Television calibration tools

The goal is to get white as close as possible to the D standard used throughout the film and TV world. This ensures that your TV looks as close as possible to what the director of the movie or TV show intended. Some TVs also allow the adjustment of the actual color points, meaning a calibrator can make all colors more realistic. Done right, and on TVs that support it, it's one of my favorite aspects of calibration.

I love accurate colors and wouldn't own a TV that didn't have accurate color. Not all calibrators can adjust color points accurately, as it depends on the measurement equipment used and your TV's available controls. If this interests you, it's worth asking about beforehand. To add another wrinkle, today's high-dynamic range and wide color gamut TVs require additional, specialized calibration.

This too requires special training and equipment, and is also worth discussing before you hire a calibrator.

Specialty retailers might charge more or less depending on the complexity of the TV, if you want additional HDR calibration, if you want them to calibrate multiple picture modes, and other variables. Is this worth it for you? I can see both sides of this, though it's hard for me to be unbiased, as I can calibrate my own TV.

Despite what proponents of calibration tell you, the difference between calibrated and uncalibrated settings for most TVs isn't huge. This difference is getting even more narrow, as the better modern TVs tend to be relatively accurate out of the box i. So if you put the TV in the Movie or Cinema preset , choose the "warm," "low," or in some cases "medium" color temperature mode, and you use a setup disc to get your other settings correct, it's going to be "close enough" for most people, and likely more than adequate.

If you don't want to bother with that, or you want to make sure it's as accurate as possible, calibration might be worth it. A correctly calibrated TV will likely look more pleasing to the eye, and may -- depending on its light output afterward -- draw less power and even last longer. This is because a calibrated TV generally has a dimmer picture than the "torch mode" default settings. So because the TV is producing less light, it uses less power and can enjoy a longer lifespan thanks to reduced strain on the light-generating parts of the TV.

Certain TV manufacturers have a relationship with the Imaging Science Foundation , one of the leading companies that offers training for calibrators. These allow different settings depending on the amount of light expected in the room, making sure the TV looks its best regardless of the time of day. Again, this is all something to discuss with your calibrator. In many cases, if someone isn't familiar with what a calibrated TV looks like, they're probably not going to like it A correctly calibrated TV will appear, to the uninitiated, reddish and soft.

This is because the accurate color temperature is far warmer redder than how most TVs look out of the box. The sharpness control -- often set very high -- adds an artificial edge to everything. This masks real detail, but when you take it away, the image initially appears soft, even though it's actually showing more fine detail. To get a preview of what your TV might look like calibrated, switch to the Movie or Cinema mode. This is usually the picture mode closest to "accurate.

We've been discussing calibration mostly as it relates to televisions, but projectors can be calibrated too. In fact, they're more likely to need it.

Projectors are a two-part system: There's the projector itself and the screen. There's no way for a manufacturer to know what screen you're using. So in addition to the unit-to-unit variation, there's also the difference between screens.

Some might shift the image blue, for instance. Because there are so many links to various other sites in this article, embed the URL into text links for most of them so you know where it is you're navigating to. This is the easiest way since there is no need to download or to copy the images.

These are great resources, but this article is focusing on free, web-based options. Before adjusting your screen, it's important to have realistic viewing conditions. Avoid as many environmental disturbances as possible. It is a good idea to have two adjustments saved in your TV or monitor, one for night low light and one for day high light conditions.

You can save and usually even label these as custom presets so you don't forget what they are for. The first settings to adjust are the brightness and contrast.

The best way to do this is with a particular black and white image only. These are the most important calibrations. The colors are set afterward and it will be much easier to do when the saturation and contrast are already set. The instructions on how to do the adjustments can conveniently be read on the image itself. At the top of the image, you see a scale from black to white with 25 shades marked from A to Z. Here you have to work with brightness and contrast until you see them all just right.

In addition, the two spheres and the upright bars show the extreme ends of the gray-scales further apart. Again, you need to adjust the brightness and the contrast of your monitor until tones that are lighter than full black are clearly distinguishable and tones immediately darker than very white are distinguishable from full white. In case you prefer to use the Youtube videos to do the calibrations, it is a good idea to stream them from your smartphone to your TV using a Chromecast- stick.

In doing so, you do not copy from your smartphone, but the Chromecast takes it directly from your network! It's a first generation video. The first adjustment to correct is Contrast. You adjust it until you see the white highlights the best you can, until you can still see the three XYZ at near max. The next calibration setting is Brightness.

Although we adjust contrast first, the brightness is without any doubt the most important adjustment. Look at the black level shadows and move the cursor until you distinguish the ABC levels — or in the video the , and levels. With brightness set correctly, you go back to contrast and check this again because there is interaction between the two. Switch between brightness and contrast until you see ABC, XYZ or alternatively 0, 8, 16 and , and just about right.

Using the TV-menu, be sure to set the color s to 0. Scroll through the images and save the ones you want. Adjust to taste. Image size: Also known as Aspect Ratio. Most modern content features a aspect ratio. Nearly all TVs in the flat-panel era have the same ratio and the two marry perfectly. A lot of older movies and some TV broadcasts, on the other hand, use narrower aspect ratios and should be displayed pillar-boxed; i.

True 4K or x If everyone looks unnaturally thin or thick, or images appear truncated, you have the wrong setting. Note that you may see some of the same adjustments in the advanced settings as you do in the basic settings.

These generally serve as a baseline for the common controls. They generally offer only a few choices that conform to industry standards. In effect, these run from cool accentuating the blue end of the spectrum to warm the red end. Try the various temperatures before you mess around with the fine settings described below. About K closely mimics sunlight. Many TVs offer modes, such as sports, computer, gaming, movie, and so on that involve color temperature changes.

These might be a better option if you like keeping things simple. White balance: This goes hand in hand with the RGB settings below, because it is the amount of red, green, and blue used to create pure white. With technology capable of producing pure red, green, and blue this would be easy.

Music Streaming Media. To tweak or not to tweak Before we get to the nitty-gritty, the vast majority of TVs exit the factory adjusted pretty darn well.