Focus
If your display is a front projector (an independent projector
that projects onto a separate screen, as opposed to an
integrated “rear projector” where the screen and projector are
all in the same box), you will want to check the focus, as
small focus errors can mask issues and artifacts. Flat-panel
displays like LCD or plasma do not have focus. Integrated rear
projectors can only be focused by a trained technician.
Use your Blu-ray
remote to select the Chroma Alignment pattern. Look at the
five small crosshairs in the center of the screen and the four
corners, and adjust the focus until the lines are as sharp and
clear as possible. If your projector has motorized focus,
stand close enough to the screen to see the individual pixels
and use the remote to focus until the pixels are sharply
defined squares. If you must stand at the projector to adjust
focus, we recommend using binoculars to view the screen at
high magnification while you turn the focus dial.
A few extra tips about
focus:
-
-When the projector
is completely focused, if the spaces between the pixels
are distracting, as though the image looks like it’s being
viewed through a window screen, it may be worthwhile to
defocus the lens a tiny amount to spread the pixels
slightly. Defocus only enough to reduce the gaps between
the pixels; do not defocus until the pixels overlap each
other.
-
-If it is impossible to get the entire screen in
sharp focus, try to find a happy medium where each of the
five crosshairs is roughly the same level of blurriness.
If it is impossible to get all the crosshairs acceptably
sharp, you may want to check the flatness of your screen,
whether your projector is pointed perfectly centered and
perpendicular to the screen, and whether the lens has any
smudges or dirt on it.
Video
mode settings
Once the
system has warmed up, it’s time to start adjusting. Most
modern displays have an overall “Picture Mode” setting, and
several advanced picture settings. It’s important to get these
set correctly first.
Picture Mode
There are no standards for what these modes do, and the names
vary considerably. Generally if there is a “Movie” or “Cinema”
setting, that is the one to use. On some displays, the “Movie”
or “Cinema” mode is preset and locks out all the other picture
controls. In that case, or if there is no “Movie” or “Cinema”
mode, try using “Custom,” “Normal” or “Standard.” Avoid
anything that sound like it makes the picture extra-bold, like
“Vivid” or “Dynamic”, or modes that sound like they’re
optimized for a single purpose like “Sports” or “Game”.
Advanced
Video Modes
For the most part, we recommend
turning special picture “enhancement” modes off. They are
usually optimized for low-quality video and bright
environments, and actually will harm the picture quality of
high-quality video like Blu-ray Discs when watching in a
low-light environment.
Set these to Off
or 0 (write down the original setting first):
- -Noise
Reduction/Noise Filter
-Black Tone
-Dynamic Contrast
-Shadow Detail
-Flesh Tone
-Edge Enhancement
-Black
Corrector
-Contrast Enhancer
-Live Color
-Smart
Dimming
-Color Enhancement
-Ambient Light Sensor
-Motion Plus/Cinema Motion/Smooth Motion/Real Cinema
-Auto Iris
If you encounter
a mode with a similar name to one of the above settings, or a
mode that is described in the owner’s manual as a video
enhancement or improvement, it’s best to turn it off.
If you are
curious to see what some of these modes do, our recommendation
is to wait until the calibration and adjustment is done, then
try them systematically, one at a time. Turn one on, run
through the test patterns and view some video to see the
results, make notes if needed, then turn it off again and move
to the next. Some of them will throw off the adjustments
you’ve made, and you’ll see that clearly on the test patterns.
Some won’t appear to do anything obvious, which in our view
means leaving it off is the safest bet.
Special cases:
-
-Color Temperature/Color Tone. Setting this
perfectly requires test equipment, but usually if there is
a “Cinema”, or “Neutral” option, that is often close to
correct and is a good choice. If that is not offered,
“Computer” or “Normal” are other good choices. “Cool” is
not generally a good choice, as commonly it sacrifices
color accuracy to get higher light output. It is
worthwhile putting up the 11-Step Crossed Gray Scale
pattern and trying the different color temperature
settings. Any setting that makes any of the gray steps
seem to have a colored tint are probably bad choices. It’s
not uncommon to have more than one setting that looks
essentially white. Unless you have the test equipment
necessary to check color temperature, just select one that
looks as neutral as possible.
-Backlight.
If this setting is offered, a good starting point is to
turn it to the middle value. Later on, when you are
performing the rough Contrast adjustment (further down in
this guide), if the screen seems uncomfortably bright when
viewing the Contrast pattern on the Spears and Munsil High
Definition Benchmark, turn the backlight down until the
light output is comfortable to view. Then when you are
performing the Brightness adjustment (further down in this
guide), if the screen seems notably dim while viewing the
PLUGE Low pattern, such that the right-hand bars on the
PLUGE Low pattern are very hard to see once the Brightness
control is set correctly, then turn the backlight up.
-Black Level or HDMI Black Level. This
should be set to “Normal”, “Video”, or “Standard”. It
should not be set to “Low”, “PC”, or “Extended”.
Setting
display area
To
properly set this, you’ll want to bring up the Image Cropping
pattern, using your Blu-ray player remote. The goal is to see
as much of the picture area as possible with no cropping or
distortion.
Each of the
boxes along the top and bottom should be the same width, and
the boxes along the left and right edges should be the same
height. If they are not all the same, some kind of non-linear
zoom is being applied; look for a “zoom”, “wide mode” or
“aspect” button on the remote or setting in the video menu,
and try modes until the boxes are all the same width and the
maximum amount of image is visible. As a cross-check, bring up
the Geometry pattern and make sure that the squares look
square and not rectangular and the circles look circular and
not oval, across the entire screen.
On the Image
Cropping pattern, the edges of each box should be fully
visible. If some of the boxes are cut off by the edge of the
screen, the display has overscan, and it’s a good idea to turn
it off. Look in the menus for a “Screen Size” or “Display
Area” or “Overscan” setting. Change that setting to “Full
Size”, or “No Overscan” or try the various modes and controls
to try to show the entire image.
The ultimate
goal is to get the pixels in the disc image mapped to the
pixels on your screen 1:1, so there is no digital scaling
going on. To check for scaling, look at the single-pixel and
two-pixel checkerboards in the center of the Image Cropping
pattern. When there is no scaling being performed, they should
look evenly gray, and should essentially match the gray level
of the rest of the screen background. When the image is being
scaled up or down, the checkerboards will have blotchy patches
of dark and light, and the size of the tiny squares will vary.
If you find that it is impossible to get both all the pixels
on the edges visible and achieve 1:1 mapping of the pixels in
the checkerboards, it is better to get the 1:1 mapping than it
is to show the entire image. Small amounts of cropping on the
edges will be less problematic overall than digital scaling of
the image.
On some displays
it will be impossible to eliminate the overscan and show the
entire cropping pattern. In such cases, select the mode that
shows as much of the image as possible without distortion. If
the display has picture position controls, you should use them
if needed to center the image on screen by moving the picture
up, down, left, or right until the amount of cropping on the
left matches the amount on the right, and the amount on the
top matches the amount on the bottom.
Performing the basic video adjustments
The
basic adjustments should be done in the following order:
Remember that help for each
pattern is available by pushing the up-arrow button (or
pushing up on the directional pad) on your Blu-ray remote
while the pattern is displayed on the screen. The help text
gives you the basic instructions for that pattern and shows
what the pattern will look like when the control is adjusted
correctly or incorrectly.
Initial contrast
It’s a good idea to start by setting the contrast to a
reasonable value that doesn’t clip the highlights. This
ensures that other patterns and adjustments will be accurate
and not thrown off by clipping.
Start by bringing up the Contrast pattern using the Blu-ray
remote. Bring up the display’s Contrast control (labeled
“Picture” control on some displays) using the display remote.
If you haven’t already written down your current Contrast
control setting, write it down now. Try raising the contrast
control all the way to its highest setting. You will probably
see many of the on-screen white bars blend into the background
and disappear. You may also see a subtle color shift in the
white background. Now reduce the contrast control until the
highest bar is just barely visible. If you can’t make the
highest bar visible no matter how low the contrast goes, lower
the bar until as many bars as possible appear. Now find the
highest-numbered bar, and raise the Contrast control until
that bar disappears, then lower it one notch, which should
make it appear again. If not, lower slowly, a notch at a time,
until that bar becomes barely visible.
Now bring up the Clipping pattern. There are eight squares
here, two each of white, red, green, and blue. Each one should
look like concentric squares of increasing or decreasing
brightness. Check the image on the help screen for a reference
(push “up” on your Blu-ray remote). If all of the colors look
like concentric squares and not a solid square, then you’re
done and can move on. If one or more of the colors are
clipped, try reducing the Contrast control and see if the
concentric squares appear. As with the Contrast pattern, the
object is to turn Contrast down to the highest setting that
shows as many of the concentric squares as possible. If
reducing the Contrast control doesn’t reveal any new
concentric squares, then return it to the value you found
using the Contrast pattern.
For more information, please read our article
Setting the Contrast Control.
Brightness
Now you are ready to set the Brightness control. Bring up the
PLUGE Low pattern using the Blu-ray remote, then bring up the
Brightness control using the display remote. If you haven’t
already written down the current Brightness control setting,
do so now.
Try raising the
Brightness control all the way and then lowering it all the
way and watch what happens to the pattern. With the Brightness
control at maximum, on most displays you will see four
vertical bars on screen and a checkerboard pattern in the
background. With the Brightness control at minimum, on most
displays you’ll see a completely black screen. If you never
see the two leftmost bars no matter where the Brightness
control is positioned, then your display or player is clipping
the below-reference image data; use the Alternate Brightness
Adjustment mentioned lower down.
Standard Brightness Adjustment
Turn the Brightness control up until all four
bars are visible on screen. Then turn it down until the two
leftmost bars disappear and the two rightmost bars are
visible. The far-right bar will be slightly easier to see than
the middle-right bar. If there are several settings of
Brightness that make the left bars invisible and the right
bars visible, you may be able to get a more precise setting by
looking for the setting that makes the background checkerboard
just barely visible.
Alternate Brightness Adjustment
(when you can’t see the left bars)
Turn the
Brightness control up until the two right bars are clearly
visible. Turn the Brightness control down until the
middle-right bar disappears, but the far-right bar is visible.
Now turn the Brightness control back up slowly until the
middle-right bar just barely appears.
For more information, please read our article
Setting the Brightness Control.
Color
For
this adjustment you’ll need a colored filter or a display with
a blue-only mode. Most displays do not have a blue-only mode,
but it’s worth checking the advanced settings menus and/or the
owner’s manual to see, because usually the blue-only mode is
easier and more accurate than using the filter. If your
display does not have a blue-only mode, then the Spears and
Munsil blue filter is the best bet as it allows the user to
select 1X, 2X, or 3X strength to help get an accurate
calibration with different displays with different color
spectra. Other blue filters from other companies like THX, Joe
Kane, or Disney may also work, but be sure to check if they
are completely cancelling the green channel before using them.
Checking the Filter Strength
The colored filter works by showing you the
blue color channel only, filtering out all the green and red.
Typically any filter will remove enough red to be usable, but
the color spectrum of the green channel and the blue channels
overlap on nearly all displays, so it’s necessary to first
check that the green channel is being cancelled before using
the filter.
First bring up the
Color Bars pattern and look through the 1X side of the filter.
Look at the large green color bar and compare it to the black
space below it (move the filter aside temporarily as needed to
identify the green bar). Through the filter, both should look
absolutely black. If the green bar is at all brighter than the
black space beneath it, then switch to the 2X side of the
filter. If the green bar is still brighter than the
background, then you’ll need to fold the filter in half to
make a 3X filter. The 3X filter is nearly opaque, and to use
it you may need to make the room completely dark or nearly so.
This is the exception to the rule about calibrating in the
same light you normally watch movies in; for this adjustment,
if you need to make the room dark to make the filter work, do
so.
For more information, please
read our article
Using the Spears & Munsil Calibration
Filter.
Setting the Color control
Once you
know what strength of filter to use, bring up the Color
control with your display remote. If you haven’t already
written down the current Color control setting, do so now.
Look through the filter and watch the large blue bar and the
white bar below it (and/or the large white bar with the small
blue bar beneath it) as you move the Color control up and
down. Again, you may need to move the filter aside temporarily
to identify the blue and white bars, since through the filter
everything looks blue. You’ll see the relative brightness of
the blue and white bars vary. Moving the control one way will
make the blue bar brighter, and the other way will make it
dimmer. Adjust the Color control until the blue and white bars
are as close in brightness as you can make them (when viewed
through the filter).
Tint
Setting
the Tint control uses the same pattern and the same filter
strength you already worked out for the Color control, above.
Bring up the Tint control using your display remote. If you
haven’t already written down the current setting, do so now.
Look at the magenta and cyan bars on the pattern directly,
without the filter. The large magenta bar has a small cyan bar
beneath it, and the large cyan bar has a small magenta bar
beneath it. The object is to set the Tint control so that the
magenta and cyan bars have the same brightness when viewed
through the filter. Look at those bars through the filter and
move the Tint control up and down to see how the brightness of
the bars varies. Then adjust the control so that the bars are
as close to the same brightness, when viewed through the
filter, as you can make them.
Most displays come from the factory with the Tint control set
correctly or very close to it, so don’t be surprised if you
don’t need to change the control at all, or only need to
change it a notch or so.
For more information, please read our article
Setting Color and Tint.
Recheck Contrast
At this point it’s a good idea to redo the Contrast
control adjustment, as changes made to the Brightness and/or
Color controls may affect the appropriate Contrast setting.
Follow the same instructions given above to check the Contrast
and Clipping patterns to set the Contrast control to the
highest level that doesn’t clip.
Sharpness
The
Sharpness control is perceptual, and the goal is to turn it up
as high as possible without adding artifacts to the image, so
where it is set will depend on the visual acuity and
sensitivity to artifacts of the user and where the user sits.
There is no “perfect” setting that works for everyone and
every viewing situation.
Bring
up the Sharpness pattern using the Blu-ray remote, and then
bring up the Sharpness control using the display remote. If
you haven’t already written down the current Sharpness
setting, do so now.
Try taking
the sharpness control all the way up to see what happens. On
most displays you’ll see white “halos” around the darker lines
in the image, and sometimes even several concentric halos. You
will also generally see that the diagonal and curved lines
look stairstepped or jagged. (You may want to get up from your
normal viewing position just to look carefully at the screen
and see the halos and stairsteps, but then sit back in your
normal viewing position to continue the adjustment.) You may
also want to turn the Sharpness control all the way down and
see what happens. On most displays, the lines will be smooth,
with no jaggedness or halos, but the lines will not look crisp
and sharp. You are trying to strike a balance between the
crisp & sharp look and the artifacts like halos and
jaggedness.
While sitting in
your normal viewing position, turn down the Sharpness control
until the halos are no longer clearly visible and the lines
look smooth and not jagged. The lines should look crisp and
sharp, but should not have extraneous artifacts, noise, or
blockiness.
Finishing up
At this point, you have completed the core picture
adjustments. It’s a good idea to run through the entire set of
patterns, quickly, just to check that everything is still
correct. Some displays may have interactions between the
Brightness, Contrast, and Color controls (and even other
controls like Sharpness), so it’s possible that you may need
to make small tweaks to the controls on the second pass
through them. Once you feel confident that the controls are
all set properly, it’s a good idea to write down the
calibrated settings along with notes about the date,
equipment, and viewing conditions. Save these settings
somewhere safe so you can quickly apply them if the display
gets reset for any reason.
If
you tend to watch under several viewing conditions, such as a
brighter “day” environment versus a dark “night” environment,
you may want to run a calibration in both conditions and
compare the differences. Usually they will be similar, but you
may find that Brightness needs to be turned up a few notches
in a bright environment to compensate for the extra light
falling on the screen. If your display has multiple picture
memories, you can store the two calibrations in them and
switch as needed. If your display does not have multiple
picture memories, you can leave the calibration set for
whichever environment you use the most, or the environment
where you watch the most high-quality material, or split the
difference between the two to get the smallest deviation from
calibrated in both environments.
If you wanted to check the effects of some of the picture
modes you turned off at the beginning of this process, now is
a good time to do so. As mentioned earlier, try turning them
on one at a time, and running through the test patterns and
viewing the video montage (under “Demonstration Footage”) to
see what the effect is on the image, if anything. Some of the
modes will control settings that only come into play with
standard definition content, or only affect moving images and
not test patterns. As before, our general advice is to leave
picture settings you don’t understand to “off.” Mostly you’ll
find that high-quality video looks best with the minimum
processing.
Now that you have performed the basic calibration, we recommend you read
Choosing a Color Space to get
the most out of your display. If you would like to know more
about the patterns on our disc, we also recommend you read
Technical Notes on the Patterns.
That’s it! Please
let us know if you have comments or suggestions on the disc,
the instructions, our web site or anything at all.
