Datacolor SpyderTV review

Press the menu button on your TV and you'll see how many different picture adjustments there are. While most of us can get a passable picture by fiddling with these settings, a properly calibrated picture requires another tool.

Datacolor's SpyderTV does the job. The package contains a USB colorimeter, which is a scanner that attaches to your TV and reads the colour output digitally. The results are fed back into your PC, where the calibration software reads the value. The final part of the package is the test images on DVD, which you play through your DVD player.

The system works quite well. Attach the colorimeter to the TV using the provided suction cup and follow the software. You must enter your TV's current settings, including the brightness and contrast levels, colour temperature and colour level. You also need to enter the minimum and maximum values for each setting. This is fine if your TV uses a numerical scheme, but those with a slide bar should count the number of steps in the scale, otherwise it's hard to follow the wizard.

The software then runs the wizard, which goes through the test patterns getting you to adjust the picture settings, all the while taking readings. The software tells you which setting is best for your TV. You can check the difference after adjustment by loading the additional test images and adjusting image settings manually between their original and new settings.

For our TV it took around 25 minutes to run through the display settings. It made quite a big difference, neatly balancing the shadows and highlights, while making colours more vibrant.

The problem with this package is that it's very expensive. It's unlikely that once you've adjusted your TV the SpyderTV will get a lot of use. Unless you must have the best quality from your TV, manual adjustments using the test patterns on a lot of DVDs will be fine for most.