Calibration service in south London, any recommendations?

[Mr_Sukebe]

Already have a reasonable D-ILA JVC projector and am getting to the point of not wishing to blow more dosh on hardware. I'm guessing that the next real "area of opportunity" would be to have my projector calibrated.

Anyone good some good recommendations?
Have asked my local dealer (Unilet, New Malden), but unfortunately they don't have a qualified person anymore.

 

[kbfern]

Ricky from Kalibrate is hardly south London but I am sure he would do a good job.

http://www.chromapure.co.uk/contact.asp

 

[Jenz]

I would highly recommend Kalibrate also, they supplied nearly all of my install.

 

[True Romance]

sorry don't want to take over the op's thread but I'm looking at getting my pj calibrated but not sure what results to expect, is this something worth doing on entry/mid range pj's or only for more top end gear?

 

[kbfern]

Canary Jules is thorough (5hrs+so I have heard) and is reasonably priced Neil (think around £250) is in Leicester and I am sure it would give you the best picture your pj is capable of delivering.

Are you looking to loose that last ball then mate. by the way do you have a darblet on order?

 

[kbfern]

Mr Sukebe

Apart from a Calibration have you seen the buzz about the Darbee Darblet Ricky is selling them and he could demo one in your system if you get him out.At £235 it could be the best upgrade you can get for a relatively modest outlay.

 

[kbfern]

Neil

Don't get a calibration done till you have a min 150-200hrs on the pj.

 

[kbfern]

One other thought Neil with Calibrations and Especially Epson machines.If you get a fault or even a dust blob they tend to swap the machine rather than repair so you could end up paying out for a calibration and if you were unlucky having the machine swapped soon afterwards would mean you would have wasted your money.

 

[True Romance]

One other thought Neil with Calibrations and Especially Epson machines.If you get a fault or even a dust blob they tend to swap the machine rather than repair so you could end up paying out for a calibration and if you were unlucky having the machine swapped soon afterwards would mean you would have wasted your money.

yes good point, did look at the Darblet but thought I'd let you get one first and see if its any good

 

[kbfern]

 

[Tight Git]

sorry don't want to take over the op's thread but I'm looking at getting my pj calibrated but not sure what results to expect, is this something worth doing on entry/mid range pj's or only for more top end gear?

Fully discussed in the calibration section!

 

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Q: Is it worth calibrating a medium to low end pj.
A: Yes. In fact often it's the low end and mid range devices that are the furthest away from correct. Higher end devices tend to have settings on them that are much closer to accurate. They benefit as well of course but plenty of sub £2000 pj's have been transformed by calibration.

Q: What happens if my tv/pj is swapped out as a fault develops after calibration.
A: Well it depends on the manufacturer and the calibrator in question. Some manufacturers would get the display calibrated for you. Some calibrators may even just come back and redo the thing free of charge or for the cost of fuel. I would say though that this is a very rare occurence.

 

[kbfern]

You would need to see how many Epsons get swapped out Gordon, it may shock you the amount of regularity that this happens,some owners have had 3 or 4 machines in less than a year.

 

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Historically Epsons are a very small percentage of projectors that get calibrated. The ones i've done have mainly been for post production studios and dealers. I think it's because the ones dealers sell are at the cheaper end and the folk that buy them do not have the funds for calibration.....while advertising companies and film makers do have the funds and the requirement for accurate images.

 

[Jenz]

Neil

Don't get a calibration done till you have a min 150-200hrs on the pj.

This wasn't for me was it as I wasn't talking about calibration of my Projector, and I am not worried about dust blobs or swapping out.

Regards Neil

 

[w0mble]

Calibrating is an addiction!
I wish a chip for auto calibrating was a standard.
I think I would have saved about half of last year and not ****** off my mates and gf so much. The other half was spent on getting 3d ready to work with laptop.

 

[kbfern]

Hi Jens (Neil) I was referring to True Romance who is also called Neil confusing isn't it.

 

[KelvinS1965]

Calibrating is an addiction!
I wish a chip for auto calibrating was a standard.
I think I would have saved about half of last year and not ****** off my mates and gf so much. The other half was spent on getting 3d ready to work with laptop.

Depends if you're calibrating or 'fiddling about with the settings every five minutes'. Having said that you can get a bit obsessed with getting perfect calibration charts and forget to watch the films...Once it's set then you should be able to leave it well alone and just enjoy as that's the whole point of calibration: The display is set to match (usually) rec709 as closely as it's controls allow, then away you go. No tweaking around with settings for different films/content, which is where a lot of new owners fall down (and upset their OHs too ). If it's calibrated you already know that it's set up as best as possible and any issues then are down to poor transfers (ie raised black levels and other issues) as per Keith's thread about better sources or better PJs.

FWIW to the OP calibrating a HD350 (or HD1 if that's what you have) will probably greatly improve the gamma response which tends to drop over time. Sometimes giving a high gamma at the low end (makes shadow detail too hard to see and general lack of contrast in dark scenes) and a low gamma further up makes the image look washed out/flat.

When done if you flick between pre calibration with the above gamma and post calibration with nice flat 2.2/2.3 gamma you'd think it was a different PJ. Even though you can't do anything with the over saturated colours, getting the greyscale and gamma spot on makes a noticeable difference. Just wait until your PJ has at least 100 hours on it first though.