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The day has finally arrived when you will take ownership of the HDTV that you have been drooling over since the reviews came out last summer and you can hardly contain yourself! All the HI-FI magazine articles that you have read, all the home theater forums that you have perused, all the time spent in showrooms viewing countless TVs have paved the way for this very moment. The doorbell rings and you run to greet the delivery man before he can lift his finger off the buzzer. After enduring the pain that comes from birthing your TV from out of the truck and into your living room, you immediately begin setting up your baby with the rest of your home theater toys. Eager to play with your pride and joy, you pop in your favorite DVD, roll down the shades and turn the lights off before bumping your knee on the coffee table and falling into the captain's chair. You quickly assume the critical viewing position (edge of the seat, legs spread to shoulder width, elbows resting on knees, slightly hunched over and holding the remote control in both hands like a lightsaber) and press "play." But something is wrong. People's complexions look unnatural, dark scenes lack detail, there are halos around edges, and the black bars on the top and bottom of the picture look somewhat green! AHHH!

Sound familiar? This is one of the panic-inducing scenarios that many of us have found ourselves in after investing a small fortune on a video system whose image is far less impressive than we had hoped for.

So, you pull out the manual and try to make sense of what each of the user menu controls do. After several frustrating hours spent in vain trying to improve the picture quality, you decide that a service call is in order. Once in your house, however, the repair technician tells you that nothing is the matter with your TV. Still, you are convinced that something has to be off because you know Lelu does not have yellow skin! But the truth of the matter is that unless your display is genuinely damaged, contacting a dealer, service center, and/or manufacturer will likely be in vain as well because they too are not aware that the poor quality image is the result of the TV not conforming to industry standards.

The good news is that there are at least two avenues that one can take to dramatically improve their display's performance. The most accessible and affordable route would involve purchasing a test DVD that will assist in setting up a home theater system. There are a number of them available. Our personal favorite is “Digital Video Essentials”  (www.VideoEssentials.com), a home theater calibration program created by Joe Kane Productions that includes unique test patterns that are particularly useful for today's current line of digital displays. While this is an affordable option, and one that provides a good general understanding on the video system, it can be a little difficult for some people to navigate and will only address the user-menu controls which offer limited control. For those wanting to achieve the maximum picture fidelity that their system is capable of producing, there is another much more involved procedure, albeit costly one, that the most discerning videophiles have been using since the days when laserdisc was king.

Enter the video calibrator, a person trained in system standards and specializing in the optimization of the entire video system. The most well known calibrators are those that are trained by the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). These individuals have successfully completed a two-day seminar and passed a written test showing competence in basic video theory. But attending the ISF class and passing the examination in no way ensures that the technician is equipped with the technical know-how, let alone appropriate instrumentation, to perform an in-depth calibration on your particular video system. In fact, often the opposite is true. And so it is greatly recommended that one obtain the credentials of whomever they are considering calibrating their display before hiring them. A good place to start would be the ISF website (www.ImagingScience.com) where technicians are organized by region and whether or not they employ testing equipment. Some will also have extended biographies that include an overview of the types of services that they offer. And an even smaller percent will have their own website as well (www.Avical.com).

An often overlooked area involves the types of instrumentation used by video calibration technicians. Let us just say that not all of it is created equal despite the aggressive marketing done by some of the more prominent companies that offer display device calibration tools. Many calibrators are using gear that is not suitable for every type of display even though the manufacturer of the equipment states that it is. For example, a colorimeter may actually be designed to be used to set the color balance or grayscale for a specific type of display such as a CRT. Calibrators will then use these colorimeters on display technologies such as LCD, Plasma, and DLP. As a result, the meter, which was designed with the spectral characteristics of a CRT in mind, will likely yield inaccurate results on a different type of display technology. The bottom line here is that without the proper instrumentation, a display cannot be adjusted with real precision. Why get your TV calibrated from one wrong standard to another? 

There are companies who are constantly testing manufacturer's products for accuracy and consistency. One such company is Joe Kane Productions who, as stated above, is also the maker of "Digital Video Essentials." The company has a list of calibration products that they recommend on their website. One such product is the legendary Photo Research PR-650 SpectraColorimeter,™ which is considered to be the industry standard by which most other analyzers are judged against (this is what we employ at Avical). Another instrument of choice that has recently become available is the Minolta CS-200 Color Analyzer. Either one of these instruments is essential nowadays in the professional video calibrator's toolkit. 

It is also important for a calibrator to have some form of an HDTV test pattern generator. There are many companies that make these and the majority of them are accurate. However, they should be used in the same way as the signal coming from your HD source. In other words, if you are using the HDMI or DVI output from your HD set top box (STB), the technician should be using the same type of output coming from their test pattern generator to feed your TV as opposed to the analog component outputs. 

But perhaps the most crucial step before handing your remote over to any tech would be to acquire as many past client referrals as you can. We would suggest no less than 10 positive reviews. One way to obtain said referrals would be to simply ask the ISF technician for permission to contact some of his/her past clients. Another very popular method in which one can read about a technician's work would be to perform a search under their name within one of the well known home theater forums such as the AV Science Forum (www.avsforum.com) or The Home Theater Spot (www.hometheaterspot.com) where many people post reviews. In fact, if it were not for the hundreds of reviews that we have received over the years, we probably would not be writing this article today.

Now that you know where and what to look for in a calibrator, it is time for you to call one of them to begin the job interview. How long have they been calibrating display devices? Are they a full-time or part-time technician? If part-time, what is their main gig? How much experience do they have with your type of display? Will they setup your DVD player and STB as well? Will they go over your wiring to make sure that everything is connected correctly? Do they get paid by the job or by the hour? How much will the service cost? How long will it take? Do they offer additional calibration services over and above the regular package? If so, what else do they suggest for your type of display? How long will the calibration last? How often does the set need to be re-calibrated? How much does a re-calibration cost? Are there any additional fees like tax or traveling charges? Do they guarantee their work? Do they give back rubs? I stopped doing that one years ago but seriously, did they answer all of your questions in a thorough and friendly manner? Remember, while it is most important that they offer you the level of technical services that you seek, they should also offer the level of customer services that you require.

So there you have it. I hope that this cuts down on the red tape often associated with locating and hiring the right technician for your type of display. If you happen to be located in an area that is not normally serviced by a nationally recognized video specialist do not worry. Many perform calibration tours throughout the year and getting to you should not be too difficult. But even if you are truly way out in the sticks, getting to you is still a viable option as some of us wild ISF technicians have been known to get flown in for just a job or two!