WS-55813 Setup and Calibration

One of the things I found to be impressive about the Mitsubishi was the sheer number of inputs it possessed. With this set, there is no reason whatsoever to have to utilize the switching capabilities of your home theater receiver. The only connection type it did not have was HDMI - and since this is a relatively new format, we won't begrudge the Diamond Series for not having it. Here is a list of the inputs found on the Diamond Series TVs:

• DVI
• VGA (640 x 480 only)
• Component (2)
• DTV/RGBHV (no 720p support)
• Composite/s-video (2 rear/1 front)
• Firewire IEEE 1394 (2 rear/1 front) - limited functionality (no audio/video)
  
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• Memory Card support (front inputs) see previous info on card types

Input Selection

Switching between inputs is as simple as hitting the Device up or down buttons on the remote control which advances you to the next (or previous) input. In addition, you can hit the Device Menu button which brings up an on-screen menu (as seen on the right). Once this menu is activated, you can move to the input you would like and hit the Enter button on the remote to select. This is also how you access the Memory Card inputs.

Normally, having all these inputs would make navigation a bit of a chore, but Mitsubishi allows a couple of neat things to offset this potential problem. First (and this is rare) they allow direct selection of any inputs via IR commands - making macros on a universal remote control much more powerful. The ability to select inputs directly is not unique to the Mitsubishi - but rare. Nearly all televisions and display devices have opted for a round-robin approach to selecting inputs. As an aside, the direct input selection isn't readily apparent from the remote, but it was available by bringing up the Device Menu and activating the particular input. So, to program that input into a universal remote, point the Mitsubishi at the remote once you've gotten it ready to select the desired input.

Secondly, Mitsubishi has lessened the "massive input" syndrome by allowing you to use their NetCommand system to turn off inputs that aren't being used (more detail on this will follow). This allows you to simplify the number of inputs that you would need to switch through to go from, say, Component-1 to your digital camera's Memory Stick. I personally opted to utilize my Integra DTC-9.4 processor's up-conversion and switching capabilities and occupy only a single set of component inputs on the Mitsubishi for the most part. Exceptions included: watching HDTV via antenna, peering through photos from the Memory Stick card slot, and utilizing the front A/V inputs for watching camcorder video.

I was unable to get the Mitsubishi to display video or audio from my Sony TRV-25 MiniDV camcorder via the FireWire inputs. I was, however, able to control the camera's playback functions via FireWire. Considering that the analogue audio and video could be routed to the TV via the front inputs using NetCommand, playback of camcorder content was possible and fairly convenient compared to other TVs where you would have to use the camcorder itself (as opposed to the TV remote control) to handle the playback. Add the automatic "Windows-like" configuration, and you have a nice touch that will be even nicer once more FireWire compatibility is added.

Calibrating the Television

When you receive a new TV you don't anticipate having to do much to enjoy excellent picture, but the truth is, there is only so much time on the assembly line to properly calibrate the set - resulting in a decent, but not detailed specification to which the units are calibrated. In addition, many units are "tweaked" so that they look more pleasing to the eye - at the sacrifice of accuracy (see side bar). For many people, this is good enough. Our recommendation, for those of you wanting to both increase the quality of your display, and extend the life of a CRT-based unit, is to at least go through the basics and set up your television for proper brightness and contrast levels.

Mitsubishi was unable to deliver a service manual to us in time for the review, preventing us from doing a true ISF calibration. Instead I will illustrate some of the significant notations made during my user-level calibration of the WS-55813.

Utilizing the Milori ColorFacts CF6500 I tweaked the brightness (black level), contrast (white level), saturation (color/chroma), sharpness, and hue (tint) to within respectable levels. Keep in mind that to truly get the best possible performance out of a CRT rear projection television, you will need to have the service manual, a professional set of calibration tools and the knowledge of how to make the necessary adjustments to the CRTs. Here are some of the before and after measurements as shown by the Milori ColorFacts 5.0 software:

Before Calibration	After Calibration
Here, when comparing full fields of pure blue red and green, there was a tremendous amount of variance present in the RGB levels histogram. Note the excessive blue present.	After calibrating the WS-55813, we were able to get better accuracy out of the red and green levels. Getting the Red and Green linear is a feat in itself, as these two primaries account for 93% of the light output from the display (Blue accounts for only about 7% of the luminance). While it would be preferrable to get blue linear as well, if there is one color that can be a little bit off, it is Blue.* *thanks to Mark Hunter from Milori for providing some additional insight into our findings.
As you can see, when the unit is stepped through levels of grey from 0 IRE to 100 IRE, the measurements go off the scale as early as 60 IREs When we first measured luminance on the TV we were not surprised to see these excessively high levels in the upper mid range since we hadn't yet adjusted the brightness or contrast.	After adjusting the set, you will see that the Mitsubishi WS-55813 is perfectly capable, via just the user menu to attain a more balanced luminance histogram.

CIE Chart - Color Reproduction & Saturation Potential

The Milori ColorFacts CIE Chart is used to display the colors for the WS-55813's HDTV color reference, as well as the gamut of colors that it is capable of creating. The coloration of a particular reading is presented in the correct location on the CIE Chart, so an information-rich analysis of the gray scale performance of a display is possible.

From the color gamut triangle on the CIE chart, you will be able to determine how "deep" or "rich" the colors will be from a display. For instance, a Red primary that is too high on the chart will indicate that the display device may only be able to produce an orange-red instead of a deep red. Similarly, a Green primary that is too low may indicate that the display device will produce greens that are closer to yellow than what may be desirable. A wide color gamut indicates that the device is able to produce rich, saturated colors. Here you can see the Mitsubishi WS-55813 reproduces excellent blues and reds, with only a small amount of green dipping down towards the yellow range. Please note that since the AVIA test disc was used for this test, the results may be slightly different when run from a higher quality source such as a test generator. We chose to use AVIA so that we could calibrate the same inputs we would be running comparisons on later.

Editorial Note: Calibration, What's the Big Deal?
If you've just bought yourself a new television, you may think that your work is over. For the most part, you could be correct. After all, wasn't the hours of grueling comparison shopping enough?

Well... maybe. Most televisions arrive to your home with a few consistently "tweaked" settings. They are often set this way so that they stand out on the showroom floor - and consequently, so that you won't be disappointed with the picture once you take it home.

Televisions typically arrive with over-accentuated brightness and contrast settings, as well as sharpness settings that are much too high.

Just investing a half hour or so with a simple home theater setup disc can both improve your picture and extend the life of your television. This is extremely important for sets that can suffer from burn-in effect - the odds of which are greatly reduced when brightness levels are correctly set.

But it doesn't look right!

A properly calibrated television may look less saturated, and darker than you are used to. Give it a few days for your eyes to adjust and we think you won't be disappointed!

64-Point Convergence

Shipping and transporting RPTVs can also result in changes to the television calibration settings. This was probably responsible for the slight deviation in convergence I noticed with this set. Keep in mind, this deviation was slight, but nevertheless it gave me a great opportunity to try out the 64-point convergence settings as described in the owner's manual. I remember years ago when most RPTVs had only a center convergence grid - and how horribly impossibly it was to pull in the edges when the set went out of alignment.

By providing 64 points of convergence, Mitsubishi has, I believe, extended the practical usefulness and life of their televisions.