Everybody feels they know how to properly adjust their television, yet few consumers know the proper procedure. We've been told to adjust the user controls until the picture "looks right." This is at least partly responsible for our NTSC television system being called "Never Twice the Same Color." Each control requires a precise setting to obtain the best possible picture. Yet, even from the factory, these controls are seldom adjusted properly, and manufacturers never tell consumers the proper user control adjustment procedure. Manufacturers usually adjust their displays for the brightest picture, to look as appealing as possible to potential buyers, even if the overall picture quality is degraded or the display's lifespan is shortened.
The factory presets for brightness, contrast, and color are usually so high that they create a poor quality picture which causes eye strain and fatigue. If the factory presets are unchanged, they can also permanently damage the phosphors on your display, reducing the life of the tube(s) to less than half of their normal expectancy. Video display calibration will bring your display device (TV, monitor, or projector) as close to the NTSC/ATSC standards as possible, within the limitations of the display itself. This will allow the display to reproduce the film-like images demanded in true high-end home theaters, and in most cases will extend the life of the display.
With the superb images able to be delivered to your display from today's high-end video sources, which are fully calibrated at every step of their production process, it pays to calibrate your display to the same standards used in the production process, to be able to view these images in their full glory. With the investment you have made, or will make, in a high end video display, you will want to maximize your enjoyment of your video display investment. Calibrate, then celebrate!!!
We recommend that, when you purchase your display, you decrease the factory-preset brightness and contrast settings to near-normal levels (with our guidance) to avoid damage, then run your display for at least 100 hours of normal viewing (not in a couple long stretches) before having it calibrated, so that its components have time to stabilize their performance. This will help minimize calibration shift as the display ages further. After that, a minor touch-up calibration at 6-12 months and a recalibration every year or two (depending on display type and viewing time) will insure optimum performance and maximum lifetime for your display.
A calibrationist uses a set of test instruments (NTSC, VESA, and HDTV standards-compliant generators with special alignment patterns, color filters, plus NIST-traceable color analyzers) to calibrate the white balance/gray scale tracking, geometry, convergence, and user control defaults on a TV, monitor, or video projection display. Adjustments are made to both the user controls and the factory/service controls. Most displays have password-protected on-screen access to the service controls. NTSC, ATSC, and SMPTE standards are followed to provide maximum possible picture fidelity within the viewing environment and chassis constraints.
For maximum accuracy, a video display calibration needs to be performed in the environment in which the display will be viewed. Allow three to four hours for a standard calibration, depending on the design of the particular display.