Know How...

Jun 6th 2013

Know How... 47

Calibrating Your TV

If you own a TV, you should watch this episode. Today you'll know how to calibrate your TV!

Although the show is no longer in production, you can enjoy episodes from the TWiT Archives.
Category: Help & How To

If you own a TV, you should watch this episode. Today you'll know how to calibrate your TV!

Calibrating our TV

Why do it? People in the video space agonize over making their products look excellent. Then we watch it on our TVs.

  • Contrast is really white level. The higher it is, the more details are washed out
  • Brightness is really black level, too bright, and you get washed out images
  • Color is saturation

The Lookup Method

The simplest method is to do a search and lookup your TV model to find calibration settings. Forums are usually your best bet. I've found CNet and AVSForum excellent sources for various televisions.

The TV we have here is the Toshiba 40E220U.

Using Windows Media Center

If you've got a Windows 7 PC, you can hook it up to your TV and use Windows Media Center's built-in tools to help customize your picture.

Ask the Audience

Today you'll know how to calibrate your TV & monitor. Got a favorite calibration tip? Let us know using the hashtag #twitkh

- KAPT Kipper @Smokeme_aKipper
@iyaz #twitkh Use the THX optimizer on my Blu-ray and DVDs.

- Nicholas Todor @Whammypower788
I love the THX Tune-Up mobile app. No special glasses required! #twitkh

- Tom Gehrke @Tomgehrke
@iyaz For color critical applications (e.g. photography), don't rule out an inexpensive colorimeter (e.g. Spyder 4, ColorMunki). #twitkh

Hardware calibration

Hardware for your computer or TV if you want. This device attaches to your PC's monitor or TV. It'll adjust the output of your computer and not mess with your monitor's settings.

Know It Alls

Hi Iyaz and Leo,

So I had a laptop with a broken screen that I wanted to turn into a print/backup server. My first step was to do a clean install of windows of course, but I ran into a problem. When I rebooted into setup, it would not output to my external monitor and I could not see what I was doing.

After some frustration, I finally found a solution. I tapped the shift key 5 times to turn on accessibility and used descriptive audio to finish the setup.

Uzetaab
Brisbane, Australia.

Dear Know How crew,
I really enjoy your show and I thought the most recent show on the home studio. I was wondering if you can do a show about a DIY multi-room audio set up similar to that of Sonos, but without the really high pricetag involved in purchasing a Sonos system.

Thanks!
Li

We did that in ep 34 available at https://twit.tv/shows/know-how/episodes/34.

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