OTHER TECH

Who Ya Gonna Call? Founded in 1994, the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) is dedicated to improving the quality of electronic imaging. The ISF has raised public awareness of picture quality and helped reform how some manufacturers calibrate their TVs before they leave the factory. But the ISF's most successful "product" by far has been the calibrators (over 1,600 to date) it's certified as capable of coming into your home and adjusting your TV to perform at its peak. You can locate an ISF-certified technician by going to imagingscience.com and clicking on the "Trained Dealers" tab, or by calling 561-997-9073.

ISF technicians strive to bring your TV's performance as close to the NTSC television standard as it can get. Your TV is the final link in the video chain, so proper calibration is crucial to ensuring that the image you see from a DVD or broadcast program matches the producers' intentions.

When you contact an ISF technician, ask him what's included in his calibration services and what the rate will be. For adjustment of the front-panel (or user-menu) controls and calibration of the grayscale on either analog or digital models, the ISF suggests a fee of $225 for direct-view TVs, $275 for rear-projection TVs, and $325 for front projectors. Things like multipoint convergence, adjustment of picture geometry and size, lens focus, and adjustment for multiple scan rates entail additional charges. A complete calibration of an elaborate high-end projection system can run upwards of $1,000. Some technicians also charge for travel time if they have to go to a remote location.

Ask the calibrator if he has any experience with your brand and model of TV. If you're working with a smaller, specialty audio/video dealer rather than an electronics superstore or a faceless Internet site, your dealer might have a technician on staff. This would be the ideal arrangement since he would be most familiar with the product lines carried by that store.

Make sure you leave your TV on for at least 30 minutes before the technician arrives, since both the black level and grayscale will drift as it warms up. Also, projection systems won't hold their convergence until they are fully warmed up.

Bag of Tricks In addition to the basics (screwdriver, tape measure, flashlight, and so on), the technician will arrive with some tools that are critical to properly adjusting your TV. The first will be something to generate test patterns. By far the two most popular tools for this are Ovation Software's Avia Guide to Home Theater and Joe Kane Productions' Video Essentials. These two DVDs make a formidable arsenal for adjusting your video display and should be part of any videophile's home theater library. The recently released Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-up DVD also includes the basic patterns for adjusting your set.

Some installers will also bring a video signal generator, which makes some adjustments easier to perform and is indispensable if there's no DVD player hooked up to the TV. And, since most signal generators can display high-definition signals in various formats, having one enables the technician to accurately adjust a high-definition TV (HDTV) or monitor.