I finally got around to calibrating my 503CMX with ColorFacts and the results are outstanding. I first calibrated a 21†Viewsonic monitor to get some experience working with ColorFacts. The biggest difference is digital photos look much more realistic, especially colour rendition.
The equipment:
503CMX with about 350 hours on the meter.
Faroudja NRS connected to input 1 (RGB device).
McIntosh interlaced DVD player connected via S-Video to McIntosh pre/processor, with S-Video out to the NRS.
Laptop computer running Windows 2000 with ColorFacts installed.
The process:
Set the 503 and NRS to factory defaults, then set NRS noise reduction to 0 and detail to 4.
Set 503 to power control mode1.
All equipment warmed up for 30 minutes beforehand.
All 503 adjustments were made in Integrator Mode, none were made in normal menu mode.
Set brightness and contrast with Video Essentials.
Disconnected NRS from input 1 and connected laptop.
Plugged light meter into USB port, attached light meter to 503 with suction cups, booted laptop, and started ColorFacts.
Used all ColorFacts default exposure settings.
Performed Aim Meter function to verify everything was working.
Measured Device Primaries (ColorFacts sequences through all required test patterns and produces a CIE chart).
Measured Grey Scale (ColorFacts sequences through all required test patterns) using the default 10 step IRE measurements. ColorFacts will do 10, 20, 32, and 64 detail levels, but I didn’t try anything higher than 10.
Based on ColorFacts findings, adjusted 503 RGB settings and repeated measurements until it reported somewhere around 6480 degrees. It’s supposed to be 6500, but what the heck, close enough I say.
Disconnected laptop and reconnected NRS.
I watched parts of a few “reference†DVD’s, including Video Essentials, Gladiator, and the Fifth Element. An improvement in black level detail was the first most obvious difference. I now get much better detail in dark areas and colours are slightly toned down and more natural. I’m sure a qualified ISF person with a spectroradiometer would do a better job, but I’m quite pleased with the results.
So, what did I learn?
The 503’s contrast level is difficult to set up properly. I couldn’t find any patterns on VE which showed the effect of changing contrast levels. There’s supposed to be a white box in one of the Snell and Wilcox patterns which has a second box inside it, but I couldn’t see the inside box no matter what. The bending bar routine doesn’t work with plasmas, either. I set contrast to where I thought it looked “bestâ€.
The 503 displays the blacker than black pluge pattern and setting brightness with it was easy.
Calibration has absolutely no effect on colour impurities in the white mask screen. It still is slightly blue towards the centre and has a trace of red towards the top and bottom.
I had to turn down the brightness level much further than expected to get it right. Maybe this has something to do with the NRS being in the loop. Other people have shown brightness settings somewhere around 130 plus, whereas I ended up at 108.
ColorFacts is dead simple to use. I have no experience with this stuff and it produced good results. Am I going to put any ISF guys out of business? No! Besides, I can make better money keeping my “day jobâ€.
Final Integrator Mode settings are:
Contrast 127, brightness 108, V and H enhance 8 (default), R high 255, R low 124, G high 255, G low 129, B high 236, B low 128.
I don’t understand the difference between the RGB high and low settings and played with them both. If anyone reading this can educate me, I would appreciate it.
As an experiment, I tried these same settings on input 2 (component), and they don’t look good at all, so there’s a big difference between RGB and component.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Any comments, criticisms, suggestions, or questions are welcome. Please be gentle.

The equipment:
503CMX with about 350 hours on the meter.
Faroudja NRS connected to input 1 (RGB device).
McIntosh interlaced DVD player connected via S-Video to McIntosh pre/processor, with S-Video out to the NRS.
Laptop computer running Windows 2000 with ColorFacts installed.
The process:
Set the 503 and NRS to factory defaults, then set NRS noise reduction to 0 and detail to 4.
Set 503 to power control mode1.
All equipment warmed up for 30 minutes beforehand.
All 503 adjustments were made in Integrator Mode, none were made in normal menu mode.
Set brightness and contrast with Video Essentials.
Disconnected NRS from input 1 and connected laptop.
Plugged light meter into USB port, attached light meter to 503 with suction cups, booted laptop, and started ColorFacts.
Used all ColorFacts default exposure settings.
Performed Aim Meter function to verify everything was working.
Measured Device Primaries (ColorFacts sequences through all required test patterns and produces a CIE chart).
Measured Grey Scale (ColorFacts sequences through all required test patterns) using the default 10 step IRE measurements. ColorFacts will do 10, 20, 32, and 64 detail levels, but I didn’t try anything higher than 10.
Based on ColorFacts findings, adjusted 503 RGB settings and repeated measurements until it reported somewhere around 6480 degrees. It’s supposed to be 6500, but what the heck, close enough I say.
Disconnected laptop and reconnected NRS.
I watched parts of a few “reference†DVD’s, including Video Essentials, Gladiator, and the Fifth Element. An improvement in black level detail was the first most obvious difference. I now get much better detail in dark areas and colours are slightly toned down and more natural. I’m sure a qualified ISF person with a spectroradiometer would do a better job, but I’m quite pleased with the results.
So, what did I learn?
The 503’s contrast level is difficult to set up properly. I couldn’t find any patterns on VE which showed the effect of changing contrast levels. There’s supposed to be a white box in one of the Snell and Wilcox patterns which has a second box inside it, but I couldn’t see the inside box no matter what. The bending bar routine doesn’t work with plasmas, either. I set contrast to where I thought it looked “bestâ€.
The 503 displays the blacker than black pluge pattern and setting brightness with it was easy.
Calibration has absolutely no effect on colour impurities in the white mask screen. It still is slightly blue towards the centre and has a trace of red towards the top and bottom.
I had to turn down the brightness level much further than expected to get it right. Maybe this has something to do with the NRS being in the loop. Other people have shown brightness settings somewhere around 130 plus, whereas I ended up at 108.
ColorFacts is dead simple to use. I have no experience with this stuff and it produced good results. Am I going to put any ISF guys out of business? No! Besides, I can make better money keeping my “day jobâ€.
Final Integrator Mode settings are:
Contrast 127, brightness 108, V and H enhance 8 (default), R high 255, R low 124, G high 255, G low 129, B high 236, B low 128.
I don’t understand the difference between the RGB high and low settings and played with them both. If anyone reading this can educate me, I would appreciate it.
As an experiment, I tried these same settings on input 2 (component), and they don’t look good at all, so there’s a big difference between RGB and component.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Any comments, criticisms, suggestions, or questions are welcome. Please be gentle.