# Calibration disk



## kpl (Feb 17, 2010)

What is different with the display calibration disk for a projector vs. just going thru the settings in the menu? With both aren't you just tweeking the levels to what looks good to you or does the disk guide you thru this better? Not sure I am understanding. Sorry.


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

Whether it's a projector or a flat-panel should matter much. The difference is that when using a disc, there are test patterns designed to show you exactly where a given setting is properly set. Most discs come with instructions (on the disc) that first demonstrate how the pattern changes with proper/improper settings, and then displays the pattern for you to adjust the display to the proper setting. So theoretically, by using a test disc, you are calibrating the settings to an industry standard. By tweaking by eye until it "looks good to you" you are not. This means that by calibrating with test patterns the image you see is a more accurate reproduction of what the director wanted you to see. 

This of course applies mainly to watching BD/DVD/etc media, as the TV stations don't necessarily follow the standard closely themselves. But even with TV, I still prefer to calibrate to the standard, and allow some tweaking from there to achieve some reasonable compromise between different stations/programs.

There also are more settings is many displays that can/should only be tweaked with not just the proper test patterns, but instrumentation, and not by eye.


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## kpl (Feb 17, 2010)

Do the disks walk you thru pretty good and are straight forward?


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

Some do. Presumably there are some that don't. 
On the ones that do, in some areas they're great, in some areas not as much... sometimes it depends on how closely your display behaves to the way it's supposed to. Also your source comes into play, and how it behaves. 

Overall, I think getting a lowcost disc (and using it) is the best bang for the buck improvement you can make in your video quality. It's been said that it can get you 75% of the way towards what a professional calibrator would do with their instrumentation. But, as I alluded to, YMMV.


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