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confusion...

post #1 of 5
3/28/09 at 5:16am
Thread Starter 
where to start...mmmmmm. a few years ago when i had my 32 inch CRT and used avia and some of the other calibration disks i had a good satisfying picture with no problems.

it was a bit darker with contrast and brightness set in the general middle more or less and felt "safe" with those settings and also hoping this is close to how the movies are "supposed" to be seen. looks good to me!

now that my crt is long gone and am now on my 3rd lcd i have noticed a few things. i've tried using the usual calibration disks and i do get a good picture BUT after calibrating and comparing the settings after calibration the contrast settings are always on the high side and the picture does NOT have that softer and darker look of the old crt, it's much brighter and vivid. i'm not complaining but i am wondering about the difference and there is a difference.

have the directors changed their minds about how they think the picture should look ? i'm not sure what to make of this or maybe it's me but the after calibration "look" now on lcds sure doesn't look the same as the after calibration look of crts. yea i know they are two different televisions but i'd think the end result should look closer to the same.

maybe the old crt settings are burnt into my brain and am having a time trying to turn that corner with the higher contrast settings, call me old school but i get alittle queasy with contrast set at 80 or 90 even though it looks good.

william
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post #2 of 5
3/28/09 at 8:50am

Re: confusion...

I've found plasmas to look more like CRTs, they're both phosphor based after all. For best all around image fidelity, I don't recommend LCDs. I don't know what your set of priorities are for a video display, but if it's ultimate image quality, dump the LCD and replace it with a Kuro or a top line Panasonic plasma. If small size is your limitation, you're stuck with LCD. Hire a respected pro calibrator who will teach you how to get the most from the technology while adjusting your TV for its best image.

Best regards and beautiful pictures,
G. Alan Brown, President
CinemaQuest, Inc.
A Lion AV Consultants Affiliate

"Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging"
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post #3 of 5
3/29/09 at 3:39am
Thread Starter 

Re: confusion...

i don't really have a problem with the picture so much as it just seems different than what the older crts looked like, brighter and more vivid. i'm using Avia but when setting the contrast neither of the moving bars disappear or change very much which leaves me in the dark fo finding a place to set it.

i wish someone would come out with a disk that would work for LCDs and take the guess work out of it. my LG37 inch has a calibration program called picture wizard built into it and it works but the contrast settings are in the 80s and that sort of scares me.

i've used the THX Optimizer too and get similar setting results. i called LG about the settings and they said they are within LGs recommended settings.

i can't afford to get someone over to calibrate it now but it's not a bad idea.

william
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post #4 of 5
3/29/09 at 6:14am

Re: confusion...

I haven't looked at Avia in years, but I do know that some of the test patterns on Digital Essentials, like the line-bend test, simply don't apply to LCD and DLP sets. Not sure about plasmas. The line bends in those tests because the electron beam that paints the image on the inside of a CRT set is deflected due to voltage changes.

Quote:
...the contrast settings are in the 80s and that sort of scares me.

I'm not sure why you're so hung up on this number. As you noted, you are dealing with two completely different technologies. I'm not sure I'd expect a gasoline engine to use the same settings as a diesel. Given that the 'brightness' and contrast levels are interactive, the settings on any two models sets, even within the same brand, are likely to be at least somewhat different.

Finally you old CRT TV was just that - old. Over time CRTs dim uniformly and gradually. What looked like a "normal" picture to at the end may have been considerably dimmer, with a more muted color pallete, than what you started out with when you first calibrated it.

I have an LCoS rear-projection set. After about 2 1/2 years I had to replace the bulb - and I was amazed at how dim the image had become and how used to it I had become. The new bulb basically turned it into a brand new TV, and the colors and white really "popped" with exactly the same settings it had always had. (Naturally I ran VE again after replacing the bulb, but I ended up with virtually the same numbers in every category that I'd had before.)

One question - have you turned off all the automatic picture settings for your set? Your old CRT may not have had the "movie modes", "auto-gamma corrections" and "color management" settings the most modern HDTVs have. They will distort that results you get with calibration discs.

Regards,

Joe
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post #5 of 5
3/29/09 at 9:41am
Thread Starter 

Re: confusion...

hi joe. yea, everything's turned off as far as skin tones, gamma, etc. you're right too, it's "old" stuff. just borrowed an older home theather set up disk from a friend who doesn't use it anymore and the contrast and brightness did drop down a good bit but the color was "WAY" off which tells me i'm dealing with more "OLD" stuff.

avia is to difficult to navigate through for me anymore and not well explained either personally speaking so i'm not going to use it.

what i'm going to do though is use the "picture wizard" calibration program that comes with the TV and on the menu it has the ISF logo next to it so that's sort of reassuring. it does give a good picture and i'll just have to remember it's the new technology.

i'm also going to use "cinema mode" in the DVD player menu for DVDs.

thanks again for the feedback joe.
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