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Vizio M602i-B3 picture settings

Jun 9, 2014 5:59AM PDT

Review:
http://www.cnet.com/products/vizio-m602i-b3/

Related products:
Vizio M422i-B1
Vizio M492i-B2
Vizio M502i-B1
Vizio M552i-B2
Vizio M602i-B3
Vizio M652i-B2
Vizio M702i-B3

Calibration report using these settings:
[see below]

TV software/firmware version tested: V1.34.23.0190

As usual with Vizio this year Calibrated Dark was the best picture preset, and again it was pretty inaccurate, with a plus-red, minus green grayscale and very light gamma.

The 2-point system worked well to fix the grayscale errors but left gamma relatively bright, so I dove into the 11-point system to fix it. It was a massive hassle until I realized that the settings were mislabeled such that each setting actually adjusted the light level one step above it; the 5% setting adjusted the 10% level, the 10% setting adjusted the 20% level, and so on. One I figured that out I achieved very good results, although I did rn out of adjustment room at the high end, making it impossible to perfect gamma at 80 and up--gamma took a particularly nasty dive at 90.

The color management system worked well, and that's a good thing because out of the box the Vizio showed big errors in red and blue. After calibration I was able to get everything near or below the level of human perception.

---Picture settings menu---
Picture Mode: Custom 1
Auto Brightness Control: Off
Backlight: 45
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 64
Color: 50
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 0

--Advanced Picture submenu---
Color temperature: Normal
Black Detail: Off
Active LED Zones: On
Smooth Motion Effect: Off
Motion Blur Reduction: Off
Reduce Signal Noise: Off
Reduce Block Noise: Off
Picture Size: [no change]
Picture Position: [no change]
Film Mode: Auto
Wide: Normal

---Professional Picture submenu---
Color Tuner:
Red [Hue, Saturation, Brightness]: -50, -25, -45
Green: 10, 0, -10
Blue: -8, 0, -12
Cyan: 3, 0, -4
Magenta: 5, 0, -14
Yellow: 0, -16, 0

Red offset: 0
Red gain: -22
Green offset: 3
Green Gain: -3
Blue offset: -5
Blue gain: 0

11-point white balance:
[Gain amounts for red, green and blue]
5%: 10, -1, 1
10%: 16, 8, 39
20%: 3, 1, 24
30%: -8, -6, -7
40%: -24, -23, -6
50%: -48, -39, -31
60%: -50, -50, -36
70%: -50, -50, -34
80%: -50, -50, -39
90%: -42, -45, -50
100%: 0, -10, 0

Discussion is locked

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Calibrated Dark
Jan 8, 2015 1:04AM PST

I started with Calibrated Dark, which will become named Custom 1 when you make changes.

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or "Game"
Jan 8, 2015 4:11AM PST

like smeg said, he used calibrated dark.. but if you game, you should start from Game mode or the input lag will be insane

there's really only two choices when calibrating off one of the presets... Game mode or not game mode (everything else)

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Got it....
Jan 8, 2015 8:41AM PST

Thank you both for the help. I've only owned Samsungs in the past and it didn't seem to matter which picture setting I started from. I'm going to reset the tv to default settings and start over with Calibrated Dark and Active LED Zones Off to start calibration. Hopefully it makes a difference, I'm not sold on the TV yet.

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Starting Point Makes a Difference
Jan 12, 2015 4:07AM PST

On this particular Vizio model, the mode you start your calibration does in fact make a difference to the visuals you're able to achieve even if you use the exact same calibration down the line.

For regular TV viewing you want to start with the non-computer/gaming modes (these modes turn a lot of the visual functionality off in order to greatly reduce input lag for gaming so you colors will be significantly off and most of the Advanced Picture options will have no functionality whether or not you turn them on/off. Use one of these settings for calibration when you're calibrating the HDMI output that one of your gaming systems is connected to for optimal gaming experience).

Here's my personal perception on the slight differences between the different modes you can start off with.

Standard - This mode seems to deliver the more muted and darker colors.

Calibrated - This mode seems to have the brightest color results, with the reds really popping (I actually like this for sports. Watched the Broncos play-off game this weekend and the orange really stood out while in the other modes it was more muted).

Calibrated Dark - It's about between Standard and Calibrated and the mode Smeg used and the one I also prefer for regular TV and disc/Netflix viewing.

Vivid - This seems to be exactly the same as Calibrated Dark. If there's a difference I didn't notice it.

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11Point white balance explanation
Jul 23, 2014 7:29AM PDT

Yes, please can someone/anyone post the exact details about how to get the same settings that Mr. Katzmaier did in the 11 point white balance group. This is a great TV and I think everyone deserves to get the best/same results as Mr. Katzmaier. It's unfortunate that he did not provide a detailed explanation regarding the "mis-labeling" of the % settings. If each setting changes the setting above it, how/what changes the 5% which has nothing below it ? What does the 100% change as it has nothing above it ?

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Picture a little bland
Aug 4, 2014 10:38AM PDT

I just purchased the M602i-B3 from Costco. Same firmware. Using these settings, the picture has a magenta tinge and the whites are a bit dull, which tends to make the picture a little bland. Vizio may have changed their factory calibrations after the review model.

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Film Mode setting??
Aug 15, 2014 8:07AM PDT

I have not been able to find a detailed explanation of what (Film Mode) does and if there is any benefit to using it. I noticed that your calibration has it left on auto. Does film mode need to be active in order to properly display 24p from blu ray?

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Greenish to
Sep 9, 2014 3:37PM PDT

I also tried these on my M492 and everything was greenish.

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Hoping for a revisit
Oct 2, 2014 6:10AM PDT

I'm hoping they revisit this calibration. I tried using these settings for my new M492i-B2 and it was WAY off. Magenta skin tones, and a really green grey scale. Smeg's settings are MUCH more accurate.

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New M552i-B2
Oct 12, 2014 9:34AM PDT

The original settings (katzmaier) also gave me a very sub-standard viewing, and Smeg36's settings were far more appropriate. However, I still feel like I'm getting slightly better performance from default settings in regular daylight conditions. I'll check again tonight in a theater environment.

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Another new M552i-B2
Nov 3, 2014 7:38AM PST

I am also hoping for a revisit. Just bought this TV and it is on version: V1.34.46.1166_135, and I agree that Smeg36's settings were better but are not blowing me away. I am thinking of returning this TV if I cannot get it looking good. Does anyone have experience with using the blu ray disc calibration packages? Are they worth it?

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Why is no one using the THX calibrator?
Dec 1, 2014 5:27AM PST

I read a while back, cannot remember if it was CNet or another site, that you can calibrate your TV settings to any Pixar or Star Wars movie. I did this with my old Panasonic 42 in. plasma and my Vizio M652i-B2 was just delivered today.

Today I used the THX optimizer found on Star Wars III and checked it again using the THX optimizer on Pixar's Monsters Inc. and the picture looks good to me, and this from a person that went from plasma set to non-plasma set.

To get to the THX optimizer on these movies you go to the main menu>setting or options>and you should see THX Optimizer. The optimizer will also walk you through the steps of each setting, you can go back and forth through the steps using the chapter skip button on your DVD remote. Once finished it will play a demo of the movie with the new setting to test in case you need to make any other minor adjustments.

Like I said, this has always worked for me with different TV's.

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Settings do not work
Dec 1, 2014 4:52PM PST

Dear Sir:

I just purchased a Vizio M552i-B2; and the first thing I did after installing it was to apply your listed Picture Settings. However, the resulting picture was truly terrible. In desperation, I tried the various default Picture Settings modes included with the TV; and when I chose "Vivid", the picture came to life. Moreover, I then tried including your suggested Color Tuner settings (the 11-point white balance settings were already part of "Vivid" mode); and they improved the picture a great deal more. The picture is now bordering on Superb!

Hope this helps you with your posted information; and thanks for the Color Tuner settings!
Gerry Litton

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Color Tuner setting
Dec 7, 2014 5:39AM PST

Thanks Gerry for posting. I just got home with my M552i-B2 from Costco and tried the settings and had the same results. I then tried what you recommended and it seemed to have good results when switching to vivid.

One question, did you apply all the color tuning settings in the original post?

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Vizio M702i-B3 firmware updated v1.60 10-004.0190
Dec 5, 2014 10:25AM PST

My Vizio M702i-B3 just updated today with new firmware v1.60 10-004.0190 and it changed my color calibrations in the color tuner and 11-point white balance that you posted. It also added some settings in the "More picture" section like "Game Low Latency" and "Gamma" which I believe were not there before. The picture after the update seemed to be different when it came back on and thats when I noticed all these changes. Can you please re-calibrate with this new firmware as the picture with the new settings looks bad to me.

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Defective firmware
Feb 24, 2015 1:12AM PST
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firmware changes?
Dec 7, 2014 4:32AM PST

Hola, I just got an M552i-B2 and I'm testing smeg's settings. However, it just updated the firmware today to v.134.46.1166_135 which i don't think is the latest firmware even based on another user post from a few days ago. Do the firmware updates change how this should be calibrated?

Also, I have been messing around with the sharpness and it seems like turning it all the way to 0 artificially softens lines... though maybe that's just their natural shape. You start getting the halo around 52-54 so I left it at 50 which I enjoy more.

The only frustrating thing right now is that if I mess with the color tuner, it changes it for all my calibrations so I can't easily test multiple configurations. Smeg's color tuning makes the other ones I was testing look awful so

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input lag of modes
Dec 7, 2014 5:17AM PST

And can someone explain to me why some modes have higher input lag than others? I do use it for gaming a lot so I will be basing any calibrations off the game mode that they recommend. Will enabling any settings increase the input lag? I'm only using Active LED Zones right now.

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Gaming Lag
Jan 12, 2015 4:14AM PST

For gaming, you should start of with the Gaming mode for calibration.

The gaming mode permanently turns off most of the encasement options which greatly reduces the systems processing, thus lowering your input lag. While in this mode pretty much all of the Advance options will be non-operable even if you toggle them on/off. This mode will basically give you a computer monitor type of operation where you can only adjust the color and similar options.

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Color Tuning
Jan 12, 2015 4:16AM PST

Only the 11-point white balance option remains the same across all modes. The Color Tuner can be changed within each custom setup.

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Vizio M502i-B1
Jan 17, 2015 5:37AM PST

Greetings-

I'm sorry I'm soooo late here. I recently purchased a Vizio M502i-B1 and I find it very difficult for the settings you recommend for the larger model to work with my 50'. Can you recommend settings that will work best for the 50' m series?