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(More customer reviews)I bought this puppy a few days ago and have run it a few times to get a feel for the calibration qualities of the Sensor.
Now let me say that I've tried it in a room with only modest light as well as a room with no other Ambient Light Source and both proved to be identical values so as long as it isn't broad daylight with the blinds open it is pretty reliable.
Let me add that the device is a Colorimeter which is for calibrating color and it is actually very good at it! Much better than you could eyeball regardless of who you are.
So with all that said, let's address some of the complaints, or should I say misconceptions with the device.
1st, all the Device knows are absolutes that are pre-programmed into the software and it is designed to achieve accuracy within a certain degree (often lower than .05% Deviation) and your eyes will never be that accurate.
2nd, Skin Tones Change based on the light source used and unfortunately Hollywood knows that the lighting creates atmosphere so the skin tones will never be 100% reliable in any movie; So let's take the movie "The Guardian" for example this movie had no less than 7 different light sources depending on the scene and this would make calibrating your screen based on skin tones as tough a target as trying to pinpoint a Democrats Morals (After all, truth is relative right?). In Reality Skin tones can only truly be used to judge Calibration based on a Daylight Scene and ONLY if You Know the Skin Tone To Begin With.
So if you're going to judge the devices capabilities then you should use known quantities to judge. Good sources are Whites Lines, Known Black Items and Blue Skies or use a modern Animated Feature like Finding Nemo or Shrek where light temperature is never really a factor.
Now as for Brightness and Contrast, these characteristics are designed to work within a defined range as well and the Colorimeter is doing what it's told to do...
Basically, the software measures the top value and the bottom value for each setting and then takes a few calculated readings from in between to determine range while setting the appropriate mid-point for Range. Keep in Mind, that isn't arbitrary and as such the device will not know if part of a scene is too dark, it is just trying to keep everything operating within a certain range without letting parts of the scene get blown out (the more range your TV has the better this will work but at 700:1 or 1500:1 it will require some user intervention).
My advice for setting up a TV, that is less than 2000:1 contrast ratio, with the SpyderTV is to go through the whole setup and then tweak the brightness and contrast with a THX Video Test from a Pixar Disk like Finding Nemo or using DVE for these settings.
So, with all that said this device is every bit as accurate as higher priced calibration tools but does require a little bit of knowledge to operate properly within spec.
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Colorvision STV100 Spyder TV ColormeterThe Datacolor SpyderTV colorimeter and software deliver an easy-to-use solution for optimizing any TV for a better viewing experience.SpyderTV scientifically measures contrast, brightness, color, tint, and color temperature presets on your TV and helps you make the necessary adjustments to dramatically improve your picture quality. SpyderTV supports Plasma, RPTV, DLP, LCD and CRT TVs.
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