Isf Hdtv Calibration Wizard

MONSTER HDTV Calibration Wizard ISF DVD Disc. (W25) See more like this. 1 product rating - High-Definition HDTV 3DTV and Audio Calibration Toolkit - Inveo NEW SEALED. Free Shipping. Sony STR-DN1040 165w. Buy MONSTER ISF CALDSK Home Electronics Cables and Accessories with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg! HDTV Calibration Wizard DVD Features. Created by Monster, the Imaging Science Foundation, and Microsoft. Easy to use live video shots help you calibrate your TV without complicated test patterns. The fast, easy fix without retaining a professional ISF calibrator with $10,000 worth of instrumentation: the award-winning Monster/ISF HDTV Calibration Wizard DVD, recently named Electronic House magazine's 2006 Product of the Year. How To Calibrate Your New HDTV (and Not Lose Your Mind) John Mahoney. 11/28/08 2:00pm. And second, to me, HDTV calibration is the gadget geek's equivalent to chasing the dragon. ISF collaborated with Monster Cable to produce a consumer-friendly how-to DVD called HDTV Calibration Wizard, which retails for $29.95. They hired several models and a narrator, Jenna Drey. Monster/ISF HDTV Calibration Wizard Review. June 12, 2006. Hopefully by now everyone understands how critical proper calibration is in achieving the best sound and image possible, from your home theater system.

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The Monster/ISF HDTV Calibration Wizard earns high marks for being the easiest-to-use tool of its kind. Value: 3 of 5 stars Last edited by maicaw; at 10:13 AM.

post #1 of 10Old11-27-2006, 08:22 PM - Thread Starter

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Is this thing worth it?
http://store.monstercable.com/store/product.asp?id=81
I currently own the DIgital Video Essentials DVD
http://www.videoessentials.com/
But I feel that i've done nothing to improve my picture quality on my 50' Panasonic Plasma.

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If you can handle DVE I don't think the monster disk will help you anymore. We actually use that disk for basic installations to set up our customers tv's and esp to help with the life of plasmas since most customers leave them on vivid for the life of the tv.

Home Theater, 700 HP cars, golf, and snow skiing are all expensive habits for a 24 year old!

post #3 of 10Old11-27-2006, 10:23 PM - Thread Starter

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the DVE was a little hard to understand..... so im not sure if I really ended up tuning anything.

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Originally Posted by xAbre1200

the DVE was a little hard to understand..... so im not sure if I really ended up tuning anything.

DVE is tough.....I didn't do a good job with my black/gray adjutments. Black backgrounds on SD material show vertical bars alternating between a light black and a deep purple (not seeing it on DVD's or HD). :(
I can live with it but I'd really like to calibrate it better if it doesn't take me all day. :confused:

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just to elaborate on xAbre1200's post if i may. What would be the best calibrator to use if not these ones? Without spending a whole whack of dough.

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Is AVIA still available? I've always liked that one.
Mark

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Originally Posted by mdv

Is AVIA still available? I've always liked that one. Mark

I think it's designed for CRT's and it's mostly non-digital/non-HDTV. It's from 1999.

post #8 of 10Old11-28-2006, 06:04 PM - Thread Starter

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Agreed, the dvd's are quite hard to adjust and also time consuming. I had to watch through hours of video before I started doing any actual tuining. And when i did tune, it was only really up or down 1 color level. Not a very big difference at all.
Im looking for sort of an automatic adjuster..... if there is such an item released yet.

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I haven't used this personally but it's getting good reviews in the calibration forum here on AVS...
http://www.calibrate.tv/

post #10 of 10Old11-28-2006, 09:50 PM - Thread Starter

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Confession: Until a few days ago, I'd never calibrated my TV. There are a couple reasons for this. First, and most simply, I'm not down with buying a calibration disc that I will likely use once then never touch again. And second, to me, HDTV calibration is the gadget geek's equivalent to chasing the dragon. I've seen endless A/V forum posts of new TV owners begging and pleading for that one true setting for their new high-definition slab—it's not pretty. There is an easy way, though, tucked inside hundreds of THX-certified DVDs already out there, and it's quite possibly already in your movie collection.

The THX Optimizer is a quick and simple calibration tool that I have found gets the job done well enough for most of us non-fanatics. And it comes with a free movie! (OK, it comes free with a movie.) What is it? It's a set of six test patterns that help you choose the key settings for any HDTV calibration: contrast, brightness, tint and sharpness.

Where to get it: THX has been quietly embedding the Optimizer in just about every THX-certified DVD for years-so that's hundreds. There's a complete list here, but it hasn't been updated in a while, because THX is currently refreshing the Optimizer for high-def discs. The only Blu-ray disc currently carrying it is Terminator 2, but when the new version is done, THX will include it on all THX-ceritified BDs, too. Point is, in all, there's probably at least one movie you'd like to own that happens to come with the Optimizer.

One other thing you'll need: To take full advantage of the Optimizer for the tint settings, you'll need some funky blue-filter glasses. THX will send you a pair for a couple of bucks on their website, though there is an additional color pattern in the Optimizer that you can use to eyeball your settings without the glasses—basically, you just make sure that cyan and magenta look as much like the cyan and magenta of your dreams. If you don't feel like you can be trusted with that judgment, it's probably worth it to spend the $4 or so.

Settings you'll want to start with: The good news is, the Optimizer works with pretty much every TV in the world, from your grandma's 19-inch Sony Trinitron to your brand-new 60-inch Kuro. (Yeah, you wish.) I would reset your TV's settings to the factory default before running the Optimizer, and I would also choose to calibrate your set's movie/film/cinema pre-set (if possible), as it should be closer to the ballpark range than the 'standard' mode. But if you prefer the usually cooler color temperatures of the standard mode, running it through the Optimizer will at least ensure that its ferocious showroom-floor contrast and brightness will be tamed.

Be sure that any auto-contrast or auto-backlight settings—including any settings with the words 'dynamic' or 'ambient'—are turned off. In one test scenario, every adjustment we tried to make was immediately be countered by 'smart' settings—it was nearly impossible to calibrate the TV correctly. If your set comes with those options, shut 'em down. And leave 'em down.

It also helps to try and run the Optimizer in lighting conditions that best match your usual TV-watching state. Everyone watches TV both during the day and at night, so this won't be perfect. But a happy medium of the shades drawn on a partly cloudy day seemed to work nicely for me.

After you've got everything set up, it's a pretty simple run-through-turn up contrast until just the point where can still see six white-shaded blocks without them merging together, turn down brightness until the last black block out of a different row of six disappears, etc. All of the tests are easy enough to understand for the layman.

But does it work? My Samsung Series 4 LCD now looks a lot better in movie mode, without a doubt. Where it used to look flat and the colors muddy, now blacks look blacker and colors more contrasty, but in a far more natural way than the 'dynamic' preset.

Note that this before and after of a still from T2 is not a scientific comparison by any means: the camera's exposure settings are the same in each unprocessed photograph, so the screen image should be fairly accurate, but the room's lighting had changed a bit by the time I was done calibrating as you can see. But on the screen you can still see the darker blacks and better color saturation and contrast that I noticed in person.

So even if the difference is subtle, it's worth doing. Especially since you didn't drop money on a calibration disc, you either bought a THX-certified movie, or dug one out of your existing pile o' DVDs. (Netflixing a known Optimizer-laden title is a cheap third option, of course.) And those demons screaming at you about the huge potential you're missing by not calibrating your set? You can put those to rest. [THX]

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