HDTV "calibration"
 

After years and years of waiting to buy an HDTV, I will be a Samsung 240hz HDTV LED TV owner soon. This has lead to an issue. I'm getting conflicting information on color "calibration". Is this something an owner can accomplish or is it a deeper, only technician accessable process? The web seems to indicate that at least some calibration can be done by an owner but I haven't found more than some basic stuff. Does calibration do anything to extend a TV's life or reliability? Anything else?

Try this site...LCD Flat Panel Displays - AVS Forum
Lots of calibration threads for Samsungs.

An HDTV is no different than any other display device. You have 4 parameters & hopefully controls for them.

Contrast
Brightness
Color
Tint

The very best way to set them is to buy a calibration DVD. I have used the AVIA DVD very successfully (at home & for projector sales) for years. But alas it is no longer available . . .

I know, I'm a lot of help . . .

Ian

You should be able to do a basic calibration with the general picture menu adjustments. If you can access your TV's "service" menu, even better. As Ian mentioned, the Avia DVD is great for that. However, it would be unlikely that you could get it as close/good as a pro can. For that you will generally pay $200-$300 though.

Do you have access to HDNet channel programming? They have a 3 pattern calibration screen that they broadcast every other Saturday. I recorded it about 3 weeks ago and used it to adjust our HD TV in the den. It's not very elaborate, but I was able to use it to improve the picture quality a little. And it's free :)

The below is off the AT&T Uverse U-Talk forum.

Record the HDNet Test Pattern

The first thing you need to do is record the HDNet test pattern if you haven't done so already. The test pattern airs once a week on HDNet (channel 1105), at 7:30AM ET/4:30 AM PT Saturday mornings. It is 10 minutes long, and is labeled "Off Air" in the program guide.

The HDNet test pattern runs 10 minutes, and actually consists of 3 different patterns. The first includes color bars and a brightness scale at the bottom, this is the most important pattern. The second is a convergence pattern, which is pretty useless for most of us, as it only applies to rear-projection CRT TVs. The last one is a sharpness pattern, which we'll use briefly to adjust the sharpness.


On that same thread, one of the products recommended for more detailed adjustment is
Amazon.com: Digital Video Essentials: Optimize Your Home Entertainment System (NTSC Component): Digital Video…

Some DVDs have the calibration program on them. Don't know if this is still the best way to go.
Home Theater: A Great Picture in Five Minutes Flat

I have the Samsung 55" 7 Series LED LCD - the picture is going to blow you away, you might not change a thing.

Also, most modern TV's have the ability to save picture settings for each source input type(component, HDMI, etc.). So, if you are using a calibration DVD, be sure to do it for all different source input types used (assuming you have a DVD player with both component and HDMI outs). Just copying the settings from your component calibration over to the HDMI source might not net the desired results.

Thanks for the responses so far. All great stuff. I'm wondering about this "service menu" that Eric mentioned. IF I can get access, would I be wise to go to work in there or should I just stay out of that? I'd hate to render my TV nearly useless right away.

Lastly, any validity to calibration extending the TV's useful life?
Thanks again!