First of all, you’re here because you love home theater. So do I – that’s why I do this.
But I don’t want just any old home theater experience – I want it to be the best home theater experience I can get for my hard-earned bucks. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be the best home theater in the world, because I can’t afford the best equipment in the world.
So what does it mean? It means I want my equipment to be set up, adjusted, and working the way it needs to work to give me the best experience I can get with my equipment. I’m sure you do, too, or you wouldn’t be reading this, right?
How distracting is it to you to not be able to see something you know you should be able to see in the shadows, or see something that’s not quite the ‘right’ color you know it should be? If you’re anything like me, little things like that will snap you out of the home theater experience faster than a bucket of cold water thrown in your face while you’re asleep!
Now think about this: would it be worth the pennies per viewing hour that calibration costs if even ONE thing is corrected by calibration that wasn’t correct before like black level, white level, grayscale, color, tint, sharpness, picture size and aspect ratio, etc., so it wouldn’t annoy you ever again?
Well I’ve got really good news – professional calibration will correct ‘em all – and then some! A life saver for us picky, picky home theater enthusiasts, isn’t it? I think so.
Obviously, I can’t answer the question of whether professional video calibration is worth the expense for you. Only you can answer that one. Am I biased about the benefits of professional video calibration? Sure! But I wasn’t born that way – I had to see it for myself. 
Is Professional Video Calibration Worth the Expense?
General Plasma HDTV Break-In Procedure
Here’s the simple, straight skinny about breaking in your new plasma HDTV….
There are two strategies for plasma break-in and people get mighty defensive about which one they think ought to be used, but it need not be so complicated – or controversial!
Strategy 1: Use high contrast, high color settings in combination with a cycling set of color images that fill the entire screen. With this procedure, you would:
a. Choose a TV mode that is high-contrast/high-color, e.g., Vivid, Dynamic, which is okay since the point is to age the pixels and the images will be uniform across the entire screen).
b. You can obtain the DVD version of the break-in files here.
Alternatively, use full-screen color images saved to a USB drive or SD card (depending on what is available for the TV). You can obtain the USB/SD card files here on AVS Forum, but if you have a problem downloading them, I can provide the files in a .zip format if you send me an email. Since most newer HDTVs have USB/SD ports, I recommend the USB files since they are more convenient.
c. Play the DVD/USB files/SD files and let it run continuously for about 150 hours (yup, 150 hours straight – while you’re at work, sleeping, etc…). When you run this for the first time, just be sure to grab a book or something and watch at least one entire cycle of slides to be sure it runs continuously and then repeats (may have to set your DVD/Blu-ray to do this, or set your slide show settings to repeat). You don’t want it to stop on a single color, a menu, an image that doesn’t fill the screen, etc., when you’re not there!
Strategy 2: Watch regular TV with the stipulation that you watch ONLY programming that fills the entire screen for any length of time (a less-than-full-screen commercial or something temporary like that is fine), and keep your picture settings on medium contrast/color, e.g., Movie/Cinema mode. As much as possible, don’t do any significant stretches of gaming during the break-in period. Also, turn your pixel orbiter/anti-image retention features on. The HD Discovery channel is great for running programming that will fill your entire screen.
You’re not going to damage anything if you use one of the other higher contrast, higher color AV Selections just to see what they look like.) If you want to try a DVD/Blu-ray that’s less than full screen to see what it looks like, that’s no problem either.
For the break-in period, though, just be sure not to watch long stretches of movies with black bars on top and bottom. (Movies that will have black bars have aspect ratio greater than 1.78:1, like 1.85:1, 2.35:1 or 2.4:1). Got Avatar? That’s a great 1.78:1 (full screen) DVD/Blu-ray to watch and show off your TVs capabilities!
**My suggestion is to use both methods so you can immediately have the benefits of being able to watch your new TV and age your pixels evenly when you’re not watching it.
Watch your TV as in (2) above when you’re going to be watching broadcast TV or movies, and use steps a-c in method in (1) when you’re not going to be watching it (at night, when you’re at work) as long as you’re comfortable with leaving your TV on when you may not be there.
As far as an hour meter, there’s usually not a user-accessible hour meter so you’ll have to roughly track the number of hours you’ve had the TV on. Just best guesses are fine and as long as you’re in the ball park when it’s calibrated, that’s great. You should have about 100 hours on the TV before getting a professional calibration, but 150 is even better.
Best wishes for enjoying that new plasma TV for many years to come!!
Value Electronics 2010 Shootout
HDTV Flat Panel Shootout at Value Electronics in Scarsdale, NY – September 11 and 12, 2010 (**This post is a bit late getting here…better late than never!)
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Robert Zohn, Owner of Value Electronics
As one of the highpoints of my year, I was one of the privileged 70 or so home theater enthusiasts and professionals invited to the 5th Annual Flat Panel Shootout hosted by Robert Zohn, owner of Value Electronics in Scarsdale, NY, on September 11 and 12, 2010.
This gathering of videophiles, home theater enthusiasts and professionals, and representatives from HDTV manufacturers is a highly-anticipated yearly treat for those of us in the NY Metro area who are able to attend the event in person. I even had my very first taste of Sushi from the fantastic spread of refreshments provided purely at Robert’s expense. (No sponsorship bias tolerated here!!)
Joel Silver, President of the ISF
As an added treat Joel Silver, President of the Imaging Science Foundation, delivered a remote Skype video presentation, providing attendees with an industry view ‘from the top’.
Robert is as passionate and dedicated to improving the home theater experience as he is easy-going, friendly, and an all-around phenomenal host! He is a tribute to the consumer electronics industry and a beacon for those of us who love home theater.
Each year, Robert and several other professionals collaborate to select the ‘best of the best’ in flat panels produced that year and compare them side-by-side on as level a playing field as you’re ever likely to find. Great pains are taken to ensure each panel receives a fair evaluation by equalizing things like the length of the HDMI cables that connect the displays, voltage regulation and line conditioning, and last – but CERTAINLY not least – calibration by some of the best in the business like Ed Johnson, Kevin Miller, and D-Nice (his AVSForum handle)!
This year’s finalists consisted of the following 3D-capable displays (in alphabetical order by manufacturer): LG 55LX9500, Panasonic TC-P58VT25, Samsung PN58C800 (plasma), Samsung UN55C8000 (LED-backlit LCD), Sharp LC-60LE925UN, Sony KDL-55NX810.
The 2010 HDTV Contenders
So, which display came out on top? The results of the shootout are available here.
You can also view a photo montage and some footage of the shootout on YouTube.
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I can’t thank Robert enough for allowing me to be a participant of this yearly event. I am grateful to him not only for the invitation, but for his continued dedication and passion to improving our collective home theater experience, and for providing an avenue by which manufacturers can hear our collective voices as consumers and dedicated videophiles.
If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and visit Robert’s Value Electronics store in Scarsdale. Tell him Greg from All High Def sent you!
Top Ten Reasons NOT to Have Your HDTV Calibrated
- You’ve become addicted to adjusting the TV’s settings for every, single thing you watch.
- You really like the night sky to be gray instead of black – it’s less scary that way.
- You are certain that HDTV manufacturers and big box stores have a crystal ball and know exactly how to adjust your HDTV even before you buy it and connect it to everything else!
- You’re absolutely sure that grass and trees are supposed to be neon green on HDTV.
- You really enjoy watching skinny people on TV S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D so they look very wide.
- You enjoy not being able to see the details of characters in the shadows so it doesn’t spoil the surprise.
- You’re positive that the picture on your HDTV should be as bright as possible so you get your money’s worth, and that you should sear your retinas and exercise your irises by watching it in a completely darkened room.
- You just love those little, fuzzy, colored blocks when you’re watching cable or satellite TV.
- You just can’t stand the thought of paying less every month for the electricity to run your HDTV, and you want your HDTV to wear out faster so you can spend more money sooner on the newest technology as soon as it comes out.
- You’re convinced that if it’s not bleeding, it’s not really red.
Okay, so maybe the list is not quite ready for CBS’ Late Show, but I think you get the “picture”! The fact is that if you’ve identified with any of them, you’re not getting the most out of the hard-earned money you spent on your HDTV and other home theater equipment. So, I hope you’ll stay tuned as I revisit the top ten list in future blogs while I explain why you don’t want to be on the list…
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