calibrate HD tv/monitor without spending $ ?

[Scott_Arm]

I'm looking for a way to calibrate my monitor. I have it hooked up to a PS3 via HDMI and my 360 via DVI-D. Both are set to 1080p RGB extended. I'm a little confused about how I shoudl have my video output set for my PS3 and whether that will change how I calibrate it (RGB vs Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr). My monitor is a Dell 2408wfp, but I couldn't figure out what it expected as an input over HDMI, but both options seem to work. Looking at the manual for the monitor it seems my menu options will change depending on whether it is receiving RGB or YPbPr source. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/2408WFP/en/UG/operate.htm#Using the OSD

The only thing I have for calibrating displays is that THX optimizer, but it relies on having colour and tint adjusters, where I just have RGB adjustments on my monitor.

Most monitor calibration tools create those colour profiles for windows, but I want to calibrate my monitor for use on the PS3 and 360.

There has to be freely available ways of doing this by now, that don't rely on the use of a light monitor and whatnot. I honestly don't need it to be super accurate because I'm not doing anything pro, but I feel like I could do better than the monitor defaults.

I'm pretty much a newb when it comes to stuff like this, but I've sound a crazy amount of conflicting info by googling. There are so many people talking out their ass.

 

[suryad]

I remember seeing a link on avforum that pointed to a website that had information about a lot of the popular model of HDTVs and the 'best' settings for them. Let me try and find the link. I think the basic idea is that people who's settings are good looking get posted on that site and all you have to do is search for your model and try them out.

 

[Neb]

Some good info and test procedures to calibrate screen.

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

 

[suryad]

http://www.tweaktv.com/

here you go! Hope that helps!

 

[Scott_Arm]

Thanks for the links, guys. My display is not on tweaktv, but maybe it'll show up some day.

I tried using those test patters, but the images are not viewable on my 360 or PS3, and I don't seem to be able to make the correct adjustments for gamma on the monitor. The gamma appears to be low, which is surprising because I thought the colors looked over-saturated. My monitor only has two fixed gamma settings "PC and Mac", which I assume are supposed to be fixed at 2.2 and 1.8 respectively. The 2.2 setting is giving me a gamma somewhere around 1.9 or 2.0.

Anyway, I think I have my contrast and brightness adjusted better, but I'll play around with it again when I get home.

 

[RobertR1]

Look on anandtech forums under video cards and display technologies. There's a LCD thread sticky thread on there with some very helpful posters. Also you can look on avsforum.com under the display calibration section. The later might be a bit too technical (is for simple me )

 

[suryad]

here's an awesome link that I found in my search : http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457

 

[homerdog]

Some good info and test procedures to calibrate screen.

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Some of those tests make my poor TN panel very sad.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Ummmmm, why do the brightness/contrast controls in my nvidia control panel do completely different things than the brightness/contrast controls on my monitor?

 

[green.pixel]

What do you mean by "different" ?

 

[Scott_Arm]

What do you mean by "different" ?

one of the test patterns is the black squares. If I lowered my contrast through my nvidia control panel, the first row of squares would become visible. If I lowered the contrast on my monitor, the whole screen became dark and I still couldn't see the squares.

 

[homerdog]

I get the same effect. My guess is if the vidcard has already crushed the blacks, no amount of adjustment on the monitor will make those squares visible.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I get the same effect. My guess is if the vidcard has already crushed the blacks, no amount of adjustment on the monitor will make those squares visible.

Interesting. I never thought of it that way.

 

[Scott_Arm]

So, it looks like my monitor's brightness control is the backlight and not the black level. So my monitor has no black level control, only the backlight and the white point?

My monitor seems to be crushing black when I have it hooked up to the PS3 and the xbox360, and I don't know if there's any way I can correct it. If I set them to "limited" reference levels, the black looks really really gray.

 

[Babel-17]

Did some googling and it looks like this monitor is a challenge to calibrate. Anyway, found these.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1033051


http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cach...ion&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us&client=firefox-a


http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_2408wfp.htm

Firstly I calibrated the screen using LaCie's software suite while also changing the monitor to the 'Custom' preset mode, affording me access to the RGB colour controls. During the calibration process the screens brightness was adjusted to 20%, with contrast being left at 50%. RGB values were altered to 92, 90 and 98 respectively.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=4513500&postcount=9

 

[Scott_Arm]

Did some googling and it looks like this monitor is a challenge to calibrate. Anyway, found these.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1033051


http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cach...ion&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us&client=firefox-a


http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_2408wfp.htm



http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=4513500&postcount=9

Thanks for puttin that work in for me The settings you quoted are very similar to how I have mine set.

 

[Babel-17]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496

INTRODUCTION
This project aims to provide a free set of calibration patterns for high definition (HD) video players. You will find downloads here to create discs for Blu-ray and HD DVD players, a version with MP4 1080p video for computers or other compatible devices, and PDFs with basic instructions for the patterns. The Blu-ray and HD DVD discs can be burned to DVD media, but they are intended only for HD players. These calibration patterns are not intended for standard DVD players, and they are not expected to calibrate for Rec. 601 video used in commercial DVDs. The patterns are meant only to calibrate for Rec. 709 encoded HD video, such as commercial Blu-rays or HD DVDs.

Our primary intent is to offer HD video patterns for calibrating digital displays (LCD, Plasma, DLP, D-ILA, SXRD). That means there are no audio portions or patterns specifically meant for analog TVs (CRT), which can be found on Digital Video Essentials and Avia discs. The patterns provided have simply been divided into sections for different tasks, and each section is made up of a number of video patterns. The Blu-ray and HD DVD discs allow you to select sections from the menus, and the video clips in each section can be navigated by chapter skipping. The Basic Settings, Miscellaneous Patterns, and Resolution sections are intended to be useful in setting user controls for your electronics with no test equipment, except possibly a color filter. The remaining sections are meant for taking measurements from the display, with a colorimeter or spectroradiometer, using software like ColorHCFR or CalMAN. The Related Links area of this post will take you to more information about measurements, and further details about using the patterns are covered in the attached PDF files.

Last edited by alluringreality; 01-26-09 at 11:14 PM..

So I guess the links should be good.

 

[woundingchaney]

^ I have in the past used what Babel has posted and I found it to be the most comprehensive calibrating tool/tools available on the net for free.

You may need an account at avs though to download the information/data.

 

[Bambers]

one of the test patterns is the black squares. If I lowered my contrast through my nvidia control panel, the first row of squares would become visible. If I lowered the contrast on my monitor, the whole screen became dark and I still couldn't see the squares.

Contrast should alter the slope of the curve. Brightness should effectively adjust the intercept of the curve without changing the slope, ie simply raises or lowers the curve entirely.


Sounds like here that the two controls hold different points fixed when they adjust the slope. The nvidia controls hold the middle fixed so the blacks become lighter and the whites become darker, the monitor holds black fixed so everything gets darker.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Contrast should alter the slope of the curve. Brightness should effectively adjust the intercept of the curve without changing the slope, ie simply raises or lowers the curve entirely.


Sounds like here that the two controls hold different points fixed when they adjust the slope. The nvidia controls hold the middle fixed so the blacks become lighter and the whites become darker, the monitor holds black fixed so everything gets darker.

You learn something new every day. Thanks, Bambers.