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Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark and Calibration Disc 2nd Edition

Rated:
G
Format: Blu-ray
4.2 out of 5 stars 524 ratings
$169.98
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Product Description

Whether you’re a home theater novice or a professional calibrator, you’ll find all the tests you need to set up and adjust your HDTV in the Spears and Munsil HD Benchmark.

The previous edition of the HD Benchmark was recommended by the New York Times, Widescreen Review, Home Theater Magazine and dozens of other print and online publications.

Product details

  • Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.78:1
  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ G (General Audience)
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches; 4.8 ounces
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ SM-V2
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ 3D, Blu-ray, DVD
  • Producers ‏ : ‎ Don Munsil, Stacey Spears
  • Language ‏ : ‎ Unqualified (DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1), Unqualified (Dolby TrueHD)
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Spears & Munsil
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00CKWI13O
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
  • Best Sellers Rank: #46,041 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 524 ratings

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
524 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the calibration disc works well for setting up TVs and appreciate its quality, with one noting it's better than THX. The picture quality improves, and customers consider it a valuable tool with comprehensive tests and comparisons. The ease of use receives mixed feedback, with some finding it incredibly easy to use while others find it complicated. The color accuracy and instruction quality also get mixed reviews, with some praising the detailed instructions for non-novices while others find them incomprehensible.

Select to learn more

CalibrationQualityWorks wellPicture qualityUseEase of useColor accuracyInstruction quality
57 customers mention "Calibration"46 positive11 negative

Customers find the calibration disc excellent for their TVs, with one customer noting it's particularly good for 3D calibration.

"Best calibration disc you can get however you will need time, patience and a little technical know-how." Read more

"Best blueray calibration period!" Read more

"...or those who want to get more out of their picture this is a great Calibration Disc...." Read more

"...The calibration disc works well enough but you must realize you're working with your DVD player's image when you're adjusting the details of the..." Read more

49 customers mention "Quality"46 positive3 negative

Customers find the calibration disc to be outstanding, with one customer noting it's better than THX, and another mentioning it's particularly suitable for home theater enthusiasts.

"Great product, but a bit difficult for the novice to completely understand the first time. But it does produce results." Read more

"...Good product." Read more

"...I will definitely recommend it. thanks for the good product" Read more

"This is a very good DVD. With it you can make many adjustments (providing your TV has the adjustments) to get a much better picture...." Read more

44 customers mention "Works well"38 positive6 negative

Customers report that the calibration disc works surprisingly well, particularly for setting up TVs.

"Works great, included manual isn't very good. Just go to the website for explination. NOT for HDR tv, not for 4k tvs." Read more

"Works as advertised. It would be nice if it did 4K and HDR." Read more

"This worked great for setting up my TV's and some of my families, picture was greatly improved after performing some of the calibration steps from..." Read more

"product arrived on schedule and worked fine without problem . I will definitely recommend it. thanks for the good product" Read more

43 customers mention "Picture quality"32 positive11 negative

Customers are satisfied with the picture quality of the calibration disc, with several noting it provides the best TV picture, and one mentioning it includes UHD 4K video for reference.

"Although it did make a good picture for me, there was not much to calibrate the TV with...." Read more

"...To be clear, those that never calibrate still get a very nice picture and this is a value add step not a requirement...." Read more

"...I found that the sharpness for 1080 needed to be decreased and the sharpness for 720 needed to be increased from the factory setting...." Read more

"...in my apartment, but it looks better and seems to have a picture more accurate than on newer or bigger OLEDs, QLEDS and even 2K and 4K sets!..." Read more

32 customers mention "Use"29 positive3 negative

Customers find the calibration disc to be a valuable tool that serves as an excellent reference point, with the tests being very useful.

"...This disc has all the same basic, and most important, test patterns...." Read more

"This is a useful and interesting tool for exploring the capabilities of your TV...." Read more

"...It's the best way to test for crosstalk in 3d without a doubt,the crosstalk was reduced after..." Read more

"...This set contains an exhausting amount of tests/comparisons to aid in the setup of a new HD set. Why do you need it?..." Read more

56 customers mention "Ease of use"34 positive22 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the calibration disc's ease of use, with some finding it incredibly easy to use and very step-by-step, while others find it complicated and laborious to set up.

"...It's easy to use, but you need to read the documentation to know which patterns and where are they located on the menu...." Read more

"A tad complicated to use for even those with a technical mind! I found the Disney WOW DVD to be just as effective and much easier to use." Read more

"Got it fast and on time. Easy to use and dumb proof. Now my tv picture shines , blurays and games look byond perfect." Read more

"...test patterns for several of the basic adjustments that are easier to use...." Read more

30 customers mention "Color accuracy"14 positive16 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the calibration disc's color accuracy, with some reporting incredibly low saturation and insufficient red settings, while one customer notes that the color space pattern showed correctly.

"...My color settings were not red enough. 5. Brightness. Now is the time to set your brightness levels...." Read more

"...like I ran out and bought a TV that was more expensive the colors really pop...." Read more

"...It might be that the color hue is off slightly, or the contrast is not optimized, or any number of other obscure adjustments could be needed to..." Read more

"nice to be able to set correct color!" Read more

25 customers mention "Instruction quality"11 positive14 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the calibration disc's instructions, with some finding them detailed and not for novices, while others report incomprehensible directions and lack of explanations.

"Too bad you can't direct anything! There are no explanations for anything" Read more

"...It contains detailed instructions for not novice and all of the test patterns needed to tune your picture to reference standards or as close as your..." Read more

"...It's very step by step. The instructions seem dauntingly technical, but when you get to doing it, it's really not that hard...." Read more

"...The instructions are also improved, but they could be better...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • WildBill
    5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for HDTV
    Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    No matter if you are calibrating you big new TV by eye or with test equipment this is a great disc.

    Almost all TV's 50 inches or bigger can benefit from some calibration to get a better picture, they often come out of the factory a little on the bright side and the colors slightly tweaked to the blue side as that is more appealing to the eye. To be clear, those that never calibrate still get a very nice picture and this is a value add step not a requirement.

    For those adventurous or those who want to get more out of their picture this is a great Calibration Disc. It contains detailed instructions for not novice and all of the test patterns needed to tune your picture to reference standards or as close as your TV can get.

    There are 3 levels of tuning the way I look at it, Basic tuning is just using the common controls, Brightness, Contrast, Color, and Tint, the "knobs" all TV's have. This disc will fix you right up and tell you what order to make the adjustments in. Next is Intermediate, where you get into a few more controls to by eye get everything to match what it supposed to look like. Finally there is the Pro tune, this is where test equipment is used to adjust the picture to an objective standard, you can buy or rent the calibration and do it yourself or pay a pro from 300 - 500 to do it (I would advise against hiring a pro unless you are a real purist and videophile, that last ounce of tuning is barely perceivable.

    No matter which level you are going into this at this disk is one of the best you can get to assit.
    24 people found this helpful
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  • allen roberts
    4.0 out of 5 stars Needed some more hints, which I provided, but worth it for the color settings and player setting suggestions.
    Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I thought this was gonna be great. But the dolby digital set up that comes with some dvds as special features are actually just as good, but here they give you the glasses to make sure the blues and magentas are correctly displaying. They need to work on back lighting and brightness more, separating the two better in the tests. Back lighting, I found, was not covered very well anywhere, So to make the most of this setup, I'm going to give you some pointers...
    1. First, set your devices, both the player and your tv too, on cinema or movie mode, and leave them there.
    2. On the player, use enriched and enhanced rgb settings.
    3. Back lighting: On the tv, have a wide screen movie on with black bars on the top and bottom. Now, make sure you have a dark scene on pause, so that you can match the dark bars with the black parts of the movie. Set your back lighting to lower settings until you dim the dark spots or shadows in the scene down to equal or just below equal darkness with the black bars showing on top and bottom of the paused movie scene. Now play it a bit and make sure the bars are the same or the tiniest bit darker than the black scenes and shadows in your movie. Now you have your back lighting set up right, and everything will be easier to set up afterwards, and it will extend the life service of your tv's screen.
    4. Go directly to the cyan blue/magenta test. Use your glasses. My tv had to have the glasses folded twice, as the disk warns you for some tvs, and it worked really well. My color settings were not red enough.
    5. Brightness. Now is the time to set your brightness levels. Make sure you can see all the details of the squares. It may look dimmer, but trust me, your eyes will thank you for it later, as it not only spares the eyes from seeing a glaring screen at full blast, it helps them to see sharper details in the pictures and videos easier, which also reduces eye strain, and actual headaches. (P.S. I researched the crap out of this just to get my tv looking like the older model lcds did. I miss that tv. Next...
    6. Sharpness and contrast. You can not, in any way, set these independently. One will always affect the other. Let us first set Sharpness and contrast both to 0, zero, yes, zero. Why? Sharpness is an artificial way to make edges look sharper by adding angles and lines to the picture. If you have an hd tv, then each pixel the tv is sent, is already on the disk. If it is a high quality movie, then each dot is already set at its proper appearance. However, that being said, not all films are that great, even blu-rays, so it does help to up the settings a bit. After we set sharpness and contrast to zero, We find a scene in a movie that is well lit, where you can see a face close up, or better yet, an object, such as a stone carving, or a close up of some grasses. I mean really close up. This is very important. Your close up scenes of faces are what your eyes are going to be judging the clarity on anyway, so faces are good, and easy to find in your movie. However, I started with the opening scene in Stargate, blu-ray, remastered, and was looking for a face, when I found the rock carvings to be a perfect place to fine tune the settings. I turned sharpness up until it looked nice, not perfect. As soon as artifacts and lines became too edgy, I turned it down a bit. You are done there, perfectly done. It won't seem right, but in a few seconds it will.
    7. Contrast. Contrast is the difference between the light and dark areas in the picture. Contrast should never be set high, it will make your scenes look like spot lights are glaring off of faces and give everything an artificial feel and you actually lose a lot of detail by doing that. So find a face, or a carving, or close up nature picture, pause it, and set contrast up a little, mine was 30 out of hundred, and each little step of the way, you will see sharpness become pin point accurate! for real. There you go. Now your disk was worth the money. :-)
    165 people found this helpful
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  • Chris - CT USA
    5.0 out of 5 stars Get your HD, or even 4K TV, "Aligned" with This Terrific Resource!
    Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    For about ten years, I've been aware of the calibration Blu Ray with the funny name, but didn't have the machine or the knowledge of where to obtain the disk.

    Long story short: I was at my city's recycling yard, and I crossed paths with a woman who was carrying two identical LG Blu Ray decks to the electronics trailer. I waved to her and asked if I could have one , and she said "Sure, help yourself!" What are the chances of someone dropping off two identical Blu Ray players, both with remote controls! She said her family "no longer popped disks into machines, we stream everything movie-related now", and that both machines were in perfect working order.

    So I brought one home, HDMI'd it into my Samsung LED TV, and a few months later, finally bought the Spears & Munsil Benchmark 2nd edition disk here.

    I went through the steps of adjusting all the basic settings(brightness, contrast, color, sharpness, etc.) and checked the gamma.

    I tell you this: Aligning the settings on my flat screen with this disc was like taking a blurry binocular with grimy lenses and cleaning them off and focusing them! People and other subjects appear as thought they are right in the room with me!

    The patterns are grouped logically in the menu to the left, with more basic adjustments at the top, and more detailed, nuanced patterns lower down. I was even able to center the picture in the frame(it was a couple pixels down and to one side). Hint: select picture size "Just" or "Screen Fit"(on Sammys)

    I may have only a 40" flat screen in my apartment, but it looks better and seems to have a picture more accurate than on newer or bigger OLEDs, QLEDS and even 2K and 4K sets!

    Get yourself this disk, and align at least the basic settings on whatever you watch TV/ smart TV on.

    Yes: Calibration is exactly like "wheel alignment for your TV". You'll never view TV the same way again, whether it's cable, broadcast, smart hub apps like YouTube or Netflix, or even standard DVD or VHS!

    Because leaving your existing or new TV in factory settings/Vivid/Dynamic is a terrible thing to do - for the set and for your eyes!
    6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Vidinoz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to follow. Good results.
    Reviewed in Australia on January 20, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Easy to follow. Only took about 30 minutes to do the actual set up.

    I had done an ‘eyeball’ set up prior and the results were very good. I found the final picture very good, though the colour was too high for my personal tastes; dropping down the colour setting a couple of notches and I am very happy with the results.
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  • stefano 57
    5.0 out of 5 stars sistema base per calibrare l'audio e il video dell'impianto home theatre
    Reviewed in Italy on November 6, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    disco di calibrazione HD ora aggiornato a 4K, ma indispensabile per la calibrazione
    dei colori e dell'audio della tv o dell'impianto home theatre. Anche l'utente meno esperto
    può arrivare a buoni risultati.
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  • mauro pi
    4.0 out of 5 stars finally... the finest
    Reviewed in Italy on June 7, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Ho sempre tarato i televisori miei e dei miei amici con il DVD di "AFdigitale" ( era in omaggio con la mitica rivista che purtroppo ha chiuso i battenti qualche anno fa) ma la mancanza di definizione poneva qualche limite ultimamente. Questo bluray copre il gap aggiungendo anche qualche altro test interessante. La confezione è completa: un dvd, un bluray, e degli utilissimi occhialetti per la taratura fine. Il manuale è in inglese ma direi "basico" quindi con un minimo di sforzo si riesce ad ottenere dei risultati. Indispensabile per i pignoletti smanettoni come me.

    Consegna gestita da Amazon. Tutto perfetto nonostante venisse dall'Inghilterra.
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  • hi_speed
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastico !!!!!
    Reviewed in Italy on August 26, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Consigliatomi da altre anime tormentate dalla ricerca della perfezione in ambito AV, con questo disco ho trovato la pace dei sensi. Per me è INSOSTITUIBILE: ci sono pattern per una regolazione basilare dei parametri come luminosità, contrasto, saturazione, tinta, colore, sharpening, spazi di colore, test di valutazione degli algoritmi di deinterlacciamento, pulldown, motion interpolation etc etc il tutto corredato da chiare tips (in inglese) su disco, reperibili anche sul sito in formato "esteso". 50 euro sono anche pochi considerando il lavoro che c'è dietro.... consigliatissimo !
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  • Francesco
    5.0 out of 5 stars Una garanzia
    Reviewed in Italy on November 2, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Una garanzia, avevo il DVD prima edizione della Spears & Munsil e come il fratello minore in DVD questo in BluRay , nella versione HD non ha tradito le aspettative, se vuoi il meglio dal tuo TV o Display Full HD, è una scelta obbligata. :)
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