The best part of Spears & Munsil is that they have something for everyone on the disc.
You can test for 3D crosstalk, for motion resolution, for video processing and scaling, and for many more advanced features that most people don’t care about, but as a reviewer I love to see. Anyone can offer a disc to setup brightness and contrast, but no one else offers a disc with these advanced patterns. The real meat of the disc is in the advanced patterns. They have also added more audio features, with test tones for level and phase, as well as audio delay. And boy, have they added a lot of content here.Īll of the basic setup patterns are back, only this time you also get 3D versions of them to calibrate with the glasses on, and you have more color and tint patterns to make sure you get those settings right.
Now they are back with an update to Spears & Munsil, descriptively called Spears & Munsil, HD Benchmark Version 2. From the earliest days of progressive scan, to the chroma upsampling error, their work there helped to destroy the idea that “bits-are-bits” when it comes to digital video and show that players do have noticeable differences, and ones that we can test for.įor others, you might have been introduced to them by their Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark Blu-ray disc, which shipped with Oppo Blu-ray players and gave you access to a wide variety of test patterns to setup your video system, and well as test various aspects of its performance. Immediate availability at the indicative price of 45 €, directly from the French distributor by clicking on the following link: UHD HDR Benchmark Spears & Munsil.Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark Version 2 By Chris Heinonen on May 8, 2013įor many people, their first introduction to Stacey Spears and Don Munsil was from the Secrets of Home Theater DVD Benchmark, which they created to test DVD players to help distinguish the good from the bad.
) a user guide entirely in French for free at the following address: Last precision, Stacey Spears actively participated in the development of new possibilities for calibrating LG OLED TVs vintage 2019 (see the complete test of the LG OLED65C9 by the editorial staff), in particular to perfectly adjust televisions in the presence of an HDR signal depending on its encoding, either in 1000, 4000 or 10000 nits.
Namely, if the disc menu is in English, you can already download (we have already done so. A welcome possibility to judge the rendering of the different light encodings on your diffuser. HDR test charts available in 600 nits, 1000 nits, 2000 nits, 4000 nits and 10,000 nitsįor the latter, the disk allows you to compare them in real time just by clicking on the player's remote control.SDR and HDR10 demo clip, HDL HLG and HDR Dolby Vision.Test patterns to optimize sharpness, color alignment….Calibration test patterns for maximum image clarity.Produced by famous image specialists Stacey Spears and Don Munsil, this 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray disc has a wealth of content to best fit your Ultra HD / 4K HDR screen. There is no doubt that the professionals will rush on him, now that he is officially available in France. However, if the budget were to run out, or if you feel you have enough skills to do a calibration on your own, or if you are keen to perfect your knowledge in the matter, then the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark disc is the one you need.
But a calibration session is ultimately an inexpensive sum compared to the price of a high-end TV, especially since, like the choice of TV, this intervention must be considered as an investment to benefit from a high-flying image show. And the price charged for their service (around € 400) is explained by their continuous training in developments in image and display technologies and cutting-edge equipment at a very high cost. If various tools exist on the market to calibrate your television, it is of course best to call in a professional. To be clearer, to ignore it is to own a Formula 1 with a restricted engine… Going through the calibration box therefore improves all the video performance of a screen. Believe us, the before / after result is striking knowing that a successful calibration influences first of all the colorimetry and the contrasts of course, but also on the precision of the image, its relief, its homogeneity and, in the end, on its fluidity.
We repeat it almost every time in our TV test benches, nothing beats a calibration adapted to the intrinsic capacities of the broadcaster, different from one screen to another even if they display the same reference. Mandatory calibration for a quality image While for many consumers who want to enjoy great picture quality at home, purchasing a premium television is the ultimate act, it is actually a necessary step but by no means sufficient.