A/V Calibration
Calibration & Optimization
Imaging Science Foundation
Maximizing Home Theater Performance
Amazingly, most of the equipment sold directly to the public by large and small electronics chains as well as, of course, online sources are never properly setup to reach their potential for enjoyment and perform up to their capabilities. In fact, virtually all televisions sold in the United States are deliberately set improperly at the factory because of a perceived need to make their images jump out at you upon being un-boxed for store display. This setting assumes bright fluorescent room lighting (such as exists in many chain stores) and literally degrades both the image and the longevity of the component if not properly set for home use.
Some of the parameters for adjusting your new HDTV’s video performance are as follows: brightness, contrast (picture), hue (tint), color (saturation), sharpness, color temperature, noise reduction, white balance, black level, scan rate and edge enhancement. Some guidance can be gained by carefully and thoroughly reading the owner’s manual of your TV but there is no substitute for trial and error or experience. Very often, adjusting by “eye” will result in incorrect settings since very few consumers have ever had the experience of watching a properly calibrated TV and just don’t know what “correct” looks like.
A conscientious, quality custom installation company such as AllMedia Custom Video & Sound and many other CEDIA members will offer this in-home service to maximize the potential of your existing A/V system. Professional expertise in the setup of such systems should be brought to bear on all of your current equipment as well as any new equipment to be installed. They can also make suggestions on how to improve the performance of any system if so requested. Typically they will perform sound balancing and video adjustments to improve the performance of your system and bring it up to its potential. When making an investment in your own home entertainment system, the best way to maximise the enjoyment of that investment is to make sure that your finished system is as good as it can be and properly return the value that you rightly expect of it. You’ll be surprised just how good it can be!
Unfortunately, because proper calibration of any Audio/Video system requires expensive test equipment and in most cases specific computer software, not to mention experience, it can be difficult and costly for the average consumer to obtain maximum system performance. This is one area where do-it-yourselfers are better off engaging the services of a professional.
A word on “Automatic Audio Calibration”. Many manufacturers of quality A/V receivers and processors include a “self-calibrating” microphone and built-in calibration software to help the consumer achieve “proper” sound levels, equalization and speaker configuration. These systems are supposed to set the speaker configuration (how many speakers, and where they are located relative to the testing microphone), speaker distance from the listener (this determines the delay time for the sound emanating from each speaker so that the sound from each speaker arrives at the listening position at exactly the same time) and relative sound level (how loud each speaker is at the listening position) of each of the speakers. Some systems even attempt to determine the correct phase setting of the subwoofer. My experience, unfortunately, is that these “self-calibrating” systems NEVER achieve correct results. While I do not rely on these automatic systems for setting up the systems I design and install, I have tested these automatic systems from time to time and found them severely wanting in accuracy. Again, unfortunately, every time I have tested the results of an automatic calibration system, it’s results were not even close to accurate. I would recommend using such a system only as a last resort.
