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This is going to come off as snooty, but just reading through the other reviews here, it's obvious that there are some people who just should not be buying *any* test or calibration disc. They're just never going to see the difference, and despite explanations both right here on this page and elsewhere, they will likely never understand what calibration is really for (nor do they care to).
If this describes you, then just ignore this and all other calibration aids and move along. Enjoy your TV set as is - you don't need this disc.
But if you either already have an understanding that calibration is about getting the most *accurate* picture possible - not the "best" picture, because what is "best"? - or you're at least open to trying it out, then a good calibration disc is the *least* you can do for your TV set. Once your TV is properly calibrated, then the picture quality bottleneck will move to the content itself and how well it was shot, color balanced and encoded. And you'll be able to judge individual movies and shows you see on the merits of *their* picture quality, without wondering if your TV or some setting you messed up is the problem. But well-produced Blu-Ray discs, especially - ones that were produced with the same attempt at meeting reference standards as you're giving your TV - will look *amazing*. (This is assuming your TV *can* be well calibrated, of course! But this disc will help you determine that too.)
I own the older Video Essentials DVD, which I understand has been barely updated for Blu-Ray. I've read about the Disney WOW disc but came away with the impression that it was basically a showcase for Disney film clips with a few test patterns thrown in.
So I bought this, and I'm glad I did. It's about as no-nonsense as it gets. It's almost nothing *but* HD-optimized test patterns and the basic text instructions to go with them to set up your TV (for tests where SD and HD setups would require different patterns, both are provided). A basic 5 minute demo video of landscape scenes is provided so you can check your settings on actual content that's been well-encoded and properly color balanced. That's pretty much it. There are no long-winded explanations about the history of television, and no film clips that basically just serve as ads. With this disc, you're just going to get down and dirty with your TV settings, and that's the whole point, isn't it?
It is true, like some reviewers have said, that there's not much you can do about how your TV displays some of these patterns. However, that's still important information. Most people will be (initially) using this disc on a new TV that's still within its return period, and if your new set utterly fails some of the more difficult test patterns, maybe you'd think about returning it for a different model. Luckily, most new TV's will pass all of the tests, and as a new TV owner, I'd think you'd want to know that too. If your TV can display all the test patterns properly, then it can be calibrated properly too.
There are many provided patterns that you *can* make adjustments with. I was able to properly set up my color, contrast, brightness, sharpness (which for most TV's should be zero!), and overscan with this disc - all settings that were way off on my Panasonic TCP50ST50 before I bought the disc. Some issues you can't easily see with the naked eye on regular content, but they're there, and while you may not consciously notice them, they reduce picture quality and can even increase eye strain. For example, the pixel orbiter on my TV, which is used to reduce the effects of image retention, was causing not just overscan (which I knew), but a bit of extra edge enhancement (over-sharpening) as well, probably due to the scaling of the picture. As soon as I turned the pixel orbiter off, the overscan test pattern looked perfect, and the edge enhancement went away. I would never have realized that without this disc, but I would have (and did) perceived that subtle over-sharpening as a harshness in the picture, without knowing what was causing it.
Because there's no added cruft, you can wiz through this disc in about 45 minutes, even with making changes to your settings. And it's very easy to go back and re-check settings later too, once your TV is broken in or aged (TV's do get dimmer and color shift over time).
I was amazed at the demo video after running through all the patterns... smooth and accurate is the only way to describe it. Viewing regular content is more mixed, as you would expect. Not everything on cable looks very good. Some things are biased towards green, some towards red, some shows themselves are over-sharpened, some overly compressed, some just shot with really junky video cameras not much better than a home camcorder. But anything that doesn't look good on my set now, I know is the content itself and not my TV. Most Blu-Ray discs look *amazing*, as do most newer HD films and dramatic shows on Netflix (some of those are 1080p, and they're shot and processed well).
I highly recommend this disc as a quick, cheap alternative to a real ISF calibration. This won't get you quite to that level, but it'll get you pretty close, for a lot less money.
| Brand Name | Scenic Labs / ColorGrade, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 2.39 ounces |
| Package Dimensions | 6.81 x 5.31 x 0.55 inches |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Special Features | Blu ray support |