ISF techs in Chicago area? (1 Viewer)

[Rick Pay]

Will be looking for an ISF tech in the Chicago are soon to calibrate my new Panny pt47wx49. Anyone have any good references please pass them along.

 

[Robert P. Jones]

Feel free to fly me in, or get a cal tour together to defray the travel expenses and fly me in. There are only maybe 20 or so fullservice calibrators on the continent - 2 in Canada - that do the stem to stern job a nice RPTV requires, for full resolution and performance.

Make that 21, with Gregg Loewen...

My 65" Panny was found to have major quirkiness in the calibration process, and requires somebody highly experience in Pannys, to get it completely right. It took me major amounts of time to do that, since mine is also 720p capable, but it was definitely worth it. Pannys rock!

Mr Bob

 

[Michael Lomker]

Rick, the best approach is probably to find a couple shops that sell high-end televisions and ask for a reference. I did a quick search on www.imagingscience.com and there are a half-dozen companies listed for the Chicago area.
I ended up calling a couple guys from the list on the website above and found a guy that has been doing calibrations for seven years. I have no doubt that the calibrators posting on this forum do a fine job but there are undoubtedly local people as well.

 

[Robert P. Jones]

You got lucky, but most people checking the ISF website will find virtually nobody capable of doing fullservice, fullspectrum calibrations. Most of the entities listed there are HT retailers/installers, and most of them will work ONLY on installations that they themselves have done. When I did my ISF training at Runco HQ, in Hayward, CA, there were NO calibrators and NO service techs in the class of over 25 people, except me. Mostly HT retailers, and a few lay HT enthusiasts/afficianados. I was very much in the minority there.

There is a master list of calibrators both at the AVScience forum, under Special Guests, and at the SPot, under the Calibrator's Chat section, if you go far enough back.

But still and all, there are still VERY few of us fullservice calibrators around, on the entire continent.

Mr Bob

 

[Michael Lomker]

I might have been lucky, then. I know there are relatively few full-time calibrators out there, but it never hurts to look around. The fellow I used is at http://www.hdtvguy.com .

 

[Robert P. Jones]

Your people have a very nice website, and profer the ideals of ISF cals admirably, quite obviously doing the kind of job you respected highly. They do I2C interface, and even seem to have geometry and convergence under their belts, both of which the typical ISF cal does not encompass, as these require training not offered in the ISF course. From the look and writing style of the website, I'm sure they do a very excellent job.

The kind of calibration I'm talking about encompasses all of the above, but also addresses an entire selection of things usually not done, nor typically even mentioned, in a typical ISF calibration.

Which includes the above, but goes much further:

Geometry and convergence are absolutely essential on ALL Image Perfection RPTV calibrations, and are always included in the base price of the basic calibration package. Most RPTVs are sent out from the factory horribly overscanned, to be able to fit into the sometimes widely varying sizing and placement parameters of all USA TV channels. This results in the loss of sizeable amounts of picture image, mostly at the sides but also often at the top and bottom of your pic. And both in HD and NTSC. Taking in this overscan to recapture the lost areas of image completely hoses your present picture shaping and placement AND your convergence. No matter how high precision it all may have started out, after resizing both g and c now have to be started over from scratch.

ALL varieties of convergence, including mastery of some very nasty landmines in certain of the older convergence systems. Louis Carliner, an excellent calibrator, took a giant hit on the boards over this several years ago, with a 700 Elite and a very unhappy customer afterwards. The convergence, no matter how tightly the factory sent it out - and that's REALLY an optimistic statement - continues to hose itself over and over during the first 100 hours of what we affectionately call burn-in time, sometimes referred to as the "drift period". Eventually the drifting peters down to at least a dull roar, tho I redo mine every few months, for absolute precision.

Professional optics cleaning. Essential every year without fail, plus down below the lenses at the CRT coolant covers whenever necessary, which can easily be every year also. This can be needed directly OOB, when there's debris from the factory observed in there, which is not uncommon. Special care has to be observed regarding often-used plastic lenses and the always-plastic CRT coolant covers, plus re. front surface mirrors and mylar mirrors - ALL of which can be damaged permanently with improper technique.

Precision optical (mechanical) focussing via the Cantilever Technique, assuring the tightest focussing possible in a projection system.

Scheimpfluge lens realignment if necessary, to restore linearity and symmetry in focussing across the entire screen. If this is not designed in properly at the factory on any individual lens, that color's image will not focus up properly at all points, from one side of the screen to the other. Center and maybe one side will be in, and the remaining side - sometimes even both sides - will out of focus. Fairly prevalent in Elites in particular.

Electrostatic focussing, with special emphasis on precision blue defocussing and its subtle but powerful relationship to the greyscale.

Astigmatism realignment if necessary, to correct potential asymmetries between the horizontal vs. the vertical components in electrostatic focussing, if they are found to be not identical and symmetrical with each other. Misalignment here can severely limit your image's ability to be precisely focussed, on any particular color.

Glarescreen removal, to cancel delicacy-neutralizing room reflections. This can be a very expensive process if you blow it and ruin the HIGHLY fragile, sometimes paper-thin lenticular screen in the process.

Duvetyne installation, to dampen distracting internal optical cavity reflections, and deliver the deepest of blacks.

Among other things.

My cals cover all of the above. Some are more exotic than others, and as such are not included in the basic cal package - which covers the entire job 90% of the time - but all are offered, at all times.

Mr Bob