I don't understand, do you pay someone money just to adjust your settings? Just find someone who got theirs calibrated and ask for the same settings, is this all you have to do? Are the settings in the threads on these forums ones from professionally calibrated TVs? I'm sure BestBuy is overexaggerating when they say that they can increase the lifespan of the TV by 80%, but seriously can't you just get previous settings?

I'm of the opinion that you can probably get 90% as good of results on your own using Avia or similar. Yes, I'm sure professional ISF calibration is better...but it's not worth $300 more for me to get that extra 10% improvement and to have slightly more accurate colors.

I realize for SOME people it is, and that's fine. It's a personal choice.

I don't understand, do you pay someone money just to adjust your settings? Just find someone who got theirs calibrated and ask for the same settings, is this all you have to do? Are the settings in the threads on these forums ones from professionally calibrated TVs? I'm sure BestBuy is overexaggerating when they say that they can increase the lifespan of the TV by 80%, but seriously can't you just get previous settings?

Your broad based statements are based on your erroneous assumption that each set is identical. There are differences in each processor that makes it a little different than the other. So, using common settings will not yield the same results. Spend some time in the calibration forum before you reduce a calibrators job to merely adjusting settings

Well that is hence why I was not confident in my statement. It seemed too easy to copy someone's settings. Granted, I'd try messing with the settings myself before getting a calibrator to come. I can't spend $300 to have some guy come for what, an hour or less, to fix settings? I could spend $300 on a decent surround sound system. I could copy the settings in these thread, find the average; their settings will be close to what my Kuro would need to look good.

...*sigh*...my 1999 Sony 36XBR200 is looking better to me all the time...

Well that is hence why I was not confident in my statement. It seemed too easy to copy someone's settings. Granted, I'd try messing with the settings myself before getting a calibrator to come. I can't spend $300 to have some guy come for what, an hour or less, to fix settings? I could spend $300 on a decent surround sound system. I could copy the settings in these thread, find the average; their settings will be close to what my Kuro would need to look good.

i think you should should focus on getting a tv first. then your hd tv, hd dvds receivers and such before you even look at getting your set calibrated you need to walk before you can run.

to what my Kuro would need to look good.

What are you talking about "your Kuro". You don't own a plasma and just yesterday said you were buying a Samsung in the spring. I believe you invent most of what you say

I already got it planned out, sort of. If I had to go to the store right now, it would be: Pioneer 5080, Onkyo 5.1 surround sound with HDMI VIDEO+AUDIO, and a PS3. My laptop has HD-DVD so I can do HDMI to HDMI with my laptop for 720p HD-DVD viewing. The only thing I'm thinking of is the 1150, and first it has to come down in price to $3300 in a reliable store. I can get it for $3300 from one online site with mixed customer ratings of their service, but it's not worth it if there are even small problems.

Well that is hence why I was not confident in my statement. It seemed too easy to copy someone's settings. Granted, I'd try messing with the settings myself before getting a calibrator to come. I can't spend $300 to have some guy come for what, an hour or less, to fix settings? I could spend $300 on a decent surround sound system. I could copy the settings in these thread, find the average; their settings will be close to what my Kuro would need to look good.

"Given the price of the Pioneers, it would be foolish not to spend the marginal dollars required to have a purchased unit checked for full compliance with the standard, and calibrated as necessary. "

From Thomas Norton when he reviewed the set, and I agree completely. You can buy 2 identical sets and both will likely have different grayscale tracking given the same settings.

NOT worth the $$ to get it calibrated. Did my own and it looks flawless!:D

Just find someone who got theirs calibrated and ask for the same settings, is this all you have to do?

Your broad based statements are based on your erroneous assumption that each set is identical.

...you also need to realize that everyone has a different perception as to what "looks right". Even if you have a professional perform the calibration, there will always be someone who says the colors look a little off. If you like the way your picture looks, than that's what's important....no matter who calibrated it.

IMO, if one can't/won't pay for ISF calibration right off the bat, AVIA/DVE are a good stopgap.

NOT worth the $$ to get it calibrated. Did my own and it looks flawless!:D

I did mine, then I paid $200 for the ISF and he immediately showed me the red and blue crush that was taking place on the set. He went into the hidden menu settings with an ISF instrument and a laptop with an electronic eye attached to the screen. He calibrated the set going through my Yammi 2700 which he claimed was the best way as most of my content goes through it before being displayed on the pro 150. Anyway he took nearly three hours to set up the TV and create several user settings for satalite feed and over the air. All the crush had gone and the picture is way different (better.. truer colors, no crush, no artificial sharpening, and brighter) to what I had set it up to. It wasn't a two minute tune up.... Well worth IMHO:p

I had a 42" panny 6uy ed for four years and learned to adjust it to Rich Harkins "Steaming rat" calabration. His explanation and method showed me what a natural picture is all about. For all those years everytime I though about the Pq on my panny I would thank the day I read about his method.

I sold that panel and now have a 5080 and it is much much better than the panny....So I went about "tweaking" thinks out to my eye. After which I compared to D-Nice's settings. They were almost the same as mine.

I called for a calibration Price and now I have 3 inputs and would like the sound system checked out......The price was 400 dollars!! Sure I am sure I might be a tad off on some things but 400 dollars is a bit much IMO.

My opinion is if you are going to spend the bucks on a high end Plasma why not do it? :)

NOT worth the $$ to get it calibrated. Did my own and it looks flawless!:D

thats what u think.calibration is worth every penny

i agree it is worth the money, if you want the best PQ your set has to offer. FWIW, my set, Sammy 71" DLP took over 3 hours to calibrate, and it looks spectacular. Well worth the money it cost me to have it done. Plus, any future tune up ( which is a full cal ) cost half the original amount. Not that it is impossible, but these particular sets have a CCA, color coordinate adjustment system, that is accessed through the service menu, and along with some pretty expensive equipment, was tweaked to as close to a NTSC standard as possible. Every input plus all my hardware was properly setup too. The result IMHO, is awesome. No way I could have gotten the PQ out of this set on my own. Some folks are extremely happy with using Calibration discs,thats perfectly fine... It's all about how it looks to you....I figured the cost of calibration into the price of the set when I bought it...glad I did, worth every stinkin penny..

I never understood how one calibrates a TV to display digital cable/sat feed. What exactly do they go by ?
SD-DVD amd HD-DVD issues of VE can aid in tweaking the settings for playing back standard and hi-def DVDs respectively.
However, hi-def content that streams into your system via outside cable appears different from what's played off a disc. On top of that - unless your panel scales everything to 768P - there'd be a fair bit of difference between watching 720P and 1080I.
Talk about the need for a drink :eek:

At Best Buy they had a calibrated and and a non calibrated Panasonic plasma. One noticeable difference was the calibrated one was much warmer. Other than adjusting the picture - brightness, contrast, color, etc - is there any other way that they can reduce power consumption?

As far as I know that's the only way to reduce power consumption. There are some power saving modes for some displays, and I think on Panasonics they aren't much of a help or just reduce contrast/brightness(from some review).

I was at a Best Buy recently and a rep showed me a calibrated set that was near some other non-calibrated sets. I personally couldn't see much difference so I guess it's just a matter of taste.

I was at a Best Buy recently and a rep showed me a calibrated set that was near some other non-calibrated sets. I personally couldn't see much difference so I guess it's just a matter of taste.

+1

Can't you do as good a job on your own with a SpyderTV colorimeter and software?

Just wanted to know if it's worth calibrating my TV or just follow suggestions from others. I just bought a 50"Samsung 5054 720p from Best Buy and I did pay to get it calibrated in January. But know I'm wondering if it's worth it. I'm not a gamer, I don't even have digital cable (but I probably will get it soon); I'm just a girl who did some research and this seemed like a good choice. The salesguy said that calibrating would extend the life of the TV. So for now I am following the settings on another thread that is for Samsungs with less than 125 hours of opereation. :confused:But where do I go after that?

NOT worth the $$ to get it calibrated. Did my own and it looks flawless!:D

Trust me, you didn't even come close to what a ISF calibration can do for your set. I took the plunge with my Mits. a couple of years ago and believe me he use a lot more than just AVIA to get the great picture I look at every day. I wont ever go without having a set calibrated...
What's 10% of your purchase price to make sure the set looks the best it can. Gregg L. worked on my set for 4 hours the first time and he never sat still for one minute. The guy was a blur of tweaking!

Take the plunge people...a ISF calibration is so worth the money.

Can't you do as good a job on your own with a SpyderTV colorimeter and software?


Gregg brought about $25,000 worth of equipment into my house...

I don't even have digital cable (but I probably will get it soon)

Do you have any HD happening at home? You mentioned you don't have digital cable yet, I would try and set that up with an HD tier so when the set is calibrated the tech can be sure the box is outputting optimal settings for your Sammy. He should also set whatever inputs ( DVD Player/ Game system ) to be working at their finest with your TV too. Having your set calibrated is a great thing IMHO, especially if you just want to sit and enjoy it knowing it is performing at it's best.

just a question about calibration, do you write down all the settings after the set is calibrated? what happens if you have a power failure in your home and everything is reset, do the hidden menus get reset as well? or do those never get affected by power outage? or do you have to pay someone to come and re-calibrate your tv? also is the calibration only done for one source (HD, Blue-ray or cable) or all of them? what if you add a new component will the calibration be off?

sorry for all the newbie questions, just trying to learn how this really works and to see if it is feasible when i get my new plasma (my current 42" set i haven't done anything to, it was a cheapo akai to pass some time)

I'm content using the Monster Calibration disc that I have..I rather spend the $20+++ on something I find more "useful".

I was at a Best Buy recently and a rep showed me a calibrated set that was near some other non-calibrated sets. I personally couldn't see much difference so I guess it's just a matter of taste.

IMO there shouldn't be much difference unless your out-of-box panel is really screwed up and ships that way then you need a ISF pro. I know personally panasonic professional panels OOB are very close to fully calibrated only needing general tweaking for personal choices.

IMO there shouldn't be much difference unless your out-of-box panel is really screwed up and ships that way then you need a ISF pro. I know personally panasonic professional panels OOB are very close to fully calibrated only needing general tweaking for personal choices.
Your own eyes are the best tools. Tweak it till it looks good to you.

There's no answer to this question. It's just personal opinion.

Many of the complaints that users have about displays would be corrected by a calibration. These things come out of the box with greens and reds polluting the grayscale, rediculous amounts of edge enhancement, way too hot a color temp, etc.

I personally have found significant value in the calibrations that I've had done, and they certainly went FAR beyond anything I could do with a calibration disk, or even a few hundred dollars worth of gear and a service manual.

There's no answer to this question. It's just personal opinion.

Many of the complaints that users have about displays would be corrected by a calibration. These things come out of the box with greens and reds polluting the grayscale, rediculous amounts of edge enhancement, way too hot a color temp, etc.


Most good plasmas actually come with a color temp that is very close to perfect. Although it can usually be improved, it's not like you describe it. A lot of them track somewhere around 6300-6700 or so and don't deviate too much. Not too bad at all for factory settings, although the color mixture can obviously be off even with temp in the correct range.

what happens if you have a power failure in your home and everything is reset, do the hidden menus get reset as well?
Once a set is calibrated all the user menus are set to retain the calibrated settings, so a power failure or unplugging the set will not change anything. Generally a set is calibrated for all inputs and scan rates. (check with whoever is doing your cal though ) Also, whatever hardware you are using is generally optimized at the time of calibration....Avical does all these things and if you get some new stuff ( hddvd for example ) they are always happy to assist you in setting those up....no extra charge.
do you write down all the settings after the set is calibrated?
You can...but the best way is to go to the service menu where the settings are and take some digital photos for reference. Also note that even though it may cost a few hundred bananas to have this done, if ever needed to be recaled or tuned up ( which is essence is a full calibration ) Services like Avical do this at half the original cost of the first cal.
Guess you can tell I am a fan of ISF Calibration, but be sure if you do you get someone who is experienced and well qualified.

This seems to be another one of those long threads where people debate something that is purely an individual choice. There is no right or wrong answer.

A professional calibration will bring the panel closer to D65. There's no way anyone can eyeball their panel (even with Avia or something similar) and be able to be as accurate as a pro calibrator with a $25k spectrometer. If you can do that, make sure you avoid kryptonite.

Given that, there's only two questions for you to consider. First, are you gonna like a D65 image? If you like a very natural-looking picture, then you probably will. On the other hand, if you like a "high impact" image, you might not. My bro recently got a DLP set. When I went to see it, he had the settings all screwed up. It was basically in "torch mode." I adjusted the settings to bring it closer to a natural D65 image. Guess what? He didn't like it. He liked the torch mode better. So obviously, for him paying someone to calibrate the set would be a waste of money.

And second, if you like a natural D65 pic, the last question is whether the extra cost of a calibration is worth it. You can probably get pretty close on your own. Indeed, the new Kuros come pretty close to D65 out of the box, if you follow some of the recommendations on this site (D-Nice's settings). But a calibration will bring your set closer to D65. Is that worth it? Only the individual can answer that question.

Me? I'm getting my 6010 calibrated. After spending a gazillion dollars already (on the panel, 5.1 surround set-up, UP5000 player on order, stand, cables, etc.) why not pay a little more for a calibration to get the best PQ possible?

I will probably get it calibrated; how much does it cost from BestBuy? Should I pay another individual or store to calibrate it for a cheaper price?

Guess you need to do your homework on that. There are some horror stories out there. You will want someone who has experience with your type of display, has references, type of equipment they use.....etc... There are few on this forum. I used Avical, they are simply excellent and really nice informative guys, lots of A+'s around here. Just beware of trying to get someone really cheap to do the job...well worth to spend the extra hundred bucks or so.
Not sure about BB, kinda cringe every time I go in the place...perhaps their technical staff has more going for them than blue shirts.