Been tweaking/calibrating on this set a fair bit recently ...
A few things I've learned:
While using "non contact" mode (ie meter not directly attached to screen) can help serve as a buffer to stabilize readings, with my meter (i1d2) it allowed in too much ambient light which skewed readings. I no longer use "non contact" mode.
The blue control adjustment box will skew your real time measurements when doing a continuous read, even in contact mode. My approach to this was to get everything spot on with the control box up, clear it off the screen, then make fine adjustments by going back through the entire menu. I had hoped/assumed that using contact mode would eliminate this issue but that was not the case.
The heat of the plasma changed the way my meter would read. The first wave of readings with the meter at room temperature would yield very different results versus after it warmed up. I have seen conflicting advice from professionals: some saying to always use non-contact mode, others saying using contact mode but get your readings from a room temperature meter (which I dont quite understand because there's no way I would have time to perform a calibration before the meter would heat up), and others saying to put the meter on the screen and allow it to warm up during the TV's pre-calibration warm up period. From my limited experience here it seems the latter is the only viable option, at least with my meter, which is admittedly dated at this point. I purchased it new in 2010. I do have plans to upgrade to a colormunki display or i1d3 in the future, it's just not in the funds right now.
The common theme among these panels, when calibrated to the 100% sat. points, is under saturation. When I last worked on TV calibration in 2010 I was unfamiliar with "color checker" patterns, I'm not sure if they were around or at least prominent at the time. To me, color checker patterns seems like the most ideal way to see how color calibration would effect "real world" viewing, so that's what I decided to focus on, in addition to lower saturation points.
Here's some stock measurements I took yesterday (ps, I manually enter black level as my meter cannot read that low, based on .005ftl) :
Everything definitely needs some work.
Interestingly, doing a greyscale and gamma (bt1886) calibration took the average deltaE of primary/secondaries from 3.42(6.65 max) to 1.86 (2.59 max). Never touched the CMS.
From there I tackled color. The way I handled it was to target a saturation point or two within a color which would most affect important color checker points (like skin tones, blue sky, etc). I am not using a HTPC nor a pattern generator, so doing these saturation point and color checker runs take a fair amount of time and a lot of "clicks". In the interest of time and my sanity there was just no way I was going to get things as close as Orion's calibration (he's also using a more accurate/faster meter than mine). But I got things looking good ... and most importantly, in real world viewing everything is noticeably improved.
White Balance from stock average deltaE 5.57 (max 10.23) to .28 (max .60). I could have actually gotten this tighter.
PS - Does anyone know why my target luminance points are always cut off in the measurements section (HCFR 3.1.5)? It's a pain trying to guess what a half cut off number is...
Color checker from stock average deltaE 5.34 (max 12.25) to 1.08 (max 2.85). The CIE chart got whacky because HCFR assumed some of the free measures of 75% sat. points I did were 100% sat points, so I wont post that.
I know I've said it before but until I get a new meter I'm done! Then I also have to decide if I want to venture into Orion/Tom's voltage tweaks... I sure wish you had some pre/post meter measurements on that black level + pink tint. If I was confident I could achieve .002ftl AND potentially reduce pink tint it'd be a no brainier
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