OSD Setup And Calibration
OSD Tour
Pressing the menu button brings up the full OSD. And regardless of where you left off, it begins with the input selector sub-menu. We never needed to use that one, since the CrystalPro automatically switches to the input with an active signal.
The Picture sub-menu has all the image controls, save the color adjustments. Contrast is best left on setting 50, while Brightness modulates the backlight in approximately 1.6cd/m2 steps. Overdrive yields the best panel response when set to Fastest. DCR (dynamic contrast) increases brightness a bit, but the resulting damage to gamma isn’t worth it in our opinion. Gamma presets range from 1.8 to 2.6 in .2 increments. Since burn-in isn’t a problem with LCD panels, we see no need for the Pixel Orbiting feature. Finally, Overscan zooms out the image borders by five percent.
The CrystalPro matches Planar's IX2850 in its ability to display four video sources at once through the PiP/PbP menu. You can also show two or three images if you wish. If Picture-in-Picture is what you’re looking for, that’s available too. The PiP window comes in three sizes and can occupy any corner of the screen.
To get the most out of the CrystalPro’s tiny speakers, turn the volume up all the way. You can also select the audio source (HDMI, DisplayPort or analog) in this menu, or mute the sound entirely.
In the Color Temp menu, you can select from four presets: Warm, Normal, Cool and sRGB. Normal is the default and best mode if you don’t calibrate. If you are able to make adjustments (or you want to use our settings below), select User Defined to access the RGB settings. They work well without affecting contrast.
The OSD can be viewed in 13 languages.
Since the menu pops up in the center of the screen, you’ll have to move it if you want to properly measure test patterns. You can do that here, and extend the timeout to 60 seconds as well.
The Setup menu lets you return all settings to their factory defaults and view basic signal information.
Calibration
The CrystalPro 4K looks pretty good out of the box. But calibration improves grayscale, gamma and color gamut accuracy a little without reducing contrast. The panel’s light output is not super-high, so we had to raise the brightness control one click after adjusting the RGB sliders to measure 200cd/m2. The gamma presets work as-indicated, but given the slightly bright trace we recorded, a 2.3 option would be nice. Still, that’s a small detail. With or without calibration, the CrystalPro puts out a fine picture.
| Monoprice CrystalPro 4K Calibration Settings | |
|---|---|
| Contrast | 50 |
| Brightness | 81 |
| Sharpness | 50 |
| Overdrive | Fastest |
| Gamma | 2.2 |
| Color Temp User Defined | Red 68, Green 65, Blue 70 |