ColorVision SpyderTV Review - October 31, 2005

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Buying an HDTV is different then buying a TV of yesteryear. There are so many manufacturers, technologies, and models that the TVs are tuned so that picture looks good on the showroom floor. This is not optimal for your living or bedroom.  At the very least you should change your picture setting from the default (which may be called vivid, dynamic, or something similar) to one of the other predefined settings. In some cases this may be sufficient. But if you really want to get the best picture out of your new HDTV you'll want to adjust the settings to optimize the picture for your viewing environment.

Both of us are fans of Digital Video Essentials A/V calibration DVD ($25 US). We have used the system to calibrate numerous TVs of varying technology with very good results. Some people have used the DVD and found it complicated and were not happy with the final picture quality.

So what do you do? Stick with a predefined picture setting or try to work through the DVD with no guarantee that the outcome will be acceptable.

Enter SpyderTV. SpyderTV is colorimeter and Windows application (Sorry Mac users no version for you yet) that takes the guesswork out of calibrating your TV.  SpyderTV can be used to calibrate Plasma, DLP, LCD, and CRT TVs.

The colorimeter is attached to your TV's screen with a suction cup and connected at the other end to your computer via the USB port. The software has a calibration wizard that helps you set up your particular TV. You'll need to tell the application what settings your TV allows you to modify. Once you have gone through the setup wizard you are ready to begin. To get the best results make sure the lighting at the time of calibration matches the lighting for your typical viewing environment. The software always reminds you to make sure any menus from your TV or DVD player are off the screen before starting the measurement. Make sure you pay attention to this. I mistakenly started the calibration with the TV menu still on the screen, which adversely affected the results.

Both of our test TVs were calibrated with the DVE prior to calibrating with the SpyderTV. Braden's Plasma settings were left alone and recalibrated with the SpyderTV. Ara's DLP was set to the manufactures default settings prior to calibration. The results were very good. Braden's plasma required minute changes from the currently calibrated settings. Ara's DLP ended up almost exactly the same as the DVE DVD.

The entire calibration took about 30 minutes and was simple to do. The experience consisted of making a selection on your DVD player, starting a measurement, and then making an adjustment on the TV.  There is no subjectivity to the process. The only limitation is that the only inputs that can be calibrated are those that you can connect to a DVD player (same is true for the DVE DVD). What you can do for the inputs that you can not connect a DVD to is start with the settings from the DVD input and then make adjustments by eye if necessary,

The SpyderTV is an easy way to get the best picture out of your TV. It has a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $269 US and can be found online for about $250.
 
 
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