AVS HD 709 - Blu-ray & MP4 Calibration - Page 58

No one had ever commented on the text being an issue. Most of the time I use that pattern while being closer to the screen than typical viewing distance, in order to clearly see just how low I can set brightness before cutting off above black.

My display doesn't have gamma controls, so brightness at the lowest setting where 17 just flashes tends to maximize gamma. I suppose it's possible that perception due to lighting could change at different distances, but generally I watch in a dim room and haven't noticed a change with distance.


Here is a test video that should play on AVCHD compatible players from DVD media. It's just the Basic Settings section. The text has been changed from white to around 40%, and the APL Clipping Pattern flashes 235 (white) at the top and bottom of the screen instead of 254. http://www.sendspace.com/file/pv6tib

Like commented above an owners thread may help with the different settings the TV offers, or you may want to take at look at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post16870005 which concerns a Samsung display and PS3. Brightness generally doesn't change how dark the TV can get, it just controls where that darkest part happens.


I thought that at least some Samsungs offered gamma controls. I don't have any idea if your display has a gamma control, but if it does then there may be setting(s) that will come out of black slower. A higher gamma will better mimic the impression of brightness set too low, but without the loss of information above black.

I've only messed with Samsungs in the store a bit, so I can't say how exactly your display's control works. A thread about your TV in the flat panels area would have more information. In general gamma is how the display increases in light output between black and white. One of the settings will probably produce less light output near black, which should help with your objections to a correct brightness setting.



You may want to look at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post16890581 which touches on a few issues regarding computers. I'm not familiar with the details of your display, so for example I don't know if the HDMI setting is all that's necessary to switch between a video or computer input. I'm also not familiar with Mac to comment if they output levels differently.



I have to expect that your computer is expanding levels so that the bar marked white is likely the brightest level reaching the display. Even if you were to send the entire video signal from the PS3, and if your display could show the bars numbered higher than white, you would probably find that the last bar or two of flashing white can be difficult to spot. Really the pattern is easier to use when sending the entire video signal, that way you can see the bars disappear as contrast is increased, assuming the display allows contrast to go high enough to begin clipping above whites.

I allowed my computer to expand as typically expected, and the last couple bars below white were rather difficult to spot. I could see 233 flash more easily by covering the flashing from 230-232. The bar marked 234 was almost indistinguishable from 235. Generally telling two adjacent levels apart is rather difficult, if not impossible. Really the main point of the pattern is to confirm that the information is making it on-screen in the first place, so you might see if going up to the screen and covering the adjacent bars makes 233 easier to see.

You might want to try a new thread in the main forum, or else try in the "where are you located" thread.

Some players will only play one of the two versions, so refer to the Blu-ray players list. The Patched version has a few additional features listed in the downloads area if your player supports both, but generally the AVCHD will have better compatibility with a larger number of players.


Like mentioned in the introduction, one thing DVE has is audio patterns. The patterns are highly compressed, and the Blu-ray related versions unpack to over 2GB.


Not really, but some displays will perform slightly differently depending on the mode. To get more information on that sort of thing, and some of your other questions, a thread in the flat panels area might give more info on the available settings for your model TV. Sometimes reviews for a TV will also give information on specific controls.


Grayscale is expected to match. If your electronics handle things correctly then color should also match. Generally though you need a DVD calibration disk if you want to be sure and double check how your electronics perform, because for example it's possible that my computer can handle SD and HD differently.


This somewhat depends on room lighting. Generally a higher setting will output more light, so both black and white are brighter at higher settings. If you watch in dim room lighting then the more light output for black can be an issue, and it may be beneficial to reduce backlight. On the other hand a backlight that is too low will make whites too dim.

Generally I would suggest setting black-level (brightness) to the lowest setting where 17 flashes. Set white-level (contrast) to a high setting so that only a few bars over 235 flash if possible (depends on display). Then set backlight depending on room lighting. Generally a lower backlight setting will help if you need to make near-blacks darker, and a higher setting will help if you need to make near-whites brighter. If you want for black to appear darker while still having a high backlight for brighter whites, then more light in the room may help to make the darkest shades appear darker.


The main advantage is that it gives you a reference for setting red, green, and blue in the grayscale, if your display allows you to alter the grayscale in that way (white balance). Gamma - how light increases between black and white - is easier to look at with a meter, and again not all displays will be able to adjust gamma. The meter will also give you an estimate of how bright white gets, which some suggest to use for setting backlight for example, but generally I use personal preference rather than the reported light output. I've read that some Samsungs have a blue mode for setting color controls, but if not then a meter offers an alternate to using a blue filter to set color and tint. I've also found a meter interesting because it allowed me to get a better idea of what was changing when I tried settings that weren't described well in my TV's manual. Anyway the main point is that a meter will allow for more fine-tuning of the display to suggested performance beyond what the Basic Settings area allow, but it certainly takes some time to learn to use.

I suppose the download or decompression might be bad. I tried out Daemon Tools and never got any message regarding corruption when mounting images. If you are getting a corruption message when you mount an image, then you probably need to download again. The md5 can also be used to check downloads or the uncompressed images.

On the other hand though, neither of the playback programs I tried would work with any images of the AVS HD 709 files if mounted with Daemon Tools. I ended up with the playback programs reporting unplayable or unsupported disks when trying to load the Daemon Tools images. Generally Virtual CloneDrive has worked with the playback programs I've tried. I know PowerDVD will play an AVCHD disc while not playing an AVCHD mounted image, but otherwise most of the files here seem to play if mounted with Virtual CloneDrive. Based on my testing of Daemon Tools, all I can really do is to suggest instead using Virtual CloneDrive, and then if playback works or not it will be mainly due to the Blu-ray playback software.


EDIT:
If you absolutely want to use Daemon Tools rather than Virtual CloneDrive it seems to be possible. As far as I can tell Daemon Tools assigns disc type depending on image size, and so with the AVS HD 709 files being only around 2GB Daemon Tools assigns a DVD-ROM disc type. I created an image file (Image editor option in Daemon Tools should work) and included the HDMV folders and then some junk files to push the image size over dual layer DVD. The larger than DVD size image was assigned a BD-ROM disc type and worked when mounted with Daemon Tools from either PowerDVD or Arcsoft.

Even if that's the case, it couldn't be used for setting color controls on the display because the computer would only be sending blue. Off-hand I'm not sure it would necessarily make sense to adjust color at the computer.

If you want to adjust the gamut or change the gamma, and the display doesn't have adjustments for those items, then it would probably make sense to adjust at the computer. Without looking into things further, I'm just not sure it's ideal to adjust the main color control at the computer with how I believe a computer signal takes up the entire range it can send.