How to tweak/calibrate a CRT RPTV? (1 Viewer)

[RobertSmith]

We have just ordered a Toshiba 51" RPTV during the after Thanksgiving sale. Could you pls advise how we should tweak/calibrate this TV? Thanks a lot!

Robert

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Get the Digital Video Essentials or Avia Guide to Home Theater or similar home theater or TV set up or "calibration" DVD. (The two I named are generally considered the best - each takes you step-by-step through setting all of the user adjustable settings on your display device with interactive test patterns and color filters to look through when ajusting color and hue. Both also have full instructions for adjusting the sound on your audio system, again including test tones, although they don't include the required sound level pressure meter - but you can buy that cheap at Radio Shack. Note that adjusting the user-accessible controls is not really the same as a true professional calibration - which involves special test instrumentz and access to the set's service menu - but the term gets used for both.)

You don't say what technology the set uses. At that size it would have to be plasma or some kind of rear-projection - CRT, LCD, DLP or LCoS. For CRT you will definitely want to do a calibration as soon as possible as the factory level brightness and contrast settings are "pushed" to look good in the showroom and this makes them more vulnerable to burn-in. I learned this the hard way with my now ten-year-old Toshiba RPTV (which is being donated to charity on Wednesday and being replaced next week by a 56" JVC D-ILA. ) Plasmas are also at risk for burn-in, but I'm not sure if the mechanism is the same and if adjusting the brightness and contrast will protect them. LCD, DLP and LCoS are not subject to burn-in.

Regards,

Joe

 

[RobertSmith]

Thanks, Joe. My set is Toshiba CRT RPTV, model # 51HD85C.

 

[RobertSmith]

I played around with this TV at BB store for a little while, but seems there're not much options in the menu in term of tweaking/calibration. Is the on screen menu the only place that I can calibrate this unit??? Is that gonna be enough? Thank you!

p.s. what can i find the service menu? By pressing some code combination from the remote?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

basic calibration involves alingning black and white points (usually brightness and contrast controls respectively), color saturation/balance, and sharpness. As noted, do this with the aid of a test disc. AS I noted elsewhere to you, I find avia to be more user friendly in the menu, I think it's a little easier to get started with for beginners, but DVE is also plenty adequate. Both provide advanced patterns beyond basic needs.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Yes, for a basic setup. You can probably get even more out of the set if you spend a couple of hundred dollars on a professional calibration, but even with user-level adjustments you're going to end up with a much better picture and one that more closely matches broadcast standards than whan you had on the set ocming out of the box. This will certainly make it much less prone to burn-in than the factory settings.

Regards,

Joe

 

[RobertSmith]

Thanks so much, guys!

Is there any good tutorial for AVIA/DVE? I found one here:
wwwDOTramelectronicsDOTnet/html/Video-calibration.html#dve

Also, how difficult to calibrate the set thru the service menu? How much improvement can I expect by doing the calibration thru that? I'm a tech guy, so I wouldn't mind to give it a shot if that's possible. Thanks again.

Best,

Robert

 

[ChrisWiggles]

servic menu stuff is a lot more complex, i suggest you not start to tackle that. You also risk ruining your tv if you don't know what you're doing in there. Some things in the service menu can assist you in furthering your basic calibration, but the next big step beyond basic setup is grayscale alignment, which requires measuring equipment which is pretty expensive. Easier and cheaper to have an ISF tech do that if you desire.

 

[RobertSmith]

Thank you, Chris. Guess I'll just go with the basic calibration. BTW, can I use DVE/AVIA to calibrate PC monitor? Thank you.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

robert: you can use Avia/DVE to calibrate to video playback on your PC. Video and Graphics levels are not the same, if you are properly maintaining video levels through your PC playback, they will not align to graphics levels. So yes you can, but it will be aligned for video levels of 16-235. If you wich to calibate your PC for graphics use and not video playback, you can use one of many PC-level (0-255) test images or calibration applications you find online.

You may find that Avia/DVE patterns align with PC-level patterns on your PC, which indicates that your playback software, drivers, settings etc are not properly maintaining video levels. I don't know if you intend to watch movies using your PC or whether you want to calibrate your PC for regular graphics/computer use, so sorry for the long explanation, but as I don't know, I err on the side of explaining too much. Hope that helps!

 

[ChrisWiggles]

oh, and if you want the REALLY long version of that explanation, check out the link in my signature.