Should I pay to have my plasma calibrated?

[GreyStreet41]

Best Buy wants to charge $300 to have someone come out and calibrate our new plasma we are going to get.

Is it worth the $300, or should I just use the calibration DVD? The Best Buy guy is claming that their calibration guy uses some $7,000 equipment and software combo to calibrate it and that they actually adjust the inputs of the TV.

Is he just trying to sell the service, or is it worth it?

Thanks
Nathan

 

[Exit]

If you decide on professional calibration, I would check out independent certified professional calibration specialists before paying BB $300. I just used a test disc for about $30. I ended up changing some of the settings to what looked good to me, so I wouldn't put too much money in it.

 

[GlocksRock]

I would first start off by getting the Avia dvd and adjust using that. If it looks good to you when you are done, then save your $300 and be done with it.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

I don't know if the $300 is worth it, but our Best Buy has a side by side comparison of an uncalibrated TV and a calibrated one, and you can tell the difference. It's almost like night and day. The color on the calibrated one just snaps. If you can achieve the same with a $30 disc, I'd go that route, but then, I'm cheap.

 

[Matt34]

If you decide on professional calibration, I would check out independent certified professional calibration specialists before paying BB $300. I just used a test disc for about $30. I ended up changing some of the settings to what looked good to me, so I wouldn't put too much money in it.

I'd follow Exit advice and look for an independent professional if your going to spend that kind of money.

 

[darien87]

I bought my Samsung LCD at Best Buy and paid them the $300 for a calibration. In addition to the calibration, they told me that the guy would be able to go into the TV's settings and reduce it's power consumption. Sounded good to me.

Well after setting up the appointment, the guy calls me back a couple of days later and says that he can't get to me for another 3 months!! No way was I waiting 3 months for a calibration. So I got my money back and called some local people to get estimates. Most people were just charging the ISF standard $250 for a calibration, but some people charged more; one charged as much as $450!! I'm not sure what makes his calibration $200 better than anyone else's.

Anyway, before the calibration, I set my TV to the specs that were given for my TV on the AVS website. When the guy came out to calibrate, it turns out that my TV was already about 85-90% of the way to being properly calibrated. He just tweaked it that little bit more to get it all the way there.

The TV looked good, but right off the bat, the TV was MUCH darker than it had been. So much so, that it REALLY bothered me. Dark scenes tended to just look like a black screen. I turned up the gamma a bit to lighten things somewhat without getting too far away from the calibration settings. It took a few months of getting used to, but now the darkness doesn't bother me. I guess that's the way things are supposed to look.

So what am I trying to say? I would say try a test disc out first, or check AVS to see if they have posted settings for your TV. Was spending $250 for a calibration worth it to me? Meh. I guess.

 

[bandphan]

Alot of the isf guys are booked way out, months. Im not sure who best buy has contracted to do the work. What display is it?

 

[Exit]

I thought the calibration from the test disk was also much to dark. I ended up fooling around with the TV to get the brightness back yet not wash out the dark colors. The test disk is a good learning tool to see what the calibration is supposed to be but in the end I set it the way I liked it.

 

[mudrummer99]

Alot of the isf guys are booked way out, months. Im not sure who best buy has contracted to do the work. What display is it?

BB doesn't contract out the calibrations (atleast in my area we don't). We have our own Geek Squad guys that are ISF certified. In my area there is only one other company within about 75 miles that will do it and they are not ISF certified at all so that kind of defaults BB to being the one to go to for an "official" calibration. As to whether or not it is worth it or not that's up to your idea of value. I will second what Shadow_Ferret said in that we have two identical tvs set up next to each other, one being calibrated and the other not and there is a substantial difference between the two. Another feature of the BB calibration that most people don't mention, either when it is being sold or otherwise, is that the tech will set up your audio for you as well at no additional cost. For most people on this forum that doesn't seem useful but there are people out there that would benefit from this. Hope this helps a bit and please keep us posted on whether you get this done or not and what you think of it.

Mike

PS In my area as well our tech is usually about a week, two at the most, booked up, but this will vary greatly depending on how many techs you have to do it.

 

[darien87]

BB doesn't contract out the calibrations (atleast in my area we don't). We have our own Geek Squad guys that are ISF certified.

Not sure where you are, but that doesn't seem to be the case in California. The reason why the guy couldn't get to see me for 3 months was that there were only a few guys in the whole state of California that BB uses!! Sounds like a contractor to me. Seems pretty stupid to me to only have a couple of calibrators for a big state like Cali. They lost my business because of it.

By the way, the local ISF guys I called up were all pretty much immediately available. In fact, most of them wanted me to wait a week or so to get more hours on my TV before the calibration.

 

[mudrummer99]

Not sure where you are, but that doesn't seem to be the case in California. The reason why the guy couldn't get to see me for 3 months was that there were only a few guys in the whole state of California that BB uses!! Sounds like a contractor to me. Seems pretty stupid to me to only have a couple of calibrators for a big state like Cali. They lost my business because of it.

By the way, the local ISF guys I called up were all pretty much immediately available. In fact, most of them wanted me to wait a week or so to get more hours on my TV before the calibration.

I live in Ohio and it does seem really weird to me that we would have our own tech here that works directly for BB and does our calibrations but that they wouldn't there in Calif. Actually in my area we have one guy that does nothing but calibrations and another guy that is currently going through the ISF certification process so that we have a second one come the holidays just in case they need him. Maybe just different places do it different ways. I'm glad that you were able to get ahold of some people to do it for you and at much earlier convenience. Glad things are working out for you though BTW it's kind of weird that the BB guys didn't tell you that it recommended that you have at least 100 hours of play time on the tv before getting it calibrated. I guess this just demonstrates the downfall of a large corporation, inconsistent training practices from store to store, and greatly varying give a **** levels from it's employees.

Mike

 

[GreyStreet41]

Alot of the isf guys are booked way out, months. Im not sure who best buy has contracted to do the work. What display is it?

It is the Samsung PN58A550 58" Plasma

 

[Geno]

I used the Avia disc also, but wasn't happy with the results. Like others here, I found a thread on AVS on my model display and used the recommended settings from a guy who had his display ISF calibrated. Kinda cheating, I guess, but the results were very satisfying. And cheap

 

[bandphan]

It is the Samsung PN58A550 58" Plasma

Id recommend the 100-150 hr break/burn in dvd,
http://www.eaprogramming.com/
then you can invest in the avia disc, and then if your not happy go for the isf. There are some recomendations about looking on AVS for some settings advice, but if you get the disc why bother, remember all panels out of the box(same model,same manufacture) are not calibrated the same, so using AVS settings, while helpful, may not be applicable. Using the disc will tweak for your tv, your room. Be cautio if you enter the service menu not to make a mistake good luck and enjoy

 

[Halon451]

Here's my advice - if you are into A/V enough to call it a hobby, do yourself a favor and educate yourself as much as humanly possible on every thing you would otherwise spend a "professional" hundreds of dollars to come into your house and perform. This goes from basic installation, running cables, mounting displays to calibrating your surround sound system and display. The more you know yourself, the more money you will save, and you will give it that extra special TLC knowing that it is your equipment, rather than some dude from BB who is in a hurry to get the job done so he can go eat lunch.

Also, pay no attention to the $7000 equipment thing - sure he may have some fancy stuff in his arsenal, and there are plenty of test signal generators out there (Extron for example) that cost quite a bit b/c they are designed for the professional industry. They say things like that to make the average customer go "Wow..." and pay right into it. It's a marketing ploy. You can get the same types of test signals used for calibration with a good calibration DVD and only pay $50 or so for it.

 

[ChunkyDark]

I found this after reading around but forgot where/who so can't give credit.

The Avia disc can be found on Netflix and blockbuster. You can then buy the test patterns here for 12USD: http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/ovation/the-6/Color-Filter-Set/Detail

Yes I'm that cheap LOL.