How to Calibrate Your HDTV: Digital Clinic

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Q: I purchased a new HDTV, and the store I bought it from has offered to “calibrate” its picture for a few hundred dollars. Isn’t this something I can do myself?

A: Out of the box, most new TV sets are tuned to catch eyes from the showroom floor, not to accurately reproduce colors and images. Properly calibrating your TV by fixing the brightness, contrast, color and sharpness settings will give you a better picture, and, as a bonus, could also save electricity and extend the life of your set. Most TV retailers are more than willing to send over a trained technician to tackle the calibration conundrum—and why not? They often charge up to $500 for the service. But there’s no reason you shouldn’t save some money and do it yourself.

For the best results, we suggest buying a device that does most of the work for you. Products such as the $200 Datacolor Spyder3TV attach to your TV screen and take color readings that allow you to easily adjust the settings. And while buying a pricey product may not cost much less than hiring a technician, you can keep your new purchase around and use it repeatedly.

A cheaper way to tune your set is to pick up a calibration DVD. These typically walk you through the calibration process by using a series of clips that help you adjust each setting. (“Turn the contrast up until you just barely see the black tie floating over the black background.”) One I like is the THX Optimizer, which actually comes bundled for free on many THX-certified DVDs. (Hint: Most Pixar and Lucasfilm DVDs have it.) However, to use it, you’ll need a pair of THX’s special blue-filtered glasses ($2 plus shipping). The blue filters provide a known color tint, which will help you adjust the settings.

Of course, the cheapest way to tweak your TV is simply to eyeball it. Your efforts won’t produce a technically precise picture, but you should be able to dial in a pleasing image that suits your tastes. Start with brightness, then move on to contrast, color and, finally, sharpness, says Mark Schubin, a television engineering consultant. Tune the brightness to the lowest setting, then slowly move it up until the darkest points on the picture begin to brighten. Leave it at just below this point. For contrast, color and sharpness, begin at the midpoint. From there, raise the contrast as high as you can without making the blacks look milky, tune the color so skin tones look realistic and raise the sharpness until the picture begins to look artificial. And while your TV’s preset “Movie” or “Theater” modes may give you a well-balanced picture, avoid the ones labeled “Vivid” or “Sports”—they’ll make your movies look like cartoons.

One last point: There is no catchall configuration that works for every room or TV. In fact, the same TV could benefit from different settings at different times of day. Thankfully, most sets allow you to save several custom configurations, so unless your TV is in a pitch-black home theater, you should program in at least two settings—one for daytime and one for night.

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