Michael Chen
Calgary, Canada - Video Calibration Expert To Western Canada

I've been an enthusiast of home video ever since 1980 when my parents bought the family's first Betamax vcr. The hobby grew from there to constant upgrading of equipment and the addition of poorman surround sound in those early days.

Hooking up people's systems was the big thing back then and I could wire up anyone's system and even teach them how to use it after 10 minutes of study. Sort of a slow "pretender." By the early 90's I was operating a hobby business hooking up a/v systems for people and contracting this service to the local department stores and repair shops.

In the late 80's the first calibration video laser disc came out and that spelled the beginnings of video calibration for myself. I had been a keen reader of all that a fellow named Joe Kane wrote about image calibration. By 1997-98 when the colour analyzing equipment first became available at an attainable price, I maxed out my credit card and took that plunge and thus started my life as a full fledged video calibrationist.

I had the slight advantage over others in that I had actually spent the previous 8 years reading and studying up on the theory before and practicing the physical stuff on tv after TV anyway. Learning the equipment was a piece of cake. Although making the capital investment meant that playtime was over. Getting my ISF credentials was next and I simply saw that as a necessary evil. Something one needed to get additional credibility.

I continue to do this calibration work as a hobby. When I am not on a calibration tour, my primary local service areas are Calgary & Edmonton and Central / Southern Alberta and the adjacent Provinces.

We are Video Calibrationists ... not just ISF calibrators. We do a whole lot more where ISF ends.

Current equipment includes the Philips Colour Analyzer, 3 Progressive Labs Colour analyzers,  2 Accupel HD signal generators, Accucal Software and Colorfacts Software with Eye Beamer Spectroradiometer and the AVS TV Pro Optical Comparator. I also have the I2C equipment for applicable Mits units and Pioneer C3 software.

I am equipped to handle all display technologies like CRT, DLP, LCD, Plasma, and LCOS variants.

I am unaligned with any company so I have no loyalties and will not push product on you. I am free to criticize any type of display device on the market. The man with the brutal truth ... as I am not there to tell you how great your equipment purchases are. I only care about the image and I won't stop until the job is done to my satisfaction.  (My Curse)

This form is for QUESTIONS ONLY. For booking, please go to the Book A Calibration page.

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OK Guys

Sorry for the delay in the review.

First off, Gregg is a great guy. He was here exactly when he said he would be. Funny thing-I was still obsessing about the garbage bags, and had covered the slider completely, and shut the blinds on all other windows, and then realized that I could no longer look outside to see when Gregg arrived I heard some noise a peeked out and he was here.

I guess I can not continue without discussing the said garbage bags. I left work an hour early to find then and put them up. I went to Wal-Mart and the only black bags they had was indeed industrial bags, but they were compacter bags, with a very small width. However they came all tied together so I was able to make the length as long as I needed. It took about 11 side by side to cover the slider completely. But they did the job. Then I was obsessing that the shades would not cut off enough light and started to cover them, and I got 2 strips done when Gregg arrived.

As soon as he walked in, he said "Oh this is plenty dark" So all that obsessing for nothing. Now I have a lifetime supply of compacter bags, but I don't even have a trash compacter.

Next as Gregg was starting to set up his awesome equipment, he asked for the original remotes. I knew I had them so I wasn't concerned, but suddenly I could not locate the most important TV remote. Seeing that our house is a total disaster, clutter and messy wise, I couldn't find the remote anywhere. Gregg told me to calm down he had faith I would find it. Well I did, but it took like 20 minutes, I was sweating bullets. (Thank you Gregg for not mentioning what bad shape the condo was). I asked him if it was the messiest he had seen, he said no then hesitated, so I think yes.

OK on to the calibration portion of our show.
Gregg set up his laptop in front of him in a position so I had an easy view of it. Then he set up some type of instrument panel devise on his left. Then he attached a suction cup stethoscope type thing directly in the center on the TV. He turned on the laptop and some incredible graphics came up. He thoroughly explained what everything stood for, and gave me some key definitions so I could attempt to understand what he was doing.

He showed me what the industry standards were and what my TV was showing. It was pretty far away from where is was supposed to be. Then he had to do some experimentation with the hidden menu selections, since it was his first A10. He took time to make sure he found all the menu items he was looking for. Even if it took going through the menu several times. He was diligent in his efforts to do and adjust everything he could.

With ever adjustment Gregg made he would show me exactly what he was doing and explained the end result of each. I was able to watch the monitor and watch the graphs, it was very cool and very informative. Of course the only thing I knew about was grayscale. I knew that the standard was 6500 degrees Kelvin. I believe we came very close.

Then he went through all advance settings on the regular TV menus. Again explaining everything as he went along. He mentioned that he could have left or been done, but he went back over every setting and even went and made some other changes. He made sure I was happy with the results and I assured him I was. We went through all the different TV inputs and the DVD player as well.

He was getting ready to leave and I reminded him quietly that he said he would help me make sure that my surround settings were correct on my A/V. Of course they were way off, and within a few minutes he fixed that for me. Calibration done, Gregg left, Mark was happy.

Now onto the big part of the review. How does it look? Well that is the reason I waited until now to do the review. Since most of the shows I watch are SD, I did not think it was fair to do a review of that, yet at the same time, I could not turn off the non-HD NESN (the Red Sox) network.

I had to wait to Sunday and the NFL. Since I don't have the D* NFL Sunday Ticket, I went to my basic cable which now picks up the HD signal and OMG. The picture and color are too awesome to even describe. I don't know what else to say except money well spent.

I can't give it the old Night and Day because of very crappy SD PQ with D*. But when HD is on (even on D*) it is a beautiful sight to behold.

Thank you Gregg and everybody else who helped me with the decision. Absolutely no regrets.
- Tase, Sony 50A10 LCD RPTV Owner in CT
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