TV Calibration Melbourne

Where?

Melbourne, Australia.

What displays can you calibrate?

LG OLEDs from 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

What about other manufacturers?

I am currently only doing LG displays as they provide the most options for calibration. I also use a C1 OLED in my colour grading studio, so am totally familiar with the settings and calibration workflow. Portrait Displays, the makers of Calman, have collaborated with LG to provide calibration capabilities of sophistication and accuracy that simply aren't available from other display manufacturers.

What's the cost?

$500 for the following:

ISF Expert (Bright space, daytime)
ISF Expert (Dark space, night
HDR Cinema (Reference Viewing)
HDR Filmmaker (Day Viewing)
Dolby Vision Cinema (Reference Viewing)
Dolby Vision Cinema Home (Day Viewing)

Essentially, you receive a day and night mode for SDR, HDR and Dolby Vision. For the gamers, SDR and HDR Game modes can be calibrated for an extra $100.

How long will it take?

4-5 hours. 6 hours with game modes.

Who does the calibration?

Tim Farrell works as a video colourist and trainer at Learn Resolve. He's spent decades analysing digital video images and completed an ISF course in 2006. Tim has worked in Australia and India and was responsible for all the film transfers and rushes colour correction on The Matrix sequels, including VistaVision film.

Who should calibrate?

Calibration is for people who want optimal accuracy and picture quality from their display. Maybe you're like me and work in film or TV and want a true representation of your work. Or perhaps you're just a cinephile who wants to watch movies the way directors, cinematographers and colourists intended. And if you've spent $3000 or $6000 on a new display, it makes sense to spend 10% or 5% of that, to get the best viewing experience possible.

How does colour grading and calibration intersect?

When teaching grading I always tell students to look for depth within an image. Are the the subjects popping out from the background, or are they blending in? If they're blending in, it's usually because a colour cast is present. The same goes for calibration. If your greyscale isn't neutral, you will never appreciate the true depth of an image. It's the successful illusion of three-dimensional space that provides the immersive cinema experience.

What equipment do you use?

X-rite i1 Pro3 Spectrophotometer, Calman software and C6 colourimeter.

What's the process?

Firstly, we use the i1 Pro to create a meter profile for your specific display. Profiling improves the colorimeter accuracy and results in a better calibration.

Calman connects to your TV and generates a series of white to black patches which are measured against reference values. The software creates a 1D LUT for greyscale and gamma tracking.

We then measure a series of colour patches and create a 3D LUT for exceptional colour accuracy.

The two LUTs are then permanently stored within your TV under the corresponding picture mode. Eg: ISF Expert (Dark space, night)

We then optimize the TV's settings for each picture mode post calibration. Page 3 of the Fact Sheet pdf lists the recommended settings.

How do the LG's inputs work with the different dynamic range formats and picture modes?

The TV will remember the most recently used picture mode for each dynamic range format and physical input. For example, let's say you are currently on the HDMI 1 input viewing SDR content with the ISF Expert (Day) picture mode. However, you then change to HDMI 2 and view HDR content with the HDR Cinema picture mode. If you subsequently return to HDMI 1 and the SDR content, the ISF Expert (Day) picture mode will also be restored.

How does HDR and Dolby Vision work?

High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Dolby Vision allow brighter and more detailed highlights, darker and more detailed shadows, and increased colour fidelity compared to Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). HDR10 is an industry standard that TVs and content providers are required to support. The HDR10 format employs static metadata which sets brightness for the entirety of a program.Dolby Vision is a proprietary version of HDR which allows dynamic metadata to optimise the tone curve and it’s associated brightness on a scene-by-scene or shot-by-shot basis.

The HDR Filmmaker and Dolby Vision Cinema Home picture modes are both able to utilise an AI Brightness function to adjust picture levels according to ambient room light. These modes are usually the preferred option for daytime or bright room viewing. Dolby Vision Cinema Home also employs an elevated EOTF, which additionally increases screen brightness.

Conversely, the HDR Cinema and Dolby Vision Cinema modes are calibrated to reference standards and designed for dark room viewing. However, even in a very dark room, many people find some content viewed in the Dolby Vision Cinema mode too dark and instead opt for the Dolby Vision Cinema Home picture mode.

You can experiment with the two Dolby Vision picture modes to find what suits your personal taste and viewing environment. Bridgerton and The Crown on Netflix are good examples of Dolby Vision content. We also recommend using the streaming apps within the LG TV for HDR and Dolby Vision programs, instead of the apps within a set-top box or game console.

What is tone mapping?

Tone mapping is the process display manufacturers usilise to display HDR10 mastered content (1000 nits is the most common) on consumer displays. If tone mapping wasn’t utilised, the display would simply clip off detail from any values that were higher than its peak brightness level.

When Tone Mapping is enabled, the HDR10 tone-mapping curve is dynamically generated by analyzing the signal peak and histogram information on a frame by frame basis. When Tone Mapping is disabled, the TV uses the internal HDR10 tone curve settings. Static metadata determines the brightness levels of the mastered content.

When calibrating HDR, the last step is to measure your display’s peak luminance. This number is uploaded to the TV with the appropriate Roll-Off points. For example, if your display measured a peak luminance of 650 nits and we set a Roll-Off point of 70% for 1000 nits material, the display would begin rolling-off highlights at 455 nits.

LG have the following roll-off points for their OLEDs:

70% for 1000 nits
60% for 4000 nits
50% for 10000 nits

For HDR Filmmaker, non-reference day mode, Tone Mapping (dynamic) can be on or off. Carnival Row on Amazon Prime is a good example of HDR.