Tuesday, August 5, 2008

HDTV - To Calibrate or Not to Calibrate

Ok, what's the deal? What happened to the good old days when you just pulled a TV out of the box, plugged it in, turned it on and presto...viewing pleasure! Now we have to worry with the newer generation of LCD, Plasma, and OLED TV's that must be calibrated...by professionals no less! So, who says that I can't tell what looks best to me...they are my eyes after all. But, according to experts, you can achieve a much clearer, more pleasing picture, that is more energy efficient if you let a professional calibrate your TV.

There are cheaper options (though probably no different than one fooling around with the brightness, sharpness, color, and tint on your own) such as calibration DVD's. Some movies also have built in calibration software such as Monsters, Inc and Finding Nemo. As I have no children I don't own either of these movies and am not able to verify the validity of this claim. However, I might rent or borrow one of these movies just to search through the options on the disc for this calibration software. The only problem is, I wonder if the calibration software will optimize the picture quality for these particular movies only?

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