You spent a lot of money on your fancy new HDTV, but the set’s picture probably isn’t as good as it could be. If you want to see exciting sports events and movies that look the way the broadcaster and filmmakers intended, you need to calibrate your HDTV.
Fine-tuning your picture with just your eyeballs and instincts is theoretically possible. But if you want to get it right, you should use a DVD based calibration tool. You likely already have THX optimizer, since it comes on every commercial DVD bearing a THX logo. But you don’t have all of it. Some of the optimizer’s tests require special blue glasses that you must buy through mail order from THX.com. The glasses cost only $2 Plus an additional $2.50 for shipping and handling.
THX offers a decent set of test patterns, although they’re not as complete and well explained as some stand alone products. Nor are the written instructions as helpful as the narrated ones on stand-alone discs.
Not surprisingly, considering THX’s background in cinematic audio, the optimizer can also assist in setting up your home theater’s surround-sound system.
Imaging Science Foundation’s $30 HDTV calibration Wizard (imagingscience.com) is a tool co-created by Imaging Science, Microsoft, and monster cable. The disc walks you through calibration without using a bunch of unnecessary tech jargon.
The Wizard uses live video instead of test patterns; the clips are easier to look at, and thy give you a better sense of what your TV’s picture will look like. For instance, to set the black level, you get a close-up of man’s black shirt and coat, and you simple adjust the setting until you can se the difference between two.
Once you get the TV right for the DVD input, jot down those video settings on a piece of paper; then reenter them for each of the other inputs, tweaking them a little as needed until the image looks as good as possible.
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