There’s no denying that the foundation of an excellent home theatre – or any entertainment set up – is having top-class components. Today’s projectors and TVs can bring incredible picture quality to homes in Australia. HD televisions have long made getting cinema-quality resolution a possibility – and now thanks to formats such as 4K Ultra HD and technologies such as OLED and HDR, many of the best TVs and projectors provide a higher quality picture than many cinemas.
However, the spectacular capabilities of these TVs and projectors come with another consideration that is unfortunately often ignored – TV calibration. Many owners, and even inexperienced installers, assume their new high-end TV will be set to the best ‘general’ configuration, which they may or may not decide to tweak slightly later on. However, in most cases, the opposite is actually true. In truth and fact, professional TV calibration is a must in order to get the most out of your new TV or projector.
Why Should I Calibrate My TV or Projector?
When you receive your new screen, it will be configured either with factory settings or, if it was ever on display, with the settings input by the store. That means the settings will either be set to ‘zero’ across the board, or will have been maximised to contrast and ‘pop’ against the store’s bright fluorescent lights. In either case, the configuration is certainly not appropriate for a smaller, darkened room.
During home theatre installation, Universal Home Theatre’s trained technicians use a highly accurate calibration method developed through our decade-plus of experience in the field. Using specialised equipment, the process of calibrating your video and audio components specifically for your home can take 2-3 hours. As many of our clients will attest, it is time well spent, as the difference is nothing short of astounding.
One aspect we specialise in is the challenging one of TV colour calibration. Amateur calibrators often attempt to use skin tones, assuming when they ‘look right’, the colour has been set correctly. This is of course extremely inaccurate, and ignores many other considerations. In calibrating, we use our expertise and equipment to go beyond the industry standard of ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) calibration. We not only match the primary colours of red, green and blue, but also the secondary colours of cyan, magenta and yellow. Finally adjusting the grey scale, the result is the most lifelike colour reproduction possible.
Audio Calibration
Even more misunderstood and ignored than TV calibration is that of audio calibration – unfortunate, since audio is 50% of the film viewing experience. This is far more involved than simply adjusting an equaliser. While our highly trained technicians do use both hardware and software in order to perfectly set the frequencies of each speaker to provide the full range of sound, they also use sound pressure level (SPL) meters to measure the volume levels of each speaker at differing distances. From the information gained, they adjust placement and bring the output levels of each speaker to the correct reference level.
Australia’s Most Advanced Video and Audio Calibration
After purchasing the finest AV equipment, you should always be able to enjoy it to its fullest potential. All systems purchased through Universal Home Theatre come standard with calibration, and we can even help you with TV wall mount installation. We also offer our calibration services to those wishing to maximise the performance of their existing home theatre components. To find out more contact us today!