ISF Techs................

[Clive]

How many people here have used an ISF Tech. to calibrate video? Do you think that "Video Essentials and/or Avia calibration vidoes would have been sufficent? Did it cost a bundle?




CLIVE




HEY!! Why buy movie tickets when you can own a Theater?

[JonMarsh]

Uncle Clive,

There's nothing wrong with AVIA or VE, (though I think AVIA is more complete, and has important feature for digital projectors),
but these disks don't include a color analyzer, and they don't include the skills and knowledge to do an accurate optical and electrical focus, geometry, and convergence adjustment as is required to get the best out of a CRT FPTV or RPTV.

For an RPTV owner, hoping to get the best out of their existing set, the minimum expenditure (if you're knowledgable and skilled) would be a factory service manual (to facilitate accomplishing the above), and completing the setup using one of these disks. That's the route I go, but I've even built two CRT FPTVs, and done the complete setup and alignment from the ground up, (as well as installed and setup a few others for friends) and I'm an EE by profession.

If you don't have the inclination or skills to get into this process at that level of detail, the services of an ISF tech are invaluable. Otherwise, you just don't know what your CRT rig is capable of. Do a search on HTF forum for ISF Tech, you'll find plenty of stories about people who've tried that route and what they think.

The funniest thing I read, is these guys on AVS forum, who've gotten an HTPC working for the HD ready RPTV, and they wonder why they can hardly read the text on the display, compared with a computer monitor! Well, if the average computer monitor had geometry and convergence (to say nothing of color decoding) as bad as most RPTV's do out of the box, NO ONE would be able to do any work on them. The average person is so used to the concept of what we call "video" in the average home (noisy, smeared, poor detail resolution, especially for color) that the first time they see DVD on a properly setup HTPC and display, they usually think it's that HD stuff they've heard about but never seen- or seen bad demo's of at their local Best Buy. (At my local Best Buy they used to have the 38" RCA next to the HD ready RPTV's, fed the same signal, until someone woke up to the fact that it made the std. misconvergence and alignment of the RPTV's look pretty stinko.)

-Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[George Bellefontaine]

Good advice.




My Homepage! (http://www.mts.net/~glendap/george.htm)

[Pat]

I have had John Gannon over twice, the first time was for my Mitsu 50" RPTV and the second was for my Sony 1272q CRT FPTV.

Both times he made the image look outstanding!
I had used Avia on both and I had been in the service menu tweeking and trying to make the picture look as good as I could.

John really knows his stuff and has an eye for detail.
He took it to the next level.

I would do it again...if your serious about your picture, get someone who is knowledgeable.




Pat's Page (http://pat.home.mchsi.com)

[George Bellefontaine]

Hi, Pat,
Just want to say I don't see how you can go wrong with John Gannon. Whenever he writes a video review, I know I am getting the straight story.




My Homepage! (http://www.mts.net/~glendap/george.htm)

[Pat]

That's for sure!
He's one of the nicest people I've ever met...we were laughing and joking around like we had known each other for years :)




Pat's Page (http://pat.home.mchsi.com)

[errol]

Hi ya folks,

I had Michael TLV calibrate my set and am very happy with the results.

Here's my review of the results (http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/isf/michaeltlv/isf_calibrator_tours_northeast_keohihdtv.html) including plots.

Thanks,
Errol




Keohi HDTV (http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv)
Your Friendly HDTV Tips Site

[Clive]

Thanks Errol, very, very interesting!




CLIVE




HEY!! Why buy movie tickets when you can own a Theater?