As of this week I will have my new JETI Specbos 1211 Spectroradiometer to use when calibrating your displays. This meter is a true reference spectroradiometer which means it accurately reads any color being displayed by any device. My previous meter was a tristimulus colorimeter, which is fast but not as accurate for different devices and is not as good at making CMS adjustments.

If you’re interested in more details on the meter, you can find them here.

For calibrations scheduled after May 7th, you will receive the benefit of the new meter. Please contact me for an appointment or if you have any questions.

Roger Ebert recently had a post on his blog where he describes a letter from Walter Murch describing why 3D video in its current incarnation will never work. Basically, he’s explaining the fact that our eyes have to work differently in 3D video than they do in the natural world. I think this is a very interesting article and it makes sense. However, I wanted to provide a diagram showing exactly what Walter is describing in his letter. Read the blog post and then take a look at the diagram below, and hopefully it will make things a bit clearer.

I don’t currently have any opinion as to whether this technical detail means 3D will not succeed. However, it does seem to explain at least part of why some people have difficulty viewing 3D in this manner for long periods.

The HDTV podcast has a short discussion of this article in their January 28, 2011 podcast.

If you have an Audyssey Pro Installer-Ready receiver (or other Audyssey Pro device), we are now an Audyssey Pro installer and can calibrate your Audyssey Pro device.

Audyssey Pro calibration offers a significant improvement over the built-in Audyssey calibration on many receivers. The calibration is done with an expensive, high quality microphone using (usually) more measurement points. In addition, the parameters can be tuned for the best possible performance.

Audyssey Pro calibration requires a license for your receiver or device, which we handle for you and is included in our fee.

Please contact us if you are interested in having us perform this service for you.

You can also purchase many Audyssey Pro devices from us, including the Audyssey Sound Equalizers or some Denon and Onkyo receivers. By purchasing them through us, we will sell you both the receiver and calibration as an affordable package. Contact us for more details.

Click here for more information about Audyssey Pro

Authorized Reseller

If you’re a fan of the Oppo Digital Blu-Ray players, Crystal Clear Home Theater can now provide you with one as part of one of our calibrated equipment packages. These award winning players offer incredible performance at incredible prices. If you purchase one through us, we will provide the installation and configuration of the player at no additional cost, plus any desired training.

Contact us for more information or to get your Oppo player headed your way! (In person delivery or pick-up only – we do not ship any products or do internet sales).

I recently completed the necessary steps to become a THX Certified Video Calibrator, which allows me to offer official, THX certified video calibrations of your home theater television or projector. THX Certification means your calibration results will be reviewed by THX, you’ll receive a letter of certification from THX indicating that your display meets THX calibration standards, you’ll receive a small plaque with the THX logo you can display in your theater, and a THX demo disc.

For now, there is an extra fee to have your calibration THX certified, but within the next month or two some changes to the certification program will allow me to make all of my calibrations be THX certified. Keep an eye out for this.

Check me out on the THX Website by searching for me in the Seattle area under “Certified Installers”!

I think the video says it all. Have a good laugh!

Of course, I would be thrilled to help you avoid any of these problems!

Now selling calibrated equipment packages

For some time now I’ve felt that in order to properly meet the needs of many of my customers, I need to make it possible for them to purchase equipment directly from me. In particular, the type of customer who knows they want a new TV, home stereo, or some other home theater component but isn’t quite sure what to get. Trying to do the research can be daunting, and there are a myriad choices that can be very confusing.

My goal is to give my customers the best audio and video experience they can get. It can be frustrating for me sometimes when I visit a customer’s home and they have made a choice to purchase something simply because it was the cheapest, or the easiest for them to get, or for whatever other reason. Often their choice has resulted in them ending up with an inferior product, when they could have had something much better for the same price or even less.

By offering calibrated equipment packages I will work with you to determine the best option for your goals and your budget, obtain the equipment for you, verify that it works before installing it in your home, set it up, and calibrate it. For a TV or projector this means that when you get it, you’ll get the best picture possible from day one. For audio, it means that I will set it up, configure it, and calibrate it for the best possible sound. I can also offer peripheral equipment and other products related to home theater.

What about price? I can offer you very competitive pricing for what you would pay for the equipment only elsewhere. So, while you may end up paying a little more going through me, you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing you’ll be seeing and hearing the best quality possible for your budget dollar. I can’t compete directly with online retailers and big box stores on price alone, but I can offer you significant added value that is more than worth the price difference.

Because I carry no inventory I will never push to sell you a product you do not need or that does not fit you and your project! However, most of my suppliers carry stock locally and I can get you what you need very quickly in most cases.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss a calibrated equipment package.

Note: I will not quote prices over the phone or by email. When you work with me on a purchase, we will talk about what you want and your needs, and I will put together an estimate that includes the price of the equipment, the setup, and the calibration. I am not a storefront retailer and cannot be just another place you shop for gear. I will not sell over the internet or ship any product. All delivery is done in person.

Here are some brands that I can get you set up with:

Televisions: Samsung, Panasonic, LG, Toshiba, JVC, NEC
Projectors: Optoma, JVC, JVC Pro, Sanyo, Marantz, BenQ, Sim2 and more
Receivers: Denon, Onkyo, Harman and more
Speakers: Klipsch, KEF, Boston Acoustics, Crysalis, JBL and many, many more
Wire, accessories, mounts – just about everything you can think of!

Oppo Digital Authorized Reseller

I often get asked a number of questions that all revolve around whether calibrating a television provides any real benefit to the viewer. They tend to be questions like this:

• Is calibrating my TV worth it?
• What exactly does it mean to “calibrate” a TV?
• How will the picture be better if I calibrate my TV?
• Why should I calibrate my TV?
• Does calibrating a TV really do anything?

Ultimately it comes down to: will my TV look “better” after it’s calibrated, and is the amount of “better” worth the cost?

It is perfectly reasonable to ask these questions. After all, the person asking the question(s) usually just spent a boatload of money on a new TV, and is now wondering if they need to shell out a few hundred more for a calibration.

There are two major areas of misunderstanding that I try to correct as I answer any one of these questions:

Misunderstanding #1:

“Better” is absolute

People assume that because they’re spending money on a calibration, that the picture will be “better” afterward. There is a significant problem with this assumption: “better” is very subjective. What one person considers better, another may consider the same, or worse, or just different.

What a person considers “better” can be tricked and manipulated. Most unsuspecting viewers will always consider a brighter picture “better”, even if it can be shown to be substantially worse in picture quality. TV manufacturers know this, and make their TVs as bright as possible so you’ll buy theirs. Does this make the picture “better?” No. It’s completely unrelated. Other enhancements added to TVs, such as sharpness, dynamic contrast, enhanced color, and so on all fall into the category of manipulating you into thinking the picture is “better.” None of the manipulations used to make you think the picture looks better actually have anything to do with improving the quality of the picture. In fact, most of them add distortion and inaccuracies to the picture.

“Better” can be defined in many different ways. For example, is a brighter picture “better” than a not-so-bright one? Is a picture with richer color than another “better”, even if those colors are no longer realistic? “Better” is a completely subjective evaluation.

Misunderstanding #2:

Calibration is about making the picture “better”

Thinking a calibration will just make the picture “better” misses the point of calibration. Calibration is not about making the picture “better”, unless you define “better” to mean “calibrated.”  If someone defines “better” to mean “oversaturated color” (whether consciously or subconsciously), then he will most likely consider a calibrated picture to be worse, at least at first. He might consider the picture to be “dim” at first, simply because he’s used to an image that is too bright. Or, he might miss the edge enhancement, or any number of things, simply because he is accustomed to seeing an inaccurate picture.

Depending on what modes a viewer had been using on their TV prior to a calibration, he may see either a large difference or a small difference in the picture after calibration. If all he had been using was the “out-of-the-box” settings of their TV, he will see a significant difference in the picture after calibration. If he has played with the settings and used some of the other picture modes, such as “Cinema” or “Movie”, he may see only a small difference in the calibrated picture. In nearly all cases, however, factory modes, no matter what they are, still have inaccuracies designed to make the viewer think the picture looks “better” than a competitor’s.

So, what IS calibration about?

Calibration is about getting the TV to reproduce the original image as accurately as possible. Then, the viewer sees exactly what the director intended. This means that the color is realistic, that the picture is as bright as it needs to be, and that you can see every detail of the picture without distortion or artifacts. Distortion and artifacts are simply things in the picture that should not be there, or that are displayed incorrectly. It could be a problem with the color, an element added or removed, or incorrectly placed.

The elements that are optimized in a calibration include: the “blackness” of black, the brightness of white, the color of white, accurate colors, colors that are correctly saturated, and something called “gamma” (which is beyond the scope of this post to explain).

Is calibration worth it?

You have to decide for yourself if calibration is worth it. If you care even a little bit about seeing the picture the way the director intended, then you should think about a calibration.

If you don’t know much about picture quality and don’t want to spend much money, then calibrate yourself using a calibration DVD or call me out to do a basic calibration, which is only $50. This gets you in the ballpark, and is a significant improvement over factory settings.

If you’ve invested a lot in your TV, or if you’re passionate about what you watch and want to experience it the way the director intended, then you should definitely consider a full calibration. You owe it to yourself and those who watch with you. Just consider it part of the purchase price of your TV.

In my opinion, you’ll not only find it to be worth it, but once you’re accustomed to watching a calibrated picture, you’ll never go back. You’ll be telling all your friends just how much “better” your picture is!

For more in-depth, technical discussion about what calibration is about, please see this thread on AVS Forum.

Just a quick update – I took the THX Certified Professional Level I course at CES and am now certified by THX at that level. In March I will be taking the THX video certification course as well. These certifications will help me provide even better service to you in providing greater “clarity” to your picture and sound.

If you’ve been thinking about buying a new High-Definition television, you have almost certainly been overwhelmed by the number of choices and options you are faced with. This buying guide is designed to help you understand what you should be looking for. Rather than recommending specific models or brands, which change on an almost weekly basis, this guide will give you the tools you need to make an informed choice about what TV is best for you.

More than likely you have already gone, or were planning on going, to a major electronics retailer or warehouse store to look at TVs, and even talk to a salesperson to learn more about what’s out there. The vast majority of people decide which television to purchase this way. Unfortunately, especially for a television, this is NOT the best way to make your choice.

The reason is because television manufacturers take advantage of the way your eye works to try and make you buy their TV, manipulating the picture on the screen in all sorts of ways that attempt to “Wow” you. But, these manipulations are actually ruining the picture. Not only that, but the store or warehouse has a completely different environment than your home, with different lighting, noise levels, and even a different angle at which you are viewing the TV. 

The Five Qualities

So, what is important when deciding which TV to buy? Well, obviously there’s it’s price. We’re not going to spend much time on this, but we suggest that you at least do some preliminary research before you set your budget. This will give you realistic expectations about what you can afford.

 Next is size. For many people this is relatively easy because there is a particular wall or piece of furniture that will limit the size. For those not limited in that way, you will typically want to get the largest size you can afford, after you’ve taken into consideration the things we will talk about next. There are some rules of thumb regarding size depending on how far away from the TV you plan to sit which are beyond the scope of this guide. You should easily be able to find more information on this by searching the internet if you are interested.

Third, and the most important aspect of the TV itself, is picture quality. We’ll go into more detail on this in a moment.

Fourth is the features the TV supports, such as what types of inputs it has, if it has built-in speakers, how much control there is over picture settings, whether it has internet capabilities, how well it can be calibrated, and as many other things as the manufacturer can think up to get you to buy their TV. We’ll talk about some features you care about later, but here is a tip for you: the vast majority of special “features” on a TV result in an inaccurately displayed image. As a result, most of them can, and should, be disabled. For the most part, you can simply ignore these special features.

Finally, there are two more elements most people don’t consider: build quality and customer support. While you may save some money when you first buy the TV, one that is poorly built won’t last as long as something a little more expensive but built well, and the more expensive one may actually save you money in the long run. Bad customer support can be a thorn in your side if something goes wrong, but good customer support can give you relief and peace. It is often worth the extra cost.

 In general, the cheapest televisions suffer from either lower quality components, poor customer service, or both. For this reason we don’t recommend that you shop based on price alone. Stick with well-known manufacturers and research their reputation. Ask a salesman how often a brand or set gets returned to get an idea of their reliability. 

Drilling Into Picture Quality

Now, let’s go back and talk about picture quality. We want to start out by saying that you pretty much can’t go wrong. Just about every HDTV out there, if it is working properly, will give you a great picture. Virtually all of them are capable of giving you a picture that conforms with the well-defined industry standards for what your picture should look like. So, don’t fret that you might choose a “bad” TV.

That said, what makes a good picture a good picture? There are four elements that contribute to picture quality: Dynamic Range, Color Saturation, Color Accuracy, and Resolution.

Dynamic Range refers to how big of a difference there is between the blackest black that the TV can make and the whitest white. Manufacturers have gotten quite good at making very bright whites – in fact, most TVs these days are too bright. The holy grail has become who can make the blackest blacks. This is the core of the various technology wars you hear about: plasma versus LCD, LED televisions, OLED, and so on. All of them are striving to make it so the television makes blacker blacks.

Dynamic range is the most important factor in picture quality – more important than whether it’s 720p or 1080p, or anything else. A TV with poor dynamic range will look washed out and dull. So, in your quest for a great picture you want to consider a TV’s dynamic range. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Dynamic range has also become the area of greatest confusion as manufacturers try to come up with ways of essentially “faking” a bigger dynamic range, as well as either publishing misleading numbers regarding dynamic range or not publishing them at all.

As far as HDTV technologies go, OLED displays have the greatest dynamic range, followed by plasma, then LED displays (which are really an LCD TV with an LED-based backlight, and whose dynamic range are getting very close to plasma), then regular LCD displays. Any sort of projector system, whether rear projection or front projection, would generally follow LCDs, with some (usually expensive) exceptions.

Each technology has it’s drawbacks, however. OLED is new and very expensive. Plasma can have burn-in problems and the screens reflect more light from the room you are in. LED displays are thinner, but more expensive than regular LCDs. Projectors give you a big image but require a dark room.

When looking at dynamic range, you typically want to look at a TV’s “contrast ratio.” However, if the manufacturer has only published the “dynamic contrast ratio”, then you must disregard it, as that is the manufacturer’s “faked” dynamic range. Look for “native contrast ratio”. For reasons beyond the scope of this guide, you should regard any number larger than 3000 or 4000 to 1 with great suspicion. It usually means the number is giving a dynamic contrast ratio.

If you can’t find any useful numbers on a TV’s contrast ratio, go by this rule of thumb: within any given HDTV technology and price range, the newer the TV the better the dynamic range. Manufacturers are continually improving technology with time. Go for the newest model of the TV highest on the technology list we gave earlier that is affordable for you.

Next is color – both color saturation and color accuracy. Color saturation simply refers to how bright and rich the colors are. However, in television color is not just about how rich it can be – it’s about how accurate it can be.

There is not a whole lot you can do about color when choosing your TV. With some exceptions at the cheapest price point, most HDTVs have full capability of producing the full spectrum of color available in recorded content. However, most manufacturers set their TVs to over-saturate the color – make it more vibrant. This looks great in the showroom and will make you want to buy the TV. Unfortunately this comes at the sacrifice of color accuracy. For example, you’re watching a golf game and the grass looks neon-green instead of a natural green. Or people often look sunburned.

The single greatest thing you can do to get the best color is to have your television calibrated. This will ensure the best and most accurate colors, and can be done on just about any television you get. This is one reason why you should always budget for a calibration when buying an HDTV.

Finally comes resolution. This simply refers to how many dots of color the screen can display, similar to the megapixels on a digital camera. Higher is better, and you’ll see two standards these days: 720p and 1080p. It’s getting harder and harder to find anything that’s not 1080p, but for the most part you can use this rule of thumb: for any television 37 inches or less, getting 1080p is not worth the extra cost if a 720p option is available. Especially at standard viewing distances, the difference will not be noticeable for that size. For any television over 37 inches, you should find one that is 1080p.

Make sure you’re not duped by the manufacturer if they say the TV is “1080p-ready” but the TV is really a 720p TV. This means the TV can accept a 1080p picture, but will only display it at 720p. Any true 1080p display should have a “native resolution” of 1920 by 1080 pixels. 

A Brief Look at Features

Now on to features. For the most part you can ignore the hype, such as 120Hz or 240Hz, or any number of manufacturer-specific feature lingo and names. The only one you want is to be sure that it is 24p ready, which offers the best ability to display Blu-Ray and DVD movies. This often comes with a 120Hz or higher refresh rate, which is worth having but not a deal breaker. However, there are certain things you may find appealing, such as built-in Netflix streaming, a laptop or PC input, internet widgets, better speakers, or a thinner design. Having the ISFccc logo is also a good feature, as it guarantees the TV can be properly calibrated by a professional. Lack of this feature, however, does not mean it cannot be calibrated. Carefully research the features you think you actually need before you go shopping. 

To Sum It All Up…

HD televisions have come a long way in the last couple of years. Let’s summarize the important elements you should be considering as you choose your TV: 

• Manufacturers care less about giving you the best picture than they do about getting you to buy their TV. As a result, they will manipulate the picture to make it something they know you will want to buy, even at the sacrifice of picture quality.
• It’s hard to go wrong – almost all TVs out there today can give you a great picture – but the factory settings are usually very distorted.
• “Dynamic range”, or contrast ratio, is the most important element in picture quality.
• OLED has the best dynamic range, followed by plasma, then LED LCDs, then LCDs.
• Get 720p for a 37″ or below television, otherwise 1080p. Check the “native resolution” (sometimes published as simply “Resolution”) to be sure you’re getting what you think you are.
• Research the features you really want before you shop. Most features aren’t important and should be disabled anyway once you buy the TV (this will happen during calibration).
• Given the same type of television within a given price range, a professional calibration will make a far bigger difference in the picture quality than which specific TV you buy. A calibration makes the picture match broadcast standards and corrects those things the manufacturer has done to the picture to try and grab your attention in the store.
• Don’t forget about build quality and customer service. 

We hope this guide has given you a better idea of what to look for as you shop for your new HD television.

Contact us if you have any questions, or would like to schedule a calibration for your new TV.