[AtheistP3ace]

Is getting your TV professionally done worth the money? Do the people that do it have access to more menus than I would when messing with settings? I am very happy with my TV but sometimes it looks a little fuzzy. I think it may be my comcast cable though because on blurays and hddvd i dont see the issue. Only on some HD channels. I have KURO PDP-6010FD. Does anyone else have one and got it professionally calibrated? Please excuse anything dumb I may or may not say. I am new to nice TVs and getting them calibrated. Also where should I look for people that do this? I live in south jersey. Thanks.

 

[Forumite]

I'm wondering the same thing. Just got off the phone with CC and they said it is only $100 for a calibration. It would see worth it since I would have to spend $40 for the disk and wouldnt have to do anything except be home.


I asked what equipment they use and was told a similar disk and some color spectrum graph. So I'm not sure how good they would do it since I'm unaware of what is all used in the first place.

 

[jmpage2]

I think that the question has been asked and answered many times before, I know I've seen numerous threads questioning the value of paying a professional.


Part of what you are paying for is the skill/experience of the calibrator. The $100 calibration from a CC guy might not be much better (maybe worse) than what you could do yourself by purchasing a $129 sensor, downloading free software and learning how to calibrate. Then you have the advantage of being able to recalibrate your own TV again in the future or if you replace the set, or do a friends set, etc.


The really good ISF calibrators who know their stuff usually charge more like $300-$500. They know how to get into the service menu and adjust your color decoder, geometry, fix gamma problems, etc.


Whether it's worth it or not comes down to how picky you are when viewing and how much you value accuracy.


Also, a calibrator can use a signal generator to get your satellite box input spot on, but it doesn't mean all satellite/cable material is going to look good, even if it's in HD. (Garbage in) == (Garbage out) Some stations/programs just aren't very good.

 

[Forumite]

Thanks for the info. I'd hate to pay over $300 for a calibration but at the same time I am very picky about the way my set looks. I just recently purchased the Samsung 4671F and want more out of it. I just dont see the point in paying over 2k for a television and not seeing its full potential.

 

[jmpage2]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Forumite /forum/post/12957361


Thanks for the info. I'd hate to pay over $300 for a calibration but at the same time I am very picky about the way my set looks. I just recently purchased the Samsung 4671F and want more out of it. I just dont see the point in paying over 2k for a television and not seeing its full potential.

I agree completely. When I had my older CRT RPTV calibrated it cost $300 for a calibration and you really had to do it every 6-12 months because the sets drifted around so much. At that time there was no affordable way to do your own calibration.


These days with a little bit of effort and about $150 you can get a decent sensor and do a pretty good calibration yourself. That's the route I took, I'd rather know how to do a basic calibration and get a "good" picture that I can re-adjust as needed than pay $300 every so often for a professional calibration.


If you really are a hands off kind of person then I would recommend hiring one of the more qualified ISF calibrators in your area, I suspect it would be VERY hit or miss with guys from Best Buy or Circuit City doing a calibration.

 

[Forumite]

I'll do some more research but what is this sensor and how does it work? Do I also need a disk and they just run together?

 

[jmpage2]

You can get the free Color HCFR software that you will see a big thread about (version 2.0 just came out).


For calibration disc you can get the Color HCFR patterns disc (free) or the Get Gray disc ($25) both of which will do SD-DVD.


If calibrating HD DVD or Blu-Ray you can get the free AVS HD test patterns disc that there's also a big thread about in the calibration forum.


For a sensor you can get the Eye-One Display LT sensor, there are several sources, this is one of the cheapest;

https://www.digitalgraphicsresources...ROD&ProdID=865


You will need to install the software on a laptop, manually move the driver file for the sensor into the directory that the HCFR is installed in before you can take measurements.


You need to read the threads cited above, especially the bigger thread on HCFR software and Tom Huffman's beginner guide to calibration stickied at the top of this forum. Calibration is involved, but I was able to teach myself how to do it in about 4-8 hours and the people in this forum are very helpful for helping you get started.


If you're not technical minded then you can always buy a package like "SpyderTV" which comes with a sensor and test DVD and is basically idiot proof. You won't get the kind of results you can get from a better quality sensor and more sophisticated software though.


If all of this is overwhelming then pay for a calibration and watch how it's done. From that you can make a judgement on if it's the type of thing you would be willing to tackle on your own.