To calibrate or not to calibrate?

[unreal.freak]

Ive been looking at LCD displays at a big box store. All i keep getting from those guys is "be sure to get the calibration" and "you need to have it calibrated after purchasing" . Well after asking the price of calibration, im starting to understand why they are pushing it. I was told $400 and if i purchase the display from them they give $100 off the calibration.

So, is the calibration worth the $$, or is it a personal preference type thing? I also asked if any of the TVs on display at the Big Box store were calibrated, they responded "no we dont calibrate any of the display models"

Any advice would be welcome.


Thanks,
Tommy

 

[MDS]

Initially you should do the calibration yourself using a disc like AVIA or Digital Video Essentials. Afterwards if you think it could be improved a bit you could consider an ISF calibration.

Some TVs, particulary Sharp, do not provide access to the service menu and cannot be ISF calibrated.

 

[unreal.freak]

I was looking to get the Sony KDL-46XBR5 . Where can a fella get one of those calibration cds, and how much are they? Thanks for the reply.

Peace,
Tommy

 

[croseiv]

Avia II can be found online for about 50 bucks although I got mine for free with my sub when I got it (it also is good for audio calibration).

http://www.ovationmultimedia.com/avia.html

I used it to set up my system with very good results.

 

[Exit]

Amazon has Digital Video Essentials and AVIA II as well as some other DVDs. I use AVIA but I can't say which disc is best.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-7851866-9447801?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=calibration+disk&x=13&y=20

 

[Biggiesized]

Initially you should do the calibration yourself using a disc like AVIA or Digital Video Essentials. Afterwards if you think it could be improved a bit you could consider an ISF calibration.

Some TVs, particulary Sharp, do not provide access to the service menu and cannot be ISF calibrated.

There is access to the service menu, I believe, but there are so few settings that it makes calibrating Sharp sets very difficult.

 

[croseiv]

I was quite pleased with how the picture came out after calibrating my set. Found I had no red push. Was very glad about that.

 

[darien87]

Check out the AVS forums.

They had a thread for my TV, and I used the settings they recommended. When I had the TV calbirated, it was already pretty close to where it was supposed to be. So after paying $200 to have the picture tweaked SLIGHTLY, I'm not really sure it was worth in, IMO.

In fact, the picture was so dark that I couldn't stand it. Anything dark on the screen just became a black blob. I ended up turning up gamma and brightness slightly. Now, I'm pretty much used to it. But the darkness still bugs me once in a while.

 

[canIscream]

I don't know anything about these calibration discs they are talking about, but i calibrated mine. supposedly, a calibrated plasma is more energy efficient, but this doesn't really apply here.

when i did mine, i used the spyder2 calibration device. you can pick one up here. http://www.amazon.com/ColorVision-S2P100-Spyder2PRO-Win-Mac/dp/B000ES6K4I/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1206590259&sr=8-2

it's cheaper than having the store do it. i was thrilled with the results from mine. just make sure you have a dvd player or bluray/HD-DVD player hooked up through HDMI for it to work.

it was pretty simple to use. all you need is a laptop or a nearby PC and you'll have no problems.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I've got the basic Spyder2 calibration setup. After playing with the Avia disc several times and getting everything better, I realized that with some stuff I couldn't really tell what setting was best. I bought the Spyder2 setup after running into some cash a few years back. I'm really happy with it. I've used it to calibrate each tv i've owned and a few of my friends also. The only regret is that the Pro version wasn't more affordable. IIR, it was ~$400-500. The one I got was ~$150. Mine only does the basic settings, not the advanced color settings or the individual color controls that the professional version does. Still, I'm glad I got it. It's made a huge difference in my setup.

Jack