TV calibration patterns
A full set of reference patterns for setting up a television by eye: color bars, a grayscale ramp, black level and white clipping steps, gamma and a geometry grid. Run them on the TV itself and adjust its picture settings as you watch.
The test
This test needs JavaScript to run. Everything below still explains what to look for and what a bad result means, so the page is useful either way.
Eight reference patterns
Use the arrow keys on your remote to move between patterns, and Back or Escape to leave. Adjust the TV picture settings while a pattern is on screen.
How to read it
Each bar should look flat and evenly lit, with no tint creeping in and no bar bleeding into its neighbour.
Every step should be visibly distinct, and none should carry a color cast. A pink or green tint here means the white balance is off.
The darkest patches should be just barely separable from the background. If they vanish, brightness is too low and you are losing shadow detail.
The brightest patches should stay separable. If they merge into one white block, contrast is too high and highlight detail is being crushed.
Lines should be straight and the grid evenly spaced to all four edges. Bowing or cropping means overscan or a scaling problem.
What this test can and cannot tell you
These are reference patterns, not a measuring instrument. Here is the honest line.
This works well by eye. The black level and white clipping patterns are exactly how a professional starts, and you can get most of the way there without any hardware.
Not possible by eye. Real color calibration needs a colorimeter held against the screen and software driving it. Patterns can show you a tint, but they cannot tell you how far off you are in numbers.
You are judging your TV through its own browser. The browser sits in the same picture pipeline as everything else, so what you see is representative. It is not a bit-perfect reference signal though, and a TV browser may apply its own processing.
Out of scope here. These are standard dynamic range patterns. HDR calibration needs peak brightness measurement, which no web page can do.
A sensible order to work in
1. Turn the processing off first
Before touching anything else, set the picture mode to Movie, Cinema or Filmmaker, and switch off noise reduction, dynamic contrast, and any motion smoothing. Those features fight every adjustment you are about to make.
2. Black level, then white
Set brightness using the black level pattern so the darkest steps are only just visible. Then set contrast using the white clipping pattern so the brightest steps stay separate. These two interact, so go back and forth once or twice.
3. Color and tint last
Use the color bars and the grayscale ramp. If the grayscale carries a tint, adjust the color temperature preset rather than the individual gain controls, unless you know what you are doing.
4. Check geometry
The grid should reach all four edges evenly. If it does not, you have overscan, which our overscan test measures properly.
Questions people ask
Can I calibrate a TV properly without equipment?
Partly. Black level, white clipping and basic geometry can all be set well by eye with these patterns, and that is where most of the visible improvement comes from. Getting color accurate to a standard needs a colorimeter, because the human eye adapts to a color cast within seconds and stops noticing it.
Which picture mode should I start from?
Movie, Cinema or Filmmaker Mode. They are almost always the closest to a correct starting point out of the box. Vivid and Dynamic boost everything and will fight you at every step.
Why does my TV look worse after I turn off the processing?
Because you are used to the boosted picture. Give it a few days. Sharpening, dynamic contrast and motion smoothing all add artefacts that become obvious once you stop expecting them.
The grayscale ramp has a pink or green tint. What do I change?
Try the color temperature presets first, usually called Warm, Standard and Cool. Warm is normally closest to the reference. Only go into the individual red, green and blue gain controls if a preset does not get you close, because they are easy to make worse.
Do these patterns work on a phone or monitor?
Yes, and they are useful there too. But the point of running them on the TV is that you are judging the television in its own picture pipeline, with its own processing applied.
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