Quote:
Originally Posted by pbc /forum/post/18813349
Cool, I have been looking at the 37" version of this set for my son's room as a back up (have an X-Rite i1 Display LT that I'd calibrate it with) for my Samsung 58A550 (which is used 90% of the time for treehouse cartoons!). A few questions:
1. I don't recall seeing any area to adjust the cuts/drives of grey scale, did you do this in the service menu and is it relatively easy to navigate?
2. You mention black level being not so great. This is the issue with my A550, which aside from black level has perfectly flat gamma, bang on color (DE's of less than 1 for most colors except one or two and all well under 10 IIRC), pretty good RGB tracking across the range. What did you measure the lowest black level on your i1Pro and contrast ratio to be?
Thanks!
The gray scale calibration is dead easy (although I could have spent more time on it and got it perfectly flat). It's all done in the user menu. You select Expert1 or Expert2 in the main menu. You then go to expert settings, and you can choose between 2 pt white balance or 10 point. Select 10 point. Then move down the menu (I'm working from memory) and select inner patterns. Once selected then move down to IRE and select 100 (it probably will already pop up). You should have a white screen with the IRE box illuminated near the bottom of the screen (it's shown in one of the pictures I attached above).
Now adjust the RGB for 100 until they balance. Once balanced, note the Y (cd/m^2) reading. Move down the menu to the Luminances box and select the number that corresponds to the Y reading @ 100 IRE that you just took. I don't believe this changes anything, but is used to calculate the target Y for the various IRE levels, based upon the gamma you selected (2.2 in my instance) in the Expert controls.
Go back up to the IRE box, and select 90 IRE. The full screen should then display a dimmer white. Arrow down to Red and you will see a number next to Nits (same as cd/m^2). You should balance R, G, and B for 90 IRE, but also move them all up or down to hit the Y value that matches the Nits. This will balance the RGB but also will dial in the perfect brightness to match the gamma.
I didn't spend enough time moving all 3 to dial in the Nits on the attached calibration, so you can see how good this TV is, even when done in a hurry.
Now just move down through the IRE values balancing RGB and match Y to the Nits listed. I think it will only take one pass to get a very good results.
As far as black level, the lowest I got was 0.182 cd/m^2, which isn't very good. I also have an LT and I thought I would take some more contrast reading with that, as it is more accurate at lower light levels. Also, I want to try and see if at 0 IRE on the gray scale adjustment I pulled R, G, and B down to their lowest setting (I didn't try to balance them at 0 IRE, because 1) I can't see any inaccuracies at this level, and 2) the i1Pro doesn't give very consistent readings (1 tick move in any direction can cause a big swing in the color percentage)).
One of the things that I tried was to set the contrast as high as possible and reduce the backlight to get the desired Y value. (I thought his might produce a greater contrast) Unfortunately, a contrast setting above about 94 didn't leave enough red movement to properly adjust the 100 IRE RGB. You might want to check this, but on my set, max contrast is 94. I don't want to make this sound like it is a major flaw with this set, as it is not. A contrast of 100 will work, but your pure white will be too blue.
While viewing the black look just fine, and my kids hooked up the Xbox 360 yesterday and said the set worked very well with no motion lag (its only a 60 Hz set).
Hope this helps.