The Ultimate HCFR Display Calibration Guide

This article contains links to video-calibration and HCFR-related articles at the end for easy reference.

Why HCFR?

I started my display calibration journey with a lower-end Spyder sensor and HCFR close to 20 years ago. Over the years, I became more and more skilled in using HCFR as I was calibrating displays and graduated to more and more accurate sensors, such as the ColorMunki Display, and later on the i1Display Pro Plus colorimeter and i1 Pro 3 spectrometer.

What has not changed over the years for me was HCFR. While I tried other calibration software such as Calman or Colourspace, I always gravitated back to HCFR as my preference because of its easy to use design and lack of set workflows. I could define the workflow I wanted for the task at hand without the software getting in the way.

Writing the Display Calibration Guide

So years later when I started writing Simple Home Cinema’s Display Calibration Guide, I knew that I wanted to teach people display calibration using HCFR. Firstly, the tool is free-to-use so involves little risk for newcomers. Secondly, due to its lack of set workflows, I could teach people display calibration from the ground up, as opposed to teach just a “tool”.

I think this second point is important: learning software that holds your hand is relatively easy, but the knowledge isn’t going to be very deep or transferrable. You’re simply learning to click buttons and read graphs. While if you have a tool that isn’t holding your hand, you actually have to learn what and why you are doing things.

The Challenge

When I wrote the Display Calibration Guide, there weren’t any comprehensive guides on either HCFR or Display Calibration. There were a few DIY guides out there, but they either skipped the basics or tried to simply direct you through a set workflow using HCFR.

It took me many years to develop the knowledge that I had on top of those guides that made me actually skilled at display calibration. But once I learnt all the other possible display calibration workflows, then even those original guides started making a lot more sense. However, it also highlighted how limited those guides actually were when it came to teaching you display calibration.

So when starting to write the Display Calibration Guide, my main goal was to create The Ultimate HCFR Guide and The Ultimate Display Calibration Guide in one. It was the biggest piece of work I had undertaken up to that point. While the other pro guides on the site started out at around 30 pages, and took 4 weeks for the initial version, the Display Calibration Guide took 6 months to write and landed at more than 200 pages for the initial draft.

I knew this was all work that wouldn’t really pay off for at least a couple of years. After all, I wasn’t really sure if people would even be interested in such a guide.

The Result

While I was proud of the work and effort put into it, it was only when friends – having read the initial draft – reflected on the work that I knew it was something unique. But the most rewarding aspect was when the first round of customers had success calibrating their TVs or projectors without any prior knowledge of display calibration. While a few needed small pointers to help them progress, most were able to complete the task without any problems and got great results.

Of course, the Display Calibration Guide is a reference document, and nobody gets it 100% for the first time. It requires repeated reading and practice of the included workflows to start becoming proficient in them. However, I can rest easy that it is accessible to all experience levels. In fact, I think even long-timers will find something that they didn’t know before reading it.

The Display Calibration Guide

You can get the Display Calibration Guide here. It is available directly from Simple Home Cinema and now also on Apple Books as Volume 1 (SDR) and Volume 2 (HDR).

If you would like to learn more about the content or procedures included within the guide, please refer to the following articles, which either contain excerpt from the guide or give an overview of a particular area:

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38 thoughts on “The Ultimate HCFR Display Calibration Guide”

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  1. Hello! I am interested in purchasing your guide as I have always wanted to learn how to properly calibrate a TV. Here in the Philippines we do not have access to a professional calibrator so I have no choice but to learn. But before I purchase this I would like to know if I can use this to calibrate a Samsung S95C and if I will need to go to the service menu to change things. I will be using the Xrite i1display Pro Plus.

    Thank you!
    Ben

    Reply

    1. Hi Ben,
      Thank you for your interest in the guide. Yes, you will be able to calibrate your Samsung S95C without going into the service menu. However, be warned that Samsung’s CMS implementation leaves something to be desired so you might find it as frustrating as I do. However, I have a Samsung QLED and I got there in the end myself.

      The Display Pro Plus is fine. Again, be aware that you should use a CCSS file with it that was made for quantum dots. The issue is I don’t have one that is for QD-OLED. However, you can look in other databases (you will find the links in the guide) which might have some, and people on the forums can also help with CCSS files.

      But in any case, you can learn calibration and make improvements to your display, it just might not be to the standard a calibrator would do. But you will get better as you practice and the guide helps you avoid the common mistakes people make as they learn so will get you there much faster than internet guides.

      Happy Calibrating
      Roland

      Reply

  2. Hi!

    One question. Do the HCFR plus colorchecker measure the lux/lumen/fL of our projection? Easily? Or do we need a separate luxometer for this task?

    I’d like to measure my fL to match the 16/26fL recommendations. In a future I may also calibrate colors with HCFR but then I’d like to keep a minimal invest so maybe buying both a luxometer and a Colorchecker is not necessary…

    Or maybe it is the way to go…

    Thanks and congratulations for your amazing blog.

    Reply

    1. Hey CBY,

      Thank you for your kind words.

      Yes, it measures the lumens / lux dependent on mode.
      But I tell you this… 16fL is not a very good one to shoot for with modern projectors. It’s a hangover from limited capability gear. Unless that is you are limited by brightness. Most modern content will look a bit dim with it.
      I tend to see the max I can get with HDR then dial it in to balance black level with brightness. Then do around 75% of that for SDR. That usually gives a much better user experience.
      We are all used to watching SDR on TV screens at 200nits more or less, 50 nits is a quarter of that.
      Anyway, just my advice but do what looks right to your eyes. After all you’re not authoring content but consuming it.
      Cheers,
      Roland

      Reply

  3. Hello, Roland! Love the guide and been trying for the past few weeks to do the best calibration I can. This may be a long comment!

    I’ve run into a few snags that maybe you can shed a light on. CMS calibration, primarily… I’m using the Spears and Munsil discs. When I do the primary/secondary color procedure, all my colors display a very large dE number. I’ve done the white first. Changed the reference to 75%, and using the 100% saturation at 75% stimulus from the disc. However, if I use the Gamut color options, the dE numbers are way more acceptable.

    But even then, when I start doing my saturation points at 75% stimulus, I can maybe only get the 60 and 80% numbers to have a nice dE. But on my Epson LS12000, it requires me to crank up the brightness on all the colors to pretty much max.

    Any thoughts on what I may be missing? Thanks!!!

    Reply

    1. Hi Ricardo,
      Glad you’re enjoying the guide. 🙂

      I’m assuming we’re talking about SDR.
      That doesn’t sound right… it might be best to use the 100% stimulus patterns and obviously do the saturation sweeps. The Epson should not have any gamut narrowing at the top of the colour volume at 100% stimulus anyway.

      Once you get that right, you can figure out what you’re doing wrong with the 75% stimulus patterns. Obviously the patterns are not matching up.

      Btw… white measurement needs to be done on the Primaries & Secondaries measurement run, NOT on the greyscale run. But I’m sure you knew that. 🙂

      And yes, raising brightness / luminance of colours in SDR is generally not a great idea. You will start to clip them on most rejectors beyond a nudge up or down.

      Report back please so we know you managed. Thx 🙂

      Reply

      1. Thanks so much, Roland! When I do the 100% stimulus/100% saturation measurements, I get definitely a lot of good dEs. But unfortunately, the Spears and Munsil disc patterns for Saturation sweeps only offer the 5-point patterns at 75% stimulus.

        I just realized though that there is a separate Luminance sweep tab on the discs, and those are at a 100% and still 5-point.

        Could it be that I should be doing the Hue/Saturation corrections with the 75% patterns, but the brightness with the 100% patterns?

        Also, in the guide you mention to prioritize 50 and 75 percent stimuli, or spread the love between 25 and 75. What would you suggest I focus on when it’s 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% instead?

        Again, thank you! As complex as this process is, I’m loving it, especially getting to learn how to manipulate the controls.

        Ricardo

      2. Wel, I say focus on the 100% patterns. HCFR has a separate gamut selection in preferences —> References for REC 709 75%/75% but I think that only works with the AVSHD disc.

        It doesn’t matter how many points… 5 point is fine! In that case focus on 40, 60 and 80 equally for precision. 🙂

      3. Hello again, Roland! So I’ve discovered that while using the “Saturation Sweep” options from the Spears & Munsil UHD disc, the only Saturation patch from the disc that matches Y and Y target is the 100% saturation point; the other patches vary greatly in that Y (like the 60% would be a 15+, when target is 20, for instance, and the 80% would be 12+, when target is still 20). So at this point, I’m not sure how to use the disc to figure out the brightness points, but I can get the Hue/Saturation to balance out across points (just brightness ends up being all over the place).

        I’m not sure if it’s the Spears & Munsil patterns (I got it because I thought they were mathematically as perfect as could be), or if my projector can’t handle brightness for certain saturation levels. Those patches from the disc are at 75% stimulus, by the way, and there are no options for 100% that have saturation percentages.

        So not sure if I need to move to patterns from HCFR itself, but the quality of the Windows screen on the projector didn’t look so good last time I tried.

      4. Hey Ricardo,
        Calibrating BT2020 accurately on a projector doesn’t just require 75% stimulus… it requires 100nit patterns. So I’m wondering if you are reading the right volume? Or mixing up patterns?

        In any case, I think that’s the best you can do with that disc. There’s free UHD patterns online that you can put on a USB stick and use those in your Blu Ray player if it supports USB playback. That could be your next step.

        Otherwise, HDMI output from laptop isn’t a bad idea. HCFR will deliver the right patterns at 100nits and you can force the LS12000 into BT2020 and HDR EOTF, so shouldn’t be a problem…

  5. Buonasera,
    mi sono appena iscritto e ho acquistato due guide ora prenderò la guida all’uso di HCFR e proverò a farmi una calibrazione audio con la guida a Audissey e Video con la guida HCFR e vediamo se riesco a migliorare la resa del mio impianto. Grazie cordiali saluti Vito

    Reply

    1. Hope it all goes well, Vito. Good luck and let us know how it all went… and trust the process! It will deliver the results, just need to follow things step by step.

      Reply

  6. Hello Roland, after a couple of months of reading posts, guides, and seeking help on AVSForum, I was initially skeptical about buying your books. I wasn’t sure they would provide me with anything new. I thought I wouldn’t find much more than what I had already seen.

    However, as I write this, I am on page 122 of the SDR calibration book, and I must say—you’ve done an incredible job. Many things that were unclear to me, things I was doing just because someone told me to or because a guide suggested it without explaining why, are now finally making sense. Your book provides clear explanations, and it’s been very eye-opening.

    This has been money very well spent, and I truly appreciate your work. Great job!

    That said, I have a couple of questions. I have a Samsung S95D, which is a QD-OLED TV.

    1) In the CMS profiling section, you wrote to set pattern intensity to 75% and to use REC709 75%/75% standard in preferences. Does this apply only when doing a manual calibration with external patterns, or also when using an internal app pattern generator, MadVR, or a Raspberry Pi PGenerator?

    2) Regarding the settings for pattern intensity during the white measurement, should it initially be set to 100% intensity for the white measurement, and then be changed to 75% for the CMS profiling step? Just to clarify, I am not referring to the actual pattern at 100%, but rather the setting for pattern intensity itself.

    3) Regarding the CMS calibration procedure, my TV has two options:

    – The first is the Tint (G/R), which allows me to adjust from G15 to R15 (with zero in the center). By adjusting this, I can rotate the gamut either counterclockwise (towards G15) or clockwise (towards R15). Additionally, by using the primary color settings, I can adjust saturation to match the outermost points to establish the coverage triangle.

    – The second is the Multi-Axis CMS, which I am not sure if it is a 3-axis or 6-axis system. The controls are not straightforward, as they do not provide direct hue, saturation, or brightness adjustments. Instead, upon entering the CMS menu, I can choose the color gamut and select any of the primary or secondary colors. Each of these allows adjustments to individual RGB values from 0 to 100, with a default of 50.

    It would be extremely helpful if you could explain how to deal with these settings, following the guidelines in your book, and how best to approach this type of adjustment.

    4) At the time of writing, I have already done some calibrations on my TV before reading the book. I don’t have a Raspberry Pi PGenerator yet, though I’m considering buying one in the near future—probably when I finish this guide and everything becomes clearer.

    Currently, I have my TV connected to my PC, which I mainly use for gaming and work. I’ve removed all profiles and calibrations previously applied in Windows (such as LUTs), and I set the video card to its defaults (4K@120Hz, HDR10, color depth 32, 10bpc RGB, dynamic output set to maximum/full, and all gamma/RGB settings back to default). With these settings, I calibrated the TV for HDR/SDR while in PC mode.

    For calibrating Filmmaker mode, I changed the refresh rate to 24Hz, turned off HDR, exited Game Mode in the TV settings, and then performed the calibration. I use Filmmaker mode on another HDMI port where I have a Chromecast device connected, which I use for streaming IPTV.

    My question is whether my approach is okay, or if it would be better to use an external device like a PGenerator. Would using the PC be not precise enough compared to an external generator?

    Reply

    1. Hi Robert,

      I’m very glad it’s helping you in your calibration journey.

      1. I feel I’ll need to rework that section as it’s a bit confusing in HCFR. The 75%/75% gamut is actually only there for the external AVCHD disc. If you are using the internal pattern generator, then setting the gamut to REC709 and then pattern intensity to 75% in the menu while leaving everything the same should suffice. This is because, you will be measuring the different saturation points anyway.

      2. As soon as you do CMS, you set the intensity to 75%, including for the reference white measurement. You only do 100% intensity for greyscale and gamma.

      3. You need to think of the RGB values as the X coordinates (that is the position of the colour point on the 2D diagram. So instead of doing rotation and in-out movements, you are pulling the measured point using the 3 points in the triangle: Red, Green and Blue.

      The Y axis, luminance, is taken care of by increasing and decreasing ALL RGB values at the same time. I know, it’s a stupid and confusing system. I hate Samsung CMS with a passion. But you can do it.

      4. You need to be careful, as HDR calibration isn’t quite accurate if you just set your PC for HDR output. This is why you need an HDFury device. Go through the HDR volume in detail, it will explain your options. But that’s not quite there unfortunately.

      You can use a PC, but you must read the HDR volume in more detail. The SDR volume doesn’t give you enough information to calibrate HDR accurately. Hence I had to split them, as HDR is confusing enough to have to be tackled separately. Don’t skip sections, either.

      Otherwise well done. Honestly, you don’t become a pro by just doing it once, so use these guides as reference books once you’ve gone through them once. Sometimes even I do that for myself, and I have 20 years of experience. 🙂

      Most of all, enjoy!
      Roland

      Reply

  7. I’ve been calibrating my TVs for over a decade using HCFR and have a collection of notes and lessons learned compiled over the years but it’s nice to find a guide which compiles a clear easy to follow work flow for the whole process.

    I’m attempting to calibrate both SDR and HDR on my HiSense U8K after a recent firmware update. I’m using an iDisplay colorimeter and PGenerator (RPi4) as my meter and source. I’ve finished the SDR calibration and am happy with the results. I’m starting the HDR calibration process and have a question about the process which I hope you can answer.

    In section 2.2 the Guide suggests measuring a 100% patch in HDR mode to set the Target MaxL value in the HCFR Preferences->References EOTF settings. In section 4.1 the Guide states “It is important to disable any dynamic light processing before calibration, too.” My TV has a number of controls in its Brightness menu including Local Dimming and Peak Brightness. I assume that both of these fall under the domain of dynamic light processing and should be disabled before calibration. Should they also be disabled when measuring Target MaxL? My TV is noticeably brighter with Local Dimming enabled and set to High (~2000 nits with vs ~900 nits without). If I enable those two controls to measure Target MaxL but disable them during calibration I’m concerned my calibration results will not look good.

    Thank you for helping with my calibration process.

    Reply

    1. HI Philip,
      I think you might have sent me an email as well, which I tried to answer, even if a bit slowly.
      As I said, dynamic processing is a bit of an issue as calibration patches might not have their relative relationship correct if those are active.
      However, even so, for a great calibration, you need to know what the TV is displaying with those features turned off and what it expects to be calibrated to. For example, without any of those features, is the TV displaying 10,000nit, 4000nit and 1000nit content with some sort of default tone-mapping or clipping? If you try and calibrate the display without this knowledge, then you might mess up the picture as the dynamic processing is expecting this sort of baseline. However, you only get to know the TV’s behaviour if you test it and then give it a go.

      For example, Epson’s projectors have a tone mapping slider for HDR. This slider actually expects that the SDR gamma is calibrated flat in a particular picture made. Once you do that, the EOTF lines up for the slider levels.
      Anyway, the point is, knowing the particular display will go a long way to be able to calibrate it. Hence it’s not an easy task. You will need to test, and practice.

      Reply

  8. Hello Roland,

    I am trying to better understand how to calibrate my QD-OLED S95D in HDR while in gaming mode using my PC. My goal is to calibrate it both with and without HGiG enabled, and I want to understand the differences between these two scenarios. I’m focusing initially on calibrating without HGiG enabled, with HDR Tone Mapping set to Static. Please feel free to correct me if I’m misunderstanding anything.

    With reference to page 62 of your guide, which describes setting preferences in the reference tab, I need clarification on some points. After checking the override targets and BT.2390 boxes, I set Diffuse White to 100 nits (instead of its default of 94.37844 nits, which pushes the reference EOTF further up and increases the deviation in the middle part of the curve). I also set Target MaxL to 1650 nits, which is approximately the measured peak luminance of my TV.

    However, I’m uncertain about how to set Master MaxL (MM) and Content MaxL (CM), and I’d appreciate some clarification here. While I understand their definitions, I’m unsure of the correct values for my particular use case for the following reasons:

    1. On PC, most games, as far as I know, target content between 1000 and 2000 nits. However, I understand that they do not send any ST.2086 metadata, which means the TV likely defaults to 4000 nits as a fallback when metadata is missing. Given this situation, and considering that the peak brightness of the TV is 1650 nits, should I set MM = 4000 and CM = 4000, which would result in significant compression of the highlights, loss of detail, and reduced contrast?

    Alternatively, should I set MM = 2000 and CM = 1000? In this scenario, even if the TV defaults to 4000 nits without metadata, the tone mapping would be more optimized for a reduced dynamic range, better preserving the highlight details and avoiding excessive compression, thereby providing a more accurate visual representation compared to the previous case.

    2. What about MM = 1000 and CM = 1000? What would the final result be in this situation? Is what I’ve said not true due to the fallback to 4000 nits, meaning the TV would tone map anything beyond 1650 nits in the same way regardless of how I set MM and CM?

    3. Finally, if the source device sends ST.2086 metadata (e.g., from a Blu-ray player or a streaming app on the TV itself), would my assumptions be valid, or would the behavior differ in this case?

    I also have questions regarding calibration with HGiG enabled. With HGiG active, the HDR Tone Mapping is set to provide a more reference-based hard clip, aiming to display highlights up to the maximum capability of the display without extra dynamic tone mapping being applied. Given that the peak brightness of the TV is 1650 nits, would this mean I should set Master MaxL and Content MaxL to 1650 nits to match the actual physical capabilities of my display? Or should I still set MM and CM to 4000 nits for consistency, especially considering the fallback behavior that occurs with missing metadata?

    I’m also trying to understand if using HGiG in this context would impact the brightness perception or highlight detail differently compared to having HDR Tone Mapping set to Static without HGiG. Specifically, will HGiG actually help to avoid the compression issue I mentioned earlier, or does it simply clip the highlights at 1650 nits, which might cause a different kind of loss in brightness or detail?

    Could you help clarify the best approach for setting MM and CM in these scenarios, and whether enabling HGiG would make a significant difference in how tone mapping is applied, particularly when using a PC as the source without ST.2086 metadata?

    Thank you for your assistance!

    Reply

    1. I’ll try to be both clear and quick. I think you understand HGiG. Just make sure you don’t have tone-mapping enabled in HCFR if you are calibrating for it! The game will tone map. You need to calibrate for a hard clip at the monitor’s / TV’s max output.

      Now the issue is that without an HDFury device, your Windows computer might not be sending the correct metadata. This is why we say don’t calibrate HDR with an HDR output in Windows unless you have a way of accurately setting the meta-data. You need to output SDR and then get an HDFury to inject the meta-data. That’s the best way.

      Now the exception might be HGiG in the sense that all tone-mapping should be off in that mode, regardless of the sent meta-data. It should just follow the correct EOTF for flat panels without any sort of tone-mapping or multiplier. So that’s a relatively easy mode to calibrate. I’d do that!

      Reply

      1. So yes, HGiG you’ll be calibrating upto 1600nits more or less… making sure it follows the EOTF with a hard clip!

  9. Hello Roland,
    Does your guide/methods…
    …generate a LUT file which then will be used with a LUT loader software on a computer/HTPC feeding the TV/projector
    OR
    …are you utilizing the TV/projector’s advanced color calibration settings/sliders (like older TVs had in their service menu)?

    I have a tiny bit of experience with calibration, using DisplayCAL on my PC feeding a monitor. I use a Nvidia Shield on my 85″ Samsung TV and always wonder how these calibration software (DisplayCAL or HCFR) work with streaming media players; especially when we are talking about automatically generating patches, etc. Short of using a 3d LUT box, I am not sure how all this “automated calibration” actually works.

    Reply

    1. HI Raj, I don’t really go through 3D LUTs in the guide, only manual calibration using projector controls. I think DisplayCAL forums will be your best bet to be honest, or whatever software you’re using to generate the 3D LUTs for. All I can say though is that you must make sure you use correct scaling (full range or limited range) according to what the software expects otherwise you’ll end up with all sorts of issues. The problem is that all three settings have to be correct (range on PC, range on software, range on the display). So do make sure you ask the guys on the forum how they have that set up. Otherwise go for it. 😉

      Reply

  10. Thank you, Roland! I’ll follow your advice and proceed with the calibration in HGiG mode, aiming for the hard clip around 1600 nits.

    That said, I’d also like to better understand the situation without HGiG to see if my assumptions are correct. My goal is to calibrate for HDR without HGiG, with HDR Tone Mapping set to Static. I’m curious whether the values I proposed for Master MaxL and Content MaxL (such as 2000 and 1000 nits to optimize tone mapping) make sense, or if the fallback to 4000 nits would override this setting.

    Additionally, regarding the HDfury, I have some questions. With my Nvidia RTX 3090, I can disable HDR in Windows 11 and force it directly through Nvidia’s API. Doing this, I assume I should get a correct output of the patches in HCFR with madTPG—is that right?

    If, on the other hand, I want to calibrate for modes outside of gaming mode—specifically for Filmmaker Mode (FMM) and Movie, both in HDR—I can lower the refresh rate to 24Hz, disable game mode, and the TV should automatically switch to these modes. Given that these modes use a limited range compared to the PC, I’ve set madVR to 16-235.

    Alternatively, I could use the PGenerator (which arrived just yesterday) to handle the patches. I assume that in this case, too, I wouldn’t need the HDfury. What do you think?

    Reply

    1. No worries!
      TVs will apply different tone-mapping dependent on the meta-data. So the issue is that you calibrating for only one might make the others worse.

      But generally, you could measure all three, then do as little modification as you can while feeding it 2000nit content. The issue will be not to mess with the tone-mapping too much above 1000nits because they probably optimised it to average the errors for 2000, 4000 and 10,000nit content. HDR is as much art as science I’m afraid.

      Now with regards to not using an HDfury and forcing the Nvidia API. You might need to ask on AVSforum. This is because we know this was broken at one point and hence we switched to this method. How much it is broken or not broken, the guys might be able to tell you more than I can. I don’t use that method as I don’t trust it. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t somehow fixed. I just doubt it. 🙂

      You still need HDFury with the PGenerator… again, time to hit the HCFR thread on AVS if you want to try a non-approved method as I can’t help there.

      Reply

  11. Hello Roland, could you clarify the chapter discussing the black level mismatch? I would like to correctly set the dynamic range in Windows, PGenerator, and/or MadTPG (when I am not using the PGenerator).

    If I need to calibrate/profile PC mode, correct me if I am wrong:
    – HCFR: 0-255, PGenerator: 0-255, Windows does not matter.
    – HCFR: 0-255, Windows: 0-255 (if I use MadTPG, in this case, the signal from MadTPG depends on the Windows setting).

    If I need to calibrate/profile FFM or Movie mode, correct me if I am wrong:
    – HCFR: 16-235, PGenerator: 16-235, Windows does not matter.
    – HCFR: 0-255, Windows: 16-235 (if I use MadTPG, to avoid additional compression of the signal?).

    Reply

    1. Hi Robert, from memory, looks correct. You don’t want HCFR scaling when using MADTPG and HDMI out for sure. The best way to know is doing a 100-step greyscale sweep. If it’s all jagged, then you know the scaling is incorrect. If it looks smooth, even if not straight line, then you know the scaling is correct. So if in doubt, I run that test quickly.

      Reply

  12. Hello Roland, regarding my previous question about the correct values to set for Master and Content MaxL and the fallback value for tonemapping, I conducted several measurements, and here are the results (outside HGIG on the TV and with HCFR set to not check the “Override Targets” option):

    1. Master and Content MaxL set to 1000 and 1650: The EOTF graphs are identical.
    2. Master and Content MaxL set to 4000 and 10000: The EOTF graphs are also identical to each other but differ from the first two cases. Specifically, there is a roll-off starting around 80% of the luminance range.

    In all four cases, clipping occurs at approximately 1650 nits, which is the TV’s luminance limit.

    Since I am not sure how to force HCFR to send no metadata at all directly, I set the values to zero in PGenerator and repeated the measurements. The EOTF graph in this scenario showed a roll-off starting at around 65%, and the graph again clips at the maximum luminance of the TV.

    Based on this data:
    – What is the default fallback value for the TV? Is it 4000 nits or 10000 nits?
    – Or does the fallback depend on the presence of metadata, such that 4000 nits applies when metadata is present (even if set to 10000) and 10000 nits applies when metadata is absent?

    Another question is related to the right values of Master and Content MaxL to set for calibrating the PC for gaming (outside HGIG, of course), considering the above information.

    Finally, regarding the “Override Targets” checkbox and the Target MaxL value:
    – When I measure values beyond the TV’s maximum output (e.g., 4000 nits or 10000 nits), should I check the box and set the Target MaxL to 4000 or 10000 to ensure the correct reference EOTF?
    – Or should I leave it set to the maximum measured luminance of the TV?

    Reply

    1. Mmm ok. Well, this is where things get a bit complicated then. You will need to calibrate a game setting for 1000nits cut-off. Then also do one for the 4000nit. In both cases, you hard clip at 1650nits.

      The issue is that some games will correctly output 1000nit meta-data, others 4000nits, and yet others don’t at all (which will fall back to 1000nits).
      So calibrate both (1000 and 4000). Have a read of the section on targets and follow the process with both of these in mind.

      Reply

  13. Hi Roland
    I’m sorry if you have already answered this previously, but is Vol 2 “stand alone”?
    i.e. does it assume you have already read and understood Vol 1?

    Reply

    1. Hi John,

      All good re question.

      Well, I recommend you do Vol 1 SDR first, because even if you THINK you know it, I can guarantee you, that you learnt it incorrectly or with gaps. So please read through it at least. Honestly, it will make your life a lot easier if you do.

      Reply

  14. Hi Roland
    Just tried to buy The Display Calibration Guide – Vol. 2 from Amazon, but they say “This title is not currently available for purchase”.
    Do you have maybe a PDF version (I actually will be reading it on my Windows 11 pc)

    Reply

    1. Hi John,
      You can either buy it from us, which is PDF, or go to your country’s Amazon store and search for Roland Jutai. It should come up as purchasable. 🙂

      Reply

  16. Sorry Roland, just realised that I could buy direct from you (PDF) without going through Amazon.
    Which is better anyway, as I’m not an Amazon fan.

    Reply

  17. Hi Roland, glad to have stumbled over this useful resource. I’m keen to buy the guide and learn how to calibrate my projector. I’m starting off with a clean slate so at this point in time; what colorimeter would you recommend and would I need a spectro to generate the off-sets?

    I’m a MacBook Pro user but I’ve noticed that development pertaining to the Mac version stopped years ago. Does that mean that I will need a windows laptop to run HCFR?

    Reply

    1. Hi Samazar,
      Def use a ColorChecker Display unit – as high a model as you can afford. You don’t need a spectro unless you’re running a triple laser projector.

      Yes, you’ll need to use a Windows machine, especially if you have an M1 or newer machine.

      Reply

      1. Hi Roland, there are two high-end colorimeters available on the Calibrite website:-

        1. Display Pro HL ($279)
        2. Display Plus HL ($339)

        So do you recommend option 2 which is the Display Plus HL?

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