HTF Meet Recap: Stacey Spears and Don Munsil (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Collins]

On the evening of 10/25/12 during the HTF meet in LA, Stacey Spears and Don Munsil gave us a sneak preview of their upcoming 3D and professional series Blu-ray calibration disc. This comes on the heels of their existing disc Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Edition.

Don and Stacey were on hand to show us the new menu and some of the test patterns from an early check disc. The patterns were shown on a loaner Panasonic 800 projector, but we viewed the patterns in 2D.

There were a bunch of really cool new 2D patterns that I am anxiously waiting to get my hands on.

Outside of all the deep technical information that was given out, it was great to see someone producing a disc that not only can help calibrate a 3D display, but also easily show and have subjective test material to test the performance of 3D on that display.

For those that were there, please chime in with your experiences.

 

[Sam Posten]

As someone who used DVD Essentials 1.0 I was glad to see how much focus is being put towards a streamlined User Experience on these kinds of calibration disks these days. Stacey and Don were a lot of fun, letting us pick their brains over calibration issues and other HT topics!

 

[Rob Willey]

I know this is a major upgrade to all the other calibration discs on the market. How do I know? Because I was able to understand maybe half (okay, maybe less) of what Stacy and Don were talking about. But if these guys' extensive knowledge and enthusiasm made it onto the disc, it has to be the one to have. Thanks guys!

 

[Charles Smith]

It was a pleasure meeting Stacey and Don and having the opportunity to listen to them discuss and demonstrate their product. I especially look forward to the coming release, which will be my first purchase of a calibration disc that's even remotely current! (I'm afraid I've only dabbled with much older ones.)

I spoke with others about calibration during the week, and there's no question I will have my Panasonic plasma professionally calibrated. However, I'm uncertain as to whether one normally makes any subsequent changes on their own. I suppose you must still "fiddle with the dials" when playing a problematic disc, but other than those unique situations, can one still put calibration discs such as these to good use?

 

[Joel Barsotti]

Normally you don't fiddle after pro calibration.
The disc will be authored to the same specs that the calibrator will follow, so it usefulness will be limited to evaluating the quality of calibration you receive.
How would you propose tuning up a problematic disc? How would you know which direction it's off, or if that was the directors intent? It's exceptionally hard to know. A properly authored calibration disc will only help you align your TV to standards, if the disc your playing isn't on standard, it won't help.