Your Video May Not Be All That It Seems

While every HDTV owner is unique, the display settings on an HDTV may not be. If you want to ensure lifelike image quality for your HDTV, you’ll need a professional to perform a calibration.

• Most TVs are shipped with a set standard video mode meant for an electronics store display—this means that the TV’s settings are adjusted to show the best picture in a bright, fluorescent-lit environment. Because it’s unlikely your lighting at home matches the store’s surroundings, you should have your TV professionally calibrated by an ISF (Imaging Science Foundation)-certified specialist to accommodate your home’s unique lighting environment.

• An HDTV’s viewing angle and your home-theater setup also affect how your HDTV should be calibrated. An ISF-certified professional takes these factors into account when making adjustments.

• Although you can expect to budget 10 to 15% of the purchase price of your television for a professional calibration, consider it an entertainment investment that will pay dividends for years to come.

Why A Professional Calibration?

Instead of taking a chance with your HDTV investment, rely on professionals to handle the work for you.

• Calibration specialists are ISF-certified, which means they are trained to use highly specialized and expensive equipment to calibrate HDTVs correctly.

• A calibration DVD might be a tempting alternative, but it won’t let you adjust all of your HDTV’s settings. An ISF-certified professional can access advanced service menus to calibrate your TV correctly. These settings aren’t meant to be experimented with, so if you poke around and gain access to your TV’s service menu, it’s best to leave it alone. Many customers have rendered their TVs useless because they didn’t know which settings they were changing.

• Calibration DVDs only adjust video settings for your HDTV’s DVD input. This means when you’re watching video from a source other than a DVD, your picture won’t be calibrated. A professional calibration takes care of two source inputs, such as your DVD player and cable box inputs.

What You Can Expect

An in-home calibration service will typically last about two hours and includes the following:

• A professional will use color analyzer equipment to objectively tune color saturation and temperature as precisely as possible, letting you see video exactly the same way it looked when it was created.

• Your HDTV’s contrast will be set up to provide greater video detail as well as the darkest blacks and brightest whites.

• No matter which calibrated source input you are using, you will enjoy the best image clarity and sharpness that your HDTV can provide.