Is getting a home theater calibration disc worth it? Like Avia or Sound & Vision, etc. What has anybody else used. I have heard/read the importance of setting speaker levels with a SPL (or is it SLP), even by ear tonight I had to turn up the surrounds to get the right enveloping effect. Do you need a set-up disc to do this or just the device itself?

Thanks again for your help

I think it is essential to have a setup disc and an SPL meter to properly calibrate your system. The cost is negligible when you consider the amount you've spent on hardware, and the greater amount you will spend on software.

I use Avia and the Radio Shack analog SPL meter. A very wise investment, and you would be surprised how inaccurate your ears can be. I know that calibrating by ear was wholly inaccurate in my case.

Good luck!

-Nick

Hi Undecided5,

The Sound&Vision Home Theater Tune-Up DVD is much easier to use than the Avia disc, and less expensive as well. I think it's about $16 at Amazon.com. It has lots of excellent subwoofer/satellite calibration tests. Get it by all means, and the Radio Shack SPL meter (analog version), otherwise your settings will be all over the place. And yes, using the DVD and the meter, you should arrive at a subwoofer setting that will suit most movies and much of your music, apart from actual differences in the deep bass levels of the program sources. Those may vary quite a lot, but you can trim the sub volume when required.

Don't forget to experiment with subwoofer locations as well.

The S&V DVD also has plenty of video calibration tests to properly set up your TV monitor.

Regards,

Un, chek out this link
S7V disk opinion...these forums

Is there some reason why people believe the digital (as opposed to the analog) Radio Shack sound meter is inaccurate? Or inaccurate to the extent that calibration is so variable it essentially should not be sold nor advertised as a measurement device =/- 1dB?

The main reason that people like the analog meter is that the needle response is not such a in your face fluctuation as seen in a digital meter. If you do not put the digital meter into slow response mode (which will average the readings out) then the numbers are just floating up and down (within a range mind you) and people visually have a tough time trying to calibrate with this, as they see the readings as being unstable making it tough to hit the 75db they are attempting to reach. With the analog meter you only see very small fluctuations in the movement of the needle and visually you can see that you are in around the 75db mark. when you put the digital meter into slow response you still get some slight variations +-1db but not the wild up and down if you had the response set to fast.

S&V cd is cheap but a buggy software (base on my experience). Video calibration is not very good as well, I borrowed my friend's Video Essential CD for this. If you are going to buy S&V cd and you have a 6.1 DTS-ES receiver, pls do the DTS-ES matrix test and let me know if the test tone for the back surround will comes out to your L/R surround and not on the back. Take a closer look also on your tv set when running the speaker id test, if you see something unusual and different...don;t be alarm....that's one of the bugs you'll encounter on that CD.