Calibration, Worth It?

[BWLover]

Hello. I was wondering if it would be worth it to calibrate my plasma. It's about seven years old and it is a Pioneer PDP-5070HD. The reason I am considering calibrating my TV is because I don't really want to buy a new TV now that 4K has came out. I would like to wait for 4K to become more mainstream and buy one of them, then to just buy a new hi end 1080P plasma today. In my mind I'm hoping that calibrating my TV would give it a a few more years of life so that I can wait out 4K becoming more mainstream.


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[Chris D]

I think you've got a pretty good approach to timing your upgrade. And after all this time, yes, you probably do need to calibrate your display. Even if you did it properly 7 years ago, after all this time and the brightness loss that you'll encounter, you'll need a calibration to compensate and get an accurate picture.

You can do it yourself and get pretty close using something like Digital Video Essentials. But having a certified calibrator do it will get you the perfect result.

[George Bellefontaine]

Like Chris said.

[John Holmes]

Uh... What Chris and George said!

[Hdale85]

Also take into consideration that 4k will become very mainstream very quickly. You can get a full professional calibration for like 300 bucks or so depending? So yeah I'd say it's worth it to hold you over. I'd say at most you have 2 years, but really I think as early as next year we'll see high end 4k displays coming in under 4k.

[BWLover]

I'm wondering how long it will take for TV and movie studios to start producing native 4k content.


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[madmac]

Huh??. Well I'll pop my 2 cents into this discussion. I don't know about this whole 'calibration' thingy to begin with. First off, 7 years is not that long in the lifespan for a TV. My Sony SXRD RPTV is older than that and yes, I have changed the bulb once but the color and overall picture display is just fine since I first adjusted it. Secondly, what is wrong with your picture quality currently?. Did you have it calibrated to begin with?.

My opinion is that you should adjust the picture yourself so that the colors across the board look 'real'. Does the American/Canadian flag look correct on the display (Like if you compared it to what you see with your eye for real)?. Grass is a big one I find. The grass should look real and not on 'infernal fire' like you often see with 'out of the box' set up TV's in bars. I understand that Plasma's slowly lose some of their punch as time progresses but 7 years does not honestly seem to be that long of a time (Unless your running it 24/7).

Lastly, If you feel it's really necessary to fine adjust the picture, there would be no way in hell I would pump 300 bucks into a professional calibration at this point. Buy the calibration disc mentioned above if you feel it's really necessary. Unlike LCD's, plasma's are known for their accurate color and contrast practically out of the box (within reason of course!!)

[Chris D]

Yeah, the traditional discussion on calibration is that every is calibrated out of the box to a preset standard. This is usually a setting that is attention-grabbing, particularly in a store where people are shopping and comparing. But the preset standard is not intended to be "accurate". And regardless what setting the manufacturer picks, it will never be calibrated for YOUR room and use. Watching a set in a living room with a lot of red and yellow paint and decoration, with a bright sidewall of daylight windows, requires a completely different calibration setting than the the exact same set in a blue room with no windows, which is completely different from a white room where somebody always watches videos in the dark.

You might try on your own using your eyeball to make it look "accurate" or make the colors look "real". But you may be way off, and make the set even LESS accurate, and even inhibit the set from showing you details of the picture, without even realizing what you're losing. This is why you have to use a formal calibration disc as a minimum, with official test patterns, filters, and usage instructions. But even that will never be as accurate as a professional calibrator, with professional equipment and access to advanced settings in your display.

Of course TV displays last much longer than 7 years. I have at least one CRT that's 15+ years old. But every display will change its picture as it ages. 6 months after a calibration, no display will ever still be 100% accurate. Is it enough to warrant a new calibration? Probably not. But every 5 years is reasonable. Plasmas are particularly susceptible to picture change over time. To the average consumer that doesn't really care enough about picture or audio accuracy, it may NEVER be worth it to them to calibrate. But anyone that cares enough to even visit this site surely warrants a calibration of some sort every 5 years. For this original poster to ask this question shows he does very much care about accuracy, and calibration is warranted for sure.

[mjb]

I wouldn't pay a cent to "professionally calibrate" a 7 year old set, or even a new one, but thats just me. Its an entertainment device, not a nuclear submarine, I just fiddle with it until I'm happy with the picture, however "unprofessional" that might sound. I'm going to be watching it, not the calibrator. A friend just bought a new Samsung 55", and says the picture is 10 times better than the 5 year old set it replaces, even though the resolution is the same. There are lots of new processing tricks built in these days.

[aud19]

For a 7 year old display I'd probably just get AVIA or DVE (heck even for most new ones). Bonus being you can re-use it on all your current and future displays. Well worth the $20-$30 investment IMO.

Basically, a pro calibrator will get your set to 100% of it's PQ capabilities in your room.

Doing one of the above discs should get you in the 90%-95% range.

Doing it "by eye", if you know what you're doing can probably get you somewhere in the 80%-90% range. If you don't know what you're doing, you're just as likely to make the PQ worse :lol:

[madmac]

Another thing is this..........After a pro-calibration, you might NOT like what you see!!!. I went to my brother's house once and his set was set to the infernal 'vivid' mode with punched up colors to boot!!. He liked it that way!!. I told him that his settings were WAY off.......I re-adjusted it to where I thought it should be for accurate color and he didn't like it!!.

Personally, I think that when you buy a $2-3k+ hi def TV unit that it should be pre-set for proper color and display out of the box!??. Contrast is another thing based on the room the set is in...... but color.......sheesh..........it should be accurate no??!!. I'm not sure why that can't be done??!!.

[Chris D]

Yeah, I meant to add that you get used to the way a display looks, even if it's not accurate. Multiple calibration tutorials talk about this. Your eye gets used to what you show it every day. Once you calibrate it accurately, the picture may look "soft" or "dark" in particular. But if you give it time, you'll discover that you're seeing more detail and accuracy in the picture.

It's like drinking a lot of soda. After a while, you get used to to soda, even though you're pumping your body full of crappy sugar and chemicals. Then when you try just drinking a plain glass of water, you immediately think "yuck, this tastes so bland and icky!" But if you give it time, you discover yourself feeling better, and realizing how refreshing and hydrating water can be. You had polluted your tastes.

If you want to stay addicted to soda, or a video picture skewed in any particular setting, well, more power to ya, and it's your body or TV. But I challenge you to just give it an honest try and see what it REALLY can be like.

[madmac]

I just feel that if people adjusted the color of their sets (In normal or custom mode) so that stuff looks real, you should be pretty much there. However, this is something that gets done over a period of time, watching many different programs and videos. I have yet to see a set that is not color hot out of the box (Even in normal mode). My color is down from default 50/100 to around 37 for accurate color saturation. As well, my Sony is set to custom mode for more detailed color and white balance adjustment. For us audio/videophiles, this should not be rocket science.

[Hdale85]

I'm wondering how long it will take for TV and movie studios to start producing native 4k content.


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Movies of the past year or 2 have already been filmed on 4k hardware and continue to be filmed on 4k hardware, so not long at all.

[Hdale85]

Well to be fair there are some instances where it's very hard to do a good calibration your self, RPTV's are one, CRT Projectors and even standard LCD/DLP projectors as well. For one you don't get access usually to service menu's and what not, and it's very hard to get the geometry perfect especially on CRT sets. Honestly in the scheme of things if you spend 3k dollars on a display what is a couple hundred bucks to get it looking it's best? The guy that I had come out last time lived several hours away and still only charged me 300.

[aud19]

Movies of the past year or 2 have already been filmed on 4k hardware and continue to be filmed on 4k hardware, so not long at all.

There's a lot of film that has been remastered at 4k and down sampled for BD as well FWIW.

[Hdale85]

There's a lot of film that has been remastered at 4k and down sampled for BD as well FWIW.

Yep! Content is going to come VERY quickly.

[madmac]

Well to be fair there are some instances where it's very hard to do a good calibration your self, RPTV's are one, CRT Projectors and even standard LCD/DLP projectors as well. For one you don't get access usually to service menu's and what not, and it's very hard to get the geometry perfect especially on CRT sets. Honestly in the scheme of things if you spend 3k dollars on a display what is a couple hundred bucks to get it looking it's best? The guy that I had come out last time lived several hours away and still only charged me 300.

Ok...it's time for some jokes to come through!. Did I mention that I have a certain degree of red/green color blindness?. WHO.....would let me calibrate thier TV's??. Hehehe!!!. (Disclaimer......When people come over and watch my TV, nobody complains about the color/picture presentation). However, when I help people adjust their sets, I do not tell them about this genetic condition I have !!!

Let the fun begin!! Flame away!! Hehehe!!

[madmac]

No jokes?????? What's up with you guys??!!!. Sheesh!!

[madmac]

Ok....me pooped.....I give up!!. I thought I'd get some good comments for the colorblind calibrater thing.... :-(

[Chris D]

So every day is "50 shades of grey" to you, eh?

[madmac]

So every day is "50 shades of grey" to you, eh?

Hehehe......actually, I have a certain degree of red/green color blindness. I tend to see certain pinks as light blue and Purple the same. I also see certain greens as yellow. In mini golf, If a red golf ball gets tossed into the green grass, it disappears!!. Can't find it. People laugh as I search around for it. When I buy cloths, I ALWAYS ask the clerk what the color of the garment is. I've been burned buying pink/purple stuff thinking it was blue!.

[BWLover]

Hahahaha. The golf thing would be hilarious to watch!


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[aud19]

Hahahaha. The golf thing would be hilarious to watch!


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I think I'd pay $5 just to watch that :lol:

[madmac]

I think I'd pay $5 just to watch that :lol:

Ya it's a pretty pathetic sight!. I'm kneeling on the grass passing my hand over it hoping to stumble upon the red golf ball. People stand there and laugh because it's obvious to them where the ball is because it's stands out like a sore thumb to them!. However, there are some things that color blind people can see that normal visioned people can't. Apparently, red/green color blind people were sought after in the war because they could spot the enemy more easily in the bush!.

Of course, there is also the possibility that I see color properly and that 90% of the male population sees it wrong??!!.......truly??.......really!!!.