Professional Calibration? (1 Viewer)

[Gregg Loewen]

Tosh 65H80
Panny RP91 (x2)
JVC 30K HD VCR
Dish 6000 (x2)

Other equipement???
AT 450 system with 2 subs and 7.1
QSC Amps (about 1500 watts for the 7.0)
AT Processor

None of it is the "best" but its all I can afford.

Regards
Gregg Loewen

 

[MichaelFusick]

You like your D-VHS?

I was thinking about picking one up for $349 just for DVE in 1080i but I am debating.

You have DVE yet?

Plan to buy the DVE 1080i or DVE720p tape when it comes out next month?

 

[Dan Kolacz]

I just want to add my 2 cents to this discussion..
As others have stated, the SAME model TVs from the factory are going to vary SIGNIFICANTLY. I have witnessed this firsthand.
My first TV was a Sony 61-HS20.
Out of the box, this TV had the most amazing picture I have ever seen in my life. Colors were dead on, very vibrant, and natural looking. Convergence and geometry were PERFECT. In additional, black level detail was THERE. Grayscale seemed pretty close to D6500K as I had a very 3-D looking image on high quality sources. I watch TV in an entirely darkened room, and this set was sooooo pleasing to the eye with the lights off. No eyestrain at all. I was so impressed that I decided that I was not even going to have this set ISF calibrated. As it turned out, the TV had a defective S-Link jack so the store replaced the TV with a new one. BIG MISTAKE on my part. The next set was simply mediocre. I had little detail in dark areas unless I turned the brightness way up, thus resulting in a washed out picture. Geometry was only passable (the boxes were noticeably all different sizes). The biggest disappointment was the lack of the "reach out and touch" or "seems like looking out a window" type 3-D image. This set simply did not have this effect. Watching this set with the lights off was not a pleasing experience. Obviously it needed some serious grayscale treatment. This set also suffered from uncontrollable brightness and contrast shifts so they offered an exchange again.
Now on my 3rd 61-HS20 and this set did not look much better that the second. Certainly nowhere near my first "pristine" set.
I am having Gregg Loewen come out this month to bring me back in heaven (hopefully!?!?!). I just hope he can make this set look as good as my first one

 

[Bryce Miner]

off topic....

Where can you find a DVHS player for 349? The cheapest I've seen is 599.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Hi Bryce,
I did a search on www.bottomdollar.com a few weeks ago and found some stores selling them for around the 450-500 price range. Hope that helped??
Regards
Gregg

 

[Earl Simpson]

How about a link to calibrators for specific areas of the country. I live in Red neck country (North Fl=LA=Lower Ala).

 

[Gregg Loewen]

hi Earl

Ive been there twice in the past 6 months and will be returning in August. Send me an email if interested.

regards

Gregg

 

[MichaelFusick]

Where can you find a DVHS player for 349? The cheapest I've seen is 599.

I work for a Dealer. Cost is $450. It's $399 as an open box floor model (used only once by me ) Been trying to get rid of the pig for months, no one wants it.
just sits there $50 below costs.... nobody wants it.
(please don't offer to buy it, anyone, or ask where I work, this was for converstation sake only.)

 

[Bryce Miner]

Thanks Gregg.

I think this would be a good asset to have. I have been carrying around an OTA HD box with me to show clients that don't have HD, how good it really is. I would like to get the dtheater tapes for me personally though.

 

[Mike Hamilton]

None of it is the "best" but its all I can afford.

Quit buying Ferraris to tour in!
(Hi Gregg! I will call you this weekend sometime to discuss what we were talking about a few weeks ago)

 

[Mike Hamilton]

you will need a HD signal generator with overscan patterns (The Accupel not the Sencore unit).

I have been using the Quantum Data 802B and it is terrific, with a bandwidth of 200Mhz (about 150Mhz more than most of the display devices, and it shows).
The real issue, though, is to use program material for image centering issues, rather than a generator. Though a generator is textbook perfect, the manufacturers use other techniques to hide problems in design, and frequently, what looks great via the generator does not match the source products or the manufacturer's intentions.

The DVHS is interesting, though you'll need to have another one available for something that Gregg and I learned at Joe's Advanced Calibrator Seminar earlier this year.
(I won't publicly post the reason).

 

[LaMarcus]

In reference to the picture quality issue of one set vs. another. I will give you a personal experience that I had.
Gregg Loween calibrated a Pioneer Elite here in Ohio, and when I first witnessed it I (and many others)said WOW!! We could not believe how big a difference a calibration made. But the biggest problem for all of us was. How much of the picture quality was the calibration and how much of the picture was the elite?
Well, shortly after that I came across this 14year old guy named Chad B and he's a ISF calibrator, and a member of the HTF. So I gave him a try, he knew about Gregg, and I told him that I was privy to witness first hand the results for 1) A ISF'd calibration by Gregg Loween and 2)it being done on a Pioneer Elite. So after putting the pressure on him, he did his job. And voila`,the same quality picture on my $3000 Samsung 65" that I saw on the $6000 Pioneer 58".
But let me throw a monkey wrench into the system. I saw another television ISF calibrated by Chad B and it didn't seem to look as good as the others when I first seen it, it was a 57" Tosh. But don't get me wrong, it looked very, very good. But now you get into hair splitting. It's now comes to preferences. What looks good to you? How bright do you like your picture, how dark, how much color? But the owner of said television could tell a huge difference vs. the pre-calibrated picture. I could tell that the tv had been calibrated, but I like my picture to be just a bit darker. And the Pioneer and mine had the settings (in reference to brightness) the way I like them.
P.S Chad B is really like 31, but he looks so young and is so wholesome that he looks like a 14 yr old school boy

 

[Derek Iverson]

According to the ISF web site, these are all of the ISF-trained dealers/individuals in Portland, OR:
Apollo Media Performance
Brownell Sound
Cline, Don
Dolan, Christian
HD Northwest
Quadrant Security
Sharper Video
Chelsea Audio Video
Not in Portland:
2 Guys Audio Video - about 24 miles away (they have an ISF optical comparator and a color analyzer)
Audio Video Environments - about 23 miles away
Custom Audio Video Services - about 19 miles away
Out of the nine in Portland, only Don Cline has both, an ISF optical comparator and a color analyzer. Would that make him the ideal person to contact about calibrating my 57HX81 57" Toshiba RPTV? Most of them only have color analyzers. His website doesn't list any rates, but Apollo Media Performance says they charge $250 for an RPTV calibration on their web site (with a color analyzer).
Gregg Loewen & Michael:
What would you recommend I do? Should I contact them all and ask for a quote, or should I contact only the ones that have a certain piece of equipment?

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Hi Derek
An ISF calibration isnt necessarily a complete "setup" which is what the calibrators affiliated with www.lionav.com perform.
Michael TLV ([email protected]) services your area a few times a year. Bob Jones (out of San Fran), (use the www.imagingscience.com list to find) also services your area.
Christian Dolan is a member here at HTF and I have seen some of his posts (not recently though). You could him a try also. I am not sure if he does full setups or ISF only stuff.
Many full time calibrators have been discussing the need to have both a comparitor and a color analyzer when performing gray scale work (ISF calibration). IMO, an analyzer is essential, a comparitor is only essential in certain type of displays.
Regards
Gregg Loewen

 

[MichaelFusick]

Go for the full deal..

Overscan
Center screen
Geometry
Manual Focus
Electonic Focus
Convergence
Red push
Color decoder
SVM
I2C (Mits)
Lens Stripe

Line the inside hood with duventyne....

Don't just settle for basic picture settings and Grayscale.

 

[Woo Jae]

It's a general question, so I will ask it here.

I have a 36" Toshiba that is about 2~3 years old that is the heart of my HT setup. I have used Avia to calibrate it about 1 year ago. Would it be worth it to get it professionally calibrated even at that age?

Similarly, I have a flat screen Toshiba 27" from last year that I would like to get calibrated.

I guess at what diagonal screen size will I notice the most improvement on? And is calibration truly necessary for Direct View TVs?

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Given the type of TV you have, calibration pretty much means grayscale work and setting the user controls.

If proper colour is important to you, then calibration is worth pursuing.

How much of a difference you will see depends on how inaccurate your colors currently are. And none of us can tell you that unless we see your TV.

Typical cost for Tubes ... $225 srp ... might be able to swing a deal with whomever you choose for the both of them.

Regards

 

[Woo Jae]

Thanks for the reply - love the pink furry pig...

 

[MichaelFusick]

What is the story behind the "furry pig" ?