Calibration of TVs - How to do it and Where to find the Resources

[dillihifi]

There has been many a discussion going on in the forum regarding accuracy of Color and after quite a few posts have realized that TV calibration is not done by most of the people buying big expensive displays. Though there are quite a few threads regarding the room correction of audio/subwoofers and correcting the same but I haven't really found an go to thread for calibration of displays and think some knowledgeable people may share knowledge about the whys?, hows? and the required resources for the same.

With the advent of newer TVs and projectors which are generally display good color accuracy out of the box however there is still room for improvement. I hope by means of this thread a lot of members may benefit by increasing their knowledge as well as some of us may be inspired enough for undertaking the task. Maybe there are some professional who would be doing it for a fee (I feel the guys into photography may help).

What I have found out with rudimentary reading is that you would be needing some software and an essential piece of hardware i.e. a colorimeter for measuring the output of the device being calibrated.

As far as I know some of the better software available for calibration are CALMAN and DisplayCAL and the go to device for colorimeter is Xrite. Lets have a discussion going on to understand what an accurate colour display is and how to enable the same in our existing TVs/projectors, how much it will cost and what are resources needed ?

 

[OM_2K19]

+ spectroradiometer, usually Klein K10
+ pattern generator, usually Spears & Munsil Benchmark and Calibration Disc

 

[lightgamer]

I'm planning to get the x-rite i1 display studio when it comes back to stock(most likely post COVID only). It's good enough for very good calibration unless you're looking to master movies. I do some hobbyist digital art/wallpaper designs so colour accuracy is somewhat important to me. Plus it'll be a one-time investment to get all my displays calibrated. Though I'm still 50-50 about it and will have to decide after I get my OLED.

The i1 display studio costs between 15-20k and then the software(autocal + signal generation) itself will cost 20k or more on top of it. Maybe I'll offer to calibrate some TVs of FMs to get some of the investment back

Autocal will only work with displays that support it, i.e. autocal will be able to also change your settings. LG OLEDs do allow that, but most others you'll have to generate signals and then change the settings at different signal levels (say 5, 10, 15,.... 100) for a 20 point calibration.

 

[dillihifi]

I was browsing around and found that designinfo has these colorimeters for sale in India with official warranty. I found these two listings and wanted somebody to explain what is the difference between them ie.e idisplay studio and idisplay pro plus. Seems that they are prices at approx 15k and 29k

https://www.designinfo.in/monitor-c...isplay-calibration-device-Buy-India-5571.html
and
https://www.designinfo.in/monitor-c...display-pro-plus-eodis3pl-Buy-India-5493.html

I think maybe I will also pick up an colorimeter. Further I read somewhere that the LG TVs post 2019 had inbuilt pattern generators which can be used. Further today I think will do some research on display Cal. Seems it is an open source software for calibration.

 

[Sailor]

Basic query:
Why do these expensive OLED TVs require calibration? Is it that people want different settings (In that case, the OEM can provide preset settings);
To me, illiterate that I am in this area, but, this sounds like Honda selling their cars, and then each owner requiring to tune the engines.

 

[dillihifi]

It is not a question of Oleds only all displays need to be calibrated to display accurate colours and pictures as mandated by the creator. Further some people may like over-saturated colours so some may like more pop on them therefore there are several modes on the TVs for one to choose from. Further as sound gets influenced by the room similarly the ambient light, the amount of reflections also influence the PQ of the TV. As some sort of thread was not catering to these topics I created one for the same.

As regards your analogy though the default engine tuning is good enough but those who really want to eke out the best performance from their machines do try to retune them with the constraints. Maybe someone familiar in autos will be better placed to explain what I have tried to.

 

[lightgamer]

Why do these expensive OLED TVs require calibration?

Every single TV panel (or any electronic good) is different. Say you and your friend bought LG CX, both will not look the same. So if they have to calibrate, they'll have to do every single one individually. If they do individual calibration, the prices will shoot up massively (think at least 2x). Also, it's not like most people care as long as the picture looks good.

What LG/Sony do is that they provide a calibrated profile that fits the entire batch decently rather than every unit perfectly. That's good enough for consumer products and keeps the cost down.

To me, illiterate that I am in this area, but, this sounds like Honda selling their cars, and then each owner requiring to tune the engines.

People do remap their cars to get more HP out of them. Also, mechanical engines are much easier to make to exact spec than electronics are.

 

[Donivlapog]

Basic query:
Why do these expensive OLED TVs require calibration? Is it that people want different settings (In that case, the OEM can provide preset settings);
To me, illiterate that I am in this area, but, this sounds like Honda selling their cars, and then each owner requiring to tune the engines.

Good question. Watch an ultra dark night picture settings movie such as "Alien vs Predator requiem" in an OLED TV, you will be surprised none of the TV picture settings will improve the experience of the dark room viewing with shadow details too black to notice. But if you change the brightness, colour, gamma etc... yourself spending 20 minutes, you will find the picture much better. But for 98% of other movies filmmaker mode or dark room picture settings will work. My fiddling with picture settings only satisfies me though. So I am not a big fan of calibration and just default it to HDR setting. I may miss out something but I don't care really. Your car comparison analogy is so accurate. Lesser tweaking is better according my opinion.

 

[dillihifi]

I was browsing around and found that designinfo has these colorimeters for sale in India with official warranty. I found these two listings and wanted somebody to explain what is the difference between them ie.e idisplay studio and idisplay pro plus. Seems that they are prices at approx 15k and 29k

https://www.designinfo.in/monitor-c...isplay-calibration-device-Buy-India-5571.html
and
https://www.designinfo.in/monitor-c...display-pro-plus-eodis3pl-Buy-India-5493.html

I think maybe I will also pick up an colorimeter. Further I read somewhere that the LG TVs post 2019 had inbuilt pattern generators which can be used. Further today I think will do some research on display Cal. Seems it is an open source software for calibration.

@lightgamer any thoughts on these pls

 

[lightgamer]

@lightgamer any thoughts on these pls

The i1 display Pro plus is very good for consumer-grade calibration. But keep in mind that you'll need to spend $200 extra for the autocal software alone and it only works with Windows devices for now (correct me if I'm wrong here).

I'm not sure about the website though, but the prices are correct and CoD is available. I'd buy it if I had the TV and am not happy with the default calibration. If you're happy with the PQ, spending 50k is IMO not worth it as the gains will be marginal only from the calibrated modes.

 

[Sailor]

Thanks, @lightgamer, @dillihifi, and @Donivlapog for your responses. From what I understand, one needs to calibrate to suit the requirements of the ambiance, room, content, or personal taste. In most cases, the calibrated profiles are decent; but if one wants to eke out the best performance then one can go through this process.

Thanks!

 

[mail2sumanth]

It is not that display manufactures do not calibrate. I have seen numerous videos in the factory lines doing this with the color patterns. That may be very basic belonging to display itself. Apple has tried to make it easy with new Apple TV hardware. Calibrate any TV with iPhone but only when using Apple TV. For projectors It is a must. few projectors like Benq cinema series comes pre calibrated and with a calibration report with > 95% accuracy.

 

[rrunner]

Proper calibration means D6500 standard as mandated by ISF. Not all displays can be calibrated to get accurate colours(>95% accuracy), we will have a better chance of perfect calibration on say for eg: a Sony or Samsung, LG displays because they usually have the capability to reproduce the entire color gamut. Computer Monitors with "TN" displays and Chinese off-brand TVs are the worst when it comes to calibration capabilities.
I have the spyder colorimeter, A Lumagen video processor with ISF calibrated outputs, Benq 4k projector ISF factory calibrated and I find the calibrated picture more pleasing to my eyes. ISF calibration does not mean just playing around with the user's available color/picture/contrast options there are hidden features that are accessible only in the service menu level which brings out the actual control of the panel/Device. It is like fine-tuning(ISF) vs coarse-tuning(user-level).