Customer Reviews

Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Disc Edition [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I suppose I really should have chosen a different title for my review as I have not tried the Digital Video Essentials one; however, I have tried Avia, one from Monster, and of course the THX and Disney optimizers that come on various dvds, and this one makes those look like a joke. It's easy to navigate through the various test patterns, and within each pattern is readily available help information with correct and incorrect examples to give you an idea of what you should be looking for. I found the majority of them easy to use and helpful, though I must confess that with a couple of them (I think one was the chroma one) I couldn't tell any difference, either with the examples or with the actual test pattern. Additionally, some of them (e.g., the cadence ones) seemed to me essentially pointless in that they tested performance aspects not readily correctable; however, I suppose they would be useful for deciding whether or not to keep or return a product. With this disc, I was able to dial in a noticeably improved picture. I personally don't care about the lack of audio test tones as I leave audio calibration up to Audyssey and my receiver, but the DTS Master Audio and to a lesser extent the Dolby TruHD clips are fun. Oh, yeah, and they include the blue filter glasses too, which is great. Not having the glasses included in any of the calibration discs I have bought previously, until now I had always just skipped over those patterns. I highly recommend this calibration disc. It has given me confidence that I am getting the best performance possible from my setup.

Im an dedicated reader of "Home Theater" magazine and they wrote an article for this BD. So being the enthusiast I am, I purchased this BD with in minutes of reading the article. I'm glad it did! Spears & Munsil have definitely set the standard for HDTV calibration. I have used other cal BD's and they were great, but none come close to this one. The BD offers a array of test patterns to calibrate/adjust your TV. It even prove that my TV "Cine-motion" feature was better turn "off". They are also video in 7.1 Dolby HD and DSP HD to test your surround speakers. They dont offer test tones, thats my only complaint. But don't let that stop you from getting this BD. I'm still a fan of ISF calibrations, but if you don't have $400.00 to invest in a full "ISF" cal, then I would highly suggest you buy this BD.

Sony XBR6 52" is perfect after Spears & Munsil.

I have mixed feelings about this disc. I bought it expecting a simple to use disc that you pop in your Blu-ray player and calibrate your TV according to the different tests that are performed.

It's not quite that simple. First off, a large section of the tests appear to test items on your TV that you have no control over. This is confusing to those new to "calibrating" your TV. There should be a section called "This will test stuff you can fix" and "This will test stuff you can't fix" to clarify. Example: a section will say "you should not see stepping of shades in the following test" and then refers to NOTHING to fix the problem. Ok, my TV is showing the stepping or sectioning of shades, so what do I do to fix it?

Also, the disc comes with what looks like 3-d glasses that are blue-ish in color. Nowhere, I repeat nowhere, in the booklet does it explain what these do. It refers to a "blue filter" in the booklet at one point, but it does not say it's the film that came with the disc and that you should, oh, you know, put it up to your eyes in some of the calibration tests!

A helpful manual or booklet would remedy all of the issues I've experienced thus far, but the booklet is simply made for those who have done calibration before.

I did perform the brightness, contrast, and coloring tests with relative ease - and this did improve the picture on my TV. But it doesn't look better to the point of paying for this disc. I even reverted my changes back to how I had it before and could make an argument that it looked just as good.

Another complaint - most TVs nowdays have built-in adjustment features that automatically change the brightness, contrast, back-light levels, sharpness and other items. The booklet doesn't even tell you you should probably turn these off, as they counteract the progress you are attempting to make with the calibration. I fiddled with the disc for an hour before realizing the TV was adjusting to the picture by itself.

I understand TVs and monitors but I still feel like I'm lost with this disc. I know what brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, black levels, geometric warping, sharpness and all that stuff is - but I can't seem to get the hang of this disc. That's bad. Better instructions are needed for those who don't do this as a hobby. 3/5 stars.

This technical Blu Ray is a great reference to have when doing your own home calbiration of your TV. For years, people have had to use (and it was an excellent product for the time) the Joe Kane Video Essentials set up. It first came out on Laserdisc, then on DVD, then (briefly) on HD and is now available on Blu Ray. Ironically the Blu Ray version was the cheapest of all ( LD and DVD versions sold at $49.95 retail) What makes this disk special is that it is $10 cheaper than the Blu Ray version of Kane tech spec Blu Ray (Suggested Retail is(or was)$39.95) is that you get everything the Blu Ray DVD essentials disk (in sound and technical specs) But you also get a prgram designed with Blu Ray in mind. The DVD essentials series, by comparison, was the same old Laserdisc version, re-done for each new medium, with little, if any, bnew material for the specific medium. (The DVD version was the exact same as the LD version except the chapters were different becasue you didn't have to flip the DVD over as you did the laser disc.) This disk was actually produced in Hi Def for Blu ray. Spears and Munsil is a West Coast Company and they have produced a DVD version in the past. This Blu Ray version expands on the older title by adding technical test patterns for deinterlacing performance ( you cant use it on SD TVs) All test patterns have been recreated in 1080p for the best calibration. A booklet of tech term glossary and descriptions has also been included along with a pluge test tool
(The Krane discs supplied you with a 35mm film strip tool)that resembles a pair of 3D Glasses. An added bonus is that if you are using HDMI cables to send both audio and video information to your receiver ( or 5.1 capable TVS)you can watch the Promotional trailers for both Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD master audio and calibrate your system. As an added bonus (and I consider a plus over the Kane productions) is different video clip examples showing you the differences of types of video displays (described in detail in the booklet) and a short video clip at that plays when you first put the disc in that is a video mnntage of great sights of the Pacific Northwest. The easy access menu system is also easier to understand and navigate to the desired chapter. Kane's DVD is still is technically sound as always, but this is a better product in that it was produced with HD equipment and is more user friendly than the Kane product

This disc is really helpful at calibrating your HDTV and player. After calibration, my picture looks a lot more accurate. No more over-driven colors, or too bright of picture. The picture from my LCD now looks very natural! I would highly recommend this disc to everyone. If you currently have your HDTV set on "VIVID" mode, then you are watching an inaccurate picture. It may look pretty to everyone, but it isn't accurate, and this disc will show you just what an accurate picture should look like. The menu is straight-forward, and it has an on-screen help guide, that you can turn on by pressing "up arrow" on your remote. Please note that it will probably take at least 30min-1hr for you to set your TV with this disc the first time around. Especially if you are new to calibration. So set aside some time to read the instructions and help guide for each calibration pattern.

I bought the S&M package based on the review in Home Theatre magazine - I had been seeking a cost effective way to tune seetings on my Samsung 46" HDTV. This was the ticket = everything was as advertised - brilliant sound , detailed blu-ray video test screens. Took me a bit of work to get comfortable with what buttons to push to go from good to better - but I finally figured it out. Part of that is that I use a PS3 for my Blu-Ray player and the remote is more complicated than most due to the gaming functions it tries to emulate. I have yet to play a PS3 game - but was able to get the 80GB unit for $300. Now that the new 120GB units are $299 list - very little reason for those seeking the finest Blu-Ray rendering not to buy a PS3.

WIth S&M, the bands all here - and for $25 its a no-brainer. The first thing I ended up doing was turning down the brightness - which delivered more detail with less saturation for a more natural look on HD programming.

Most of the negative reviews on here are from people with HDTVs who did not enter the calibration (Service) mode to fine tune the set. I'm luck in that my Mitsubishi has those settings available standard. I actually got this disk free with my Oppo Blu-Ray player. I was considerinng getting a professional calibration on my set, but just when I was about to make the call, this baby arrived. It's fantastic! I'm not sure about the other brands out there, but Mitsubishi had every setting on this disc avaiable in the Picture+ menu. You can even calibrate for night and day viewing. Anyway, the disc was easy to follow and the results were quite noticable. Highly recommended vs. a $300+ pro calibration!

I had originally used the Avia home theatre disc in conjunction with the tests on the Incredibles DVD to calibrate my tv.

After about ten minutes with this disc, my Panasonic Viera 50" plasma was visibly better. Very much so!

instructions were easy to follow and intuitive.

i highly recommend the Spears & Muncil disc for anyone with a BD player and an HDtv.

I own both this disc and also the DVE (Digital Video Essentials) blu-ray test disc.

If you are debating between the two - pick this disc - the Spears & Munsil is far superior. The tests are more refined and the available help is far better. This disc has not only good on-screen help but excellent web based help and discussions. The DVE disc has NONE.

But the real question, for most people, is whether this disc will help them set up their HDTV in a user friendly manner? The answer is "maybe" and at best, only in a limited manner.

What can an average user expect to accomplish WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS? Not that much. Here is a list.

1.) Adjust the black level. Black level is an adjustment (using your brightness control - no - that is not a typo) so pure blacks are as dark as your TV can present them while very dark grays can still be seen. This is not as simple as you might suspect. Your blu-ray player and HDTV must first pass the "below black" test signal. This disc, at least warns about that, while the DVE disc does not even mention this. This disc also provides a work-around if your player/HDTV does not pass this signal. However this adjustment can be effected by an LCD's back-light and no mention or help is provided to deal with that complexity. So you may or may not get this adjustment right.

2.) Adjust the white level. This is controlled by your TV's picture or contrast control. Your goal here is to be able to detect shades of white above reference white. I have philosophical problems with their suggestions but you can probably get this right yet no mention is made (again) of an LCDs back-light which also effects this adjustment

3.) Sharpness - patterns are provided and you are instructed to look for halos and edge sharpening. Remember to get within a foot of the screen to do this right. Often the changes you make are hard to see.

That is about all an average user will get from using this disc and it is debatable whether they will even achieve the above.

I've dismissed tint/color as a possible adjustment. Even with the supplied filter - I doubt any color balance will get close to being accurate given the limitations of the filter.

For the hard core enthusiast or professional this is a superb test disc with very carefully generated patterns. I think it is pretty clear these are the most sophisticated patterns available and there are a large number of tests I have not even attempted to discuss. But if you are not technically sophisticated and don't have the needed instrumentation ---- I really wonder how much utility this disc will have for most users.

I applaud the care and detail of the tests and the superb white papers offered on the Spears and Munsil web site -------- but this disc, in my view, has very limited use for most users.

Frankly, if most TV owners understood they should adjust their brightness control to get their blacks as dark as possible while still being able to detect a very dark gray - they would get close to what this disc provides. Certainly the test patterns make this much easier! The same advice applies to your whites - adjust the contrast or picture control so you can see the differences in shades of bright whites and you'll get close to what this disc offers. But again, test patterns make it easier. Sharpness control - if you have a digital (HDMI) input in likelihood you can just turn your sharpness control to zero and you'll be fine. But a test pattern verifies that.

If you are calibrating your own HDTV, have the instruments --- then you don't need me or anyone else to tell you this is a disc you should have. If you are technically inclined and want to see how your current HDTV fairs on a variety of tests then this is also a disc that you might want to purchase with the following caveats. You'll need to put in a great deal of time to understand all of these tests and should be fully aware that there are often NO adjustments available to improve upon any deficiencies you may find.

If one was looking for a self-guided college level course on HDTV - this disc fits the bill assuming the purchaser is willing to do a lot of independent study that would start by studying the excellent white papers at this disc's web site, then joining various forums and working up from there. As with all technical topics - how successful you will be will depend on your technical background and diligence.

I used this test disc to adjust the picture of my new Pioneer 50 inch plasma TV. The test patterns allowed precise adjustment and the results were fantastic. I thought the original picture looked good, but the final results were certainly better. I highly recommend this disk to anyone who wants to get the best picture out of their TV.