Geek Squad TV Calibration

[Coon]

Getting ready to buy my first LCD HD tv and was looking at a Samsung 40" at Best Buy. It's the only store that said anything about calibrating the tv to your house. Is this necessary? They normally charge $300 for this service and it's on sale for i think $150 or $200 now...They say the picture will be much better and the tv will run much cooler....

[buddha]

I purchased a 46 Sony LCD in December and just plugged in and I am watching!? Don't know if that was smart or not. Don't have high def satellite at this time so I'd like to hear what others say. I don't even know what I need to calibrate with my model, could be something I'm missing.

[PurpleHaZe]

I bought a new 55 inch led lcd in September, I dropped a few buck on the T.V so I figured what’s a few more so I went ahead with the TV calibration. There is a difference things look more natural, easer on the eyes ect.. Also uses less power and stays cooler. They will give you a day and night setting which is nice. I watched the whole calibration and couldn’t do it by myself unless I had the software and light sensor they put on your TV. We have a 46 inch that’s not calibrated you can tell a big difference. Have fun with your new T.V Just in time for the Big Game later..

[GotOne]

I bought a Samsung at the same store. Also, got the pitch and the demo.....didn't do it. I went online and did the "google" and found some settings that people have posted. I set my tv to a few different ones....might have helped, but coming from an old tv to a 1080 would make anything look great. Just go online and find some setting to put in, can't remember mine or I would give them to you.

[Crusty old Swede]

We had a nice discussion about this at work awhile back. We came to the conclusion BOGUS. None of us could find anything in our owners manuals that even hinted at there being a seperate calibration. Our findings indicate that TVs come set to the middle/medium setting. Alot of people leave them there and are perfectly happy with the picture. Please use your owners manual and play with all the settings available, if you can't get the picture to look better, reset to the factory defaults. As far as running cooler this might be in regards to the brightness setting - use the lowest brightness setting that gives you a good picture. One opinion expressed was that this service is for the people who have already watched too much "b00b" tube and have reduced brain function, thus not being capable of operating the manual.

[upnorth]

Some DVDs come with some instructions on calibrating the TV. I did mine and there was very little difference. It was a while back so I don't remember the details. But it is basically tuning the colors and brightness to the surroundings. And in most cases you wind up tuning it down as they set things very bright for display in brightly lit display centers.

[Macgyver55]

I've got a Bravia XBR and saw nothing in my manual about calibrating, and while watching it see no need to. Even if it is recommended on the one you bought, 200 to 300 dollars seems out of line for labor, an average calibration takes about 2-3 hours from what I can find. For my money, I'd choose to put it towards an extended service plan rather than pay 100 an hour to a "Geek" to poke around and "fix" something new that isn't broken.

Also while researching the need for it, I found a few places that said:

"Calibration should not be done right out of the box. It is recommended that the TV have at least 100 hours of use before a calibration can be performed properly."

[jwhjr]

In the last year and a half we've purchased a 42" plasma and a 32" LCD and haven't done the calibration on either. I played with a few of the settings, and as far as I'm concerned the picture is great on both.

[DTro]

Calibrating was big with the projection screen TV’s in which you had to physically adjust the “cannons” so that each color blended correctly. There was a time when it might have been worth the $ to have a pro do this for you.

With the advent of these new flat screens, paying for calibration is a waste IMO.

There is software you can download for free to do the same thing for you. But even better yet, you can do the manual adjustments to whatever looks best to you. What good is a perfectly calibrated TV, if it doesn’t’ look right to you?

[CJH]

Popular Mechanics has three "standard" settings that should work on most TV's for the DIY'er (scale out of 100):

Normal

50-Brightness

70-Contrast

50-Backlight (LCD Only)

Movies

40-Brightness

60-Contrast

50-Backlight (LCD Only)

Sports

60-Brightness

65-Contrast

50-Backlight (LCD Only)

[MNice]

I think this is similar to winter air in your tires.

[hydro]

I put winter air in my tires this year and I can feel the performance! I never knew how the 80% nitrogen blend would help my mileage either, as I'm seeing a substantial improvement.

Seriously, I have to agree that the $200+ charge for "Calibration" is a lot to pay for what you could get. The info you need for calibration should be in the manual or readily available on the internet.

[spearchucker]

You can buy DVD's that display color patterns that will allow you to calibrate it your self if you want to. That is all that the Geek Squad will do. They just adjust backlight, and color settings with the different patterns. Some cheaper TV's don't have much capability for adjustment as the higher end sets do. It isn't a bogus thing, it is just whether or not it is worth the money and if you will be able to tell the difference. They try to sell it as saving money on your electric bill and such, but you will probably take you 30 years to get the money back. Do a Google search for a calibration for your model of TV and I bet you will find settings post from people that have already calibrated a set like yours. Just enter in those settings and see how you like it.

[kg2]

Do the Googles as spearchucker said... TV Tweaker

Punch in your make and model and it will give the recommended setting for your TV. There are a lot of settings on my Bravia. It did make a difference. And it was free.

[jdsmi]

I went through this last spring. DVD's that carry the "THX" logo will have a clibration program that you can use. That's what I used and feel I have mine set pretty good (for my eyes).

Google THX and you'll find plenty of geek reading that will explain the process as well as the dvd's that carry the program. IMO, save your money and give that a try.

[Dave]

52" Samsung LCD and no calibration for it. Picure looks great. Plus, if they calibrated with family room blinds closed, I think the picture quality would change when the blinds are open. So, what would be the point.

[deerminator]

We bought a 40 inch Toshiba and it looks great without it. Maybe it could look a little better but I doubt enough for me to notice or spend several hundred dollars on. And no matter what anyone says, it wont hurt not to do it. I look at it this way - I ask myself would the quality TV manufacturer ship their product to you and not tell you to calibrate it if it needed to be? No, and why would they ship it to you not set to settings that look good? The same goes for when I bought my home theater system how many years ago. The honest salesman said, you can spend hundreds of dollars on gold plated cables and wires, but do you honestly believe Sony or Yamaha is shipping out units that are going to make them sound like BLEEP. At that time they came with the standard cables. I believe the same to be true with the calibration issue. Why would they ship something that required Best Buy to provide a $300 service to make it work right?

[PurpleHaZe]

All of the Posts are great. We had to wait for x amount of time before T.V was calibrated. In that time I did just what was posted in this Thread, Google, Tweeker T.V ect.. I have a good Friend who is in to his HD TV he told me the same. Why, would you spend $ to do what you can do yourself?, I said because I’m spending High dollar for this me toob what’s a extra $150 to check out what it’s all about. If I didn’t like it I could have asked for my money back, after it was done. Money well spent, in my opion. My buddy’s words WOW looks better. I’m not pushing for geek squad or best buy. And I too wonder why this is not done for free after spending so much on a TV.

[zamboni]

I have a 42" LCD and have never even heard of this.

I did buy it at Best Buy and they tried talking me into $100 HDMI cables, nope- bought the $10 ones, and am happy. Then they tried talking me into a $100+ surge protector, no, thanks!! Then I got to the cash register and they tried talking me into the "extended" warranty, nope again.

[PurpleHaZe]

Im Re-reading these posts and im un clear are you guys are talking about the *

(led lcd) or just the (Lcd) I bought a( Led LCD) and it made a huge difference to calibrate. I didnt buy the $100 surge protecter or the $100 hdmi cables but, I did buy the extended waranty to many things go wrong not to.

[harvey lee]

Yep, just another way for the store to hit one up for another Hondo. Mine works great the way it came.

I did purchase the extended warranty. Thats the first time in my life I purchased and extended warraty for anything.

I figured for what I paid for the warranty, if the TV goes out, I am way ahead. If not, oh well, I did not have to ever worry about it. With the warranty, they also clean the TV once a year.

[deerminator]

I can't figure the fancy cable thing out. HDMI, analog, digital, whatever cable you're buying, it either works or it doesn't. There is no difference in performance whatsoever. You don't gain anything additional from a gold plated connector on the end of the cable. It just looks cooler, but ideally, who's looking at them? I did my set up so no cables are visible whatsover, just the TV on the wall and the speakers around it. I've seen numerous articles and tests, including a great one by Popular Mechanics, online proving this.

I did also purchase the basic extended warranty on the hi-def TV we bought for very much the same reasons Harvey did. I'd never spent that much on a TV before and figured an extra $99 would be worth it.

What kills me about Best Buy these days is often, if I ask a question, like how to connect everything for my home theater or suggestions on a universal remote that would control everything set up in another room, they tell me to go talk to the Geek Squad and that they can offer a paid-for consultation. No thanks. I'll do my research on the Web and/or figure it out myself. I'm not singling out Best Buy on this one. I like that store and buy most of my equipment (sans cables and cords which I get at Fleet Farm)there. Its just certain things like no inexpensive HDMI cables and paid for advice (that would usually lead to me buying something) I don't like.

[Coon]

Purple haze...I dont think it matters led or just lcd hd...i've since e-mailed samsung and thay pretty much said save your money..didn't mind paying for a extended waranty...buy the way my best price was found on Amazon for the tv I got.

[spearchucker]

LED and LCD are the same technologies. They both use an LCD panel as the screen, but LED uses light emitting diodes (LED) to light the screen whereas regular LCD TVs use florescent lights.

The calibration may have more impact for certain people based on how far the manufacturers "default pretty good for everyone" settings are off from your viewing environment. If you have a very dark room, it may be too bright. If your room is very bright color may get washed out without some tweaking. I would try a calibration DVD myself before paying someone, but I don't think that you can make a blanket statement that calibration is [PoorWordUsage]. Geek Squads cost maybe be [PoorWordUsage], but calibration is a valid thing. It is just like buying a 4-wheeler or snowmobile. The jetting is a best guess that will work in most places. Go on a trip to Yellowstone and you will have to re-jet to get it to run good in that environment. Same concept with TV calibration.