CRT Calibration Made Simple - Get Your PVM Looking Great!
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- Опубліковано 2 сер 2024
- Oh, calibration, how I love you. You make things look like things, instead of things that are a little too orange or blue.
As a side note; you should technically set the 240pTestSuite to its "480i" output mode for the most accurate brightness/contrast calibration. It will only make a difference of 2-3 nits, but it only takes a second, so you may as well change it. It will not affect colour calibration.
HCFR Download: sourceforge.net/projects/hcfr/
240pTestSuite Download: artemiourbina.itch.io/240p-te...
FreeCalRec601 Download: github.com/danmons/FreeCalRec601
USB Extension I've Tested: amzn.to/3SgmDR2
List of valid colorimeters (find on eBay):
X-Rite Colormunki Display
X-Rite i1 Display Pro
X-Rite i1 Display Pro Plus
Calibrite ColorChecker Display: amzn.to/3SwfFbJ
Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro: amzn.to/3HDpA96
Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus: amzn.to/495sgrW
List of cali. sources:
1: Extron VTG 400 or other "Professional Grade" Signal Generator (For all signals)
2: Wii (Component)--Dreamcast (Composite)--PS2 (Component w/FreeCalRec601 Disc)
3: Wii (RGB, Composite) -- Dreamcast (RGB, S-Video) -- PS2 (Composite, S-Video, RGB) (All have not been verified)
4: Any standard DVD Player (Component or Composite w/FreeCalRec601 Disc)
All Amazon links are affiliate; for most of these, eBay is a much better option!
Timestamps
00:00 Hardware Needed
03:11 Sources
06:40 Software Needed
08:26 HCFR Software Overview
15:20 Calibration Process - Brightness/Contrast
23:58 Calibration Process - Colour
33:53 Summary, Methodology - Ігри
Thanks for covering this, I am a photographer by trade and not having color calibrated TVs kill me. This will calm my incessant need to see proper color. Great video!
Great to see a complete guide on this for CRTs. I have an old Spyder3 I bought a few years ago to try to calibrate mine, but never got around to it. Just ordered a colormunki display to give it a shot! I didn’t even notice how bad mine were until I played GT on iLink recently.
The real worst thing you can do before calibrating, is have the same content showing on a nearby LCD/OLED. It'll instantly show you how terrible your CRT colour accuracy is!
@@lexlocatelli Worst for emotions, or worst for calibration outcome? I suspect the former ☺️
This video is everything I've wanted in a calibration demo since I first learned about color calibration back in the early 2000s. Thank you very much for making this easy to follow guide.
Thank you, awesome video! Hope to see more videos about calibration!
what a FANTASTIC video, I've done this process myself and was thinking about doing a video about it, now I won't bother! Quite a few bits of your video I know, but the bit about setting the nits and that is what the Y value is - mind blown! I wondered what that was all about! I really want to say hats off for a professional, easy to understand video and I look forward to testing out your process on my B&O MX7000 I'm currently restoring. 🙂
Love this, thank you!
Super helpful video. Thanks for also signposting the StickFreaks series. I used your info plus StickFreaks on my Sony and I am happy with the improvement. I used raspberry pi PGenerator as the source. I couldn’t get 480i test patterns out of PGenerator on a Pi4 even though it would boot in 480i. No problems at all on a Pi3 though. Great info in your DAC video as well. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this video! I have an X-rite eye-one display 2. Hoping I can confirm it works with CRTs within the week.
@joshmiller887 Have you done this calibration yet? I actually picked up an Eye-One Display 2 for cheap myself, but after following these steps I end up with a picture that looks very blue to me. I'm not sure if it's an issue with my display or the colorimeter or if I'm just not used to accurate color. Interested to hear from other people with a similar setup.
Fantastic video! I'm curious about which console is best for S-Video calibration, since that's the best quality my consumer CRTs can handle. I hope some console gets verified in the near future. In the meantime, I'll be using your guide to calibrate my PVM-14M4U, with my hacked Wii and the colorimeter I picked up a year ago but was too intimidated to actually use lol. Thanks. Subscribed!
Would you mind sharing where I could read more about the VTG 400 verification of the Wii component signal that you brought up? Thanks for the helpful guide, by the way!
I’ll be doing a video on it once my own VTG400 and scope come in; there isn’t any source I can pull up for you since this testing was all done on a private discord group. But basically, you measure the voltage levels of the VTG400 at all 10 IRE stages. Compare to reference (0-714mv or 0-700mv depending on signal type). Then compare the VTGs margin of error to the Wii component cables. The Wii component cables were found to be in line with the VTG, and interestingly enough, the Dreamcast via RGB with its “800mv” setting was just found two days ago to be reference level as well. Only issue with the Dreamcast RGB is at 30-40 IRE, where the values are too hot on green. But if you ignore those two IRE patterns the rest of the image is good enough for calibration! Since you’re calibrating via 20 and 80 IRE anyway, it’s very easy to adjust for.
@@lexlocatelli Appreciate the reply; that's really interesting. I do recall reading that the hot RGB Dreamcast output is related to its DAC. Looking forward to future uploads, and thanks again for your comprehensive video.
@@MHussC no problem! The Dreamcast output being hot only applies to Composite output, which is why the 714mv mode exists in 240p test suite. Normally the composite output goes all the way to 800mv, bad stuff!!! But via RGB, in the normal 240p test suite mode, it’s just the 30/40 ire with green being hot. The other IRE readings are very, very good.
Really good guide, especially on calibrating brightness and contrast which other videos I've seen on youtube did not explain well. Quick question, I have a Sony Wega Trinitron CRT. If I calibrate for component input do I also need to also calibrate for s-video input or do I choose one input and calibrate for the input I use the most? I'm guessing if any changes made to the service menu settings in component video will also apply to s-video? Thanks again!
You’d need to figure out your exact model and look in the service manual; typically for a consumer set, you’d calibrate composite, then svideo, then component. Or maybe even RF, then the other three. If you use two or more types of inputs you’ll want to calibrate ALL inputs because they’ll usually affect each other.
Thanks for the tips, I found a copy of my CRT's service manual and will give the calibration a try this weekend. Mahalo!@@lexlocatelli
Calibration might be older than that. I still have some CRT I use manufactured in the 80s. including Panasonic B&W travelvision and Sony watchmans
Fantastic video! I never thought of doing 2point calibration on my crts but you made it really clear. thank you! As i mostly use RGB inputs (through a GSCART), should i use the wii? i have the wiidual mod in there so it outputs great rgb i believe. or would ps2 be better?
I haven’t tested the Wii and PS2 RGB officially yet compared to the VTG. However, both should be “good enough” for this calibration, at least for now. Once I get the proper equipment I’ll be testing all of these as-of-now untested cables/output types, and compiling everything in a ranked list!
@@lexlocatelli awesome, thank you!
Great video!
Can you make a video for geometry calibration?
Maybe one day, geometry is a completely different beast and I’m still not incredible with it. The problem is unlike colour, it’s way way way harder to objectively measure if it’s correct or not. Everything is done by eye, and there isn’t really an “instrument” for it aside from maybe holding a soft ruler up to the tube. If I can get a method down for every single adjustment possible, I’ll definitely put up a long guide!
This was a wicked tutorial and I'll be using it on many tubes going forward! Do you think you'd have a drastic change in the numbers after replacing all the capacitors on the boards? I'm going to recap a Trinitron, so I'm wondering if it would be better to just wait. Thanks for the video 👍
Yes, everything would potentially be vastly different! Including geometry as well, not just colours. Anything that can be changed, will likely be changed (however slightly) with a recap. I wouldn't bother doing any kind of calibration or geometry until that's done.
@@lexlocatelli Thank you 😁
Holy shit finally a tutorial I can follow step by step. I was overwhelmed and burned out from searching through forums and sites on how to use my colorimeter then I gave up and was very frustrated for a long time. I have a spyder2pro and i don’t even think it will work on HCFR or be compatible with windows10. I just ordered a Colormunki display and I hope I won’t run with any compatibility issues. I have a PAL Wii and it’s connected through rgb scart, will it have a huge difference compared to if I use the Wii component method ? Thanks
I believe the Wii output runs a little hot over RGB but it was at least consistent, so it shouldn’t be a huge deal if that’s literally all you have.
@@lexlocatelli hi i just got my colormunki display and testing it right now. im at the sensor selection @11:51 but i get a "Wrong mode! Diffuser is deployed, switching to Ambient mode" message and cannot choose the display type to refresh display.
@@porter3433 did you flip the cover full backwards?
@@lexlocatelliahh right 😅now it works
@@porter3433 you are not the first, and you will not be the last, trust me :D!!!
Great video, this was super helpful. I was curious if the MiSTer would be a good source to calibrate to as well as consoles?
I'd have to either test myself once I get a scope, or have a friend test before I say yes to this. I don't know that it would be great, because your choices are the PS1, Genesis, or SNES for patterns, and none of those are recommended for RGB calibration as far as I know. I'll definitely get a scope and test every source I have in the coming weeks, though!
Ok thanks! I was manly asking since I already have my MiSTer hooked up to my arcade machine and hooking up a console would require me to get a quality adaptor@@lexlocatelli
@@lexlocatelli There's a Neo Geo version as well.
@@BumperSam Check out the new video, great comparison of many external Direct Video DACs. Are you getting the analog video out of the Analog IO board or one of those external DACs?
@@gcolombelli same thing applies to that as the other cores, where they haven’t been fully tested yet. I’m working on testing all mister cores with 240p test suite as well as real consoles. I’ll be making a list with Kuro who made the DAC list used in my other video. Once that list exists, I’ll be much more confident recommending such things!
This video rocks, thanks. Do you know of a similar program that would run on Mac?
Unfortunately it’s only on Windows and I can’t recommend any other calibration software right now. I’d run it in a VM and pass through the colorimeter, should be fairly straight forward!
thanks for the reply! I also appreciated your recent DAC video @@lexlocatelli 👍
When calibrating a CRT that is compatable with both RGB and YPbPr should you calibrate RGB and YPbPr separately? Just something I was curious about. I can generate test patterns for either, but I was curious if there are downsides to calibrating a primarily RGB setup with one of the easily obtainable YPbPr solutions.
Typically you would, yes. They should have separate settings profiles, so if you adjust a setting, and switch from rgb to component, you should see that setting wasn’t adjusted for component. I’d check what order your service manual says to use for calibration first.
If I'm having trouble finding one of the specific colorimeters you mentioned for a price I like, are there any specific features/specs I should be looking for in alternatives?
Those are the only ones I know of that will work, either due to software compatibility with HCFR or sensor type.
🤔 Ok… I’m glad this exists but you did a 40plus minute video about video calibration and you failed to make a space on SVM… options to disabling and using service menu to also disable it. We seriously need to talk about this because there are great sets that use it and we need to figure out a work around to fix.
You’re not wrong about it being an issue, but these are both pro sets. Doing things like opening up a set to disable SVM (most sets I’ve owned you need to physically DC it, not an option in the service menu) is out of scope of this video.
More importantly, SVM has nothing to do with calibration
I thought it was going to be simple.