Why have a professional calibration?

I suppose that the best answer to this question is that you are like me, something of a fanatic about video and/or home theater and you want the nice display device you just purchased to look the best it can. I often get two questions about this.

Why do televisions need calibration at all?

The depressing fact is that when shopping for a television on a brightly-lit showroom floor, most consumers tend to prefer the brightest, punchiest image they see. Manufacturers are aware of this and deliver sets to retailers with the contrast set to its maximum, brightness set too high, and with the white balance set very blue (it is to compensate for this blue white balance that many manufacturers also set the color decoder to push red). Unfortunately, when you get the set home and watch it under normal, or even dark lighting, the image's shortcomings become evident. Furthermore, not only is the image inaccurate, but it often leads to eye-strain and premature failure.

However, most of us just want the best picture possible. A display with exaggerated contrast and brightness results in loss of image depth and detail. Poor color reproduction results in less realism. The first time you see a display set with an accurate gray scale (6500k or, more accurately D65), you'll be surprised how natural it looks.

Why can't I adjust it myself?

In answering this question, the good news is that you can. If you are comfortable with technical adjustments and instruments, with just a little training you could adjust your display properly. The bad news is that it requires you to purchase several thousand dollars worth of calibration equipment. You simply cannot make these adjustments by eye-balling it. You need the instruments to tell you what adjustments to make. Many consumers purchase the Avia or Video Essentials DVDs to calibrate their set. These disks can get you a long way towards a good calibration, especially with the set's user controls. However, you cannot correct the gray scale tracking, nor can you diagnose the set's overall performance without additional tools.

When do I not require a calibration?

There are two circumstances in which a professional calibration would not be for you. Every once in a while a manufacturer will market a display that is reasonably well calibrated when it leaves the factory, though this is pretty rare. A more common scenario is that the problems a client sees with their display are caused by a poor signal. Cable signals are notoriously unreliable from area to area and from channel to channel. No amount of display calibration will fix this. Before you hire me, try to ensure that any problems you see with your picture are not the result of a poor cable feed.