Recommendation for ISF Calibration

[stash64]

I recently went from a 34" Sony XBR CRT to a Samsung HLR-4667W DLP set, and have been very disappointed with dark scene performance on DVDs.  These sets have an awful macro-blocking problem, but I have heard a professional calibration can improve  the performance dramatically.  I guess gray scale is way off on most Samsung DLPs.

So just wondering if I can get a recommendation for a professional ISF calibrator, and hopefully someone with a lot of DLP experience  I like in Waukesha, and would like to find someone relatively nearby.

[Paul S.]

Eliab is one of the industry's best and will be in town in May. Check him out at //www.avical.com

[Mark Strube]

If lowering the brightness and adjusting any Iris settings (if that screen has any) doesn't help the black level performance, I doubt a professional calibration is going to help too much. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but black level and correct grayscale are 2 different things.

[stash64]

Eliab is one of the industry's best and will be in town in May. Check him out at //www.avical.com

Just sent a deposit to Eliab for his May tour in Chicago/Milwaukee.  Sounds like he has only one spot open now for the Milwaukee area.  I'm excited !!!

I stumbled onto Avical over at the AVS Forum, and just doing some browsing.  Definitely seems like he is one of the best, particularly with Samsung DLPs.  I guess he does a lot of Sammys.

Is Eliab going to work his magic on your TV next month ?

[stash64]

If lowering the brightness and adjusting any Iris settings (if that screen has any) doesn't help the black level performance, I doubt a professional calibration is going to help too much. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but black level and correct grayscale are 2 different things.

I am in no way an expert, but I would guess if gray scale is way off it can affect almost every aspect of picture quality.  Also, black level is not the whole problem.  My Samsung produces blacks as dark as my old 34" Sony XBR CRT, but only when the overall scene is moderately bright.  When the overall scene is dark, background images become blocky and the pixels start dancing (i.e. macro-blocking).  From what I have read, this is partly attributed to:
a) DLP technology,
b) Compressed or low definition source video, and/or
c) A bug in the Faroudja scaler/de-interlacer.
Samsung DLPs use the Faroudja chipset, as do both of my current DVD players.  I just purchased a Sony DVD player with its own proprietary scaler/de-interlacing hardware, and it is supposedly not as susceptible to macro-blocking.  I've got my fingers crossed.

Finally, I have read a number of very positive reviews regarding the benefits of a professional calibration and all said that macro-blocking was minimized and overall picture quality much improved.  Eliab (of Avical) acknowledged that macro-blocking is inherent in the DLP technology and the Faroudja chipset, but also that his calibration would make it less noticable.

[Mark Strube]

I'm not trying to dismiss how much a professional calibration can improve picture quality, but these problems sound like (at least partially) something different to me.

The macroblocking you notice during dark scenes simply sounds like a incorrect brightness level setting. When the brightness is set too high and you're watching a dark scene, you'll see areas where the mpeg2 compressor gets "lazy" because you aren't supposed to be seeing anything below that black level threshold in the first place... that will very often look like dancing macroblocking or greyish, solid areas of nothingness that turns back into "image" where there's light in the scene. Of course, this can't be noticed in brighter scenes.

Also possibly the sharpness is set too high. On my set, I must have the sharpness set 8 notches lower when watching DVD's instead of HD.

However, I cannot account for macroblocking with the Faroudja chipset, since I've never used that.

[Paul S.]

.

Is Eliab going to work his magic on your TV next month ?

Unfortunately, no. i need to drop 5 grand on a new driveway at the end of may. He did my 51" Sore-knee twice and it kicked ass.

[stash64]

I'm not trying to dismiss how much a professional calibration can improve picture quality, but these problems sound like (at least partially) something different to me.

The macroblocking you notice during dark scenes simply sounds like a incorrect brightness level setting. When the brightness is set too high and you're watching a dark scene, you'll see areas where the mpeg2 compressor gets "lazy" because you aren't supposed to be seeing anything below that black level threshold in the first place... that will very often look like dancing macroblocking or greyish, solid areas of nothingness that turns back into "image" where there's light in the scene. Of course, this can't be noticed in brighter scenes.

Also possibly the sharpness is set too high. On my set, I must have the sharpness set 8 notches lower when watching DVD's instead of HD.

However, I cannot account for macroblocking with the Faroudja chipset, since I've never used that.

I do agree that proper picture settings should minimize or even eliminate poor black level performance (and thus one more reason for a professional calibration), but I am as positive as I can be that the problem I am having is indeed macro-blocking and the primary cause is not due to improper brightness or sharpness settings.

For one, my sharpness adjustment is turned all the way to "0" for all inputs because that is the general recommendation for best picture quality and eliminating any artificial edge enhancements on DLPs.  Secondly, I have performed my own "basic" calibration on my DLP using both the Avia and DVE discs.  Along with sharpness, I've adjusted contrast, brightness, and color saturation... and I've double-checked all the settings more than once.   Brightness is probably the easiest setting to get right in my opinion, but it definitely can vary with overall picture brightness.  I used DVE's reference black level bars at five different background brightness levels to come up with my brightness setting, and I generally hedged towards less brightness.  I don't care for high brightness or contrast levels, but there are arguments that increasing contrast should help minimize macro-blocking.  That could be true, but I prefer to sacrifice contrast for a smoother image.

[Mark Strube]

Ah alright... sounds like you've done all you can then. A pro calibration could definitely help. I was just trying to look out for your wallet; that was before I knew you had already done your own calibration.

[atanag46]

Hi, I haven't seen much discussion around calibration on this forum in quite some time.  Is it still recommended to do a professional calibration for new plasma TVs?  I've ordered a Panasonic Viera TC-P50G25, and want to make sure I'm getting the most out of it.  Also, are people still generally thumbs down on Best Buy's Geek Squad doing calibrations?  That was the consensus, but the last post was almost 18 months ago.  Thanks!