Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark and Calibration Disc, 2nd Edition

Doh! I struggled for hours with what turned out to be the DVD disc and not the second which had all the Blu-ray & 3D magic. The seller was kind and patient - thank you, Stacey - and once the error was nailed my whole experience changed because this is a fantastically effective aid to getting the perfect picture. And sound. And 3D.First, assemble everything you need like pen and paper. You WILL require these. RTFM (read the manual) as this will keep novices calm ‘cause it does require patience. You have to sit in your favourite viewing position (and occasionally get up closer to the screen) with the remote control of the Blu-ray in your left hand (I’m right-handed) and the remote for the TV in your right. The TV remote is the one you’ll use to work the slider controls while the Blu-ray remote takes you through the instructions and patterns.It is worth persevering even if you initially find it daunting.The video appearance settings are fairly straightforward to adjust against the patterns: colour/colour tint; brightness; contrast; sharpness; tones; darkness etc. There’s then a big leap if you wish to calibrate the individual colours (I didn’t need to do this on my Samsung JU7000 TV, thankfully) and you are warned that this bit really is a job for a professional.So far, the picture is amazing, like looking through a window. There are useful clips so you can admire your work. I particularly liked the Big Buck Bunny animated cartoon where every hair, every blade of grass and detail in the shadows can be seen clearly.Think of the disc as an expert holding your hand while you fine-tune to perfection.

Flat panel televisions do not come calibrated out of the box. Unfortunately, this means that the picture you see when the television is first switched on may be bad, to the point where you might think the television was actually faulty.On a flat panel television the video signal is handled and displayed in a different way to the old C.R.T. televisions, and in order to produce an accurate and realistic picture more settings have to be adjusted. Unfortunately, with so many potential settings, getting a perfect picture solely by eye and guesswork is virtually impossible. You might be able to produce an acceptable picture, but probably not much better than that.Fortunately, this disc has been designed to help. By the time I had finished using it, the quality of the picture had improved enormously. The H.D. picture, which was already good, became excellent, and the S.D. picture was improved to a more than acceptable level. When I had finished, some of the now correct settings were nowhere near where I would have expected them to be, which just goes to show. It is worth pointing out that for technical reasons a very good S.D. broadcast picture is impossible to obtain on a full H.D. television.The whole process took about an hour. The guide book says 30 minutes, but I think that would only apply to people who had done it before. However, once you start it is very straightforward, with each test leading to the next by the press of a button.One important note: For users who have both a Sony Television and Blu-ray player, you will need to turn Bravia Sync Control for H.D.M.I. off, as the display remote will not be able to access the picture settings if it is left on.

Recently bought a 4K Philips tv, wanted to calibrate so contrast, brightness and colour more balanced and natural.The disc has lots I didn’t/haven’t used yet, after adjusting colour, (used the blue filter as tv has blue only adjustable settings) and contrast and brightness the picture is now great, much more natural than out of the box settings, and as have lockable settings (ISF day/night) have saved for all sources. Had to turn on/off HDR on Blu-ray player to set up as different settings for each.Is well worth the money, I previously tried with one from ‘know how’ which cost over double the price and is not as comprehensive.Actual ISF calibration would be better without a doubt, but as also 10x the price minimum, it wasn’t worth paying half the cost of the tv to calibrate. A more expensive tv 4K/OLED would be worth doing.If you have the time and patience to use the disc yourself, you will (imho) get a picture which is fabulous.I still get amazed at it watching HDR and 4K content on Netflix and blue ray and HD content from BT YouView.

Televisions typically get switched on and are viewed using settings which scrub out detail, by that i mean the brightness, contrast and colours are usually set too high, same goes for sharpness, setting these controls too high is wrong, this calibration disc will help you set the controls right, by setting your brightness and contrast correctly you will see details in the shadows you never saw before, your sharpness will be spot on so that the image is detailed but not edgy and oversharp, it is possible to oversharpen an image and introduce unwanted artifacts, edge halo's around bodies and objects, that's thin black lines, lower the sharpness control and they disappear and you are left with a nice detailed vibrant image.This disc comes with clear instructions, you can also press the up arrow on your blu ray players remote control while using the disc for detailed information on what you are trying to achieve, even if you are a novice and have not calibrated before i think this disc will help you get the basics right and can also aid those with more advanced skills.Knocking a star off because i think the disc should be ten pounds cheaper.

Bought this to set up my new Panasonic TV and 3d. It certainly did as was advertised, but to be honest, the changes made were minimal and after a few weeks now I cannot really see a difference between this set up and the ones that are on the set as standard. I feel its a bit Emperor's new clothes, but that may just be a reflection of the fact that the Panasonic set up is right for their TV's in a average living room. It certainly proved that I have a good picture.

I've had a 4k tv for almost a year now and never could figure out why it didn't look as spectacular as it did in the store before I bought it.At first I thought it was the lighting, then the sources.Eventually I settled for the vivid settings and called it a day.While playing certain video games i noticed the picture would be washed out or too grey where it was supposed to be black.Other issues I had were some areas were too saturated and some movies had a lot of pixel noise in certain scenes.A friend mentioned Disney's world of wonder and after seeing the price tag opted for this as it also had a high rating.While I understand Disney's calibration disc is more in depth this gem helped me get the most out of my 4k tv.I'm noticing super sharp details in certain games and movies I didn't notice before and all it took was fixing the brightness and contrast with this disc.I immediately calibrated my computer monitor as well since I do a lot of Photoshopping.Definitely worth buying.

I had used the Disney WOW disc four years ago when I purchased a new TV. I was happy with the calibration I got at the time and even lent the disc out to friends. Skip ahead to last week when I ordered a new TV and this disc (as the last person I lent my WOW disc to had lent it out to someone else and I couldn't get it back). So this disc arrives today and I pop it in the Oppo to try it out ahead of the new TV arriving in a few days. I have now calibrated my current TV using this new disc and found an enormous difference for the better over the calibration I've been living with for four years. I am excited to get the new TV and calibrate it using my new Spears and Munsil blu-ray. This disc is much more advanced than the Disney WOW and has provided an enormous difference over the calibration values that I settled on while using the WOW blu-ray. This disc is fantastic but I could see it being a little confusing for beginners. I would recommend beginners going to TweakTV.com first (because it's free and you might get what you need), then use the WOW and when you're ready for more advanced tweaking go with this Spears & Munsil calibration system!

Received the disc on time and in perfect condition. Popped it in our Samsung UBD-K8500 to calibrate our LG OLED65E6P and let the disc play for 15 minutes while reading the manual, as it advised. When it came time to start the calibration, I immediately became confused. Reading the manual alone led me to believe that I needed to make the adjustments through the UHD player. After spending nearly an hour trying to figure out how to do that and getting nowhere, I went to the Spears & Munsil website which states they recommend using the TV's settings. I'll have to check the manual again, but I'm almost positive it specified using the player.Anyway, once I figured this out I was on my way to calibration. It took me around an hour to complete the basic steps, and I believe the picture is better than the settings I originally made just using the eyeball test. I've since made additional adjustments because I found the image a little dark.Later today I'm going to reset everything, start from scratch, and attempt to complete the more advanced sections, including the 3D one. I'll update this review once I'm finished. Either I'll be completely satisfied with the results, or I'll shell out the dough for a professional calibration.

A comprehensive blu-ray disc that will calibrate your high definition TV. Most people would be better off with the DISNEY WOW DISCThis 2nd edition of the Spears & Munsil disc continues the company's tradition of having the most comprehensive set of test signals for the very advanced user. An excellent guide is available on the Spears & Munsil web site. A decent pamphlet is enclosed and some help is available on the disc, itself. -Make no mistake the number of test signals is comprehensive - no other disc comes close!Yet, for most users, this disc will prove to be overwhelming and confusing due to its breath. I would not recommend it.Despite a poorly chosen name DISNEY MAKES A GREAT CALIBRATION DISC CALLED "DISNEY WOW".It is much easier to use and for most people it is the wiser choice unless you have a calibration meter and have done a fair amount of homework.My hat is off to Spears & Munsil for a superb disc and web site! I'm happy to own this disc as I further my education in HDTV. While I'm an electrical engineer I have no expertise in HDTV, yet over time, with this test disc and their web site I hope I can get up to speed.I've learned a greal deal from this disc but not one setting has changed from the Disney Wow disc or from Spears and Munsil's first edition HD disc

I bought this disc to calibrate my projector. I have to say I had previously used the wow Disney disc for same purpose. Spears & Munsil HD disc is better, however it is not so easy to use, first you need to have basic concepts and also some tools for calibration, if you have both definitely this disc is for you, if you don't have all tools or you are a beginner, then probably wow disc will be much better and easier to use. This is the reason why I am giving 4 stars. However I recommend this disc as a good way to calibrate your screens.