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Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Disc Edition [Blu-ray] | ![Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Disc Edition [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BDF7KAoUL._SL500_.jpg)
| Studio: Spears & Munsil
Category: DVD
Buy New: $25.00
New (2) Used (1) from $23.99
Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 1907
Format: Blu-ray, NTSC, Color, Widescreen, Dolby
Language: English (Unknown)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 0
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5.6 x 0.7
UPC: 898072002011
EAN: 0898072002011
ASIN: B001UM29OC
Publication Date: 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Calibration patterns for all major display controls | | • | Evaluation patterns for measuring display and player quality | | • | Clips to test deinterlacing performance | | • | Samples of different video and audio codecs | | • | All patterns created at 1080p in native color space using custom software |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Stacey Spears and Don Munsil, who created the highly-regarded DVD Player BenchmarkTM and Progressive Scan Shootout at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity®, have applied all their technical wizardry to this Blu-ray test and evaluation disc.
"The static test patterns represent the current state-of-the-art. They are more accurate than the test patterns found on previous discs. There are a lot of subtle details that go into making them as mathematically accurate as possible, especially since you are dealing with lossy encoding. We have built propriety tools to generate the synthetic patterns. We use a custom encoder that will preserve as much detail as possible. Even the simple color bars have unique traits that make them cleaner. - Stacey Spears, author of the disc"
[Picture Quality Calibration and Evaluation Tool for Displays, Blu-ray Players and Video Processors]
(IMPORTANT NOTICE: This disc is a high-definition disc and is compatible only with Blu-ray players. It will not play on a standard DVD player.)
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
 Great calibration disc.......A++++++ August 12, 2009
Travis A. Rivers (Hampton, VA)
51 out of 53 found this review helpful
Im an dedicated reader of "Home Theater" magazine and they wrote an article for this BD. So being the enthusiast I am, I purchased this BD with in minutes of reading the article. I'm glad it did! Spears & Munsil have definitely set the standard for HDTV calibration. I have used other cal BD's and they were great, but none come close to this one. The BD offers a array of test patterns to calibrate/adjust your TV. It even prove that my TV "Cine-motion" feature was better turn "off". They are also video in 7.1 Dolby HD and DSP HD to test your surround speakers. They dont offer test tones, thats my only complaint. But don't let that stop you from getting this BD. I'm still a fan of ISF calibrations, but if you don't have $400.00 to invest in a full "ISF" cal, then I would highly suggest you buy this BD.
Sony XBR6 52" is perfect after Spears & Munsil.
A Clear Winner Amongst Calibration Discs September 10, 2009
Steve Dallas
43 out of 44 found this review helpful
I suppose I really should have chosen a different title for my review as I have not tried the Digital Video Essentials one; however, I have tried Avia, one from Monster, and of course the THX and Disney optimizers that come on various dvds, and this one makes those look like a joke. It's easy to navigate through the various test patterns, and within each pattern is readily available help information with correct and incorrect examples to give you an idea of what you should be looking for. I found the majority of them easy to use and helpful, though I must confess that with a couple of them (I think one was the chroma one) I couldn't tell any difference, either with the examples or with the actual test pattern. Additionally, some of them (e.g., the cadence ones) seemed to me essentially pointless in that they tested performance aspects not readily correctable; however, I suppose they would be useful for deciding whether or not to keep or return a product. With this disc, I was able to dial in a noticeably improved picture. I personally don't care about the lack of audio test tones as I leave audio calibration up to Audyssey and my receiver, but the DTS Master Audio and to a lesser extent the Dolby TruHD clips are fun. Oh, yeah, and they include the blue filter glasses too, which is great. Not having the glasses included in any of the calibration discs I have bought previously, until now I had always just skipped over those patterns. I highly recommend this calibration disc. It has given me confidence that I am getting the best performance possible from my setup.
Technical Benchmark Blu Ray rivals the Ken Crane edition September 10, 2009
Bradley A. Beaupain (Auburn, WA USA)
40 out of 44 found this review helpful
This technical Blu Ray is a great reference to have when doing your own home calbiration of your TV. For years, people have had to use (and it was an excellent product for the time) the Joe Kane Video Essentials set up. It first came out on Laserdisc, then on DVD, then (briefly) on HD and is now available on Blu Ray. Ironically the Blu Ray version was the cheapest of all ( LD and DVD versions sold at $49.95 retail) What makes this disk special is that it is $10 cheaper than the Blu Ray version of Kane tech spec Blu Ray (Suggested Retail is(or was)$39.95) is that you get everything the Blu Ray DVD essentials disk (in sound and technical specs) But you also get a prgram designed with Blu Ray in mind. The DVD essentials series, by comparison, was the same old Laserdisc version, re-done for each new medium, with little, if any, bnew material for the specific medium. (The DVD version was the exact same as the LD version except the chapters were different becasue you didn't have to flip the DVD over as you did the laser disc.) This disk was actually produced in Hi Def for Blu ray. Spears and Munsil is a West Coast Company and they have produced a DVD version in the past. This Blu Ray version expands on the older title by adding technical test patterns for deinterlacing performance ( you cant use it on SD TVs) All test patterns have been recreated in 1080p for the best calibration. A booklet of tech term glossary and descriptions has also been included along with a pluge test tool
(The Krane discs supplied you with a 35mm film strip tool)that resembles a pair of 3D Glasses. An added bonus is that if you are using HDMI cables to send both audio and video information to your receiver ( or 5.1 capable TVS)you can watch the Promotional trailers for both Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD master audio and calibrate your system. As an added bonus (and I consider a plus over the Kane productions) is different video clip examples showing you the differences of types of video displays (described in detail in the booklet) and a short video clip at that plays when you first put the disc in that is a video mnntage of great sights of the Pacific Northwest. The easy access menu system is also easier to understand and navigate to the desired chapter. Kane's DVD is still is technically sound as always, but this is a better product in that it was produced with HD equipment and is more user friendly than the Kane product
Brilliant !!!!!!!!!!!! September 25, 2009
Songhai (Yakima, WA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This video calibration disc is simple and straight to the point.It explains in simple language what you are testing for. How to test with the patterns provided, then it shows you what correct and incorrect patterns look like. Then it gives you the opportunity to calibrate the illustrated pattern using your TV remote. Best of all the information is not overwhelming and boring but very engaging and stimulating.
HINT:If you watch TV at night then perform your calibration at night, under the same light condition. Do not calibrate your TV in the morning or afternoon unless you do most of your watching at those times.
For test tones calibration, use the "AIX Records" audio calibration disk.This can also be bought online at amazon.
These two calibrations disks are also included in the OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray player, if you plan to buy Oppo blu-ray player.
Great Calibration Disc November 25, 2009
Peco (Los Angeles, CA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Disc is an excellent resource for someone who wants to calibrate his or her HDTV and can't afford an expensive, professional ISF calibration. It costs about as much as any other blu-ray disc and yields great results. The test patterns were well explained and very easy to use. What I liked most about the test patterns is that they actually show you examples of what a correct setting on your HDTV should look like which really helped in getting the perfect settings on my 46" Samsung HDTV. The disc comes with a blue filter for fine tuning your sets color which is useful if your HDTV does not have a blue only mode. The disk includes clips and patterns to test your blu-ray player's and HDTV's performance. After you have gone through the test patterns you can check your results with the demonstration material included on this disk. The overall picture quality on my set greatly improved after using this disk. This is a much better calibration disk than the DVE disk. I highly recommend it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
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