Customer Reports About Their Professional Calibrations - Page 17

^^^^
For a whole lot less money...you can do the same thing with the Video EQ.

RayJr

Had my Samsung UN55 B6000 55" LCD/LED ISF calibrated on Saturday, and so far my impressions are that it's definitely not as "crisp" as before. I understand that it takes some getting used to, but to me it seems to have a yellow hue, and picture appears pale. The setting used is the "Warm 2" whereas I used mostly the "Natural" setting. When watching the Blackhawks/Flyers game last night the ice surface had a "yellow" tint.
When the technician did the set up he created a "Cal-Day" and a Cal-night" , so I now have these two in addition to the other settings (standard, movie, natural etc) that I had before.
I'd be interested in hearing what other owners had to say about their experiences and how their calibrated PQ compares to pre-calibration. Thanks !

Some Geek Squad feedback from a customer that had them visit for computer repair.

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

ha ha ....careful if you have GS come out to calibrate or setup your HDTV.

I recently had my 65" Panasonic Vt25 calibrated by Lee Gallagher and the results are nothing short of spectacular. I thought the image out of the box was already great to begin with but after Lee's incredible calibration, I am truly impressed with the PQ this TV can get. Lee was right on time and began setting up all of his equipment right away. He explained everything he was doing through out the whole process which took about 3 hrs and it was very cool to see how everything improves before your eyes with some of the PQ tests Lee showed me. He calibrated the THX mode to perfection and he also calibrated my PS3 input, 3D Blu-Ray input, and a Pioneer 1020vsx Receiver. I like watching TV in complete darkness and before the calibration I could feel my eyes get a bit tiered when watching in complete darkness because of the amount of light the large screen was putting out. Even though the image was great (and Lee did tell me the PQ was pretty darn good out of the box), after the calibration is that much better. The image is so detailed real looking that you become immersed in movies and sports like the world cup look amazing as well. I only had the THX mode calibrated and that is all that is needed IMO. Games, sports, movies, and everything else looks just amazing using the calibrated THX mode. Even when there was a lot of light coming in the room the picture still looked amazing and it was calibrated for a blacked out room. I cannot express how impressed I am with Lee's work and knowledge on display calibration. He is a true professional and now I am having him come back to calibrate my older 42" G10 and help me with my surround sound. I 100% recommend Lee Gallagher to anyone in the state of AZ looking to get a panel or projector calibrated, and the Panasonic VT25 to anyone who is looking for an amazing plasma TV.

Just posted about my rs20 calibration in the rs20 owners thread.

Please add my impressions of Chad B.'s work on my LG 60PK550 posted here to the list.

Hello....I just want to comment on Michael Osadciw who calibrated my Sharp 46" LC-C46700UN LED TV today. Michael is the owner of "The Highest Fidelity" and is THX certified for professional video calibration and ISF certified.

Let me start off by saying, I do not know a darn thing about the latest in audio and video technology. I am behind the times. Because of this, I figured I would never have the patience to figure out how to adjust any TV or, know anything about them. That is why I decided to try Michael.

There are no words to describe how the TV looks after the calibration compared to how it looked before the calibration. Michael is amazing and was at my home for 5-hours. Not only did he have the latest equipment and software to calibrate my TV with precision, he was like a teacher and explained every little thing to me that he was doing, why he was doing it, and what the end result would be. It was like being in school and being taught an interesting lesson. It is amazing how much I learned.

Michael was a perfectionist and took his time. I could not believe what his equipment pointed out, how he made adjustments to gama, greyscale, blacks, etc. I could see the results on the TV screen and some of the flaws on the screen before he made his calibrations. I never knew there were so many things in the TV that could be adjusted. There is no way that any person can adjust their TV properly on their own without the test equipment, software and a professional that has the knowledge of these tools, and the inner workings of the TV itself. If you say that is untrue, I would have to say you are fooling yourself into thinking you are correct.

In any event, if anyone needs a true professional calibrator, I highly recommend Michael without any hesitation at all. His number is (905) 730-5996. If anyone has any other questions I might be able to answer, just send me a PM.

Dave

Dave

Thank you very much for the kind words. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you yesterday and work on your Sharp; I'm happy to hear you are enjoying the new look of your TV. It was a great drive back through Syracuse to Buffalo as I had quite a view of thunderstorm cells to the left and right of me (but not over me!).

Best!
Mike

Hello Michael...Thats for the thread reply back. As I said in my post, you are a true professional, and know your craft. The TV looks sensational, and the Yankee game never looked like what I am now seeing after your calibration.

I will be calling you soon so I can have you back to calibrate my Samsung TV that now looks blah, compared to the Sharp you calibrated. The Samsung looked good, or at least I thought it did, until viewing the Sharp and the difference after a TV is calibrated. The Samsung isn't bad, but I now know how much better it can be with the calibration.

I look forward to seeing you again in the very near future. And for any of you doubters out there, do yourself a favor and have Michael do the same for your TV.

I had my pioneer plasma calibrated by sfroach and am amazed at the difference I saw in the picture and colors. Immediatly I notices how vivid and pure the colors where which I thought were good before. I also appreciated how sfroach took the time to show/explain his findings and how his calibration benefited my tv. I loved my tv before but enjoy watching both tv and movies even more after he refined my set. I highly recommend sfroach.

[quote=Dave41200;18800444]Hello....I just want to comment on Michael Osadciw who calibrated my Sharp 46" LC-C46700UN LED TV today. Michael is the owner of "The Highest Fidelity" and is THX certified for professional video calibration and ISF certified.

Let me start off by saying, I do not know a darn thing about the latest in audio and video technology. I am behind the times. Because of this, I figured I would never have the patience to figure out how to adjust any TV or, know anything about them. That is why I decided to try Michael.

There are no words to describe how the TV looks after the calibration compared to how it looked before the calibration. Michael is amazing and was at my home for 5-hours. Not only did he have the latest equipment and software to calibrate my TV with precision, he was like a teacher and explained every little thing to me that he was doing, why he was doing it, and what the end result would be. It was like being in school and being taught an interesting lesson. It is amazing how much I learned.

Michael was a perfectionist and took his time. I could not believe what his equipment pointed out, how he made adjustments to gama, greyscale, blacks, etc. I could see the results on the TV screen and some of the flaws on the screen before he made his calibrations. I never knew there were so many things in the TV that could be adjusted. There is no way that any person can adjust their TV properly on their own without the test equipment, software and a professional that has the knowledge of these tools, and the inner workings of the TV itself. If you say that is untrue, I would have to say you are fooling yourself into thinking you are correct.

In any event, if anyone needs a true professional calibrator, I highly recommend Michael without any hesitation at all. His number is (905) 730-5996. If anyone has any other questions I might be able to answer, just send me a PM.

Yes i have to strongly agree as well as i had my tv calibrated by mike and it was a awsome experiance and really enjoying my set!!!

[quote=andjayik;18963771]
Add me as a fan. Michael just did my Pioneer Kuro 150FD, my JVC 950 projector plus an Audyssey Pro set-up for my Denon avp-a1. Fantastic results all around, a very professional job. He uses state of the art equipment tweaks things until he is happy and it takes a lot to make him happy. I highly recommend him. PLA.

I see lots of reports of Pioneers, large Panasonic and Samsung screens. My report is probably quite rare, in that I had a low-end Samsung plasma (PN42A450) calibrated by Kevin Miller (www.tweaktv.com). It's kind of funny and bizarre in a way, to have one of the elite pioneers (har har, TV pun) in the industry work on a substandard set (sort of like having Michelangelo work on a children coloring book), but I cannot be more happy with the job Kevin did with my set.

As it is a budget HDTV, we had to make some compromises with regards to greyscale (as it was quite polluted on the lower IREs), but he managed to get color almost spot-on and helped me realize how 2.2 gamma wasn't ideal for me in my viewing environment, which was what I was averaging before (though with a serious dip in the low end, washing out dark scenes).

Even though it isn't a 100% balanced greyscale, black and white material look pretty good, with the greyscale having a more uniform appearance as opposed to certain colors (red/magenta) highlighted in the darker portions of the greyscale when I did a DIY calibration with an EyeOne. Both DVD's and Blu-ray look terrific, with accurate colors thanks to Kevin. With the addition of a CinemaQuest backlight, my set (perceptually) punches above its weight.

Not only was he friendly and knowledgeable (as per his record) -- and answered all my questions, whether ridiculous or otherwise -- but he really did put a lot of effort into getting the most accurate picture out of the TV (about 3 1/2 hours for two inputs); it seems to me it would have been the same had he a Kuro in front of him. And that, perhaps more than anything else, is a great testament to his professionalism. Not to mention I had the poor guy climb three flights of stairs with all his equipment to work in a cramped attic room with enough wire hopping that would put Catherine Zeta Jones' performance in 'Entrapment' to shame, oh, and don't forget the two kids crying downstairs, to calibrate a TV that perhaps even Best Buy calibrators wouldn't touch...ISF/THX courses could use this as their 'Kobayashi Maru' training scenario. All in all I'm sure it was a humbling experience for him; its amazing he stayed as long as he did! Will definitely be using him again once I upgrade to a new TV...if he's still alive, at the rate I'm upgrading my electronics.

Seriously though, even if you have a budget TV, and if your TV has controls for a professional to work with, I have to say its still definitely worth having the set calibrated. And if you're in the NYC area, look up Kevin Miller!

I just wanted to put up a little bit of feedback from my experience with Mike Osadciw, who performed a calibration on my new LG 60PK550.

Most of you have probably already gathered as much from the feedback others have provided, but Mike was amazing all around the board. He responded to me quickly after my initial post here looking for a calibrator and he responded quickly to all subsequent correspondences. My work schedule, while usually flexible, is not flexible in September, so he made arrangements to quickly fit me into his schedule in August.

He was pleasant to work with, pleasant to talk to, and he pointed out and explained everything he did as he went along. Actually, he filled my head with so much stuff, I can't even remember half of it, but he was highly knowledgeable and obviously took pride in his work. He wouldn't move on to a different part of the calibration until I understood what he was doing or had just done.

By the time he actually got done and drove home, he didn't get home until 5:00 AM. That's dedication. I don't know his exact touring area, but I live in the Central New York (Syracuse) area and I highly recommend his services if you're looking for a calibration around here.

Mike - thanks again for everything.

I was fortunate enough to have Michael Osadciw calibrate my Samsung UN55C6900 recently.

For starters he has an incredible knowledge in the field and didnt stop teaching me during his entire visit. The more you learn the more you see just how critical it is to understand and appreciate what changes are being made and just how much effort is required to "get it right".

The improvement is both obvious and measurable. From the software reports to the naked eye the proof is evident, his calibration was top notch. From the 10p greyscale to the perfect gamma I honestly dont see any room for improvement. He dialed it in! From a less technical perspective, the picture is freakin fantastic

As others have pointed out he comes with some of the best equipment available to get the job done. You got alot of pre-post calibration reports that illustrate the technical changes made. I felt as though I had received a truely professional calibration in every sense.

In addition to the quality learning experience and the exceptional calibration hes also a really really really nice guy and it was a pleasure to meet him. I'll definetly be calling him in a year or two with the next upgrade. Im in Rochester New York. If Michael's available in your area I highly recommend him.

Scott

My recent calibration done by Greg Erianne (www.allhighdef.com) was nothing less than perfection. From the pre-calibration questionnaire where Greg gathered info on my Panny, other equipment I was using, as well as my viewing environment to the 4-plus hour extensive calibration Greg provided me with a truly professional ISF calibration. He comes with a car-load of equipment that he patiently sets up in your viewing room. As the calibration begins, Greg explains each step showing you the results and what he hopes to achieve and tweak to near-perfection. I've had this plasma for 2 years and I never expected the results Greg was capable of achieving with expertise and equipment. For me, my cable and LG bluray are stunning, both in a day mode and THX mode. I'm even using THX mode for cable which I never would do before. If you want an extensive, professional calibration at an affordable price then contact Greg at All High Def. His results will amaze your eyes.

Chad stopped in Atlanta on a SE tour last week and did a video calibration of my HT. My primary video path is:
- Sony S470 BD Player
- Anthem D2 AVP
- JVC RS-25 projector (same as HD950)
- Prismasonic anamorphic lens
- Da-Lite High Power 141"x60" screen - 153" diagonal
in a total light-controlled dedicated HT room.

Having had several ISF calibrations over the last 10 years (each by a different calibrator), I must say that Chad did the most thorough calibration that I have experienced. His equipment setup was first rate, with a tripod-mounted EyeOne Pro sensor feeding his laptop, the laptop controlling his signal generator video source and the laptop simultaneously modifying the PJ's calibration settings via RS-232.

I'll skip all the steps that he went thru and go straight to results. Two huge visible improvements:
- awesome blacks: deep, inky blacks without loss of shadow detail
- smooth colors: pre-calibration I had gamma compression that caused what should have been a gradual color change to show as one area of a single color, e.g. a pancake makeup look to faces.
Measured improvements:
- RGB level tracking from +5/-6 to */-1,5
- gamma from 1.87 avg with a dip to 1.5 at 90 to 2.27 so flat I can't make out the variance
- DeltaE from 3.6 to 0.4
- color temp from 6560 to 6500 (pretty good for out-of-the-box)

I've read reports of calibration drastically reducing light level, but in my case the level went down only 13% from 31fL pre-cal to 27fL post-cal (iris full open pre/post).

In addition to the calibration on my HDMI path, Chad also tweaked and verified the component video input to the D2 (always HDMI from D2 to PJ) as I use that for cable TV to eliminate HDMI resync on channel switching.

The projector was new with only 80 hours on the bulb so Chad did two separate calibrations (the JVC only stores two pro calibration setups):
- 17fL with the PJ's iris stopped down (the JVC has a fixed iris, not dynamic) to reduce the viewed light level to 16-18fL target range
- 27fL with the iris all the way open, for use with 2.35 material (widescreen stretch from the Prismasonic spreads the PJs light over a larger area and reduces reflected light level by 25%). I can also switch to this setup as the bulb ages and dims. Or for sports.

In summary, Chad did a terrific job and his rates are very competitive (no travel charges either). I intend to ask him back for a touch-up at ~1000 hours on the bulb.

You can check Chad out at hdtvbychadb.com.

Finally I got my 3 month old LG 60PK550 calibrated by Chad B this past Friday 24th September. I am pretty new to this audiophile and videophile world. I've been watching HD for over 3 years on my 3yrs old 46 Panasonic. I have always known that my video can be much better than what I get on my Panasonicbut never took that next step into Calibration world. I have seen some nice calibrated Pioneers and Runco plasma's in boutique Home Theatre Stores.

When I decided to upgrade my Plasma from 46 to 60 or moreI wanted to give a shot on calibrating my display. I was very skeptical to spend an extra $400 (Approx). So I went looking for user reviews to see what other people were saying about their calibrated displays in AVS Forums. After reading AVS Forums on display calibration for 2 monthsI came away that most people were very happy with their displays after calibration and some got burned because they went with someone from Best Buy and other big retailers. Bottom line is if you don't care about getting the most out of your display and are happy with what you see now, then it's probably not right for you. If you want to make sure you get the best out of it, then I think it's worth considering.

As I was researchingI bumped into Chad B's TV rankings and all his reviews on different displays he calibrated. After reading great reviews from him and the users alikei have changed my plasma from 65V10 to 60PK550 and decided to use the rest of money on calibration and upgrade my HT setup.

Finally, the D-Day arrived when I bought my 60PK550. The display was very good in Cinema mode right out of the box for my untrained eye. It was better than my old Panasonic for sure except on screens with lot of white. I started running break-in slides for 1st 200hrs with regular TV watching during the evenings. Initially there was IR after playing games and watching widescreen movies. As the number of hours increasedIR reduced. Now, I don't see any IR at all even after I play Demon's Souls for 4 hrs. Some people here on AVS had bad setsfortunately, mine was trouble-free from dead pixels, flickering or any kind of buzz. Chad B confirmed that my display is normal without any issues.

Since I have bought this display based on Chad's TV rankingsI decided to get it calibrated by him. I got an appointment from him for Sept 24th 6pm. He arrived 5 mins early and started setting up his equipment. He was very professional and jovial in nature. He asked couple of questions on my viewing habits and the system itself.

Chad suggested doing only one mode (ISF Expert1 Day) for day since there wont be a big difference between day and night modes. He turned on the TV and his initial thoughts were that my display is pushing more green and blue. His chart before calibration proves it as well. My gamma was way off at 1.96 & Delta was 11.3 and color temperature was 7571 which should be around 6500. Delta should be below 3 and gamma should be between 2.2-2.5. From the numbers above, you can tell that my display was way off from where it should be to get the best picture out of it.

So he started working on calibrating my plasma for Comcast cable first and then for other inputs. He took couple of passes on 20 point IRE and I saw all the above parameters were closing in on the target values. After spending close to 4hrshe was happy to see the numbers on his equipment. He decided to see it for himself on the display, so he decided to see some of his demo material that he is very well aware offthe display was awesome. I was able to see the true color and depth in the image that my PK550 produced. There was lot of pop in color and the faces were true instead of a reddish/pinkish finish.

He then changed some settings on my PS3 and Denon 5-dvd changer. He tested his demo material again to make sure all inputs display true image. He then asked me to play some of my movies to see the difference myself in material that I watch often.

Since I am a sports guyI have instantly turned on ESPN HD and NFL HD to see the picture. The picture was awesomeI cant even explain. Simply fantastic!!! I then switched to BlurayStar Trek and watched young James T Kirk driving his car into abyss. Not the right scene to test it but the depth and clarity was visible. My main concern was my downloaded movies which are worse than our regular SD content from cable. I use my PS3 to play these AVI and MPEG files. Fortunately they also got better. Sigh of relief.

At this point Chad was ready to leave! He did a fantastic job and was very eager to answer any questions that I had. I would recommend his services to anybody who would like to get their displays calibrated.

After, Chad leftI decided to test my display more looking for details and clarity. So I started playing Demons Souls, went into dungeons and instantly saw all the details in shadows and dark places. It used to be all dark and no detail at allnow I see the enemies and the dark shadows and rocks behind them. The blacks are much better than before. Blacks are more like dark gray for me before & now they are like black and I can definitely see the contrast better between blacks and other colors. If anybody is interested he got 0.017 for my blacks. His reference for this display was 0.013.
Then, I went with bluray moviesplayed cars, Wall-E and Band of Brothers. I can definitely see a lot of clarity and depth in colors. I was very happy that I decided to get my plasma calibrated.

 

Harish LG 60PK550 after.pdf 170.1455078125k . file

 

Harish LG 60PK550 before.pdf 175.0419921875k . file

Thanks a lot for putting this thread together and keep it going for a long time. Appreciate all the work you do!!!

Htwaits,

Please post this review I recently had for a Panasonic VT25. Thanks!

65VT25 Calibration by Shawn Byrne from Sound Advice

Last Saturday Oct. 2nd I had the privilege of having Shawn Byrne come to my house to calibrate my 65VT25. He also did a touch up on my Elite Pro 151 which had been calibrated previously.
Shawn arrived on time and ready to go to work. He started with the 151 because the Panny is in a very bright room and we wanted to wait until sundown to calibrate.
Shawn explained what he was doing along the way and answered the million questions that I had throughout the calibration. (I pretend to know something about TVs and calibrations). He was not annoyed at my constantly looking over his shoulder and seeing what was going on on the computer screen.
The results on the Pro 151 were spectacular as expected.
After a short dinner break He moved on to the Panny. I was anxious to see what kind of results could be achieved with this set. As I've mentioned on here before the ISF calibration on the Pro 151 that I had done a year ago rendered spectacular results and I was really hoping for the same with the Panny.
Well, expectations fulfilled, results delivered. This baby rocks.
Shawn calibrated ISF day and THX on all of the inputs that I requested. Not a small task as I have DirecTv, Cable, PS3, BluRay, WII, VCR, and a BOSE surround system (Yea, I know, it was bought a long time ago) which I use for outdoor audio but it is connected to the Panny.
Shawn spent a total of about 8 hours calibration my sets.
I know I'll get flamed to death on this one but I "personally" prefer the picture on the Panny now as compared to the Pro 151.
If you have never has a set calibrated you don't know what you are missing. Money well spent. If you can get Shawn to do your calibration you won't regret it.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=7235

Dnice did a cal on my 5020 Kuro today. Seems a few things were off from the factory. Dnice did a great job and made a great display even better. Foud out i had around 1700 hours on the set as i bought it as a demo. I have had the set 11 months so i was happy about the low hours. Once i spend some time with the set i will give you guys a update.