Gregg Loewen..Genuis at work. (1 Viewer)

[Romier S]

Hello all,

Just wanted to put up a few comments commending Gregg on one hell of a job on calibrating my Toshiba 42H81. Rarely do you meet "technical" folks who are as down to earth as he is and who are willing to take the time to explain the process to you.

Gregg arrived at my home in Harrisburg, PA at around 9:30am and calibration was done at near the 12:30pm point. Much faster than I anticipated and the results were nothing less than fantastic.

Throughout the process he gave me every choice I could have wanted on how I wanted the calibration done (ie: removing the reflective screen and the pluses and minuses of how to stack the screen or remove it all together). Every step of the way he explained all of his tools and what he was doing and at no time did I feel like I wasn't part of the process nor was I worried about what was happening to my set.

Once the calibration was finished Gregg had me pop in the Fifth Element DVD and we took a gander at several scenes on my newly calibrated set. Right off that bat I saw an mmediate improvement on some very annoying bowing issues on my Tosh that were quite literally driving me up a wall. He knew that was my main area of concern.

As for the quality of the picture, I am now of the mind that if you spend the 1+ grand (estimating)it costs to get a good high quality display it is almost necessary to have an ISF calibration done. I was happy with my Tosh's picture before the calibration. Now I am in video heaven. I viewed 3 movies last night: Star Wars Episode 2 Attack of the Clones, Lord of the Rings Fellowship Extended Edition and finally Blade 2. All three films were drop dead gorgeous!

The picture for each film took on such a natural film like appearance that I could not help but notice details that I could not see before. I really don't know how to describe it except to say that each film lost a certain "artificial" look and everything was so much more smooth and to be honest three dimensional (as strange as that sounds).

There is a certain break in period after the calibration. It is something I noticed immediately. I liken it to the first time you ever decreased the sharpness on a display. It takes your eyes a bit to adjust and get used to the new appearance. After 20 minutes into Attack the Clones I was hooked. There is simply no comparison once you take in the glory of Gregg's work IMO.

So in conclusion, a big thank you to Gregg for doing a wondrous job on my display. He comes highly recommended by this customer and it is so very worth the money to have this calibration done by such a pro! (Big up to the Waffle House Gregg)

 

[Patrick Sun]

I wonder how many Waffle Houses Gregg has visited over this big country of ours...

for Gregg's work on my set last week as well. Glad you're so pleased with his work.

 

[dpippel]

Another vote for Gregg's expertise here. He stopped at my place in Mountain Top, PA right after your calibration Romier. I was his last appointment on this tour before he headed home.

He worked on my Hitachi 57SWX20B for about 5 hours yesterday (we discovered a piece of dirt projecting on the screen that took about 1.5 hours to track down - it's on the surface of the green CRT underneath the fluid bladder - crap!). He removed the protective screen, lined the cabinet with Duvetyne, cleaned the CRT lenses, set white and black levels, set grayscale, adjusted the color decoder, striped the lenses, adjusted overscan and centering, did mechanical and electrostatic focus, and adjusted geometry and convergence. I also thought that my set had looked pretty good after my own calibration with Avia and a number of service menu tweaks, but now it looks stupendous! A leap above what I had before. The fine detail, black level, color reproduction, and shadow details have all been improved rather dramatically. I'm looking forward to sitting down with the set and some favorite DVDs this evening to get a real feel for fruits of all of the hard work he did. DEFINITELY worth every penny of cost, and I learned a lot from the experience. Gregg is a professional who knows his stuff, isn't afraid to admit it when he doesn't know something, and is an all around nice guy. HIGHLY recommended.

Next time I'll make sure I have more diet Coke on hand buddy.

 

[TomK]

Man, I can't wait. I think that I'm coming up soon (I'm local to him). Diet Coke, huh? Anything else I should have on hand?

Tom

 

[Patrick Sun]

Umm...dry roasted peanuts?

 

[Jeff_Hunt]

Thought I'd chime in too. Gregg came and calibrated my friend's Toshiba 56HX81 almost a year ago. I meant to post a review, but I was a little busy watching DVD's! He was great! Answered any questions I had and explained it all. It was really cool to watch someone who knows what they're doing work. Once he talked us into removing the glare screen (I have kids, it's a source of worry) we were amazed at the instant improvement in the picture. He went through, making many tweaks to the set and when all was said and done I would've sworn we were looking at a different TV. I didn't think it was really possible for a RPTV to look that good.

I'm very impressed with Gregg's skills at calibration, now I'm envious. I want to live the rock-star lifestyle, sweeping around the country calibrating people's sets.

 

[Tim Hess]

For Gregg's last two tweak sessions on my set and a for the next one!

 

[Gary Lisker]

Another thumbs up here. Gregg calibrated my Hitachi 51SWX20B last week when he was in Atlanta, and the results are amazing. He did everything for me that Doug listed in his last post, minus the lens striping, and he kept up a running commentary the whole time so I'd have some idea what he was doing. The proof is in the picture, though, and it was worth every penny. DVDs look gorgeous, and watching the NCAA tournament in HD has been unbelievable. I can't wait for the Masters next week.

 

[Alan Pummill]

During a recent Local HTF Meet at my house, everyone flipped at the Picture Quality of my Pioneer Elite PRO-620HD....THANKS GREGG

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

I have 11 days until Gregg comes to my house, and you people and your testimonials are KILLING ME! Now stop it before I get irate!

 

[Romier S]

I have 11 days until Gregg comes to my house, and you people and your testimonials are KILLING ME!

The days is fast appraoching Jeremy! Be ready

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Yup... 3 more days...

But here's the bitch: I was told just last night that Monday, they're starting renovations on our house... during which time, all my gear will be covered with sheets to keep out the paint and drywall dust. So the day after my set gets ISF calibrated, I won't be able to use it for FIVE FREAKING DAYS! Plus, PAINT AND DRYWALL DUST? Could there be any crueler thing? A day after I get the lenses cleaned, they're gonna' kick up paint and drywall dust? ARGH!!!

And now thanks to daylight savings time, Gregg's showing up when the sun is still out... which makes things problematic since there are 8... count 'em... EIGHT windows that shine light into that room. I don't even think I have enough quilts to cover them all. Maybe I can drag him out to dinner and he can calibrate a bit later. Heh...

 

[DanC]

Gregg was at my house on the 27th of last month and did a wonderful job on my 53" Panny. I'm constantly amazed at the improvements he made with each disc I spin.

I had a pretty nasty geometry issue that he corrected as best he could with dental floss (I had no string). We couldn't get the geometry quite right though without an overlay grid which I was able to obtain from JohnnyG a few days after Gregg left. He was then kind enough to walk me through getting into the service menu and making the necessary adjustments. My set has never looked better...thanks Gregg!

 

[Gordon Groff]

Harrisburg, PA?
Hey, that's just down the street from me! (Lancaster).

Gregg -

Do you do Front Projector work? Specifically, Sanyo PLV-70?

I understand that CRT-based RPTV's need periodic adjustments, but I'm not sure if LCD (or DLP for that matter) machines have the same requirements. I also think I heard that FP needs a little different "tool box" for calibrations. Have you done many of these? Does it produce the same improvements you are able to get with RPTV's? I guess I'm wondering if I should plan for it down the road (a ways! - need to pay off my current HT expenses!)

BTW- Congratulations on an excellent reputation. Priceless!

Gordon

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Gordon, you might have better luck asking that question of Gregg directly by the e-mail at his website (www.lionav.com) or in Gregg's thread here giving tour locations and dates. He's starting a new tour tomorrow, so he might not check this particular thread. Just FYI!

 

[Gordon Groff]

Thanks Jeremy!

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Yay! The renovations to the house have been delayed! I'll get to watch my TV after Gregg calibrates it!