how to properly calibrate my TV.

[ViperXT]

How do I properly calibrate my tv for color, contrast etc. Is their a VCD image download that assists with this.

[speedy]

I've been wondering that also since I'm new to the forums.
As you probably know the brightness and contrast is generally far brighter on a TV as compared to a typical computer monitor unless you have one of the newer LCD models with higher brightness and 400 to 1 contrast. I just picked up one last week and boy, what a difference!

I haven't tried it myself yet, but just snooping around on the web I came across this site that offers several test patterns. I downloaded a few to play around with.
http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/testcard/around_world.html

I download a few and adjusted the levels in Photoshop, then saved copies at 352x240 for VCD and another at 480x480 for SVCD. My "plan" follows.

1. create several short videos using various codecs and bitrates using the test patterns and also a still image or two of high quality. Set up the video to have each remain on screen several minutes to give you time to make adjustments without having to go back to the beginning. Burn the CD and load into your set top DVD or record to VHS tape or your video camera.

2. Next turn on your TV and let it warm up for at least 20 minutes. Then check to be sure your brightness/contrast is correct along with hue, sharpeness, etc.. If you know how, take the time to preform a convergence. Don't try if you don't have the necessary tools, background or you are more likely to mess things up. I'm one of those nuts that build my own color TV back in the 70's when you could get kits from Heathkit but that's another story.

3. Now lug your PC and the monitor you use for editing into the room where your TV is. I know, a royal pain.

4. The idea is to match the TV and PC as best as possible as to brightness, contrast levels, etc.. If you don't, you will always be fiddling and either be over or under correcting assuming you do take the time to make adjustments to your videos. Like I said, if you are lucky enough to have a newer LCD monitor (the new ones are twice as bright as a typical CRT monitor and the contrast is much better) so any adjustments should be minor.

Again I'm a computer nut so I have several. If you do set one aside for video editing because unless you have the LCD version cranking up brightness/contrast and/or gamma will probably make it too hard on your eyes for every day tasks like word process, surfing, etc..

There is a shortcut if you don't want to go though all that. There are several utilites that allow you to mess around with the gamma setting and also adjust the tempature of your monitor which is just a reference to how white the whites are. If you have Photoshop check in Windows Control Panel and you should find the Adobe Gamma utility which allows you to make adjustments. I'm sure there are similar utilites on the web.

[Anonymous65]

There are several screen images that is needed to set it all up correctly. First, start with purity, where you use an all red screen. You normally adjust the deflection coils back and forth for this until you have an even red color all over the screen. Next, convergence. You often use horizontal and vertical lines or a screen of white dots to converge the three electron guns, red, green , and blue. The adjustments range from magnets on the picture tube to electronic adjustemets, all depending on how old the TV set is. Next, white and black balance. You adjust the black balance with the off-set RGB controls, and white balance with the RGB gain controls. Last, you set your brightness and contrast, along with color saturation and hue controls. Normal color bars works fine for the two last adjustements. When adjusting black and white balance, just turn the color saturation to zero. So, with a few tests charts you can tune up your TV screen. HOWEVER, never stick your fingers in a TV set unless you know what you're doing. It can kill you! (and destroy the TV set)

[Anonymous65]

I might also add that there are often controls for picture height/width and centering, both horizontally and vertically. Plus, you might find a linearity control so a circle is nice and round on the screen, and not looking like an egg.

[googlioboy]

There is a great dvd out there called Video Essentials, which was created by Joe Kane, the founder of of the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). The disc not only allows you to calibrate your tv, but your sound system as well. The are several test patterns, including PLUGE, that will let you check the ability of your dvd player to pass "blacker than black" signals and the ability of your tv to show them. A blue filmstrip is included with the disc so that your can properly calibrate specific colors so that your tv will have the best color calibration it ever had.

[speedy]

For those looking for a more comprehensive method then I suggested before, besides Video Essentials then is another DVD called "AVIA Guide to Home Theater" which at least according to reviews at Amazon is better and easier to use than Video Essentials.

http://www.ovationsw.com/

[ralfbeckers]

I can also very highly recommend the Video Essentials DVD. I'm an owner of the LaserDisc with the same material an it and ever since I calibrated my 35 inch TV with it it looks just too good for anything else but the highest quality DVD and LaserDiscs.
The method suggested by skittelsen is the right way to go but his word of caution needs to be taken seriously. All the inside adjustments on TV sets require a service manual, an oscilloscope, plastik tools and preferably an isolation transformer and a large mirror. I never went through the pain of doing the inside adjustments because they are so cumbersome. Note that good gray linarity and color decoding can ONLY be achieved through those internal adjustments.
So 99.9 percent of us will have to deal whith what you can achieve through the sets external controls. Note, that on many TVs you will have to make a trade-off between accurate color decoding and black level, since some color decoders in consumer TVs are not properly designed to maintain the same hue at different black levels. The Video Essentials menthod however gets you pretty close to perfection.

I don't think that making your own VCDs and SVCDs with some test patterns ist going to do the trick because brighness and color information is sub-sampeled on these formats. (Technically, also the DVD uses sub-sampling on the color difference carriers.) From an engineering POV the only way to calibrate a TV for PAL or NTSC is using a laboratory grade test signal generator, which most of us don not have access to.

In fact, if you want to use your TV to play (S)VCDs more often than to play DVDs you might not like the way it looks after proper calibration because of the former formats inability to uniformly cover the entire brighness range from 7.5 to 100 IRE.

As always, this is just one guy's opinion, you will have to make your own experiences and judgement.

Ralf