TV Picture: What Does "Calibration" Mean???

TV Picture: What Does "Calibration" Mean???


Calibration. To calibrate.


With regards to TV sets - of any type - I suspect two things
have stood in the way of this process: #1. Most set owners
and folks in general, outside of the scientific community,
don't know what the dang word even means! And #2. Modern
digital TVs are so "good" most people think they don't even
need calibration.


Succinctly, calibration means to align something to a given
standard, or set of standards. These standards may be
physical, electrical, chemical, or in the case of image
reproduction, a certain range of color and brightness when
standardized patterns are displayed on a TV.

==========
The way I have recently started to explain what I do to
TVs to the average person is to draw a basic shape on a
piece of paper, I.E. a triangle. To the right of that I draw an
arrow, then a rectangular box, another arrow, and a blank
space.

I then show this to the person, explaining that the triangle
is the subject on TV, and the box is their TV set. I then
ask them what should they see to the right of all that, after
it comes out of their TV set. They answer, "a triangle"?

So I draw a circle! (or, a distorted triangle)

The person looks at me, "what?"

I tell them, without calibration, this is what your TV does
to the image of subjects transmitted to it, via inaccurate
color, off tint, or too bright or incorrect contrast. Your
TV may wow you out of the box, but that factory setting
was intended to SELL IT to you, not for long-term TV or
movie viewing, or game playing. Plus, it may shorten the
set's life.

I then explain the two types of calibration: Basic(brightness,
contrast, sharpness, color, tint - the basic user controls),
and, advanced(Basic, plus internal color temperature and
grayscale alignment.). I then explain that most reputable
brands of TVs today(Sony, JVC, Samsung, Pioneer) will
deliver an accurate picture with just the basic controls properly
set. Cheapo brands(Daewoo, Insignia), or older CRT(tube)
TVs might need more advanced additional adjustments to
get them in line.

If they ask me what all this will do, I tell them: You will see,
if not exactly, an image much closer to what the producer or
tv control room engineers see when they make a TV show
or a movie. Plus, the image will be far less stressful to the
eye, and you might even save energy!
==========


This usually sells them, instead of just asking them,
would you like your TV "calibrated"?


Calibration is a big, nerdy, multi-syllable word that few
understand, and perhaps shouldn't even be used to
describe the process of aligning a display and making
it transparent to whatever is shown on it.


No WONDER "display calibration" or "tv calibration"
has fallen out of favor!


Waiting for the crickets ....

thekmanrocks@gmail.com - Switch accounts - Desktop

 

Well that's all fine and good, but why did you use the form of a question in the title ?

Anyway, there is a disk out there called "Video Essentials" which is supposedly a great aid in doing that. However, for an accurate greyscale you need something to which to compare. For video cameras they had what were called lightboxes which supposedly had a specific color temperature. With a monitor, maybe you can compare to a high brightness piece of paper lit by a lamp with a specific color temperature. Or perhaps sunlight.

Though things can run off still, it is nowhere near as bad as CRTs were. If they weren't burned in enough after cathode activation they would drift, and later those miniature cathodes got hotter with increased beam current and drifted, necessitating AKB. (Auto Kine Balance) And then there is convergence and purity. The Earth's magnetic field affected the purity quite a bit, and convergence to a lesser degree, except on projection TVs.

The LCD TVs do not really have these problems, they are going to inherently be more accurate out of the box. Same with plasmas but the phosphors in a plasma can weaken with age like any other phosphor. Someone told me the gas in them wears out, and that reduces color temperature. I do not believe it, that should affect all colors equally. I think the blue phosphor wears out first. Blue phosphors are the least efficient and therefore will get more drive.

While there are no cathodes, the phosphor does still burn in and weaken with heavy use.

There is no convergence or purity adjustment on plasma or LCD (which includes what they call LED now). Greyscale and color demodulation, are all there is, and with other than NTSC (composite or SVHS) there is no color demodulation either.

 

jurb...@gmail.com wrote: "Well that's all fine and good, but why did you use the form of a question in the title?"


Because it seems in the last 10 years calibration, or at least the
very concept of it, is becoming marginalized, less relevant. The
occurrence of the word "calibration" has dropped significantly
since the early 2000s according to searches I conducted in
usenet groups related to video technology and production.


I sincerely want to share my calibration experiences with others
because I'm so excited by what it has done for my TV and video
viewing experience. My problem is adjusting my "elevator speech"
so that the common man(woman) 'get' what calibration does for
their equipment and their viewing.

 

I've worked in broadcast and post production since 1976 and calibrated many monitors, some used for THX film transfers and verified by their tech. Calibration was mandatory with CRT monitors and on a regular basis. The new TVs are amazingly consistent and I find no desire and certainly no need to 'tweak' them. In fact, unless you're very qualified I would not allow you to touch my TV.

G˛

 

stra...@yahoo.com wrote: "
The new TVs are amazingly consistent and I find no desire and certainly no need to 'tweak' them.
In fact, unless you're very qualified I would not allow you to touch my TV.

G˛ "

So if I understand you correctly, If you were to buy a brand new
flat panel set, connect it all up and start watching it, you would
leave the user menu settings all in their factory positions?

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 8:13:42 AM UTC-4, thekma...@gmail.com wrote:

TV Picture: What Does "Calibration" Mean???


Calibration. To calibrate.


With regards to TV sets - of any type - I suspect two things
have stood in the way of this process: #1. Most set owners
and folks in general, outside of the scientific community,
don't know what the dang word even means! And #2. Modern
digital TVs are so "good" most people think they don't even
need calibration.


Succinctly, calibration means to align something to a given
standard, or set of standards. These standards may be
physical, electrical, chemical, or in the case of image
reproduction, a certain range of color and brightness when
standardized patterns are displayed on a TV.

==========
The way I have recently started to explain what I do to
TVs to the average person is to draw a basic shape on a
piece of paper, I.E. a triangle. To the right of that I draw an
arrow, then a rectangular box, another arrow, and a blank
space.

I then show this to the person, explaining that the triangle
is the subject on TV, and the box is their TV set. I then
ask them what should they see to the right of all that, after
it comes out of their TV set. They answer, "a triangle"?

So I draw a circle! (or, a distorted triangle)

The person looks at me, "what?"

I tell them, without calibration, this is what your TV does
to the image of subjects transmitted to it, via inaccurate
color, off tint, or too bright or incorrect contrast. Your
TV may wow you out of the box, but that factory setting
was intended to SELL IT to you, not for long-term TV or
movie viewing, or game playing. Plus, it may shorten the
set's life.

I then explain the two types of calibration: Basic(brightness,
contrast, sharpness, color, tint - the basic user controls),
and, advanced(Basic, plus internal color temperature and
grayscale alignment.). I then explain that most reputable
brands of TVs today(Sony, JVC, Samsung, Pioneer) will
deliver an accurate picture with just the basic controls properly
set. Cheapo brands(Daewoo, Insignia), or older CRT(tube)
TVs might need more advanced additional adjustments to
get them in line.

If they ask me what all this will do, I tell them: You will see,
if not exactly, an image much closer to what the producer or
tv control room engineers see when they make a TV show
or a movie. Plus, the image will be far less stressful to the
eye, and you might even save energy!
==========


This usually sells them, instead of just asking them,
would you like your TV "calibrated"?


Calibration is a big, nerdy, multi-syllable word that few
understand, and perhaps shouldn't even be used to
describe the process of aligning a display and making
it transparent to whatever is shown on it.


No WONDER "display calibration" or "tv calibration"
has fallen out of favor!


Waiting for the crickets ....

thekmanrocks@gmail.com - Switch accounts - Desktop

That would depend. We have a Panasonic Plasma TV - the factory settings are *very* bright and the color mix verges on the cartoonish. "Calibrating" in that case allows the user to set the color range, average brightness and similar parameters to a more reasonable setting. One can purchase a 'kit' to help with this, and/or use other means to get the colors true. Once done, as otherwise noted, the system seems to remain remarkably stable, even through power-failures.

That would be my take on the use of that term-of-art for our particular unit.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

pf...@aol.com wrote: "- show quoted text -
> thekma...@gmail.com - Switch accounts - Desktop

That would depend. We have a Panasonic Plasma TV - the factory settings are *very* bright and the color mix verges on the cartoonish. "

So you have observed, and agree, that factory default
settings on consumer TVs such as your Panasonic and
on my Samsung LED are not ideal for extended viewing.



"Calibrating" in that case allows the user to set the color range, average brightness and similar parameters to a more reasonable setting. One can purchase a 'kit' to help with this, and/or use other means to get the colors true. Once done, as otherwise noted, the system seems to remain remarkably stable, even through power-failures. "

And you agree with calibration in your particular case. I
did notice that you seem to think that calibration is some-
thing that must be done periodically(every year or two for
example).

That may have applied in the case of CRT-based TVs or
projectors, yes. But not with modern digital flat technology
- UNLESS - you change one of your input sources, or
upgrade, I.E. from a standard DVD to a Blu-Ray deck.
You then recalibrate that input for that device. I tell
all of my customers this: that their calibrated settings
should not drift for at least a decade.



"That would be my take on the use of that term-of-art for our particular unit. "

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA "

Not sure what you mean by "term of art".
Please elaborate.

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 9:29:41 AM UTC-4, thekma...@gmail.com wrote:

And you agree with calibration in your particular case. I
did notice that you seem to think that calibration is some-
thing that must be done periodically(every year or two for
example).

No, I stated that the settings, once done, were remarkably stable, even through power-failures. I did have to re-calibrate after a 6-day failure (Hurricane Sandy), but not for failures as long as several hours.

That may have applied in the case of CRT-based TVs or
projectors, yes. But not with modern digital flat technology
- UNLESS - you change one of your input sources, or
upgrade, I.E. from a standard DVD to a Blu-Ray deck.
You then recalibrate that input for that device. I tell
all of my customers this: that their calibrated settings
should not drift for at least a decade.

I have not experienced that need - we switched about 2 years ago from a basic DVD player to a compatible, self-upgrading blue-ray DVD with no visible need to re-calibrate - and the software with the kit verified this.

"That would be my take on the use of that term-of-art for our particular unit. "

Not sure what you mean by "term of art".
Please elaborate.

Term-of-Art: A word, combination of words or phrase specific to one thing that is used outside of its common definition. To me the term "calibrate" is specific to measuring devices, meters, tube testers, signal generators, rotameters, gauges and so forth that are set to a specific standard such that measurements from them can be trusted. I would not generally consider arbitrary settings based, in part, on taste rather than independent standards, would be any sort of 'calibration'. At least, again, as I understand and would normally use the term. There are those that prefer bright settings and cartoonish colors. De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

"me the term "calibrate" is specific to measuring devices, meters, tube testers, signal generators, rotameters, gauges and so forth that are set to a specific standard."

Likewise! DVD test patterns also count,
as long as one follows instructions on
what to look for when the specific
control(brightness, contrast) is adjusted
optimally.

I still sense a lot of skepticism in your
responses regarding display ALIGNMENT -
there, I just found a new name for it that
makes sense!

 

[whit3rd]

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 9:37:13 PM UTC-7, stra...@yahoo.com wrote:
> I've worked in broadcast and post production since 1976 and calibrated many monitors, some used for THX film transfers and verified by their tech. Calibration was mandatory with CRT monitors and on a regular basis. The new TVs are amazingly consistent and I find no desire and certainly no need to 'tweak' them. In fact, unless you're very qualified I would not allow you to touch my TV.

Generally, there's no calibration in an LCD TV that requires touching. Digital signal,
not affected by movable magnets or variable resistors.
If you use your TV for a computer monitor, though, and have a color printer:
you ought to calibrate the video card or the printer driver so that the
color prints produce the same colors as the screen display.
Getting the correspondence right is important for artistic uses,
and requires
(1) controlling reflected light off the screen
(2) getting as much color gamut and contrast on the screen as on the paper (not
easy, might require special paper)
(3) controlling the illumination light when viewing printed material
(4) adjusting R, G, B zero points
(5) adjusting R, G, B brightnesses
(6) adjusting for any nonlinearity (usually called 'gamma correction') for R, G, B
(7) readjusting from time to time, as papers, inks, phosphors may age.

It can be hard to find and rectify any adjustments. Or, it can be easy - Apple made a
ColorSync monitor with internal light sensors that did recalibration in a few seconds if you pressed
the front-panel button).

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 2:58:02 PM UTC-4, thekma...@gmail.com wrote:

"me the term "calibrate" is specific to measuring devices, meters, tube testers, signal generators, rotameters, gauges and so forth that are set to a specific standard."

Likewise! DVD test patterns also count,
as long as one follows instructions on
what to look for when the specific
control(brightness, contrast) is adjusted
optimally.

I still sense a lot of skepticism in your
responses regarding display ALIGNMENT -
there, I just found a new name for it that
makes sense!

Mpffff..... Here we go again....

Alignment: My primary hobby is vintage radio restoration and repair, so "alignment" is a very specific term. Shifting that term from rF to Visual alignment is not a stretch, just not what leaped to mind when I read your assignment of this term to that process. Telescope people call it "collimation", musicians call it "tuning" but they are all forms of aligning some sort of information for greater accuracy/clarity.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 1:24:35 AM UTC-7, thekma...@gmail.com wrote:

So if I understand you correctly, If you were to buy a brand new
flat panel set, connect it all up and start watching it, you would
leave the user menu settings all in their factory positions?

No. That looked bad because it was in 'store demo' mode. I don't consider the 'user adjustments' namely brightness, contrast, saturation (color), back light and sharpness to fall into the 'calibration' category. Calibration to me involves individual RGB gain, lift and gamma. These were finicky with CRTs but don't need much if any tweaking with LED lit LCD sets.

G˛

 

whit3rd wrote: "Generally, there's no calibration in an LCD TV that requires touching.
Digital signal, not affected by movable magnets or variable resistors. "

So I will ask you the same question: If you bought and unboxed a
brand new flat panel TV for your home, would you leave the user
and semi-advanced settings in their factory mode? Have you
actually seen a TV(any TV, CRT, Plasma, LED, etc) in its factory
defaults?


Again, I'm talking about the SETTINGS, not the broadcast or cable
signal fed into the back of it. And no, for the purposes of this dis-
cussion, there is no concern of "drift" because we are in the micro-
circuit digital realm.

 

Your silence on this subject speaks
volumes. Out of the box, a new con-
sumer grade TV is like staring at the
midday sun for a half-hour to an hour.


It is typically set to "Vivid" or "Dynamic"
mode, which is useful only for display
in a retail sales floor environment.
Contrast, color and sharpness are
cranked, color temperature is skewed
to 10,000+Kelvin - ultra blue, and every
so-called "enhancer" under advanced
settings is checked(skin tone enhancer,
black level enhancer, digital noise re-
duction, etc.) Backlight(if it's a LED or
LCD) is all the way up, etc.


Just taking it out of Vivid, and turning
off all that CRAP in the advance menu
gets you from some vague location in
the South Bronx INTO Yankee Stadium,
in terms of accuracy! The professional
calibration we discussed here will take
you from a seat somewhere in the right-
field upper deck right onto home plate.


And there are no "personal preferences"
when it comes to picture settings - only
one right combination of basic and
advanced controls, and 1,000 possible
WRONG combinations.


it's your choice: Stare at the sun every
night during the 6 o'clock news, or see
what the host and the world through the
cameras really looks like.

 

[isw]

In article <208f2024-220b-42d4-a4f6-8d2decf4bd64@googlegroups.com>,
whit3rd <whit3rd@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 9:37:13 PM UTC-7, stra...@yahoo.com wrote:
I've worked in broadcast and post production since 1976 and calibrated many
monitors, some used for THX film transfers and verified by their tech.
Calibration was mandatory with CRT monitors and on a regular basis. The new
TVs are amazingly consistent and I find no desire and certainly no need to
'tweak' them. In fact, unless you're very qualified I would not allow you
to touch my TV.

Generally, there's no calibration in an LCD TV that requires touching.
Digital signal,
not affected by movable magnets or variable resistors.
If you use your TV for a computer monitor, though, and have a color printer:
you ought to calibrate the video card or the printer driver so that the
color prints produce the same colors as the screen display.
Getting the correspondence right is important for artistic uses,
and requires
(1) controlling reflected light off the screen
(2) getting as much color gamut and contrast on the screen as on the paper
(not easy, might require special paper)

I'm pretty sure it's the other way around -- any decent screen will have
a much broader gamut than any subtractive color process (i.e. any sort
of image printed on paper). Same with contrast ratio -- the screen wins
by an order of magnitude or better.

Isaac

 

[Cydrome Leader]

thekmanrocks@gmail.com wrote:

Your silence on this subject speaks
volumes. Out of the box, a new con-
sumer grade TV is like staring at the
midday sun for a half-hour to an hour.


It is typically set to "Vivid" or "Dynamic"
mode, which is useful only for display
in a retail sales floor environment.
Contrast, color and sharpness are
cranked, color temperature is skewed
to 10,000+Kelvin - ultra blue, and every
so-called "enhancer" under advanced
settings is checked(skin tone enhancer,
black level enhancer, digital noise re-
duction, etc.) Backlight(if it's a LED or
LCD) is all the way up, etc.

The problem I see with most LCDs is the color temp due to the LED
backlighting. Everything is way too cold (blue). Except for that, just
peek in a bar with multiple TVs, they're not perfectly matched, but far
closer than in the days of CRTs or plasma stuff. There's no phosphors or
electron guns to weaken at different rates.

The drift (in everything) in the plasma airport arrival/departure screens
was pretty amazing too, even if you cut some slack for those displays
having been used in the worst possible conditions.

 

Cyndrome Leader wrote: "thekma...@gmail.com wrote:

Your silence on this subject speaks
volumes. Out of the box, a new con-
sumer grade TV is like staring at the
midday sun for a half-hour to an hour.


It is typically set to "Vivid" or "Dynamic"
mode, which is useful only for display
in a retail sales floor environment.
Contrast, color and sharpness are
cranked, color temperature is skewed
to 10,000+Kelvin - ultra blue, and every
so-called "enhancer" under advanced
settings is checked(skin tone enhancer,
black level enhancer, digital noise re-
duction, etc.) Backlight(if it's a LED or
LCD) is all the way up, etc.

The problem I see with most LCDs is the color temp due to the LED
backlighting. Everything is way too cold (blue). Except for that, just
peek in a bar with multiple TVs, they're not perfectly matched, but far
closer than in the days of CRTs or plasma stuff. There's no phosphors or
electron guns to weaken at different rates.

The drift (in everything) in the plasma airport arrival/departure screens
was pretty amazing too, even if you cut some slack for those displays
having been used in the worst possible conditions. "


Cyndrome:
The reason you are seeing those "way too cold" color
temperatures is because in the advance settings the
highest/bluest color temperature is set by default!

As for the creature cantina scene - of course the TVs
in there are not matched: different mfgs have different
factory default settings; but what those settings do
have in common is: they were selected to make their
product stand out on a sales floor - NOT to be watched
for any appreciable length of time.

Bet you a five-legged horse that if even just the user
controls(color temp set to neutral instead of high,
backlight on LEDs set in half, and the bright, contrast,
color, sharpness all set via test DVD) you'd be
hard pressed to see any difference between sets at
opposite ends of the bar - assuming they are all
tuned to the same game, as they likely all will
next week for the series.

What more can I do to convince you guys that OOB
(out of the box) settings are no good for a consumer
display, or for your eyes? In fact, I find the factory
"BUY ME, BUY ME!" settings on modern flat panel
TVs are worse than the factory defaults on any old
CRT tube I've EVER seen.

 

[Cydrome Leader]

thekmanrocks@gmail.com wrote:

Cyndrome Leader wrote: "thekma...@gmail.com wrote:
Your silence on this subject speaks
volumes. Out of the box, a new con-
sumer grade TV is like staring at the
midday sun for a half-hour to an hour.


It is typically set to "Vivid" or "Dynamic"
mode, which is useful only for display
in a retail sales floor environment.
Contrast, color and sharpness are
cranked, color temperature is skewed
to 10,000+Kelvin - ultra blue, and every
so-called "enhancer" under advanced
settings is checked(skin tone enhancer,
black level enhancer, digital noise re-
duction, etc.) Backlight(if it's a LED or
LCD) is all the way up, etc.

The problem I see with most LCDs is the color temp due to the LED
backlighting. Everything is way too cold (blue). Except for that, just
peek in a bar with multiple TVs, they're not perfectly matched, but far
closer than in the days of CRTs or plasma stuff. There's no phosphors or
electron guns to weaken at different rates.

The drift (in everything) in the plasma airport arrival/departure screens
was pretty amazing too, even if you cut some slack for those displays
having been used in the worst possible conditions. "


Cyndrome:
The reason you are seeing those "way too cold" color
temperatures is because in the advance settings the
highest/bluest color temperature is set by default!

The backlights themselves are really just too blue. This is a problem of
sorts when laptops went from CCFL backlighting to LEDs- the color temp
went way too high. It can probably be adjusted, somehow, but it doesn't
help the color is just wrong to start with.

As for the creature cantina scene - of course the TVs
in there are not matched: different mfgs have different
factory default settings; but what those settings do
have in common is: they were selected to make their
product stand out on a sales floor - NOT to be watched
for any appreciable length of time.

they all match pretty much, even in a place like best buy. All those
cheapo LCD panels are probably coming out of the same 3 plants. Nobody
cares about special phosphors or dot patterns or shadow masks like in CRT
days. Sure there's cheap and expensive display panels, but they just don't
seem to vary all that much otherwise.

Bet you a five-legged horse that if even just the user
controls(color temp set to neutral instead of high,
backlight on LEDs set in half, and the bright, contrast,

Even half brightness, they're still too blue too look natural.

color, sharpness all set via test DVD) you'd be
hard pressed to see any difference between sets at
opposite ends of the bar - assuming they are all
tuned to the same game, as they likely all will
next week for the series.

What more can I do to convince you guys that OOB
(out of the box) settings are no good for a consumer
display, or for your eyes? In fact, I find the factory
"BUY ME, BUY ME!" settings on modern flat panel
TVs are worse than the factory defaults on any old
CRT tube I've EVER seen.

I'll restate what I said before- LCDs lack the color and brightness
variations that affected CRTs. Default settings have always been and are
still pretty horrible, but at least these days if you buy a demo LCD TV,
it's safe to say the thing isn't already worn out like a CRT would have
been trying to dazzle customers with every setting turned way up.

For viewing at home, I use an Epson projector that seems to have 3 CCDs
and the starndard arc lamp. I forgot what the default factory settings
were, but they were garish and made even the OSD menu setup hard to look
at. It had to be something like high brightness, 14k color temp and no
doubt some sort of vivid control cranked way up. I did not bother with any
real calibration, but made sure white looked white and the brightness was
reduced so that set so that "black" on the screen looked black, even
though the screen itself is white.

How do you suggest adjusting a projection system?

 

Cyndrome wrote: "How do you suggest adjusting a projection system? "

A Blu-Ray Digital Video Essentials disc
*should* produce the same results for
your projector as it would for any flat
panel HDTV. Just follow all instructions.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Cydrome Leader wrote:

thekmanrocks@gmail.com wrote:
Cyndrome Leader wrote: "thekma...@gmail.com wrote:
Your silence on this subject speaks
volumes. Out of the box, a new con-
sumer grade TV is like staring at the
midday sun for a half-hour to an hour.


It is typically set to "Vivid" or "Dynamic"
mode, which is useful only for display
in a retail sales floor environment.
Contrast, color and sharpness are
cranked, color temperature is skewed
to 10,000+Kelvin - ultra blue, and every
so-called "enhancer" under advanced
settings is checked(skin tone enhancer,
black level enhancer, digital noise re-
duction, etc.) Backlight(if it's a LED or
LCD) is all the way up, etc.

The problem I see with most LCDs is the color temp due to the LED
backlighting. Everything is way too cold (blue). Except for that, just
peek in a bar with multiple TVs, they're not perfectly matched, but far
closer than in the days of CRTs or plasma stuff. There's no phosphors or
electron guns to weaken at different rates.

The drift (in everything) in the plasma airport arrival/departure screens
was pretty amazing too, even if you cut some slack for those displays
having been used in the worst possible conditions. "


Cyndrome:
The reason you are seeing those "way too cold" color
temperatures is because in the advance settings the
highest/bluest color temperature is set by default!

The backlights themselves are really just too blue. This is a problem of
sorts when laptops went from CCFL backlighting to LEDs- the color temp
went way too high. It can probably be adjusted, somehow, but it doesn't
help the color is just wrong to start with.

As for the creature cantina scene - of course the TVs
in there are not matched: different mfgs have different
factory default settings; but what those settings do
have in common is: they were selected to make their
product stand out on a sales floor - NOT to be watched
for any appreciable length of time.

they all match pretty much, even in a place like best buy. All those
cheapo LCD panels are probably coming out of the same 3 plants. Nobody
cares about special phosphors or dot patterns or shadow masks like in CRT
days. Sure there's cheap and expensive display panels, but they just don't
seem to vary all that much otherwise.

Bet you a five-legged horse that if even just the user
controls(color temp set to neutral instead of high,
backlight on LEDs set in half, and the bright, contrast,

Even half brightness, they're still too blue too look natural.

color, sharpness all set via test DVD) you'd be
hard pressed to see any difference between sets at
opposite ends of the bar - assuming they are all
tuned to the same game, as they likely all will
next week for the series.

What more can I do to convince you guys that OOB
(out of the box) settings are no good for a consumer
display, or for your eyes? In fact, I find the factory
"BUY ME, BUY ME!" settings on modern flat panel
TVs are worse than the factory defaults on any old
CRT tube I've EVER seen.

I'll restate what I said before- LCDs lack the color and brightness
variations that affected CRTs. Default settings have always been and are
still pretty horrible, but at least these days if you buy a demo LCD TV,
it's safe to say the thing isn't already worn out like a CRT would have
been trying to dazzle customers with every setting turned way up.

For viewing at home, I use an Epson projector that seems to have 3 CCDs
and the starndard arc lamp. I forgot what the default factory settings
were, but they were garish and made even the OSD menu setup hard to look
at. It had to be something like high brightness, 14k color temp and no
doubt some sort of vivid control cranked way up. I did not bother with any
real calibration, but made sure white looked white and the brightness was
reduced so that set so that "black" on the screen looked black, even
though the screen itself is white.

How do you suggest adjusting a projection system?

WHite LEDs are actually blue, with a phosphor to make it into
something near white light. They fail in that attempt.