SXRD + ISF Calibration = WOW

[htsteve]

I recently took delivery of a 50" Sony SXRD TV. I had it ISF calibrated yesterday. The TV was pretty good out of the box. I adjusted the user controls a bit and got the picture good looking. Then came the ISF calibration. Turns out the TV was at about 10000 kelvin (standard is 6500). Once that got fixed and colors corrected, the difference was immediate and outstanding. People looked like people. Before people looked a bit red or sometimes yellow. No more, peoples skin colors look very natural. Black levels and contract are awesome now. Any kind of graphics are very sharp. HD sources are now jaw dropping good. Bottom line is that the calibration made an excellent upgrade to the TV. Money well spent. :T

[aud19]

You have discoverred what a quality ISF calibration can do for most any set.... That is give you the picture we should all be so lucky to watch. Congrats and enjoy :T

[Race Car Driver]

Why do they need to be calibrated?
And what is ISF?

[aud19]

Why do they need to be calibrated?
And what is ISF?

ISF stands for Imaging Science Foundation.

http://www.imagingscience.com/

The short answer to your question is that pretty much all displays are calibrated at the factory to catch the eye in a brightly lit showroom, not to be accurate. An ISF tech is trained to calibrate your display using very accurate calibration equipment in conjunction with your display's service menu. This is far more intensive and again, accurate, than anything you can do yourself with a calibration disc, the normal user menu and your naked eye.

For more info, click on the link I posted above

[drsiebling]

Can you imagine if, for example, B&W shipped speakers that were excessively bright so that they would sound better to customers in a showroom scenario? Let's take it even further: These same speakers are also boosted in the treble so much, that they will eventually damage themselves if they continue to be listened to at these levels. Well, that's what TV manufacturers do to every freakin' set made. They set the picture controls so high in contrast and red levels, that the TV is bound to burn itself in if the consumer doesn't have enough knowledge to lower these settings. Obviously, this only applies to Plasma and CRT, but I do find it interesting that TV manufacturers essentially fuck up the pictures of their TVs so that the have a slightly better chance of looking better in an overly lit Best Buy. Maybe 1 in 1000 customers has the knowledge to adjust these settings and 1 in 100,000 gets an ISF calibration.

I've had my last 3 TVs ISF calibrated and the results are not subtle... they are quite remarkable, actually...

-Ben

[htsteve]

ISF is better than DIY

As aud19 said, an ISF calibration uses very accurate and sensitive equipment to assess the TV's light output, greyscale, colors, etc. The problem is that TV's come out of the box way too hot or way to cold (see my original post to see how far off the SXRD was). So no matter what I did with the user controls and my eye (along with a calibration disk like DVE), the set would still be inaccurate. As noted, an ISF calibration corrects things at the service menu of the TV. One note of caution. Only someone who knows what they are doing should mess around in the service menu. It's very easy to screw things up in there. The ISF trains and certifies the calbrators. A typical calibration will be about $300 to $500 depending on type of display and number of inputs calibrated. Considering how much we spend on an entire AV system, this a bargain compared to the improvement made.
Obviously, I agree with drsiebling. The improvement was not subtle.
The ISF website referenced has a link to ISF calibrators by state.

[peterS]

Can you imagine if, for example, B&W shipped speakers that were excessively bright so that they would sound better to customers in a showroom scenario? Let's take it even further: These same speakers are also boosted in the treble so much, that they will eventually damage themselves if they continue to be listened to at these levels. Well, that's what TV manufacturers do to every freakin' set made. They set the picture controls so high in contrast and red levels, that the TV is bound to burn itself in if the consumer doesn't have enough knowledge to lower these settings. Obviously, this only applies to Plasma and CRT, but I do find it interesting that TV manufacturers essentially fuck up the pictures of their TVs so that the have a slightly better chance of looking better in an overly lit Best Buy. Maybe 1 in 1000 customers has the knowledge to adjust these settings and 1 in 100,000 gets an ISF calibration.

I've had my last 3 TVs ISF calibrated and the results are not subtle... they are quite remarkable, actually...

-Ben

the average customer is more concerned with the image of having such a set than the image of the set
the average person would rather use coaxial cable from their HD box than pay the $100 install fee and $ on the proper cabling
kind of like driving an suv to go to the grocery store :roll:

[aud19]

Some basic punctuation might make that a bit more intelligeable there Peter

[EDS]

What is the cost of ISF calibration in your area? In New Brunswick, where I live, there is only one company ISF certified and they are pretty new at this. The price I got yesterday was $349 + tax. That's a lot considering I only paid $1000 for my TV (Toshiba 30HF85C).

Is ISF calibration really worth it?

[htsteve]

ISF is worth it

EDS,

Here in Michigan, a basic calibration typically runs about $350-400 USD for two inputs. Since you are in Canada, I would consider $350 Canadian a fair price. How many inputs does that price cover? I believe that ISF has pricing guidelines that most calibrators keep their prices close to. As I researched calibrators around here, they were all fairly close to each other. Also, I would trust calibrators who are ISF trained (i.e. they are on the ISF dealer list), even if they are relatively new at this.
As to the value of a calibration, I can only say that yes it was worth it to me. Your Toshiba is an HD TV with HDMI. I believe TV's of this kind will benefit most from a calibration. The other thing a calibration does besides making the picture correct, is to set the light output. In theory, this extends the life of the TV because it's not working as hard over the long run. Obviously, it's up to you to decide the value proposition.

Finally, my wife not only noticed the changes but really liked them. She thought it was money well spent(!).

Hope this helps.

[aud19]

I'll also add that they can correct geometry and minimize overscan as well

[Audiophiliac]

I will chime in, being a "could be certified if I decided to pay the $350" trained calibator. I have been to a week of training at the Sencore factory (the makers of the instruments ISF recommends for performing the calibrations), and also a week at the Runco factory doing Runco training, which basically was a review of what I learned at Sencore, only geared specifically towards Runco products (which by the way are very close out of the box).

All I can say is that a properly calibrated display is a necessity these days. People are spending thousands and tens of thousands of dollars on display devices. The least you should do is have them set up to correctly display the material you pump into it.

You can get a really good picture by using the test patterns and the user controls. But even a "basic" cailbration (everything ISF except the white balance calibration) done in under an hour using test patterns will yield much greater results. And in a dedicated, lighting controlled theater application, you start to really notice small changes.

After you do a few cailbrations and get a feel for how things should look, you can almost do it by eye. I am always looking at whites and grays and thinking to myself "that looks too blue (too hot), or too green or too red"....its something you get accustomed too.

But for anyone thinking of doing the full ISF calibration, do it. You will be happy you did. And if your set doesnt require too much tweaking, you might feel like you got short-changed on the service, but keep the peace of mind knowing you bought from a manufacturer who was smart enough to get you most of the way there already.