Who likes to play games and watch movies in shiny HD resolutions? Of course you do, look at what you're reading. And anyone that's ever messed with the settings has probably wondered what they're "supposed" to be set to. There are several ways to attempt and line the settings up to how the source material is meant to look. These range from "eyeballing it" to hiring a certified Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) tech to come hook up all kinds of gadgets to your TV and professionally calibrate it...for around $400.The option most people take, assuming they take any, to attempt some kind of "pro" calibration is an optimization disk. This, itself, has quite a range of options to it as well. A few basic test patterns can be found on many DVD or blu-ray movies. The more dedicated can buy discs specifically intended for testing accuracy of colors, black levels, sharpness, tint, light levels and a number of other things. Calibrating an HDTV this way was limited for quite some time, as standard definition DVDs do not have the same range of colors and other, little(*ding* sarcasm detected *ding*), things as high definition video content.
Recently, Digital Video Essentials updated their offering to an HD version on Blu-ray. Other companies like Monster (most commonly known for grossly overpriced A/V cables) and even Disney threw down their own version of HDTV optimizer discs.
These discs will all do a fairly accurate job of giving you settings that will really make your TV's capabilities, and advantages of HD content, apparent to you. If you don't want to buy a disc just to get the settings on your TV at optimum, you can always rent it. Yes, Netflix has that. Or, you can get one for (mostly) free.
The answer to that "really?" that just popped in to your heads is the AVS HD 709 software. It's an open project that not only allows you to download free software for optimizing your HDTV, but also allows you to burn it to a regular dvd. And let's face it, if you have a blu-ray burner, you can afford to have a pro hook up your baby like it's going into the Matrix.
Yeah, that just happened.The key to this disc is that there's not really anything about Blu-rays, other than their storage capacity, that allows you to have HD movies on them. And since an optimization disc is a just a few minutes of mostly static patterns, there are ways to get appropriate HD content on a regular old DVD disc for HD display calibration. The catch is that you lose out on some of the more advanced features, (pop-up menus mostly) a couple of the more optional test patterns and the disc will only work in certain Blu-ray players. But there is a list of working Blu-ray players included on the same page as the various downloadable formats of the software.
There are three different version of the AVS disc in total. One for burning to Blu-ray, one for burning to DVD to be played on a Blu-ray player, and one for burning to DVD to be played on certain DVD players. Yes, the 360 and PS3 work for their respective media formats. Exhale.
There is also extensive instruction on the site regarding which format you should use, how to burn it to the media of choice and issues you may encounter with certain layer/format combinations. I recommend downloading the manual as well. Not only does the explain the why and how of each test pattern on the disc, with excellent detail on what your trying to do with that pattern, it has useful links throughout the PDF document. These include direct links to resalers of the optional color filters.
The THX glasses may seem like the way to go, being only $1.99. But the shipping always seems to be $8-$15 so that price quickly goes up to the point where it's better to just buy one of the discs that includes a filter. Plus, it only contains the blue filter for the basic test. I recommend the more "expensive" option. A $4.99 pack that has blue, red and green filters with shipping around $2. These are the same filters often used in filming, so they're absolutely adequate for you to optimize your TV settings. You'll honestly be quite pleased with the results even if you don't get any filters, but it is definitely an available option.
On the disc you will come to a menu with several options. The ones you're really interested in are the Basic Settings and Misc. Settings. The HD Nation video is also quite helpful as it will explain to you that basics of how to use the test patterns on the disc. This is not a substitue for reading the manual however.
In Basic Settings you will find some basic test patterns for setting black level, (usually Brightness on your TV's settings) white level, (contrast or picture) scaling, sharpness and color. The color test pattern actually requires a blue filter to use properly, but you can get an idea of what all the colors look like and if you can pick out the individual shades.
The Misc. Settings menu will give you more test patterns to check out the same thing. here you really need to check out the manual though, as some patterns are intended specifically for Plasma, LCD or CRT, etc. Here is where order the filter three pack really shows its advantage over the THX blue glasses. In the Misc Settings menu there is a pattern for adjusting all of the colors and tints of your display. If you TV has the options available (typically under Advanced or Expert or some other heading) you can really fine tune each individual color your display outputs. I'll say it one more time, read the manual.
Personally, I like the semi-DIY route for HDTV calibration. You're the one that's going to be watching it all the time, after all. Whatever you do, you'll find yourself much happier with the results of a "properly" calibrated TV. At least when watching movies.
Games are a different matter. Games don't have the same universal standards for color and light depth, which is why you so often find a brightness, or similar, control prominent in the options menu. Some games even ask you to set this before playing. This will often lead to games looking far to dark when played on settings that have been calibrated for movie playback. There are a few ways around this.
The first is to utilize presets, as most modern sets have several presets that can be altered however you like. These are usually called standard, normal, cinema, movie, game, sport, vivid, etc. You should have the same set of adjustment options available to adjust for each of these settings. Use your calibration disc to calibrate everything the way you want it for normal TV and movie viewing. Once you're done, apply those same settings to whatever "mode" you want to use for games (Game is generally a good one) and pop in a couple games that you know have a brightness setup that uses one of those "increase until you can barely see the image" patterns. Now adjust the brightness setting on your set until you can just barely see the applicable image. Average this number out across multiple titles. Even Dead Space 2 seemed to take a lot more adjustment to make visible than Dead Space 1 did, so try a couple. This way, whatever your playing you should be at a black level that's just barely visible for the darkest parts of most games and can fine tune it from the game's settings if you need to. The other way is to find a middle ground between the movie black level and game black level and live with it. If you manage to have a set that works perfectly for both on the same settings well...aren't you special.
However you go about it, in the end you should find that your set is living up to its full potential of HD quality. And to make this a truly sweet deal, you did it for the cost of a couple minutes and a blank DVD. Big thank you to the people over on AVS forum that put this software, and accompanying instructions, together.
There are three different version of the AVS disc in total. One for burning to Blu-ray, one for burning to DVD to be played on a Blu-ray player, and one for burning to DVD to be played on certain DVD players. Yes, the 360 and PS3 work for their respective media formats. Exhale.
There is also extensive instruction on the site regarding which format you should use, how to burn it to the media of choice and issues you may encounter with certain layer/format combinations. I recommend downloading the manual as well. Not only does the explain the why and how of each test pattern on the disc, with excellent detail on what your trying to do with that pattern, it has useful links throughout the PDF document. These include direct links to resalers of the optional color filters.
The THX glasses may seem like the way to go, being only $1.99. But the shipping always seems to be $8-$15 so that price quickly goes up to the point where it's better to just buy one of the discs that includes a filter. Plus, it only contains the blue filter for the basic test. I recommend the more "expensive" option. A $4.99 pack that has blue, red and green filters with shipping around $2. These are the same filters often used in filming, so they're absolutely adequate for you to optimize your TV settings. You'll honestly be quite pleased with the results even if you don't get any filters, but it is definitely an available option.
On the disc you will come to a menu with several options. The ones you're really interested in are the Basic Settings and Misc. Settings. The HD Nation video is also quite helpful as it will explain to you that basics of how to use the test patterns on the disc. This is not a substitue for reading the manual however.
In Basic Settings you will find some basic test patterns for setting black level, (usually Brightness on your TV's settings) white level, (contrast or picture) scaling, sharpness and color. The color test pattern actually requires a blue filter to use properly, but you can get an idea of what all the colors look like and if you can pick out the individual shades.
The Misc. Settings menu will give you more test patterns to check out the same thing. here you really need to check out the manual though, as some patterns are intended specifically for Plasma, LCD or CRT, etc. Here is where order the filter three pack really shows its advantage over the THX blue glasses. In the Misc Settings menu there is a pattern for adjusting all of the colors and tints of your display. If you TV has the options available (typically under Advanced or Expert or some other heading) you can really fine tune each individual color your display outputs. I'll say it one more time, read the manual.
Personally, I like the semi-DIY route for HDTV calibration. You're the one that's going to be watching it all the time, after all. Whatever you do, you'll find yourself much happier with the results of a "properly" calibrated TV. At least when watching movies.
Games are a different matter. Games don't have the same universal standards for color and light depth, which is why you so often find a brightness, or similar, control prominent in the options menu. Some games even ask you to set this before playing. This will often lead to games looking far to dark when played on settings that have been calibrated for movie playback. There are a few ways around this.
The first is to utilize presets, as most modern sets have several presets that can be altered however you like. These are usually called standard, normal, cinema, movie, game, sport, vivid, etc. You should have the same set of adjustment options available to adjust for each of these settings. Use your calibration disc to calibrate everything the way you want it for normal TV and movie viewing. Once you're done, apply those same settings to whatever "mode" you want to use for games (Game is generally a good one) and pop in a couple games that you know have a brightness setup that uses one of those "increase until you can barely see the image" patterns. Now adjust the brightness setting on your set until you can just barely see the applicable image. Average this number out across multiple titles. Even Dead Space 2 seemed to take a lot more adjustment to make visible than Dead Space 1 did, so try a couple. This way, whatever your playing you should be at a black level that's just barely visible for the darkest parts of most games and can fine tune it from the game's settings if you need to. The other way is to find a middle ground between the movie black level and game black level and live with it. If you manage to have a set that works perfectly for both on the same settings well...aren't you special.
However you go about it, in the end you should find that your set is living up to its full potential of HD quality. And to make this a truly sweet deal, you did it for the cost of a couple minutes and a blank DVD. Big thank you to the people over on AVS forum that put this software, and accompanying instructions, together.
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