Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: HDTV, calibration, questions | Themes: Home Theater, Display Panels and Monitors
5. Tuning For Humans
TG: Will the DVD take me through all of this?
JS: No, the DVD shows you how to set black level properly. We don’t go into all the technology behind it. That’s part of a two-day certification course we teach. But you have to just get the black as black as you can without losing shadow detail. On the calibration we have a guy wearing a black jacket and a black shirt. I have to give credit to the wizards at Microsoft studios who spent six weeks shooting this. The shirt is actually 2% above black, so it’s really dark gray. If you turn the brightness control down a little bit too low, you don’t see the difference between the shirt and the jacket, so you have to bring it back up. And if you have it too high, there’s a black X, which was actually a black cardboard X on a pool cue with one of the techs waving it behind the actor. It worked well on MediaCenter.
TG: Sounds pretty simple.
JS: My plan in those days was simple. I said humans and test patterns can’t exist in the same space at the same time. If a human sees a test pattern on the set late at night, which we all saw growing up, we change the channel. We don’t call the station and go, "Hey, mister, what’s that thing for? Every night you put that in my face. Tell me how to use it." No human I know, including myself, looked at that pattern and said, "That’s got to be for something clever. I’m going to figure it out." We all basically said, "That’s tough. That’s technical. I can’t do anything about that." So you change the channel. The whole point behind the calibration wizard was to give people tools that they could use without learning how to be an engineer. And it’s worked out fine. It builds awareness. That’s actually what the Best Buy calibrators use for black-and-white levels to start, and then they have a $4,000 generator to fine-tune it.
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Great article. Finally, a calibration article that speaks to the common display user using common English.
Damn man, another great article from you. You are one of the best writer on Tom's. Very informative long articles everytime, but never boring.
Amazing article, this was perfect timing as I am buying a plasma in a few days.
Just had to mention Noel Lee. I have now lost all faith, respect, and trust in this entire article as well as the ISF.
Otherwise, great article!
now that explains the brightness of my 19" LCD over the replaced 19" CRT, even at sRGB setting.
just recently, i played with that calibration program in Windows7. it was good enough and allowed me to reduce the red level slightly on my sRGB mode LCD.
anyways, what a good article including the interviewed expert! i learned essentials and reminded of the basics in a short time.
Too bad the article did not include Samsung's recently introduced OLED TV's. Is an OLED TV a better option than a plasma?
very good article...
theres a bit about OLED if you read carefully
Yes, and Samsung is still working on their first production samples.
What I don't get about this article is the comments about Media Center. I know several people with 4-6 tuners (I only need 3 tuners myself), including OCUR and HD, and now with support for MP4 and Netflix, Media Center is better than ever.
Negatives for mentioning Noel Lee? Do you people not know about him? Biggest thief in the industry. Educate before discriminate.
Negatives for mentioning Noel Lee? Do you people not know about him? Biggest thief in the industry. Educate before discriminate.
The way in which he was mentioned had nothing to do with his products besides his name being associated with them... Why don't you tell us your issue with him if you are so loving of education? Hmmmm? He was just mentioned, that is all... get a life
720p to 1080p not a worthy upgrade... >
Okay, we know here that a tech is nothing more than a monkey with a certificate trying to sell is salad...
Play Crysis on a 720p resolution, and move to 1080p... you will see the difference at 15 feet of distance easily...
dude....we are talking about TV here...not playing a pc game.
Great article. Reading what a calibrator has to say about tvs is much more meaningful than some unknown reviewer paid by x brand.
I think getting the right rgb is really overlooked nowadays. If I go to bestbuy and look at their setup I'd ask them where's the CRTs.
Great article. Reading what a calibrator has to say about tvs is much more meaningful than some unknown reviewer paid by x brand. I think getting the right rgb is really overlooked nowadays. If I go to bestbuy and look at their setup I'd ask them where's the CRTs.
Thank you (all of you above, actually) for the compliment. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece.
In all fairness, though, while I suspect a few reviewers in this business are bought, most are not. I've been reviewing products for print and Web since 1998, and not once has a vendor ever offered to pay me for a favorable review. Far more likely is that we reviewers learn over time which vendors are easier to work with. When a vendor is willing to provide skilled tech support, a reviewer's guide, a *working* eval unit, and so on -- and does so repeatedly and reliably over the years -- you can't help but appreciate their efforts. That doesn't, or at least shouldn't, mean they get get a favorable review if the product doesn't merit it. It merely means that when we have to pick five products from a field of 50, reviewers are more likely to make their first phone calls to companies that will make the job of reviewing less troublesome. Try doing a roundup of 10 motherboards with pre-release BIOSes someday and you'll see what I mean. ;-)
Admittedly, you did say "unknown" reviewer...but I'm pretty sure this group (which would be all of us save for maybe a handful of names like Walt Mossberg) would be even less likely to be bribed. Why pay someone that nobody reads?
Is ISF calibration only for high end displays? How does the average consumer go about getting thier TV (LCD or Plasma) professionally calibrated? Call Best Buy's Geek Squad?
Is ISF calibration only for high end displays? How does the average consumer go about getting thier TV (LCD or Plasma) professionally calibrated? Call Best Buy's Geek Squad?
Try this link: http://www.imagingscience.com/isf-trained.cfm
The way in which he was mentioned had nothing to do with his products besides his name being associated with them... Why don't you tell us your issue with him if you are so loving of education? Hmmmm? He was just mentioned, that is all... get a life
My issue with him is Monster, if you don't know about their problems, too damn bad for you, keep shopping at Radio Shack, Best Buy, etc and enjoy getting raped!
And if you mean the gentleman that is the subject of the article, I loose all faith in him for having thiefs as friends.
And if you mean the gentleman that is the subject of the article, I loose all faith in him for having thiefs as friends.
That's such a total non sequitor to the article though...
Its really hard to shop for an HDTV right now. There aren't many quantifiable specs you can rely on, so you really need to see them to tell how good they look, but then the TVs on display are mis-calibrated and shown in brightly lit showrooms. I somehow doubt Best Buy would have one of the Geek squad calibrate a TV on the sales floor if I asked. There are good reviews out there, but there are so many displays on the market that its just impossible to find a well written review on all of them. Its especially hard if you're looking for value out of a mainstream set that just needs to be calibrated right.
And if you mean the gentleman that is the subject of the article, I loose all faith in him for having thiefs as friends.
He never said they were friends, nor did he endorse Monster Cable or Noel Lee personally. Clearly, you have an axe to grind on the subject, which is fine although totally out of context given the nature and purpose of this interview. If you could find a forum more appropriate for your views, such as one specifically about Monster Cable, then backing your views with credible, objective sources would no doubt be more persuasive than unsubstantiated accusations. Name-calling doesn't really accomplish anything...unless you're in grade school. If you and Noel were in third grade together, I know he'd be very hurt right now.