best way to calibrate ntsc television

[rikit]

I need to know where I can find directions or steps to properly calibrate color on my television. I use adobe premiere to video edit. I use 2 crt monitors as my workspace. I use a 14" tv as my output to view my edited work(preview).I know it will not be pirfect but I need to do it as best as I can.

[kimco52]

I don't know if you can still do it with current tv's/monitors, but the way we used to do it was to put a video signal/color bars/non-changing video into it and the turn the color down to minimum, flip the switch (on back or internal or on a panel) to setup position. That should turn off vertical scan and leave 3 horizontal lines on the screen. Adjust the screen controls to minimum then one at a time, turn them up until you see the line and back off until it goes away, repeat for the other two colors..... or leave them turned up to the same brightness (turn up till they become visible and leave it there). Take it out of Standby mode and put color bars on the screen. bring color up until normal level and then turn off the red and green guns. That leaves only blue. Adjust the phase/hue control until the two blue bars next to the middle one are the same brighness. The center/middle bar should be black. The two on either side of it should be blue.

Turn red and green guns back on.

That is a pretty good visual quick adjustment.

[rikit]

When you say the setup position are you referring to setup menu in which you would adjust things like color, brightness, contrast, audio, program channels...ect. where would I look to get color bars to feed into it?

[zagortenej]

To calibrate your TV, you can use AVIA or Video Essentials DVD. They have all test patterns you need to get the image as close to perfection as possible.

[kimco52]

There was a switch (in older sets) labeled "setup". It turned off the vertical scanning.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I need to know where I can find directions or steps to properly calibrate color on my television. I use adobe premiere to video edit. I use 2 crt monitors as my workspace. I use a 14" tv as my output to view my edited work(preview).I know it will not be pirfect but I need to do it as best as I can.

Assuming you don't have a "setup" switch or the ability to selective turn off the red and green guns, you won't be able to properly calibrate the television - even with a DVD full of test charts etc.

Much of the adjustment will have to be done by eye.

Have a look at: http://www.danalee.ca/ttt/monitors_and_television_sets.htm

(scroll down to "So...are you totally bored? Well then...Try This At Home!")

The fundamental issue you will have is getting the phase/tint correct. Without being able to disable the red and green electron guns, I don't see how you can. (Unless you can get some blue celluloid to put over the screen - but it will have to completely block light coming from the red and green phosphors).

[rikit]

zagortenej,
Can these be used without the selector switch type of tv as indicated by JohnnyMalaria, and kimco52? Is ther a certain type of tv you guys can direct me to purchase that may have what I need to perform color calibration?

[andie41]

Calibrating the TV through the setup menu is not really precise, but it does help. Have a look at this page for some good tips. As mentioned, using an Wratten 47B filter or an 80 photo filter will help to remove the color, while calibrating.

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~wvg/color%20bar.htm

[zagortenej]

zagortenej,
Can these be used without the selector switch type of tv as indicated by JohnnyMalaria, and kimco52? Is ther a certain type of tv you guys can direct me to purchase that may have what I need to perform color calibration?

Yes, they can be used without the swithch, and the do come with color filters to finetune RGB balance (I know for sure that AVIA DVD does, because that's the one I'm using). Usually, HD TV's let you have a full control over color setup (fine-tuning Red, Grean, and Blue individually), while with standard CRT TV's color tuning is for the most part restricted to calibrating hue and saturation.

If you don't want to spend the money on the DVD before actually giving it a try to se if it works, most public libraries -- at least here in Canada -- have them in their catalogue.