Ideas for calibrating TV please....

Hello All,
I'm wondering if you folks have any suggestions for calibrating my Hitachi 57S500 TV. You see, I'm using my Model 950 to switch between DVD and my HD Cable box. I have only one set of component video cables running between my equipment stack. So when I calibrate my TV using my AVIA DVD, I'm calibrating only one input on my TV.

How do you all go about calibrating for your HD signal? I can have two seperate calibrations on the same input (one for HD Cable and and one for DVD) by using the Day/Night toggle on the TV. But how do I know what adjustments are needed for the HD Cable side of the house? I have a SA Explorer 3250HD cable box. Is it possible there are any video test patterns that can be generated from the cable box?

As always, thanks in advance,

Simp

This is a problem...and HD only exacerbates the situation. Ideally you would want to have two separate calibrations, one for HD and another for standard definition channels as the specifications are different (especially color). If you're lucky your cable operator may broadcast a colorbar test pattern late at night on a channel or two. Call and see if you can reach someone in the engineering department who knows what you are asking for. If you can't find any good test patterns on the cable channels you'll just have to do it by eye. At least you have the memory settings that allow you to have more than one calibration profile. Satellite users may be luckier as I'm told test patterns could be found if you surf around, at least that was true in the past.
I doubt if the cable box would generate anything but I could be wrong. Check with SA on that.

sraber,

Do you get INHD on your cable package? If you do, they run a short calibration program called "Tune Up" at 7am every Saturday morning (eastern). Make sure you get up a little before 7, as it's only about 5 minutes and starts on the dot at 7.

I do get INHD. Very nice. I'll check it out. Thanks very much for the input....


later,
Simp

ScottH,

Great tip on the "Tune-Up" program! That's on at 6AM here in the midwest and I'm a late night person so I would never had caught that. Thanks! I just set my HD DVR to record it on Saturday. Can't wait. What kind of images do they provide? My program guide listed this as a 30 minute program but you said it only lasts a few minutes...Do you think this is just an error in the guide?

Early this morning (about 1AM CST) I stumbled into a color bar pattern on Fox Sports HD. Programming on this channel is sparse, I usually just find a gray raster. The color bar pattern said Fox Sports Houston. I was using a standard def RPTV at the time and I didn't have time to play with it so I'm not sure how useful it really was. FWIW

Nice. Time Warner up here in Green Bay is too cheap to give us Fox HD. But I am definitely planning on getin' up for the INHD Tune-Up! Just another example of why this is such a great forum...

Later,
Simp

Oh, INHD budgets it for 30 minutes on the program guide. On the INHD website they call it 15 minutes. That too might be a stretch. Then they run teasers for IMAX films on INHD2, which I don't receive, just to make me angry.

I missed the first pattern or two, as I stumbled out of bed at about 7:02. I caught a brightness, then a color test I think. I just read on the Internet that it has "Color, Contrast, Convergience, Overscan, and 5.1 sound tests".

you could always connect the hd cable box on a different input for the tv... configure each input for its source via dvd or programming...

on a side, i have hitachi 65swx20b, which is the predecssor to the s500. i have run the setup discs on it, but it was way too dark when "properly calibrated". in general i found the setup discs to do very little as far as improving the video quality... at best they are a reference point to move away from until you get the picture to where you like it.

Maybe there's a difference in the TVs. Compared to the out of the box adjustments, I saw a huge improvement in PQ after calibrating with AVIA. Better color, fewer artifacts due to over adjutsed sharpness, etc. Of course, PQ is really a matter of personal tasted. There's no doubt that the picture is darker, but since my setup is in a dark basement, I have no problems with it.

As for moving the DVD connection to another input - I can't really do that since I have only one set of cables running between my 950 pre/pro and TV. (950 being used for signal switching between HD and DVD.) That's why I was wanting to use the toggle between Night and Day modes on the same input.

Thanks,
Simp

Ok, I got up this morning in time for "Tune Up". When it started they said it was a 12 minutes program, but it was over by 7:11. So be ready to make your adjustments quickly, they give you a short two minutes for each:

Brightness First turn you contrast to the midpoint, and brightness to the lowest setting. Then you raise the brightness until a fourth circle just appears.
Contrast There are 10 contrast rings, they say set the contrast to where there was even gradations between each. I could either set it to where there was little difference between the brightest two, or the darkest two.
ColorThe color test was the least useful. First they say to do it right you need a blue filter, so I ran to the rack and broke out the blue filter from my Avia. But then they didn't bother to tell you how to use the blue filter. They told you to make the yellow and the magenta look their best through the naked eye.

It wasn't the standard bars pattern, it was a circular pattern with different color blocks in the a horizontal line across middle. I had no idea which bars to concentrate on. My guess, now that I've thought about it, would be that the bars should disappear and the entire image should look like a circle. Does anyone know this pattern?
Convergence I have an LCD-RPTV, I sat this one out.
Overscan It gives you 3 sets of lines. I have my TV set to -1 overscan.
5.1 Audio The 5.1 test was rather useless too, it only showed you which speaker should be getting output, by didn't leave any time for calibration.

In the end I got setting very similar to what I got with Avia through the DVD input. My brightness was set a little higher, as was the color.

i still think most setup discs are worthless. if you really cared about P.Q. you could get it ISF calibrated by a professional. most issues with projection tvs are not going to be solved with software type changes, the case needs to be opened and stuff cleaned and re-aligned, etc.

the s500 from what i recall has the same lenses as the swx20b. it is mostly just a different look (nicer at that) and maybe a slightly different screen and inputs.

no one said that you have to video switch... what is another $ on another cable.