Colorvision, SPYDER3 Tv, Colorimeter
Apr 05, 2010 in
Computers & Software
- Designed for anyone who wants their home theater system to display accurate colors, shadows and details just like the director intended
- Ultimate Color Accuracy for your Home Theater
- Calibration can save a bundle on the annual operating costs of a TV; adjusts the brightness and contrast
- The life of your television backlight and LCD tubes will be extended by adjusting your set to the appropriate brightness and contrast levels
- State-of-the-art optical design and new 7 detector color engine provide industry- leading performance
Product Description
The SPYDER3 Tv Colorimeter Delivers an easy-to-use solution for optimizing any TV for a better viewing experience. Made from High grade material. Provides high quality output…. More >>
Colorvision, SPYDER3 Tv, Colorimeter
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5 comments
A. DiNardo on April 5, 2010 at 10:37 am
The red tuning was a bit over the top for me but a simple adjustment easily cleared up the issue. The software was very easy to install and the product worked as advertised. The suction cup is useless. I used a camera tripod to hold it against the screen and it worked perfectly. For the price, I recommend this product.
M. D. Mosher on April 5, 2010 at 11:18 am
The Spyder3 seemed pretty well made, but the included instructions were a bit skimpy. Install the software on a laptop, attach the Spyder3, and follow the prompts; pretty simple. After darkening the room, changing the plasma settings as per the instructions and all that, the calibration itself is easy if a bit tedious. It would help to have someone man the TV and DVD remote while you work the computer. One little gripe; the suction cup that’s supposed to hold the Spyder3 to the plasma screen kept letting go after 2 or 3 minutes. Got annoying enough to get the tripod out and use that instead. Anyway, after all was said and done, found the resulting recommended settings too dark. Popped in Rattatoie BlueRay, and just couldn’t stand how dark everything was. Paused at a night scene, and found a lot of detail was being swallowed up in the shadows. However, only needed to brighten the picture a bit to reveal the lost details, and didn’t need to adjust the contrast for resulting highlights. Overall, am satisfied with the color balance, but a bit disappointed with the how dark the recommended settings were. Maybe if the room wasn’t “darkened” as recommended for calibration, but left instead with normal ambient lighting? Also, found that for regular TV viewing, even after my own setting tweaks, the picture was a wee bit dark. But that’s more of a TV rather than a calibration issue I suppose. I’d like to try one of the Pantone systems as a comparison, but overall can’t complain for the Spyder3’s simplicity.
Oh BTW, tried it on my computer monitors too. Worked fine.
pike513 on April 5, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I was at first nervous to use this but I said what the heck and tried it. Was very easy to use!! The first TV took me 30 minutes by the 3rd it only took me 10. Pictures looks great! I have tried the DVD versions of the calibrators and was never impressed. I felt this had done it’s job. I only gave the product 4 of 5 as I would have liked to see more features on and possible a update. Definitely would recommend this to anyone who wants to get the most out of a LCD TV.
John on April 5, 2010 at 3:17 pm
I purchased this item to calibrate my new 50″ plasma TV. It is easy to setup, but had trouble with the suction cup like everyone else. The program is for basic calibration and again is really easy to use.
I bought this Spyder with the hopes of doing my own professional calibration, but in the end it only made slight changes to my set. This program is not worth the MSRP, but for $100.00 I guess it was worth it. I still might end up getting a professional to do the calibration.
William Mitchell on April 5, 2010 at 5:34 pm
The Spyder3TV automates the process that one can do by hand using a calibration disk and a set of color filters. So, for a basic adjustment of the TV, it can be used in lieu of an Avia or Digital Video Essentials package, or the GetGray calibration disk and a set of filters. The software will walk you through the steps to adjust color tone, contrast and brightness, color and tint.
Two issues arise with a newer 2008 model HDTV, such as the Samsung LN46A650. First, the software sets the contrast and brightness to the widest dynamic range possible. The TV can reveal subtle differences at the high and low end, such that the chosen settings can be too wide, too white or too dark, and the TV will be too bright on the whites, and the differences in near black can be hard to see. As importantly, I wanted to use this to calibrate the color components of the greyscale and the primary/secondary colors of the color gamut. The provided software doesn’t do this; you need to use something like the HCFR package from [..]. But the HCFR software does not yet support the Spyder3; it does support the EyeOne. So if you want to do a full calibration yourself, this is not the product for you.
P.S. Soon after I wrote this review, HCFR released its support for Spyder3. As I had already bought an EyeOne, I was able to compare the two. The Spyder3 gave a twisted CIE triangle, unlike those generally measured on my model set, whereas the EyeOne gave measurements similar to what others see. It seems there is significant manufacturing variability in the Spyder3, such that some units are pretty accurate and some so inaccurate as to be unusable for color calibration.