How do you calibrate your display for Sky HD?

[Tommy Angelo]

At the moment I'm just finding dark parts of movies and trying to pull as much detail from the blacks as I can without loosing black level or crushing whites. Does anyone else have a better way to calibrate a display for Sky HD?

 

[mray]

The way I did it was to record one of the Star Wars movies, then play it back alongside the dvd version and try to match up the brightness and contrast.

there may be easier ways, but that's one of the ways I did it, as well as the method you used.

 

[Tarbat]

Does anyone else have a better way to calibrate a display for Sky HD?

I calibrated my display using my PC, set to 1080i, connected using HDMI, and then used a Spyder2 colimeter to calibrate using various greyscale test images.

 

[SmokeyBubbles]

Calibrated mine using the THX calibration tool on some DVD’s i.e. Star Wars, most Disney titles etc. Was very pleased with the results.

 

[RSVdaz]

Calibrated mine using the THX calibration tool on some DVD’s i.e. Star Wars, most Disney titles etc. Was very pleased with the results.

i got starwars on dvd..whats/where is the calibration tool?

 

[SmokeyBubbles]

It's well hidden!

From memory I think it was in the set-up page. At first you cannot see it but by moving the buttons sideways it becomes visible. Sorry can't be more exact but was a while ago! Trust me it is there somewhere

It is basically a series of screens that allows you to set brightness, contrast etc. and there is also an audio calibration tool for both stereo and Dolby 5.1 surround sound.

 

[mad_matt]

I used the DVE dvd, includes how to setup surround sound as well. Found it very easy to use and imho the pq on my plas is pretty damn good.

 

[Chris5]

don't forget to set contrast to HIGH on the SKY box for best results.

 

[SmokeyBubbles]

Also worth turning on the "banner timeout" function to get rid of the bloody things.

 

[Tommy Angelo]

Calibrated mine using the THX calibration tool on some DVD’s i.e. Star Wars, most Disney titles etc. Was very pleased with the results.

I used the DVE dvd, includes how to setup surround sound as well. Found it very easy to use and imho the pq on my plas is pretty damn good.

I'm talking about calibrating for Sky HD, not for a DVD player.

 

[jrd31]

Hi Tommy

I had my plasma calibrated professionally by Neil Davidson from AV Doctor.

I can recommend him very highly, my plasma looks wicked & i am pleased with the results, each of the inputs, Sky HD, DVD, HD-DVD & Blu Ray all look perfect, even SD Disks are great.

He will also do LCD's if that is what you have.

Link is http://www.mamut.com/homepages/United_Kingdom/3/18/AVDoctor/default.htm

Cheers

jase

 

[WSH]

don't forget to set contrast to HIGH on the SKY box for best results.

Over in the plasma forum an ISF calibrator once recommended LOW.

 

[Mike Groves]

I'm talking about calibrating for Sky HD, not for a DVD player.

Have your setup ISF calibrated - you pay for it (around £200 if I remember) - but if you want the best from the plasma its well worth it. The method calibrates all the inputs (HDMI, component, Scart, etc), not just the one being used for Sky.

 

[ChrisOH]

The question is how to callibrate for Sky HD and the problem is the same as how to callibrate for Sky SD.

As there are no test patterns broadcast (afaik) for either platform you can only guess or approximate. Tarbat, using a 1080i output from a PC is doing an approximation but this misses a point as video black is set differently in HD to SD, so simply sending HD resolutions does not overcome the problem, unless you use HD video test patterns.

What we really need is good old test patterns to be broadcast so we can use these to set our displays.

 

[John]

The question is how to callibrate for Sky HD and the problem is the same as how to callibrate for Sky SD.

As there are no test patterns broadcast (afaik) for either platform you can only guess or approximate. Tarbat, using a 1080i output from a PC is doing an approximation but this misses a point as video black is set differently in HD to SD, so simply sending HD resolutions does not overcome the problem, unless you use HD video test patterns.

What we really need is good old test patterns to be broadcast so we can use these to set our displays.

There are test patterns , you just have not looked hard enough
There are occasional Colour Bars broadcast , I have yet to find a greyscale though . I have posted a couple of times over the years on where they are , a quick search should reveal all

 

[Neil Davidson]

Hi Guys,

On the Sky+ units, the correct contrast setting was Low. On the Sky HD boxes the correct setting seems to be Medium.

To calibrate the Sky input on the display the pros use a calibrated pattern generator which allows the display to be set to the correct reference levels. From there you can use a couple of tricks to get the brightness and contrast set correctly and typically you back down the colour to accomodate the red push the boxes tend to have.

Once this is done you have a bang on greyscale and all user controls set to the correct points.

Unfortunately most of the test patterns that I have seen have been noticeably off in certain areas and the worst thing you can do is calibrate to an inaccurate reference.

HTH

Neil

 

[breadbun]

I had my contrast settings on LOW as recommended somewhere on this forum. However, the picture was noticeably darker in general than my other sources (Freeview, XBox360, etc), so I have recently put it up to MEDIUM and it seems to make a big difference.

 

[Tarbat]

Tarbat, using a 1080i output from a PC is doing an approximation but this misses a point as video black is set differently in HD to SD, so simply sending HD resolutions does not overcome the problem, unless you use HD video test patterns.

I use these - http://www.w6rz.net/ and others, and also used the test patterns from my Lumagen HDP, although I no longer use the Lumagen.

And yes, testing with a 1080i over HDMI from a PC is only a close approximation to SkyHD calibration, but is about the best we can do without a decent test transmission from Sky or BBC - see http://www.avforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3466229&postcount=2

 

[ChrisOH]

Showing my ignorance of Sky HD (I use DVB-S for BBC atm) sorry if I misslead about test patterns, my experience is based on standard Sky + where there are none at the moment (afaik)

I didn't mean to be critical Tarbat just qualify what you'd said.

Chris