I'm using a calibration disk I found in the "9.99" bin at the pharmacy. It's called "Home Theatre Test and set-up disc", distributed by Musicland Stores.
The disk does include a blue gel, though I don't know if it is of the Kodak specification. The first time I went through the video adjustment steps, I ended up with a picture that was over-saturated with color and red push. Ths was through the composite(RCA) inputs of both of my sets. All steps were followed, including letting sets run for minimum 30 minutes.
I also set the "Picture" and "Brightness" controls to their middle settings.
Because I'm slow to think of these things, I then performed the video adjustments through the component inputs of both sets. The results of doing them through component video were noticeably better. When I looked at my settings after doing the calibrations, the tint control ended up either in the middle or over toward the green side, where as doing it through composite/RCA, it actually demanded more red tint(!) Brightness needed a small boost to show the test pattern properly, but the middle contrast showed off all scales of white properly.
Since my sets don't have user or hidden menus for each input, I then previewed a movie three ways: RF, composite, then CV. Viewing the movie through both the RF and composite, there was some red push(not as much as when I did the calibration over composite) and less over-coloring than before. The "Color" user adjustment still ended up being a little hot - 60 out of 100. As with composite, Contrast was fine, and brightness needed just a slight boost.
Through the component video however, post-calibration playback was superb! I had to turn on the lights to make sure I was still in my living room and not at the theater. Colors were, like properly cooked pasta: al dente! Color balance was spot on, and picture and black levels were as good as you can get with a standard NTSC tube set.
There is no provision on "HT: Test and setup Disc" for sharpness/detail, but I tend to leave that at 50 or cut back to 40.
When I went back to viewing cable, however, everyone has a temperature and the color in general is just too intense! The picture and brightness are fine, but it just doensn't have the depth or
3-dimensionality of the CV inputs.My question is: Are cable and air broadcasters doing the same thing to their signal that factories and retailers do to the adjustments on new TVs - overdriving color/contrast etc. to compete with adjacent channels?
It's kinda hard to strike a compromise between calibrated video sources and cable or broadcast. So I just pulled the color back one click from where I calibrated it, and it's a so-so compromise.
-ChrisCoaster