Samsung forum: How critical is Calibration?

I recently had calibration done on my 52 and 37 inch models. Had I not received a much reduced price for the service I would have felt cheated. The difference is minor and if truth be known I think I liked the way it looked before calibration better. I was told that the calibration would take about two hours per set. The tech was at it for maybe a total of an hour and twenty minutes for both.

I was told to wait until the sets had at least 100 hours or use in them before having the calibration performed.

rshaneyfelt,

My advice to most people when it comes to calibration is to get one if you see the need to have a very specific color replication. With Samsung, most of the calibration settings are available in the UI under "Detailed Settings", so I believe most of what is adjusted in the calibration is found in the customer-accessible menu.

The HDTV Picture Settings forum is where many people who have calibrated their sets post their "ultimate settings", as well as some C|Net staffers who have either calibrated or adjusted the television to the settings they believe is the best picture representation - and that's free.

For plasmas, 100-200 hours is the break-in period, and I would recommend leaning towards 200 if you possibly can.

The other thing to consider is that if you perform a firmware update, your calibration will likely be lost. So make sure that your firmware is either updated - or that you just won't update it - before you pay the money.

Hope that helps.

--HDTech

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jim isham,

A calibration is supposed to give natural colors.

I remember years ago, the first calibrated picture I saw was a NASCAR race, and it looked dark. The grass wasn't the bright green I saw on the other sets. I talked to the calibration expert, and he asked me to look at a different panel that wasn't calibrated. I told him that I thought the colors "popped" and were bright and impressive.

He pointed out that the calibrated TV had darker grass, because that's what you'd see if you were there in real life. The colors of the cars weren't oversaturated, because that's not how it was if you were there to see it. He noted that while a retailer would want to make the picture catch yor attention - the calibrated picture is to most closely match the colors as they were filmed.

So if you're unhappy, I don't think it's unreasonable to express your dispeasure. If people look sunburned, there's obviously a pretty bad red "push" that's in play here. Most of the managers I know at your retailer would rather have you happy, so see what they say.

--HDTech

Online Brand Ambassador

- Click here to visit the Samsung forum
- Click here to visit the Samsung store on CNET

After about six months of using the Best Buy Calibration I set my own!

It's perfect and it's custom! I should charge people 300 bucks to come out and perform the service/scam.

save your money folks!