Calibration Scam and Why You Can’t Have Your Display Calibrated Off-site

Discussing the pre-delivery Calibration Scam and Why You Should Not Use #Rtings, #HDTVTest, #QuantumTV or other people’s calibration settings.

#scamalert #calibration #information

[DavidSusiloUnscripted]

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[chrisbradley]

I agree overall, but I wouldn’t group rtings or Vincent with Quantum TV, who is a total nut aside from the fact that he sells basic (and awful) settings.

[verygoodbrother]

HDTVtest and Rtings, tell you what each setting does and their recommendation as they go through their calibration setting. So if you go along you can choose to agree with with their recommendation or adjust to you liking whilst knowing what each setting does instead of going in blind.

[Agroulinggrwaler]

I mostly agree with you, tho with a minor caveat. A TV calibrated to D65/BT.709 with 100 nits light output and 2.4 gamma can be moved anywhere and still offer the same performance. If you have a controlled enviroment then it is theoretically fine to do a calibration before shipment, but like you say the display will drift a lot during its first 300 hours of usage. And with projectors there are many more variables so doing calibration once it has been installed is crucial indeed.

As for someone who has done many calibration services to clients, I think personally that getting the image right is part of the service. I often end up spending a lot of time explaining to my client what each setting does and how it affects the final image. In cases compromises must be made, which is often the case with consumer grade TVs, I want to make the final decision in collaboration with my client. Also doing the calibration at the client's home also allows me to check that all the sources in use are set correctly and output a proper signal. If calibration is done remotely, there's no way to do any of this.

Like you say I fully understand why the service exists and it does have its share of usecases, but it should not be seen as a substitute for a proper calibration. :)

[MisterRhul]

I just can say for sure as an HDTVTEST watcher. Vincent says, explicitly, his settings are only for completely dark room environments. RTINGS, I don't know, but for what I hear, they probably warn about this in their review, to try not to copy their settings and always try the best for you. Well, QuantumTV is just a regular guy with strong beliefes, is better not even talk about him.

[danielbarroqueiro]

I’m here for the Sony Bravia community! I subscribed a few weeks ago to your channel already 😋

[Lasse]

Vincent has said 5000 times, that to watch an image calibrated to reference, you have to watch it in a reference enviroment, a nearly pitch black room.

This is also common knowledge. The eyes adjusts the size of the pupils (exposure) according to lighting conditions, so the only way to keep a reference with images, is by controlling the ambient lighting.

Your point about run-in time / pre-calibration is on point. Even Vincent agrees with you, he only calibrates and does review of a new TV after 100 hour run-in.

It actually gets even worse. You will need to re- measure and re- calibrate each 100 hours of usage.

The White balance is constantly shifting randomly, this is pretty well- documented and nobody disagrees on this subject.

There are written many professional articles on this subject, with objective measurements and theory behind what causes the shifts in color temperature.

If you think that the panel is going to settle into a "final state" think again.

But yeah, during the very first 50-100 hours of usage, this phenomena is on steroids. And it would make little sense to calibrate during this state of the panel lifetime.

So yeah, the pre- calibration purchases, are either based on ignorance, or straight up scamming people, can't fault your conclusion.

[sherifhamid]

I’m here from the Sony Bravia Community. Already a Subscriber

[shaneducholke]

I have noticed a number of places that sell projectors these day offer a calibration before they ship for $500. Not only is this not going to give you the best performance, but I don't believe they are doing individual calibration of each unit, they likely take the settings from a full calibration on that specific model and input them in every model they sell calibration to and it probably takes them less than 30 min to do.

It is a cash cow taking advantage of unknowledgeable people that read an article or watch a video that says they need to get calibration to get the most out of their investment.

[coolcras]

I had mines done remotely by Value electronics. They only calibrate after
The TV has been quality checked for screen uniformity and dead pixels and runs for 100 plus hours. They then ship you the tv

[mrchrisapowell]

Nice video David! I’m here from Sony Bravia Community.

[lammyjammer]

I wouldn't say it's scammy as much as it's misleading. The accuracy of a calibration depends greatly on the environment the screen is being used in. Settings do improve certain things but a proper calibration will always be superior.

[Niberspace]

Idunno man, sounds to me like you should definitely just calibrate to a pitch black room (which is what you would view games/movies in anyway). the idea of recalibrating the screen every time you turn on a lightbulb or that the time-of-day changes from the window sounds absurd to me. I rather just let the pitchblack room be calibrated, then allow for imperfections when I choose to have lights on (which I only do when I'm doing non-color-sensitive work anyway)

[eman]

I'm from Facebook bravia community Subscribed and liked

[blackdragon]

I've got 2 calibration profiles on my TV. One for a dark room and one for light because the viewing environment is not always the same given external factors like time of day, room lighting etc

[socialreport]

Remove the introductory comment to be subscribed (the inner youtube software can do that). I suppose that request repulses a lot of people to continue to watch this good comparison. Liked.

[speedy]

Hi David, where does one find a calibrator these days? Thanks!

[mattpipke]

the tv should be broken in first 250 hours at least and should be in its final place with devices plugged in that it will host.
But what about Value electronics service?
they offer a service where they hand pick your panel, then break it in then calibrate it there in their studios then ship it to you and set it up.

[mdelhaj]

If it's not possible to calibrate the Tv./Projector where it's going to be normally watched/seen, i would suggest that using a picture modes such as: Cinema/Movie/THX/ISF etc. on your display would be a every good starting point! and a much better choice then just letting the seller perform the calibration at their place, tbh. from what i have seen in the recent years these picture preset modes are reasonably accurate out of the box, and in most cases they will get you about 80% of the way to an accurate picture, and if u are tweaker and u know what u are doing u could even get to 90%, without any professional calibration.

[jimmiller]

I'm here from the Sony Bravia community.