Is "sucker" across my forehead?
June 21, 2010 2:46 PM Subscribe
Is this the "new scam"? I am looking at a new t.v., and they seem bent on selling me "calibration", to the tune $300+!
It doesn't just seem to be on one particular t.v., but any of them. Is it worth it? FWIW I am looking at the new Sharp Quattron. Any other suggestions would be helpful!
It doesn't just seem to be on one particular t.v., but any of them. Is it worth it? FWIW I am looking at the new Sharp Quattron. Any other suggestions would be helpful!
Well, for professional designers, you want to have a calibrated monitor so that images you work with on your screen will look like what's printed on paper. But it's totally irrelevant for watching movies and TV.
You can buy a real color calibrator for just $50 if you want one. Charging $300 to "do it" is insane, especially since they're not actually calibrating anything.
posted by delmoi at 2:54 PM on June 21, 2010
You can buy a real color calibrator for just $50 if you want one. Charging $300 to "do it" is insane, especially since they're not actually calibrating anything.
posted by delmoi at 2:54 PM on June 21, 2010
Scammy scam scam scam.
posted by iamabot at 2:54 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by iamabot at 2:54 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Run away. They're trying to scam you, and they won't stop with this.
posted by deadmessenger at 2:58 PM on June 21, 2010
posted by deadmessenger at 2:58 PM on June 21, 2010
There are some good guides online for doing it yourself with a calibration DVD, and some review sites have recommended settings posted for various models.
posted by gimli at 3:03 PM on June 21, 2010
posted by gimli at 3:03 PM on June 21, 2010
But it's totally irrelevant for watching movies and TV.
I strongly disagree. Like any other monitor, you'll want to calibrate color/contrast/brightness etc. Having someone do it for you for $300, however, is a total scam.
I've used the Video Essentials series for about a decade, and found that they were well worth the $50 or whatever it was I paid for it. Calibrating a television is something you can/should do for yourself (and the video essentials DVDs include test tones to match the levels on your speakers, if you have a surround setup (note: you'll need a sound pressure level meter)).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:06 PM on June 21, 2010
I strongly disagree. Like any other monitor, you'll want to calibrate color/contrast/brightness etc. Having someone do it for you for $300, however, is a total scam.
I've used the Video Essentials series for about a decade, and found that they were well worth the $50 or whatever it was I paid for it. Calibrating a television is something you can/should do for yourself (and the video essentials DVDs include test tones to match the levels on your speakers, if you have a surround setup (note: you'll need a sound pressure level meter)).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:06 PM on June 21, 2010
If you have any THX-certified DVDs, there's a very good chance you already have a calibration tool. Don't waste any additional money on this.
posted by sbrollins at 3:21 PM on June 21, 2010
posted by sbrollins at 3:21 PM on June 21, 2010
I'm really surprised by the responses here, it's not a scam at all. Calibration of TVs is a very real and valid thing, they turn the saturation/reds all the way up in the store to try to make it look better than the TV it's next to.
With that said, spend $50 on Video Essentials instead of $300 on someone bringing it into your home.
posted by Jairus at 3:24 PM on June 21, 2010
With that said, spend $50 on Video Essentials instead of $300 on someone bringing it into your home.
posted by Jairus at 3:24 PM on June 21, 2010
Agree with all the responses that the service isn't a scam, just the price. If you don't want to shell out the $40 or whatever for Video Essentials, you can typically rent it at Blockbuster (or wherever; are they still around?)
posted by inigo2 at 3:35 PM on June 21, 2010
posted by inigo2 at 3:35 PM on June 21, 2010
A real, professional, certified calibration of a CRT television could cost $300.
A retail employee with a Video Essentials DVD is a scam.
But, as usual, Consumerist misleads. Television calibration is a real thing. That particular store's version of it might not be.
posted by gjc at 5:02 PM on June 21, 2010
A retail employee with a Video Essentials DVD is a scam.
But, as usual, Consumerist misleads. Television calibration is a real thing. That particular store's version of it might not be.
posted by gjc at 5:02 PM on June 21, 2010
Best answer: You just might find all the calibration details you need in this write-up at AVS. You'll need to register to view the attached PDFs.
posted by prinado at 5:19 PM on June 21, 2010
posted by prinado at 5:19 PM on June 21, 2010
Best answer: Nthing the fact that this is a scam and all you need it the thread from AVS where people list their settings.
But, just so you have the info, there is some controversy about the yellow pixel that Sharp is promoting so heavily. Basically people are saying that the normal RGB combinations produce yellow, and there isn't really a yellower yellow that you can get from this special pixel. You can scroll down to the bottom (point 3) of this link that's mainly about the new iPhone display, for a brief note from a "display expert".
posted by dnesan at 5:35 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
But, just so you have the info, there is some controversy about the yellow pixel that Sharp is promoting so heavily. Basically people are saying that the normal RGB combinations produce yellow, and there isn't really a yellower yellow that you can get from this special pixel. You can scroll down to the bottom (point 3) of this link that's mainly about the new iPhone display, for a brief note from a "display expert".
posted by dnesan at 5:35 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Are you going to use it for editing purposes? Editors sometimes use calibrated TVs to check how the footage will look on TV. If not, it's a waste of time and money.
posted by VikingSword at 6:00 PM on June 21, 2010
posted by VikingSword at 6:00 PM on June 21, 2010
Scam.
I don't care if "calibration is a real thing." It's still a scam.
I don't need my TV calibrated. I need its picture to be visually appealing to me. Not washed-out brights, not-black darks, realistic human flesh tones; that sort of thing.
If you can't achieve that with the normal white level, contrast, saturation, and hue controls, then you probably should have bought a screen that looked better in the store. It's not rocket science. It's not even college-level optics.
posted by IAmBroom at 6:44 PM on June 21, 2010
I don't care if "calibration is a real thing." It's still a scam.
I don't need my TV calibrated. I need its picture to be visually appealing to me. Not washed-out brights, not-black darks, realistic human flesh tones; that sort of thing.
If you can't achieve that with the normal white level, contrast, saturation, and hue controls, then you probably should have bought a screen that looked better in the store. It's not rocket science. It's not even college-level optics.
posted by IAmBroom at 6:44 PM on June 21, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for all the (fast) answers. I was looking at Best Buy. Yes, I know they suck, but they have crowded just about everybody else we've ever purchased from (Ken Crane's is closing)!
So, now I know to not purchase the $300 service, and we can do it on our own. We are still looking at t.v.s and a purchase has not been made yet.
posted by 6:1 at 7:18 PM on June 21, 2010
So, now I know to not purchase the $300 service, and we can do it on our own. We are still looking at t.v.s and a purchase has not been made yet.
posted by 6:1 at 7:18 PM on June 21, 2010
What I don't get is how they can justify it at all. I mean, you're shelling out a pile of money for what should be a quality product, then they tell you it's no good without spending a bunch more? If I bought a new car and the first thing they told me was that I had to spend $300 to get the engine tuned for maximum performance, I'd look elsewhere.
posted by Slinga at 8:34 PM on June 21, 2010
posted by Slinga at 8:34 PM on June 21, 2010
Slinga, I think they might be catering to the <wink><wink><nudge><nudge> "Sure your neighbour has the same model $expensiveTV, but does he have it properly adjusted?"
Kinda like "supping" up a new car with a fat pipe and spoilers.
TVs are a lot less bleeding edge than maximum resolution LCDs, but any reasonably priced (~5-10% of retail price?) warranty for at least one year for zero dead pixels buys me lot of peace of mind.
posted by porpoise at 9:15 PM on June 21, 2010
Kinda like "supping" up a new car with a fat pipe and spoilers.
TVs are a lot less bleeding edge than maximum resolution LCDs, but any reasonably priced (~5-10% of retail price?) warranty for at least one year for zero dead pixels buys me lot of peace of mind.
posted by porpoise at 9:15 PM on June 21, 2010
What I don't get is how they can justify it at all. I mean, you're shelling out a pile of money for what should be a quality product, then they tell you it's no good without spending a bunch more? If I bought a new car and the first thing they told me was that I had to spend $300 to get the engine tuned for maximum performance, I'd look elsewhere.
Calibration is less relevant with the newer fixed pixel technologies like LCD, DLP and plasma. A proper calibration is about a LOT more than setting the brightness and contrast.
Basically, the point is to get the set to behave linearly in all possible scenarios. A lot of displays don't. So when you display a 25% gray, it looks bluish. But a 90% gray might look greenish. Calibration changes settings inside the service menu (or old school, on the circuit board) to make sure that the colors are as correct as they can be in all scenarios.
This is relevant with LCD and DLP displays because the light source isn't going to be 100% uniform in every model. If the light source has a bit of a reddish tinge to it, you have to knock the calibration of the red down so it matches, for example.
But with CRT televisions, there are tons of adjustments that can be done to get the picture looking the best it can. CRT televisions generally have a lot of overscan, because it is expensive to manufacture and then adjust a CRT. So they crop the edges on purpose. Undoing that lets you see the whole picture that is being broadcast. Convergence is another issue- sometimes the scanner doesn't line up quite right and you get a funny color fringe in the corners. Then there are things like keystone, tilt, bow and all of that. A proper calibration sets this correctly for each color gun separately.
I have a rear projection set. It looked fine. I hooked a computer up to it. It looked like vomit. Letters were blurry, the taskbar was invisible, straight lines weren't straight. I went into the service menus and did my own calibration and now it doesn't look like vomit. And CSI Miami becomes watchable because the beauty of the photography now outweighs the awful, awful acting and writing.
(Car analogy- the car comes from the factory with the tires balanced and the alignment set. This is fine for almost everyone. But some people like to twiddle with the settings to get them *just right*. The factory just isn't going to ever get every copy of the car 100% perfect every time. So you bring it to a speed shop with a technician who is skilled and they tweak that last couple of percent out of it.)
Again, it might not be worth it to many people, but that doesn't make it a scam.
posted by gjc at 7:49 AM on June 22, 2010
Calibration is less relevant with the newer fixed pixel technologies like LCD, DLP and plasma. A proper calibration is about a LOT more than setting the brightness and contrast.
Basically, the point is to get the set to behave linearly in all possible scenarios. A lot of displays don't. So when you display a 25% gray, it looks bluish. But a 90% gray might look greenish. Calibration changes settings inside the service menu (or old school, on the circuit board) to make sure that the colors are as correct as they can be in all scenarios.
This is relevant with LCD and DLP displays because the light source isn't going to be 100% uniform in every model. If the light source has a bit of a reddish tinge to it, you have to knock the calibration of the red down so it matches, for example.
But with CRT televisions, there are tons of adjustments that can be done to get the picture looking the best it can. CRT televisions generally have a lot of overscan, because it is expensive to manufacture and then adjust a CRT. So they crop the edges on purpose. Undoing that lets you see the whole picture that is being broadcast. Convergence is another issue- sometimes the scanner doesn't line up quite right and you get a funny color fringe in the corners. Then there are things like keystone, tilt, bow and all of that. A proper calibration sets this correctly for each color gun separately.
I have a rear projection set. It looked fine. I hooked a computer up to it. It looked like vomit. Letters were blurry, the taskbar was invisible, straight lines weren't straight. I went into the service menus and did my own calibration and now it doesn't look like vomit. And CSI Miami becomes watchable because the beauty of the photography now outweighs the awful, awful acting and writing.
(Car analogy- the car comes from the factory with the tires balanced and the alignment set. This is fine for almost everyone. But some people like to twiddle with the settings to get them *just right*. The factory just isn't going to ever get every copy of the car 100% perfect every time. So you bring it to a speed shop with a technician who is skilled and they tweak that last couple of percent out of it.)
Again, it might not be worth it to many people, but that doesn't make it a scam.
posted by gjc at 7:49 AM on June 22, 2010
I mean, you're shelling out a pile of money for what should be a quality product, then they tell you it's no good without spending a bunch more?
It's a bit of a tricky issue. A properly calibrated TV doesn't necessarily look better to everyone. For instance, calibration systems often start with the brightness turned as low as possible because that improves the color fidelity, but a lot of people like it as bright as possible.
posted by smackfu at 9:48 AM on June 22, 2010
It's a bit of a tricky issue. A properly calibrated TV doesn't necessarily look better to everyone. For instance, calibration systems often start with the brightness turned as low as possible because that improves the color fidelity, but a lot of people like it as bright as possible.
posted by smackfu at 9:48 AM on June 22, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by halogen at 2:48 PM on June 21, 2010 [2 favorites]