TV Calibration and Type?

Shortbread

Shortbread

Island Hopper
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How often do you calibrate (fine-tune) your TV or monitor? And what type, the manufacture and size?

The reason I ask, is that I believe game quality (visual wise) is often destroyed by poor TV/Monitor settings, especially color/luminance settings. One feature that annoys me the most, is the motion adaptive or motion enhancements on most LCDs, especially when used incorrectly on certain material/programs/games.

Me personally, I check my setting regularly, just to make sure they haven't defaulted to something kookie. I own 2 Samsung LCDs (55' six series for the master bedroom, 55' seven series for the living room) and a 70' Sony LCD for my man-cave.
 
I only calibrated my 42" LG once using that free dvd available from AVSforum. Turned out I only had to make a few very small changes from the LG movie pre-set to make it match the dvd as much as possible on my tv. Other than that I set my HDMI port to PC (got all my devices connected to a Onkyo 35HDX) to make sure the tv isn't applying any post processing or whatever. I don't understand why people bother with gaming modes etc. Just put it on PC.

I never check the settings. I don't have to because the current settings are noticeably different from the default settings.

For the average consumer I don't think it's really necessary to calibrate their tv's. Besides, for most people what they think looks good and what would be a correct calibration often isn't the same thing. I do agree that all post processing tv's do mostly seems to make things worse.
 
TVs 'drift' with usage so I calibrate my displays every 1-2 years. Not necessary for the average joe, but being the videophile that I am, and having my own color meter(s) (same ones that many pro ISF/THX calibrators use)... why not.
 
It takes me a lot of time to calibrate a TV 'cos of my obsessive nature, but when I do I leave it at that for long --although I am always experimenting.

I have two Samsung HDTVs -22" and 46"- and my favourite, a Philips, 32", with 3D support and Miracast, DLNA, etc.
 
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Shortbread said:
How often do you calibrate (fine-tune) your TV or monitor? And what type, the manufacture and size?

The reason I ask, is that I believe game quality (visual wise) is often destroyed by poor TV/Monitor settings, especially color/luminance settings. One feature that annoys me the most, is the motion adaptive or motion enhancements on most LCDs, especially when used incorrectly on certain material/programs/games.

Me personally, I check my setting regularly, just to make sure they haven't defaulted to something kookie. I own 2 Samsung LCDs (55' six series for the master bedroom, 55' seven series for the living room) and a 70' Sony LCD for my man-cave.
Click to expand...

You need to change your name to LongBread.
 
My primary TV is LCD with HCFL backlight and as they get older they shift white balance of my TV, so I adjusting maybe twice a year ...

I use Spyder3 colorimeter and free HCFR software.
 
novcze said:
My primary TV is LCD with HCFL backlight and as they get older they shift white balance of my TV, so I adjusting maybe twice a year ...

I use Spyder3 colorimeter and free HCFR software.
Click to expand...
Be wary of meter drift as well. Colorimeters without sealed filters are prone to drift from deterioration. A colorimeter like the i1Display Pro/3 will last much longer because the filters are sealed.

If you want to take it to the next level, buying a budget spectrometer like an i1pro rev.D to go along with your colorimeter is a good combination because spectros are more accurate across a wider range of display types. Colorimeters have the advantage of better low-light ability as well as speed. So having both, you can profile your colorimeter to your spectro and have the best of both worlds; the accuracy of the spectro, and the speed/low-light ability of the colorimeter.
 
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djskribbles said:
Be wary of meter drift as well. Colorimeters without sealed filters are prone to drift from deterioration. A colorimeter like the i1Display Pro/3 will last much longer because the filters are sealed.

If you want to take it to the next level, buying a budget spectrometer like an i1pro rev.D to go along with your colorimeter is a good combination because spectros are more accurate across a wider range of display types. Colorimeters have the advantage of better low-light ability as well as speed. So having both, you can profile your colorimeter to your spectro and have the best of both worlds; the accuracy of the spectro, and the speed/low-light ability of the colorimeter.
Click to expand...

I'm keeping my colorimeter in the drawer where is dark and in room with 45% rel. humidity, I can imagine that some deterioration happen, but I would say that biggest problem in this hobby class is diffrence between units. I had opportunity to compare two Spyder3's and each was different, anyway I'm not so obssesive about absolute precise 6500K but want to keep color temp same across whole greyscale, have gamma right, color saturation, etc. without throwing more money at equipment I use twice a year.
 
I don't see the point in such accuracy myself. One's sensitivity to colours changes to both the exposure to colours and our internal white-balance. Watch a scene that's all dark blue and your blue perception will be off when watching the following daylight scene, which your brain will compensate for. Switch the lights on and your colour perception will shift again, although I guess those here with calibration equipment are only viewing in pitch-black rooms by-and-large.

I 'calibrate' by setting the screen so it looks good. If it stops looking good, I'll poke about, but that doesn't happen by and large. I think CFL tubes dim after a spell. I know I cranked the brightness on the main TV up from 8 to 10 a year or two back because it seemed a little dim.

Some screens we can't change. Netflix on my Note has lousy contrast. The blacks are grey to the point I think it's displaying limited range on a full RGB screen. Next to that, the picture on any other TV I have looks gorgeous such that'd I'd never think it needs tweaking! ;)
 
Calibration is getting even more in-depth. Some people do stuff beyond what I even do. ie, buying color boxes and doing 3DLUT calibrations, which calibrates for a massive range of colors. Even I think that's excessive. There are varying levels of calibration/tweaking, from the basic stuff all the way to 3DLUTs. There is no one option for everyone. ;)
novcze said:
I'm keeping my colorimeter in the drawer where is dark and in room with 45% rel. humidity, I can imagine that some deterioration happen, but I would say that biggest problem in this hobby class is diffrence between units. I had opportunity to compare two Spyder3's and each was different, anyway I'm not so obssesive about absolute precise 6500K but want to keep color temp same across whole greyscale, have gamma right, color saturation, etc. without throwing more money at equipment I use twice a year.
Click to expand...
The i1Display Pro/3 is perhaps the most popular colorimeter in the hobby class. Even many pros use it (along with a spectro of course). It can be found for ~$250-$300 so it's very affordable, it has sealed filters as I said above, it is very fast, has been proven to have low unit to unit variations, it has very good low-light capability (down to 0.001 fL / 0.003 cd/m^2), and it is by far the most accurate in its price range. If you ever decide to buy a new meter some day, this is a highly recommend meter (at least as of now).

But you're doing everything right with your Spyder (dark room with rel. low humidity etc.). You might want to also get some silica desiccant packs to help absorb moisture. I keep my meters in a sealed bag with a bunch of desiccant packs in my drawer. You might even have a bunch already (they come with a lot of computer parts, ie hard drives).
 
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