Calibrate your HDTV without professional help

Etan Horowitz | Sentinel Staff Writer

July 27, 2008

Unless you pay someone to do it for you, your new HDTV may not be properly calibrated, meaning the picture might not appear as vibrant and sharp as it should. Many Lucasfilm DVDs including Star Wars, and many DVDs of recent Pixar films including The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., Cars and Toy Story, come with a "THX Optimizer" that lets you calibrate your TV. They also come with blue glasses to help you perform the calibration, but you can still do it if you don't have the glasses. The back of the DVD case should say if it includes the Optimizer.

1. Play the DVD and choose THX Optimizer, which is usually found in the set-up or special-features section of the DVD. Have the remotes for your TV, your DVD player and the blue glasses handy.

2. Select "Video Tests."

3. You will now go through six tests to calibrate your TV. For each test, you will be given instructions. Once you understand the instructions, select "Play Test." Use the next-chapter and previous-chapter buttons to go back to the instructions or move to the next test.

4. The "final test" will display a short clip from the film to help you verify that you've successfully calibrated your TV. Once the clip is over, you can revisit the tests to make changes.

5. Once you've finished, switch to something else you commonly watch on your TV, such as an HD channel to make sure everything looks right. If not, go back into the optimizer and do more tweaking.

This method probably won't do as good a job of calibrating your TV as a professional (or buying a HDTV-calibration DVD) would, but it's a quick, in many cases, free way (if you already have the right DVD or borrow one from the library) to make some adjustments on your own.