Anyone interested in ISF calibration?

micks_address

Hi Folks,

I'm taling to Bumtious on avforums about visiting dublin at some stage to calibrate my VT65 plasma screen. He suggested putting the word out to see if anyone else was interested in getting a screen calibrated as it might help reduce travel costs etc.

If you would be interested let me know

Cheers,
Mick

banie01

micks_address wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I'm taling to Bumtious on avforums about visiting dublin at some stage to calibrate my VT65 plasma screen. He suggested putting the word out to see if anyone else was interested in getting a screen calibrated as it might help reduce travel costs etc.

If you would be interested let me know

Cheers,
Mick

Good luck with the Calibration, last time someone did this it was Gordon from avforums who was over and he got quite a bit of work out if it if I remember correctly.
See this thread
It is a quite expensive service(I think it was @€;200 per screen on the above trip)

Just out of curiosity Mick, what calibration steps have you taken so far yourself?
The DVE disc and the AVS HD709 disc will give a user excellent results with a little patience and if you can source a set of colour filters you will get an even better image.
These will give excellent results for most users at fraction of the cost of an ISF calibration, indeed the AVS HD709 is a free download.
Indeed when I used to be active over on AVforums(Its been a while) there was quite a large thread comparing gamma and greyscales on Disc/Testcard calibrated images vs ISF certified calibrations the levels were measured using Spyder and other equipment available to the users to give a better comparison baseline than ''i think x looks better than y'' and the differences between the 2 were negligible.

That said some users will always want or need ISF calibrated displays(particularly for pro use)
But it really is a case of diminishing returns, you will pay a substantial fee for an end product that will not be noticeabley different from a screen you spent some time tweaking yourself with the appropriate testcards and filters.

micks_address

hi, yes Ive had gordon over before to do my last plasma and was very happy with the results, but he doesnt have a trip planned this way till the spring time again. I did get the loan of a Spyder before and tried calibrating using a laptop but to be honest i got nowhere near the results Gordon got. Apparentely the Spyder probe just isnt accurate enough to be used. I know very few people will invest in calibration and it certainly added nothing to the resale value of my screens but the one great thing I find about it is that i just locked down all picture settings afterwards and never went near them again.. before calibration i was always fiddling with brightness and contrast and colour balance all to my wifes great annoyance! You are in the ballpark priceiwse.. its not cheap.. but then if you invest 2k in a screen i feel its worth doing.. most are happy with a 400 euro 42" lcd.. but i'm afraid my addiction costs me a lot more than that

banie01

micks_address wrote: »

Apparentely the Spyder probe just isnt accurate enough to be used.

Thats totally untrue, the Spyder 3 and 4 are as accurate as any pro level colourimeter I have used.
The previous versions(1+2) were inaccurate as they had no built in ambient light sensor but from the 3 series(released back in 2008) the Spyder is an accurate meter and this can be attested by the number of pro Design, Print and production houses using this kit.
The software could be better I agree, it can be quite fiddly to get to grips with.
But accuracy of the sensor is not an issue.
The Spyder 3 has an x-y variance of 0.0025 and the Spyder 4's variance is even lower at @0.0020 both are well within pro standards

micks_address wrote: »

I know very few people will invest in calibration and it certainly added nothing to the resale value of my screens but the one great thing I find about it is that i just locked down all picture settings afterwards and never went near them again.. before calibration i was always fiddling with brightness and contrast and colour balance all to my wifes great annoyance! You are in the ballpark priceiwse.. its not cheap.. but then if you invest 2k in a screen i feel its worth doing.. most are happy with a 400 euro 42" lcd.. but i'm afraid my addiction costs me a lot more than that

Agreed, for those of use with a fetish for AV
We will always want the best performance we can drag out of our setups and an ISF calibration will do that most definitely for the image.

I have had a few of my own displays ISF'd but since I moved away from Plasma, I'm not so much a fan anymore.
For me its a bang for buck issue, I'd rather spend money on buying some calibration kit and learning the ropes and being able to get a generally excellent and acceptable result on every display I own/will own for the price of 1 screen calibration from an ISF certified tech.

micks_address

banie01 wrote: »

Thats totally untrue, the Spyder 3 and 4 are as accurate as any pro level colourimeter I have used.


The previous versions(1+2) were inaccurate as they had no built in ambient light sensor but from the 3 series(released back in 2008) the Spyder is an accurate meter and this can be attested by the number of pro Design, Print and production houses using this kit.
The software could be better I agree, it can be quite fiddly to get to grips with.
But accuracy of the sensor is not an issue.
The Spyder 3 has an x-y variance of 0.0025 and the Spyder 4's variance is even lower at @0.0020 both are well within pro standards



Agreed, for those of use with a fetish for AV
We will always want the best performance we can drag out of our setups and an ISF calibration will do that most definitely for the image.

I have had a few of my own displays ISF'd but since I moved away from Plasma, I'm not so much a fan anymore.
For me its a bang for buck issue, I'd rather spend money on buying some calibration kit and learning the ropes and being able to get a generally excellent and acceptable result on every display I own/will own for the price of 1 screen calibration from an ISF certified tech.

i should have clarified the spyder i was using was a lite version and was around 2005.. i was using hcrf sofware and a laptop..

i agree it would be worthwhile buying the kit and figuring it out but i just cant invest the time at the moment.. i have always loved the results of calibration - this will be my 3rd screen if/when i get it done..