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.
Should I buy a plasma or an LCD flat panel HDTV? That is the question for many would-be HDTV buyers in today's flat panel dominated HDTV world. Plasma panels, or PDPs as they are referred to, are still considered by most display experts, me included, all things considered, to produce better pictures then LCD flat panel HDTVs. That, of course, is a generalization. Let's define it for the purposes of determining what is better for a particular application. Strictly speaking, if picture quality is the primary priority, then the best plasmas will outperform the best LCD panels. This is due mainly to the fact that the better plasma panels have superior black level performance, which in turn gives them greater contrast ratio. Contrast ratio is the single most important component of a video picture to the human eye. We refer to this as the "Snap" or "Pop" of the picture. Additionally, better black level performance also equates to deeper more saturated color.
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times ....and other matters
First the good news. Most of this readership is already experiencing it. More choices than ever before, in both hardware and software and at every imaginable price point. The confluence of the digital transition and the advent of high definition optical discs has every manufacture scrambling to get as many offerings under your nose as is humanly possible. The frenzy has undoubtedly launched some new companies (spin-offs) that are simply trying to capitalize on the moment. Opportunity spawns entrepreneurship and as the "dot.com" phenomena taught us in Silicon Valley, there are many more entrepreneurs than there are astute, well thought out business plans. Inevitably, there will be fall out which is Nature's way of saying; "You should have just invested in Yahoo". Survival of the fittest is generally a good thing, except for those holding the bag on non-upgradeable hardware......which gets us to the other side of the coin.
So you decided to have your display ISF Calibrated. You've researched about the process, and even after visiting the ISF Website you still have a choice to make.
Who do you call to calibrate the display? The guy at the big box store or a TweakTV Calibrator. Since both are ISF Trained, what are the real differences that set TweakTV Calibrators apart?
I think it is all fine and dandy that some big-box stores have entered the calibration market. This shows us that our efforts have made a difference in the field. And many will tell you that this is a good thing, as it will perhaps make calibration a household name and help customers understand that their TV can deliver a higher quality picture than what they get out of the box when it is first purchased. That may indeed be true on some level, but I am highly concerned about the quality of calibrations that these mass market retailers are delivering, and if they offer a poor calibration service what will that do to the name and reputation of the ISF in general. I am also concerned that the unsuspecting consumers that get sold this service in a mass market retail environment are spending their hard earned money on a sub-standard service. There are quite a few Professional Calibrators like the ones who offer their services here at TweakTV that have devoted many years perfecting their craft, and invested many dollars in truly reference level test equipment to deliver the very best calibration services available. I thought the following email trail between a TweakTV client, one of our professional Calibrators and myself, would be enlightening to our readers. I also included a piece our Calibrator's client found online, but deleted the references to the actual company for obvious reasons.
At TweakTV we try to respond to the most heavily requested HDTV's in the market place. As per your request we are proud to add these two Samsung HDTV's
Over the next month we will be supplying a large amount of suggested settings for today's top HDTV's in the market. Please continue with your requests, we appreciate all posts.
Our number one spot on the TweakTV list of requested settings belong to the Samsung HDTV LCDs.Here is the latest addition to the TweakTV database.It is the Samsung LN-40A530 .
Where are all of the suggested settings for Sony? Well, the new XBR6's has an interesting story behind them. In the meantime here are some suggested settings for the Sony KDL-46Z4100 the Sony KDL-37XBR6 and the Sony KDL-32XBR6
Professional television calibration takes what we, at TweakTV, 
Should I buy a plasma or an LCD flat panel HDTV? That is the question for many would-be HDTV buyers in today's flat panel dominated HDTV world. Plasma panels, or PDPs as they are referred to, are still considered by most display experts, me included, all things considered, to produce better pictures then LCD flat panel HDTVs. That, of course, is a generalization. Let's define it for the purposes of determining what is better for a particular application. Strictly speaking, if picture quality is the primary priority, then the best plasmas will outperform the best LCD panels. This is due mainly to the fact that the better plasma panels have superior black level performance, which in turn gives them greater contrast ratio. Contrast ratio is the single most important component of a video picture to the human eye. We refer to this as the "Snap" or "Pop" of the picture. Additionally, better black level performance also equates to deeper more saturated color. 
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times
I think it is all fine and dandy that some big-box stores have entered the calibration market. This shows us that our efforts have made a difference in the field. And many will tell you that this is a good thing, as it will perhaps make calibration a household name and help customers understand that their TV can deliver a higher quality picture than what they get out of the box when it is first purchased. That may indeed be true on some level, but I am highly concerned about the quality of calibrations that these mass market retailers are delivering, and if they offer a poor calibration service what will that do to the name and reputation of the ISF in general. I am also concerned that the unsuspecting consumers that get sold this service in a mass market retail environment are spending their hard earned money on a sub-standard service. There are quite a few Professional Calibrators like the ones who offer their services here at TweakTV that have devoted many years perfecting their craft, and invested many dollars in truly reference level test equipment to deliver the very best calibration services available. I thought the following email trail between a TweakTV client, one of our professional Calibrators and myself, would be enlightening to our readers. I also included a piece our Calibrator's client found online, but deleted the references to the actual company for obvious reasons.
Exclusive video coverage of Kevin Miller's Pioneer, Panasonic, LG, Samsung, and Toshiba shoot out competition.
Where are all of the suggested settings for 
