Black levels when calibrating HDTV

[supervij]

So I've got DVE to calibrate the picture coming from my DVD player. But that's a different input on my HDTV than my HD PVR. I initially just ported over the same post-DVE-calibrated settings from the DVD input to the HD PVR input. But I wanted to make sure of the settings.

Fortunately, the channel HDNet Canada has a ten minute program aired once a week called Test Pattern that has three patterns to use to calibrate. Once I did those calibrations, though, I found that the black levels seemed very high. I found that when watching HD broadcasts, I didn't get much in the way of inky blacks; they seemed more like a dark grey. I've since lowered the black level a little bit to experiment, but it's now a trade-off -- there are some scenes where I definitely feel like I'm losing some detail in the dark.

Has anyone used the HDNet Test Pattern to calibrate their HDTV? If so, I'd love to hear what you thought of the results, specifically the black levels. Was it perfect for you, or did you feel you needed to raise or lower the level? Any opinions would be much appreciated.

cheers,
supervij

 

[jeffsg4mac]

It is probably a mismatch between your DVD players reference black level and your sat or cable box. More than likely one is using 0 ire and the other is using 7.5 ire. Try turning off/on the black level enhancement/setting in your DVD players setup menu then recalibrate with DVE.

 

[supervij]

jeff, the Oppo 981 doesn't have any black level enhancement setting to turn off or on; there's just a brightness setting that can be anywhere from -20 to +20, and I've left it at its default of 0.

Using DVE for calibrating the DVD input, the brightness setting on the TV is 53. Using the HDNet test pattern for calibrating the HD PVR input, the brightness setting on the TV is 64. A seemingly big difference, but not necessarily important if I get similar results in picture quality.

The post-calibration picture on the DVD looks incredible, no problem with black levels. But the post-calibration picture on the HD PVR does seem to have a problem with its blacks: even though it's calibrated with the test pattern, the blacks are still a bit lacking. No one here uses the HDNet test pattern to calibrate their TV?

cheers,
supervij

 

[mtrycrafts]

jeff, the Oppo 981 doesn't have any black level enhancement setting to turn off or on; there's just a brightness setting that can be anywhere from -20 to +20, and I've left it at its default of 0.

Using DVE for calibrating the DVD input, the brightness setting on the TV is 53. Using the HDNet test pattern for calibrating the HD PVR input, the brightness setting on the TV is 64. A seemingly big difference, but not necessarily important if I get similar results in picture quality.

The post-calibration picture on the DVD looks incredible, no problem with black levels. But the post-calibration picture on the HD PVR does seem to have a problem with its blacks: even though it's calibrated with the test pattern, the blacks are still a bit lacking. No one here uses the HDNet test pattern to calibrate their TV?

cheers,
supervij

No, I don't use that but I would trust the DVD cal disc more, especially since that looks better to you.

 

[supervij]

It looks better with DVDs. Porting over the settings for the HD PVR doesn't make sense, since it's a different machine connected to a different input. Just as replacing a DVD player means redoing all the settings in the TV, would it not make sense to have completely different settings for the HD PVR? Not to mention the fact that it really does seem a bit too dark using the DVD settings on the HD PVR, with loss of shadow detail as well.

Sigh. This whole thing is just a pain in the *ss to think about. I'm half tempted to grab hold of an ISF guy to do my set. (Whoa. That just sounds wrong.) I just don't understand why the HDNet test pattern is yielding a picture that isn't awesome. Sigh. Oh well. Back to more tweaking.

cheers,
supervij