Avia Calibration question

[dwesson]

OK, I'm looking for input from anyone who has used Avia to calibrate their HDTV. After finishing my calibration, I checked my settings with the "Color Decoder Check." This is what I'm reading:

Red: Between 5% & 10%
Green: Between 5% & 10%
Blue: 0

Is that a desirable outcome? I've tried, and there is no way for me to get it closer to 0/0/0 that I can figure out. I'm looking to get the most realistic picture I can out of my set. Any input?

[liquidice]

without looking at your results, it very hard to answer your question. Sometimes what this comes down to is, "does it look good to you?". To get the best results, you should have it professionally calibrated. There are some very helpful threads about ISF in these forums. One I recently read about was Best Buy now doing calibration at a better cost than typical, and seems most people are pretty happy with the results. Biggest thing I get out of my Avia disc is setting Picture (white level) and Contrast (black level).

[dwesson]

Yes, I understand that it really comes down to "what looks best to me" and "what looks best in my viewing environment," but I'm talking simply about the relationship between the three colors when it comes to achieving an NTSC standard picture. Is 5-10% a small enough amount of "push" on Red and Green that it comes close to what is considered standard?

[DavidAg02]

Originally Posted by dwesson

Is 5-10% a small enough amount of "push" on Red and Green that it comes close to what is considered standard?

5-10% push is pretty minimal, so it sounds like your calibration has been pretty successful.

You might want to try backing down the saturation a bit to see if you can get the red and green closer to 0. Even if your blue ends up in the negative, it will probably look a bit more natural.

[dwesson]

Originally Posted by DavidAg02

You might want to try backing down the saturation a bit to see if you can get the red and green closer to 0. Even if your blue ends up in the negative, it will probably look a bit more natural.

Thanks, after going back and looking at everything, backing the saturation down a hair seems to decrease the red and green a little without really affecting the blue, so I think I'm pretty much where I'm going to end up. Now, I'm reading closer to Red=0-5%, Green=5-10% (hard to tell with this) and Blue=just under 0. The picture looks good to me, and skin tones look natural, which is my biggest concern.

[HeavyHitter]

The color filters tend to be a little "hot" or oversaturated (or a few clicks too high) to look through because you're looking at all three colors through one filter. However, as a result, you're probably okay.

The best way to do this is to turn off two primary colors at a time and just look at one color...but this requires doing it in the service menu which I don't recommend unless you know exactly what you're doing.

[dwesson]

Yeah, I don't want to mess around in the service menu. I've been tweaking my settings all weekend and watching movies and whatnot to test everything out. I just got through watching The Empire Strikes Back, and I must say, it's the best I've seen the film look, aside from the theater.

I think my settings are pretty much decided now, considering how close I've been able to get the colors on the "Color Decoder Check" from Avia. I'm happy with the results and unless someone can point out any errors I may have made with my calibration, I won't likely be changing anything anytime soon.

Just to be sure, I am understanding what to do with each of these tests correctly, am I not?

-White Level (Needle & Steps): Adjust until the rightmost white bar is just visible against the white background, without blooming (if blooming is even possible on my TV).

-Black Level (Half Gray Screen): Adjust until leftmost black bar is just visible against the black background.

-Saturation & Hue: Adjust until flashing boxes "disappear" and blue stripes are all equal in color.

Like I said, using this I got my reds, greens and blues within 5% or so of each other... and it looks good.

[lghaze42]

I have the Avia calibration disc but I also have the Monster isf calibration disc that I like better.It's quicker and easier to use.

[Djnx]

Getting the "color decoder check" right without calibration equipment can be very tricky and could try your patience. You have to set color and tint levels right, then fine adjust the greyscale.