It isn’t perfect, but it is much better than randomly guessing.Įach pattern also has on-screen help, and there are extensive notes and instructions available online at the Spears & Munsil website. You can only optimally adjust gamma correctly with proper test equipment, but patterns on Spears & Munsil help you choose the correct value (typically 2.4) for your mid-tones. If it is too high or too low, your image is either too dark, or too washed out. Gamma- Gamma is how quickly a display moves from the darkest blacks to the whitest whites.Set in your Blu-ray player, Spears & Munsil contains the only authoritative patterns I know of to set this correctly, and demonstrate clearly what your player or display might be doing wrong. The HDTV standard allows for different types of colorspaces, but some devices handle them differently. Colorspace- The colorspace defines how image information is stored and communicated between devices.Color Temperature- Typically you can only set this correctly with a specialized meter the pattern on Spears & Munsil is designed to help you eyeball the closest to optimum choice.Sharpness- Too low and you lose detail, too high and you’ll get artifacts instead of with more detail.Color and Tint- These controls are artifacts from analog color TVs, but on many displays they still need to be adjusted, as the default might be incorrect.Proper adjustment makes the biggest impact in viewing, which is why we focus so much on black and white levels with displays., Getting these correct is incredibly important. Brightness and Contrast- These control the black and white levels of your display proper adjustment affects your TV’s contrast ratio.The S&M disc aids in setting the following controls: This section handles setting the basic controls on your display or Blu-ray player, and makes sure the user controls are correctly set while explaining why they are important. Because of this and production variations of each HDTV, one can’t just copy the settings from someone else and not have the best image possible.īeginners and Experts alike will want to start with the disc’s first section: Video Calibration. This is due in part to all viewing environments have different levels of ambient lighting. HDTVs picture quality out of the box varies greatly from one make and model to another, however they are never at the optimal setting. With it, the user picture controls can be set properly to optimize the picture under your particular viewing conditions.

No HDTV will look its best using the out of the box picture settings and that’s why a Blu-ray calibration disc like the Spears & Munsil 2nd Edition is worthwhile investment.

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