Calibrating questions!

jgastelb

jgastelb

Well-known member
Ok. So I have read a whole bunch of calibrating tutorials for tvs and crt monitors. I have been using a regular tv for now since I can't afford the more professional ones right now. The thing is that none of the tutorials mention anything regarding sharpness levels. I'm noticing that my footage is a lot sharper on the tv than the computer.

Q. Should I be putting the sharpness level in the middle, left, or right? Is this just subjective?

Q. When I preview my work through Vegas on a regular tv the image is clean but when I burn it onto a dvd the image on a widescreen plasma has artifacts not noticeable before. Is this normal? I know that it's almost impossible to adjust both tvs exactly the same but... Just wondering. I'm sending an interview to a friend and the image is not consistent from tv to tv. I'm concerned is going to look like sh%t!

Jgastelb
 
Q. Should I be putting the sharpness level in the middle, left, or right? Is this just subjective?

Here, get this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/63...ef=pd_bbs_1/102-0642283-6692109?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

or if you want something cheaper:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ef=pd_bbs_2/102-0642283-6692109?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

I have the first one because I've heard people say it's more user friendly but it's also more expensive. Still I think it's a good investment as not only will it give you a pretty good idea what a calibrated monitor will look like for when previewing your footage (it won't be exactly the same as say a $1000 professional calibrated monitor but it'll be the closest a normal tv can get) but it'll also make sure you are watching regular dvd movies at a reference level.

They got tests for everything including contrast, brightness, color, hue/tint, sharpness, etc.

You could calibrate the tv with your regular home dvd player and burn a copy of your film/footage to see what it'll look like or what you could also do (and what I do) is if you have a laptop, get an S-video cable, hook it up to your tv and use it as a second monitor. Drag your preview monitor to the TV screen. Make sure the resolution of the TV is set to 640x480. You will have to rerun the calibration disc on your laptop though because it'll look WAY different than your home dvd player. That way you can color correct to a semi-decently calibrated TV. It won't be perfect but for the price, it's the best I can find.

Q. When I preview my work through Vegas on a regular tv the image is clean but when I burn it onto a dvd the image on a widescreen plasma has artifacts not noticeable before. Is this normal? I know that it's almost impossible to adjust both tvs exactly the same but... Just wondering. I'm sending an interview to a friend and the image is not consistent from tv to tv. I'm concerned is going to look like sh%t!

Well you partly answered your own question. Part of it will be the fact that usually no two tvs have the exact same settings and looks. Something that might help that is if you use a calibration disc like Avia on both TVs (you'd be doing your friend a favor too). However, you may still notice artifacts on your friend's TV. Why? Because I'm guessing he has a high def TV if it's a widescreen plasma. DVD resolution is 480p. A high def plasma is 720p. Just by that fact alone, playing a dvd is going to introduce artifacts. Now on a regular movie dvd, the fact that films are shot on high resolution film and professionally mastered by dvd companies makes it so it doesn't suffer much. However since we are shooting on DVXs (a great camera, but no film camera) and burning it on our own home bought software/hardware, you're gonna see it more when it's blown up. You probably never noticed it on your own tv because it's smaller and i'm guessing non-high def. It's simple math. Smaller screen makes it look good. Get an image small enough and it'll make anything look good. That's why it looks fine on your Vegas preview monitor too.
 
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