I know there's been alot of threads on this issue already.
In my case, it was worth it. The technician spent a good 3 hours calibrating the unit while I was asking him any question that came through my mind. Let me just say that he knew what he was doing (or at least I think he was...hehe)
The factory (out-of-the-box) grayscale settings were quite off as soon we started to measure them with the Philips CRT Color/Grayscale Analyzer.
Remember that 6500K (Kelvin) is the ideal color temperature for the level of video amplitude (IRE) between 20 IRE and 100 IRE.
As was stated by the technician prior to calibration, the 34XBR800 Pro mode, with SVM off and using the warm color temperature and default user settings (contrast, brightness, hue, etc), is as close as you can get to 6500K without requiring ISF calibration.
Here's a glimpse of what I had before the calibration:
IRE PRE-CALIBRATION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
100 IRE 8403 (High Level APL)
90 IRE 8379
80 IRE 8379
70 IRE 8390
60 IRE 8389
50 IRE 8471
40 IRE 8624
30 IRE 8911
20 IRE 9325 (Low Level APL)
IRE POST CALIBRATION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
100 IRE 6597 (High Level APL)
90 IRE 6563
80 IRE 6553
70 IRE 6539
60 IRE 6538
50 IRE 6517
40 IRE 6560
30 IRE 6570
20 IRE 6505 (Low Level APL)
Warm setting (after calibration)......... 29.61 ftL
In addition to the greyscale, color tweaks were also done (red, green, blue) but overall, the grayscale was the most important. I can honestly say that I now have a good 10-15% improvement in visual quality. For some people that may not sound like much but to me it was. I can now sleep well knowing that the unit is fine-tuned to 6500K. Cost: $250
Cheers
Raven
In my case, it was worth it. The technician spent a good 3 hours calibrating the unit while I was asking him any question that came through my mind. Let me just say that he knew what he was doing (or at least I think he was...hehe)
The factory (out-of-the-box) grayscale settings were quite off as soon we started to measure them with the Philips CRT Color/Grayscale Analyzer.
Remember that 6500K (Kelvin) is the ideal color temperature for the level of video amplitude (IRE) between 20 IRE and 100 IRE.
As was stated by the technician prior to calibration, the 34XBR800 Pro mode, with SVM off and using the warm color temperature and default user settings (contrast, brightness, hue, etc), is as close as you can get to 6500K without requiring ISF calibration.
Here's a glimpse of what I had before the calibration:
IRE PRE-CALIBRATION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
100 IRE 8403 (High Level APL)
90 IRE 8379
80 IRE 8379
70 IRE 8390
60 IRE 8389
50 IRE 8471
40 IRE 8624
30 IRE 8911
20 IRE 9325 (Low Level APL)
IRE POST CALIBRATION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
100 IRE 6597 (High Level APL)
90 IRE 6563
80 IRE 6553
70 IRE 6539
60 IRE 6538
50 IRE 6517
40 IRE 6560
30 IRE 6570
20 IRE 6505 (Low Level APL)
Warm setting (after calibration)......... 29.61 ftL
In addition to the greyscale, color tweaks were also done (red, green, blue) but overall, the grayscale was the most important. I can honestly say that I now have a good 10-15% improvement in visual quality. For some people that may not sound like much but to me it was. I can now sleep well knowing that the unit is fine-tuned to 6500K. Cost: $250
Cheers
Raven