SpectraCal Announces Automatic Calibration of Panasonic HDTVs

[admin]

This week, SpectraCal announced that Panasonic has enabled automatic calibration of all of their 2011 HDTV models. New workflows in SpectraCal’s award-winning video calibration solution CalMAN automatically calibrate the 2011 Panasonic displays via Viera Net IP connectivity. First, picture controls such as brightness, contrast, color, and tint are available directly from inside CalMAN, without needing a remote control. Second, CalMAN’s Interactive Charts allow you to say what results you want, leaving CalMAN and the display to work together to achieve those results. Finally, you can just push a single button and watch CalMAN perform a complete 11-point white balance calibration. This is very cool.


Discuss "SpectraCal Announces Automatic Calibration of Panasonic HDTVs" here. Read the article.

[jeffsg4mac]

Now that's pretty freaking sweet I must say.

[Marshall_Guthrie]

My thoughts via http://realht.info :

@Audyssey should merge with @SpectraCal for the ultimate auto setup.

A while back, Audyssey was preparing to announce a new product/technology, and I started dreaming of pie in the sky. As it stood, you could purchase an Audio/Video receiver that comes with a little mic. You setup your speakers, connect the mic, press a button, and Audyssey takes care of the rest. Speaker distance, levels, crossovers, and EQ options are all calibrated automatically. What used to require several pieces of hardware, software, and a fair amount of user knowledge could now be performed by my grandmother. Life was good.

So, I thought to myself, what if Audyssey could do the same thing with video? Instead of plugging in a mic, you plug in a camera. Then, software built into the TV (display) or even an AVR adjusts the image settings to give you the perfect picture. Include multiple settings for multiple lighting conditions, maybe even settings that change on the fly based on a light sensor built into the TV bezel, and you’ve got a real winner.

As it turns out, the Audyssey announcement was an iPod dock, like we need more of those. Oh well.

Fortunately, SpectraCal, with their CalMan software, is looking to pounce on missed opportunities. New Panasonic TVs will have a mode that automatically adjusts brightness, color, contrast…even white balance…with minimal user input. It doesn’t appear they’ll be bundling a colorimeter (i.e. Light Microphone), but it certainly lowers the level of user knowledge needed to get professional-caliber video from your consumer set.

I can only hope that, in a few years, a single microphone/camera on a tripod set at the listening/viewing position works with built-in software to give us the best home theater experience possible without having to hire the Geek Squad.

P.S. Don’t hire the Geek Squad, hire an ISF calibrator.

[jostenmeat]

^Well, with Audyssey we can measure up to 32 positions with something like the SVS AS-EQ1 or even with the XT32 on the processors of today (if we have the pro mic kit in possession with the latter, or of course willing to hire someone).

A good colorimeter can be very expensive, so I would suggest to Panasonic retailers that they should start a colorimeter rental program. I would even suggest a couple/few different levels of colorimeters at differing rental prices.

If I bought a colorimeter today, I'd get a ColorMunki for my PJ. However, if this was a once in a blue moon calibration for a flat panel, and I could rent one, I am sure I'd pay the premium for something like an i1pro (or perhaps even better).

[Jim Robbins]

If color calibration can now be automated, why don't they just do it at the factory before they sell it to you? Sure, leave the "blind-me-bright" setting on the TV for sitting on the sales floor, but put in a "Actually color calibrated" preset video mode, too.

I honestly believe there's no reason we can't have a fairly color accurate product direct from the manufacturers. You can disagree with me if you make your living doing video calibrations.

[Marshall_Guthrie]

If color calibration can now be automated, why don't they just do it at the factory before they sell it to you? Sure, leave the "blind-me-bright" setting on the TV for sitting on the sales floor, but put in a "Actually color calibrated" preset video mode, too.

I honestly believe there's no reason we can't have a fairly color accurate product direct from the manufacturers. You can disagree with me if you make your living doing video calibrations.

How would you account for ambient lighting, red walls, or sources that produce a less than accurate output signal?

[jostenmeat]

If color calibration can now be automated, why don't they just do it at the factory before they sell it to you? Sure, leave the "blind-me-bright" setting on the TV for sitting on the sales floor, but put in a "Actually color calibrated" preset video mode, too.

I honestly believe there's no reason we can't have a fairly color accurate product direct from the manufacturers. You can disagree with me if you make your living doing video calibrations.

Eh. As with speakers not being pre calibrated for your specific room and placement, it's the same with displays. Even different color walls have differing effects on what you perceive, depending on how much is reflected/absorbed. My HT, in front of viewers, has a black front wall, black ceiling, and black floor for my PJ rig. I forget which room colors are more harmful than others for perceived color accuracy (but yes it's been studied).

Define "fairly color accurate". Depending on your definition, that could also be called THX mode, and Panasonic has been offering that for a long time now in their best models.

I suspect that color calibration is like contrast vs brightness or something, where when you tweak one you have to double check on the other. So, tweaking for more brightness (luminance) in your room with greater ambient lighting will also throw off the previously correct saturation and hue of the colors in question.

This is related to why ISFccc is about having two different calibrated presets, night and day. If there were three, I'm sure you could do a late afternoon/dusk/twilight mode. If there were four, you could maybe add another like "every darn light is on with the sun hitting the tv perfectly from the skylight while at its zenith mode".

[Casey01]

As much as I would like to see, as suggested. monitors pre-adjusted in the factory, the problem lies with the idea of color accuracy versus what the buyer may think "looks best" to them. The two always don't necessarily go together. I have done calibrations for customers on monitors that after spending a considerable amount of time getting the grayscale and other parameters as accurate as possible only to have the customer, in the end, revert back to the default setting because to them it "looked better". Telling them it wasn't as accurate as my calibration was inconsequential.

Sadly, even though all aspects of a picture can be attained with considerable accuracy, these adjustments aren't for everyone and that is why most of the manufacturers don't bother.

[gene]

If color calibration can now be automated, why don't they just do it at the factory before they sell it to you? Sure, leave the "blind-me-bright" setting on the TV for sitting on the sales floor, but put in a "Actually color calibrated" preset video mode, too.

I honestly believe there's no reason we can't have a fairly color accurate product direct from the manufacturers. You can disagree with me if you make your living doing video calibrations.

Agreed. Most modern displays have pretty accurate color to begin with. Setting the black level correctly is the most important thing when getting a display out of the box.

[GranteedEV]

Agreed. Most modern displays have pretty accurate color to begin with. Setting the black level correctly is the most important thing when getting a display out of the box.

I think the main thing is (at least the argument THAT ) every individual unit will have different calibration numbers, and shouldn't be calibrated until a good amount of phosphor wear/settlement has occured.