Calibration controls (CMS, greyscale, 3D LUT)
Hue, saturation and luminance controls per primary and secondary (RGBCMY = 6-axis).
- Standard
- Vendor
- ISO 21118
- Extension
How to compare it
Colour management system
6-axis is the minimum for a real calibration. 'Colour' and 'tint' sliders alone don't count.
Greyscale control points
Gain/offset only (2-point), or 10/11/20-point white-balance control along the greyscale.
2-point is basic. 10+ points lets you fix tracking errors across the range.
Standard: Vendor
3D LUT upload
Accepts a full 3D colour lookup table generated by calibration software.
Rare in projectors. It's the gold standard for colour accuracy, and an external LUT box (e.g. a video processor) is the alternative.
Standard: Vendor + Calman/ColourSpace integration
Auto-calibration
Built-in calibration routines that use an external colorimeter (e.g. JVC's Auto Calibration) or a built-in camera/sensor.
Valuable on lamp projectors, whose colour drifts with lamp hours.
Standard: Vendor
Picture mode memories
How many independent user settings can be stored, per input and per signal type (SDR/HDR/3D).
Enthusiasts want separate stored SDR-dark, SDR-bright and HDR calibrations.
Standard: Vendor
Marketing traps
- Colour management system: Some CMS controls exist only in one picture mode, or are greyed out in HDR.
- Auto-calibration: 'AI colour calibration via phone camera' is not calibration in the colorimetric sense.
Deep cut
3D LUT upload. 3D LUTs correct colour interactions that 1D greyscale and 6-axis CMS can't, such as saturation-dependent hue errors. 17³ or 33³ point cubes are common.
Terms on this page
CMS (color management system)
User-adjustable hue, saturation and luminance per primary and secondary. A 3D LUT capability, as in some JVC and Sony models and via external processors, is the gold standard. ⚖ calibration.cms_points, calibration.supports_3dlut, calibration.autocal (e.g. JVC Auto Calibration, Calman AutoCal support)
Calibration (ISF / THX / Calman)
ISF and THX certify calibration-capable modes. Calman/ColourSpace integration enables auto-calibration. ⚖ calibration.isf, calibration.thx, calibration.calman_autocal