Calibrating TCL TVs with Calman

Calman can guide the calibration of compatible TCL TVs in SDR, HDR PQ, HDR HLG, and Dolby Vision modes using the AutoCal workflow. This assures the most accurate rendering of both SDR and HDR picture content by using a 1D and 3D LUT.

Calman Required Version

• Calman Studio or Ultimate v5.17.4 or higher

Hardware Requirements

• Calman Compatible Meter
• Calman Compatible Pattern Generator
• Calman Compatible TCL TV
  • Models By Year:

Step 1

• From the Calman Menu in the top-left, choose Open Workflow Template -> Calman Ready and then TCL.

• On the introduction screen, select your display type (LCD/OLED) and calibration mode (SDR/HDR/HLG/Dolby Vision) from the dropdown and click Next to proceed to Hardware Setup

Step 2

• Plug your meter into a USB port on the computer and press the Find Meter button on the left.
  • When your meter is connected, select your display type from the dropdown
• Connect Pattern Source to your computer.
  • Click the Find Source button, then select your source
  • Select the pattern window size and delay
    • Window 10%
    • 2-second pattern delay
  • Ensure your source is set to SDR or HDR corresponding to your choice in Step 1
  • Set Pattern insertion
    • Click the Reset to Defaults button to set the appropriate pattern insertion for the display and calibration type in Step 1
      • LCD models do not require Pattern Insertion to be enabled. 
• Click Next to proceed

Step 3

• Select the calibration targets
• Confirm/configure your calibration targets. These will be automatically set to common defaults by the options from Step 1
  • Configuration Examples:

SDR	HDR	HLG	Dolby Vision

• Confirm your targets, and click Next to proceed

(Optional) Current State Measurements

• This workflow page is intended to document the monitor’s current operational state before establishing any DDC connection or selecting a calibration mode.
• This step can be skipped if documenting the current state is not needed. Another set of Pre-Calibration measurements will be taken in later steps.

• To take Current State Measurements, click the Measure button to measure the display’s grayscale and color response.
• Click Next to proceed

Step 4

• Connect your TV
  • Enable DDC Control on the display.
    • To Enable DDC control, on the OSD Select “Pairing DDC Client” Settings > Picture > Advanced Settings > Expert Calibration > DDC > Pairing DDC Client
  • Set the mode to Movie on the display.
  • Click Find Display to connect to the display and follow the prompts on the “Find Display” connection dialog.

Pre-Calibration Measurements

• This workflow page is intended to document the target picture mode prior to calibration.

• To take Pre-Calibration Measurements, click the Measure button to measure the display’s rayscale and color response.
  • This will provide a point of reference to compare the calibration results
• Click Next to proceed

Step 5

• Here, the Calman picture mode will be reset to prepare for calibration.

• Click the Reset button. This resets and prepares the picture mode for calibration.
• Click Next to proceed

SDR Only – Measure and set Luminance

• Here, you can adjust the displays Backlight and Contrast settings to one that meets or exceeds your target luminance.

• Click Measure and adjust the Backlight slider as needed.
  • Note: For some models, adjusting both the backlight and contrast controls may be required to reach
    100 nits, note that adjusting the contrast controls can negatively impact overall RGB balance
• Click Next to proceed

Step 6

• On this page, Calman will adjust your display’s White Balance

• Click the AutoCal button to perform the 2pt grayscale AutoCal
• Click Next to proceed

Step 7

• Here, Calman will adjust the Multipoint Grayscale.

• Click the AutoCal button and select the correct data points in the AutoCal Dialog to auto-calibrate the Grayscale/Luminance response on the display.
• Click OK to begin grayscale AutoCal.
• When AutoCal is complete, click the Next button to proceed.

Step 8

• On this page, Calman will calibrate the Color Gamut using a 3D LUT.

• Press the AutoCal button to open the AutoCal dialog
  • Calman has multiple methods for creating a 3D LUT. For information about these LUTs see THIS ARTICLE.
  • Confirm that 3D LUT Grayscale to Unity is checked
• Click OK to begin the colorspace AutoCal process
• When AutoCal is complete, press the Next button to proceed

Step 9

• In this step, you’ll take measurements of the calibration results.

• To take Post-Calibration Measurements, click the Measure button to measure the display’s grayscale and color response.
• Click Next to proceed

• On the Calibration Complete page, you can choose to…
  • Save and Report
    • Select Save and Report to generate the calibration report
  • View Comparison
    • Displays Pre and Post Calibration measurements of the calibrated mode side-by-side
  • Restart
    • Returns to the beginning of the workflow where a new mode or colorspace can be selected
    • Note: Does not save workflow data