[hdtvguy]

Greetings to all!


I am pleased to announce that Eliab and David Abrams of AVICAL will be coming to the Toronto/Niagara Region at the end of May.

The schedule would allow for 11 clients total but 7 slots have already been filled! Here are the tour dates and time slots:



1. Monday, May 26th at 5:00 PM

2. Tuesday, May 27th at 9:30 AM

3. Tuesday, May 27th at 4:00 PM

4. Wednesday, May 28th at 9:30 AM

5. Wednesday, May 28th at 4:00 PM

6. Thursday, May 29th at 9:30 AM

7. Thursday, May 29th at 4:00 PM

8. Friday, May 30th at 10:00 AM

9. Sunday, June 1st at 10:30 AM

10. Sunday, June 1st at 5:00 PM

11. Monday, June 2nd at 9:30 AM


A list of services, pricing structure and other details regarding their calibration expertise can be found at the AVICAL website . They offer a full range of calibration services for almost any brand of Direct View or rear projection TV - JVC, Mitsubishi, Sony and Panasonic to just name a few. Front projector services and supplemental Videophile tweaks are also available.


To answer technical questions and/or concerns contact either Eliab at 908-531-7028 - email at [email protected] ., or David at 607-279-3728 - email at [email protected] .


Travel expenses (hotel accommodations) will be divided among all of the tour customers. The amount is usually about $50 per client and would be added to the price of the calibration. Avical/Precision Theater Consultants will be providing their own transportation for this tour.


I will be acting as tour coordinator and you can reach me at [email protected] if you are interested in reserving a slot. You will have to send me your contact information:

• Name

• Address

• Telephone numbers

• Email address

• Make & model of display device

• Day/time that you would prefer


The later slots have been booked heavily so don’t delay acting on this wonderful opportunity. Having had the famed Michael TLV calibrate my Panasonic RPTV two years ago turned out to be the best investment I made in viewing enjoyment. Now I can get another one of two highly lauded calibrationists’s to tweak it even further. Manufacturers “nominal†assembly parameters don’t show the true video capabilities of these sets. You need an experienced professional to dial in your set to a new level of video clarity.


Regards

Dan (aka hdtvguy)

 

[hdtvguy]

Eliab has left the building!


Well the tour is starting this week and we can't wait, particularly when reading the glowing reports from some Toshiba owners of his last tour. With the Canadian loony trading at .73¢ U.S. the anticipation is even greater.


There have been some late cancellations due to clients technical difficulties. So if you want your set expertly calibrated by Eliab and David Abrams, this is your last chance as Eliab will not be coming to Canada later this year.


Currently there is an opening on Wednesday, May 28th for somebody in the north of New York-Montreal-Cornwall corridor.


There are two openings for people in the Toronto area. One is the morning of Friday, May 30th and the other is on Saturday, May 31.


Contact me [email protected] or Eliab at 908-531-7028 - email at [email protected] ., or David at 607-279-3728 - email at [email protected] .

 

[hdtvguy]

Avical comes to Canada!


Great news, Eliab and David Abrams are leaving for Canada this morning and the Canadian dollar is .728¢ US. Tour starts in the Ottawa-Cornwall area, goes to Toronto and winds up in the Niagara Region.


P.S. There still is an opening in the Toronto leg for Saturday, MAY 31st. Contact me, [email protected] , as soon as possible.

 

[hdtvguy]

Hi everybody,


Well the tour is over. Eliab and Dave headed back to the States this morning. It didn't go as I had envisioned - smooth, clockwork are some of the adjectives I would have liked to used in my review of the tour. Instead I think terms like calamitous, Titanic, and the expletive S_ _ t come to mind. I still remember this snippet of cell phone conversation:


Dan: "hey, are you guys in Ottawa yet?"

Eliab: "NO. We're in Pennsylvania"

Dan: "Wheree?"

Eliab: "Pennsylvania. We're heading back to Woodstock"

Dan: "??????????????????????????"


This conversation was due to an ASSUME made by one of our calibrators, well you know how that saying goes, and a power mad bureaucratic Canada customs agent. Just a few days before the tour was ready to roll we had some cancellations. So the tour of close by cities (60 miles apart) ended up being a tour of Southeastern Ontario encompassing a distance of some 600 miles. Adding to this, some of the sets were problematic to dial in and/or Duvetyne (mine in particular) so the lads would roll into their motels at the wee hours of the morning.


I thank all the clients, as they had to alter their schedules on a days notice to deal with the Customs setback.

I think my prospects for employ as a professional tour coordinator have been dashed entirely and I will stick to my day job.


I have seen some positive posts about the calibrations performed by Eliab and Dave popping up on the forums already. This will be another one. It took them seconds to notice my sets black levels were way off. My last calibration had left a steep drop off of colour temperature from 40 to 0 IRE. Eliab does NOT compromise in this area. I ended up with a virtually flat line from 100 IRE to 0 IRE. My green gun mechanical focus was brought back into line, the first time I've had even field focus of green on this set since I've owned it.


The Duvetyne job performed Eliab was remarkable. Being a skilled tradesman I had to admire the tenacious detail plied by Eliab and his partner Dave in lining my set. The job turned out so beautiful, I said it would be a shame to hide it by putting the screen back on. If this AV thing doesn't turn out, Eliab should go into Interior CALibration.


Other services, besides gray scale calibration and mechanical focus, performed on my set were: electronic focus, mirror cleaning and duva-taping, lens optics cleaning, DVD setup, optimization of brightness, contrast, color, tint and sharpness controls to newly corrected grayscales, convergence and overscan correction. They took turns tag teaming; while Eliab was up I quizzed Dave on HD-DVD and on Eliab's breaks, we covered music, biking and Lo-Fi. I can't imagine how anybody could be so friendly and laid back after such a grinding tour.


As an added benefit, I like the way they conduct their business. Since the glare screen was already removed on the previous calibration, this not required service in the STAR package was discounted in my end price. Another bonus is that Eliab and Dave contribute $25 dollars to the HomeTheatreSpot for every client they get from that forum. Since my buddy Grant clued me into Eliab, his keen eyesight has caused $225 (9 clients) to be headed towards HomeTheatreSpot.


These are some brave crusaders, they had to battle the evil forces of Canada customs, ignore the media hysteria of SARS while in Toronto and consume beef - remember the ONE! Mad cow they found here. Although at the end of my calibration they didn't have any problems downing the Black Ice I provided them


The one thing I would fault them on, is that my set looked so spectacular after their efforts (a 56" screen viewed from 8.5'), after they left at 3 in the morning I stayed up for another 1 ½ watching DVD's


Regards Dan (aka [email protected] )


PS.1 If you make that "Grooves to Converge by", where do I send the $15 bucks?


PS.2 Does anybody know where I can get a drive belt for an EL-7?

 

[kal]

Hi guys - too late now, but one thing you may wish to tell people in the future (especially considering this is the FP CRT forum) is what models of FPTV CRT's you guys have worked on previously and/or specialize in.


While the way grey scale tracking's performed is fairly consistent between units, the rest of the setup is far from the same from one unit to the next so it's always important to get a calibrator who knows your specific unit.


Kal