Plasma & LCD TV Calibration Tutorial

What Is Calibration and Why Should I Do It?

Even more significant than the above is that the manufacturers default settings are always set with colour, contrast, and brightness settings that are way to high. This not only means that it is not set to the optimal picture quality but also causes your PDP or LCD to age faster. This last issue is particularly significant with plasma and is also a major contributor towards getting screen burn in, especially during the first few hundred hours of use.

So Calibration is quite simply the setting up of your TV to achieve the highest quality image possible. So who is the judge of what is a good image and what is not? Well ultimately you are. However it is a good idea to set the display with levels that compliment the broadcasters, film makers and game designers and then do a final few tweaks based on personal preference.  

By following the instructions below you can set the different levels on you television so they match how the programmer makers intended there movie to be seen as well as automatically taking into account the vagieries of your specific make and model along with the physical lighting conditions in the room where it is.

You would pay upwards of £200 ($400) each time for a company  to calibrate your screen so there is allot to be saved by doing it yourself with PixelProtector.

Residual Image Retention

First up If your TV is brand new then you don't need to worry about this unless it was a display or something like that. If your wondering what residual image retention(RIR) is I will explain. Basically TVs suffer from a phenomenon called 'burn in' it is where a static or frequently repeated image has left its mark on your television even when the particular image in question should not be displayed. The most common examples are TV guides, DVD menus, channel logos and computer game scores etc. These are screen burn for real and are dealt with in another article.

RIR is where the same phenomenon has occurred but because it is much more gradual it leaves much less obvious marks that build up over the months that you use your TV. RIR does not leave a definite easily visible shape but simply causes apparently random smears that affect the colour that is displayed and makes it pretty much impossible to achieve a perfect calibration.

If you find a DVD with a screen that is one plain light colour you will probably be able to see smears of inconsistent shade in various parts of the screen this is RIR. To get rid of it you need to run the PixelProtector 'colour wash'  programmer. Depending upon how severe it is it could take between 20 minutes and some hours to have the desired effect. PixelProtector is the only calibration DVD (that I know of) that includes a colour wash.

Afterwards If you look on a plain white screen you might see a slight coloured tint to the screen. This is no problem. Either watch a bit of TV or put the PixelProtector blizzard wash on for 20 minutes and it should now be a lovely even white.

If your image retention was really bad and it is not all gone after the prescribed time as advised by the DVD, dont worry. You can continue with the rest of the calibration and then re run the colour wash at another time . Each time you run it the RIR should decrease until eventually it should be gone.

Simply put the above 2 steps have recalibrate all the pixels (picture elements) on your screen to a uniform brightness. Dont worry if you dont have a plain white screen to view the RIR because there is one included on the PixelProtector DVD. Now move on to the next phase.

The Basics

Image Enhancement Technologies

Brightness

Load up PixelProtector and find the test pattern pictured here.

What you need to do is lower the brightness until the black areas cannot be seen. Then increase the brightness 1% at a time until you can just about see the black area in the bottom right.

Contrast

Colour

Sharpness

Final Tweaks

Now your TV is configured just as George Lucas would like it. But you might want to do some final minor adjustments. I would strongly reccomend that you do not tweak by any more than 5% each way because the black and white levels you have just configured really will make a superb difference to your viewing pleasure.

Bring up one of the PixelProtector test images. Start with brightness and skew it 5% up and down. Look at a single point of detail in the image perhaps the eyes, skin tone or another fine detail. Ask yourself as you move through each of the settings in turn and decide from personal preference what is the optimum setting. Dont be tempted to go beyond 5% alteration as when you move on to the next setting you will have to make bigger compensatory adjustments and by the time you get to the last setting you will have a mis configured screen. Next do contrast, then colour and finally sharpness.

And your done!

It is important to remember that components and physical attributes in a TV change over time. Most notably the phosphors in a plasma TV will age. Repeat the calibration process every six months or so to continue enjoying your Plasma or LCD screen at its best.

Calibration Summary

• Colour wash - few hours.
• Blizzard wash - 20 minutes.
• Switch off all IETs.
• Brightness - as described.
• Contrast - as described
  
• colour - as described
• Sharpness - as described
  
• Tweak.
• Enjoy!
• Repeat every 6 months or so.