A Relative Twist to TV Calibration

#1 Sep 24, 2012 at 3:01 pm

There was a recent article by Andrew Robinson of Home Theater Review Magazine about TV calibration that touched a nerve with ISF and THX calibrators. I actually thought the article was on the spot but Andrew followed it up with a second article that gave a different perspective, not necessarily contradicting the first article, but apparently intended to make peace with calibrators that still had tension on their shoulders even after their massage sessions.



I have a different twist about this subject...



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#2 Sep 24, 2012 at 4:21 pm

I put this in the same category as needing to purchase a surge protector for my first HDTV. After shelling out almost $5,000 for a TV the salesman was trying to push a $300 surge suppressor to protect my investmnent. My reply was that maybe I should cancel my purchase and go elsewhere if I am spending that much money on a new TV that is improperly designed and can't deal with a line voltage spike. I don't live in a lightening prone area so that excuse can't be used by a salesperson without them being laughed out of a job.

I'm sure the calibratioin guys don't want to hear this, but the real answer is to default the TV's to a reasonable picture for general viewing conditions out of the box instead fo putting them in torch mode. And if they really want to make some money then how about going into all of the stores and calibrating the sets that are on display for proper reproduction. There is nothing worse than going into a store and seeing 30 screens with 30 different color and brightness results for the same source. Make the model you want to sell look great and destroy the looks on all the rest to make them all look worse than they really are. What a scam.

#3 Sep 24, 2012 at 7:54 pm

Here's why you have to give the manufacturer's a little slack on "B", Rudolfo. When 50 sets come off the boat and land in Best Buy's warehouse, no one knows thier final destination. One will go the someone's sunroom and another to some guy's dedicated theatre. Yes, I know, that's the case for "A". What the manufacturer DOES KNOW, however (from dozens of double blind tests) is that the average guy thinks brighter is better. They also know that one of those 50 units will end up on Flat Panel Row to compete with ... well, competitors. Consequently, ALL sets leaving the assembly line are set to "torch" mode. If the set were calibrated to ISF perfect (even in the harsh demo floor environment) no one would buy it - it would simply look too dark in that sea of lumens. Never mind that the whites are crushed to the point that you can't tell 70IRE from 80IRE from 90IRE from peak white so that if you watched FARGO you would only see about half the movie, it still won't sell....and you'll never see a test pattern on the floor.They know exactly what they are doing.

Sadly, the manufacturer's loyalty will always be with the shareholders and not the consumers. The good news is it spells job security for calibrators and product reviewers!

#4 Sep 24, 2012 at 10:08 pm

Thanks Terry for your comments,



My suggestion was and is for manufacturers to rather "add" a standard setting that is compliant with the TV system that the set is designed for, not to "replace" the torch mode, torch mode may never go away and I always realized the purpose when their sets have to compete for the initial impact to a consumer looking at 50 sets at the showroom, reason by which plasmas have usually impressed less to unsuspecting consumers that care about how bright is an image, rather than how accurate.



Although many TVs have implemented something in that direction, such as a THX setting, or a standard color temperature 6500 Kelvin setting, or a range of gamma settings, they still do not cover the whole set of factors to meet the standard for the user to access in one click and with a user manual that educates why, and those consumers that want a compliant set are recommended to invest in ISF/THX, at their cost.



I understand that manufacturers have to cut cost to sell TVs with almost no margin of revenue, so I am not naive in assuming they should pay the extra labor to ISF every set before is put in a box, and if they do the consumer would end up paying for it anyway in some form, but that does not justify expecting the consumer to foot a calibration to meet the standard the product should meet already regardless where they view the TV (A).



I respect the ISF/THX calibration community, but I respect paying consumers first.



Best Regards Terry,



Rodolfo La Maestra

#5 Sep 25, 2012 at 4:29 am

If we can put a rover on Mars why can't we have a sensor, similar to a Spyder-like device, that reads the screen, checks the level of ambiant light, and then sets the colors and gamma to display a picture that matches the established standard or one published by the manufacturer, within a few percentage points. After that is done ask the viewer to adjust brightness and contrast(they can all do that if shown how) to meet their eye. It may not be perfect but it sure beats laying out $300 to $600 to have someone do it.



If this doesn't make sense then you haven't tried applying settings given by CNet, TweakTV, AVS Owner's Threads, etc. They aren't perfect by any means but they are pretty darn close. I say that most eyes wouldn't see much difference between those results and an ISF calibration on site to the same TV....unless they were ISF eyes, of course.