i1Display LT good color calibration for beginner?

[ridergroov1]

Hi folks. I decided I would like to maybe get a colorimeter to adjust my plasma with (Samsung PN58C550). I am a total newb to this and this is the product that seems to be the right fit for someone in my shoes. Will I be able to calibrate my plasma color with this product? Just want to make sure. Also, is the upgrade to the i1Display 2 worth it? Thanks.

[CJS234]

I bought the i1Display2 a couple of months ago and its been great. combine with the Colorimetre HCFR program (free by the way) and this guide:
http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457
I have had great results. I cannot speak to the iDisaplay LT, but I think the i1 2 is great and recommend it for beginners as I was, and still am, one when I got mine.

[ridergroov1]

Well I got the i1display lt today and the DVE disc. My question is whether or not the thing has to be completely flat or not. The manual that came with it says to not push on the lcd screen so does that mean it does not have to be flat or the suction cups have to be connected and make it flat? Not sure what the proper procedure is. Don't want to damage my TV but want to get a good reading. Thanks.

[CJS234]

I have done both. Placed the meter just hangin by itself the meter a few cm from the screen and made it stick to the screen with the suction cups. I did no t see much difference if any on the reading I got from it. I would say try it without using the suction cups first as when I did it with my plasma it left little rings where each of the suction cups attached to the tv. Enjoy calibrating.

[ridergroov1]

Originally Posted by CJS234

I have done both. Placed the meter just hangin by itself the meter a few cm from the screen and made it stick to the screen with the suction cups. I did no t see much difference if any on the reading I got from it. I would say try it without using the suction cups first as when I did it with my plasma it left little rings where each of the suction cups attached to the tv. Enjoy calibrating.

It left the little rings on your screen? Were you able to get them off? I swear they could have put felt on the bottom of this thing, added weight to certain parts of it, and have the usb cable come out at a different angle and it we be totally flat without suction cups and some other ideas I have read on other threads. (Tape!)

[ridergroov1]

Also. Is there some kind of base setting I should start off with with my backlight or other settings or should I just use what I'm currently using for settings and go from there?

[ridergroov1]

Is the GRETAGMACBETH EYE-ONE DISPLAY 2 the same as the X Rite i1Display 2?

[CJS234]

Ok. I'll take it one at a time lol.

Yes the little rings came off, but i had to sit there and gently wipe the screen with a moist towel so as to not leave any scratches and such. I also think they could have done much better than little suction cups. On LCDs I find that they dont even work. I'm guessing it's because plasmas use glass screens.

As for backlight, I would say start at minimum and work your way up. First set contrast correctly and then, if you are following the guide I posted above, adjust the backlight to get it within the correct ftL of between 30-40.

I cannot say for sure whether the gretamacbeth eyeone display 2 is the same as the i1Dsiplay 2, but to me it looks like it may be the same thing. Maybe somebody else with mor experience in this can tell you better than I whether they are different or not.

CJS

[ridergroov1]

Originally Posted by CJS234

Ok. I'll take it one at a time lol.

Yes the little rings came off, but i had to sit there and gently wipe the screen with a moist towel so as to not leave any scratches and such. I also think they could have done much better than little suction cups. On LCDs I find that they dont even work. I'm guessing it's because plasmas use glass screens.

As for backlight, I would say start at minimum and work your way up. First set contrast correctly and then, if you are following the guide I posted above, adjust the backlight to get it within the correct ftL of between 30-40.

I cannot say for sure whether the gretamacbeth eyeone display 2 is the same as the i1Dsiplay 2, but to me it looks like it may be the same thing. Maybe somebody else with mor experience in this can tell you better than I whether they are different or not.

CJS

Thanks for all this input CJ. Very helpful. I ended up with the cell light at 18....pretty much where I had it and it worked right with the ftL setting.

I spent pretty much the whole day sunday calibrating 2 TVs in my house and it was pretty enjoyable overall. I was pretty meticulous about my main 58" set so I spent a lot of time on it. Overall I think it looks much better and I am much happier with skin tones but I will say I think certain things that should be white have a certain greenish/blue tint to them that I'm not really into but I don't want to start changing the wrong things. According to the diagrams, I am pretty close to dead on but I'd like to get rid of this greenish/blue thing going on. Do you have any suggestions? Not sure where to start with that without totally blowing my settings. Thanks again for the input. Very much appreciated.

[ridergroov1]

Don't know if anyone is still following with this thread but I think I'm going about give up on this calibration stuff. I spent the last 2 days trying to get my plasma looking good and it looks like crap even though my numbers are good. This leads me to believe that I have some setting wrong. The other 2 LCDs I did look great but my main TV, a plasma, looks dark and crappy. The one thing that is different setting wise is that I'm using the plasma profile here and not the LCD even though the walkthrough indicates if you are using the Eye One to use the plasma profile for plasma. Seems to make sense but it looks BAD. I set my old settings back which were on the standard profile and my new calibrations which are on my movie setting and flipped back and forth. The calibrated settings in the movie mode look terrible. I'm still not totally happy with the non calibrated old standard settings I had and I believe it can be better because the 2 LCDs I did do look much better but there is something wrong here with whatever I'm doing with the plasma. End result looks dark in all aspects. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[scweb13]

Plasma's in general, never look as bright as an LCD, but they do look great in little or no light.

[ridergroov1]

Originally Posted by scweb13

Plasma's in general, never look as bright as an LCD, but they do look great in little or no light.

Right I'm aware of this but we are talking about a basement with no light. The color and the tone of the picture is awful after the calibration. Do you think using the LCD profile would help?

[CJS234]

Just out of curiosity, did you use the regular tv menu's offset to change the values or did you go into the service menu and do this?

[ridergroov1]

Used the regular menus. I know how to get into the service menu but unforunately I lack the expertise to mess around in there. I would love to learn but I can't seem to find any information on how to do this anywhere on the internet.

I think I've officially given up at this point. I just spent another 2 hours trying to do something with my plasma. After I finish I have pretty decent readings but yet again I have the yellow soupy tint to everything. Looks like it sucks the life out of my display. I set it back to my "wrong" settings and my screen comes alive again. I'm guessing at this point that either my TV lacks the correct base color information for RGB and therefore gives me a terrible outcome or I just don't like a calibrated screen. I don't know though, I did my two samsung LCDs and they look awesome now. Of course my main one is a Plasma which looks terrible after I do this.

I've attached my settings which I made using ColorHCFR if anyone is interested. Thanks.

[CJS234]

I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but those post calibration settings (the ones you don't like) are probably closer to the way your tv should look than the one you like at the moment. For one in your pre-calibration settings, your gamma seriously drops off near the end of the grayscale. Also your blue is too high. Your color temperature as well is nowhere near the 6500 mark. In your post-calibration settings, these issues are fixed. I have a Panasonic VT20 Plasma and a Sony 52W4100 LCD. When I calibrated my panasonic the whites look white with no slight yellow tint or hue to them, but on the SOny I think I see what you describe as seeing on your tv. This however is a small price to pay (I think anyway) to enjoy a calibrated picture. I do not know why my Panny does not have this effect.

I would hoever STRONGLY recommend that you stick with the post calibrated settings as they will more accurately depict color and detail in viewing material. It may take a little getting used to, but after a while you probably won't even notice it.

[ridergroov1]

Originally Posted by CJS234

I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but those post calibration settings (the ones you don't like) are probably closer to the way your tv should look than the one you like at the moment. For one in your pre-calibration settings, your gamma seriously drops off near the end of the grayscale. Also your blue is too high. Your color temperature as well is nowhere near the 6500 mark. In your post-calibration settings, these issues are fixed. I have a Panasonic VT20 Plasma and a Sony 52W4100 LCD. When I calibrated my panasonic the whites look white with no slight yellow tint or hue to them, but on the SOny I think I see what you describe as seeing on your tv. This however is a small price to pay (I think anyway) to enjoy a calibrated picture. I do not know why my Panny does not have this effect.

I would hoever STRONGLY recommend that you stick with the post calibrated settings as they will more accurately depict color and detail in viewing material. It may take a little getting used to, but after a while you probably won't even notice it.

I hear you. I really do and I know what you are saying is right. I know the post calibration settings are the way it should be but I don't know, I just can't get used to it. They look so different than what my eyes like it is really hard to accept. It just blows my mind how something that is calibrated can look that bad to me. I'm sure I've probably never watched a properly calibrated TV before so that is what my eyes are used to but, it's really hard to force myself to watch something that seems nasty looking to me. Don't know what to do.

[ridergroov1]

I'm going to try to force myself to watch it like this for a few days and then go back and see what I think. Last question is, if I had a calibrator come in, are they going to do anything drastically different in the service menu than what I"m doing here? Thanks again.

[CJS234]

If you get a calibrator to come in, I think the most they will do is retweak your rgb levels to get them as close to perfectly accurate as possible. Since you have them pretty good to begin with I don't know how much they can do. There might also be some other little tweaks they can do in the service menu like adjust overall panel brightness or somethng. I'm not really sure, but I have always wanted to see if a calibrator can really make my TV look better than I can with my personal meter.

P.S. Im not sure, but I think that a pro could get rid of that yellow tint or hue you are experiencing. Maybe. My panasonic plasma doesnt have it, but my LCD does so I find it weird that your plasma has it and not your LCD. Did you calibrate the grayscale using Warm 2 Color Temperature? Maybe you can try using Neutral or Warm 1 and see if that helps. That's assuming your Samsung has those Color Temps i don't know.

[ridergroov1]

Originally Posted by CJS234

If you get a calibrator to come in, I think the most they will do is retweak your rgb levels to get them as close to perfectly accurate as possible. Since you have them pretty good to begin with I don't know how much they can do. There might also be some other little tweaks they can do in the service menu like adjust overall panel brightness or somethng. I'm not really sure, but I have always wanted to see if a calibrator can really make my TV look better than I can with my personal meter.

P.S. Im not sure, but I think that a pro could get rid of that yellow tint or hue you are experiencing. Maybe. My panasonic plasma doesnt have it, but my LCD does so I find it weird that your plasma has it and not your LCD. Did you calibrate the grayscale using Warm 2 Color Temperature? Maybe you can try using Neutral or Warm 1 and see if that helps. That's assuming your Samsung has those Color Temps i don't know.

Yeah I don't know. I think my eyes are just really used to having it over blue'd which is what I noticed I liked. I calibrated and left the settings, bumped up the contrast and brightness to my liking and added a little Blue Gain and Blue Offset and I seem to be happy. That's the best I can do right now even though it may not be totally "right". I think I would like it more if I could get it brighter with the other settings. We'll see. Thanks for your help.