You've already seen our instructional guides for calibrating computer monitors. In today's story, we help get you started dialing your HDTV as well. From beginner to expert, we have you covered with a handful of different approaches.
Flip through any of our display reviews and you’ll quickly learn that we are firm proponents of calibration. Even though modern screens are more accurate out of the box than ever, you still need to take that final step to get maximum performance out of your new monitor.
The same is true for HDTVs. It's probable that you spent a good deal more cash on the 50- or 60-inch panel in your living room than your desktop monitor. In fact, it’s quite easy to drop eight to ten times more money for a good television. So why would you accept an out-of-box configuration as its best performance mode?
The truth is that even the best TVs benefit from an instrumented calibration. Consider the picture below.

On the left is what you’ll see from a typical HDTV’s stock picture mode. The flesh tones have just a hint of blue. The detail in Gavin’s arm is a little flat. And the darkest areas are more of a gray than true black. Millions of people watch their televisions like this every day and are satisfied. Why? Because they don't know any better, and haven't unlocked the full potential of their other displays to experience the difference.
On the right is the same image after calibration. Clearly, there are subtle changes that make the picture look more natural with greater detail and maximum dynamic range. The best part about taking this step is that you’ll find yourself less fatigued after long viewing sessions. Within a week or so, all other TVs will just look wrong.
We like to compare display calibration to piano tuning. Is a piano tuned at the factory? Of course it is. But by the time it reaches your studio, it’ll need professional attention to realize its full potential. Your HDTV is no different. Buy it, set it up, and then dial it in to maximize your investment. And unlike a piano, you won’t need to re-calibrate every few months!
If you’ve read our monitor reviews or any of our previous calibration features, then you have a good understanding of what we’re talking about. HDTVs have a few features not found in computer monitors and calibration procedures differ slightly. We’ll highlight those differences as we go.
For those who haven’t seen our previous articles, here are links for your convenience.
Display Calibration 101: Step-By-Step With Datacolor's Spyder4Elite
Display Calibration 201: The Science Behind Tuning Your Monitor
Do It Like Tom's: Calibrating Your Monitor With CalMAN RGB
In the pages that follow, you'll find a step-by-step guide using Datacolor’s popular SpyderHD package. It’s a broad-spectrum product that works equally well for monitor and HDTV calibration. Everything you need is included in a single $349 bundle. There are tools for photography as well, but we’ll stick to its application as an HDTV calibration solution.
First, though, we’ll give you a little primer with a glossary of items from a typical HDTV menu and a rundown of the SMPTE standards used in television and film production.

Though honestly, for the "average" consumer, I find it hard to justify spending $350 to calibrate a $500 or so monitor set up and maybe a $800-1200 TV. I feel this is the type of thing you have to really get into (and end up doing it for free for your friends and family)
looks like my brightness and contrast slights off
And its free
They do calibrate the TVs (any manufacturer worth their salt anyway). the problem is two fold: first all TVs / monitors are relatively low margin because the market is highly competitive. unless you're paying a premium for "professional" monitors such as the Dell ultrasharp series, most panels will be calibrated the 'easy' way to some factory pre-set that is considered "good enough".
the second thing is that everyone's lighting conditions are different. maybe your room is brighter than mine and you like having the traditional type of bulbs that have a yellow / orange hue and I use white light bulbs. these things have a huge impact on how your TV looks, so at the end of the day the consumer will always need to do some calibration if you want perfect color reproduction.
Agreed. Writing a DIY that can be done for under $50 would be very appreciated. $350 is more than I paid for my 42" screen years ago. I know it wasn't the top-end model, but I'm willing to bet most people have TVs under $800 and aren't willing to spend $100s more to calibrate the screen.
Spears & Munsil has a lot more patterns available than the Disney disc plus better instructions in my opinion. That being said, you can achieve similar results with the Disney disc so if you already have it, I'd suggest giving it a try before buying S&M. If you're happy with the way your TV looks afterward, you just saved $30!
-Christian-
With that said, do not expect your games to look a whole lot better on your PC monitors after being calibrated by one of these. These tools are more for photography and video color accuracy more than anything else.
And its free
Thanks - I will have to check this out.
Amen!
With that said, do not expect your games to look a whole lot better on your PC monitors after being calibrated by one of these. These tools are more for photography and video color accuracy more than anything else.
For complete accuracy, the display has to be calibrated to the source. Where anyone, as a calibrator of devices, will gain the most is that if you have a source of some sort and calibrate it to the same reference to which your display is calibrated, then the ultimate in benefits is possible. In other words, take a picture of a standardized reference, show that picture on your display, then calibrate the display so that the picture of the standardized reference looks exactly like the standardized reference itself, then repeat for every source, e.g., scanner, still camera, video camera, etc, and pray your display has enough memory slots for those calibrated settings because you will need to switch to the matching setting when changing from one calibrated source to another.
As I understand it, the reality is that no two video sources, such as different BR discs, one TV network or another, are calibrated to the same reference. Thus, Joe Kane's interpretation of NTSC - "Never Twice the Same Color."
For viewing video sources over which one has no control, it is still worth calibrating to some reference because that will get rid of the "eye-catching" settings to which most manufacturers set their displays so that the average consumer will go "wow" when viewing the display in a showroom and thus, at least as the manufacturer hopes, buy the display.