Finally posted my home theater sttup:)

[Matt27]

I've been aching to post my settup for a while, but now that i borrowed my brothers digital camera i posted some today.

They will be more to come, including movie screenshots to show off my own ISF full calibration i did on my own:)

[starbuck]

ISF full calibration i did on my own:)
How did you learn how matt?
Id love to learn.

[Ratman]

What test did you use for a color analyzer? Was it the Sencore box?
How about a signal generator?

Do you own the gear or did you rent it?

How long did it take you? (because it usually takes a trained ISF tech about 4-6 hours)

Please provide some insight. We'd all be interested.

[brector]

I think he did an "arm-chair" ISF calibration :D

I'm going to borrow a digicamera from work to hopefully get some pics of mine up.

[Matt27]

It took me 3 days to do it, and i rented the equipment.Yeah it was a sencore box, don't remember about the signal generator brand.

Basically i took my time and concentrated all my attention to detail and minor things some people might not notice.Since my vision is good, but not good enough to see some details, i had to wear my reading glasses when doing the test.

Brector,lol. yeah something like that, i prefur to call it the foot of the bed calibration, ISF style:)

The picture quality differences before and after was really obvious, i'd say i made an 70% improvement in thw whole picture quality.Before the set was missing shadow detail, but now the blacks are silky smooth and now i can see details in dark areas where i had to squint before to see them.

Also after doing the focus adjustments and a little convergance the detail has improved tremendously, espeacially the focus of the set.The picture is so detailed now, even far away they are clearlu visible.

There is no more red push, which i eliminated completely,greens are better, and the color is dead on now very close to D6500k.In fact what really stands out now is the colors, once your set is calibrated close to the D6500K temperature, the pictures look absolutley beautiful to look at.The picture is now gorgeous to look at.

With so good a calibration it even makes the not so good dvd transfers look really good, even my VHS tapes look like dvd's now far away and up close.Overscan now is at about 2.5% and below, color temp was on warm when i calibrated it too, and it is no longer redish as before as some people would think.

Once the warm color temperature is calibrated properly, it no longer is a redish tint over the picture.Some people don't realize this and use the cool color temp which is way off the scale.

I took my time, and the results are well worth the wait, the picture looks exactly like a HD image now, it's that good.I thought my set was good out of the box, but after a full calibration, boy was i wrong.

A full calibration is definately worth it if you have the patience to do it.I guarantee you will at least see a 60% increase in picture quality.

[Ratman]

If you can, would you please post the type (and make/model) of gear you rented, the approx. price for a weekend rental and where/how/who you located the gear?

That would be helpful for those that would like to take on this type of challenge.

[Matt27]

Well i know the color analyzer was a sencore brand, but don't remember the brand for the rest.I rented the equipment somwhere in cambridge mass. The price to rent the stuff varies from place to place, for me it was about 175$.

My HDTV set is a SONY 34" 34HS420, and now that it's properly calibrated it looks the same quality as the XBR960 if not better.

As a tip, try looking in your phone book for any calibrators in your area, that's how i found mine.

Matt~

P.S. The audio, almost forgot about the audio in my settup, after all hometheater would'nt be home theater without surround sound.

It matches the tv sets beautifull picture nicely:)The audio was pretty easy, just used my ears and a SPL meter.

[Ratman]

Is it possible for you to let me (us) know what test gear you used for the calibration?

After 3 years, I'd like to tweak my settings since I'm sure they've 'drifted'.

If you know what gear you used, I can call around in my area and get some price estimates (if I know what I'm asking for).

If you don't recall... can you provide the name/number of the outfit where you rented the test gear? I could probably call them and ask what gear I should ask to get.

Thanks in advance.

[Matt27]

Well for the equipment part i let my friend do it, it was too technical to me, all i did was get rid of the red push and green depression, and adjust the focus and overscan.

The simple things i did, and then when i was done in the service menu, i calibrated my picture from the user menu.

Sorry but i can't really tell you how to use the equipment because it was out of my league and too technical for me.

But the advice i can tell you is to check your phonebook for any calibrators in your area.

My friend agreed to do it for me since he is more into this stuff than i am, and more tech savy.

Good luck on your calibrations guys, if you feel the need.:)

[Ratman]

Yeah it is pretty technical...

Anyway you can ask your friend for the info on the gear (make/model)?

Many of us have already performed the 'minor' tweaks of the RCut/RDrv's, focus, overscan, etc. via service menus.

But info about the test gear is what would be helpful so we know what to ask for when asking for rental prices.

[brector]

Holy crap Matt - I didn't realize you rented equipment and really did a calibration. From our other discussion - I just thought you did service menu tweaks. Glad to hear it made a good difference!

[Matt27]

I did'nt use the equipment though, my friend did, since it was too technical for me, i just did the basic service menu stuff like, red push,greens,focus,overscan,geometry,etc.

[Matt27]

Depending where your located the price varies, from 200-350$, so it gets pricey, but for that much you might as well get an ISF calibration.

The good thing about doing it yourself though is you know which settings you want to adjust to make the picture pleasing to yourself.

[Ratman]

I'm confused... first:

You said 'you' rented the equipment and it was ~$175 to rent.
You said 'you' made the adjustments ("and took your time").
It took 'you' the weekend.
... you had to wear you glasses.

Then... your friend did it, not you.

Don't you talk to your friend anymore? Can't you ask what he rented?

I don't know Matt27. Are you 'enhancing' the facts a little?
I'm beginning to think that you really didn't rent or use any test gear at all.

[Matt27]

I'll be honest i did'nt really use the equipment at all, but I did try to see if i could rent equipment. :mecry:

Sorry fella's for not telling the truth, i wish i could do an ISF calibartion myself but the equipment is way beyond me.

I guess i wanted to impress you fella's, but what i should have said is i did some service menu tweaks like focus,overscan,redpush green depression,etc.

As for my friend well he just came over to learn how to tweak his sony as well.

He just wanted to see how to use the service menu so he could tweak his set too.

Sorry guys, did'nt mean to mislead you, as Brector said, i did an over the bed calibration :D

Ratman: you should be a detective or a government agent :sherlok: lol.

[Ratman]

It took a little finesse on my part, but I knew from the start of your thread that you were out to "impress".

There's no need to do that.

That said...

Thanks for 'fessin up! I appreciate your honesty! :overclap:

[Matt27]

:) It still made a significant improvement though just doing the minor service menu tweaks.

Also when adjusting overscan how much is too much, i mean i know your supposed to get it below 5% but if i go lower than 4% i start to see black bars on my videogame systems on the left,right,top and bottom.

[brector]

I posted my "rig" up today. The camera from work is old but it worked. Now I just have to clean up my cables.

[Matt27]

nice :) i'll check it out.

[mikehbkwm]

wow, that took balls to admit...

[max]

i'll second that!!!

MAX,

[brector]

Just don't post them in the gallery :D

[Ratman]

Okay guys!

Cut him a break. He admitted to stretching the truth and IMO learned a lesson. Let it go.

[max]

I didn't mean my reply to sound mean, I was just surprised that's all...

MAX,

[maximusII]

I'll be honest i did'nt really use the equipment at all, but I did try to see if i could rent equipment.
Sorry fella's for not telling the truth, i wish i could do an ISF calibartion myself but the equipment is way beyond me.
I guess i wanted to impress you fella's, but what i should have said is i did some service menu tweaks like focus,overscan,redpush green depression,etc.


Kudos Matt for "keeping it real" bud!
You are obviously very passionate about this stuff...and you could always look into ISF Training and see what exactly is required (besides the expensive equipment) to become a Certified Calibrator. IMO it would be not only impressive but downright rewarding to be called upon by a long-list of family and friends (and their friends) who count on you to get their bigscreen HDTV looking its best.

[Matt27]

I was thinking about that myself, even my father suggested it would be good for me since i'm into the Audio/video stuff.All i'm trying to do is get the most out of my set PQ wise.

Now that you got me interested, is it costly for the coarses?

[Ratman]

I would assume the courses can become 'pricy' (as well as the test gear). Here's some insight:

http://www.laaudiofile.com/isf.html
http://www.imagingscience.com/seminars.cfm#dates

[Matt27]

That looks really cool, that Joe will let you play with the tv's and then see the results.:)