How Room Decor Can Corrupt Or Enhance A Perfect Display Calibration

Re: How Room Decor Can Corrupt Or Enhance A Perfect Display Calibration

Having a silver/reflective wall behind the LCD panel won't affect the image on the screen, but any movement in the room will serve as a distraction from what's being watched on the TV. Movement will be visible around the TV because it'll be reflected by the wall.

The ceiling could be a problem, depending on your seating location, how high the TV is, where lighting is located, etc. You will want to guard against screen reflections from any likely seat in the room. LCDs are better at diffusing reflections but don't eliminate the problem entirely. Instead of sharply defined reflected images on the screen, you end up with larger, amorphous blobs of haze, that still interfere with the picture.

Re: How Room Decor Can Corrupt Or Enhance A Perfect Display Calibration

Thank you George! I figured the ceiling would be more of an issue. After doing some investigating, I was leaning towards a flat color. Cost and acoustic reasons were my primary reasoning for this (the faux tin panels had no backing, while the flat color ones I found did!)

Again, thank you. . . it is much appreciated!

Re: How Room Decor Can Corrupt Or Enhance A Perfect Display Calibration

I have been studying a book recently that was recommended to me by one of the Ph.D.s from THX, Ltd., when I was consulting at Skywalker Ranch in December. The title of this imaging science industry reference is, 'Color Appearance Models,' by Mark D. Fairchild, Ph.D., of the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science: Munsell Color Science Laboratory. Yesterday, I came across a section describing the perceptual phenomenon users of bias lighting experience that produces perceived improvement of contrast on their monitor screen.

"Their experimental results, obtained through matching and scaling experiments, showed that the perceived contrast of images increased when the image surround was changed from dark to dim to light. This effect occurs because the dark surround of an image causes dark areas to appear lighter while having little effect on light areas (white areas still appear white despite changes in surround). Thus since there is more of a perceived change in the dark areas of an image than in the light areas, there is a resultant change in perceived contrast.....Often, when working at a computer workstation, users turn off the room lights in order to make the CRT display appear of higher contrast. This produces a darker surround that should perceptually lower the contrast of the display. The predictions of Bartleson and Breneman are counter to everyday experience in this situation. The reason for this is that the room lights are usually introducing a significant amount of reflection off the face of the monitor and thus reducing the physical contrast of the displayed images. If the surround of the display can be illuminated without introducing reflection off the face of the display (e.g., by placing a light source behind the monitor that illuminates the surrounding area), the perceived contrast of the display will actually be higher than when it is viewed in a completely darkened room."

Best regards and beautiful pictures,
G. Alan Brown, President
CinemaQuest, Inc.

"Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging"

Re: How Room Decor Can Corrupt Or Enhance A Perfect Display Calibration

This thread is exactly why I am not a videophile.

Re: How Room Decor Can Corrupt Or Enhance A Perfect Display Calibration

You are in the majority of video consumers. Anyone who has studied the home entertainment market understands that most folks care less about correct pictures than cost and convenience. It's been widely and repeatedly suggested that most TV owners never read the owner's manual. "Close enough" is fine for the masses, always has been, always will be. Everyone is entitled to their own set of priorities and preferences. Passion for excellence is a rare commodity and usually focused on differing pursuits from one individual person to another.