoyan

When using this Spyder2 will I need to access the service menu?

Edit: just realized I cannot use the supplied Spyder2Express software for my TV what should i use !????

You don't necessarily need to access the service menu to calibrate your set, depending on what changes you want to make you may able to limit changes to the user menu.

Don't worry the Spyder2Express device works just fine with HCFR software. First install the software that comes with the Spyder2Express, it will install the device drivers that HCFR will need.

Tip: Check here for the latest version of the ColorVision software including drivers.

Once the ColorVision software is installed then continue with the steps here:

• Download the latest build of HCFR and install it.
• Copy the “cvspyder.dll” file from the Program Files\ColorVision\Spyder2express directory, and place the DLL in the same directory as the HCFR.exe

[Tallbloke31]

I understand that you can go to great lengths to calibrate your set. However, has anyone got a set of normal menu values that are a pretty good bet for everyday use? Freeview, Xbox 360 and DVDs?

[runtime]

Here are the settings I use at the moment. They may do absolutely nothing for you depending on how much your set differs from mine. However, they should be a reasonable starting point. There is some flexibility around these settings as each TV can vary in its output (I've tried to provide some guidance on likely values).

Edit: I use these user menu settings with Freeview, Xbox 360 (Component), PS3 (HDMI), in conjunction with service menu settings adjustments I've made in calibrating my set. I don't think it is worth posting service menu settings as they look like they are very specific to your TV (disregarding environmental factors). If I post them it will be to help aid my explanation of calibration using my set as an example.

Backlight: 30 (increase for brighter colours and increased contrast at the expense of black)
Contrast: 100 (for more info see here)
Brightness: 44 (up to around 48)
Colour: 40 (down to around 38)
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 0 (or down to around -1 depending on source)
Black stretch: Off (the jury is out on this, but generally should be set to Off)
MPEG NR: Low (or Middle depending on preference)
DNR: Off (or On depending on source)
Colour Temperature: Warm
3D colour management: Off (this will depend very much on your set)
Base colour management: Disabled (as above)
Active Backlight Control: On (for darker blacks, but can be disabled if you want fixed black levels useful for calibration)
Cinema mode: On (where available)

Refer back to this thread for later discussion on settings and their effects.

You could make a few quid, and we could save a few quid if you rented this thing out! lol

[Mikoyan]

Runtime thanks for the quick reply!!! looks like I wont be returning my Spyder2 after all!!!

[Mikoyan]

From Runtime:

In my next post I'll discuss a couple of the graphs and offer some guidance on how to interpret the results.

Cant wait!!

[runtime]

Interpreting the results

To start with you'll be most concerned with two graphs: RGB levels and Colour temperature. Before we start looking at them please note that inexpensive entry-level probes like the Spyder 2 are not too accurate at low light levels so for the purposes of calibration, when viewing graphs you'll want to dismiss readings between 0 and 20 IRE. Don't worry it'll all make sense when you see the graphs!

RGB Levels

In a perfect TV display red, green and blue levels should be identical such that they will appear as three lines stacked on top of each other. In the real world there will be some discrepancy between the output levels of the three primary colours, the degree to which these vary is called 'delta E', you want the difference in colour levels to be as little as possible across each grey level (IRE).

Have a look at the following graph:

Above you can see the pre-calibration performance of the Toshiba 42X3030D reviewed by hdtvtest.co.uk; in order words, when they received their display this is how it performed right out of the box. Note that the levels start to separate at several points in the graph but generally they track one another.

Note: The separation that occurs between 0 and 10IRE is most likely due to the inaccuracy of the colorimeter device when used at very low light levels.

Now take a look at the same graph showing how my TV performed out of the box. It is the very same model (42X3030D) so you might expect it to perform similarly but you'd be wrong; notice what a huge difference there is - the blue level is way off, it is 30%+ over-saturated.

The other difference is the magenta line is missing from my graph. The magenta line plots the 'delta E', which as we discussed is the degree to which the RGB levels differ in their saturation. The blue level on my display is so horribly out of whack that the 'delta E' is off the charts!

Generally we want to minimize 'delta E' so that it is around or below 4. If I remember correctly at this level the human-eye cannot perceive any difference between the RGB levels.

Colour Temperature

When we talk about colour temperature, for example 6500K, we are talking about a theoretical black entity which when heated to the specified temperature (measured in Kelvins) emits light. Think of a black iron bar that you're heating with a blow torch, as it grows hotter it glows red, then yellow, then white hot, etc. The lower the temperature, the "warmer" or more yellow the light. The higher the temperature, the "cooler" (ironically) or more blue the light.

You may have heard of the term D65. This is a name/label for the particular mixture of colours which make up white at a particular temperature. It corresponds roughly to a midday sun in Western / Northern Europe. Movie footage tends to be shot around this time as it provides the optimum conditions for natural illumination.

Its important to make the distinction that while D65 has a colour temperature of 6500K they are not one and the same. When we calibrate against D65 we are trying to achieve the colour white with a 'temperature' of 6500K. If we simply tried to achieve 6500K we could obtain all manner of colours whose RGB levels approximate to 6500K.

Here is a graph showing the pre-calibration performance of the hdtvtest.co.uk review model:

And as before here is the same graph showing the performance of my TV display. Can you spot the difference?

Even at the warmest colour setting available in the user menu the colour temperature of my display is well in excess of 6500K; as a result there's just no way my set can output D65 white; black levels and contrast ratio are nowhere near as good as they can be.

Clearly the blue over-saturation plaguing my set has caused the light to be cooler / bluer and raised the overall colour temperature.

In summary, if there's one thing you should take from this it's that there can be a large difference in the performance characteristics between two displays, even if they are from the same manufacturer and have identical model numbers! Consequently, when someone posts their preferred settings in the forum, bear in mind, they may not have the same effect on your TV display.

So how did I solve the blue over-saturation issue? In my next post I'll discuss how to make user and service menu adjustments and monitor their effects.

[Mikoyan]

great read but could I just ask a question...

I see that the RGB should ideally be in a line right..?

So am I right in saying I should keep on calibrating and making adjustments to to the TV till the RGB are in a line meaning the perfect display???

[runtime]

Originally Posted by Mikoyan

great read but could I just ask a question...

I see that the RGB should ideally be in a line right..?

So am I right in saying I should keep on calibrating and making adjustments to to the TV till the RGB are in a line meaning the perfect display???

Ideally straight, but as they say, nothing is perfect - so you calibrate and tweak until you feel you've done the best you can. In my next post I'll discuss some of the options available for you to do this.

Have a look at this graph, this is the best that the professionals at hdtvtest.co.uk managed to achieve:

Seems pretty good to me!

What do you think so far? Am I pitching this at the right level, does it all make sense or does it all sound a bit too complicated. I think I only have one reader so I'm wondering if I'm boring people to death?

[Blackbolt360]

Runtime,

How much does that calibration device cost?

[runtime]

The Spyder2 Express costs around £60 on Ebay and £70 from Amazon.

PS. Thanks for your help!

[Blackbolt360]

Don't mention it. Anything for a founding father....

I might have to invest in one and get my TV calibrated and charge all the people I know to calibrate theirs. Couple of Pints should cover the cost!

thanks for taking the time too explain the settings and calibration in general. it has been a mystery to me. it is a new model but as its price tumbles, and it continues to gather rave reviews and awards, more and more people will want to obtain optimum picture settings. this thread can become a useful source of reference for them.

[runtime]

Originally Posted by thms

thanks for taking the time too explain the settings and calibration in general... more and more people will want to obtain optimum picture settings. this thread can become a useful source of reference for them.

Thanks for the feedback - that's the plan!

I started the thread because I stumbled upon a couple of threads where people posted settings such as brightness 70, backlight 100, contrast set to 100 - ouch! Now while these weren't settings for the Toshiba, I figured it'd be a great idea to get some of the theory down in the simplest terms.

Then I thought well £1000+ is a lot of money, and for the keenest enthusiasts that frequent this forum it might be a little fun to explain how to get the best out of their sets. The colour probe as I've mentioned is quite inexpensive compared to the TV so why not dabble in some sound calibration theory?!

[concrete monkey]

hey runtime you have the same tv unit as me i can now envisage the tv in my room ....its a fricking monster! lol

[glazza]

Originally Posted by runtime

Here are the settings I use at the moment. They may do absolutely nothing for you depending on how much your set differs from mine. However, they should be a reasonable starting point. There is some flexibility around these settings as each TV can vary in its output (I've tried to provide some guidance on likely values).

Edit: I use these user menu settings with Freeview, Xbox 360 (Component), PS3 (HDMI), in conjunction with service menu settings adjustments I've made in calibrating my set. I don't think it is worth posting service menu settings as they look like they are very specific to your TV (disregarding environmental factors). If I post them it will be to help aid my explanation of calibration using my set as an example.

Backlight: 30 (increase for brighter colours and increased contrast at the expense of black)
Contrast: 70 (+/- depending on preference)
Brightness: 44 (up to around 48)
Colour: 40 (down to around 38)
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 0 (or down to around -1 depending on source)
Black stretch: Off (the jury is out on this, but generally should be set to Off)
MPEG NR: Low (or Middle depending on preference)
DNR: Off (or On depending on source)
Colour Temperature: Warm
3D colour management: Off (this will depend very much on your set)
Base colour management: Disabled (as above)
Active Backlight Control: On (for darker blacks, but can be disabled if you want fixed black levels useful for calibration)
Cinema mode: On (where available)

Refer back to this thread for later discussion on settings and their effects.

Runtime this is an awesome thread just what im i was looking for for a while now and i am one of those people whos backlight/contrast ect is still ptetty high and is realy on factory defaults so the more settings for Freeview/PS3/360 the better for me as im not that well up on all this kinda stuff but i do like experimenting with it all and i lose myself for a good couple hrs trying all these settings out lol.

Many thx m8 and keep it all coming.

G

Good technical level here Runtime - not too much not too little, good thread.

In a similar fashion when you are done - I think I'd like to talk about "settings by eye" - hereby known as SBE - "Settings By Eye" or "Set By Eye" lol

Because I think sometimes even without the tech gear, you can get better results if you do certain tweeks in the correct order to get a better picture using different images.

But until then - keep it coming!

One thing though, are you done tweeking your set now, and how is it? I need to know also on the X3030 - how exactly do those service menu items adjust, which parts of all the numbers change, there seems to be three columns of numbers - how does this work?

Taa.

I'll post my settings soon.

[BigTone]

SBE - at last an acrym I like!

All this calibration talk makes me thirsty!

Anyways, as part of my day job I always state the following :

'The answer, no mater what the question is, is Design of Experiments'

and as I develope calibrations as another part of my day job (for the chemicals industry and others) I have a pretty good idea how to get the absolute max out of any piece of kit.

The one problem with SBE it that it is not systematic, and assumes that the variables don't interact with each other (which the clearly) so the change one varaible at a time approach is flawed, and requires a large number of experiments to get a decent optimum, if ever. The best method is to vary all the varaibles at the same time, and see what the overall effect is and this is where you need to quantify the response, but response here is tricky (best blacks, best colours, nice picture?). With this lack of a decent reference one needs to use DVE, to get the set into an established reference point, and then dabble.

Now I have the weekend to think about running a DoE with a calibration device to see if I can find a quantity that can be used to create a response surface for the calibration. But, you would have thought that the guys/gals that designed the set would have thought of this too? or an I being naive?

Cheers

BT

[runtime]

"Settings by Eye"

While preparing my next post on user / service menu settings and adjustments, I came across a post that I think is extremely relevant to owners of LCD screens, especially Toshiba displays.

Note: This information was originally posted by andrewfee in the WLT68 thread (its one beast of a thread!). I have taken the liberty of providing a little commentary and editing the text a little as some of the settings he specified are not necessarily valid for the X3030D model - hopefully he won't mind; if you'd like to read the original text you can find it here.

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Originally Posted by andrewfee :

A lot of people don't seem to understand what the controls do on LCDs, so I'll try to explain them.

Back Light: The LCD itself doesn't emit any light, and has to have one shined through to make the picture visible. Changing this adjusts the overall "brightness" of the set. Lowering it will not only make whites darker (they are far too bright out of the box) but it will also make blacks "blacker." Sets usually take a while to warm up, so I would recommend leaving it on an hour before adjusting it to try and find the "right" setting for you. You're probably best to start by having it too dim, and then find a bright scene and turn it up until it looks nice and bright, but not blinding. Having this set too high is one of the biggest causes of eye-strain with LCD. This should be set relative to the lighting conditions in your room.

[ runtime: around 30 is good for most conditions ]

Contrast: On regular CRT televisions, this would adjust the overall brightness of the set, but not here. With LCDs, Contrast is a picture processing adjustment that will let you make the bright areas of the picture brighter or darker without really affecting dark areas. As the back-light will still be shining bright behind it, lowering this has the effect of placing something over the screen to dim it, rather than making the set dimmer instead. With 8-bit video, brightness values range from 0 to 255. Lowering contrast effectively limits this range, and can cause banding in the picture. If you're finding things too bright, lower the back-light not the contrast. Best left as close to 100 as possible.

[ runtime: Yup - checked, there are no thresholding issues so go with 100 for contrast ]

Brightness: This is one of the most misunderstood controls. It has nothing to do with how bright the image on the TV is, it basically just tells the TV what black is. With CRTs, lowering this would adjust how dark the blacks were in the image, but with LCD, this is not the case. Long before the brightness setting gets to 0, blacks will stop getting darker due to the back-light. If you have this set too high, dark areas will appear grey, and you're likely to see compression artefacts. If you've got it set too low, the dark areas will just blend together into one big black area.

[ runtime: a test pattern will be helpful so that you don't end up with a brightness level that is too high or too low, around 44-48 is about right ]

Colour: Adjusts how strong the colours are on the set. Too much colour, and people will look sunburnt, too little and they will look pale.

[ runtime: 38-40 looks good ]

Tint: Tints the picture towards red or green. This should not be adjustable for PAL or HD signals, so leave it at zero.

Sharpness: Another misunderstood control - why wouldn't anyone want the sharpest image they can get, right? Sharpness is actually image processing that can make you think you're seeing more detail in an image, or that it's sharper, but it actually obliterates fine details, exaggerates any artefacts (MPEG compression especially) and adds rings / halos around objects. See here for more details.

[ runtime: Different LCDs / models employ different image processing algorithms, a 'frequency burst' test pattern will be helpful; there doesn't seem to be any ill-effects with sharpness set to 0 ]

Black Stretch: This control basically makes the dark areas darker, and the bright areas brighter, in an attempt to fool the eye into thinking there is more contrast on the set. Now, this will usually work, but it often comes at the expense of introducing artefacts into the image (I've not done testing on Toshiba's implementation of this yet though) however in doing this, it basically destroys all the shadow details in an image, making them all go into one big black area, and often does the same with highlights, turning them into large white areas. Strongly advised to be turned off.

MPEG NR: When people get a large LCD, they often wonder why fast movement breaks up into lots of little squares, and blame the TV for it. These are MPEG artefacts and will be there no matter what you view it on, but with LCDs being inherently sharper and often much larger displays, it can be easier to see. MPEG NR basically blurs the image a bit to try and blend these squares together, giving you a much softer image overall and destroying fine detail. Unless you find the artefacts to be a serious problem, I would highly recommend you disable this.

[ runtime: MPEG NR on X3030D at Low or Medium is quite subtle so don't be concerned if you prefer it enabled ]

DNR: This works to remove "grain" from the image, and most implementations do this by blending frames of the image together, which will usually reduce/remove the effect, but usually means that motion starts smearing a lot more. Why is there grain in the first place? Most movies are shot on film, which is inherently grainy. Just like MPEG artefacts, this is nothing to do with your new LCD, it could just more obvious because it's sharper, and probably larger, than your old TV. Personally I don't find this an annoyance at all - it means I'm seeing things as they should be, because if the grain isn't there, then fine detail is being removed from the image, and it looks more "film-like" to me. Again, I'd strongly recommend you turn this off unless it really bothers you.

Colour Temperature: The way colour TVs work is that they basically have a "black and white" image, and then the colour is laid on top of that. Colour temperature adjusts the "tint" of this grey-scale image. Ideally it would be "D65" or "6500k" which is a "neutral grey" as that is what most content is designed for, but the majority of displays are far from this. Turning the temperature cooler gives everything a blue tint, whereas making it too warm gives everything a red tint.

[ runtime: X3030D performs closest to 6500K using the 'Warm' setting, everything else seems to be considerably cooler ]

Colour Management: This will let you adjust the hue (shade) and saturation (how strong/bright the colour is) of Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. After doing some testing, I would leave the hue controls alone completely, as well as the CMY ones altogether.

[ runtime: The only way to accurately set this is to use test patterns and colour filters e.g. a video calibration DVD; or a colorimeter as discussed in this thread, otherwise settings will be very subjective and may not have the desired effect on other sets ]

Active Backlight Control: I don't use this setting, but I would assume that it lowers the back-light in darker scenes, to improve black level, and would raise it in brighter ones to make them appear more vivid. Personally I don't like the brightness fluctuations you usually get with having that kind of thing on so I would leave it off.

[ runtime: I'd leave this feature enabled to obtain darker blacks, so far I've not been sensitive to brightness fluctuations on the X3030D ]

Cinema Mode: This will turn on/off 2:2 and 3:2 detection. Basically it will make films look smoother with less "jaggies." I would recommend leaving this on unless you are playing interlaced video games. If you're running in 480p or higher, it's fine, but basically if you're playing videogames and the option isn't greyed out, it's best to turn it off.

[ runtime: Leave it 'On' for DVD movies; if you hook up to a next gen console or other hi-def source it will generally do the 'right thing' when you change input. ]

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I've mentioned the use of test patterns on several occasions, these can be found in calibration DVDs, but if you don't want to splash out, you can download a series of images Blackbolt360 has kindly provided here. Use an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 to view them on your TV; each test pattern contains some text in a caption, describing how the pattern should be used.

[runtime]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys Hope you found the "Settings by Eye" post interesting! I'm looking forward to reading your results/settings.

Originally Posted by merlinski

..are you done tweeking your set now, and how is it? I need to know also on the X3030 - how exactly do those service menu items adjust, which parts of all the numbers change, there seems to be three columns of numbers - how does this work?

I'm not yet done tweaking - I decided that it would be a good idea to document my progress since I've managed to achieve a lot in a short space of time. So far I've spent more time writing this lot up

I'll be covering service menu settings in my next post - explaining the purpose of some of settings and their effect; and how best to go about safely adjusting them (tip: you will need a colorimeter!).

[Mikoyan]

Fantastic info mate...my TV should arrive today and cant wait to get this guide printed for reference!!!!

[runtime]

Originally Posted by BigTone

Now I have the weekend to think about running a DoE with a calibration device to see if I can find a quantity that can be used to create a response surface for the calibration. But, you would have thought that the guys/gals that designed the set would have thought of this too? or an I being naive?

GetGray DVD ISO can be downloaded for a modest $25 (~ £12.50), or you can download HCFR's DVD ISO for free. Or download BlackBolt's calibration images for free. There's plenty to get you started

The guys at Toshiba will have performed calibration on a reference display, perhaps one in a batch of a 1000? The reality is a lot of the components in a digital TV are analogue and have tolerances, and as such they vary to some degree. The cumulative effect is that what was once thought to be accurate is no longer the case. Don't get me wrong, its usually in the right ballpark (although not good enough in my case!); but more often than not TV's are factory adjusted to oversaturate red levels (known as 'red-push') to make them stand out on the showroom floor, where they have to compete with other sets and compensate for unnatural fluorescent lighting.

Ultimately it's left up to the owner to determine whether tuning is required, and that's how 'ISF Calibrators' earn a living

[Trent.]

Great thread Runtime
I probably would never have delved into the world of 'lcd fine tuning' without people like you taking the time and effort to post up your findings and a 'how to' guide.

I have an AVIA set up disc coming in the post to start with, and i'll take it from there if i'm not happy with that. Although i'm probably jumping the gun as i don't even own an lcd yet .....but there may well be a tosh sat in my front room this weekend

[runtime]

What The Experts Say

Following on from my earlier discussion of "Settings by Eye" here's what the experts at the Image Science Foundation has to say on the subject of settings and calibration.

I recognize there's quite a bit to read but its worth it because not only does it provide guidance for getting the best out of our set, there are clues about what the service menu settings do.

Grey-scale

To calibrate a display to any color of white requires, at minimum, the ability to adjust two of the three primary colors (red, green and blue) that combine to create grayscale. Depending on the display, there may be three color controls for the dark end of the grayscale range (typically referred to as “cutoffs” or “bias”) and three for the white end (“drives” or “gains”), but controls for at least two colors is required for color temperature adjustment. It is necessary to have these same controls for both the black end of the grayscale range (“black level” or “brightness”) and the white end of the range (“contrast,” or “picture”). These “cutoff” and “drive” controls are adjusted until the best possible color temperature tracking is achieved across the entire range, from video black to peak white. The labels used for grayscale adjustment controls vary widely among manufacturers.

Gamma

Gamma refers to the change in light output as the video signal increases from one reference level to the next, as measured in IRE units. The gamma response is typically checked at each 10 IRE step from 0 to 100 IRE, but it is also possible to measure and report gamma response at 1 or 5 IRE steps. According to the prevailing Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) standard, the correct gamma response is 2.2 at each step. In real world applications, a display gamma ranging from 2.2 to 2.5 is desired, and this will vary according to the display technology and viewing environment.

A gamma that is too low overall will contribute to images appearing dull and lifeless, while gamma that is too high will produce images that appear to be overly dynamic and visually fatiguing. While picture gamma is generally considered as an overall measure across the grayscale range, extreme gamma errors occurring in isolated areas of the gamma curve can also adversely impact overall image quality.

Setting contrast and brightness correctly is a key component in achieving proper gamma response, as these components have a strong influence on the composition of the extreme ends of the gamma curve, while the supporting gamma controls allow adjustment of specific areas between the dark and bright ends of the range.

Colour

Color decoding consists of accurately recovering the red, green and blue color channels from a non-RGB format such as S-Video, composite video or component video, and processing them for correct color response. All color decoders are built upon a foundation of the color and tint controls, which simultaneously alter the response of all three color channels. A color decoder is typically initially adjusted for the blue color channel, using the color and tint controls that are found in either the user or service menus. Proper alignment of the red and green channels is also required, and to achieve this individual and independent saturation and phase controls are required for red and green. Full color decoding controls are required not only to properly calibrate the display but also to compensate for source errors.

Colour Management

Color Management refers to a series of controls to align the red, green and blue primaries and the cyan, magenta and yellow secondaries. With the proper test equipment and patterns it is possible to fully correct a display that was designed by the manufacturer for non-standard primary and secondary colors. Most consumers are surprised to find that there are standards for both the primary and secondary colors that are used in televisions to create color images. Even more surprising is the fact that it is very difficult to buy a television that adheres to these standards. Display manufacturers choose to ignore these standards because they believe that using a customized color gamut will provide their products with a unique look and another helpful element of differentiation in a highly competitive market.

Color decoding is not to be confused with color management and refers to the color signal encoded in composite video, s-video and component video connections that will be decoded into the original red, green and blue signals for the final process of displaying the image. For digital displays this final process requires Color Management circuitry to steer the primary colors the design uses to the color decoded signals provided to match SMPTE-C or HDTV color gamuts. Both must be correct for accurate color reproduction.

There are many different approaches to color management but not all of them work as advertised. In addition, making use of these color management controls requires the use of properly designed and calibrated test equipment. Blindly adjusting these controls creates a risk of more serious imaging issues than the incorrect primary and secondary colors provided by the manufacturer.

Sharpness

Features that claim to “enhance” or “correct” some aspect of video display performance typically involve a significant degree of manipulation or distortion of the source video signal. By definition, such extracurricular video processing violates the most fundamental goal of proper display design – faithfully delivering the complete and unaltered content of the source video signal, in compliance with agreed industry standards. While a casual viewer or uneducated consumer may find some initial appeal in edge enhancement, for the discriminating viewer, edge enhancement seriously distorts picture quality. As a result, there must be some means for selectively reducing or defeating edge enhancement, so that the display is capable of accurately reproducing the content of the source video signal.

Note that the range and presence of edge enhancement varies widely among manufacturers, technologies and form factors.

Edge enhancement does precisely what it says it does; therefore, defeating edge enhancement will result in a comparatively “softer” image. While it may appear that the “edge enhanced” picture is superior, that isn’t the case – it simply takes time to acclimate to and appreciate the unprocessed picture without the artifacts induced by such circuitry.

[madmaxII]

Good stuff Runtime
keep it up, it is most appreciated.
Do you know if I can use a gretag eye one for this type of calibration? I currently use it to calibrate monitors at work.

Thanks

Madus Maximus

[Mikoyan]

Got a question about colour hcfr....is there any other version than the french one i dont understand it lol

Btw just got my 42X3030!!!!! its in my room ready to calibrate :D

[runtime]

Originally Posted by madmaxII

Do you know if I can use a gretag eye one for this type of calibration?

According to AVSForum the Eye One is supported (from what I read its somewhat better than the Spyder 2 but it's pricier).

Originally Posted by Mikoyan

Got a question about colour hcfr....is there any other version than the french one i dont understand it lol

No worries, you can download the English version from here.

When you run the installer it will prompt you to select your language. The DVD ISO available here is French only but you'll work it out, the main menu you want is called 'Mires de rêglage' - you can see it displayed on my TV here.

Later on today I'll try and post the next section about how to make user and service menu adjustments and monitor their effects.