PixelProtector Blu-ray is a TV calibration disc that builds upon its previous DVD release. It allows you to check your HD television’s calibration, and provides the tools to perform calibrations. It’s easy to use, with ample instruction to use the tools. It lands in 5th place on our list.
Thanks to the instructions, it isn’t difficult to learn how to properly use the PixelProtector Blu-ray TV calibration disc. Once you feel comfortable using it, you can skip through the instructions and move directly to the actual test patterns to calibrate your television.
The PixelProtector Blu-ray TV calibration disc features tools needed to calibrate the color, brightness and contrast, and sharpness/focus of your HDTV. The disc also features under- and overscan tools which make sure you’re getting the entire picture, and nothing is cut off.
However, similar TV calibration discs feature more tools to adjust your HDTV than the PixelProtector Blu-ray does. But what is available will get your HDTV calibrated and looking good.
While the TV calibration disc tools provide objective measures and settings, The PixelProtector Blu-ray does encourage you evaluate how the overall color, sharpness and brightness and contrast look to you. While it may be accurately calibrated, it's possible for something to be slightly off. Some users may be hesitant to adjust "objectively" calibrated settings, but don’t feel locked in – if there is something off to your eye, adjust it.
Other tools include those specifically designed to calibrate and align projectors and rear projection televisions (RPTVs), which are HDTV units featuring DLP technology. It’s important that the color functionality of projectors and RPTVs is correct, otherwise not only will the colors will appear wrong, but you may also see stray red, green and blue colors on parts of the image.
PixelProtector also offers “screen washing” tools to help remove burned in images in their televisions, such as a TV network’s logo. Most modern day HDTV flat panels, such as LEDs and LCDs, don’t have this issue, but CRTs (the “box” TVs many of us have owned in the past) and plasmas are susceptible to this problem.
The PixelProtector Blu-ray TV calibration disc has been mastered in 1080p HD and ships on Blu-ray. It’s perfect for calibrating HDTVs because of the resolution and aspect ratio (16 x 9 widescreen). Plus, its tools are designed to work with the way HDTVs process color and more. We don’t recommend using this disc with non-HD televisions.
If you have a standard definition television (SDTV), PixelProtector also offers a DVD version mastered in SD. It’s perfect for an SDTV because its tools are specifically created to deal with an SDTV's resolution, fullscreen (4 x 3) aspect ratio, and it's also the way it processes color.
The thorough instructions walk you through the process, step-by-step. First you’ll determine how the television is calibrated, then you'll use the calibration tools to properly adjust the HDTV’s settings. Everything is laid out clearly, so you won’t feel lost or confused. You will have 30 days to get a replacement disc if it fails.
The PixelProtector Blu-ray TV calibration disc has the tools and instructions to help you properly adjust your HDTV’s overall picture. While we wish there were a few extra calibration features and test patterns, what it comes with will allow you to calibrate your HDTV.
