We have already spoken on previous occasions about calibration, a practice that from Engadget we have always recommended to improve the image quality of our television or monitor according to our preferences. In addition, it is something that everyone can do, and depending on the degree of precision that we want to obtain, It is something that we can do for free and in which we will invest just a few minutes.
Doing it through a professional calibration probe is a way that, obviously, will offer us better results. Nevertheless, we can also do it based on our sight and with the help of certain patterns, something that will allow us to improve the image quality of our panel without spending a single euro. In this article we have compiled a series of videos with adjustment patterns to obtain good results.
The videos can be seen both on YouTube, and by downloading and copying them to a USB memory to play them on our television. Our modus operandi It will be based on reproducing the patterns and modifying the parameters of contrast, brightness, color, sharpness, etc.. The idea is to trust your own judgment once you know how to interpret the patterns.
Brightness and contrast adjustment
Two of the most basic parameters when calibrating our television are brightness and contrast. With the brightness we modify the depth of the blacks on the screen, being able to adjust how our television behaves in the darkest scenes.
Brightness
If we set the brightness to maximum, the blacks will appear gray, and the image in general will no longer have that ‘intensity’ that under certain conditions we are looking for. The idea is to adjust the brightness in a balanced way, to achieve blacks that are as deep as possible and with enough brightness to see the image correctly.
When reproducing the pattern that we see in this first video, we must be clear that our main objective is that level 16 of the image is as black as possible while 17 and up are flashing and a clearly differentiated tonality is seen and pulling towards gray. For this we put the brightness to the minimum and we go up until it is as we have said.
This method can be used for SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) content. For HDR we can use the following video, taking as reference the level 64. We should see flickering from the level 68-72 forward.
Contrast
Contrast goes hand in hand, and is responsible for managing the white level of the TV. In this way, if we put the contrast to the maximum we will notice an image with “a lot of intensity”, although oversaturated in the lighter areas.
To correctly adjust the contrast level in the standard range, we must play the following video with the contrast to the maximum and go down until the levels from 230 to 234 flash.
We do the same with the following pattern dedicated to high dynamic range, where the ideal would be to make the levels closest to the maximum flash, as in the previous video.
Sharpness adjustment
We believe that it is something that must be made clear from the beginning. Modifying the sharpness parameter on our television to the maximum will not make the image look better. In fact, the job of this adjustment is to modify the detail of the image. If we go above level we will find saw teeth on the edges and an image “somewhat more aggressive” in terms of textures.
Ideally, adjust this parameter in a balanced way, that is, without finding digital artifacts in the image, nor seeing that the edges are excessively softened to such an extent that the level of detail is not appreciated. For this we bring you this pattern with which you can simply adjust this parameter.
In the video, it is enough to look at the upper part of the circle, just above the numbers. We must see the bars clearly differentiated and without any problem. This pattern can also be used for contrast, brightness and color adjustments, since it has several tests in a single image.
Another that we can use is the one that we put below, from minute 6, which is the specific test to adjust the sharpness.
Color adjustment
Color parameter modifies the saturation level in the image of our television. In this way, if the level is minimal, we will see “more washed” and “less intense” colors, while if we adjust this parameter to levels close to the maximum, we will see the image totally oversaturated.
This setting is more in line with the style and taste of the user, but it often happens that Picture modes dedicated to movie playback have higher color accuracy. The name of this mode usually differs between manufacturers, but they usually refer to ‘cinema’ or ‘movie’.
Ideally, select the desired image mode and correct the color based on our preferences.. For this we can use this color pattern. Here we must see each clearly differentiated color band, being able to correctly see all the tones. If there are any that mix, we must adjust the color parameter.
The pattern we have placed below also It can help us to check the uniformity of our panel, in addition to locating burns on OLED panels.
With these patterns we can easily adjust the image quality of our television. However, we always insist that no fit is perfect and that We should modify these parameters based on our own tastes and according to the conditions in which we are watching TV..