Official LNXXA550 Calibration/Settings Thread - Page 102

Hey guys. I was just wondering what you all use to calibrate your TVs. I'm not new to trying out all the settings, but I think I finally want to try to calibrate my tv on my own. What should I get? Thanks a bunch!!

I've been using:

• ColorHCFR software package (Free Download)
• EyeOne Display LT Meter (~$150)
• AVS709 Calibration Disc (Free Download)
• DVE HD Basics Disc (~$17)

So what if i don't have a high definition player yet? I mean, I have HD cable and my 360, but I don't have the HDdvd add-on to it. I'm planning on getting a br player in the next month, or adding a ps3 to my setup, so should I wait until then to actually calibrate my set, or is there a DVD option that I can use for now?

If you plan on getting a BD player soon, you might want to wait, but there are SD discs available as well.

About the only thing you can do to calibrate to an STB is to use test signals from a programmer... HBO, Showtime and HDNet have regularly scheduled test periods... you can even record them if your STB is a DVR, as well.


I neglected to mention that another indispensible set of tools are these on-line guides/tutorials:

• Greyscale and Colour Calibration for Dummies - as the name implies, this is an excellent place to start working on your grayscale and begins to touch on setting color decoding controls. It is essentially a step-by-step guide for using the ColorHCFR software.
• Basic Guide to Color Calibration with a CMS - more theory and deeper understanding available here. In particular the author Tom Huffman has some good info there on using the the Samsung CMS (i.e., the custom color space controls). An SD calibration disc download is available there as well.

I haven't yet but should be getting to it one of these weekends very soon. I've been feeling better but what time I have spent on my HT stuff has mostly been on the audio side lately... since I posted my settings back in January I've gotten involved with a new AVR, new speakers, new sub and a new SACD/DVD-A player. Then there's the usual craziness in the work and family life...

BTW... if your TV is one of the "green" ones like mine WAS... you may not like whatever new settings I come up with. As my TV has aged, it has taken on a magenta cast, meaning that the green push has lessened and my settings are now overcompensating. I have blindly added some green gain to compensate and it still looks pretty darn good, but I definitely need to recalibrate. I will certainly post them when I'm done, though.

Hi

DO you have most actually your settings for lcd A550 ??
Please send me !
I have not good picture and i have too "green" picture - settings maybe work this


(i have europe version samsung - A551 with firmware 1022 (date 2009-05-12) - maybe this is not problem)

Cya

Sorry for my bad english

pisklak, look here : http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=2464

nm

I own an LN32a550, and after tinkering with and using other's settings for about 10 months now, I finally decided to calibrate myself.

Mode: Movie
Backlight: 6
Contrast: 83
Brightness: 52
Sharpness: 0
Color: 46
Tint: G48/R52

Black Adjust: off
Dynamic Contrast: off
Gamma: -2

Color Space: AUTO
White Balance: Default
Flesh Tone: 0
Edge enhancement: off
xvYCC: off

Picture Options:
Colortone: Warm2
size: Just Scan
Digital NR: off
DNIe: off (grayed out)
HDMI Black Level: Low (Comcast Motorola HDMI box)
Flim Mode: off
Blue only: off

Calibration settings were obtained using both a PS3 and Xbox 360 through HDMI at 1080p, using various test patterns. Settings came out identical for both systems. Without access to a colorimeter, and using only color bar test patterns, my trusty blue filter, and the "blue only" mode, I got my Color and Tint settings. I was not able to meaningfully improve the invidivual colors or white point, so I left Color Space on AUTO and White Balance at default.

Using various gradient test patterns, I got the best transition from light to dark when using Gamma -2. Higher gamma settings brought my set away from Gamma 2.2, and also introduced some slight banding. Constrast and Brightness are of course independant for each user, but in my lighting conditions the values above were consistent for each test pattern. Setting Constrast above 85 starts to over-excentuate the white level, and there is some detail lost at the high end in some of the test patterns I used. Settings Constrast below 80 starts to dull the image, and things start to blend together at the low end. (Gamma at -2 subsequently made the optimal color settings 46).

I saw noticeable distortion using test patterns with Sharpness set at anything above 0. I'm not really sure how anyone can deal with a Sharpness setting above 10. Sharpness is artificial, and is unnecessary on LCD displays, especially when viewing high definition content. I have Sharpness at 0 for both of our HDTVs. Sharpness at 0 is especially important for videogames (which gets a lot of use on this TV), giving a clean image free from "jaggies", and eliminating artifacts during fast motion.

I also use these settings for videogames. Let me know what you think

I would like to do an intensive test with your settings, but I think my TV broke today. My picture flickers and suddenly dissapears, see the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJfhAQGuQxI

I think you mean your friend has the 750 series. When it comes to the picture, i know exactly wat you are talking about. You have the 5 series, which has a refresh rate of 60hz. The 7 series has a refresh rate of 120Hz. The hz make all the difference. I have the 5 series and yeah on bluray the pictures are crisp and clear but they don't have that real 4D look. I'm saving up for the 7 series that has 240Hz.

After reading this thread and playing with my settings over the past year, my (admittedly un-professional) preference is to use a slightly less warm setting for sports (and any outdoor nature shows).
With my 1004.1 firmware I use a modified version of cliq's 995 Warm2 setting for blu-ray and most HD Cable shows, but I use his Standard setting in the 995 post for sports.

the song on my tv is still very hollow even when i changed the settings

I recently formatted my PC and lost my links to the calibration settings I had bookmarked.

If anyone has Jcalabria, mahlerfan999, Clicq's, and Ellisda1's calibration settings bookmarked/saved.
Could you please make one post with links to there posts so I don't have to re-fish through 100+ pages of forum to re-find what I lost.
Also, if any newcomers have posted top quality settings please feel free to add those links as well, I am willing to try any settings once if it could mean potential improvement.

I know they have a link for a few in post 1, I am just not sure if it is 100% updated, as that would mean Clicq's most recent update came quite some time ago.
Not sure if would make any difference either but I am using the 1008.0 FW that came with the TV I bought the set in February of 2009.

Also, I know this isn't the proper thread but does anyone have a link to what PS3 settings seem to go best with the LN40A550.

Any help is greatly appreciated, and thanks for the top quality calibrations in the past!

-Levi

My last posted are HERE.

I have a 46A550. Does anybody have any calibration settings for the S-video input? I tried some meant for HDMI and it doesn't look so good.

excelent seettings,work great on my LE46A552.thanks man

I actually have a LNxxA450 but so far these settings have been working well enough for me.

Has anyone found good settings for Wii over component? I've tried searching but nothing definite has come up. Also what about analog cable?

Thanks!

I have the logitech speakers hooked up to this TV. Is it best to turn the TV speakers off or just turn the volume of the TV speakers all the way down? The reason I ask is because when i turn the TV speakers off all of the settings are ghosted out which leads me to believe that it just outputs default settings. Any suggestions?

After almost a year of use I've started having a lag in output from the tv speakers. I've found several other complaints, but I haven't seen any suggestions. Please help! I've tried the turning some features on/off, I found the issue lessens slightly with TruSurroundXT On. What are some potential causes? The problem is with both, HD cable and blu rays.
Thanks for your help.
Matt

Ok, I found the Audio Delay setting in the Service Menu.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to focus on when adjusting the Audio Delay? I spent half the night staring at lip movements and I think I'm going little crazy!

Have you been working on any new updated settings? or are those your final settings for the current firmware you have?

This thread seems to have slowly died.

The DVE calibration disk has a very nice pattern for adjusting audio delay. There is a sweep hand, and the ideal is for the hand to reach 12 o'clock just as the audio beep is heard. Especially on a bluray player that can render the disk at 24fps, there are 6 frames in a quarter second, so each frame represents 15 degrees on the clock. When you have the delay set at the minimum value that does not cause the sweep hand to appear at the frame before 12 o'clock, you are there.

I made some updates to my picture settings for the LN32A550. I started tweaking in an effort to get some extra contrast out of the picture.

Mode: Movie
Backlight: 5
Contrast: 95
Brightness: 60
Sharpness: 0
Color: 48
Tint: G50/R50

Black Adjust: off
Dynamic Contrast: off
Gamma: -2

Color Space: AUTO

White Balance: (from CNET)
Red - offset: 24
Green - offset: 23
Blue - offset: 24
Red - gain: 26
Green - gain: 22
Blue - gain: 18

Flesh Tone: 0
Edge enhancement: off
xvYCC: off

Picture Options:
Colortone: Warm2
size: Just Scan
Digital NR: off
DNIe: off (grayed out)
HDMI Black Level: Low (Comcast Motorola HDMI box)
Flim Mode: off
Blue only: off

I used these for HD TV and Xbox 360. They are working great for me.

I used the same collection of patterns, blue filter, etc to get my levels. Again, my picture settings are more of a basic calibration, I make no claims that they are super accurate in regards to CIE diagrams or anything. (On a side note, if anyone with the right equipment would like to run my settings through and generate some graphs, that would be sweet!)

The brightness may seem a tad high, but in order to show blacker-than-black material, and to make all the details in shadowy areas visible, I had to go to 60. I'm not sure how to improve black level (maybe its more a product of LCD technology not being able to produce true blacks). Any tips on that would be appreciated.

Thanks for any feedback!

Brightness does seem high... Why are you wanting to see blacker than black? Is it posible you have a mismatch on the HDMI Black Level setting? I'm not familiar with the xbox at all... does it use PC grayscale levels (0-255) rather than TV grayscale (16-235)? Are you trying to reproduce the PC grayscale by raising brightness in "TV mode" rather than changing the setting?

I would also be concerned about the Contrast at 95. Most have found that one or more primary will clip with 100% stimulus when Contrast is >92 (or 93 at most), which would seen as a noticeable color shift in bright whites.

Well, I did my basic calibration through the Xbox 360, connected via HDMI. I downloaded a number of test patterns, and I utilized a blue calibration filter I have as well as the "blue only" mode within the samsung settings menu.

The Xbox 360 will output to whichever reference levels or grayscale you want. It defaults to "Standard" (16-235), but there is an option for "Expanded" (0-255).

I used HDMI with black level "low", and therefore used the "Standard" reference level (16-235) for calibration. I have heard recommendations to label the HDMI2 port "PC", and set the Xbox 360 to "Expanded", but it should be the same thing with "low" and "Standard", correct?

Anyway, I do think the brightness is a bit high, but at lower values I think I'm losing detail in the blacks. For instance, in NHL 10 if a team has black uniforms, I won't see the folds and detailing in the jerseys at anything lower. I always wonder about what I'm [i]supposed[i] to see versus what I'm not. All I know is that when a black screen is displayed, it doesn't really look black because of the brightness. Not sure how to fix it really.

With contrast, I didn't see any clipping of higher white levels until going to about contrast 98 when using Gamma -2. I have a faint understanding of what Gamma does, where reducing the number reduces the jump in each step of the grayscale (is that right?). I just selected Gamma -2 by eye, things looked a little more deep and the rise out of black was a little more realistic. CNET recommends Gamma +3 for this model, but things seemed way too washed out at that setting.

I do notice that with decreased Gamma, I'm able to increase contrast without clipping in the white range, but I'm not sure if that's having a negative effect on other things. Is default (0) Gamma the best option?

I do think the whites look a tad Red, but after watching the TV for a bit that sensation goes away, so I'm guessing that comes from looking at an overly blue monitor half the day at work.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I'll try to look at what you mentioned and see if it improves the picture.

Gamma is essentially the rate at which the grayscale changes... its "acceleration" curve, so to speak. It has much to do with how well you can discern details in dark areas. If it rises too slowly from your black point, you will lose shadow detail. If it rises too fast, your dark areas will appear washed out and appear to be without "depth". Either way, however, the actual black point should not be changing. What should NOT be used to adjust shadow detail is the Brightness control. It's setting should anchor video black (either 0 for PC or 16 for video) at the darkest level the screen is capable of reproducing... not lighter, not darker.

Ideally, the gamma curve should be set with appropriate test equipment, so you can measure the shape of the grayscale curve. In your case, you will have to rely on your eyes... but you should also know that there are a few adjustments besides the actual "gamma" setting that can effect the gamma. First, the A550s have a "Black Adjust" setting. This is essentially a low end gamma tweak and you may find it useful in dealing with your issue. Just be aware that as you try each setting for Black Adjust, you will need to reset your brightness control slightly to re-anchor your black level at the correct point. Another adjustment which can effect the overall gamma curve is the Contrast setting... extreme settings can effect the overall shape of the grayscale... lowering it, even just a bit, can help the overall gamma curve significantly.

Good luck.

jcalabria, to work on my low end gamma, I ended up playing some tricks with the offsets and the brightness, essentially pushing up the luminance slightly between 20% and 30% to get the gamma curve to turn back down. I never tried playing with Black Adjust.

Did you happen to take RGB/gamma measures varying just BlackAdjust/Brightness? If you did and could share the graphs, I would be interested in seeing what the effect was on your set.

Thanks,
Bill

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the explanation. I'm obviously a novice here so it definitely helps.

So, if I'm understanding correctly, the higher the Gamma, the more aggressively the TV transitions from dark to light (higher acceleration). This is probably why I was getting noticeable blow-out in white areas with Gamma at +3 (per CNET's settings).

Just looking at a few gray scale patterns, I think the most even transition comes with Gamma at -2, but perhaps its best to leave it at 0 in order to keep details in the black areas. I notice that the white levels have much more noticeable separation at Gamma -2 (i.e. no loss in white range).

As for brightness, it seems tricky. You say that you want to "anchor" your black, basically settings it to the lowest black the panel can display without losing detail. Does that value not change with changes in Gamma? If I understand correctly, you're saying its more proper to alter the Gamma to bring out details in black areas than to adjust the brightness-correct?

I would prefer to not use Black Adjust, or any of those sort of "feature" functions (Dynamic Contrast, Noise Reduction, etc).

Again thanks for the replies.

I've recalibrated my set, I was really enthusiastic about recalibrating after my new Sony 26 inch post-calibration made my Sammy look poor (as far as contrast goes). I need to recalibrate the Sammy to breath new life into it or buy a new primary tv. What will it be?

Well I did some investigating. The dynamic contrast can't be used to deepen the blacks because it absolutely destroys gamma. The response instead of being flat is horribly crazy.

And then I explored energy saver since clicq posted that it really increases full on/off contrast (but obviously can't cheat ansi). Well I tried testing the gamma curve with windows and apl test patterns and discovered that energy saver on auto does not damage the gamma curve (in fact the gamma flattened out more than it did before).

The ANSI contrast at it's peak is 1200:1 no matter what I do. The full on/off with energy saver off is the same 1200:1. However the full on/off with energy saver on auto is approximately 10,000:1!! Well okay it's probably infinite because I have a feeling that it simply shuts off the backlight. However, when I put real world material I observed that (a) most of the time the transitions are smooth enough that the blacks always look deep without feeling like the backlight is being artificially turned up and down, (b) the blacks are compellingly deep at any backlight setting so then I can worry about setting backlight in order to make it bright enough and not worry about how my blacks will look. The downside is that near dark scenes will experience black crush as observed on the near dark test patterns on the AVS disc.

Anyway contrast was set to not discolor the grayscale. I used the pattern on the AVS disc (first time I usually use the pluge on the dve disc) to set brightness and gamma to not clip black levels 17+ and still achieve a gamma of 2.2. I was careful to use apl test patterns to calibrate gamma, grayscale and color to ensure accuracy. My color calibration was only to ensure the brightness levels were correct, I did nothing with saturation and hue this time around (it's such a slight improvement and so time consuming that it doesn't seem worth it).

Here are the settings:

Mode: Movie
Backlight: 4 (dark), 5 (dim), 6 (bright)
Contrast: 91
Brightness: 54 (avs)/47 (dve)
Sharpness: 0
Color: 50
Tint: G50/R50
Detailed Settings:

Black Adjust: Off
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Gamma: -2
Color Space: Custom
Red: 29/0/0
Green: 0/54/0
Blue: 0/0/46
Yellow: 51/51/0
Cyan: 0/51/51
Magenta: 32/0/32
White Balance:
R-Offset: 24
G-Offset: 25
B-Offset: 26
R-Gain: 34
G-Gain: 26
B-Gain: 28
Flesh Tone: 0
Edge Enhancement: Off
xvYCC: Off

Picture Options:

Color Tone: Warm2
Size: Just Scan
Digital NR: Auto
DNIe: Off
HDMI Black Level: Normal
Film Mode: Auto
Blue Only Mode: Off

Energy Saver: Auto

To summarize the benefits of energy saver auto are

1. Deep Blacks
2. Uses less power

The cons of energy saver auto are

1. Fluctuating APL
2. Black crush in near dark scenes

I still might upgrade the tv but for now I feel like I've breathed new life into it. But if I did change it would be for a Sammy b650, Sony v5100 or a Panny s1 (the plasma not the lcd). But if I wait a while longer the 2010 tvs will probably be even cooler.