Ok, I'm looking for peoples' opinions on if Tv calibration is necessary. For those who don't know what it is, it is when a technician comes to your home and calibrates you tv giving you supposedly the best possible picture for your situation. It goes beyond the DIY technique of buying one of those calibration dvds and tuning your picture accordingly (which , dont get me wrong, I think those DIY dvd are very handy). But I was wondering how others feel about getting a certified tech to calibrate your set. Has anyone had it done? I have a connection with a guy who is ISF certified and would give me a great deal. Is it more worth it for larger or smaller tvs? More worth it for less expensive sets like Vizios or for more expensive sets like Sonys? Any difference? Let me know
I'm also curious about other peoples' opinions on this. I myself just scheduled a calibration for my LCD. I have a couple of the calibration discs, DVE HD-DVD being one, and just wasn't satisfied with the picture. I didn't find anything on setting the backlight nor for most of the tints. Got more helpfull info (alright, settings ) off the avs forums which actually gave me a better picture, but they all recommended a Medium or Medium Low color tempurature when most reviews of my set state the Low setting is closest to standard. I have a Sharp LC52D64U. There are a couple of ISF certified shops where I live but BB (1 of the shops), wouldn't touch my set. I talked with the ISF certified tech and he said that the pic quality could be worse when he was done and recommended not doing it. I went to another shop (a specialty Home Theater & Audio shop) and they were more then willing to do the calibration. Seemed kind of excited about it and said they have some new equipment to use for calibration. They also said that over 90% of people don't calibrate their sets. It's pricey, BB wanted $300 to calibrate 2 inputs (TV & 1 other), the place I'm have do it is charging $375 to calibrate 3+.
Calibration is well worth it. When done by an ISF certified tech (or equivalent) the picture is much better. Now that is better in terms of what the director and producer intend for you to see as well as what your room lighting conditions will allow. There are also other benefits like longer TV life and lower power consumption. However, it is pricey sometimes as it does require a lot of labor and equipment. @ hobbit112, I know for a fact that two tv lines at Bestbuy can not be fully calibrated. One is Insignia (by LG for BB) and Sharp. They are actually instructed to tell the customers those brands can not be fully calibrated. The $300 fee is also reduced to $200 because of that fact. I believe the reason they can't be fully calibrated is because they don't have access to the system menu. To fully calibrate a TV a dedicated service port (i.e. Firewire, USB, or RS-232) is required. Ced
Well, my Sharp does have a RS-232C service port so we shall see. I read that the Sharps (or at least my model) can't be fully calibrated due to the black level being non-adjustable. We shall see, the tech is supposed to be here Tuesday.
Well, Good news and "Bad" news. "Bad" news: The tech didn't go into the service menu at all, he had an associate that just came back from an ISF update seminar and told him he wouldn't be able to calibrate it. He checked with a buddy of his that is a Sharp service tech and got some info about the calibration but he said Sharp does things differently than other manufacurers. So he used strictly the user menu to set the display. He did use a signal generator and a puck to test color tempurature but got some conflicting results regarding gray levels compared with a thx setup disc. With the signal generator the brightness should have been set at -11 which would have made the screen too dark. With the thx disc, the brightness was set at +6, which was simular to what I was able to get with my DVE disc. He also pumped up my color levels from what I had (to +11) and discovered that the Mid-Low setting for color temperature was the closest to 65k at 20% & 80%. He did not adjust (or even test that I could see) the various hues. The good news is that the picture looks alot better, blacks are more defined, more shadow detail and better overall image quality. Even better, he's refunding all charges! Looks like I'll be using the money for an audio system for this display.
Yea I knew there was something about the Sharp TVs. Well now I know. Thanks for the detailed analyses. I'm glad it worked out for you. The picture is better not perfect but who cares you got your money back. Sounds like good business to me, just sucks for them that you caught them at a "newbie" stage in their calibration service development. Thanks again, Ced
Not necessarily a "newbie" calibration department. They mainly do Pioneer Elite and Runco displays and other high-end displays. They had a new Sharp LCD display in their shop when I was in there Saturday, still in it's shipping crate. I got the impression that the Sharps they do install are generally secondary displays or afterthoughts for their customers. In addtion to the Sharps, he mentioned that 1 other display can't be calibrated, I think it was either the Olivas or the Insignias. The tech did drag in a $10,000 laser color temperature tester (so he said) but didn't use it. He did say he was impressed with the Sharp's performance, especially for the price. I'll try to remember and post the settings which he arrived at for my sharp, might help others.
