Basics of TV Calibration

Basics of TV Calibration

It all seems so simple.  Just adjust the settings until they look good, right? Wrong. A lot of people actually don’t have their televisions set up correctly.  These tips will help you get closer to the intended picture.

Also keep in mind that you want to set up your television for a “dark room,” the setting in which you might watch a movie.  Otherwise, throughout the day you can use presets.  Most TV’s have settings for sports, video games, vivid colors and a standard setting, or something similar.

Lighting

• Have controlled lighting in the room if at all possible (e.g. a dimmer switch, floor lamp).  Watching movies in complete darkness causes eyestrain unless you are using a projector or watching at the minimum viewing distance (see “viewing distance” in the “extra tips” section, below).  Observe your need to fill your field of vision with uniform light.
• Use focused/task lighting to light up the area behind the screen.  It should be a dim light that either faces the back of the screen or shoots up toward the ceiling.  This way, you can darken the rest of the room and not strain your eyes.  Special “daylight” bulbs are pretty good for achieving a natural light color. 

Brightness (see “backlight”, below, before adjusting brightness/contrast)

• Brightness is synonymous to “black level.”  The brightness adjustment is actually just choosing how dark your blacks appear on the screen.
• Too high a brightness setting can wash your image out.  Too low a setting can make you lose details in a pool of blackness.
• Use the highest quality input you have available for your component device (i.e. DVD player, game system, etc.).  The hierarchy from lowest to highest is coaxial (like cable TV), composite (yellow RCA), S-video (somewhat circular with pins), SCART (a European standard), component (red/green/blue RCA), DVI and VGA (pins), HDMI (compact, digital, audio/video).  HDMI carries audio and video signals, is high-quality and is easy to hook up, so why not?  The others require that you obtain audio from the red/white RCA cables.
• Find a disc that allows you to display a letterbox (4:3) picture with fairly equal amounts of light and dark features. Turn the brightness all the way up, and decrease until the bars appear black or just before you begin to lose detail.  For example, if faces start losing features in pools of black, it’s too dark.

Contrast

• Some TV’s will list this as “picture” or “white level.” It’s the complement to the brightness setting.  It determines the intensity of the whites in the picture and affects the overall light output of your television.
• In stores, white level is set very high, as it makes the images look brighter.  However, stores are well-lit, generally by fluorescent lighting (and lots of it)!  In your home, high contrast/white level can make details hard to see and distort lines in your image.  In a dim room, it can cause eyestrain.  Additionally, you may find yourself with a failed backlight much sooner than expected.
• Because of the many downsides to a high contrast setting, it’s ideal to set it between 30 and 50 percent.  Find an image with a white object that has details in it.  For example, a white button-up shirt would work.  Turn contrast all the way up and then decrease until the details become visible.  This may not fall into the 30-50 percent category, but that’s okay as long as you follow the guidelines provided.

Color and Color Temperature

• Color is also called “saturation.”  It’s a measurement of how intense the colors are on the screen.
• Too much color results in a very loud unrealistic image.  Too little results in a drab gloomy picture.  Zero saturation gives you a black and white image.
• To get a proper level of color, first set the color temperature to “warm” or “low.”  This will help you get close to the NTSC standard of about 6500 degrees Kelvin. 
• Find an image of a person with light, delicate skin tones and turn up the saturation until they look slightly sunburned.  This will happen because red tends to show up the most in television displays.  From there, turn it down until the tones look natural.  Sometimes this means the rest of the picture looks a little too grey.  If this is the case, you may have to turn up the saturation a little bit.

Tint

• If you don’t know what you’re doing and feel like you’ve learned a lot by reading thus far, don’t worry about tint.  Leave it at its midpoint.

Sharpness

• Generally, you want to leave sharpness at zero.  It just creates artificial edges.  The only time it’s necessary to increase the sharpness of your image is when you have a soft cable signal or you can’t read text very well on the screen.  In this case, slowly increase it until it becomes clear again.
• If your set has an edge-enhancement setting (may be called SVM or VSM), disable it.  It will only hurt your picture. 

Other Enhancements

• There really isn’t a need for other included enhancement features such as “auto-whatevers” and noise reduction.  DVD-quality video and better will be good enough where these just damage the picture quality.

Extra Tips

Backlight (see “brightness” and “contrast”)

• Some TV’s include a backlight control.  This does what it sounds like; adjusts the brightness of the CCFL tubes (or LED’s in some newer TV’s) behind your LCD screen.
• Brightness and contrast are best adjusted with the backlight turned all the way down in a darkened room.  If the picture appears too dark, slowly increase the backlight control until the picture is at a natural-looking brightness. 

Viewing Distance (see “lighting”)

• This is a general guideline for min/max viewing distance.  Other resources may tell you different, but they will be fairly close.  The best thing to remember is “presence.”  Your image has a greater presence when it fills a larger portion of your field of vision.  Sitting too close isbad for your eyes, and your mothers weren’t ever wrong.  However, sitting too far away will end up being bad for you as well.  You shouldn’t have to squint to see details.  You’re either too far away or need glasses if this is true!
• When purchasing a set, keep viewing distance in mind.  Figure out where the set will be located and where you will be watching from most often.  Follow the link below, or find another table via manufacturer websites to decide what size television is most appropriate.
• There’s more to it than that if you’re interested, but information is easy enough to find online!

http://crkalino.com/index.php?p=1_49_TV-Viewing-Distances

Home Theatre Set-up Videos

• There are several DVD’s (and now Blu-ray discs) out there made for calibration of your television.  They are great for walking you through the steps needed to successfully obtain the best possible picture.  Search around a bit online or ask a service technician near you about these videos.  There are a variety of DVD’s including levels from beginner to advanced.  Often, you just have to read a little to find the one right for you.  Some offer very detailed explanations and instructions, where others assume a tech savvy audience.

Professional Calibration

• To be completely honest, a professional calibration is unnecessary in non-commercial situations.  If you follow the steps outlined above, you will often achieve a picture that is good enough for you.
• The only real difference between what you can do and what the pro can do is adjustment of the color temperature.  There are special tools that are used to adjust “grey levels.”  Most TV’s will not come out of box at the correct 6500 degrees Kelvin color temperature, and are unable to reach it via user menus.  This really isn’t that big a deal for the average person.  If you feel the need, find a professional who will do it for you!