Calibration, calibration, calibration. (1 Viewer)

I just wanted to stress here to all the home theater beginners the importance of this from a first hand real life story.

Calibrating your system properly and accurately is the best way to get the most out of your equipment.

The only thing I did when I moved my HT to my new apartment. Was do a quick speaker balance. And basic screen calibration (no convergence).

So after about 6 months in the new apartment and a year of being setup total. I decided to re-calibrate everything from the ground up. I reset my room size, speaker distance, and relative volume levels (with the help of test tones and a SPL meter). Re-did my convergence, brightness, picture, tint, color, and sharpness settings in my IDEAL viewing environment witch is after the sun goes down and I can control the light in the apartment to virtually nothing.

I also did all my speaker connections, cutting and stripping the new ends of the wires. After a year they oxidized quite a bit.

There was a significant difference in both picture and sound quality. I had also moved one speaker in a few feet and added more furniture and wall hangings since I moved in and originally set it up. The moral of this story is to continue to have a great HT experience you should re-calibrate every once in a while. Epically when you make changes to the room.

...good story especially for newcomers trying to justify the cost of a SPL meter they think they'll only have to use "ONCE"

bill (meter permanently attached to my tripod)

Allan thanks for the tip. I hope to be soon getting a SPL meter and AVIA disc. Now that they(SPL meter) are on sale at Radio Shack I think I will go ahead and get one. Keep up the good tips for us rookies.

No video viewing environment is IDEAL without 6500K ambient lighting. Front-projection systems are excluded from this consideration. D65 backlighting has been thoroughly researched and proven to enhance the viewing experience for professionals and consumers alike over two decades. There are other viewing environment conditions to evaluate as well. These issues are discussed on 'Video Essentials' and 'Avia Guide to Home Theater' DVDs, 'A Video Standard' laserdisc and the new 'Digital Video Essentials' D-Theater VHS. Another excellent resource is the 'Widescreen Review' special edition titled, "Imaging Science Theatre 2000" from 1998, still available as a back issue. That issue includes the complete text from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers' (SMPTE) 'Recommended Practices #166: Critical Viewing Conditions for Evaluation of Color Television Pictures'. You can also find a good overview of viewing environment elements and solutions at: www.cinemaquestinc.com .

Periodic re-calibration also applies to professional display calibration services. While some popular modifications and services do not change or drift over time (mechanical focus, lens striping, Duvetyne lining, etc.), those adjustments that require instrumentation will (gray scale, service menu picture settings, gamma, etc.). Lens cleaning isn't forever. Even projector bulbs change color over time. The eye/brain will adapt to gradually deteriorating conditions and not realize how far out of whack a picture has become. Without a side-by-side, A/B comparison, a display can drift substantially from its best image and not be noticed by the habitual observer. Often it takes viewing a freshly calibrated display at a friend's house, etc., to realize how far off from accurate a TV has become.

It has been said that it's therapeutic to have a hobby.

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

Insist on HDTV!