HDR Calibration Info

[mechman]

To be honest, HDR calibration is still a crapshoot - there are no standards yet. And it seems like every manufacturer has their own way of implementing tone mapping. I figured I'd put up some things you should avoid when doing a HDR calibration.

Some of the controls you should never have to touch include:

• Brightness
• Contrast
• Color
• Tint

You may have to adjust these, but rarely would (should) you have to go more than a click one way or the other. Brightness and Contrast adjustments mess with the displays internal tone mapping. Color and Tint seem to rarely be off nowadays and rarely have to be changed. And by all means, do NOT use a blue filter (one of those light filter gels) to adjust Color or Tint! If your display has a blue only mode, that is an acceptable way of adjusting Color and Tint. You should find that you won't have to change anything, but if you do, it should only be a click or two.

Some things you can adjust with a meter:

• White Balance
• Luminance

Those should only be adjusted with a meter. And White Balance should not be a flat, straight line like it is for SDR calibration. There should be dips in it - that is the EOTF and tone mapping doing it's job.

I'll add to this as I think of more.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Thanks for the info mech... good to know this stuff.

The reviews I read for several projectors say that they have superb color out of the box these days... especially the ones that offer hand-picked lamps.

 

[mechman]

Yeah rarely will you have to touch Color or Tint these days. And I find that Brightness and contrast are usually within a click or two of where they should be. It's when you delve deeper into calibrating gamut and adjusting luminance that things get complicated. Especially if you're attempting to adjust luminance for the tone mapping.