Hey TTV,

I have seen countless opinions on break in periods before a calibration. Is it 100 hours? Is it 150 hours? Do I need to fill the entire screen? Can I watch letterbox? What happens if I calibrate right out of the box? We need to final mention on this please.

Thanks
AC

Hi AC,

While there is no final definitive answer for all your questions I will certainly weigh in with my opinion. Break in time depends on the display and the type of display. Lamp based front projectors and LCD panels I recommend 100 hours or so. Some plasmas like Panasonics and Samsungs you can get away with about 100 hours as well. Pioneers though require more like 150 to 200. D-Nice at AVS Forum has spent a lot of time over the last several years measuring black level and has determined that black level continues to change until the 150 to 200 hour mark. For most of the time during the breakin you should make sure that what you are watching is filling the screen. However, if you want to watch a 2 hour movie with black bars once in a while it won't harm anything. While I wouldn't pay fore Professional Calibration right out of the box as grayscale and black level may drift, there is nothing wrong with doing a User Calibration with a test Blu-ray. After the breakin is done then it should be calibrated again. I hope this clarifies things for you.

Finally an answer that I can refer to. Thank you TTV. You guys should post this somewhere public for all to see.

We agree. We will display this prominently.