So you’ve got a new TV and you want to get it calibrated. You’ve read all the articles that say it’s smart money spent to make your new set as good as it can be. You may have even visited the ISF website and found a recommended guy in your area. But the guy you called wants $400 and you heard that Sparky down at the Geek Squad is now offering “ISF” calibrations for $300. A chance to save a buck? Let’s take a closer look.
The annual flat panel shootout at Value Electronics in Scarsdale, New York on June 26thand June 27th was more ambitious than ever before. This year, I was ably assisted by two other calibrators, D-Nice of AVS Forum fame, and Edward Johnson from North Jersey. We calibrated, measured, and tabulated data on eight of the industry's leading Flat panel TVs: Four of the top plasma panels, the Samsung PN50B860, the Pioneer KRP500M, the Panasonic TC-50V10, and the LGPS60, and four of the top LCD panels, the Samsung UN55B8000, LG55LH90, the Toshiba 55SV670U, and the Sony KDL-52XBR9. We measured Black level, Contrast Ratio, Grayscale tracking, Gamma, and Color space on all the panels and tabulated the results. Rather than give the test results first, we thought it would be fun and interesting to have the audience cast their votes based on both viewing test patterns related to each parameter, and also reference Blu-ray movie material like "The Dark Knight", and others.
Of all of the major players in LCD flat panel television (Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Mitsubishi, Vizio, LG, and Sharp) Sharp gets the award for the most calibration unfriendly LCD flat panel currently on the market.
On April 19th I published a short piece on a rather serious issue I encountered in the field while calibrating the very popular Pioneer PDP-5080 720p resolution plasma panel. You may recall that when I completed the grayscale calibration in the service menu, and exited the service menu to take measurements to check the accuracy of the grayscale, I found that it hadn't retained the calibration settings at all. Quite by chance, I found that if you turn off the Pure Cinema, then the calibrated grayscale returned.
Professional television calibration takes what we, at TweakTV, are suggesting as a starting point to the highest level of system performance and accuracy. It is essentially a fine tuning of your entire video system by a qualified trained technician with reference level test equipment. What we are providing with the User menu settings for digital cable and/or Satelllite via the HDMI inputs of HDTVs is just a basic start in what we refer to as “System Calibration”. A full professional system calibration includes setting up all the video sources including the cable box and/or satellite receiver, DVD player, and calibrating each input on the TV with a variety of sophisticated TV test equipment.
It is fitting that my first blog topic should be about one of the calibration community's most controversial topics of late: Pioneer's attempt to keep professionals from being able to calibrate their latest regular line plasma panels, the 20 series (PDP-5020FD
and PDP-6020FD).
For the fifth year in a row now, Value Electronics presented its annual Flat
Panel Shootout where I was the keynote speaker. The panel contestants were the
Panasonic TC-P65VT50 plasma, the Samsung PN64E8000 plasma, the LG 60PM9700
plasma, the Samsung UN60ES8000 edge lit LED LCD, the Elite PRO-60X5FD full
direct array LED backlit LCD, and the Panasonic TC-L47WT50 edge lit LED LCD.
The latest reviews show that Sony KDL-55NX810 is a HDTV worth considering. Sony is up against strong competition, from Samsung, LG, and Panasonic but this might be the break out TV for them. What do you think? In th mean time, here are the suggested settings off of a professional TweakTV calibraiton - Sony KDL-55NX810
Blogs 
The annual flat panel shootout at Value Electronics in Scarsdale, New York on June 26th
On April 19th I published a short piece on a rather serious issue I encountered in the field while calibrating the very popular 
Professional television calibration takes what we, at TweakTV, 
The latest reviews show that Sony KDL-55NX810 is a HDTV worth considering. Sony is up against strong competition, from Samsung, LG, and Panasonic but this might be the break out TV for them. What do you think? In th mean time, here are the suggested settings off of a professional TweakTV calibraiton - Sony KDL-55NX810
