The CalMan software has become a de facto standard among the TV reviewer elite. Using a pattern generator and a measurement device, we can learn most of what we need to know about a TV in just a few minutes. Among professional calibrators, use of the software is even more widespread, since it allows the printout of elaborate graphs and charts in a custom report for customers, showing them what their calibration money paid for. With CalMan 5, SpectraCal has upped the awesomeness. It's hard to describe how awesome CalMan is without first explaining how I used to measure/calibrate TVs.
It started with an Excel file I inherited from my old boss and mentor, Mike Wood. Over the years I modified it to the hilt, with all sorts of cool formulas and graphs. But at its core, it remained the same thing: a friggin Excel file. Using a DVD of Video Essentials (and later, a pattern generator), I'd cue up the right title and track (17/33, I can still remember). I'd click the button on the top of the Photo Research PR-650, and wait for it to spit out numbers, which I'd then dutifully stenograph into that Excel file.
CalMAN 5 Walkthrough (part 1) The following guide is intended to walk you through the. Although the CalMAN 5 walkthrough in this guide is intended for first time users, all CalMAN 5. Review the information to help you to understand the following adjustment steps.
If this process seems tedious to read about, please don't try to imagine how tedious it was to do. Suffice it to say, I was an early proponent of hooking up iPods to big home theater systems (to stave off brain death). Then came CalMan. Initially, I looked into getting the software because it was able to output far prettier graphs than Excel.
As I dove deeper into its potential, I was blown away. It was like finding your car has cruise control after owning it for 10 years. Now I could set everything up, press a few buttons, and CalMan would measure the TV for me. It would do so with better accuracy, better graphs, and with more tests than my Excel chart.
The thing was, CalMan 4 wasn't the most user friendly product. It's not hard to use, certainly, but simple it ain't. Enter CalMan 5 The interface is similar to 4, but with polished edges. It's like the transition from XP to Vista, where everything went rounded and shaded. Sure, this is just aesthetics, but it's a nice touch. There are multiple versions of the software, aimed for specific uses and clients, so I'll try to give you an overview of the basics.
For the beginner, one of 5's features is extensive tutorials. Each step in the calibration process comes with instructions on what to adjust, and gives examples of why you're adjusting them. It's the next step beyond a setup Blu-ray that gives you patterns but rarely tells you what they're for. Each level of 5 comes with different pre-loaded workflows for specific needs. All have contrast ratio and color measurement suites, but their extent varies significantly.
On one end, you might just have color primary and secondaries. On the other end, you'd get primary and secondaries at multiple luminance levels, plus in-between colors to get an idea what the TV can really do with real video. The upper tier versions of 5 even let you customize the workflows yourself, adding new tests and charts. If you're a calibrating (and tech-savvy) professional, I highly recommend getting one of these.
It lets you give custom charts to your customers, something to make it more 'your own.' Overall the interaction is far more polished than 4. Things work the way you'd expect them to work.
Of course it's not as easy to use as your average Apple program, but for such a niche, techy product, a slight learning curve is to be expected. You can get the. The most basic version of 5 is called, conveniently, Basic. For $149 there's limited control functionality, and it only works with colorimeters (not photospectrometers). Stepping up to the $299 Control version gets you control of photospectrometers, test pattern generators, a more advanced workflow, and some other options. The $399 Enthusiast package gets you all that plus the design mode and several more advanced workflows. If you're going to do it, I'd say just go for the Enthusiast and get the whole whatchamajigger.
Mostly because I like the idea of designing my own workflows. Because I'm a nerd (and proud of it).
The pro side is a bit different. But if you're at that level, I'll leave you to the or give them a call. DPG-2000 Test Pattern Generator The biggest problem with calibrating TVs is that you need equipment to do it.
Your eye is too analog and fickle to be an objective measurement tool. I can't give advice on the measurement device front, but on the test pattern generator front, there're a few lower priced options. OK, one lower priced option, at least as far as dedicated devices go. The DPG-2000 is actually a Western Digital WD TV Live media player/streamer. It's roughly the same size as an Apple TV, and functions similarly. The difference here is you get a USB key with thousands of test patterns on it. On paper, this is fantastic.
You've got an inexpensive, small device with every pattern you'd need on it, and it interacts with CalMan 5 for a nearly fully automated measurement system. The reality, however, isn't as peachy. Your computer, using IR (via an included USB-IR blaster) controls the DPG-2000. Imagine clicking through dozens of files, one by one, in sequence, with a remote.
Sure, the remote-button-clicking is automated, but the speed is the same. Calling up a pattern can take upwards of 30 seconds (though usually it's somewhat faster). It's not cumbersome to use, but it is cumbersome to watch, as the delay between wanting a pattern and seeing a pattern is significant. I'm getting over my initial disappointment with this clunky method. I've realized two things:. At $595 the DPG-2000 is 25% of the price of the next more expensive pattern generator worth anything. Though it slows down the speed of the overall measuring processing, you don't need to sit there.
It's automated, and as long as it starts on the right pattern, it's going to end on the right pattern. You're free to wander off and do something else, like flip over to Planetside 2, or surf Twitter. So for the price, the DPG-2000 is good, but be forewarned that it's very slow. Bottom Line SpectraCal has improved CalMan significantly with this latest version.
The product is slicker, easier to use, better looking, and has more in-depth measurements. That's a tough feat to pull off, making something easier to use, and more in depth. Though the audience for this software is small (professional calibrators, mostly), I can see some hard-core enthusiasts picking it up just to see what their TVs (and their friends TVs) are capable of. And the graphs are still real purrty.
I calibrate every monitor using CalMAN V5 with an i1Pro spectrometer and a SpectraCal C6 colorimeter. Our first calibration target is for 200 nits of light output, the sRGB color gamut, and a power gamma of 2.2. For the calibration I used the Standard mode on the monitor, as that allowed access to the User Color Temperature control, which let me set 100% white correctly without using the video card LUT. Using this setup, our grayscale really comes into line on the BenQ. Our average error is really non-existent, other than at 0 which we can’t fix, and I can’t exclude from this chart or I would. The color tint has been totally eliminated, and the gamma is almost spot-on.
Our contrast ratio has risen to 820:1, a 16% increase in what is often the most important element of an image overall. As far as grayscale goes, this is essentially perfect. On the color side we see some improvement, but this is mostly due to the improvement in the grayscale. SpectraCal is going to improve CalMAN to remove White from the Gamut dE2000 number, to provide a more accurate data point on how much color error was improved in the future. The red primary is a little under-saturated and green is a little low in luminance, both errors that calibration can’t correct. The color gamut is good, but not excellent. The Colorchecker data is better, but also not perfect here.
The formerly high luminance has now been fixed, and luminance is nearly perfect. Those orange-yellow shades continue to cause issues however, with errors close to 3, and the same goes for a shade of blue that lies on the edge of the sRGB gamut. The numbers are much better than before but not as good as some other displays, especially on those orange-yellow colors. After calibration the saturations are almost worse at 100%, but better below that. Some people disagree on if it is better to have 100% saturation fixed or the values below that have a lower error, but overall the values are better than they were before calibration. Post calibration, the BenQ is certainly better than it was before it. It is virtually perfect in the grayscale, but the gamut doesn’t improve that much as the issues it has are ones that calibration can’t fix, as calibration can’t add luminance or saturation that isn’t there to begin with.
I was happy to see how much the BenQ improved, and you can do much better than the preset sRGB mode. Monday, June 17, 2013 - No, it's not the same thing as 240Hz LCD TVs, instead of counting an inserted black frame or interpolated frame as a new 'frame' to accomplish 240Hz, the backlight pulse ONLY strobes when an actual new frame is ready to be displayed, resulting in MUCH less image blur while allowing intermediate or transitional frames to clear. So instead of a constantly lit, muddy picture full of transitional ghosting and image retention, you get a crisp, true 120Hz image that pulses double-bright only when a true, new frame is ready to be displayed. Really a huge difference, it's why many fast-paced gamers won't go back to anything else but a 120Hz LightBoost panel, despite some of the trade-offs like 1080p limitation, TN panels etc. Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - @A5, @Chizow: I initially thought this 'lightboost' thing was a gimmick but I recently bought an ASUS 144hz lightboost-capable monitor (VG248QE, $300 on Newegg) and I'm now a true believer. It's capable of 3D but I prefer to use it in 2D lightboost mode. There ARE some tradeoffs such as loss of color accuracy and brightness, but it looks AMAZING, especially in games like Battlefield 3.
In order to get the full effect, you need to match in-game FPS with the refresh rate, so even with a GTX 580 I have to turn BF3 settings to low and 100Hz. The graphics still look pretty good but it's worth the tradeoff IMO. I'd definitely recommend to check out the Blurbusters site for more info on the technology (as ViperV990 suggested). Basically this 'lightboost' thing is a happy accident, but I'm sure it'll gain traction soon. Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - TFTCentral's Motion Blur Reduction Backlights (Including LightBoost) They said that LightBoost outperformed all scanning backlights they have ever tested. A good 60Hz vs 120Hz vs LightBoost image comparision is: There's also a large LightBoost FAQ at: Also, see the improved Battlefield3 score graphs at: You will notice that about 20% of amazon.com customer reviews for the ASUS VG248QE monitor (popular LightBoost monitor) have rave reviews about the LightBoost motion blur elimination.
Go check out the rave LightBoost reviews: Within that webpage, hit Control+F and find 'LightBoost' in all the Amazon customer reviews!. Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - I've been testing Lightboost today after reading the comments and will go in and add some commentary on it. Using lightboost for 2D is undocumented (at least as far as BenQ is involved) and requires some messing around with settings, and never came up in my discussions with BenQ as something to be aware of with the display. I didn't notice any commentary on it online until now either, which is how it didn't get mentioned.
Also, I have no idea how the stats didn't make it into the review, that's just a dumb mistake on my part that needs to be remedied here really quick. Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - BTW, great to recognize the attention needed because LightBoost apparently now sells a significant fraction of 120Hz monitors ever since the extreme enthusiast community figured out how to use it (without needing 3D). Some good news - ToastyX is developing a new LightBoost utility (I'm beta testing) that makes it easy to enable/disable. No inf/reg files - just an easy utility. Finally, it will be easy to enable/disable LightBoost - with a hotkey shortcut! - even on multiple monitor setups.
Some tips: - If you don't have a Titan/780, then Lightboost often benefits older games a lot more (try source engine games, Quake Live, test with both VSYNC ON, and with VSYNC OFF), as it behaves like a 120Hz CRT and needs 120fps to make it sing. XL2720T Lightboost color seems better with drivers 320.18 - For picture adjustments, see LightBoost FAQ at - I've sent you an email with a link to a new motion test.