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Very Basic Question About TV Calibration Through HTPC

post #1 of 10
12/5/12 at 8:48am
Thread Starter 
I've been here a long time, but not much the past two to four years. Since I've been here this forum has really changed a lot, because many of the problems we faced early on connecting HTPCs to TVs have all but disappeared.

What I've not seen in the couple of months I've been back is what peoples' preferences are regarding configuring (calibrating) their TV. I see the basic choices as being:

1. Make all the adjustments through the TV.
2. Make all the adjustments through the HTPC.
3. Make the adjustments on both devices based on their strengths and weaknesses.

So, what is the current thinking here, and peoples' preferences?
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post #2 of 10
12/5/12 at 4:08pm
Thread Starter 
No opinions or preferences?

Apparently I should have named the thread: "Is Calibrating your TV Through ___________ The Best Method for 2013?" biggrin.gif
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post #3 of 10
12/5/12 at 4:12pm
Make as many settings adjustments as you can TV only. Adjust video card settings only if you must/have no other alternative. Disable post processing effects on video card and TV (unless you want them) for 'untouched' video.
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post #4 of 10
12/5/12 at 5:16pm
I calibrated my HDTV using a couple different calibration discs & test patterns. It has only one HDMI input & I use an external HDMI switch. Since the HDTV looked pretty good with my other sources I made sure the HTPC matched everything else.

The only thing I changed was the black level in WMC7 after I installed a video card. I did this via a registry hack so that WMC7 would match the color gamut of WMP & MPC-HC. Now all the sources look the same being fed into the same HDMI input, at least from what I can tell.

I'm only using the HTPC as an OTA DVR & at this time the default settings on the video card look good to me.
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post #5 of 10
12/5/12 at 6:14pm
If your video card and tv support it, set the color space to RGB full. As stated above, disable all processing within the video card itself. Then calibrate using only your tv settings by displaying test patterns through whatever software program you are going to be using to display movies.
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post #6 of 10
12/6/12 at 7:01am
Thread Starter 
staknhalo and corpgator seem to prefer the TV, at least for a "natural" setting. And I can see that for perhaps settings that alter the image. But what about just color? Wouldn't that depend on which device had better controls? Colors are colors, right?

This does seem like a switch in position from the old days, but maybe that's because back in 2001 there was relatively little HD????
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post #7 of 10
12/6/12 at 7:09am
I took the easy route and got a Spyder4.
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post #8 of 10
12/8/12 at 7:58pm
Thread Starter 
Well, this thread taught me something very interesting about my Samsung TV.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1177869/inferior-picture-quality-with-hdmi-vs-dvi-vga

To get 1:1 pixel mapping, I need to name the HDMI input "PC" and that removes all options for color configuration. They are grayed out. So to adjust the color, I need to do it through the Nvidia Control Center.

That basically answers my question, for color at least, because I have no choice!
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post #9 of 10
12/9/12 at 6:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by corpgator View Post

If your video card and tv support it, set the color space to RGB full. As stated above, disable all processing within the video card itself. Then calibrate using only your tv settings by displaying test patterns through whatever software program you are going to be using to display movies.

Where is this setting on the newest Nvidia drivers? I can't find it anywhere.
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post #10 of 10
12/9/12 at 6:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karyk View Post

staknhalo and corpgator seem to prefer the TV, at least for a "natural" setting. And I can see that for perhaps settings that alter the image. But what about just color? Wouldn't that depend on which device had better controls? Colors are colors, right?
This does seem like a switch in position from the old days, but maybe that's because back in 2001 there was relatively little HD????

Back in 2001 Flat panel TV's were rare and expensive. Most people used RPTV's and if you were one of the early adopters it was HD. S-video was the big thing, with component video just starting to become popular on PC's. Windows XP wasn't concerned with video/media, now we have Windows 8.
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