Why Don't Today's HDTVs Auto-Calibrate Their Picture?
- By: Jerry Del Colliano
- - Reviewer's System
- Category:
- Feature News Stories, Front Projector News, LCD HDTV News, News, Plasma HDTV News, Video Gaming System News
- Resources & Links:
- Apple ,
- isf ,
- Video Calibration
- May 30, 2009
As an enthusiastic Mac user and admitted home theater junkie, I wonder why today's HDTVs can't calibrate themselves. The current set-up process for a Mac is nothing short of genius, which includes "wizard-like" auto calibration for video. Simply follow a few simple steps in an included application found in the System Preferences of the operating system and you are a long way towards making your computer monitor look as good as it can, even if what you are watching on it is an occasional YouTube.com video, a low-resolution Hulu television show or a movie in 720 from iTunes.
In the world of consumer-grade HDTVs, the big boys are always looking for new features and new value to add to their increasingly commoditized flat HDTVs. One feature they should be looking to borrow from Apple is the ability to simply auto-calibrate the picture directly onscreen. Selling video in the real world, the pressure is to push blue, because the human eye tends to prefer the look of that color, despite the fact these settings don't accurately match broadcast standards nor do they help the set last as long as it possibly can. Moreover, today more HDTVs are sold under the video-degrading halogen lights of Costco, Wal-Mart and other big-box or warehouse stores. These lights wash out the look of sets, so the pressure is on to differentiate an HDTV over others in the store, so that you will drag it home.
Auto-calibration isn't a new idea in the world of home theater and consumer electronics. In the late 1990s, some of the top CRT projectors, like Vidikron's pricey Vision One ($50,000), had features that auto-converged the projectors, which was a novel concept. It still never seemed to work as well a professional touch-up by a video calibrator or installer, but the idea was certainly ahead of its time. Today, a $1,200 Apple iMac can offer a quick yet meaningful calibration set-up for its LCD screen. Why can't an LCD HDTV offer the same type of basic calibration, even for the most basic elements of video? Reportedly, B&O's 103-inch $111,000 plasma HDTV has some level of auto-calibration. However, at the price, it should also give you a back massage and/or make you a sandwich for lunch any time you like. What I am calling for would be for the $2,000 HDTVs that real sports and movie fans buy by the millions per month. I understand what it takes to get an HDTV from the isles of Costco to having it hanging on your wall at home, but once it's there, wouldn't it be great for the set to have a running chance at looking in the ballpark of its best?
Auto-calibration features will never replace the role of true video calibration professionals, like those trained by the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). These guys can take a Samsung, Pioneer KURO or Sony XBR and eke out a 20 to 30 percent-better looking picture from your set within a few hours. To their credit, the ISF put out a pretty easy-to-use DVD set-up disc that offers some of these set-up features. However, I am suggesting that this type of set-up should be built into the HDTVs themselves. For the do-it-yourself guy, there are always set-up discs like Joe Kane's in-depth Video Essentials, but those discs are complicated - to be polite - to use.
Specialty retailers thrived in the mid-2000s, as HDTVs still had some profit margin in them and the housing market boomed year after year. Today, the ultra-thin margins that are attached to ultra-thin HDTVs make it difficult for even the biggest players to survive. The idea that a video manufacturer can open the discussion with mainstream consumers about video calibration not only offers more value for HDTVs, it opens up a conversation about getting a more in-depth professional calibration. This is a good thing on all levels.
Keywords
Auto-calibrate HDTVs, Apple OSX, Apple auto-calibrates their monitors, HDTV sold in warehouse stores
- 3M's New Vikuiti Film Aims To H...
- A Filmmaker's Guide to Why You ...
- Boston Acoustics Introduces New...
- CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Andrew...
- CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Jerry ...
- CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Ken Ta...
- California Passes Anti-Flat-HDT...
- California Reportedly Set To Re...
- Can The Home Theater Business R...
- Chief Launches Power-Infused Mo...
- Chief® Introduces Industry's Fi...
- Chief® Launches MOUNTBUILDER™ O...
- Chief® Launches Online Educatio...
- Chief® Offers the First No-Prof...
- Chief® Provides Flat Panel Tilt...
- Chief® Website Now Includes RSS...
- Global TV Revenues Decline 12 P...
- HDMI 1.4 - Another New Example ...
- HDTVetc.com Relaunches Online H...
- Hitachi Splits Off Consumer Gro...
- Hollywood Sets New Trend: Recyc...
- Hulu To Start Charging Users In...
- Is Brighter Better? LED HDTVs A...
- JVC's New 42 inch LCD HDTV Targ...
- JVC's New LCD Beats ENERGY STAR...
- Large LCDs Break Sales Volume R...
- Leon's New 1.5-Inch Deep Horizo...
- New Affordable Westinghouse 120...
- New DVDO iScan Duo Video Proces...
- New VIZIO Higher End XVT Line O...
- NuVision Steps On The Gas With ...
- NuVision To Release New Line of...
- OMNIMOUNTS's New HDTV Mount Goe...
- Pantel Offers Solutions For Out...
- Parks Associates forecasts over...
- Pioneer To Leave The HDTV Busin...
- Plasma Pat Sought By Tampa Area...
- RUNCO UNVEILS SEVEN NEW LARGE-S...
- Radio Shack Earns New Sales Wit...
- Runco's New Videowall VW-100HD ...
- Samsung Inks a DRM Deal with In...
- Samsung and Blockbuster Ink VOD...
- Samsung's New 65 Inch LCD HDTV...
- Solutions For Recycling Your Te...
- Sony Cuts 16,000 Jobs as the En...
- Sony To Add Netflix and ON Netw...
- Sony's Quarterly Profit Dives $...
- Study Says HDTVs in More Than 5...
- Toshiba Buys Panasonic's Stake ...
- Two New Philips Ambilight HDTVs...
- Two New Wireless LCD HDTVs From...
- VIZIO Expands Flagship XVT Seri...
- VIZIO Licenses Digital TV Paten...
- VIZIO Offers Complete Line of E...
- Vizio Now Number 2 Flat HDTV Se...
- What if HDMI Actually Worked?...
- Why Don't Today's HDTVs Auto-Ca...
Today's Top Story
California Passes Anti-Flat-HDTV Legislation To Try To Save Energy -
As a resident of California who owns a "green home" complete with new windows, high efficiency air conditioners, space-age insulation and drought tolerant planting on over two acres of hillside - today's decision to toughen standards on HDTVs is a... Click for more...
Latest LCD HDTV News
California Passes Anti-Flat-HDTV Legislation To Try To Save Energy -
As a resident of California who owns a "green home" complete with new windows, high efficiency air conditioners, space-age insulation and drought tolerant planting on over two acres of hillside - today's decision to toughen standards on HDTVs is a... Click for more...
VIZIO Licenses Digital TV Patent Portfolio to SONY - Ends Dispute -
VIZIO announced that Sony Corporation has become a licensee under VIZIO's patent portfolio. VIZIO owns a substantial worldwide patent portfolio directed to digital television technology. "We are pleased with the result of our patent licensing efforts. It further demonstrates the... Click for more...
Leon's New 1.5-Inch Deep Horizon Soundbar For Thin LED HDTVs -
Leon Speakers just announced that it has extended its Horizon Series with the addition of the new Horizon 212 Ultra-Thin Soundbar. At only 1.5 inches deep, the Horizon 212-UT is the only high-fidelity soundbar available that matches the extremely shallow... Click for more...
Hulu To Start Charging Users In 2010 -
Popular online video site, Hulu, announced at a television tradeshow last week that they plan to start charging users at some point in 2010. Hulu has gained popularity, especially with Millennial and Generation Y users for its free content (with... Click for more...
Samsung and Blockbuster Ink VOD Deal For HDTVs and Players -
Samsung and Blockbuster just announced the immediate availability of Blockbuster's vast and growing library of premium digital entertainment for rent or purchase on select 2009 Samsung HDTVs, Blu-ray players and Blu-ray integrated Home Theater Systems. Specific models featuring the new... Click for more...
What if HDMI Actually Worked? -
Let me be clear with the fact that without HDMI there wouldn't be volumes of 1080p HD content, complete with beaming video, 7.1 uncompressed HD audio and all of those feature-laden supplemental materials that we get from Blu-ray. At the... Click for more...
New DVDO iScan Duo Video Processor Has Dual HDMI A/V Outputs -
Anchor Bay announced recently the introduction of their latest high-performance video processor, the DVDO iScan Duo. With 8 HDMI 1.3 inputs, 2 HDMI 1.3 video/audio outputs, and an HDMI 1.3 audio only output, plus an array of image and system... Click for more...
CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Andrew Robinson -
While not quite as jammed packed or exciting as previous years, CEDIA 2009 still proved to be the place to be for new product launches, as understated as those launches may have been. Before I get into what excited me... Click for more...
CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Ken Taraszka, MD -
CEDIA has been blowing up with new video technology over the last few years. 1080p was the big news just years ago, and while talk of 2K, 1440p and other formats have been thrown around and to some extent even... Click for more...
CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Jerry Del Colliano -
For most of the past decade CEDIA has been picking up steam while the winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has struggled with its identity as it struggled to digest COMDEX and the computer geeks that came along with the merger.... Click for more...




Comment on this article
1I totally agree with you. We have a Philips ambilight tv at home and when I first turned that on, it did actually ask me to compare a few images with each other. That provided some sort of callibration, but it was nowhere close to a proffesional ISF calibration. I guess an iMac like setup for HDTV's shouldn't be too difficult to acomplish though.
Note: Actually all of the B & O tv's from the Beovision 4 and Beovision 9 line have their so called Automatic Colour Management system built in. It's a sort of lens that looks at the screen to optimise the colours peridically. This means that you don't have to spend the full price on the 103 inch system to get that feature. (http://www.bang-olufsen.com/automatic-colour-management)
Post a Comment