CalMAN users?

[digitaldog]

Since I bite the bullet and purchased my first windows machine (a laptop), I am now intrigued with the prospect of ‘calibrating’ my three HDTVs with CalMAN. I went to their forums to ask which of the instruments I own would be ideal but getting clear answers there from the “Calibration Samurai“ is getting long in the tooth (http://www.spectracal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3205&p=18627#p18627).

I see there’s a software version that supports the i1Display-2 I own, for more money I can get a license to use an i1Pro Spectrophotometer (or my Colormunki). All I wanted to know was what the additional money gets me in terms of dealing with these HDTVs. I assumed but wasn’t told specifically that the ‘issues’ are much like we have with displays: Spectrophotometer’s don’t have to assume anything about the backlight, are probably better at odd and unexpected illuminants, Colorimeters are probably better at dealing with dark measurements.

My original (and somewhat unanswered) post. Anyone using this product have recommendations? TIA

I own the following instruments:

i1Pro Spectrophotometer (both a UV cut and non cut, not that in an emissive mode it should matter).

ColorMunki

i1Display-2

Newer i1DispalyPro (recently released).

OPTIX

My question is, if one purchases your software, are all of the products supported or each build is device specific?

For display calibration, I'd usually pick a Colorimeter for better dark measurement accuracy and the Spectro on displays where color matrices are non standard or unknown. I have zero experience in TV calibration but think its an interesting idea I'd like to try. Which of the devices above would you recommend with your software?

[tony22]

Andrew, I've been using CalMAN for about 2 years on my Pioneer Elite plasma. It's a great program but I agree sometimes getting the right recommendation can be frustrating.

IMO for HDTV displays a better choice as I suspect you know would be either a Chroma5 or Chroma6. If you get that plus the additional license fee to allow use of an i1Pro, you could then use the i1Pro to correct for any chromatcity inaccuracies as the Chroma5 ages (I think the C6 is better in this regard) and still get the much better low light performance. Over the long haul that might be cheaper than getting the colorimeter recalibrated and recertified every year or so.

As for the supported readers, this might help

http://consumer.spectracal.com/pages/meter-support

[digitaldog]

IMO for HDTV displays a better choice as I suspect you know would be either a Chroma5 or Chroma6.

Chroma5, the old, round MonacoOPTIX? I just dug one up from my CMS museum, that’s a pretty old product. Chroma6 would be the newer OPTIX (DTP94)?

So the idea is to use two devices like I can on a SpectraView? Use Spectrophotometer to measure white, enter the values, then do the rest of the work with the Colorimeter?

Thanks, I’m not getting clear answers from the software manufacturer.

[tony22]

I haven't been in this world anywhere near as long as you Andrew. I'm not sure of the originating devices for the C5 and C6.

(edit: It seems the C6 is a special version of the new I1Display Pro according to SpectraCal)

As for using two meters, I'm not sure about that. What I was referring to was (if you have the right licenses - including the Interactive Add On) being able to use something like an i1Pro to correct out errors in something like a C5 which uses those filter materials that are more prone to drift. This all assumes the i1Pro is accurate to begin with of course!

If you haven't found it already, the Display Calibration forum on avsforum has a lot of people on it who are CalMAN users. There's at least one SpectraCal and one CalMAN person there as well who will step in and offer help. It's a good place to do some digging.

[K.C.]

I'm not familiar with CalMAN but I have used these 2 products to calibrate Windows based HDTV systems.

http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=3971

http://www.displaymate.com/on_usb.html

FWIW

[tony22]

K. C., these are certainly usable tools, and may do a decent job, but CalMAN and ChromaPure (an alternative) are roughly the equivalent of i1Profiler or BasicColor for your HDTV. They allow for a measurement based calibration of grayscale, black and white points, and primary and secondary colors (assuming your display has the requisite level of control, many now do).

Here is an example of an output from my older Pioneer from an earlier version of CalMAN, using a Chroma5 meter.

The newer versions of both programs allow for an automatic calibration of your HDTV if you have something like a Radiance.

[digitaldog]

Exactly. My goal would be to do this calibration with instrumentation.

[tony22]

I can vouch for the results Andrew. But back when I got CalMAN there was only... CalMAN. Now there's ChromaPure. They are essentially competitors. You can get a sense of the fan base on avsforums. You can also get a trial copy of each. The thing about SpectraCal / CalMAN is that they seem to have a very cozy back-pocket relationship with X-Rite - which the ChromaPure users sometimes complain about. While it's never been actually specifically annotated to anyone's satisfaction, there have been inferences that the older C5 offered by SpectraCal and the new C6 - both of which are OEM'd by X-Rite - are not your standard OEM units. Apart from the cal tables installed by SpectraCal (ChromaPure does the same with their OEM'd units) there's some innuendo that the SpectraCal units vary from stock by some other factor sourced from X-Rite. I could find the link, but one of the SpectraCal guys on AVS says so much about the new C6, which from everyone else is just an OEM i1Display Pro.

OTOH there are many people who like the interface and workflow of ChromaPure. If you don't have an investment in either one it probably makes sense to try them both in whatever limited or simulated form is available for trial.

[ToniF]

Andrew,

Since you have an I1Pro you can go with the 'cheaper' version of the OEM i1Display. You can then create a meter-profile using the i1pro.

This will give you the best starting-point you can get - the accuracy of the spectro-meter with the low-light-performance of the I1Display.

May be later you also add the CalPC-addon. With this you can create ICC-profiles for your monitor and the profiles look very good (compared with i1Profiler or other tools).

Toni

[digitaldog]

Since you have an I1Pro you can go with the 'cheaper' version of the OEM i1Display. You can then create a meter-profile using the i1pro.

This will give you the best starting-point you can get - the accuracy of the spectro-meter with the low-light-performance of the I1Display.

That’s what I was thinking. Onto some software testing, thanks.

[Pete_G]

I can vouch for the results Andrew. But back when I got CalMAN there was only... CalMAN. Now there's ChromaPure. They are essentially competitors.

I imagine Andrew already has CalMAN, but there is another product -ColorHCFR, and it's free.

[digitaldog]

I imagine Andrew already has CalMAN, but there is another product -ColorHCFR, and it's free.

Great price, runs on a Mac! What have I been missing? Supports  DTP94. Thanks!

[tony22]

I imagine Andrew already has CalMAN, but there is another product -ColorHCFR, and it's free.

I have both. ColorHCFR is nice but it hasn't been updated in at least two years. I'm not sure it can support the newer meters and it cannot do colorimeter cal against a spectro. If any of that matters then one of the other two programs I mentioned would have to be considered. It also, IMO, is not quite as good at interactive adjustment and readback as CalMAN.

[na goodman]

Andrew you may find this discussion of some use.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496
When I was looking to calibrate my son's TV this was some of the info I came across.

[tony22]

A few more links.

This one is another good one discussing ChromaPure, CalMAN, and HCFR

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1218437&highlight=calman+hcfr+chromapure

They come up again in this thread which has a ton of good info on the process for HDTVs

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=852536&highlight=calman+hcfr+chromapure

And this is one specifically geared toward HCFR users who are using a DTP-94

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1240880&highlight=calman+hcfr+chromapure

[K.C.]

Great price, runs on a Mac! What have I been missing? Supports  DTP94. Thanks!

Only the Windows version supports the DTP94, unfortunately.

[na goodman]

Andrew if your talking about Color HCFR version 1.1.2 runs on my Mac running 10.6.7