What Are The Right Settings?
A lot of people will tell you that whatever settings look best to you are the right ones. Don’t listen to them. You'll enjoy your content best when you see it the way it was intended to be seen by all the artists and technicians that created it for you. You can make preferential settings to your taste of course, but you’re better off making those after you’ve adjusted the set to the “correct’ settings.
And what are those? A professional with Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) certification would be happy to talk to you about them at length, while holding up a color temperature meter to your TV and giving you a bill for $300 or more. While a trained (and equipped) pro calibration is appropriate for a top-end, custom installed home theater (especially those featuring video projectors), this step is overkill for most consumers.
That being said, a proper calibration is something you don't want to just haphazardly do "by eye," unless you're an experienced imaging professional like a photographer or digital graphics professional. You want a visual guide that will show you the picture "targets" and let you adjust your TV until you can get as close as you can to them. There are two good solutions; one is free, one will set you back the cost of a DVD or Blu-ray disc.
Tools, Free And Cheap
There are free online calibration tools available on the web, such as www.displaycalibration.com, among others. If you've got an HDTV bought in the last few years, odds are that it features an input for a PC or laptop; you can simply connect and use this input on your TV as the source for your picture adjustments. Newer sets even let you browse the Internet directly from the TV, which would eliminate the need to connect your laptop. The calibration sites will show you test patterns; simply adjust your TV's picture settings to follow the site's text directions.
For folks who don't mind a bit of verbal coaching and a small investment, I recommend a small investment of $25-35 dollars for a good TV calibration disc. These DVDs and Blu-ray discs will have a series of test patterns and technical explanations (which you can skip, if you like). Spoken instructions will guide you through the proper setup and the results will work for any TV from any maker. The best setup discs come from www.videoessentials.com, but there are several others available online. Pop in the disc, follow the instructions and in no time you'll have an optimized TV.
When you’re done with some simple calibrations, your movies will look more realistic, your sports will look less unrealistic and you’ll have a set that doesn't waste electricity or your eyes.
Worth a few minutes? I think you'll find that it is. In future postings, we'll look at other picture preferences and "tweaks" that will help you get the most from your TV and video gear.
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