I'm trying to get my grayscale values to be correct on my 67 sammie. I'm referencing a greyscale tutorial on another website, and am using a spyder 2 to get the readings. I've run into a few issues that have pretty much made me go back to the original settings out the box until I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I'd appreciate any feedback on the following questions!

1.) The first thing I'm trying to figure out is what settings I should be using on my tv before going into the service menu.

2.) The second thing is, I've noticed going into the service menu completely voids the settings altogether that are on the TV, since it seems like the service menu runs independent. Is there a way around this? I ask because of the next question...

3.) I'm supposed to initially adjust my contrast and brightness. I figure since the settings reset in the service menu, that adjustment of contrast and brightness is done through sub_contrast and sub_brightness on the WB menu? What I'm trying to do is make my tv menu's contrast of 80 and darkness of 50 be at the contrast/brightness levels in the service menu that i want, but I can't figure out a way to do this as going out of the service menu and starting up the tv brings me back to the default out of the box settings of contrast 100 brightness 45. I'm basically trying to allow there to be some wiggle room on the contrast specifically through the tv menu, but have the contrast 80 function as if it was higher. This way I can increase the contrast in the tv menu as it dies down. Is something like that possible?

4.) I'm supposed to adjust my red and blue levels at IRE 80 then 30, and try to take care of the in between and low end IRE values. I'm trying to get the RGB values to be as close to the 100% mark as possible. To make sure, these are the R/B values that I adjust under sub_brightness for low IRE and sub_contrast for high IRE? The problem i'm running into is without adjusting the green value, I have a hell of a time getting the red high enough near 100%. I've only been able to stablize all three colors modifying the green since the green for my set out of the box is at 110%. But modifying the green seems to lower my contrast throughout the IRE spectrum.

Thanks!

Edit: I noticed the grayscale tutorial was posted on here as well. For reference, I'm referring to the http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1029594&highlight=samsung tutorial that's mentioned in that thread and going through that process.

1.) The first thing I'm trying to figure out is what settings I should be using on my tv before going into the service menu.

cstrasz,

Edit: This is a DLP set and looking at the manual, it does not have detailed White Balance/Grayscale controls like their LCDs nor the Custom color space controls that some of their latest plasma/LCDs seem to have. So, it sounds like if you want to calibrate grayscale, you need to do so via the service menu.

Each time you go into the service menu it is setting your user level controls back to the default factory settings. I have two tvs which do the same. One is a Samsung that I just use the user level controls to calibrate and the other is a Sharp that does not have user level grayscale controls so I had to use the service menu. Like me with the Sharp, I suspect if you want to make changes to the service menu settings, you'll need to go in, make the change, exit, reset all the user level settings back to your values and then re-measure - this would have to be done each time you wanted to make a service menu change. It can be time consuming. The alternative to this is to leave all the user level controls at their factory defaults and to make all changes just to the service menu controls. This eliminates the "reset" problem but also means that you need to know all the the service menu controls that map to all the user level controls. For example, you'd need to know what the display does when you put it in Movie mode so you could mimic that behavior in the service menu (turning off DNie, edge enhancement, etc.) thus making Dynamic behave like Movie.

The green value, I have a hell of a time getting the red high enough near 100%. I've only been able to stablize all three colors modifying the green since the green for my set out of the box is at 110%. But modifying the green seems to lower my contrast throughout the IRE spectrum.

You may need to change the Green offset and gains in order to bring green close to 100% and yes, this will affect overall luminance since most of the luminance of the signal is contained within green I would get your grayscale as optimal as you can and then deal with any luminance changes by going back and re-adjusting contrast and brightness (and then re-checking grayscale again after that, etc. - as you can see, it is an iterative process).

hope this helps,


--tom

Here is the procedure I used on my 61HL759.

From other posts and my own findings I used the MOVIE mode to calibrate.
1. Turn off all enhancements in USER MENU.
2. Set to WARM2 in PICTURE OPTIONS and COLOR GAMUT to sRGB.
3. In DETAILED SETTINGS LED CONTROL to MEDIUM others too bright for my viewing room.
4. Use test disk to set set CONTRAST and BRIGHTNESS.
5. Use test disk I used (GETGRAY), I1pro and CALMAN the test grayscale.
6. Go SERVICE MENU WB (White Balance). Select MOVIE MODE. Select SUB CONTRAST click up one then down one (color changes not sure if it affects results or not). Make adjustment to grayscale. Go back to USER MENU change values again from factory default. Test grayscale again.
7. Go back to SERVICE MENU WB make changes and keep doing until grayscale is flat. If one color starts to fall off on top end reduce contrast settings to correct.
8. Measure COLOR GAMUT go to SERVICE MENU DESATURATION adjust secondary colors sRGB (x,y) until they are correct in color triangle.
9. In USER MENU DETAILED SETTINGS find GAMMA that closest fits the 2.2 curve (mine was +1)
10. In USER MENU PICTURE OPTIONS use BLUE ONLY MODE to set COLOR and TINT.
11. Check all again with test disk to make sure all is OK.

Going back and forth between USER and SERVICE menus is time consuming but the end results were worth it to me.

Thanks for the help! Well, I went and did as good a grayscale adjustment as I could. Something doesn't feel right, unless the colors are so radically off on these sets out of the box. I ended up getting decent RGB values throughout the IRE scale, however, I noticed that in the DVE grayscale patterns it just seems more red than I'm used to and not gray.

I checked out Casino Royale the image has a more noticeable yellow tint to it than previous - same with Planet Earth, it just looks more earthy and not as eye popping as it did before. But all the RGB values are within 5% in most cases of 100, with the exception of the 80/90/100 IRE and 10/20 IRE values which I just struggled with to get as good as the rest.

Thanks for the help! Well, I went and did as good a grayscale adjustment as I could. Something doesn't feel right, unless the colors are so radically off on these sets out of the box. I ended up getting decent RGB values throughout the IRE scale, however, I noticed that in the DVE grayscale patterns it just seems more red than I'm used to and not gray.

I checked out Casino Royale the image has a more noticeable yellow tint to it than previous - same with Planet Earth, it just looks more earthy and not as eye popping as it did before. But all the RGB values are within 5% in most cases of 100, with the exception of the 80/90/100 IRE and 10/20 IRE values which I just struggled with to get as good as the rest.

The 10/20 values are probably beyond the limits of your meter. On the top end you may need to reduce contrast. What you call "eye popping" is usually false enhancements that are not in the original.

cstrasz,
Each time you go into the service menu it is setting your user level controls back to the default factory settings. I have two tvs which do the same. One is a Samsung that I just use the user level controls to calibrate and the other is a Sharp that does not have user level grayscale controls so I had to use the service menu. Like me with the Sharp, I suspect if you want to make changes to the service menu settings, you'll need to go in, make the change, exit, reset all the user level settings back to your values and then re-measure - this would have to be done each time you wanted to make a service menu change. It can be time consuming.

I'm getting one of these sets (well, the 61" model) on Saturday and I was hoping to do some grayscale calibration myself, but that sounds extremely tedious. I'm not sure I'd want to mess with it exclusively in service menu mode, either, as I don't know that I want to make dynamic mode behave as if it were movie/standard mode. I guess I'll have to set aside a few hours and just do it if I want to calibrate it right.

Out of curiosity, is that what an ISF calibrator would do with a TV that resets user-level controls when entering the service menu? Just manually reset the user menu settings every time an adjustment was made in the service manual? Yeesh.