How To Calibrate Your HDTV in Three Easy Steps

Just thrown down some hard cash on that brand spankin' new LED HDTV for the summer? We bet you need some tips on proper calibration. Even if you HDTV doesn't have the best black levels out there, here's a simple 1-2-3 guide for you that's so easy that you'll be wishing TV manufacturers would place it on their packaging to begin with.

THE QUICK AND DIRTY HDTV CALIBRATION GUIDE:

Crank brightness and contrast down to zero.

Increase contrast to 90% of maximum, then slowly increase brightness to its highest level while black is still black.

Now just fine tune to your personal preference and you're good to go! (The Telegraph has a nice in-depth guide if you wanna go crazy with things like sharpness and color levels)

Easy, right? Of course, if you're really trying to get the best picture quality from your set, you'd invest in one of those HDTV calibration kits, but seriously - who in their right mind has time to go through all the trouble. We've got more important things to do... like watching 9 By Design on Bravo.

Comments (2)

Another option is to use the THX calibration option already included on many retail DVDs (and a small handful of Blu-Rays). The list of discs with the option is pretty big, so you probably already have the tools. The list is at http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/thx-certified-releases/ (note that while the Indiana Jones IV Blu-Ray is on the list, I know from first hand experience that the disc does NOT include the calibration tool).

You will need a pair of blue-filter glasses to do the color/tint balancing steps. You can get a pair for $2 (plus about $2.50 shipping) from the THX website. Small price to pay to get your HDTV in line with the THX specs. But $4.50. The link to the glasses is on the page with the list of supported discs above.

I netflix'd The Incredibles, purely for the THX calibration feature. Worked wonders on my LCD.