Just bought a new LCD or plasma TV? Did the dealer try to talk you into a calibration? You may not need it.

The concept of calibrating TVs goes back to the early 1990s, when video guru Joe Kane began raising public awareness of just how bad a TV picture could look out of the box…and just how good it could look after some careful re-tuning of adjustments buried in each set’s service manual.

Over time, a new industry based on TV and projector calibration took hold and expanded, following the transition away from CRT-based TVs and projectors to fixed-pixel displays, including LCD and plasma TVs and LCD, DLP, and LCoS projectors. Installers took two-day classes from the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) in setting up various TV and projector parameters, plus the AV components connected to those displays.

After passing these course, participants were certified as calibrators and went out into the world of home theater to tune up everything from stand-alone TVs to complete theaters equipped with multi-channel surround sound systems.

In recent years, THX has also gotten into the fray, offering their own series of classes on calibration. They offer training and certification in both display and audio system calibrations, going head-to-head with ISF.

So…do you need to pay for a calibration on your new flat screen TV? Chances are, you don’t. Given that most LCD and plasma TVs measuring 50 inches or less are now selling for about $16 to $17 per diagonal inch, it may not even make sense to spend several hundred dollars on a calibration.

Here’s why. TV manufacturers aren’t completely deaf, and after being hounded by calibrators for years, they have finally started adding pre-calibrated picture modes  to their TVs that are close in performance to what a calibration would produce.

These preset modes, which often go by the names “Movie” or “Cinema,” set the color temperature at about 6500 degrees Kelvin, produce a gamma between 2.2 and 2.4, and set peak brightness between 100 to 120 nits (29 to 35 foot-Lamberts).

If your new set has such a mode, selecting it will probably be all you’ll need to do. If not, you may be able to get ‘in the ballpark’ with these tweaks. They’re based on my own observations after calibrating and testing hundreds of TVs over the past two decades:

(1)   Set up your new LCD or plasma TV where you’ll watch it.

(2)   Reduce ambient light levels so that you don’t have excessive glare or outside light spilling onto the screen.

(3)   Turn on the TV. Connect an antenna, or your cable/DBS/FiOS box and tune in a TV program (preferably, an HD program).

(4)   Using the remote control, turn on the TV’s picture adjustment menu. Find and exit out of the factory “Dynamic” preset picture mode to the Movie or Cinema mode mentioned above. Can’t find it? Select another mode, such as Standard, Normal, or User. Make sure that mode lets you set color temperature and other tweaks.

(5)   Set the contrast control below 80 (this sets your white levels).

(6)   Then, set the brightness control between 50 and 60 (this sets your black levels).

(7)   Select WARM or LOW color temperature from the menu. (If more than one LOW setting is available, use the lower of the two.)

(8)   Turn the sharpness control to 0. If you see any white outlines or ‘ghost’ edges around objects or people, continue lowering the sharpness control until those outlines vanish. Cable news channels with fixed “tickers” and logos are great for spotting edge enhancement artifacts.

(9)   Locate and turn off any image enhancements in the picture adjust menu that carry names like “dynamic contrast,” “automatic black levels”, “black level enhance,” or “auto picture level.” If there are adjustments to play with colors (skin tones, etc) make sure they are also disabled.

(10)  If your TV has a memory function to save your settings, use it now to memorize the settings you’ve chosen. Repeat these steps for any other inputs on your TV, such as DVD and Blu-ray players.

You will notice a few things right away about your TV. First off, images won’t be nearly as bright and glary, but they will appear to have a more natural look. Image will also appear ‘warmer’ to your eye. Black levels will seem deeper, too. Zeroing out the ‘sharpness’ setting won’t make HD programs look soft, by the way. They’ll just look normal.

OK, you’re in the ballpark now…not ‘dead on’ accurate, but you’ve corrected most of the image quality problems on your new TV. You can sit back, relax, and watch.

If you’re a bit fussier, then pick up a calibration DVD and get even closer. There are numerous calibration DVDs offered for sale (Google them), but the best deal might be the GetGray DVD (http://www.calibrate.tv/). It sells for a donation of $25 and has the most useful grayscale and color test patterns you’ll need. (Note that this is not a HD disc, only SD. But it should get you where you want to go.)