THX Optimiser for PC monitor

[smartel]

Does the THX optimiser from a dvd work well for PC monitor ??

Always thought it was for HDTV

seams on SDTV tends to give too much blacks , contrasts tends to be a bit off

what would be an equivalent for an old PC monitor (10 years) or old SDTV (15 years) ??

lots of different solutions on the net .. any good freeware ?

[smartel]

should have a sticky here for TV,monitor adjustment

[edDV]

Does the THX optimiser from a dvd work well for PC monitor ??

Always thought it was for HDTV

seams on SDTV tends to give too much blacks , contrasts tends to be a bit off

what would be an equivalent for an old PC monitor (10 years) or old SDTV (15 years) ??

lots of different solutions on the net .. any good freeware ?

TV sets (SD or HD) use a different gamma* vs computer monitors. Also digital video uses 16-235 black to white where computer monitors use 0-255. To play correctly scaled TV captures, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc a video player is required (e.g. Power DVD, VLC, MPCHD) to make levels and gamma shift for computer viewing. When these software players are used, the THX optimizer can be used to make fine adjustments.


*TV gamma skews levels detail to the dark end of the luminance scale where computer gamma is more linear.

Refs
http://www.poynton.com/ Read the gamma PDF
http://books.google.com/books?id=ra1lcAwgvq4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=TV+gamma+pointon&...page&q&f=false

[smartel]

is it Media Player Classic Home Cinema ? (MPCHD or MPC-HC !?)

powerdvd is only trialware and VLC always seams to be jerky ...

[edDV]

is it Media Player Classic Home Cinema ? (MPCHD or MPC-HC !?)

powerdvd is only trialware and VLC always seams to be jerky ...

Sorry for typo. It is MPCHC.

What is your display card or chipset ?

MPCHC will configure to use hardware decode via DXVA if supported by the display chipset.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX_Video_Acceleration

For older cards, high definition AVC will not be supported but DVD spec MPeg2 will be.

DXVA 2.0 is only supported by Windows Vista or Win 7.

[smartel]

i have an all in wonder ve (radeon 7500 , theater 200 chipset) on an athlon 1800+ on windows xp sp3
7 or 8 year old system

i'm working with mpeg2(dvd) mostly .. nothing in HD

think i'll use VLC

[edDV]

i have an all in wonder ve (radeon 7500 , theater 200 chipset) on an athlon 1800+ on windows xp sp3
7 or 8 year old system

i'm working with mpeg2(dvd) mostly .. nothing in HD

think i'll use VLC

That computer is adequate for SD DVD MPeg2 but will struggle with HD resolution. MPCHC will still access DXVA version 1.0 features.

[smartel]

and what about test paterns on websites ?

any good (and easy) ones ?

i guess PAL test won't work on NTSC display

[edDV]

The SMPTE color bar chart is good for setting black, white and chroma. I like to use the Bell-nuite testchart for advanced monitor setup since it shows super whites and sub black.

http://www.belle-nuit.com/testchart.html

720x480 NTSC DV


Adjust black so steps below 16 are not visible.
Set white so that all steps 231-255 are visible.

You should get similar results using the THX optimizer or this chart. Its good to check one against the other.

[edDV]

The waveform monitor shows the luminance representation of the chart.

[smartel]

i went to my monitor's manufacturer (samsung) website
and tried their natural color pro software (NCPRO 2.0)
for adjusting colors , seams do to a good job

[edDV]

i went to my monitor's manufacturer (samsung) website
and tried their natural color pro software (NCPRO 2.0)
for adjusting colors , seams do to a good job

Yes a good start but that doesn't mean the devices or programs feeding the monitor are set to correct levels.