A Beginner’s Guide to Display Calibration

This guide is work in progress. I will update with pictures as time goes by, please be patient.

What is Calibration?

Calibrate - To check, adjust, or determine by comparison with a standard (the graduations of a quantitative measuring instrument)

Calibration - The act or process of calibrating or the state of being calibrated.

Display calibration is centred on calibration of your display to standards.

Movie studios/directors adhere to standards when mastering movies/films.

One key feature of the standards for movies (colour) is the white point. The reference white point is defined as D65 for both North American and European standards. The white point refers to an x,y coordinate of 0.3127, 0.329 in the CIE Chromacity chart. CIE(Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage) is the international body responsible for the measurement of color.

6500K however, is a measure of the correlated colour temperature (CCT) of the white. Where D65 specifically targets a white point, the colour temperature is slightly misleading. It is possible to have a white that is 6500K in colour temperature (as it depends on whether the red and the blue channels primarily) but not hitting D65 white. For all practical purposes, D65 is a better representation of calibrating to a standard as if you do hit the 0.3127, 0.329, you automatically hit 6500K CCT.

The different standards that are available out there are:
· ITU-R Recommendation BT.709 (“Rec. 709”) – the standard for both North American and European high definition television - HD
· ITU-R Recommendation BT.601 (“Rec. 601”) and SMPTE-C – the standard for NTSC 480i/60Hz standard definition television (SMPTE-C has supplanted Rec. 601), and
· PAL/SECAM – the standard defined by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for 576i/50Hz standard definition television.

Once a display is calibrated to these standards (or as close to these standards as your display will allow) you do not need to wonder if the picture is accurate and tweak your settings for every movie. If your post calibration results are good, the pictures that you are viewing are as close to what the director intended for you to see.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: May 10 2010, 02:03 PM

Key Components/Terminology

1. Brightness
2. Contrast
3. Sharpness
4. Colour (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)
5. Tint
6. Greyscale
7. Gamma


In order to carry out basic calibration, you would need a test disc and preferably colorimeter/spectrophotometer/lightmeter & calibration software.

Test Patterns
Test patterns or test discs are needed for you to set some of the basic stuff even without a meter. I would recommend the free AVSHD709 (for HD sources, Blu Ray and Media Players) or TomHuffmans free NTSC DVD test patterns. You can also purchase the GetGray test disc (available in PAL and NTSC), DVE HD Basic Calibration Blu Ray/DVD or the fantastic Spears and Munsil HD Benchmark

We will discuss the most basic component of display calibration, one that can be done without any meters (most of the time)

Setting Brightness
Brightness is actually the setting of the black level that for me is the basis of a proper calibration. My preference on the test pattern on setting brightness would be the brightness (PLUGE Low– Picture Line Up GEnerator) pattern on S&M Test Disc. However, since most of you would not be buying the test discs all the explanation would be based on AVSHD709 free test disc. Pull up the Basic Settings, 1st pattern (called brightness and contrast). On this pattern you will see flashing bars labeled 1-25 against a video black of 16. First check that you cannot see all the way down to the label of below 5. If you do these bars flashing, you need to check the settings of you Blu Ray player or your display. What is probably happening is that you are sending a RGB Full signal (also lookout if your display has a setting for 0 IRE, 7.5IRE, select 7.5IRE for the correct setup). For all BD or DVD material, it is based on a video level setting of 16 and above. This is the 1st setting you need to check. Once you select the correct output from your player (typically most players have an Auto setting, this setting normally sets to YCbCr it depends on the EDID that your display is sending out), you are ready to set the brightness. It is better to set the brightness in a dark environment. Turn up the brightness until you can see the bars below 16 flash. Then turn it down until 17 can barely be seen. Now go to the next pattern. The next pattern is brightness and a contrast pattern together. For displays that have different outputs based on dark/bright content in the same screen (plasmas, crt) check your brightness setting that you set earlier. Same method used here, in this case see if you can get at least 19 and above flashing and the 16 and below not flashing. The correct brightness setting is the higher one from pattern 1 and 2. ie, if using the 1st pattern you got a brightness of +1, and on the 2nd pattern you got a brightness of +2 then , use +2.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Apr 8 2010, 03:12 PM

Setting Contrast.
Setting of contrast on a digital display without meters is difficult, as most digital displays do not clip white levels above digital white of 235. Pull up the contrast setting pattern on the AVS HD709, 3rd pattern on the basic setting page. You should be able to see as many bars as possible above 235. If you do not see anything above 230 then your set is clipping whites. Else adjust contrast up/down to show as many bars above 235 as possible. Most digital displays will show quite a bit above 235. Another thing to look out for is if the contrast is set too high, the whites start to look reddish, bluish or greenish. In this case, you need to set contrast in tandem with another pattern. In the Misc Patterns, go to the RGB High Clipping. This is essentially a clipping of the individual RGB channels that make up white. The problem with turning up contrast too high is that some of the individual channels get clipped. This in turn, makes the white either too green, red or blue. Turn down contrast until the all channels clip at about the same level.

If there does not seem to be any clipping at all for white, red, green & blue channels (highly unlikely as all digital displays will clip one channel or another), set contrast using a 100% white window (from either Calman window patterns or HCFR window patterns) to the level that pleases you eyes and is not uncomfortable.

Setting Colour/Tint
I am not going to go into this as unless you have a filter it is impossible to set this by eye. Even with a filter, the best way to set colour is to use a meter. I will add this if there is a need for this. I will explain this later as it is a complex matter.

Setting Sharpness
Setting sharpness is pretty subjective. Using the sharpness setting and the sharpness test patterns, play around with the sharpness settings to get as sharp a picture as you can while looking for halos or white edges near the black lines. Also look out for moiré and lines that seem to merge. Also, select the picture mode that reduces the artifacts. All displays have various modes, ie, dot by dot, just scan, full, wide etc. In most cases, dot by dot is the one that normally has zero over scan. Play around with them to see which one gives you the least artifacts with the sharpness setting. The Spears and Munsil disc has a better pattern to set sharpness and I have tested it with various displays. The adjustments you make in the display responds well to what you see in the test pattern that makes setting sharpness easier.

That about covers the basic settings that you can carry out without a proper meter. In order to carry out a complete calibration, you need to have a meter and complete the calibration of greyscale, gamma and colour.


This post has been edited by anfieldude: Mar 23 2010, 08:21 AM

The next few areas require the use of a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer to set correctly. I will explain these briefly for now and add more detail when I get the time to complete the documentation

Greyscale
Greyscale is the calibration of the shades of white. White is the basis of colours, greyscale calibration is done to set the white shades correctly. Typically, the display controls that calibrate greyscale are labeled as white balance and have Red/Green/Blue bias/cut/gain/offset/high/low. They control the individual RGB channels that make up white.

Gamma
Gamma is a luminance measurement. This is a measurement or parameter that controls the light levels are different input levels. Setting gamma correctly is essential to the “3D” pop that people look for in a digital display. Gamma is commonly targeted by calibrators range from 2.2 – 2.5 but this depends purely on your viewing environment. Lower gamma is normally selected for high ambient light surroundings and higher gamma is for darker environments. I find targeting a gamma of 2.35 is best for semi dark environments and 2.15 for bright environments. In a dark room, a set that tracks gamma correctly at 2.35 with good black levels will produce an image that is very 3D, especially if the set also tracks good greyscale.


This post has been edited by anfieldude: Mar 23 2010, 08:23 AM

Colour/Tint
Colour is a whole new can of worms. There are set colour points in the CIE chart for each colour. Red, Green and Blue are the primary colours and Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are the secondary colours. To do a proper calibration of Colour using a Colour Management System would require the use of a Spectrophotometer (colorimeters are okay as well, its just that the spectros are supposedly better in them). Each colour has its own theoretical Hue, Saturation and Lightness. The Hue and the Saturation are represented in the CIE Chart that I described earlier. A display with a good CMS would typically have independent controls to move all of the above.

The Colour controls on the different sets behave differently. On some sets, the colour control effects saturation and on others they only control lightness.

The Tint controls normally just rotate the secondary colours, however, it depends on the implementation of the display.

Saturation is a measure of how far away from the white point in the CIE chart is the particular colour. If the colour is over-saturated, it means that it is further away from the white and as such seems richer.

When hue is off, the colour seems to resemble more of a another colour rather than itself. Eg, Cyan’s hue seems to be shifted towards green instead of blue, meaning that the cyan seems to have more green than blue.

Lightness is a measure of how bright the colour is. It is possible for a colour to have accurate hue and saturation but because the lightness it wrong, it seems too bright.

All these parameters are those that are needed to be right in order for the colours to be correctly decoded accurately. I have seen numerous displays that have no controls for a CMS and the basic colour and tint just do not do much. Then, there are some displays that have all the controls you can imagine. I hope in the future all display manufacturers provide a full 3D CMS that the consumer can use to fine tune his display.


This post has been edited by anfieldude: Mar 23 2010, 08:25 AM

The one thing that has happened in the past couple of years is the emergence of affordable home theater enthusiasts calibration packages that allow more and more people to calibrate displays. Along with this, the masses are adopting and understanding that calibration actually improves the overall home theater experience and adds to the excitement. With a properly calibrated set, you do not need to wonder if the pictures you are viewing are off and you can enjoy the movie more.

The choice is yours, you can either become and enthusiast and buy your own calibration software/hardware, or you can hire someone to do it for you so that you do not need to invest into this area.

I have been using Calman software for the past few years to calibrate displays of family and friends. I have been very happy with the support I have gotten from the team. The link is provided below and they ship to Malaysia.

SpectraCal Website

Another newcomer to the enthusiast and professional calibration arena is Chromapure. Their software is slightly different and their up and coming in the industry.

Chromapure

These are the 2 affordable solutions I know out in the market.

I have used Calman for a couple of years and have been following their growth for some time. The enthusiasts are lucky to have affordable solutions for home calibration with both of these players in the market.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Mar 28 2010, 04:19 PM

cool... finally the thread we've been longing for... nice work from calibration guru anfiel...

Fianlly, guru give lesson to all of us.

Nice write-up, guru. Thks for the effort.

Mods please sticky this.

Thanks for sharing

TQ boss

Hi..

To those who are reading tis thrd n hv no inkling wat he is talkin abt .. I d suggest Pm bro A and ask nicely so he ll calibrate ur display for you..

Kudos to bro A
D

Thanks for your efforts bro...

goodjob

master of display calibration gives lesson here...ya pls sticky it...

Please give me some time to improve on this thread. I will be doing bit by bit. Also if there are any questions, pls ask here and I will answer and improve on the thread documentation for ease of understanding.

nice work bro and thanks for the introduction to start me up on calman calibration through the phone.

anfield, respect

pinned on top!! good sharing!

Good learning from display guru here

good stuff here! although i don't quite understand everything teacher Anfiel is saying.... teacher.. you mind helping me tune my 428XG?

One question that keeps coming up is :

My picture looks good already. Will I see the benefits of calibration?

My answer is:

Calibration of the display is the same as tuning of your car. When u tune ur car correctly, you will get the best of the petrol consumption that the car is capable of. You also unlock the full power capabilities of your car. Sometimes when change ur oil filter and new engine oil, as u drive ur car out of the service centre, ur car is response is smooth and u admire ur car more. However, on another note, there are people who could not care less, they look at the car as a vehicle to take u from point A to point B, occasionally complaining about mileage and sometimes annoyed about the lack of power while driving. However, they could not care less about how it performs. So there are different kinds of people and they are sensitive to diffferent things.

The same applies to display calibration. Calibrating ur display brings the best out of display that it is capable of producing. In most cases, it helps to save electricity consumption as u calibrate the display to the optimum based on ur environment. When a display is properly calibrated (this depends on different display capabilities, u cannot compare a Ferrari to a local car, same applies to displays), u get proper flesh tones, u do not need to wonder if the director purposely skewed the hues of the colours or not, since ur display is calibrated to HD standards. U then get the best of ur display.

Can it be seen by ur eyes? If u look and pay attention, of course it can, same like when u get ur car tuned.

Some people choose to ignore it. Some don't. It's ur choice.

Anfield, I'm using Xrite i1 with ColorHCFR on my projector. While doing greyscale calibration, I found out the Red too high in the original setting. I have to adjust the Red and Blue (RGB Gain/Offset) to get the 6500K target. The RGB post calibration looks OK but the Gamma is about 1.9 instead target 2.2. Is there anything missing here?

gocitygo,

What picture mode did u start with on the optoma? What gamma did u select?

I believe ur initial gamma that u selected was averaging 1.8 to start. I think u either choose Cinema or PC gamma. I believe Cinema starts at 2.35 and PC is closer to 2.2.

Check and let me know and I will help u with it.

I have calibrated a HD65 b4 and could easily track a gamma of 2.35 for a dark room.

Thanks for grand sifu help.

Original setting:
display mode = cinema
degamma = film

New setting;
display mode = cinema
degamma = video

Is that always tunes with R/B instead of G (RGB gains/offset) in greyscale calibration? In my case, I cutdown R gain a lots (-22). Not sure it will cause the color composition to off red? I'm not able to do Color calibration due to HD-65 limitation of CMS.

gocitygo,

I believe I used cinema and film as well. Try PC in gamma and it should be better.

Is this a i2 display lt?

There are 2 trains of thought on what is the best way to achieve D65. I normally follow the "not touching green" camp but occasionally I add +1/-1 to green to improve on the cals.

U can try adding green as well.

What is the life of ur lamp? Are u using eco mode?

Can u refresh my memory on what other display modes were there?

The lamp is about 200hrs (STD mode). Yes, I'm using i1 Display LT, the affordable version

Display mode = Cinema/Bright/Photo/TV/User.

Degamma = Film/Video/Graphic/PC. I tried Film before but giving unstable D65 across IRE. Will try PC mode as you suggest.

BTW, I set ZERO both Brilliant Color & True Vivid setting. Image AI = Off and Color Temp = Medium.

This post has been edited by gocitygo: Mar 28 2010, 04:46 PM

Another thing to try would be colour temperature low as it would be more red to start with.

Just my 2 cents, normally I'll try to find out the display deficiency in which color. That would be your cap. For example, majority of the UHP lamp is red deficient. You will see that it will run out of red when approaching 100% White. In this case as an example, if +512 is the highest number, I'll cap red at +512 and adjust Green and Blue to match D65. This would ensure you have the smoothest D65 greyscale tracking. Another option is just ignore the red deficiency issue as long as 90% white is D65. This is to get good greyscale up to 90% white but give you a bit more brightness at 100% white (You seldom have movies with lots of 100% white on screen).

This post has been edited by pierreye: Mar 28 2010, 05:26 PM

Would give that a try. Thanks.

Anyone else doing own calibration? It is a good platform to exchange idea

Planning to start calibrate my projector using the DVE Essential soon.

Maybe gocitygo can share how you do your calibration using Xrite i1.

If u r running out of any particular colour, u r probably clipping that channel. The easiest way to fix that would be to reduce contrast until u stop clipping. Of course, if that is reducing ur luminance too much, then u need to compromise. I agree with you that I would compromise on the higher end rather than the mid and low end.

Bro Anfieldude, what do U think about the new Panny S2 calibrated results on the 2nd post here?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1232441

Slightly better than last year. However, the gamma is the same and that is a major issue in my book. Colour decoding slightly better, greyscale slightly better. Green cast still there and needs calibration to remove.

Thanks bro. Will be waiting for Sammy's 2010 plasma panel then.

To add to anfield's post, it is definitely possible to see the benefits of calibration. If your display is off in the first place, the difference can be quite apparent. Or if you have a large display, again more apparent.

Anfield was kind enough to help calibrate my projector and I could start seeing the difference even though the optimal potential of the projector had not been reached yet.

I hope u find what u r looking for. Just remember, there is no perfect display. All have their strengths and weaknesses.

With all due respect, U are wrong bro. KRP is perfect to me, just that I can't afford it.

Hmmnn..

I tink those using DVE n Avia calibration discs are jus touchin de surface here.. Bro A here uses much more advanced ways to calibrate..
Not tat I m knockin those 2 sofware.. I use them myself..

One gud pt - will I see a difference after calibration.. I guess it also depends how far u hv gone into tis hobby.. the further in u r then u tend to look for problms instead of luking at de big picture .. anal, maybe but its true.. fortunately for me .. I m so blur tat I dont see much deficiencies in my peasant system la..

Kekeke
D

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Added on April 1, 2010, 5:28 pmHaha..

Pure case of YMMV.. woh..

This post has been edited by dirtrun: Apr 1 2010, 05:28 PM

The KRP also has its flaws...

I guess it is as close as it can get to perfect, at least for a couple of years more before the other players catch up and exceed it.

If you look for perfect display, it must have the following ingredient.

1. Meet or exceed 100% for CIE gamut.
2. 11 point gamma correction.
3. greyscale colour temperature control (RGB gain/cut)
4. full working 3D CMS.
5. Very low black level.

Then with a good probe, you can adjust it to the BT.709 colorspace standard. Unless you are still watching DVD, you need to recheck BT.601 colorspace too.

This post has been edited by pierreye: Apr 2 2010, 11:05 AM

[quote=dirtrun,Apr 1 2010, 05:28 PM]
Hmmnn..

I tink those using DVE n Avia calibration discs are jus touchin de surface here.. Bro A here uses much more advanced ways to calibrate..
Not tat I m knockin those 2 sofware.. I use them myself..

That is what I have. But you need to have the filter for DVE. Maybe Anfield can help do calibrate for my projector?

Pm.. him ..

He is veri accomodatin..

On de filters.. U mean DVE dont include de filters?? My Ovations Avia includes tis in de pckg.. thou' its only d plastic colored tingy..

D

If your projector had blue only mode (which turn off red and green) then you don't need the filter. Even the tint/color control is not accurate based on the Calman reading. If you have CMS, just leave tint/color at default. It's very easy to screw up the color using tint/saturation control.

My personal opinion is that for getting colours right, u need a meter (preferably a spectro). Also a working CMS is a must, else the display must track Rec 709 accurately. But a 3D CMS is the way to go.

Bro anfieldude,

It is possible to post the best possible setting for KRP-500A ??

This post has been edited by formalin: Apr 9 2010, 02:13 PM

I don't have a KRP-500A to do that.

he has 600M

anyone has callibrate toshiba zv?

All,

Do let me know what other stuff you would like me to cover in Display Calibration or anything related to something that is not brand or technology specific. I will try to put more details in the 1st page. If there is enuf interest, I don't mind adding a step by step calibration guide to use a meter to calibrate. However, there are others that do it well.

Bro anfieldude can setup a team to train video calibration in Penang and those interested can fly there, pay a fee n attend the course n share ideas together. and if anfieldude doesn't wanna to collect the fee, we can donate it to charity :)hehe

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Added on April 24, 2010, 11:09 pmFrom what I've read so far in this thread, people who is interested and have technical knowledge will probably understand at least 60% and above of what is mentioned here.

The rest are probably scratching their heads trying to figure out what those terms (d65,rec 709, +512, 3D CMS, etc).

Maybe do a simple definitions on what these terms and meanings are.
like, why we need to get D65 and what it means, etc

Then everyone will understand further.


This post has been edited by junwei: Apr 24 2010, 11:09 PM

Thanks for the suggestion. I will update the material when I get the chance.

anfielddude,
apart from the sizes (600m & 500a), is there any more difference in terms of specs and hardware between those two?

I posted the reply in the Pioneer Thread. See link below.

Link to Pioneer Thread

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Apr 29 2010, 11:44 AM

-edit-

This post has been edited by gocitygo: May 2 2010, 09:47 AM

Anfield & Gang, my first calibration on 508XG. Any suggesting for further improvement is most welcome.

At first, I was surprise to see the Gamma curve , too good to be true on the original setting. Until I realized the RGB and Color Temp were quite off.

The whole calibration process took so long (~3 hrs) for newbie like me. At one hand look for how-to procedures and on other the hand try to familiarize the software. But the whole learning process is fun and rewarding. Better do it at late night so that no one is ka-ka-chau-chau. I really recommend AV enthusiasts to try on this, either DIY or pay professional calibrators to do it. Imaging the significant improvement you can get from the existing hardwares just with a small price to invest versus your HT investment cost. Now, I'm realize for almost 30yrs, I am looking at something off the standard

On the CIE curves, I found the R & G points slightly off from target. Already tried on the CMS setting and still cannot get the (x,y) on the dot. Any suggestion?











Note:
a) Meter: Xrite i1 display LT.
b) Software: Color HCFR, Color space standard: HDTV-REC 709
c) Test disc: AVS HD 709
d) Left graph with original settings and right graph with new settings.

This post has been edited by gocitygo: May 2 2010, 11:47 AM

gocitygo,

Pls post the .chc file so I can take a look a the data.

I suppose u calibrated in Colour Space 2 and the 1st graph is with Colour Space 1.

For the Pio's I would not touch the CMS more than +/- 2 clicks as it effects greyscale quite badly. I suspect there is some clipping but let me take a look a the chc file bfore I comment.

Wow, you are keng chau. Yes, the original with Color Space 1 and the new with Color Space 2. I found out the Color Space 1 too much Red and need to cut a lots during Grayscale calibration.

If don't adjust the CMS too much, how to get the (x,y) for the Primary & Secondary colors?

Attached is the chc files. Thanks

This post has been edited by gocitygo: May 2 2010, 11:56 AM


Attached File(s)
 508XG.zip ( 5.25k ) Number of downloads: 58

gocitygo,

1stly, the red point on ur CIE chart is not accurate as u used the Display i1LT. This is a known issue. Also ur green point is also not accurate. Selecting colour space 2 on the 8G actually gets ur primaries almost spot on. So the CMS is unnecessary.

Also, I think u can decrease the Red High by one click and try to improve ur greyscale. At the moment, there is an excess of red by a bit.

However, I would not do too much as it might be off due to the meter and not the actual. After the calibration, did u pull up a greycale ramp and confirm that there is not red tint/blue tint in the grey? Also pls do pm me ur final greyscale numbers (rgb gain/offset). I suspect that the meter might be reading red too low and u might be boosting too much. There is a known problem with the display i1lt with the Kuros due to PWM and it normally either reads red or green channels wrongly.

Either way, ur methods seem correct. Good start.

On the primary and secondaries, I believe u used 100% colours instead of 75% colours. 75% might be better as to not allow the APL to kick in on the plasmas.

Bro Anfield, thanks for the sharing.

gocitygo,

My pleasure. Also when u start getting more advance, the Calman software is much better than HCFR in the options for the charts and some dynamic charts that help calibration quite a bit.

quick question... where do i get all these calibration BD like DVE HD Basics ?

Amazon is a good place to start. I have seen it in some AV shops but it is expensive. Maybe u can get one of the forumers who frequently sells BDs to bring it for u.

PM arj, mpwy among others.

i am terrible at this kinda thing... i wonder how much will it cost to have someone calibrate my sony klv40v550 for me?

Pls PM me for further details.

anfieldude sifu, i own a tosh 42 rv600e, how much does it cost to calibrate it? any cheaper alternatives?

Pls PM with details and we can discuss there.

Anfieldude,

Uploaded the printscreens on my calibration result for my ZV. Click spoiler to view. Pls let me know any improvement needed based on the result


Edit : Added Color Data images and uploaded .chc files  ZV600E.zip ( 7.65k ) Number of downloads: 34


Actually I've started my calibration using Moive mode (This mode has the lowest brightness pre-set amongst all other modes available in this tv) but the end result is the picture is quite dark and can't bear with it after few hours watching, so I've done another round of calibration using Standard mode instead and found it much better to suit my room environment

This post has been edited by darenlks: Jun 7 2010, 01:49 PM

daren,

Post the .chc file as it would be easier for me to load the data and look at it on with HCFR.

Daren,

Are these results for Standard Mode? Or Movie Mode?

The greyscale looks pretty good. There does not seem to be any data in the CIE chart. Did u do the colours?

These results using Standard Mode. The result for Movie mode is qutie similar just that it has much lower contrast but with Gamma value set to -8 in my tv setting while Standard mode is set to -9 while maintaining higher contrast and backlight level to get close to 2.2 gamma.

ehh...how to upload the .chc files ?

Edit : Found the option to upload files

This post has been edited by darenlks: Jun 7 2010, 01:42 PM

U shd be able to just upload a file in the attachment portion.

Yup, found it. Didn't scroll to the bottom enough to see the option

I've also included the calibration result using Movie mode in the zip file

daren,

The last test u shd do is the saturation shift and luminance shift test. This shd be the measures "saturation" section. This will tell if the mode u hv selected is linear at all colour saturation.

But your results are very good. All in all the display behaves quite well. Black levels are pretty decent. Greyscale tracks very well. The 10% and 20% have a blue tinge, but it is impossible to remove without messing up the greyscale.

Did u do the colours at 100% patterns? It looks like u did at 100%. I would advise u to redo it at 75% brightness to see if it is also tracking well. It is better to do the colours at 75% brightness as it is more representative of the actual real world colour luminance. Also HCFR does not show the colour luminance charts accuracy. Did u change anything after ur greyscale calibration on contrast? This is becoz, if u look at ur 100% white during the colour calibration it is almost 30cd/m2 higher than during greyscale. Anyway, based on ur colour calibration, ur red and green luminance (Brightness) needs to be boosted by almost 1%. Ur blue luminance is too high and needs to be reduced. Ur yellow and cyan luminances are way too low and ur magenta is too high. Since u hv a cms, I would suggest to bring this down. The targets for the luminance for hd colour space for red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta is 21.2%, 71.5%, 7.21%, 78.7%, 28.5% and 92.8%. Ur hue for the secondaries are pretty good, the blue and green saturations are off and I doubt u can do anything about them. But I suggest u get the brightness corrected for each colour. Right now ur colour luminances are imbalanced. With the CMS u shd be able to dial it in. This is one of the drawbacks of the HCFR software that does not show the third dimension in the CIE chart.

But kudos on ur 1st calibration. The set seems to track gamma and greyscale very well and is aplus. The colour needs to be further refined.

Welcome to the club . Great to see more kaki into DIY Cal.

Be ready to poison by master Anfield.... he he

What meter you are using?

This post has been edited by gocitygo: Jun 7 2010, 09:42 PM

Spot on bro. I followed the dummy guide which asked me to skip the rest and straight to the 100% saturation patterns. Will redo it at 75% as advised.

The contrast was set before greyscale calibration so the only changes I could think of was that I did tweak around the Color setting in my tv user menu during RGB colors adjustment but decreased it back later to the original setting. Then I proceed to do the Tint control adjustment but didn't manage to get the balanced adjustment amongst Cyan, Magenta and Yellow as not able to get all of their color coordinates close to the desired values. I then proceed to measure all the primary and secondary colors by adjusting the Hue, Saturation and Brightness values in CMS, aiming to get all colors below 10 of deltaE. This was where I could see both Blue and Magenta are above 10 and the rest are good at 4-7 range. The problematic was the Blue, its reading even reached 20 ! By continuous adjusting the both colors in CMS, finally managed to keep them below 10 of deltaE. The adjustment was done pretty much based on the deltaE values as my guide . Will have to spend more time adjusting each color.

Btw, the luminance % of hd color space you mentioned, are they based on the 100% or 75% White luminance since you advise to redo it at 75% ?

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Added on June 7, 2010, 8:49 pmFollow your footstep, i2display lt

This post has been edited by darenlks: Jun 7 2010, 08:49 PM

daren,

It does not matter whether its 100% or 75% as long as the corresponding white pattern is the same value. However, there are some displays that will show different results between them. A good set shd not, but many sets do. So my suggestion is to use 75% patterns as it will a better reflection of what u will display most of the time. U do not need to use the colour and tint settings since ur set has a full cms. The one thing that I told u about is the Y value of the colours. This is the brightness control on ur CMS for each colour. HCFR does not ever show it on any chart but use the % I showed u earlier and change the brightness of each colour until u achieve the % for each one. The math is simple Y of the colour/Y of white at the same brightness. If a colour in the beginning is already inside the triangle, it means that the colour is undersaturated. There is no way to oversaturate it ever, so select a mode that starts outside the CIE triangle to bring it in.

The actual Delta E that shd be used for colour is 1994 DeltaE. However, HCFR uses Delta E UV which is not accurate for colour as it does not take into consideration the Y value. My suggestion is to get ur hands wet with HCFR then move on to Chromapure or Calman and then u can get a better representation of the calibration results.

Then do the saturation charts as that is an important indicator on what happens at lower saturations. If u find that u are getting bad shifts in saturation and luminance at different saturations, u might need to stop using the CMS as it does more harm than good.

Thanks. Now I understand better what you meant. This is helpful for my next calibration on CMS

Post the charts when u get round to checking it again. Also the saturation charts. U might find that playing with the CMS might not be a good idea or the initial colour mode u selected was not linear at all saturations. That does more harm than actually having a good post calibrated chart.

Hi to all. Ive just bought a Panasonic 42x28k yesterday...Can anyone care to share display setting or charts for the plasma after break in? Only as a guide...Ive dont have the gadgets,cant play with it. Thank you.

Hi, sifus.

I had bought Panasonic plasma TH-P42X10k, a HD ready with 1024 x 768 pixels.
Applicable scanning format:
525 (480)/60i
525 (480)/60P
625 (576)/50i
625 (576)/50P
750 (720)/60P
1125 (1080)/50i
1125 (1080)/60i
1125 (1080)/24P (HDMI only)
1125 (1080)/50P (HDMI only)
1125 (1080)/60P (HDMI only)

I had connected Philips DVD player dvp3126k with component cable to the plasma. The displays only show 576i. Am I supposed to get 576i or better display of 720 or 1080?
Or am I messing up with the setting?

Btw, what is 50i & 50P?

Does ur DVD upscale thru component? Else, choose from 576i or 576p on ur DVD player and see which looks better to ur eyes.

Some players do not upscale thru component so ur choices are only 576i/p.

Some players upscale thru HDMI, try if u hv and see which looks better to ur eyes. Whatever u display receives will be scaled by its internal chip to 1024 X 768.

Again, upscaling is not the same as actually having an HD source.

All,

Spectracal is currently carrying a special on the I1 Display2 for a price of USD49 for the meter alone. For those, who do not want the software and want to use HCFR then this is a good time to buy as it is really cheap. I would adivse to buy it with Calman software, as Calman V4.0 is really good and easy to use however, if u do not want the USD49 is really a good price. Its a good way to start calibrating ur display.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Jul 16 2010, 02:07 PM

Where can it be had for USD49?

Spectracal Store

I have attached a link above. Pls remember that this is a colorimeter.

Thanks bro.

Item total:$49.00
Shipping to Malaysia:$195.00
Total:$244.00 USD

Something does not add up. Contact them by email and ask them to use USPS shipping. I have bought stuff from them before (lots of stuff) shipping was never that much even with more things.

Edit: I will contact them and update what is going on here. Somethind is wrong.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Jul 16 2010, 03:15 PM

I would like to get one also but the shipping is $199.00 to Malaysia..........

I will check and post here on the response.

Izzit necessary to calibrate all LCD or Plasma tv sets? If so, how frequent ..
Sorry for asking cos i am new n intend to buy a plasma tv.

No offence .. i am didnt know we have calibrate it cos most of the tvs comes calibrated.
Of cos, the contrast, lighting etc .. is can be determine by one eyesight ...

Nvrtheless .. thanks for guide, anfielddude ..

All,

Spectracal has corrected its mistake. The mistake was due to a weight mistake that someone made in the website. The shipping charges are now USD65. However, I would urge those interested to send them an email as they can also ship via USPS international shipping which is cheaper (That shd be about USD40). I think it is the lowest u can get. Alternatively, u can get someone to bring in from US (by shipping to a local US address or Vpost).

Hope it works out.