The following link is for a free reference DVD to help you set-up and calibrate your new LCD HDTV's and Monitors. I am not sure how it compares to the Digital Video Essentials (DVE) DVD(est $24), because I just ordered my copy. It may have some additional info from 3M promoting Vikuiti™ enhancement display technology film.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/VikuitiBrand/ConsumerHome/?WT.mc_id=www.3mVikuiti.com

Enjoy

Thanks. I just finished completing their "survey" and got my DVD on order. It sounds like it's just a simple set of calibration test patterns plus a 5.1 channel sound test (???). I have AVIA, DVE and the GetGray Caldisc. It will be interesting to see how it compares.

Hmmm. Just saw this same exact post (word for word) on another forum (SD). Anyway....Do you think this dvd can help me calibrate my plasma?

I just ordered a RP3LCD...
You guys think that this will work for it?

I ordered the DVD anyways.

I'll have to wait and see. I want to compare it to GetGray, AVIA, and DVE calibration DVDs that I own. It really shouldn't have patterns that are different from standard test patterns. The only thing added sould be their advertising for their "Vikuti" film, even if it is geared to flat panel LCD displays.

It is out of stock, but you can sign up to buy it at 19.95 now

Anyone actually receive this yet? I filled out the survey the day this thread opened and have not received it. I actually work at 3M, but not in this division. If I don't see it soon I'm going to see if I can contact someone about it.

It's only been 3 weeks. Promotions like this usually take 8-12 weeks. YMMV.

Hey guys. Just wanted to let everyone know i received my 3M disc today in the mail. Haven't popped it in yet, just wanted to let those awaiting that it should arrive shortly.
Will post more when i try it out tonight.

Carmine.

I got mine today. The good news is it isn't much of a sales pitch, but they do try to ingrain the Vikuiti™ logo into your brain. It does brightness, contrast, color, tint, "make it pleasing" color temp, and audio. Compared to GetGray and DVE, it seems like the brightness settings are too dark to me, and the color decoder and the included glasses didn't seem correct either. Funny thing - I swear the voice-over is the same guy on the Joe Kane DVE disk!

I totally agree JB. i went right back to my getgray settings after noticing that the picture was way too dark. Color i also not correct on this disk. Well it was worth a shot being it was free!!!

Carmine.

I got mine too.

Let me preface my comments with: I've used GetGray, DVE, Avia, and even THX, to calibrate TVs/monitors--mine and those of my friends and neighbors. And, except for ease of use, the resulting differences are minor, i.e., I always end up at about the same calibration point, regardless of the source.

Yesterday, I did a test calibration using the 3M Vikuti disc, and I too ended up in dark left field. As JB observed, you end up with a dark screen and questionable contrast/color/tint settings.

Thinking I was too dumb to follow 3M's simple instructions, I asked my neighbor to setup his display using the 3M Vikuti disc. His display ended up in dark left field too--we recalibrated it immediately with GetGray.

Hey, the disc was free, as were the cardboard glasses, so who's complaining ! :-)

Received mine today also and tested it wiith the panny S97 feeding the Vizio 47 over HDMI.
The Vizio has been calibrated with a DPT-94 colorimeter and HCFR software.
Only tested brightness, contrast, color and tint

BTB did not show up, so left the original settings.
Color 59 vs 54, tint +4 vs +2. The latter are the original settings.
Result very close.

The sharpness panel seems confusing to me, what do others think ?

I also have getgrey, Avia and DVE.

Final verdict .. easy for casual use by the average user, price is right, and the blue glasses seem better and easer to use than the DVE/Avia filters. Results probably OK for an initial setup.

Worth it for the glasses.

Mine arrived last week, while I was on a short vacation trip.

I did a quick look at the "Sharpness" panel. It's different from the "standard" one, but should be easy to use - you just adjust your display's sharpness control so that you get all the lines and they are clear and sharp, but not "doubled" up. You can also see the extra edge enhancement on the text at the bottom of the screen when the sharpness control is set too high. Of course, the text is blury if the control is too low.

The "glasses" are almost identical to the THX "Optimizer" glasses, except that they are slightly larger.

CT-Wiebe:

I like the glasses. The blue filters from DVE and avia are way to dark and the color/tint panels are just about impossible to view on the Vizio with the backlight at 30.
The 'free' glasses are much better in that regard.

The sharpness control still puzzles me though. To see bars in all 4 panels requires the Vizio to be turned all the way up whereas DVE suggests +1 or +2. Minor matter though.

I have enjoyed your many posts in the calibration forums. In particular I recall you commented on my HCFR submission on the Vizio.

While the HCFR thread is interesting, the majority of posts deal with projectors and very few deal with (inexpensive) LCD sets like the Vizio GV47L. And I say this after spending weeks reading through virtually every calibration thread that I felt was applicable to my TV.

That said the V47 does have excellent PQ for OTA DTV and very good on TWC cable shows like TNC, SciFi and History and I still wonder about the many posters complaining about SDTV quality. But then not everyone follows my advice to bypass the STB and use good quality, low noise, powered splitters.

It still amazes me that many people do not realize there is a 3.5 db loss from even a '2-way' passive splitter. But then, I have the advantage after 56 years as a licensed ham radio guy.

i have a sony kdf 55" rear projection lcd and also ended up with a black picture after using this disk. oh well, you get what you pay for...

Well I got this disc yesterday too. I was happy with it as I have never calibrated my TV properly before.

I have a westinghouse LVM-42w2. I ran it with the DVD and it looked great!!

but here is my question: How do I calibrate the other inputs? I switched to TV and my settings were totally different. I just wrote down the settings from the DVI-1 (DVD) input and copied them to my YPPBR1 (Cable Box) input. It looked better, but is this right? Doesn't the input source change the settings required for each?

How the heck can I adjust my TV settings with a DVD then?

I have the Vizio GV47L calibrated with a colorimeter and getgray pattern DVD thru HDMI 1.
I found that transferring those settings to the other inputs, component 1 and 2 and HDMI 2 and SVHS for the Mits S-VHS VCR gives very good results.
I also use the same settings to watch OTA DTV and OTA SD TV and cable channels (no STB) and am happy with the results.

We have no control over the source material coming into those inputs and those are likely the controlling factor.

In fact I checked the calibration from the S97 DVD player through component input as well and got essentialy the same settings.

Besides what else can you do ? The only way to calibrate all inputs is with a $10,000 signal generator

Just change the output type/resolution on your DVD player. For example, if you want to obtain the correct contrast/brightness/color/tint/sharpness numbers for 480p component video input, connect the DVD player to the display with component video cables, set the player's output resolution to 480p, and run through the test patterns. Now take the results and apply them to any input on the TV that's accepting a 480p component video signal (Nintendo Wii, for example). Do the same thing for composite video, s-video, 720p component, 1080i component, 720p HDMI, and 1080i HDMI (depending on the capabilities of your DVD player). Write the numbers down so you'll have a future reference.

The reason why these discs cause the end result to look a little dark is because they are calibrated to work with Vikuiti™ displays. Also they are no longer free. The discs are now 19.95 :o