Calibration
Video calibration measures a display's color characteristics and adjusts its picture controls to produce the most accurate output. Video production for movies and TV conforms to industry specifications that define a precise color pallet and detail levels.
Article by: Robert Heron
Updated August 24, 2022
Why calibrate?
Today's televisions and projectors are capable of producing some of the most exquisite imagery yet seen. However, variances in manufacturing and the myriad of picture adjustment options mean that even the best models from top manufacturers leave room for improvement.
Klein Instruments K10-A Colorimeter
Ideally, you want your TV or projector to match a professional monitor's calibrated color and detail performance in a video grading suite environment. Any uncalibrated video display device (LCD, OLED, plasma, projector) isn't showing you the intended vision of the content's creator. And no consumer display produces accurate imagery right out of the box!
There are several benefits of having your production monitor, TV, or projector calibrated by a professional:
Accurate Color
A display's depiction of color should accurately represent the information contained within a video signal. Finding and properly adjusting the appropriate picture settings to exact broadcast and film production standards will result in faithful video reproduction.
We also offer reference-grade lookup table (LUT) programming for most LG monitors, TVs, and projectors. LUT programming for LG display devices results in the ultimate color and detail accuracy for SDR, HDR, and Dolby Vision video content.
Which picture setup is correct?
Image credit: Samsung
Revealing Picture Detail
An improperly configured television or projector often sacrifices bright and dark details that should otherwise be visible to the audience.
Is your display sacrificing detail?
Consistent Color Mixing
Almost all televisions and projectors generate a color by mixing red, green, and blue (the primary colors in additive color mixing.) With these display systems, the color white is the three primaries combined. Shades of gray are created by collectively reducing the brightness of the primaries until there is no light (aka black.) The signals in our video sources are often encoded as high-resolution grayscale pictures with relatively low-resolution color information combined to save bandwidth. Fine-tuning a display's depiction of the color of gray dark-to-bright (aka grayscale) is a critical aspect of the calibration service. An inaccurate grayscale will negatively influence all colors as it appears on-screen.
Minimizing Artificial Enhancements
Most televisions and projectors are factory configured to produce as bright of a picture as possible regardless of color or detail accuracy. Many LCDs also enable a motion resolution enhancement that unnaturally smooths movies' appearance (aka soap opera effect.) Professional video calibration minimizes these unwanted artifacts resulting in a more eye-pleasing picture!
VideoForge PRO HDR video signal generator
Efficiency
While we strive for optimal picture performance, a side-effect of professional video calibration is often a display device that also consumes less electricity.
Contact
Robert is a THX/ISF trained calibrator based in Northern California/Bay Area, and he welcomes project requests from anywhere in the world!
For more information, questions, or to schedule an appointment, please contact Heron Fidelity directly.